Women every man keeps a Mistress or is besotted on a Curtisan who none in the world being more witty impudent or better skilled in that accursed mistery as soon as they ensnare any plume them to the quick they must have Robes of 30 pistols price which they call Gardepies other accoutrements answerable Jewels Housholdstuff and Coaches To deny any thing to that Sex is accounted dishonourable I was assured that the Admiral of Castile none of the richest gave at once to one of these Cattle Fourscore thousand Crowns One of the Palavicini of Genoua told me that not long before an inclination cost him Two thousand Crowns and finding himself delayed by the Baggage to whom he made his Addresses he abandoned her without obtaining any thing Here are four Processions without the Town whereas at so many Solemn Rendezvouses they endeavour to set out themselves All Gallants then present them which if any neglect they are lost and no more thought persons of Honour this makes all with emulation strive to adorn these infamous Creatures and glory not a little in it No Town in the World offers so many to publick view ever at all hours of the day all Streets and Walks are full of them they wear black Vails with which they hide their faces but discover one eye They accost all men boldly being no less impudent than dissolute In Italy they are more modest not seeking Men as here and as the disorder is universal so the mischief caused by it is almost infallible These Sinners yet enjoy alone all the liberty of Madrid for Ladies of Quality and honest Women scarce ever go abroad neither by Coach nor otherwayes to take the Air. Most of them hear Mass in their own Houses and excepting some few Visits never appear in Publick and then in Sedans It must needs be granted that this Sex hath here a great deal of Wit exercising it self in Reparties and this with much liberty One I have heard of that seeing on a Wall the figure of what Women are so careful to conceal with this Inscription Without bottom with a Coal instantly added For want of line Nothing is so frequent as the alterations Love is pleased to make in the inclinations of those he inflames liberal men by them becoming prodigal and avaritious liberal and he whom he inspires not to spend all for the sakes of Ladies hazards here to be esteemed a Beast the rest of his dayes and persons of a parsimonious humor and sordid thrift how high soever their birth be shall be thought base and the infamy of this defect follow them to their Graves At the Tour the Curtains of their Coaches are usually drawn close and if a man be in their company none speak to them otherwise they may be discoursed with very freely They all paint and lay on the Ceruse and Vermillion so grossely they disgust the Beholders In short they ae generally unhandsom and unwholsom and paint as much to hide the symptoms of the â—ocks in their Faces as to beautifie them Husbands that desire to have their Wives live honestly begin so arbitrarily that they treat them almost like Servants lest by a handsom liberty they should pass the limits of Chastity little understood and worse observed by this Sex In Andalusia they say the Husbands are yet more violent using them like Children or Slaves If at meals they suffer them to approach the Table it is not to eat but serve them with which if the more Civil dispence they give them meat from the Table on the ground where they sit on Carpets or Cushions like Turks or Taylors in which manner they also sit in Churches and in most Houses instead of Chairs you see only a few Cushions set one on another by the walls side The Tour of Coaches when in Town circulates in the high street otherwise in the Prado near de Retiro or by the Rivolet below the Palace The greatest Lords appear with little splendor above the rest only their Coaches are drawn by four Mules and attended by some few Footmen more than ordinary the Pages have place in the Boots of the Coaches They wear not Liveries but most commonly are cloathed in black scarce any of them have coloured Lace except on the Sleeves The Kings are still worst clad and worst paid In all Great mens Houses they every Night eat up all that remains and burn all the Candles consuming also the Oyle and Salt the Servants otherwise taking it as Vaâ—â—s Grandees of Spain are of two sorts this Honour being sometimes personal sometimes hereditary The first the King bids be covered themselves the second themselves and Heirs for ever This is all the Ceremony in making a Grandee neither do any other priviledges belong to it so that it is but a Chimerical and Airy Honour without any profit they which marry the Heiress of a Family of a Grandee of Spain that is such hereditarily become Grandees in right of their Wives This is all I could learn concerning Grandees but Spanish Books mention three sorts one of which the King commands to be covered before they speak to him another after they have spoken but before he answers and the last cover not till they have spoken and he answered When the King creates a Duke he is also a Grandee and the consequence is good he is a Duke therefore a Grandee but not he is a Grandee therefore a Duke many Marquesses and Earls being also Grandees Their Wives sit in the Queens presence and she rises at their coming in The King in all Edicts and Letters calls them Princes In his Chappel they have a Seat called the Grandees Bench where without regard to Antiquity they sit as they come promiscuously The Title of Sennioria belongs to them by patent of Philip the Third These are in a manner all the advantages they have above other Gentlemen who as well as they are exempted from all Taxes unless when the Publick is in danger at such times they have been so heavily burthen'd that they have paid near half their Revenue They are not oblieged to quarter unless when the Court goes a Progress but to speak in general of the Spanish Nobility they have a very considerable priviledge at least if it be made good to them which is that how great soever their Debts be the Revenue only can be attached the rest being in Mayorazgo as I understand it entailed which goes farther so that when the Revenue is seized on the Judges will appoint the Gentleman whose Quality oblieges him to keep Servants Horses Coaches c. a Stipend sufficient to support him according to it and though he owes as much as a Revenue of 50 thousand Crowns can be worth and hath but 30 his Creditors can pretend to no more than the overplus of what is ordered for his subsistence Here are very few Knights of the Golden Fleece nor many pretenders to that Honour because difficult to be obtained and bringing no profit It was lately
and the miracle became greater not only in that he disarmed them by a particular Treaty under no other garranty but that Seal and Oath they had so many years protested never to confide in but made use of the family of Orange which seeming no other way 〈◊〉 in the affairs of the world then in 〈◊〉 it great Captains could not act towards 〈…〉 without setting a knife at the throat of its own glory and reputation After so politick an atchievement he might have effected another little less considerable if we may credit such as determine the affairs of Princes according to their particular capacities had he during the troubles of France endeavoured a peace with that Crown which in such an extremity must needs have accepted it on conditions more advantagious to Spain then the Towns retaken by it because giving way to her intestine commotions by removing the forraign object that might divert her dissentions and civil enmities her fury would have rebounded on her own bosom and she like a good Mother have abandoned the greatest part of her conquests to gain more leisure and better opportunity to chastise her disobedient children here it is that considering affairs by their event and seeing France again in as good a way as ever to pursue her victories the Spanish Councils are blamed for neglecting that opportunity of putting such a stop to them as should have prevented their progression Instead therefore of Treaties with the City of Paris siders with the Princes and the Princes themselves it is said Spain ought to have negotiated with the Court alone from which as is believed it might have had good terms for abandoning the seditious and their endeavors to encourage the rebellion in which interim the Catholick King might probably have succeeded beyond the Pyreneans in reducing the Catalonians and recovering Portugal much more considerable to him because very certain that the revolt of the former and separation of the later are the greatest mischiefs that have attacqued that Monarchy during the whole war for remedy of which it should have neglected some slight bruises in other places and applyed it self only to the cure of those two wounds so near its heart The ways of doing this had bin more easie more safe and of less expence then those which recovered Barcelone they which examined the affairs of that time were of opinion that the Spaniards lost more by retaking that Town and neglecting to relieve Bourdeaux then they would have done by some condiscentions to France in order to peace For it was freely discoursed in that Court that the siege of Barcellone cost so dear both in men and money that so great a failing of spirits followed that all the repose obtained by the French disorders was not sufficient to their restoration and that neglecting to relieve Bourdeaux gave the French opportunity of freeing themselves from the difficulties of appeasing their civil war and almost at the same time of re-beginning an offensive one against the forraigners with vigor equal to their former In the judgement therefore of these criticks the Spaniards could neither make all the progressions might have been expected from them in such a conjuncture notwithstanding their recovering three or four of the principal places they had lost nor embrace the opportunity of the peace to which France seemed necessitated nor yet supply the flames of civil discord already so well kindled but after so great charge and small profit they looked on them as negligent Merchants that had let slip the best time of the Fair and perhaps brought but one commodity from it that will never sell for what was laid down in ready Money and is hereafter to be paid for it I mean the Prince of Conde and rest of the French that are at present only a charge to them and whom deceased Quevedo were he now alive would joyn to the late Queen Mother of France and Duke of for that new kind of stratagem by which the King of France may batter by disgusting all his family who repairing in discontent to the Spaniard will oblige him in assisting them to consume that which is designed to maintain his Armies Now the Prince of Conde is retired to them and hath no more places nor Troops in France they seem to understand this and notwithstanding the miracles he did at the rout before Arras and on occasion of which it is reported the King writ to him in these terms Mi primo he intendido todo estava pardido V. A. ha conservado todo Cosin I looked on all as lost your Highness hath preserved all they complain of the large pensions they allow him though they pay them ill In a word some observe that whilst they consume their Treasure in entertaining him and such as have followed him the profit of those great pensions accrues to France as well as the confiscation of his vast estate by means of which she may well support the loss of some Regiments to the weakening her own and strengthening her enemies Army Their esteem for his person is indeed equal to his merit and his name is in such veneration both amongst Nobility and People that he is looked on as the greatest Captain that Europe hath seen in many ages and to be above all encomiums due to the highest courages his actions surpassing all that can be imagined notwithstanding which they consider him to be a stranger and Prince of the blood of a Crown that is enemy which makes the establishment of an entire confidence between him and Spain very difficult but to prevent all appearance of such distrusts which they have much ado to disguise they have made use of an artifice that hath been well enough discovered by his Agents which is that such of them as cannot be concealed are imputed to the misunderstanding between him and Fuensaldaigne Master of the intrigue of Flanders whilst to content him they find expedients that rather amuse then satisfy him to take away which the Prince hath declared against Fuensaldaigne and caused his calling home to be sollicited in Court with protestation that as long as he continues in the Low Countreys with the present power he will not only ruine his affairs but the Kings his Masters Monsieur de Mazecolles his Agent told me he had made them sufficiently sensible of all the mischiefs occasioned by this mans conduct but the kindness Don Lewis hath for him prevails against any remedy That the Arch-duke had given the same advice all which could not prevent their obstinacy in continuing him grounded perhaps on this Maxim which requires as well in Kingdoms as Families to nourish dissention amongst those which serve lest they conspire to betray us or are not exact enough in observing the comportments of one another nothing being so industrious or penetrating as envy and animosity which prie not only into what the Master would not be ignorant of but into such things of which he cares not for getting information In the mean time
Seignior Massimi if I mistake not had at his landing in the Kingdom of Valentia been arrested in the Kings name with prohibibition to go forward he was fain to stay till that difference was accommoded which arose from Innocent the Tenth's sending him that was to succeed without having first given the Court advice of it and known whether it were acceptable and since the French had on the same occasion arrested the Nuncio in Provence it was thought Spain might do the like besides that this came charged with some instructions relating to Portugal and this Court which in the Kings opinion were not sufficiently Catholick who possessed of that title with precedence of all others required them after his own fashion These difficulties and such other as concerned his reception being at last removed after his passing sometime as a private person in the Kingdom of Valentia he was permitted to come to this Town and exercise his function He arrived on the Eve of Corpus Christi or a little before it and saw the solemnity through a grated Window not appearing because not received and he in whose place he came doubtlessly not a little troubled to be removed from so profitable an employment did that day his last office in attending the King in that Ceremonie Now I am speaking of the Ambassadors and Ministers of forrain Princes I will not omit what I have to say of Margarite of Savoy Dutchess of Mantua who prepared to leave the Court and pass the rest of her life in the Dutchy of Millan where the King had assigned certain lands for her entertainment She is Daughter of an Infanta of Spain and of Charles Emanuel Duke of Savoy She was married to Duke Ferdinand the last Duke of Mantua of that Line and had but one Daughter during the life of her Father married to the Duke of Rethel Son of the Duke of Nevers to secure to him the succession of those Estates as nearest Heir but Spain resolving to dispute it with him this woman whose inclinations were totally Spanish sided with the house of Austria against her own Daughter the Commotions that were consequences of this in Italy are known to all the world it is enough that I remember here that this Princess being retired to this Court for which she had so openly declared was well received and to employ her wit and zeal made Vice-Queen of Portugal where to speak truth she comported her self prudently But the insolence and avarice of the Ministers imposed to act under her seconded by the countenance and approbation of the Condeduke at that time Favorite was so great she could not prevent their driving the people to dispair discontenting the Grandes and wronging the Clergy giving occasion to all of them to take Arms for reestablishng their liberty These things she often wrote both to the King and his chief Minister particularizing all exorbitancies committed and danger of a general revolt But the Favourite caused little regard to be given to her advice ever crying out she was a Woman and all she writ trifles more crediting the letters of the Ministers he had sent with the intrigue than hers on which accompt after affairs in Lisbonne had changed face and a short exile that permitted her not to come to Court was passed over at her return from that lost Kingdom getting opportunity to speak with the King she assisted towards ruining the Duke of Olivares in his opinion She was afterwards entertained at Madrid by his Majesty who now at last gave her permission to retire to her native Country there to lay her bones being very aged Some nevertheless suppose her sent into Italy to be a means of inticing the Duke of Savoy her Nephew now of age from the French alliance and of continuing the Duke of Mantua her Grandchild in the Spanish interests into which he entred after the taking Casal and from which they distrust he may be biassed by his great engagements to France as well on accompt of his birth as of the Estate he possesses there During our stay at Madrid we had many faithful Companions of our Travails Monsieur ...... in whom to the desire of knowing things that are considerable is joyned such a comprehension of them he is become capable of signalizing himself in service of his Country as soon as he shall attain the rank his own merit and his deceased fathers services seem to have acquired him I will say nothing of his other vertues that have made too deep impression in my memory to believe they can ever be effaced I had the happiness to know him in Florence where Mr. ..... and he renewed the friendship they had contracted in their tender years when they bore arms together in Holland under Prince William of Orange Coming out of Italy he landed in the Kingdom of Valentia and from thence went streight to Madrid in hope of meeting us but having continued there sometime despairing of our arrival he resolved to be gone when he least thought of us and could not expect at Madrid in the Middle of the Spring those that should have passed the Winter there four horse-men passed by his lodging whose habit and horses discovered them to be of the other side the Mountains his curiosity obliged him to follow them to the place where they â—â—â—ghted not a little surprised to find those he had so impatiently expected he was then in such an equipage that I must confess at first I knew him not he wore the Cassock Rocket thin and streight Stockings with Pumps and Breeches like Holsters which so strangely diguised him he seemed not the same person we had been acquainted with in Florence his mustaches or whiskers grown long and turned up with irons made me more a stranger to the air of his face he not a little resembling the King of Spain of whom he hath more of the meen in that habit than of himself when clothed after the fashion of his Countrey After mutual expressions of our joy we acquainted him with the delayes of our journey and he told us the successes of his and having passed three moneths in Madrid during which we failed not one day of seeing one another we resolved to pass together into France by way of Arragon but before we put this in execution a Troop of illustrious Strangers whom we were very glad to see arrived in Madrid amongst them were two Gentlemen whose perfections of mind and body made evident that if heaven hath given them great advantages by eminent birth their education and docility have contributed no less to that virtue and prudence which surpasses their age They brought many Letters from the Earl of Fuensaldaigne Dom Stephen de Gamarra and other of the King of Spains Ministers in the Low-Countries to the best of this Court who received them very well but wanting the language they took along with them a Burgundian Doctor called Rognar imployed in the businesses of several Officers that serve in the Kings Armies
beyond a ruinated Building that was near the part he usually frequented and one day when least suspected 50 Horsmen were appointed to lie concealed behind it who having killed his Guards and set him at liberty were to convoy him to the Frontiers of Portugal where 500 Horse should be ready to receive him A Ticket and perhaps the last that was necessary to this Negotiation discovered it for whether it were that it was not handsomly enough conveyed under the Cushion or whether the Captain that then commanded the Guard and was in the Coach with him observed better what was done than others or that he was more jealous going out of the Coach searching the Cushion he found the Ticket upon this the Duke was more straitly shut up the Coachman imprisoned and the Ticket sent to Madrid where the Dukes Secretary and the Embroiderer were secured the last of these was racked but the particulars of what he deposed never published The light that appeared at the bottom of this Affair moved the Spaniards themselves to say That to hold the Duke faster at the very time his liberty was most earnestly sollicited they perswaded him he would have made an escape whatever may be of it it is certain the Duke was not afterwards allowed to go out of Toledo and that this unfortunate Prince might justly complain That if the French Neighbourhood was a smoke that drove him from his House with tears in his eyes the Spanish Friendship was a fire that burnt him alive Which if we may believe publick report was his own expression to the Captain that guarded him All that hath been given out of the causes of his imprisonment hath divulged but part of the mistery and I sought at Madrid to inform my self of the real motive They which speak and judge most solidly say That this was rather done on account of reason of State and to spare money than that he had indeed beâ—raied his party and truly the taking quarters in the Land of Liege that Winter rendred him no more culpable that year then his seeking them at his Swords point had done in those that went before but the conjuncture differed and the Elector of Cullen who had made himself absolute Master of that people desirous to give them a more powerful protection clamored much at the Diet of Ratisbonne from whence as misfortune would have it he retired dissatisfied with the Emperour for having decided to the advantage of him of Mentz the Dispute that was between them about the Function of crowning the King of Romans As soon as he arrived at Cullen he wrote to the Emperour that without speedy succors according to the Laws of the Empire to free his Countrey from the devastations of the Lorrainers he must have recourse to the protection of some foraign Prince This Affair being taken into consideration the Emperour only wrote about it to Brusselles and Madrid The Elector in the mean time took heat and resolving no longer to expect the event of those delays raised forces treated with France and gave her opportunity of re-assuming the Black Eagle in her Colours and renuing the Title of Preserver of the German Liberty Cardinal Mazzarin who during his retirement had been so well received by this Elector lost not the opportunity of making his acknowledgments and sent him Troops under the Command of Monsieur Faber which joyned to his own forced the Lorrainers to discamp whom it was resolved to pursue even into Brabant to revenge the havock they had made in the Land of Liege and assist the French in some Conquest I his bold proceeding awaked the Emperors jealousie who perceived that in that very moment he had re-established his Authority in the Empire and when he had given an end to a Diet in which he had caused his Son to be crowned King of Romans one of the powerfullest Princes of Germany sought other protection than his and gave example to all his Neighbours to do the like as often as they should be oppressed by Troops entertained by Spain These considerations obliged the Emperour to send the Earl of Furstemberg to the Elector of Cullen to work him and prevent his going farther in the Treaty with the French promising him an effectual and real satisfaction for what was passed and for the future to establish such order he should no more need to apprehend the like visits At the same time he wrote to Madrid and Brusselles with all possible efficacy to represent the dangerous consequences of this Affair how prejudicial it was to him and necessity of the remedies he proposed which were to satisfie the Elector of Cullen with Money so to oblige him to lay down Arms and dismiss the French to make sure of the person of the Duke of Lorrain that he might be no less so of his Conduct the cause of all these inconveniences and to use his Brother Duke Francis for continuing the Army in the Spanish Service which he thought might easily be prevailed upon by giving it a Head of the same Family and presenting the Chief Officers with money These reasons and expedients were the better rellished by the Spanish Ministers out of apprehension of the Storm that began to gather against them The great Services the Duke had rendered the House of Austria were of no advantage to him in their Council nor any thing examined but his avaritious and unequal Politicks his irresolutions alone were represented and the times in which he had declined their Service when they might have obtained great advantages if he would have acted with his forces The accompt was also cast up of the great Sums he had cost the King of Spain yearly by a crafty selling him his Army as if at an outcry so that if they would make use of it in the beginning of a Campagne or continue it at the end of it he must be paid at his own rates It was at last concluded as well at Madrid as Brusselles that for a certain remedy to all these mischiefs to prevent falling again into the like inconveniences and put a stop to the preparations making at Liege the Elector was not only to be indemnified and the protection of the Duke of Lorrain abandoned but his person to be seised on and sent into Spain Thus this Prince saw himself treated as a Soldier of fortune and not like a Soveraign by a Family whose friendship caused the loss of his Countrey and reduced him to the sad necessity of living like a vagabond at the Head of an Army that subsisted only by his industry If what hath been reported of the first heats of his youth be true and that he then lamented he was not born a private Gentleman to try how far his wit and courage could carry him one would think he had devested himself of his Dominions only to shew what he could do without them That he had very eminent parts is undeniable but overshadowed by such uncouth Policies and in such a manner intermixed with
Prince in his Wars they have a Maxim for security of their Commerce not to exercise it but in Countries where their King is Master They go not therefore abroad how great soever their Trade be but content themselves to deal at home with Merchants Strangers who for want of correspondence are forced to settle amongst them which they do the more willingly because having to deal with people not very well understanding their Commodies they make the greater profit We see now the King of Spain without danger of a retaliation of his Subjects when he shall seise what belongs to those of England inhabiting here and there in his Dominion But this small and inconsiderable advantage prejudicial only to private persons is not to be compared to that the English will obtain by cruising in both seas and attacquing what ever is sent to Spain from its Neighbours without which it cannot without difficulty subsist Genoua Naples Amsterdam and Antwerp whose Comerce with it is so great will then be able to send little or nothing that shall not run hazard of falling into their hands and if they ever make Conquests in America or take the Plate-fleet to which it seems they are forward enough the Thames will be covered with the spoils of both worlds To all these considerations of particular loss one of State is to be added which is that by a War with England the vast and scattered body of the Spanish Monarchy will lose its ligaments and all communication with its remoter Members France leaves her little liberty but by sea of which this potent Nation that attributes to it self the Empire of it will deprive her It is true some object that shift will be made to open a passage as was done in her War with Holland but others observe great difference between those powers for besides that England is so advantageously scituated that it can without difficulty break all correspondence between Spain and Flanders the Hollanders Naval Power appeared not at its height till the War was grown old and the first animosity decayed where as now Spain will have to do with a Nation that does not raise forces to fight but fights to employ those that are already raised Besides all which the King of Spain was not then so drained of men and money as at present but could set out considerable Fleets to oppose the Hollanders who making Traffick alone the end of their Navigation rather sought for themselves free passage through all seas then to deprive their enemies of Communication by them and this so much that though they have sometimes attempted the Spanish Fleets and taken some of them we may perceive they were not very greedy of such Conquests because their own Merchants were concerned and received almost as much prejudice as those of Cadis or Sevil. It is well known that at the same time their ships cruised up and down to interrupt the Spanish Traffick their Merchants passed and repassed between Flanders Genoua and Naples in favour of it and carried thither the secretest intelligence and best ammunition whereas in a War with England all will go in a more serious and real manner and Cromwell little caring to advance his Nations Trade will vigourously fall on and aiming directly at Conquest of the Indies endeavor every where to incommode Spain in order to it About this time two Books were published in Madrid which clearly and ingenuously discovered the great exigencies of the State This was admired by such as could not imagine a natural Spaniard would ever own its spirits spent and it in a languishing condition The Author of the first was one Don Philippo Antonio Alosa a Knight of the Order of Calatrava of the Kings Council and his Secretary in the Council general of the Holy Inquisition It contained an Exhortation to Ecclesiasticks to supply the King by voluntary Contributions in the so very pressing necessity of his Kingdom of which having first declared the Causes which he derived from the time when Philip the Second engaged almost all his Revenues for aiding the French League and building the Escurial and represented how under Philip the Third his Son occasions of expence augmented by reason of the Wars of Italy and Flanders removal of the Court from Valladolid to Madrid with his great Charges in entertaining the Princes of Savoy and Reception of the English and French Ambassadors and that which compleated the ruin of the State and drew on it the extremest misery the raising the value of Copper Money by which Sajavedra says more mischief happened to Spain than if all the Serpents and Monsters of Africk had attacked it he makes out that the present King at his Succession received the Crown so poor it was admirable there could be found wherewithal to resist so many Enemies as at once proclaimed War against it and concludes that after the many shocks it hath sustained it will hardly any longer prove able to defend it self without recourse to some sudden supply though it be useless to fancy New Imposts or augmentation of the old ones there being a general incapacity in the subjects to pay what is already laid upon them This pre-supposed he continues that applications ought to be made to the Clergy only who have ever kept their doors open to all manner of acquisitions and closely shut against the least alienation and who with little or no expence possess the greatest wealth of the Kingdom till a more learned Pen make evident they may justly be compelled to contribute to the Kings urgent occasioâ—s he declares his design to be no more but to oblige them to a voluntary loane which he shews will be to their advantage because if the Kings necessities force him to press the Laity with rigor they will abandon Tillage and the Country in such manner that Ecclesiastical Rents deduced only from the hands of the other by Tythes and the like will fail Going on he adds that such a liberality is more especially due to the most Catholick King who aims only at the Churches good and requires assistance for continuing the War only in order to an advantageous Peace neither does he demand any thing that he first gave not all of them having received their benefices and dignities from his Majesty as their Patron That they need only spare part of their Plate Jewels and rich Moveables abating something of their great Trains entertained questionlesly by them shew that grandeur they will more handsomly make appear by assisting their King afterwards he sayes that to give this greater efficacy the King may please to make choice of one of his great Ministers of State to whom the Clergy have some kind of obligation on account of their preferments and from whom they may reasonably expect more by his report to the King and Council of their forwardness and liberality he advises farther that addresses be not made to the Body or Convocation but to particulars and an exact register kept of the willingest
more streightened by the Spaniards than the Great Duke he alwayes keeps an Ambassador in this Court to get intelligence of whatever passes for besides that which this King possesses in the Isle of Elba he is Master of the best Havens in Toscany that belonged to the Republick of Sienna and therefore much concerned in the affairs of this Crown particularly in those that belong to it in Italy Seignior Encontri of whom I now speak is very intelligent in these matters and too active and quick-sighted to be ignorant of what passes here He discovered the Treaty of the Genoueses with this King for acquisition of Pontremoli and as soon as he had vented the mine and recived the great Dukes orders to act with all his might towards gaining a place so advantagious to him he so well thwarted the Genoueses in their Bargain he broke it off and struck up for his Master In acknowledgment of which that Prince a little after sent the Ambassador a horse of massie Gold made sometime before for Henry the fourth or Lewis the thirteenth of France and removing the effigies of one of those Kings which was of the same mettal there needed no more but to place in its stead that of Philip the fourth to be presented to Don Lewis de Haro who accepting it declared to do so on no other termes but to bestow it in his Masters Cabinet where as was reported he effectively placed it My Lord ..... made many visits to this Ambassador who also came twice or thrice to see him being an Ecclesiastick he only wore along Robe without taking the habit of the Country The third forrain Minister was Seignior Quirini Ambassador for the Republick of Venice He is very magnificent and splendid and of a meen altogether suitable to the Majesty of that August Senate whose dignity yet he better supports by an acquired knowledg of all that belongs to a person of quality accompanied by a judgment whose solidity incomparably moderates the exuberance of his memory in such a manner that the promptitude of the one never clashes against the maturity of the other A Gentleman of Piedmont called Ranusio who had been sent by the Duke of Savoy to the Dutchess of Mantua his Aunt made us known to Seignior ..... Secretary of the Embassy who presented us to that excellent person He received us perfectly well and assured my Lord ..... that the memory of his Grandfather was dear to the Senate to whom he had been Ambassador and that they which then governed saw so many excellent qualities in that great Personage they mentioned him to their Children as one of the ablest headpieces had ever appeared before them after this he discoursed with us about the troubles of England and the War between Cromwell and Holland then lately ended and told us that the Seigniory of Venice who was the first that sent Ambassadors to Henry the fourth of France before seated on his Throne which the League with great might and fury disputed against him and that had made no difficulty of acknowledging the States of the Low-Countries when they had freed themselves from the Spanish obedience had not as yet sent any Ambassador into England to own that Republick or Protector The reason he gave us was that that prudent Senate would do nothing it might be forced to revoke and though these later might seem however so sodainly better established than the former they could not subsist long and would therefore wait till their power were better settled less tumultuary and precipitous than as yet That it would see what time would do with them lest with other Soveraigns it might suffer the displeasure to have adressed it self to Mushrums who started up in a night and might vanish in the morning for though the forces and industry of the King of Great Britain had till that time failed of restoring him to his Throne it was probable enough he might recover it by means of internal revolutions and such flowings of State as return what the like ebbs have carried away Visits and acquaintance of this nature give a soul to travail when a moment presents one part of what great Personages resident in the Country where he is have been long acquiring And as such men observe all with great exactness and have opportunity to do so their discourses are sometimes more instructive than some years residence they being usually most open to strangers The three Ambassadors I have mentioned were all we knew here though there was also one on accompt of the Emperor called Comte Lambert who succeeded the Comte of Grain but we never visited him At our being at Antwerp he was also there with all his Family his Wife is Daughter to Compte Wallenstine Lord High Chamberlain of his Imperial Majesty He received the Collar of the Golden Fleece from the Kings own hands and went away no less satisfied than we by vacancy of several Chambers in the Inne for want of which we did little less than Camp the night before his departure He is a tall man thin-faced and of no extraordinary meen They say he agreed better with this Court than the Earl of Grain a bold wit that made himself more feared than loved that spoke free truths to the King and medled in more than belonged to his charge he slighted the Order that no Coach except the Kings and Masters of his Horse should be drawn with six Mules or Horses in the Town He did not think himself obliged to observe this and still went through the streets as formerly He was once in a passion against those that admonished him of it in the Kings name whereas the last complies and uses but four like other Ambassadors The King of Denmark hath also an Agent here but we had no acquaintance with him he lives privately and the people one day as he passed called him Lutheran the King himself on occasion of a difference he had not using terms more favourable Besides some small interests of State of his Masters in this Court I think his residence is only to facilitate the Commerce of his Subjects and Allies he was upon his departure and staid only for a pass from France that he might not be arrested on the Frontier An Envoy of the Landgrave of Armstadt was also upon going with more satisfaction as I found by his discourse as well that he was no longer to trouble himself with ineffectual solicitations as that he had obtained as he thought something for his Masters interests He came to demand the Pensions the Spaniards ought to pay him according to Treaties made with him in Germany and of which the arrears mounted very high but he carried away nothing but Paper with assignations very incertain as I was told and no ready mony besides Aynda de Costa that is something to bear his charges We saw also the Popes Nuncio who was likewise on his departure for which he had long prepared but because he that was to succeed him called