Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A87116
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A letter from the Arch-Bishop of Paris, to the late king James
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Harlay de Champvallon, François de, 1625-1695.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing H776A; ESTC R42520
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1,770
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2
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A LETTER FROM THE Arch-Bishop of PARIS TO THE Late King JAMES Great SIR AS the King is truly sensible of Your Majesty's firm adherence to his Interest even with the loss of your Three Kingdoms so he has redoubled his Care and has left no stone unturned to restore Your Majesty to the said Kingdoms again not only by endeavoering to reduce them but by making War also against all the Consederates who opposed him in this his Undertaking And although the King beyond hopes has not been successful in the first though there was a very good prospect of it yet he succeeded in the other in having enlarged his Dominions very much and by encreasing the same still by the Great Conquests he makes every Year by the great and continual Victories he obtains over his Enemies from time to time but all this is not such a satisfaction to his Generous Mind as that would be if he could restore Your Majesty to Your Throne again This grieves the King and sticks so much to his heart that he does not value the smiles of Fortune so long as it frowns upon Your Majesty And as good Offices claim Gratitude so the King not only Royally received Your Majesty into his Kingdom but maintained and Cherished you too in that Grandeur to this very hour besides his Kindness he shewed to that great number of your Subjects which he Maintained and Employed No less was expected from the Holy See whom Your Majesty so highly Obliged when Reigning who instead of out-doing the King's Kindness towards Your Majesty stands now marked with Ingratitude But now the King seeing his Kingdom Exhausted of Money by the immense Charges he has been at and his own Subjects Croaning under the Miseries that attend a War and then considering the Effusion of Blood of so many Thousands of Christians and that a Prince who will reap the Benefit of his Arms must make Peace when he is the most Victorious Therefore the King amidst his great Victories stretches out the Scepter of Peace to all his Enemies which as he has done at first in particular to the Duke of Savoy out of Compassion to withdraw him from his Ruine So he does now in General to all the Confederate Princes But These as well as He being pufft up with great Hopes and expecting the turn of Fortune refuse the King 's fair Offers and stand upon so high Terms which amount even to the Pyrenean Treaty A thing not to be expected from so Victorious a Prince as our King is Yet the King being desirous to see the Peace of Europe Established for the Reasons above mentioned is willing to grant them more ample Proposals such as he does not doubt but would he accepted of by the Confederates and he meets with no other Difficulty than the Re-inthroning of Your Majesty Which as it is the Thing the King takes the most to Heart so he has laboured for it more than for any other thing But it seems Heav'n is against it and will have it otherwise It lyes therefore in your Majesty's Power to remove that Obstacle and to further that so much wished-for Peace by following the Laudable Examples of that great Emperour Charles the Fifth and Casimire King of Poland who quitting their Empire and Kingdoms chose rather to live a Religious and Retired Life a Life which the King was a commending much t'other day A Life I presume to tell Your Majesty the advantages of by mentioning the dangers of t'other Your Majesty was seated upon a Precipice and the more you are Elevated the more dangerous will prove the Fall In that Retirement you will be safe as it were upon a Plain from whence you may look back upon the dangerous Rocks behind you Descending from the Throne you mount to the repose of a private life And as there is nothing to be esteemed a pleasure or a happy state without a perfect safety so your Your Majesty will find that you will then be more contented more happy and consequently more high than you was before There you may secure your self from the dangers of a troublesome Kingdom and bewail the perilous condition of Worldlings and purchase an Eternity of Joys No other Earthly condition can equal that 'T is a Heaven upon Earth separating us from the rest of the World and contented with its own Tranquility and Delights Such a one it will be to Your Majesty if you embrace it voluntarily and withdraw your heart from all worldly Cares and Creatures and contemn a Worldly Diadem Which that you may do the Author of all good grant that Your Majesty's Affections Actious Thoughts and Desires may be ordered by him to that end that they may begin and end in him who is the Abyss of Happiness Paris the 22d of June 1694. Great SIR Your Majesties Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant FRANCIS Arch-Bishop of Paris Superscribed thus To His Most Excellent Majesty James the Second K. of Great Britain c. LICENS'D July 12. 1694. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Rich Baldwin in Warwick-Lane 1694.