Vesuve to set the whole neighbouring Countries on fire The first * The Bishop of Rodes Governour of the most Christian King hath given him for a Modell the Life and Designs of his Grandfather Henry the Fourth as may be seen in the Book which he hath published This Prince as well by his own Genius as by the happy success of his first Undertakings hath relished such Instructions and hath solelie proposed to himself this Example for the Rule of his Actions The History of this Great King hath been his most ordinary study He hath in imitation of him taken great care to accumulate much Treasure sought for Alliances abroad and at length hath raised most powerfull Armies We must therefore conclude that he acts upon the very same Draughts and that all we see at present are but renewed Projects and the effects of those Impressions which he hath sucked in with his milk To draw the Consequences from these Principles we need onely reade the Memorials of Henry the Fourth those of the President Jannin and of the Bishop of Rodes and conclude that whatsoever that Potent King had conceived in his imagination this King intends to bring forth by the power of his Armies But as the desire of Glory hath no bounds and that his years and present condition put him in a capacitie to run a longer course then Henry the Great so we cannot reasonably expect that the swiftness of the Rhine shall be able to stop him His Writers have taken a great deal of pains to nourish him in these thoughts and as that sort of men have no other studie but to observe the weakness of their Prince the better to insinuate their Flatteries they have freely sacrificed their mercenarie Pens to tickle this natural desire of Glory which they have discovered in him The Rewards they have received are authentick marks of his Acceptance and this acknowledgment in a young spirit that believeth himself to be in a posture to execute all that pleaseth him and which hath drunk in this Maxime That to take possession by the Sword any Title is sufficient must needs be esteemed a dangerous forerunning Sentence against all those upon whom he shall believe that he hath any thing to pretend Which yet more clearly to make appear to us we onely need reade the printed Books which have lately been dedicated unto him and principally one above the rest which carries the Title of THE JVST PRETENSIONS OF THE KING OF FRANCE TO THE EMPIRE where having laid down for a Ground That the Dominions of Sovereign Princes have always been the Dominions and Conquests of their Estates and That the Dominions and Conquests of Crowns can neither be alienated nor prescribed he adds the two Articles following 1. That the greatest part of Germanie is the Patrimony and ancient Inheritance of French Princes 2. Charlemagne did possess Germanie as King of France and not as Emperour I leave to those who will vouchsafe to reade over this Treatise to form the Consequences from such Premisses If one may judge of what is to come by what is past all Europe will have cause enough to stand upon her guard if it doth but reflect upon the conduct of France since the close of the Pyrenean Peace till this minute Hardly did we see that Treatie established upon the most religious and inviolable Laws that humane Prudence could devise when presently upon a small punctilio of difference for the precedency of Embassadors which had been always in dispute and was left undecided by the Peace they proceeded to the uttermost extremities against a Father-in-Law at the same time when they suffered without murmuring the unheard-of Indignities which the Grand Vizier at Constantinople caused to be committed against the Royal Person of the most Christian King in that of his Embassador and when they did admit without taking the least offence thereat the Competition for place betwixt the Swedish Embassadors and theirs which is so much the more remarkable that even in the Pyrenean Treatie the two Crowns marched equally hand in hand together and that in one of the Instruments thereof Spain was the first nominated and in the other France Why then did they conclude the Peace with this Equalitie if they were resolved to break it afterwards upon the point of Competition Which makes it evidently seen that from the very day of the Peace they have always watched for the occasions of War and concluded this Treatie onely to take a little breath to settle their Revenues at home and make an end of reducing their people under the yoak The Bonesires which were every where kindled for joy of the Peace were not quite extinguished when an evident breach of the Treatie was seen by the Succours which France sent into Portugal at the beginning under the name of the Marshal of Turenne and a little while after without any kind of disguise A Sedition which happened at Rome to the great displeasure of the Pope by the Souldiers who were provoked with an infinity of Insolencies committed by the French Embassador's Familie The Duke of Creqny was near putting all Italy again into Combustion had not the tears of his Holiness stopt it by sacrificing his own Kindred and erecting a Pyramide to France for an unworthy Trophie of the spoils of the glory of the Vicarie of Jesus Christ and the common Father of whom they style themselves the Eldest Sons A little after they obliged the Duke Charles of Lorrain to sell them his Dutchy to the prejudice of the lawful Successor and the Contract not being valid they forced him with violence to put the onely place which was left him into their hands by means whereof revoking their Bargain they got the thing without paying the price The Bishop of Munster who was included in the League of the Rhine seeing himself attaqued in the Empire by the States of Holland in vain implored their assistance by virtue of the Warrantie but when he began to resent it he was straight assaulted by the French Troups and if his own Enemies had not shewn more moderation towards him then their Allies his Countrey which is of the Patrimony of the Church had been at present totally reduced into Ashes The War of England against the States of the Vnited Provinces which was raised by the French practices and fomented by their industry in giving the counterpoise to him who for the time appeared the weaker hath sufficiently instructed all the World that the Game of France is to depress all Powers which are capable of obstructing the torrent of their Enterprizes But to stray no farther from the matter which I have in hand I will be contented to note onely two plain Arguments which evidently prove that their Design is to drive on their Conquests as far as ever the fortune of War will suffer them and that those Overtures of Peace which they do make are but to amuse the neighbouring Princes and to bridle their own Subjects
White-Hall Sept. 19. 1667. Let this TRANSLATION be Printed By the Appointment of the Right Honourable the Lord ARLINGTON His MAJESTIES Principal Secretary of State Joseph Williamson THE BUCKLER OF State and Justice Against The DESIGN manifestly discovered of the UNIVERSAL MONARCHY Under the vain PRETEXT OF THE QUEEN of France HER PRETENSIONS Translated out of French LONDON Printed by James Flesher for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Excellent Majesty 1667. THE Preface WHILS'T we rested quietly under the shade of Peace and the faith of the Promises very lately renewed by France not to break it the noise of a mighty Preparation for War in our Neighbourhood unexpectedly struck our ears a Conspiracy was detected through the indefatigable pains of our * The Marquess of Castel-Rodrigo Governour upon one of our * The City of Luxemburg principal Places which hastily awakened us out of this Repose and scarce were our eyes opened but divers Libells the usual fore-runners of War were spred up and down promiscuously amongst the Nobility and Common people to seduce his Majestie 's faithful Subjects under colour of some Pretensions of the most Christian Queen upon all these Provinces One whereof is entituled A Dialogue on the Subject of the Rights of the most Christian Queen The next hath for Title A Treatise of the Rights which the most Christian Queen hath to sundry Estates of the Monarchy of Spain And the third goes by the Appellation of Threescore and fourteen Reasons which prove as clear as the day that the Renunciation made by the Queen of France is null c. These Pretensions tend onely to sap and undermine the foundation of the Pyrenean Treaty by overthrowing the most Christian Queen's Renunciation which she so solemnly swore to observe in favour both of the Peace and Marriage of all Rights that might belong to her and stretch themselves to no less then the Dutchy of Brabant with its Appurtenances the Seigniory of Machelen Antwerp the upper Gelderland Namur Limburg and the united places beyond the River of Maes Hainault Artois Cambray the Free County of Burgundy the Dutchy of Luxemburg and one of the principal parts of the County of Flanders After I had curiously read over the Contents of these Libells at first I could not be perswaded that such Writings were authorized by the Court of France and looked upon them a great while as passe-volants and the effects of some idle Pens which out of wantonnesse affected to make themselves remarkable by wittily maintaining a Paradox and indeed their proceeding was too irregular the matter too brittle and the form too unhandsome to believe with any ground of likelihood that they leaned upon publick Authority For I supposed and with Justice enough on my side that what Pretensions soever the most Christian King could have upon a Prince united unto him by so many tyes of Kindred and Amity he would never have begun by the way of Execution and the exciting of his People to Rebellion but that the voice of the Cannon should have been the last made use of to plead his Cause having before made triall of all other means This opinion was confirmed to me by the continual Assurances and positive words which his most Christian Majestie hath often sent to the Court of Spain by his * The Arch-bishop of Ambrun Embassador there and by the * Spanish Embassador in France Marquess de la Fuente That nothing should be able to hinder him from observing religiously the Peace In which belief he still fortified us by Propositions of Leagues and of Mediation and by reiterated Promises of an inviolable Friendship not sparing any care to dissipate all the Suspicions which his powerful Arming might justly have made us conceive Our own Consciences also did oblige us not to doubt of the sincerity of the Promises of France and the scrupulous care which we took to avoid the giving them any cause of displeasure even to the rejecting for their respect the means which were offered us from all parts for our safety gave us cause to believe that such a Comportment as this was being so neat and obliging should not onely stop the effects of their Arms by taking away all the Causes but should also have touched them with tenderness for the Innocence of an Infant a Cousin and a Brother-in-Law to let him pass his younger years in the quiet of a Peace which the King his Father had so dearly bought for him And though the Succours which France sent from time to time into Portugall and that too before they could pretend to the effect of this imaginary Devolution were manifest discoveries that the Faith of Treaties of Oaths were much inferiour to the Interest of State yet we flattered our selves that the longanimitie of our Patience might shelter us from receiving new injuries at their hands by dissembling our sense of the first and that they would be ashamed to heap so many without interruption the one upon the other But having heard that the same Libells had been solemnly presented by the * Monsieur de l' Estrade French Embassador to the States of the United Provinces and to the Imperial Diet and divers Princes of Germanie I thought that I should be wanting in all that I owe to my King my Countrey and the Publick as well as to my self if I did not employ the little knowledge and light which God hath given me towards the removal of the false Impressions which the artifice of a slight Eloquence much more then the solidity of Reasons might produce in the opinion of credulous spirits not throughly versed in our Laws and Customes Besides methought that I owed this Consolation to the afflicted people and this satisfaction to the neighbouring States to let them evidently understand that all the Pretexts with which the French do labour to disguise the vast Designs that they have in hand are but false colours to mask the true Spring which gives the Motion to this Machine and to make an Ambition which goes at a great pace to the Universal Monarchie pass under the veil of Justice Which consideration hath induced me seriously to weigh these Writings and maturely to examine all the Reasons Ends and Circumstances of them And after having carefully turned over all the Acts as much as the shortness of time and the confusion of the present Troubles would give me leave and examined the Treaties of Peace and Marriage with the Act of Renunciation and consulted the most expert Civiâ—ians that are amongst us in the Practick and Customes of places I found without any preoccupation of minde these Pretensions not onely to be contrary to publick Right to the Customes in Sovereign Successions and the sincere Faith of Treaties which are made betwixt Crown and Crown for the Tranquillitie of the People and the Conservation of Monarchies but even to that particular Right which regulates private Families and those Municipal Customes which every Nation doth
believing that the first will not have recourse to Arms for hindring their progress so long as they have any hopes to get it done by Negotiation and that the others terrified with the apprehension of the quick end of this War shall not dare to make use of any occasion which they will hold to be uncertain and staggering The first Argument is That at the instant when they profess to seek Peace they have laid an essential Obstacle in the way by concluding a League offensive with Portugal for ten years by the which they binde themselves not to treat unless the Portuguese may be intirely satisfied They are not ignorant how exorbitant the demands of that People are and that this is to touch Spain in the apple of the eye and put the same stop to the Peace which was the principal Difficultie in the Debates of the Pyrenean Treatie The same League carries as it is written from Lisbon that all the Harbours which the Portuguese shall take in Spain either upon the one or the other Sea shall be put into the power of France which directly corresponds to the Design which they have of late framed to make that Kingdom absolute Mistress * Of the Article England had need take care of the Trade All this hath no connexion with their Claim to Brabant and the other Provinces and if they had no other Design then to take possession of their pretended Goods without breaking the Peace they would not contrive the acquisition of Ports where they themselves confess that they have nothing to pretend The second is That at the same time when they protest they have no design to break the Peace they labour to destroy the Foundations of it and to take away all hopes of a Reconciliation by annulling the Queen's Renunciation upon which the whole Pyrenean Treaty doth so lean that in case this Basis shall be overturned of necessity the whole Fabrick must fall If this Renunciation doth not subsist there is no way left for an Accommodation nor means of finding any securitie necessary to it The Peace which shall be made cannot be but the seed of a new War it will be impossible to cut the evil by the root 'T is here where the Mediators shall find themselves puzzled and if all their Pretensions be granted then will they be absolute Masters of the Netherlands and in a condition to take possession by the same Title not onely of that part of Brabant of which the States of the Vnited Provinces stand possessed but also of all the rest of their Countreys as I shall make appear more at large in the Fifth Article If they adjudge unto them that part which we hold they give a previous Sentence against themselves and will be condemned by their own Decree But if France content it self with a part it will be needful that the Queen should pass a new Act of Renunciation touching all the remainder which according to their Principles must be subject to the same causes of Nullity that the first is if it be true that Princes can never lawfully renounce their pretended Rights And I do not see how they can finde new Clauses nor new Oaths to make this Act more irrevocable then that which they seek to destroy However though all they ask at present were granted them nothing could be solidly treated of because by annulling the Renunciation we should open a door unto them to bring in a new Pretension upon all the Monarchie and then must the Peace needs be as brittle as is the life of a young Infant who hath yet a thousand dangers to go through before he can reach to those years in which he shall be able to secure the Succession in his own Line and cut off the course of the vast hopes of those who build the design of an Vniversal Dominion upon his Death In a word it is superfluous to reason by Arguments when the things do speak of themselvs The most Christian King had the goodness to undeceive us in the vain hopes of a Peace by a Letter written by his order to the Marquess de la Fuente upon the Offer made by his Excellency the Marquess of Castel-Rodrigo in most respectful terms to enter into a Treatie of Accommodation and remit the business to the Arbitration of the neighbouring Princes by his Answer he doth not onely reject the Proposition and look upon it as an injury but be frames to himself a voluntary impossibilitie of a Peace which he establisheth upon the Reply of our Queen to the Marquess de la Fuente in prosecution of a Discourse which the Queen of France had slightly intimated to the said Marquess by way of Conversation and strives to settle upon so weak a ground-work not onely the Justice of his Arms but also an essential Obstacle to a Reconciliation By all these palpable Verities which cannot be called in question it is easie to discern That France imploying her endeavour to render the Peace impossible or unsure aims absolutely at the intire Destruction of a Monarchy which is the Bulwark of all the rest that she may attaque them with less trouble having thus beaten down their Flankers It is left to wise Politicians to make necessary reflexions upon a matter of such high concernment ARTICLE II. That the Entrie of the King of France into the Low-Countreys is a true Rupture THe French Academy hath of late taken a great deal of pains in the polishing of their Language and hath given it self the liberty to reform in it many words to adde some and to enrich it with many graceful expressions But I never could finde that ever it called War by the name of Peace The Latines indeed by an Ironical Figure have named War Bellum and it may be in imitation of them this ingenious Writer would make us believe that Hostilities are Gallantries and the preparation for a great Army but a Turnament Conjugium vocat hoc praetexit nomine culpam I desire very much that he would explain unto us what he means by the word Rupture and how he can reconcile a violent Intrusion by the power of men and Cannons with the due observation of a Treatie which in the first place doth prohibit all manner of such armed attempts and which is instituted to no other end but to hinder them I would know how he can make the Peace subsist with the most lamentable effects of War and how that by the onely defect of the formalitie of sending a Herauld at Arms to denounce it it loses all its bitterness and injustice For my own part who use to reason more dully I have always held that to be a Rupture which is inconsistent with the essence of Peace which overthrows the foundations and troubles all the harmony of it There are certain Attempts which may alter a Peace and yet not break it which be rather Contraventions then Infringings and which do not give the parties injured the right of Revenging themselves
by Arms but onely to pretend Reparation by more gentle means The Turks do not esteem to be a Rupture the Incursions which are made by the one or the other partie in times of Peace provided they be not accompanied with Infantry and Cannon But when one doth act by open force with the full bodies of an Army followed with all the Train necessary for great Enterprizes that Subjects are solicited to rebell against their Prince and that they are compelled under the penalty of the Confiscation of their Goods to take an unjust Oath without processe and without forme of Law I do avow that I am ignorant what either Peace War Treaties or Ruptures are if all these things can have any compatibilitie together at the same time It is a new knowledge in Law whereof the Ancients were ignorant who have left us an Instruction totally opposite to this doctrine Philo de Legious Hostes non solùm existimantur qui jam navali aut terrestri praelio certant sed pro talibus habendi qui machinas admovent portubus aut moenibus etiamsi nondum pugnam incipiunt But that we may be the more able to judge in this business it is necessary that we examine all the terms of the Treatie of Peace and consider the nature the effects and the ends of the same to conclude that if all those be destroyed by this Invasion it cannot be called by any other name then by that of a manifest Rupture The motive Cause of the Peace was The desire of the good quiet and ease of their good Subjects The Object was To put a period to so many mischiefs The Effect To forget and extinguish all the causes and motives of the Warrs past and to establish a sincere entire and durable Peace betwixt them and their Successors All these are overthrown by this present Attempt which doth trouble the good and tranquillity of the people renew the publick misfortunes rekindle and resuscitate all the causes and motives of the Warrs past and raise new ones I do not see how one can conceive that Peace should subsist with an Invasion which ruines it in its Cause in its Ends and in all its Effects Moreover if the Entry of the most Christian King into these Provinces be but a simple taking of possession yet is it altogether illegal contrary to the Laws of Nations and to the customes and practice of the Civil and Municipal Laws as I will make appear in the Article following and what colour soever these do put upon it it cannot pass but for the way of Fact which is never permitted except by the Law of War So that by endeavouring to take away the name of War from this Invasion they do deprive it of that Veil which was able to cover it at least with the false appearance of the Right of Arms and manifestly conclude that if it be not a Rupture 't is a violent Intrusion if it be not a War 't is a Depredation and Piracie and if it be not an infringing of the Peace it is an unjust Attempt which gives a shock to all Laws and Forms Thus are the French intangled in their own Nets and thinking to make their Cause plausible or less odious by a Subtiltie which hath neither body nor substance they destroy the principal Foundation of it and take from themselves the means of establishing their Conquest upon the right of War by declaring that they will Conquer without breaking the Peace L. Hostes de vern signif Hostes sunt qui nobis aut quibus nos publicè Bellum decernimus caeteri Latrones aut Praedones sunt We do ordinarily distinguish betwixt Contravention Infringing and Rupture The first is but an Abuse either in action or omission contrary to some particular Condition which hinders not the existence of a Treatie in its integritie and onely affords the parties concerned a right to pretend that the Dammage be repaired The second shocks the substance of the Peace overthrows the Ground-work of it and gives a right to pursue satisfaction by Arms if it cannot be obtained by any other way The third consists simply in those acts of Hostilitie which are incompatible with Peace which is in one word when one pursues his Right by force And War according to the opinion of Civilians is nothing else but A Contention by strength of hands and by violence of Arms. Others take the word Rupture more at large and extend it to three cases The first to every Act which is against the nature and ends of Peace the second to the committing or omitting of something which is contrary to the express tenour of the Treatie the third to the making of some Attempt which brings Consequences along with it incompatible with all that can be understood by the name of Peace Grotius lib. 3. cap. 20. These three Conditions meet here there is open Force there is an express Contravention to the most essential Articles and Consequences which induce an irreparable Dammage The Contravention to the Treatie on the part of France may evidently be proved by a multitude of Acts repugnant to the sinceritie of that Friendship which the two Kings promised each other which is the chief End of this Peace and which overthrows the Conditions agreed on betwixt them The secret practices both within and without the Realm have never ceased since the Peace thus to keep the Monarchy at a check and to raise enemies and enviers to it from all parts The Portugueses have almost totally subsisted ever since upon the provision of Corn which hath been sent them out of France and in all the Debates which have happened either touching the Execution or the Interpretation of the Treatie or the Purchase of Dunkirk they have alwaies alledged unto us their Will in place of all other Reason offering to give us the Law even in our own houses and to forbid the reparation even of our own Chanells so that upon the least difference wherein we did not yield unto them without reply whatever they asked they have presently returned the bargain in our hand If any Leagues were proposed for our Defence onely instantly they thundred out against us menaces of War which was a word so frequently in the mouth of the Archbishop of Ambrun that upon business of no value and between private persons he instantly made a publick concernment In fine they have made use with so much exorbitancie of the strong Inclination which they observed in us for the preservation of Peace that they have still imployed upon the slightest occasions the Scare-crow of War thinking thereby to pull from us all that their humour made them desire Though our condition were very unfortunate to live in this continual Disquiet to see the Sword alwaies hanging over our heads and our Repose tied to so small a thread yet the remembrance of our former Sufferings and the apprehension of what might come hereafter made us preferre an uncertain and tottering Rest before those
inevitable Confusions and Troubles which a Rupture would produce and expect that our Moderation might touch their hearts or that the Divine Providence would by some other means provide for our safety But this Patience of ours hath served them for a Ladder whereby they have mounted to open Infringings of the Peace which cannot admit of any Interpretation or Extenuation And I defie all the subtiltie of the Gallicane litigious Cavills to palliate them with the least pretext or meanest appearance of Justice 'T is here that I do intreat the Reader to shew me no favour but to devest himself of all kind of Complacencie which perhaps he may have for us to retain all his Partialitie if any he have for our Enemies and to judge of our Cause with the uttermost of Rigour The Abandoning of Portugal is one of the essential Foundations of the Peace without that it could never have been treated of nor concluded France doth declare it by these words in the LX Article of the said Treatie For as much as we have foreseen and apprehended that such an Engagement might be an Obstacle not to be surmounted in the conclusion of the Peace and consequently reduce the Two Kings to a necessity of perpetuating the War And a little beneath in the very same Article it goes on in these terms In fine in contemplation of the Peace and seeing the absolute necessity wherein his most Christian Majestie finds himself either to perpetuate the War by a Rupture of the present Treatie which he perceives to be inevitable in case he should have persisted to obtain in this Affair from his Catholick Majestie other Conditions then those which he had offered c. 'T is clear in the second place by the same Article that to oblige France to this Abandoning the King of Spain refused from the most Christian King the Restitution of all those places and Dominions upon which the Arms of France had seised during the War The terms are clear in the same Article Offering besides the places which are to be restored unto his Catholick Majestie by the present Treatie to render unto him also all the other Conquests in general which his said Arms have made in this War and intirely to restore the Prince of Conde providing and upon condition that the Affairs of the Kingdome of Portugal should remain in the state in which at present they are 'T is likewise out of controversie every way that this Abandoning of Portugal was covenanted and promised by France so authentically and in such clear and special terms that it cannot be called in question nor be made subject to any Interpretations contrary to the true sense and intention of the Parties contracting Here you have the terms His said Majestie shall meddle no more with the said Affair and doth promise and oblige himself upon his Honour and in the Faith and the Word of a King for himself and his Successors not to give unto the aforementioned Kingdom of Portugal neither in general nor to any person or persons of it in particular of what dignity estate or condition they way be neither for the present nor hereafter any Aid or Assistance publick or secret directly or indirectly of Men Arms Ammunition Victuals Ships or Moneys under any pretext nor of any other thing that is or can be by land nor by Sea nor in any other farshion as likewise not to permit that any Leavies shall be made in any of his most Christian Majestie 's Kingdoms and Estates nor grant free passage to those which may come out of other Countries to the help of the aforesaid Realm of Portugal 'T is no less evident that they have failed in every point and every circumstance of this Promise That from the very beginning they secretly conveyed Troups into Portugal in several bodies That at the self-same time when upon the complaints of the Marquess de la Fuente they sent publick Orders to the Governours of their Ports that no Souldiers should be suffered to imbark for Portugal they did not abstain from making them pass under-hand and by connivence That a little while after the Marshall of Turenne publickly made Leavies for their assistance and that the Marquess de la Fuente having represented that this was a direct Contravention to the Treatie of Peace they pay'd him with this cold and disdainfull Answer that it was a particular act of the Marshall of Turenne's in which the Court of France had no hand That they continued to provide them with Corn and all other sorts of Ammunition for War And all this whilst the effect of the pretended Devolution was yet uncertain and could no waies operate even among private persons unless the Daughter did survive the Father and before ever the French made any Instance or Overture touching that Pretension We have in our hands the Letters intercepted which make faith that the Court of France hath ever since the Peace fomented the Obstinacie of the Portugueses that she hath hindred them from accepting the advantagious Conditions which were offered them animating them by a hope of mightie Succours not onely for their own Defence but also for carrying an Offensive War into the very heart of Spain We have many Letters of Monsieur de Lionne and the Archbishop of Ambrun to Monsieur de Shomberg which prove the continual Correspondence which was betwixt them for the direction of that War No body is ignorant how the Duke of Beaufort the last year came with his whole Fleet upon the Coasts of Portugal where he spent a part of the Summer to the great prejudice of his Allies onely to secure the passage of Victuals and Ammunition whereof the Portugueses were in extreme want and that at the same time when they were offering us their Mediation to work an Accommodation with Portugal All the World knows that Monsieur Colbert privately made several voiages thither to encourage them and contract a secret Alliance with them That the Sieur Courtin a little while after the close of the Pyrenean Treatie went expressly into England to move the King of Great Britain not to abandon the Portugueses We intercepted in a French Bottom which came from Portugal the accompt of the Expences and the Succours which France hath given without intermission to that Kingdome since the Conclusion of the Peace whereby it is clear amongst other things that the French have alwaies entertained Troups at their own charge to uphold this War And for the Master-piece of all these unjust proceedings France it self cannot deny but that it hath lately concluded a League offensive with that Kingdome against all its Enemies The principal Conditions of this League are That they shall be the Friends of their Friends and the Enemies of their Enemies excepting England That France shall furnish them with as many men as they need to carry on an offensive War in Spain both by Sea and land shall advance unto them by way of loan the half of their Pay for the
entertainment of Auxiliarie Troups and that they shall furnish them every year under the same title of Loan with the sum of three hundred thousand Crowns That all the Ports which they shall take in Spain either upon the one or the other Sea shall be put into the power of France That they shall not treat neither of Peace nor Truce without common consent That this League shall last for the space of ten years By the clauses above specified of the Pyrenean Treatie it may be seen that the Abandoning of Portugal was both an essential and fundamental point of the Peace That his Catholick Majestie preferred that Interest before all the Provinces Estates Dominions and strong Holds which he quitted to France and which he might have recovered if he would have yielded in the Affair of Portugal So that France doth not justly possess so many places as have been made over to her but in so farre as she hath satisfied the Condition in contemplation whereof they were given and without which all would have been restored to us Whereby it is proved that the publick and secret Aids which France hath given to that Kingdome and particularly the League offensive which she hath concluded with it are not simple Contraventions or Infringements but an open Rupture of the Treatie of Peace which restores his Catholick Majestie to the just right of pretending to and redemanding of whatever hath been accorded to France by virtue of this same Treatie and all the Expence Dammages which the continuation of this War and the impediments which France hath brought to an Accommodation have occasioned to the Crown of Spain This Conclusion is founded upon three invincible Reasons The first is drawn from the Third Article of the Instrument of Peace whereby it is agreed That to avoid the Differences which may afterwards happen between some Princes or Potentates Allies of the said Kings c. if they cannot reconcile them by their Interposition and that the said Allies shall therefore take Arms every one of the said Kings may help his own Allie with his forces without coming to any Rupture betwixt their Majesties by reason of such Assistance But in the end of the same Article Portugal is expressly excepted From whence may be deduced this evident Consequence That if the Treatie doth allow the two Kings to assist their Allies without breaking of the Peace Portugal excepted it must follow that France cannot assist Portugal without Rupture since that Kingdome is excepted by a clause restrictve of the general provision which is made for all the other Allies And in the close of the same Third Article all manner of Succours is generally prohibited to be given to the Subjects which might hereafter revolt against either of the said Kings to limit the permission contained in the said Article of assisting the Allies without Rupture onely to Lawfull Princes and Potentates with an absolute exclusion of all Rebells The second is That the Treatie is trulie broken when by an Attempt of one of the Parties it is reduced to such terms in which it could never have been concluded nor commenced Lege quod ab initio F. de Reg. Jur. It is certain by the LX. Article above cited and by the proper Declaration of France That this Engagement with Portugal was an insuperable Obstacle to the Conclusion of Peace It is then clearer then the day that since the Peace could never have been made without the Abandoning of Portugal it cannot subsist with those Succours nor with that League The third Reason is That by the League offensive with Portugal they do declare themselves Enemies to the Enemies the one of the other England onely excepted It follows then manifestly that the Crown of Spain not being excepted but on the contrarie this League being directly against it his most Christian Majestie hath declared himself an open Enemie to Spain by concluding it with this Condition Let us add to all this the Hostilitie already begun against those of Armentiers the Detention of the Governour of that place the Massacre o◠the Souldiers of the Garrison the Conspiracy against the Town of Luxemburg the Contributions which they have demanded from those very Provinces that are not comprised in this Pretension to save them from fire and pillage the Invasion of Charleroy which they fortifie the sacking and burning of divers Villages even in the Countrie of Liege the prophanation of the Churches and Holy places and the taking of Berges S. Winox And if all this cannot be called War Rupture and an Infringement of the Treatie of Peace I see not what names henceforth can be given to things to express their nature After all this the Latin Translator of this Libell sports himself wittilie with these majestical Hyperboles Rex Invictissimus Galliarum non proferendi Imperii cupiditate aut gloriâ Bellicae laudis sed communi utilitate Officii Religione compulsus c. And farther Neque enim is est qui de inferenda finitimis cogitet injuria aut in rem suam aliena convertere aut aliorum demum invadere velit Imperia unam praeter caeter as Virtutes colit Justitiam huic Coronam Sceptrúmque submittit c. He believes that to persuade his saying is sufficient that his single words shall be able to give the lye to all the contrary effects and that Christendome will give more credit to their Ears then to their Eyes and to their Experience ARTICLE III. That this Rupture is unjust admitting that the Rights of the most Christian King were well founded THE Injustice of the Rupture and the infringing of the Peace by the Succours which France hath sent into the Kingdom of Portugal and by the League newly concluded with them is so manifest of it self and so clearly proved that it were to have an ill opinion of the sufficiency and the Judgment of the Readers and to abuse their leisure to employ time or Reasons to render it more evident But to give our Enemies yet a larger Carreer and fight with them with less advantage I am content for once to tie my hands and shut my eyes to all our Rights and grant them by a false supposition which I reserve to be destroyed in the following Articles that their Pretensions are Just and grounded on solid Foundations I will also for this time afford them the libertie of deciding this Question either by publick Right or Municipal Customes Though in the sequel I will make them see that 't is solely the Treatie of Peace which ought to be the Judge of this Process And after I have granted them of my own accord and without prejudice all those advantages which may seem to give them the gain of the Cause my onely aim in this Article is to demonstrate That this Invasion and Rupture is unjust contrarie to the Laws of Nations and void of all those forms which are necessarily required to make a War lawfull That the Oath which France doth exact from the
All the world knows that if the necessity of our Affairs had obliged us to take the resolution of treating with Portugal we could have had means enough to oblige France at the least to have shared equally the fear and the danger with us Their People wearied with the War and overwhelmed with Taxes waited onely for a turn of the Tide to take off the Masque the neighbouring Princes were resolved not to suffer them to enlarge their Conquests any farther The Tyrant of England who made that Kingdom act against its own Interests in favour of France was already removed by death and the common voice of the Nation in order to the Reestablishment of the Lawfull Successour enlightned with so many knowledges and endued with such vigour and experience that it was not to be doubted but that he would soon put the Counterpoise upon our side by joyning to his Interests the resentment of a multitude of Wrongs We were powerfully armed in all places and in those very Summers which preceded the Peace we were in a condition to carry the War home to them The most penetrating among them know the secret motives which obliged the Cardinal Mazarin to make this Peace and that the apprehension of what was to come more then any Moderation was the first mover of it But setting all their Boastings apart is it not a considerable advantage for them to have established by a Treatie what they had conquered by Arms to have acquired by a just Title that which they could never have retained without Usurpation and to have freed themselves from all the dangers and expences which were inevitable to them in keeping them But if it be true as they do pretend that they were in a condition to dispossess our King of his Throne they must confess two things which are extreamly against them The one That the Marriage and Renunciation were the Safety and Deliverance of the Monarchie and that the King could not onely have made the most illustrious Infanta renounce all her Rights upon this consideration but that he was bound so to doe by a strict Obligation since the Goods of private persons belong to the Publick in case of such necessities Arist l. 1. cap. 10. that the publick good is greater and more divine then the private that this last by obligation of Conscience is bound alwaies to yield to the other according to the opinion of all Doctors and that even the Infanta her self Sakes populi sâ—pâ—… Lox giving her remote and uncertain Pretensions to the common good of both the Crowns hath done an heroick Action whereof France would now obscure the Glorie The other is That she hath not onely done good to the Publick but also that without betraying her self she could not refuse to give her consent to this Renunciation her Rights and Pretensions should have been swallowed up in the publick Shipwreck in vain had she reserved to her self Titles if the Arms of her Enemies were upon the point to take all from her So that very farr from a Laesion she may reckon for a new Purchase all that she hath been able to save from this Wreck Her Portion had been very ill assigned in case her paternal Goods had fallen into hands which cannot dismember alienate nor restore one inch of Land And in this case it is very probable that the most Christian King would have despised the Alliance of a poor exiled Princess who would not have had any other provision but her Vertue and she her self would not have had the heart to cast her self into the arms of him whom she found loaden with the Spoils of her Father She hath redressed all those inconveniences by this Renunciation and opened to her self the way to this Crown to which we now see her so worthily elevated What Laesion then can there be pretended when these two Conveniences de damno vitando lucro captando do meet so perfectly united Eighthly 'T is an affected ignorance both of Fact Law to alledg that the Queen was under age when she passed this Act. No body can doubt but that the Princes and Princesses of Spain are out of Minority before the age of Twenty years as it is expressly declared in the Renunciation And as by the grace of God I do find my self to be in the age of Major and more then twenty years old Royal Persons are held to be out of Minority as soon as they have attained to the years of Youth And though one should consider the Infanta as a private person and that this were to be regulated by the Laws and Customes of private Successions it is a certain truth that by the Local Customes upon which France doth found her Right both Sons and Daughters are Majors at the age of twenty years and may freely dispose of their Fiefs even in relation to their own life without any Dispensation from the King or authority of a Guardian L. Scio ff de in inc rest And if she were under age there must first be some enormous Laesion caused by the Facilitie of her who renounces or by the Deceitfulness of the other party Auth. Sacramento pauperum C. Si adversus vead But here is neither Laesion Weakness nor Deceit and in the end the privilege of Minority serves them for nothing where the Deed is confirmed by Oath It is certain that if in this age she had attained to the Succession of the Kingdome or the Provinces which they say do belong unto her she would have had no need either of Tutors or Governours This Law supposes that Nature and Education do sooner produce in the minds of Princes those fruits of Prudence which do not grow ripe in others but by time And if the Civil Laws dispense before the time prescribed by Municipal Laws touching the subjectings to Minority those who by industry and assiduity have rendred themselves capable to govern their own and other peoples business it is much more just that such as the publick Laws admit without limitations and dependences to the Administration of Kingdomes may uncontrouled dispose of their own concerns though the Custome which restricts private persons to the age of Twenty years should not be considered And since she was in a condition to enjoy the privilege of Reigning without an Overseer 't is evident that she had no right to enjoy the benefit of Reparation forasmuch as the French Civilians hold for an indubitable Maxime that he Daughters which are capable of Marriage are also capable of any other kind of legal Deed. Du Moulin on the Custome of Blois Art 161. Ninthly It is an insupportable Injury to the Memory of the late King to accuse him to have disinherited his Daughter the Infanta On his part there was no positive Act more then a simple consent and authorizing of the free Renunciation made by this Princess who by a voluntary choice did preferr the Crown of France before that of Spain which she looked upon as
troublesom to all the rest of the World In effect it is certain that the Genius of the Nation is such that it cannot endure to subsist long in the Idleness of Peace there must be Aliment for this Fire and if some were not given it from abroad it would form to it self matter at home To this natural Propension must yet be added the Custome of most part of their Provinces and the particular Dispositions of Noble Families which give so great advantages to the Elder Brothers that they leave almost nothing to the younger but their Industry and Sword and as they do not cultivate Letters and their Quality suffers them not to apply themselves to Mechanick Trades there is nothing left to them but the Warrs or Robberies to preserve themselves from Miserie Whence it comes that this Kingdom always finds it self filled with an idle and boyling Youth ready to undertake all and which seeks employment for their valour at whose cost soever it be The libertie which they had heretofore of voiding this Bilious humour and of running to supposititious glory by single Combats is at present taken from them by just Decrees the little shifts of Industry by which formerly they sheltred themselves from want are now severely prohibited But at the same time that all ways are shut unto them whereby to open their spleen in their own Countrey the Polititians of France held it necessary to furnish them with another gate by which they might evaporate this Flame which would gnaw their own Bowels if it did not find another vent Moreover as the greatest Revenues of the Crown of France consist in the Purse of the People and that the excessive Contributions cannot be exacted in times of Peace without making a great many Malecontents it is necessary to feed them with the smoke of some Conquests and always to have pretexts to remain in Arms and maintain by force the Royal Authority which hath so strangely overflowed the limits of their Fundamental Laws As it is impossible for them to satisfie all the Princes and great men of their Realm and that ever since the Reign of Henry the III d they have taken it for a Rule of their Conduct to bring them low so far as they can it is extremely convenient to hold them imployed in forrein Wars and to incite them to glory that they may be consumed in ruinous undertakings Their second Maxime is To enter into all sorts of Affairs either by right or wrong and everywhere to make themselves the Arbiters either by violence or by cunning by Authoritie or by surprize by threatnings or by friendship and to get in as Mediators even into those Treaties of Peace wherein they are interessed as Parties as they pretended to doe in that of the Bishop of Munster and do actually practise in the Assembly at Breda In all the Differences either past or present they have never doubted to take Partie there never yet was Quarrell in which they had not dexteritie enough to form unto themselves some kind of Interest and some Rights nor did ever any People shew the least inclination towards Rebellion but instantly they made them their Allies But experience hath made it visible that they never entred into any War but to exasperate it nor into any Peace but to sow the seeds of new Disputes It would be superfluous to number them since there is no body so little versed in the ancient Story who does not confess this truth and that the modern Examples have made us know it sufficiently In the last Troubles of Germanie into which they thrust themselves at first under the colour of Protection with a thousand specious protestations that they would never pretend any thing for themselves but barely the satisfaction of their Allies when the business came to its full Crisis they dismembred Alsatia from the Body of the Empire by the same Artifice with which they had dissolved from it * Metz Toul and Verdun three Bishopricks under the Reign of Henry the Third The third Maxime is To have for their onely Rule the Interest of State so that the Faith of Treaties the good of Religion or the ties of Bloud and Amitie cannot hold them 'T is this that the Duke of Rohan puts for the fundamental Principle of all his Work The Princes command over the People Interest commands over Princes All that the Turks have done in Christendom since Francis the First to our time they owe it to the Alliances of the Crown of France with the Ottoman Port and to the Diversions which they have made in their favour against all those who have desired to undertake something against this Common Enemy And though that the Protestant Religion is beholding to it for a part of its progress yet France doth not therefore desist from giving secret intelligences to the Catholicks to make them consider its power as the onely which being tied by no Capitulation is therefore in a condition to reduce all Sects under the Obedience of the Church In a word for the erection of their Monarchie they do imitate and apply to ill uses the Maxime which St. Paul practised for the enlarging of the Kingdom of Christ Factus sum omnibus omnia and as this Apostle complied with all sorts of spirits to gain them to the Church weeping with the afflicted and taking part in the consolation of those which he found to be satisfied these by a wrong Imitation of this holy Conduct conform themselves to the Interests of all the World to make them serve theirs and sacrifice Religion as often as it comes in competition with the Interest of State The examples are so fresh that we need not make any enumeration of them and many things might be said on this subject in reference to the last War against the Turks if Modesty did not oblige us to suppress them Their fourth Maxime is To keep as much as they can forrein States occupied and divided at home or else engaged in some external War England the Empire Italie Denmark and Spain have had a sad Experience of this and now both Poland and the States of the United Provinces do resent the deplorable effects thereof All these Maximes are proper to Conquerours and as many infallible marks of a vast and profound Design long ago contrived The Predecessors of the most Christian King could not bring it to perfection because the Civil Wars the power of Spain and the just Limits which the Royal Authoritie then acknowledged were powerful Barrs to stop them but at present having imposed at home an absolute Law over all their Subjects and having put Dissention amongst all Strangers there remains nothing but that they overcome the third Impediment by compleating the overthrow of the Monarchie of Spain that they may pass upon our Ruines to the Conquest of all the other States To attain this it was necessary they should full us asleep with the Assurances of Peace and Propositions of Leagues and Union The War
prescribe unto it self by the will or permission either express or tacite of their Sovereigns I have besides observed so many evident Falshoods in the matter of Fact so many insupportable Invectives against the Person of the * PHILIP the Fourth late King of most Glorious Memory so great a number of malicious Artifices to pervert the people so many hyperbolical Exaggerations to cast dust in the eyes of the neighbouring Princes and so many pernicious Maxims which draw along after them a train of Consequences most dangerous for all Christendome that I had a great deal of difficultie to conceive how people who make profession of Learning and Knowledge of the Affairs of the World durst expose to publick censure things so ill digested which hath the more encouraged me to undertake this Work by reason that I foresee how much it imports not to suffer a boldness which so freely abuses the patience of the Readers to pass unchastised and the Interest which all States have in this Affair makes me assuredly believe that I do plead in this the Cause of the whole World It is I confess a matter of trouble to see my self obliged to reduce to the terms of litigious pleading a Difference between Sovereign Princes so solemnly decided by a publick Treatie upon the Faith whereof all Christendome did solely found their Quiet But as a good Cause fears no Judge nor a good Conscience any kind of Censure I will freely enter the Lists and shall be overjoyed to have as many Witnesses of the Justice of our Cause as there be reasonable and disinteressed persons in the World Though we cannot doubt of the Approbation which the most Christian King hath given to those injurious Writings I cannot yet be persuaded that he ever took the pains to reade them over and will rather believe to his honour that his weighty Affairs and his great application to this loftie Arming have so taken up all his time that he had none to spare to cast his eyes upon works which have so little sympathy with his Genius and Qualitie It is much easier to believe that trusting in this to the faith of others he hath abandoned himself to his natural propension to immortalize his name by Arms and Conquests and to the Suggestions of those who desire nothing more then to see him incumbred abroad for their self-ends In effect he hath too much Generosity and Love for the Queen his Consort to suffer that any should so unworthily defame the Reputation of his Father-in-Law he is too much concerned in the common Cause of Kings to endure that his Scribblers should attempt upon Royal persons he hath too much Justice to permit that they should make the most tender Father and best of Kings pass for a Tyrant constraining his Daughter by a barbarous Disinheriting her or a Cheater who assigned her onely an Imaginary Portion he hath too great a minde to approve of trifling upon Jewels or to desire that an accompt by way of Inventory should be given him of all the Knacks which belonged to the Queen his Mother-in-Law and that all the Earth should be alarmed about a Domestick concernment which the relations of the parties would decide without noise amongst mean Citizens he knows that the Bounty of the King his Father-in-Law towards a Princess whom he loved more then himself did not restrain it self to Notaries Clausules that both before and after the Marriage he ceased not to load her with his Benefits and that he hath freely bestowed his Provinces and Dominions to set upon her Head one of the fairest Crowns in the World In fine he hath too much Prudence and love for Truth ever to consent to the publication of so many false Allegations so inconsiderately packed together one upon the back of another not questioning at all but if that he had attentively considered them they would have touched him with just indignation against those who have so impudently abused his Name as to ingage maliciously his Reputation and his Arms in an Enterprise so ill grounded Which makes me hope that having established his Majestie 's Rights upon unquestionable Foundations the soliditie of our Reasons will not onely conduce to fortifie the People and perswade the neighbour-Princes but even pierce the heart of the most Christian King and that yielding to the strength of their Evidence he will resolve henceforwards to propose juster and more plausible matters to hiâ—self whereby to make his Name famous when in the unworthy Oppression of a Pupill King or at least that he will contrive sweeter and more honest ways in order to his full information But if by secret Judgments of God we cannot obtain by this means that which we ought to promise to our selves from the Prudence and the Equitie of so Great a King I shall yet have this satisfaction to have omitted nothing on my part that might contribute towards the dissipation of this Tempest which threatens all Christendome and having overcome by Reasons we hope that the Arbiter of Sovereigns and supreme Protector of Justice will not let us sink under the weight of his Arms. To make fully known in the eye of the Sun the Deformitie and bad Connexion of those seditious Writings it would be necessary to anatomize them and examine every piece apart But as that design would engage me to a large Volume and that time for the present is too precious I have thought that it should now suffice to collect onely the principal Points to destroy their Grounds and establish contrary Foundations and to goe without stopping at a thousand Superfluities which they have alledged out of all season onely to make the bulk of their Books bigger and to embroil the minde of the Reader directly to the substance and the heart of the Difficulty in question This shall be my endeavour and in this I require in the Readers an attention void of interest if yet they can be without interest in a Cause which so nearly toucheth them by an inevitable reflexion Though I have proposed to my self in this Writing all the Moderation and Sweetnesse which decency and inclination towards Peace doth require yet the matter is of it self so very sharp that it is almost impossible to give it a form that shall not participate of its roughneâ—se It 's here intended to make the whole World see That a War is unjust the Ground of it ruinous the Reasons for it vain Pretexts That the Apparences cover vast Designs That the Allegations are false the Proceedings violent the Ends naught and the Consequences dangerous The necessitie of a just Defence doth oblige us to bring to light all these Truths and I defie the most dexterous Pens to be able to express them in terms void of some Bitterness or to apply the Razor to the bottome of the Wound without Pain to the Patient I wish I were able to make things understood without naming them and to colour them with obliging terms but this cannot be done
without destroying the Substance and this Mask of words would pass for a jearing sharper then single Expressions I beseech the Reader to be persuaded that my onely drift is to speak of Things without touching of Persons and if my Subject doth forcibly draw me into complaints and some reproches I do here solemnly protest That I pretend the most Christian King 's Sacred Person to be excepted and that I do ascribe all the Evils which are intended towards us onely to those mean Incendiarie Writers who out of a desire of Noveltie and perhaps with purposes more dangerous to their own King then to ourselves have so lightly and unseasonably sounded to horse THE CONTENTS I. Of the Ends which France doth propose unto it self in this War and in these Libells II. That the Entry of the King of France into the Estates of the Catholick King in the Low Countries is an evident Rupture III. That this Rupture is unjust admitting the Right of the Queen of France were well founded IV. That the Renunciation of the French Queen is just irrevocable necessary and usefull to the Publick good nor contains in it self any cause of Nullitie or Laesion and that the Queen of France hath been duly Doted V. That the Succession of the Soveraigntie of the Dutchy of Brabant and the other Provinces which are specified in these Libells ought not to be regulated by the particular Customes VI. A Discourse of the Interest of the Christian Princes in this War and of the precise Obligation which the Estates of the Empire have to warrant the Circle of Burgundy THE BUCKLER OF STATE JVSTICE AGAINST The Design manifestly discovered of the Vniversal Monarchy under the vain pretext of the Queen of France her Pretensions ARTICLE I. Of the Ends which FRANCE proposeth unto it self in this War and in these Libells THE Author of these Libells employs a great deal more of care and art to colour the Designs of his Party then to establish the Grounds of his imaginary Right In this last his Pen is both dry and crawling In the other it doth spread it self with a pleasant stream of words into a Thousand superfluous expressions endeavouring as much as it can to present without discovery a false Light hoping to change the Nature of things by changing only their Names He extolls the love which his Master hath for Peace at the very instant when he is breaking it he complains at the same time when he strikes he takes away by violence when he asks he pleads and decides at once he requires Peace and brings War attaques without Rupture forces without constraint and plaies with so much contempt upon the Ignorance and Credulity which he supposes to be in the Judgment of his Readers that he will needs have the way of Fact to pass for Justice Violence for Moderation Usurpation for Title and Defence for a Crime and so he can but onely take away the odious name of War from the Attempt which Frame is now making he thinks that she may freely practise all manner of Hostilities under that of Peace Which is the effect of the excellent opinion they have of the abilities of all other Nations whom they esteem barbarous or simple enough to believe things of this nature and afterwards glory in their jesting according to their obliging custome of turning into ridiculous the most Illustrious Nations That they took us for Germans This dull conceit tends evidently unto two Ends The one to extenuate a little the ugliness of their Enterprise and the Scandal and Confusion which they foresee it will produce throughout all Europe and that they may make all the cares which we shall take for our Defence pass for as many Contraventions of the Peace and by this means get some pretext whereby either they may press their Allies to joyn their Arms to theirs in favour of their Design or else may one of these daies bring the War upon themselves for having failed in performing the Obligation of their League of Warrantie By which it is obvious to all sorts of capacities that the Absolute Empire which they do equally affect over their Friends Enemies makes them act so Magisterially both with the one and the other So that to keep Peace with them it is requisite to give them all that they require and to satisfie the Alliances made with them it 's necessary to help them to take all But to judge of the injustice of this Pretension it is sufficient to read over the Treatie of the Peace of the Empire in the Article of Warrantie and that of the League of the Rhine and then it will be clearly seen that the Obligation of reciprocal Succours doth extend no farther then to those Lands which France did possess in the Empire at the time when these Leagues were concluded that they do not reach any new Conquests or Claims and ought not to be understood but against Aggressours Else the Princes of the Empire had imposed an horrible Servitude on themselves to be the Ministers and Instruments of the Ambition of an Allie to inlarge his Limits at the price of their bloud and of their own safetie and to be bound to take arms into their hands as often as the Writers of France should think fit to put their hand to the pen to frame to their Crown some new Rights It is not enough to understand the cunning of the Ends of their proceeding but it concerns all the World to penetrate farther even into the bottome of their Designs If we will take it upon their faith they have no other End but an honest Accommodation with Spain They themselves invite Forreign Princes to intermeddle in it They protest that they will suffer themselves to be brought to moderate Conditions That they do make War against their stomachs That they would lay down their arms with pleasure That they would submit themselves to the Judgement of those who are willing to imploy their pains in it Let us see then whether their behaviour doth suit with their words Spectemur agendo All their Actions and Motions tend towards a vast and deep Design This proud arming this prodigious expence this excessive profusion in their forreign Negotiations this forwardness in making of Leagues to gain Ministers to keep them in business who may give them jealousie the reiterated instances and the large offers which they have tendred to the Swedes to embroil the Empire the extraordinary application to force the Polanders by corruption and violence to chuse a Successor contrary to their Fundamental Laws are proofs capable to convince the darkest understandings that all this immense Preparation of Arms and Intrigues hath something in it of greater extent then the bare Conquest of some Provinces which our over-much Credulity hath exposed to them as a prey and ends not in a simple desire of tearing away a few pieces of them by a Treatie These huge Mountains are not to bring forth Mice but to vomit out Flames as the
but that she was not informed of that Right that she was but a bare Regent and had no power to alienate any of her Son's Dominions Was it not incumbent to France to let her see the Grounds of this Pretension and that she should not alienate any thing by restoring to every one his own Do they think that this was a Process which could summarily be decided by Bill and Answer and that upon their single assertion denuded of all manner of Evidences she would out of a frolick throw at their faces Eight of the most flourishing and rich Provinces of the ancient Patrimonie of her Familie Meanwhile upon this they raise the Hue and cry they take her Reasons for Refusalls they do not reply to them but by Arms and let her not know what it is they pretend untill they find themselves in a posture able to snatch it away by force It is farther to be observed here that this Answer was not addressed to the Queen nor given in form of a Resolution but onely in the simple terms of an Instruction to the Marquesse de la Fuente in order to his particular Direction that he might try by his prudence gently to divert by a Reason so solid the mind of the most Christian King from a thought so little suiting with his own Glory For the last condition of a just War all Lawyers do require a solemn Declaration by a publick Decree legally intimated to the parties It is an essential condition which the Law of Nations doth prescribe and all Wars destitute of this Formalitie are Robberies except the urging necessity of repelling force by force shall dispense with us therein by the Law of Nature It seems that France not to forget any thing which might render her Attempt more unjust and scandalous would needs omit this Formalitie to make her acting the more unseemly by publishing in her Declarations that she had no design to break the Peace at the same time when she did make us feel all the effects of a War From whence it must be concluded that in regard this Answer cannot be interpreted a Refusal since there was no form in the Demand and at the most cannot pass but for a simple exception of Right which the Queen did object to defend that of her Son there cannot be in it any title for a just War seeing the Laws do not permit even bare Reprisals but when the partie required doth shut up all the ways by which Justice can be obtained L. Vlp. ff de cond indeb And since they have been answered by a juridick Reason it was the part of the most Christian King to overturn it by a stronger before he come to extremities This Denunciation is not onely necessary and requisite by the Law of Nations but also is expresly stipulated in the XXVI Article of the Treatie of Peace wherein it is agreed That if any Rupture shall afterwards happen betwixt the two Crowns which God forbid there shall always six months time he given on the one part as well as the other to retire and transport their goods and persons c. Which of absolute necessity requires a legal and precedent Denunciation without which they can never be able to know when it shall be time to retire themselves and shall finde themselves involved in an unforeseen War It is not sufficient to be indued with Sovereign Authority that he may have right to make War in all cases but the action he doth intend to pursue by Arms must be of such quality that he may act in it as Sovereign that is that he act on the behalf of some publick Interest which concerns the Sovereigntie and in this case his power is to be regulated by the nature of the Sovereigntie or of that Right whereby he acts so that if in this action he depends upon the Civil Laws and be subject to a superiour power what Sovereigntie soever he does otherwise possess he hath not the right of making War but ought to have recourse to those Tribunals before which the Cause is to be decided and is not in this respect considered but as a private person Grotius lib. 2. cap. II. de Jure Belli Experience confirms this every day It is for this that the Fiscal is instituted principally to defend and pursue the particular Actions of Kings by the waies and forms of Justice and this Custome would be unprofitable if Princes were both Judges and Executors of their own Causes They themselves plead every day against their own Subjects they submit themselves to the Decrees of their Tribunals and if they do observe this Justice toward their Inferiours they are much more obliged to keep it toward the direct Lord of those Fiefs which they do claim The reason is because that War is of the Law of Nations and such like Actions are of the Civil Law That the Magistrates and Tribunals are established to hinder particular Violences which otherwise would reign in the World if it were indifferently permitted to seek satisfaction by Arms From whence it follows that when the way of Civil Law is open and that he who intends the Action is subordinate in this particular case to a Superiour Authority he hath not the right of Arms in his power and cannot of himself have recourse to the Right of Nations nor act as a Soveraign in regard he is none in this case Now in this Action the most Chrian King as the Libell it self doth declare doth act in no other qualitie but as prosecuting the Actions of the Queen his Wife and consequently cannot have in that any other Right or qualitie then that which is competent to her self Therefore in this qualitie either he doth proceed as actual Duke of Brabant and Prince of the other Provinces which he claims by a real Action as Lord of those Lands by virtue of a devolved Succession or onely as having a Right to claim them In both cases it is certain that he is not Possessour that his Right is not without controversie that another is in the peaceable possession founded upon very plausible Titles and that if even the most Christian King had by violence thrust him out of his possession the Judges could not pronounce any thing in the principal matter unless the business were restored to its first condition This is a Principle in Law which no Lawyer will call in question It is likewise most certain that in the qualitie of Duke of Brabant he cannot claim his Right by Arms against a peaceable and ancient Possessour seeing he depends upon a Superiour Power to whose Judgement he is bound to submit That his Action being a Right undecided and in controversie he cannot take possession without a decisive Sentence nor consequently establish fully his Jurisdiction in that Dutchie without doing Homage to the direct Lord and taking the Investiture from him France it self will not deny that the Dutchie of Brabant and the most part of the other Provinces which she
pretends to are Fiefs depending upon the Empire which she her self doth seem of her own accord to acknowledge very clearly by these words which she hath inserted in the end of her Preface That his intention is to possess the Estates which are fallen to the Queen in the Low-Countries by the same Title by which the Catholick King hath possessed them in reference to the Empire She declares it yet more openly in the same Libells wherein for a principal foundation of the pretended Devolution of the Sovereigntie of Brabant she alledges the Decree of the Emperour Henry in favour of Prince Henry against his Father Though I shall answer this Objection in its proper place for the present it 's sufficient I draw this advantage from it that she doth acknowledge the Emperour for the supreme and lawfull Judge of the Differences which may arise for the Sovereigntie of Brabant and even in this particular case which they draw by the hair to that of the Devolution and that the said Emperour did prohibit the Duke to undertake any thing in it to the prejudice of his Children Whereby the Author of this Writing pretends fully to establish the Emperour's Right of Judging pronouncing and interdicting which are all effects of a Supreme Authority And though in that there may be many exceptions and limitations without farther examining the matter we will be content in this place to make use of their own Allegations ' to fight them with their own Weapons so much the rather because the Privileges granted to the Dutchies of Brabant Limbourg and the other Provinces of the Netherlands by the Emperour Charles the IV Sigismond Maximilian and others evidently confirm that a part of Brabant and of the other Provinces hold of the Empire besides it is set down in express terms that the said Provinces are Fiefs of the Empire No person is ignorant that they compose one * The Empire is divided into Circles Circle of it and consequently that for what concerns publick Right they are subject to the Laws reserving nevertheless their particular Privileges and Jurisdiction It is out of controversie that all the Processes and Differences which arise touching Successions Investitures Rights and Pretensions upon Fiefs of the Empire depend of the Supreme Jurisdiction of the direct Lord and that no Prince of this great Body can seise the Estates of another by way of fact what just Pretension soever he may have without contravening the Order and Imperial Constitutions and obliging all the other Princes to take Arms against the Aggressour Experience shews us this in an infinitie of Processes of this nature which are still depending before their lawfull Tribunals As also no body will deny but that the Treaties of Munster and Osnabrug are made use of at this day as a Fundamental Law to regulate the Affairs of the Empire And this is expressly declared Inst Pacis Germano-Gall § Pro majori Sit haec Transactio perpetua Lex pragmatica Imperit Sanctio And France is so much the more obliged to conform it self to this Rule because it hath reaped most abundantly the chiefest Fruits of this Peace It is also unquestionable that by the same Treatie the Circle of Burgundie is expressly included in these words § Vt eò sincerior Circulus quidem Burgundicus sit maneátque Membrum Imperii post Controversias inter Galliam Hispaniámque sopitas hâc Pacificatione comprehensus and by consequence it ought to enjoy all Rights Immunities and Prerogatives of the Circles of the Empire specified in the § Vt autem and in the following and of the general and reciprocal Warrantie expressed in the same Instrument of Peace In the § Tam univers are infringed and annulled all attempts and waies of fact formerly committed or which shall be commenced for the future quae nullo praecedente legitimo Juris Executionis ordine fieri attentarÃve poterunt And in the § Vt autem provisum sit it is provided that to avoid new Controversies all the Princes of the Empire shall remain in the peaceable possession and enjoyment of their Rights and Prerogatives ut à nullo unquam sub quocunque praetextu de facto turbari possint In the § Pax verò conclusa it is expressly ordained against all waies of Fact Et si quid eorum à quocunque violari contigerit laesus laedentem inprimis à via Facti dehortetur causâ ipsâ vel amicabili Compositioni vel Juris disceptationi submissâ And in the § following the term of three years is appointed to terminate the Difference either by the one or the other way And in case that without having recourse to or putting in practice the one or the other of these means any one before the said term of three years do undertake any thing by the way of Arms teneantur omnes singuli hujus Transactionis consortes junctis cum parte laesa that is to say he who is attaqued by force consiliis viribúsque Arma sumere ad repellendam Injuriam à passo moniti quòd nec Amicitiae nec Juris viae locum invenerit By which it is clear that it is not permitted to any to take up Arms untill he hath tried for the space of three years the means of Accommodation or of Justice The words that follow in the same § do yet more clearly explain it Et nulli omnino Statuum Imperii liceat Jus suum vi vel armis persequi sed si quid Controversiae sive jam exortum sit sive posthac inciderit unusquisque jure experiatur secùs faciens reus sit fractae Pacis Either then the most Christian King will act in this Cause in the name of the Queen his Consort as she is a Princess of the Empire or as a private person by virtue of the Municipal Laws of Brabant In the first case he ought as a Vassal to have recourse to the Sovereign Tribunal where the Controversies about the Ducal Succession are tried In the second case he ought to submit himself to the Judgement of the Feodal Court which is the onely Interpreter of the Customes of the Countrie and the supreme Judge of the particular Actions touching Fiefs As to the Declaration which they do make in the same Writing that they 'l possess these new Conquests under the same Laws and Dependences on the Empire whereby our Kings have held them It is a Protestation contrary to the Act and their proceeding doth destroy it absolutely How can it be hoped that they I subject themselves to the Laws of the Empire in the fruition of those Estates when they do violate them all by the Invading of this Circle All the Pretensions of the Princes of the Empire one against another have alwaies been left to the Supreme Judicatory they have ever been begun by some Process And those who wearied with their tediousness have laboured to right themselves have still found opposition and been discountenanced by the * Which is the Imperial
Diet. General Diet. Even they who have carried Arms against the Empire have never been condemned nor exposed to the Imperial Outlawrie but according to the forms of Justice This course is so regulated and so confirmed by Custom that amongst so many Differences of which Germanie is full and in the numberless multitude of noble Families which compose this great Body not so much as one is to be seen which hath strayed from this High-way without punishment France alone which is yet but upon the Threshold of the Door will already command within the House and without any form of Process erects to herself a Tribunal of her Throne Advocates of her Army and Judges of her own Power What can the Empire expect from her Submission when she is Mistress if she make such use of it when she is but a Pretender And how should one promise to himself the Fealtie of Vassalage from those who commit an act of Felony to acquire it and will not enter but by the oppression of Laws and Justice From all these Principles which are clearer then the day this Conclusion may be drawn That the Oath and the Acknowledgement which they exact from his Catholick Majestie 's Subjects is a Seditious practice contrary to the Right of Nations which shocks both their Duty and their Consciences and which no body can take without making themselves guilty of a Crime against God of Rebellion against their Prince and of Baseness as to themselves though we should continue still in the supposition that the Pretension of the most Christian King were equitable I shall prove this by five convincing Reasons The first is That they are at present tied to the King of Spain by a solemn Oath with which they cannot dispense of themselves The second is That this Oath is valid and lawfull being founded upon the authentick Titles of the perpetual order of the Succession of their Dutchie upon the Imperial Investiture upon the Queen's Renunciation upon the Pyrenean Treatie and upon the Testament of the late King The third is That it hath been tendred since the Case of the pretended Devolution happened without any Opposition made by the most Christian King or Protestation to the contrary which might have put them into the least doubt of the validity of their Oath And in such like publick Acts which are of consequence the ordinary Rule is Qui tacet consentit The fourth is Because there is neither previous Judgment nor Sentence to the contrary which can dispense with them in their natural Obligation The fifth is That what Pretension soever may be moved against a Prince that is in actual possession the Subjects are not Judges in this Cause but are bound to keep their Fidelity to him to whom they have sworn it either till he himself dispense with them or that some superiour Authority decide the matter otherwise it would be a Levity of most pernicious example for all the Subjects of other Princes if upon the simple Assertion of the first comer they might have liberty to renounce their Faith and blindly to give themselves to whoever should challenge them to be his It would likewise be an intolerable Arrogance in Subjects which would overthrow all the Order of Politie and of humane Society if they would attribute to themselves the power of Judging Causes of Sovereignties that same would not be endured even in private Successions in which the Subjects ought to remain under the Obedience of their Masters so long as they are not exempted from it by a superiour Decree We could according to this wicked Maxime by a more specious Right solicit the Subjects of the Dutchies of Burgundy and Bretanny and also with a farr juster Title all those of the Places resigned by the last Peace which France hath so frankly and lightly broken to renounce the Duty which they have promised to him who possesses them We should be grounded in our Pretension to the Dutchie of Burgundie on a solemn Treatie of Peace and for that of Bretanny on the Right of a lawfull Succession And I am certain that if the decision of this Process were referred to the people they would not hesitate to declare in our favour 'T is a Question which the Great and Supreme Arbiter of the World our SAVIOUR decided in the same case upon the captious propositions of the Pharisees Though the Right of the Romans and particularly Caesar's was subject to many Exceptions and that his Possession was not by much so well founded as ours is yet he ordained notwithstanding that the Tribute should be pay'd to the present Possessour to teach the people that it did not belong to them to judge of the Right but to yield Obedience to the party who was in actuall fruition of the Sovereignty who bore the marks and the Character and exercised the Jurisdiction thereto belonging ARTICLE IV. That the Renunciation of the French Queen is just irrevocable necessary and usefull to the Publick good nor contains in it self any cause of Nullity or Laesion and that the Queen of France hath been duely Doted HAving made known the Injustice of the Proceeding it remains to make evident that of the Pretension I shall conform my self upon this Subject to the Method which they have observed in their Libells that I may not lose sight of them Before they do attaque the Strength of the place they have employed all their force to take the Outworks and seeing that the Renunciation of the Queen of France was a Barricado which hindred them in their approches unto it they have employed their most powerfull Engines to blow it up without considering that by destroying that Work they overthrow the Foundation of a Treatie which hath given them such great Advantages over our Monarchie and deprive themselves of all the Rights to those Provinces which by this Peace they had acquired so that they can neither possess nor retain them henceforwards without manifest Injustice unless they acknowledge the Principles on which their Possession was established their own Mine doth fall back upon themselves If the Renunciation should be null the Pyrenean Treatie must be so too every thing must be brought back to it 's primitive Integritie They can no longer make use of the Instrument of Peace to secure and render their Conquests lawfull they repossess us again in all our Rights and all the Fruits which they have gathered from that Tree of which they endeavour to cut up the Root are but so many goods ill purchased Here it must be acknowledged that the Flattery of those Writers is very inconsiderate and that they have applied themselves more to a petty litigious Interest then to the Glory of their Prince they cannot controvert upon the Queen's Renunciation without calling the sincere Faith of their King into question The Marriage was concluded upon the ground of the Renunciation and the Peace upon that of the Marriage all these things have an inseparable connexion His most Christian Majestie was
assisted in this occasion by the most expert and the ablest Ministers of his Kingdom who could not be ignorant whether the Infanta had power to renounce lawfully or not This Work was premeditated debated and concerted amongst the Parties by a long Negotiation which gave occasion to all the reflexions upon Law and Policie which the clearest Wits could frame in so important a matter If then they discovered that Truth which since they would make pass for so clear and palpable That this Act of Renunciation could not be valid either they must confess that they have been the authors of a signal Cheat by Treating upon this Foundation approving it accepting it and inserting it into the Treatie of Peace by an express Article promising to cause it to be Registred amongst the Acts of the Parliament of Paris and authorizing it by their Oath or else they must accuse themselves of Ignorance in not having understood before they concluded the business those Nullities which at present do appear so evident unto them To what condition go they to reduce the Affairs of the World if the solemn Treaties made betwixt such Great Monarchs for the universal Benefit of Christendom the Repose of the People and the Securitie of the neighbouring States are found exposed to mental Reservations and all the Subtilties of the Barr And if ordinary Merchants onely for the good of their Commerce have the liberty to form to themselves a Right and particular style which shelters them from the Intrigues of the Palace would it be convenient that Sovereign Princes in publick Treaties which do concern the publick good should not be exempt from that subjection If this pernicious Maxime be once established of reducing the publick Right to the condition of private Right we shall quickly see as many Wars arise amongst Princes as there be Suits of Law amongst Citizens To discourse to the bottom upon this matter we must deduce some circumstances of Fact which are most necessary to give it a full clearing When France rather wearied then satiated with War did resolve to listen to the Propositions of the Peace and that their domestick Disorders did oblige them to clear themselves from foreign business that they might reform those Abuses which undermined them at home the wisest Statesmen both of the one and the other side did conceive by a prudent foresight that nothing could be solidly and durably treated of This is proved by the Instrument of Peace and the Article of Renunciation if the Root of the Mischief were not pulled up and if some effectual means were not found out not onely to stifle all the Differences past and prevent those to come but also to extinguish by a real and undissolvible Union the ancient Emulation of the two Crowns and the natural Antipathy of the two Nations that all other Dressings could never reach the bottom of the Wound and would prove but Lenitives to mitigate the pain for a time without taking away the Cause of the Evil. Having long searched for Expedients answerable to the importance of the Design none was thought proper but that of a Marriage between the most Christian King and the most Serene Infanta Mary Teresa to joyn the Seal of the Sacrament to that of the Treaties Love to Concord and Alliance to Reconciliation Spain which desired the Peace but yet withall wished to have it firm and inviolable judged with reason that this was the onely mean to remedy all those Mischiefs which the continual Opposition of those two great Poles of Christendom had occasioned for the space of so many years but in this she found an essential Difficultie proceeding from the Contrarietie of the Fundamental Laws of the one and the other Realm in two principal Points Though those of Spain do always prefer Males in the Succession they do notwithstanding leave the Gate open for Daughters failing the Heirs Male in the same Line Those of France quite contrary do perpetually exclude the Females and to their prejudice make the Right of Succession pass even to Strangers The second is That one of the most ancient Constitutions of the Monarchie of Spain on which they lay all the foundation of their Government is that their Kingdom is not Alienable that they live always under their own peculiar Kings and that their Crown can neither be annexed nor incorporated with any other That of France on the contrary doth arrogate unto it self this Right as it appears by their Writers and Lawyers That whatsoever is possessed or acquired by the Kings of France by any kind of Title doth fall to the Crown is the proper Dominion of it and can never more be dismembred from it and ought to be subject to the same Laws and form of Government as their own Kingdom as well in relation to the sovereign Succession as to what concerns the publick State So that in case the Monarchie of Spain should fall by Marriage or otherwise under the power of a King of France she would become a member and an inseparable Accessorie of France she would be reduced to the same condition with Bretannie and other Provinces and failing of lawful Successors in her Line it would pass to the Collaterals and to all those who should attain to the Throne of the Flower-de-luces All French-men are so unanimous in this Pretension that it would be superfluous to prove it to them though it would not be hard to impugn it But 't is a Maxime received amongst them of which they have put themselves in possession by a long abuse and which they are resolved stubbornly to maintain in all manner of Rencounters This Incompatibility held for a while the Council of Spain in suspence they wished Peace yet would not buy it at the price of so hard a Servitude and the Directours of so many Kingdoms could never have perswaded themselves to become Subjects of another Realm nor to see their Ruling Crown reduced to a Province The Queen-Mother of France who with the tender feelings both of a Mother and an Aunt passionately and with ardour wished so fair and so fitting an union of two Persons which were so dear unto her applied all her cares to remove those Hinderances and this temperating mean was found out to secure the reasonable Doubts of the Council of Spain That by the Contract of Marriage the Infanta should absolutely renounce all kind of Rights which she might ever pretend either upon the whole or the parts of this great Succession under any Title or Pretext whatsoever which at any time she might have thereunto to the end that in no case the Spanish Monarchy might either be subject or dismembred And both sides the willinglier consented to this Expedient in regard that the way had already been beaten by the example of the Queen-Mother of France and that in effect the Renunciation which she made was of the same nature with this present one both in the form and in the substance as being founded on the very
absolutely out of all Commerce Fourthly That this Renunciation is the Soul and the inseparable Condition of this Treatie of Marriage without which it had never been either designed or concluded nor consequently the Treatie of Peace as is expressed in the Article before cited Fifthly That it proceeds not from the bare motion of the deceased King or a particular inclination of his towards the Children of the Second Bed but out of an inevitable Necessity flowing from the Salique Law and the unjust Extention which France doth make of it to all the States which Fortune hath put into her power this Necessitie and the other of the Publick good with the conservation of this August Familie reduced the Infanta to the condition of never being able to be Queen of France but by this Renunciation Sixthly This is evident by the Act of Renunciation fol. 17. That there 's no constraint nor violence on her Father's part whose Sweetness and natural Moderation have so eminently shined throughout the whole course of his life not onely towards his faithful Subjects but likewise towards his Enemies and Rebells that many conceived it did reach unto excess It is not to be presumed that the same heart which had in it an inexhaustible treasure of Bountie toward all the rest of the World should have nothing but Rigour and Hardness for a Daughter who was the Centre of his choicest delights If there had been any Constraint the effects would have been seen by some Complaint or Action of the Infanta's and if her respect to her Father did hold them up her Discontent would have appeared in her eyes and in her face the troubles of the Soul what care soever is taken to hide them do imprint a character outwardly which betrays the secret of the Heart Never was any seen to go to a Wedding with more visible signs of satisfaction She signed this Act with so pleasant a Resolution that it was easie to observe she much more esteemed what she was to acquire then what she lost thereby and the Tears which she shed at this day for this War of which against her mind they do make her the innocent Pretext witness sufficiently that she disapproves of the Cause of it as much as she detests the Effects and are authentick ratifications of the free Consent which she gave to this Renunciation If she had done it unwillingly she would not have failed to have made Protestations against it as soon as ever she found her self in a condition to declare without fear and with the applause of all France the true thoughts of her minde She her self will confess without doubt that it was neither Respect nor Obedience no nor Complacencie but the free choice of her own Inclination and Prudence That the King her Father neither employed his Paternal power nor Royal Authority nor Command nor Threats nay not so much as Persuasions to induce her thereunto but that he satisfied himself by proposing nakedly the state of Business to her that he might leave to her self the entire decision That of the two parts she made choice of the most advantagious and the most fitting That she never repented of this Choice and would to day doe the same thing again without any kind of hesitation if she were in the same condition in which she was then From whence it may be concluded that this Act having been made without any kind of Fear or Violence it cannot be called in question by reason of any exception of the Civil Laws Qui metum non intendit Promissio validè fiet nec scrutabimur quid aut quatenus ejus intersit quae Juris Romani sunt subtilitates Grot. lib. 3. cap. 19. de Jure Belli Seventhly That there is no Laesion seeing that she acquires a greater Benefit then that which she hath renounced not being able to possess them both together by an irremediable repugnancie It was then a kind of Permutation rather then a Cession because she gave to obtain and quitted to get The Laws give no rise to an entire Restitution where the condition of the Minor is rendred more advantagious by the Contract and do permit in this case Alienations even of the Goods of Pupills It is almost impracticable in the Contracts of Kings to prove the Laesion and determine the legal Portion with its just weight which cannot be verified but by the valuation of the Goods the inevitable Expences must be deducted and the necessary Charges their affairs are involved into so many Intrigues charged with so many Obligations and Costs that to consider it in its rigour there remains very little unto them whereof they can freely dispose and by the ordinary Rules it is impossible to set a price upon their Estates It is for this reason that they are accustomed by a practice received among Monarchs to give unto the Daughters a certain summe of Money which serves instead of a legal Portion without ever coming to any other rating of Goods which cannot be justly valued The most Christian Kings do practice this towards the Daughters of France He of England used the same way towards the Dutchess of Orleans our King towards his The Princes of Italie and Germanie have the same Custome without ever speaking of Supplements legal Portions or Laesions which are properly the Actions of private persons unworthy the Greatness of Monarchs who never act for Profit but for Reason of State Moreover we must consider as I have said this Marriage not as a private Contract but as a Member of the Treatie of Peace which necessarily relates to all the other Conditions By the said Treatie and consequently in consideration of the said Marriage are granted unto the most Christian King a great quantity of Provinces and States which do so notably increase his Dominions much exceeding the value of whatever the Queen of France can pretend for her legal Portion and this Concession doth redound to the advantage and to the Greatness of the Queen of France by that inseparable conjunction which unites all her Husband's Interests with hers Whence it follows that this Cession ought to suffice her in the place of her legal Portion since the Marriage was made in favour of the Peace and the Peace in consideration of the Marriage and that they are two indivisible things which could not have being the one without the other and so strongly chained together that the Conditions of the Marriage are included in the essence of the thing if the Cause the End the Effects and the whole Context of the Negotiation be considered 'T is in vain that they alledge that they have acquired them by the right of Arms and that they were in a condition to drive us to Extremities and would have us esteem it a grace to have spoiled us but of a half 't is too much to presume on their good fortune and to dispose too absolutely of the success of Arms of which God alone hath reserved the events to his Providence
and cause it to be Registred in the Parliament of Paris He denies that this was done and declares that the King never saw it He maintains that the Portion was necessarily and inseparably tied to the Renunciation they have not satisfied this necessary and inseparable Condition and for their failing to have satisfied they will needs impugn the Renunciation because of the delay of payment which could not be accomplished until that they had given the Securities requisite for the Renunciation We leave it therefore to be judged of to whom the delay of payment is justly to be imputed which hath been offered divers times and is offered to them at present if they would but perform the Condition which was promised Moreover it is clear in Law that the payment of a Debt may be retained by way of compensation oâ— another liquidated pretension And so was it practised at the payment oâ— the Portions of the two Princesses Anne Infanta of Spain and Elizabetâ— of France married to Philip the IVâ—â— and Lewis the XIIIth It is certain that in the VI. Article of the Peace his Majestie doth absolutely renounce all his Rights and Pretensions upon Alsatia This Renunciation is founded upon a Proviso much more efficacious then that which is contained in the Queen's which cannot be imputed to any other cause then that which is expressed in the words following By means of which Renunciation his most Christian Majestie offers to satisfie the payment of three millions of livers which he is bound to pay unto the Arch-Dukes of Inspruck This Obligation is contained in the same Instrument of the Peace which is all but one Deed with the Treatie of Marriage and Renunciation by which the Portion is promised the one and the other are equally obliging If the most Christian King have been able to dispense with himself without breaking or annulling the Treatie he cannot pretend that the delay in paying of the Portion is more rigorously interpreted There was no cause on our part which hindred him from satisfying this Obligation It serves for nothing to say that it was not the King to whom he owed this summe since it concerned the King that it should be pay'd that it is he who hath renounced and that it is he to whom the Promise was made in the Treatie and consequently it is to him that the most Christian King hath contracted the Obligation to satisfie the most serene Arch-Duke By these Principles the second Objection falls to the ground of it self Though we should acknowledge that the Infanta hath not been endowed with her Paternal Goods the Renunciation would not cease to remain in its force as being established upon more powerful Foundations then that of the Portion and at the worst the Queen would not have in this case any other right then to pretend a Legal Portion But to shew that our Right abounds in Reasons and that on which side soever it be attaqued they can finde no weakness in it I will briefly demonstrate that all this discourse which he urges so strongly is built upon a false Supposition The Queen was provided not onely according to the practice accustomed to the Princesses of Spain but much beyond that as it appears by the very Deed of Renunciation in these terms It is a very competent Portion and the greatest which hath yet been given to any Infanta of Spain and this in consideration of the Person of the most Christian King Portions as I have already said are not regulated betwixt Kings by the estimation of the legal Portion but by a Custome which they establish in their Royal Families which passes in ordinary style and is subject to no Controversie else to take it in rigour the Princesses of France would have been very ill provided with five hundred thousand Crowns The essential reason of this Custome is because the Princes who are the Authours and Interpreters of Laws consider the Soul more then the Body and without staying upon words ought solely to take hold of the Reason from which they have taken their first beginning Now it is certain that the Portion given in Marriage is instituted to help the Husband to undergo the charges of the Marriage and the Legal Portion to keep the Children out of necessity and after the death of the Father to supply the defect of the Aliment which he did owe them whilst he lived All these Reasons do cease amongst great Monarchs whose high Fortunes shelter them from ordinary Wants and who ought to propose unto themselves in their Marriages more noble and solid Interests then that of a petty summe of Money This is the reason why they do rarely come to the discussion of Goods the supplement of Legal Portions Inventories and other such ways of redress which are introduced in favour of private persons and are in respect of them but meer Trifles but rather content themselves with that which the Custome of those Courts with which they treat hath established for this purpose esteeming it to be much below their Honour to cheapen a Wife and to make it appear that they seek any other thing in her but Greatness and Vertue In fine the most Christian King did content himself the Queen remained satisfied with it All this did pass by a Treatie of Peace into the strength of a publick Law there is no more any remedie I say yet farther that she hath been endowed with her Paternal Goods in two sorts The one because all which was granted unto the most Christian King by the Treatie of Peace was done in contemplation of the Marriage as the Marriage was concluded solely in order to the Peace It is a reciprocal Relation an inseparable Connexion one and the self-same Treatie Cause and End they cannot possibly be divided without overthrowing the whole foundation of the Peace His Majestie hath sacrificed so many fair Provinces to the Satisfaction and Good fortune of his Daughter and the Infanta gave up her Pretensions for the good of the State to the Happiness of this Marriage and to the Gratitude which she owed to the Bounty of her Father The Renunciation was reciprocal that of the most Serene Infanta to her Pretensions was accompanied also with the King 's to so many rich Domains and even to the Right which he had to Alsatia Nor can it be presumed with any apparence of Reason that he would have devested himself with such facility of so great an Estate if he had not been invited thereunto by the Love of his Daughter and the desire to see her reign happily by heaping Benefits and Satisfactions upon the King her Husband And if there remained any doubt or ambiguitie as to this the presumption is in favour of the Father Before I do enter into an exact Account with such severe Merchants 1. Fin. Cod. dot prom Alex. in ad Bart. in d.l. .. in l. 1. ff Soluto Mat. I must first declare that the specification of the Portion contained in the Treatie of
which proves demonstratively that the Queen of France hath no manner of Right which way soever this business be looked upon For either the Devolution hath place as to the Sovereignties or not If it be received in them then the * The House of Savoy Successours of Catharine are the lawfull Lords of all the Lands which are subject to this Custom this is unquestionable But if the Devolution be of no force in relation to Lording Fiefs all the Pretensions which France doth build on this Title are annihilated So that all this great heap of Titles and inventions which he hath with so much solicitude gathered together to uphold the Right of the Queen of France cannot operate though it were approved of but in favour of a third partie and thus thinking to plead the Cause of the Queen he hath acted onely for the Duke of Savoy ARTICLE VI. A Discourse touching the Interest of Christian Princes in this War and the precife Obligation of the Estates of the Empire for the Warrantie of the Circle of Burgundy c. THere are two Motives of different nature which ought to incite the Princes of Christendom to undertake the defence of our Cause the one is the Interest of State the other is a strict Obligation of Justice The first regards generally all the Potentates of Europe the second is particular onely to the Princes and States of the Empire the one depends upon their foresight and their wise Conduct the other is joyned to the duty of the last to the Fundamental Laws of their State to the Treaties of Peace and Warrantie and to the reciprocal bond which unites all the Members of this vast Body which makes all its Greatness and Glory and which is the onely foundation of its Quiet and Safety We will begin with the first as being more universall and more considered at this day in the World and that will guide us insensibly to the second to let both the one and the other see that our Business is theirs that our Commotion is their Trouble and our Fall their own Ruine It is our business here to uphold the Law of Nations which is common to all and to hinder that Maximes may not be introduced into the World which would destroy the whole Commerce of mankind and render humane Societies as dangerous as the company of Lions and Tigers Here it is our design to defend the publick Faith of Treaties against the Subtilties of litigious Pleading to preserve the Law of Arms within the Rules and Formalities which the universal Consent of all Nations hath established and to remove out of the sight of Christendom a scandalous Example which by its lamentable consequences would expose the weakest to the discretion of the more powerfull and would make Force the sole Arbiter of all Processes We treat of the way to stop the course of a rapid Torrent against the Impetuosity whereof Peace Marriage Oaths Bloud Kindred Friendship and Condescensions are not Banks strong enough to keep it within its Chanel It is our purpose to defend the common Bulwark against a vast Design which hath for its cause nothing but the predominant desire of Conquests for its end Dominion for its means Arms and Intricacies nor for its limits any thing but what Chance will prescribe In fine we are here to decide the fortune of Europe and to pronounce the Sentence either of its Freedom or Slaverie Here I resolve to shake off all manner of interessed thoughts which I may have for my party I will consider my self in this Article no more then as a simple Citizen of the World and to shelter my self the better from all suspicions of Partialitie I will found my Discourse on no other Principles but those which I shall draw out of French Authours Since the Providence of God was pleased to raise the most August House of Austria to this high pitch of Greatness which hath dazled the eyes of Envy we have seen growing in the heart of France the lamentable seeds of this unjust Emulation which for so many years together hath produced all the Misfortunes Troubles of Christendom The principal Game of the French hath been to diffuse this Jealousie everywhere and to render its Jaundice contagious representing unto all the other Princes the Power of this August House as a fearfull Phantasm which would swallow them up and giving themselves out for the onely Perseus's able to deliver fettered Europe from the fury of this Chimerical Monster whereof they had made to them a vain Bugbear But experience hath made it known that they onely did render our Power suspected to raise their own that they did fright others with us onely to make themselves necessary and did not offer them their protection but to become their Masters and make them the Instruments of their Ends. Many have blindly fallen into this snare and to avoid an imaginary Danger have thrown themselves into a real Precipice This Artifice was so successfull that a part of Europe put it self in Arms against the Valour and Good fortune of Charles the Vth and the profound Wisedom of his Successour and all this Commotion was founded upon one onely Principle of State which the French Writers have established with an extraordinary diligence and upon which the Duke of Rohan had made roul all his Treatise of the Interest of Princes That there are two Powers in Christendom which be like the two Poles from whence all the Influences of Peace and War do descend upon the other States From whence he draws this Maxime to regulate the Conduct of all other Princes That their principal Interest is to hold the Balance so equally betwixt these two Great Monarchies that neither of them either by the way of Arms or Negotiation may ever come to prevail notablie and that in this Equality doth solely consist the Repose and Safety of all the rest Though he doth applie this Maxime very ill to the particular use of France and artificially serves his turn with it as of a false Lure insensibly to draw all the other Potentates into the French nets it is notwithstanding very wholsome in it self and if it had been managed with all the vigour and prudence which was necessary to render it usefull Europe at this day should enjoy a perfect Tranquillitie But many have been mistaken by a false supposition that the Power and the Designs of Spain were more to be apprehended then those of France and that by this very Reason of State they were obliged to put the Counterpoise into the French Scale of the Balance 'T is easie to believe that at present none will be found not fully undeceived of this errour in matter of Fact which hitherto made them abandon their true Reason of State But to examine this Question in its fountain and in every circumstance belonging thereunto it will be to the purpose to compare the most flourishing State of the House of Austria under the glorious Reigns of Charles the
of Portugal was carefully to be nourished to consume by a slow fire this Monarchie and keep at the same time Portugal in their Dependencie by the necessity of their Assistance A War must be raised between England and Holland and prolonged by a thousand Artifices to get themselves elbow-room to Invade the Low-Countries whilst these two great Powers should be drowned in Bloud to their reciprocal Ruine It was held requisite to sow the Seeds of Division in the Empire by the means of particular Leagues which under colour of the Good of the Peace of Germany have no other End then to facilitate the Invasion of it and hinder Assistance to be given to one of its most precious Members A powerfull Faction likewise was to be raised in Poland to keep all the Princes of the North under check and a part of the Emperour's Forces unusefully imployed in the Gard of his Frontiers To seem indifferent to both Religions it was necessary one while to assist the Elector of Mentz against those of Erfort and then the Elector Palatine against Mentz and to seek everywhere their Advantages in the Troubles of others I cannot here omit one fresh Example which makes much to my purpose though I foresee that it will occasion as much horrour in the Reader as it hath done to my own Pen. France by virtue of a Treatie of Warrantie with the States of the United Provinces after divers unusefull Requisitions made by the said States found her self at last obliged by her Interest to make some shew of an inclination to imbrace their Defence against England This Treatie of reciprocal Warrantie expresly contains that the Allies should not so much as treat and much less conclude any Peace with the Common Enemie or Truce without the consent of the other and without procuring the same Satisfaction for their Allie which he should obtain for himself The States of the United Provinces did so scrupulously adhere to this Obligation that notwithstanding the little Reality of the French Succours against England and the considerable Advantages which they could have found by Treating apart they would never lend an ear unto any Proposition of this nature France on the contrary alwaies held a Negotiation open by the means of the Earl of S. Albans and upon the just Suspicions which they gave unto the said States by the frequent goings and comings and the flux and reflux of Courriers continually passing betwixt Paris and London the Court of France did so authentickly confirm to them their Faith and gave them so positive words that they would never hearken to any Proposition but in the common Assembly for the General Peace between all the Allies that even they ordained the Count de l'Estrade that in case credit were not given to what he assured in the quality of Embassadour so good an opinion have they of the honesty of their Ministerie he might devest himself of his Character to assure them of it in his own name A great honour indeed for Monsieur de l'Estrade which shews that he is not capable of deceiving but in the quality of a Minister of France and that the Probity of his Person exalts the Dignity of his Charge Notwithstanding if he had been so unadvised as to have engaged himself in this Surety he would at this day have found himself liable both to the Principal and the Interest it being out of doubt that England hath had the dexterity to engage France in this Quagmire to conclude a secret Treatie of Peace with them without the Consent nay without the Knowledge of their Allies without making any mention of them or of their Interests and without any reservation of or relation to the General Peace But that which is yet more astonishing is that after this Peace was concluded notwithstanding the Promise made to the English not to use any Hostility against them France used all its endeavours with the States of the United Provinces to put out their Fleet speedily to Sea binding themselves to joyn their own Fleet with it and agreeing with them upon all the Conditions necessary for this effect If this proceeding doth not open the eyes or all Europe they 'l have no cause to complain of the Calamities which they are to suffer by France which takes so much pains to undeceive them All the Maximes which I have above related are those of Conquerours but their manner of executing them is so much the more to be feared as it consists altogether in Quickness and Activity and that no Reason of Justice nor any Condescension to the Interposition of Neighbours and of their own Allies is able to stop the current of it It is no more now the fear nor the jealousie of the Power of the House of Austria which served them for a Pretext in their former Wars that makes them act at this day they dare no longer make use of that ridiculous Scarecrow of the Universal Monarchie aimed at by the Spaniards they have no occasion from the Discontents of the Protestants of Germanie and their Alliances with the United Provinces they can no longer cloak with the Interest of others the Itch which they have to conquer there remained nothing else for them to doe but to goe seek the occasions of War in the very Sanctuary of Peace and to form the project of it upon a Marriage which they themselves do avow was made for no other End but to render the Union eternal and inseparable It may be judged by all this discourse that these great Designs must needs have a vaster Idea then the Conquest of the Low-Countries that they are the first attaqued as the Out-works to the end they may lodge themselves without impediment in the Body of the place they have Pretensions to the greatest part of Gemanie as an ancient Domain of France which could not be alienated They are going to form to themselves a Precedent against the States of Holland by the Annulling of all the Royal Surrenders and the Establishment of the Devolution They covet Harbours in Spain Leagues in the Empire Factions in Poland Wars in England and Holland Passes into Italie and the Sovereign Arbitrage every-where Their Quiet consists in the Trouble of all others their Glory in Conquests and their Advantage in the publick Calamities In this they follow their sole and supreme Rule of Interest It is the part of all others to take their measures from this and to think seriously of prosecuting their own There remains something to be said of the particular Obligation of the Empire for the Defence of the Circle of Burgundie I shall pass but lightly over this matter because it is already decided by a solemn Act of the Chancerie of the Empire and that he who hath written on this Point at Ratisbon hath penetrated in few words so throughly into the Bottom of this Affair and so drained it that he hath left nothing to be added no more then to be replied thereto In effect I never
read any thing more cold nor weak then the Answer which was long since published on the behalf of France against this solid Writing It is filled with an unusefull heap of words shuns the Lists everywhere strays from the Question omits the principal Objections and supposes the Point still in controversie to be a thing already proved It inlarges it self into great complaints because by this Writing it appears as if people would doubt that the most Christian King had a design to Invade the Circle of Burgundie They could not more palpablie manifest the Injustice of this War then by taking for an Injurie the bare Suspicion which we conceived thereof But what will he say at present when all Europe sees that our Fears were a prudent Foresight and that the Event hath verified our Conjectures Can he to day make that pass for an act of Justice which he detested before as an Attempt which we could not so much as foresee without offending them Will he not blush for shame at the Exclamation which he hath made Aut quasi Christianissima Regia Majestas in animo haberet eundem Circulum denuo Armis aggredi invadere It was then a Crime but to think that this could happen and now it is a greater it seems with them to wonder that it is come to pass But in the end no man doubts but that the Circle of Burgundie is a Member of the Empire the Authour of this Answer grants it to be so himself and thus dispenses with my pains to prove it He knoweth also that as such it is obliged to assist the Body in case of necessitie and all the Members of the Empire and to furnish its proportion of the Contributions which are necessary to the Defence thereof which the King hath exactly and superabundantly accomplished on all sorts of occasions both before and after the Treatie of Munster And by the rule of Law he that is obliged to all the Charges ought likewise to participate of all the Advantages otherwise the Union of this Circle with the Empire would be a Leonine Societie All the World knows that this Warrantie is reciprocall and that it must equally hold on both sides so that he who is bound to succour the Empire against all and on all manner of occasions ought also to receive the mutual Assistance of the Empire against all those who do invade him It is likewise certain that by the Treatie of Munster it is included in that Peace as a Circle of the Empire and that by this inclusion it ought to enjoy all the Rights and Prerogatives which appertain to the other Circles and all the effects of the Peace by which the common and reciprocal Defence is established Against which they have nothing to oppose but an Article ill understood and worse interpreted of the Treatie of Munster de mutuis Hostibus non juvandis by which the Empire and France do reciprocally oblige themselves not to give any Assistance to their respective Enemies France hath directly contravened this Article by the Assistance which she sent against the Bishop of Munster which effectually did enter into the Lands of the Empire and by the Counsel she gave to reduce this Bishoprick into Ashes But for the better understanding of this Article we must observe that it is concluded betwixt the Bodie of the Empire indivisibly on the one part France on the other which do reciprocally promise not to assist the Enemies of each other Here the Empire with all its Members is reckoned but one Partie contracting and France the other so that when it is said that it shall not assist the Enemies of France it should be understood of Enemies abroad and cannot concern the Members of the Empire which in one Body are the same Parties which have treated with her and to which all the Body owes defence by an original natural and undispensable obligation Were this otherwise understood it might be inferred by the same Argument that in case the Empire did assault any Province belonging to the Crown of France the other Provinces of the same Realm could not go to their Assistance without violating the Article de non juvandis Hostibus If France doth replie that those Provinces make up but one Kingdom we shall also say that the Ten Circles do constitute but one Empire so that when France hath War with any one Circle of the Empire it is a War made against the whole Body And the word mutui hostes cannot be interpreted but of Strangers else the Body of the Empire had obliged it self not to assist its Members against France and by consequence to abandon it self and to see it self dismembred by parcells while the Parts of this great Body should not dare to stretch forth their hands to the help of one another But in this case it is not to give Assistance to the Enemies of France but it is to defend the Empire against France which doth invade it If this Clause de mutuis Hostibus non juvandis be universal and do comprehend all those with whom France hath any debate it would operate against all the other Circles as well as that of Burgundie and there shall be no Member of the Empire which may hope for any Relief from the other Circles in opposition to the Invasions of France But if they will apply it particularly to the Circle of Burgundie they must prove by the same Instrument of Peace that although it be a Member of the Empire it is of the number of those Enemies which it cannot assist against France and that the other Circles are excepted out of this general Rule or that they have some particular Privilege above that of Burgundie But neither the Treatie of Peace nor the Imperial Constitutions making it to be in a worse condition then the others and on the contrary including it in the same Peace and the same Rights which the other Circles do enjoy it follows that the Clause de non juvandis Hostibus ought to be extended to the Ten Circles or that it ought not to comprehend that of Burgundie The Imperial Capitulation which is formed upon the Idea of the same Treatie of Peace doth yet more clearly explicate all the Doubts which may be raised touching a truth so palpable by the reservation of the Article of Warrantie contained in the Instrument of Peace which shews clearly that the Obligation not to assist the Enemies of France cannot derogate from that which all the Circles of the Empire have reciprocally to assist each other All that the Writer of France alledges against this in his Answer is but a frothed Cream and is so strongly refuted in the Replie which of late hath come to light that it were lost labour to endeavour to give it any farther clearing The Electors Princes and States of the Empire are fully persuaded of these Truths they are not unsensible of the Contempt done to their Jurisdiction openly violated by this Attempt they are not blind to the Dangers which threaten them by our Oppression but as they never go from the ways of Moderation they would not imitate France by beginning after their Example the Process by the Execution judging that it behoved them to try the means of Gentleness Reason and Remonstrances first before they should recurre to the last remedie But they are too sharp-sighted to suffer themselves to be dazled any longer with void and undetermined Answers by which France under the general expression of a seeming desire of Peace obstructs all the passages by which they might enter to an exact discussing of the Business In effect to the Suspension of Arms which they have proposed they have had no Return but that of a disdainful Refusal to the Mediation which they offered a doubtful Hope and to the Time and Place of the Treatie a Silence full of Artifice They will see full Commissions before they declare themselves as to other circumstances which according to the order of all Treaties necessarily ought to precede the sending of Plenipotentiaries They take great care to persuade that our Queen hath cut off all kind of approches to an Accommodation They do of purpose conceal from their Deputies her last Answer by which she offers to send her Embassadors to the place which shall be agreed on and to refer all to the Arbitration of the Mediators which should be chosen They will have nothing of all this a full Power must needs precede without knowing whither the Plenipotentiaries shall be sent or to whom they will refer themselves So soon as this shall be consigned they 'l form Scruples upon every syllable if there wants onely a Comma Spain shall be presently judged as an enemie to the Peace In the mean time they go on always gaining ground they render from day to day the Calamitie more incurable and whilst they labour by this Juggling to stop the just Assistance of the Empire and of the other Princes the progress of their Arms advances without check and they labour to put themselves in a condition to render all those Helps unprofitable which justly we may expect and to deal so that our Friends shall not be undeceived till their Succours can no longer hinder our Ruine The onely Remedie is quickly to imbrace Maximes proper for countermining theirs They have a Kingdome united in all the Parts of it let us unite our Affections and Powers Their Quietness depends upon our Trouble let us seek our Safetie by the abating of their Pride They act by way of Fact let us repell Force by Force They dallie with us by vain hopes of Peace let us put our selves in a condition to make them desire it seriously In a word they have a design upon us all let us make then of this Cause a Common Interest and not anchor all our Deliverie upon the favour of the Cyclop which was indeed profitable to Vlysses but by a good fortune which in reason he ought not to have expected FINIS
very remote The Testament of the King is nothing else but a Confirmation of this same Deed which he supposed to be Legal being framed upon the platform of those things which were established by the Peace And if the Renunciation be just it must of necessity follow that the Testamentarie disposition which is but a consequence of it is so likewise All the vain Exclamations which the Authors of these Libells do make upon that Subject are but the extravagant digressions of an affected Eloquence to astonish the people 'T is the like too of all those majestical Consequences which they draw from thence to exaggerate the Injuries which have been done to his Successours If the thing be just in it self and received in the person of the Mother it cannot be unjust in her Successours who have no Right but what they derive from her And if it be permitted to private persons to make Entails to the exclusion of Daughters and their offspring in favour of collateral Lines if the Salique Law may perpetually deprive them and all their Descendants of an Hereditary Kingdome what Injustice can be found in this that Spain hath desired this Renunciation to the end they fall not into the Dependencie upon a stranger-Kingdome The Daulphin of France had never been in the world nor had any share in the Crown of France if the Queen had not renounced and if he cannot be at one time King both of France and Spain he must lay the fault on the Salique Law which devours all that it possesses and obliges all other Kingdomes to provide for their own safety by fitting Precautions and by the natural Law quod quisque Juris The source which they leave for the Queen to re-enter into her Rights in case that God should afflict her with a Widowhood without Children is an effect of the Fatherly Tenderness and Justice which would needs establish her Happiness in all cases by putting her in a condition either to reign gloriously in France by her Fruitfulness or to have wherewithall to comfort her in case of Barrenness by re-entring into her Rights to the Monarchy of Spain This doth clearly shew that in this Renunciation her Person was not regarded but onely the Obstacle inconsistent with the Reason of State which did suspend the effects of that Love which they had for her and that renders the Renunciation the more valid because it is not absolute and leaveth the Gate still open for her Re-entry as often as the essential Impediment shall not come in the way far from wishing her Barrenness or exclusion of her Offspring whenever they may be received without subjecting the Kingdome Instrument of Renunciation fol. 13. The way is opened to place her and her Successours upon the Throne of Spain If for publick Conveniencies and just Considerations she should marry with the consent of the Catholick King and the Prince of Spain her Brother Whereby it is manifest that the fundamental and sole cause of this Renunciation is to exclude France from the right of being able to annex the Monarchy of Spain to his Realm and Laws and not to deprive the Queen or her Issue of it when no other thing shall hinder them from being admitted Meanwhile upon this the French do make a great noise they convert the Honey of this Deed into Poison and make an Injury of a Benefit and testifie thereby that it is not the love of the Queen but their own Covetousness to devour all under colour of her Rights which doth throw them into this inordinate passion Upon these indubitable Principles it will not be difficult to establish and ground in Law the validity of the Queen's Renunciation upon the following Rules 1. It is lawfull for Princes to resign and renounce their Hereditary Kingdom in favour of the next Heir The example of Charles the Vth Philip the II d and the Queen Christina doth evidently prove it And even in Elective Kingdomes where it seems that the Obligation to reign is more indispensable and less capable of being retracted then in those which be Hereditary because it is established by a reciprocal Covenant and by an Obligation which such Kings have willingly imposed upon themselves we have seen Henry the III d renounce openly by his flight And if the French themselves could constrain Childeric the III d and some other of their Kings to throw themselves into Monasteries and make them renounce their hereditarie Crowns even in favour of Strangers why shall it not be permitted to Princes to devest themselves thereof willingly to obtain a greater benefit or for the simple desire of Quietness Gen. 3. John King of Armenia quitted the Kingdome to his Nephew Leon Clem. 5. Greg. 11. to enter into the Order of Saint Francis A great many Princes and Princesses lawful Heirs of Hereditary Kingdoms have validly renounced them either for the Publick good or their private Tranquillity to embrace Religious or retired life as Saint Bridget in Sweden and others in Hungarie Germanie and Spain France also furnishes us with examples of this kind Carloman the eldest Son of Charles Martel parted with his Kingdom to his Brother Pepin that he might wholly dedicate himself to the Service of God What those Princes have been able to doe either out of Devotion or the love of Liberty the Infanta might doe with a juster title for the good of the Peace of two Monarchies The Fundamental Law which called her to the Succession was in her favour and not for constraining her It is a Right that is given them but not a necessitie imposed upon them 't is not a forbidding Law which we cannot renounce The King her Father could not without the consent of the States exclude her against her will or make her uncapable of the Succession but she might voluntarily renounce for her greater good and for that of the State it self and that too with the general applause of the people over whom she might have been Queen 2. Though the ancient Laws were in some kind against the Renunciation of future Successions the practice of them is now abolished for this respect and the contrary so well established over all the World that the French Laws do unanimously agree unto it and even that He who hath renounced some future Succession cannot recall by the happening of Children what he hath quitted Epeisses Tom. 1. pag. 407. The Constitution of Pope Boniface Con. ad cap. Quamvis p. 3. Const Bon. which the Author of these Libells cites on this Subject determines it clearly the practice of it is commonly received in Spain In Brabant and in all the King's Dominions and since he himself doth nor disagree with it I think it would be superfluous to seek any greater proofs 3. That the Right of Devolution according to the Custome of Brabant being neither Succession nor Proprietie nor a real assured Estate but casual and in suspence it may be validly renounced and that the use of it is common