Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
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A41872
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The Great bastard, protector of the little one done out of French ; and for which a proclamation, with a reward of 5000 lewedores, to discover the author, was published.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing G1663A; ESTC R41767
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12,750
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34
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THE Great Bastard PROTECTOR OF THE Little One. Done out of French And for which a Proclamation with a Reward of 5000 Lewedores to discover the Author was Published Re-printed at Cologne 1691. THE Great Bastard Protector of the Little One c. THE Great Bastard Protector of the Little One c. WE find in Holy Writ that in the Jewish Law it was expresly provided by the supreme Legislator That a Bastard should not enter into the Congregation of the Lord even to the tenth Generation But it seems the unhappy Kingdom of Franc allows the Bastard himself not only to enter into the Congregation but to settle himself upon the Throne and to bear it higher than all the preceeding Kings before him with had a better Right to do it as being the Off-spring of Kings and not the Sons of the People the proper Term the Roman Law gives to Bastards We have heard of the Salick Law in force in that Kingdome for a great many Ages by which the Crown of France cannot fall from the Sword to the Distaff but ill the blessed Days of our August Monarch we never had the Happiness to be acquainted with a Law or Custom by which that was in the Power of a Queen of France to provide us an Heir to the Crown without the Concurrence of her Husband and to impose upon us for our King a Brat of another Man 's making All the Reign of our Invincible Monarch has been a constant Series of Wonders but among them all this is none of the least That he who was in the Opinion of all the World the Son of a private Gentleman from his Birth till the end of the Prince of Conde 's Wars has had the good Fortune to be ever since no less than the Son of Lewis the Thirteenth After this let no Body call in question the commonly supposed Fable of the Transmutation of Iphis from a Woman to a Man since to be translated from a Bastard to a Son lawfully begotten is equally as difficult Among a great many other Quarrels I have with the English Nation this is one That they are a People too nice in believing Miracles and their Haughtiness is such as they scorn forsooth to believe Impossibilities for albeit they and all the rest of the World about them are firmly perswaded that the little Bable Prince of Wales was never of Queen Marys bearing much less of King James's begetting yet if these Infidels had been as well mannerly credulous as we in France have been of the wonderful Transmutation of our Lowis le Grand they needed not have made all this Noise about the little Impostor-Infant but might have comforted themselves in the hopes that he who was a Spurious Prince of Wales to Day might some Years hence by a new French way of Transubstantiation become a lawfully begotten King of England But the Mischief of all is these stiff-necked Hereticks ever since they fell off from the Communion of the Holy Church make bold to call in question all our Miracles and such a one as this would be I am affraid they would stick at among others Good God! how happy had it been for France yea for a great part of the World that the French had been as great Infidels upon th point of Miracles as the Heretick English and that our Lowis the Fourteenth had been hurl'd out of France when but Dauphin of Viennois as the little mock Prince of Wales has been out of England when scarce well handled into the Light What dismal Tragedies has our French Impostor caus'd in Christendom how many Cities laid in Ashes Countries ruin'd Families extinguished and millions of Lives sacrific'd to the Vanity and Ambition of a Bastard The Hugonots of France of all People in the World have most reason to be ashamed of their Conduct with Relation to this ungrate Monster in the time of his Minority and of the Prince of Conde's Wars And these People who disown a thousand things in the Catholick Religion meerly upon the account of their being in their Opinion irreconcilable to Reason did strangely contradict not only common Fame but even Reason it self in being brought to think that it was possible that Lowis the Fourteenth should be the true Son of Lowis the Thirteenth after near half a Jubilee of Years past in Marriage betwixt him and Ann of Austria his Queen without the least hope of Issue with all the concurring Signs of a natural Impotency upon his side But these Gentlemen have paid dear enough for their Opinions and have had sufficient time and occasion to read their past Folly in their present Affliction and to call to mind with Regret their unaccountable Madness in assisting him to re-ascend the Throne of France whom almost the whole Nation the Princes of the Blood and the Parliament of Paris had combin'd together to tumble down and had cetainly done it if the Hugonots had not turn'd the Scale These poor Hugonots have had so many sad Occasions since to repent their Fault that I confess it 's scarce generous to upbraid the Miserable with the Follies they cannot now amend and which had brought upon them so many Misfortunes And yet I must beg leave to tell them That as their Zeal to Lewis the Fourteenth's unjust Interest was the original Cause in my Opinion of Heaven's thus afflicting them by his Hands so it was indeed the true Motive that induc'd this Vngrate to ruin them For thus it was that he and his Jesuitick Cabal reason'd among themselves If the Hugonots in the late Prince of Conde's Wars when the Crown was at Stake were able to turn the Ballance and to draw Victory and Success to the side they espoused which at that time was ours By the same Parity of Reason If the same Hugonots shall at any time hereafter be induc'd to join against us and to take our Enemies part they will without all doubt turn the Scale on the other side and prove as dangerous Enemies as formerly they were Friends and thence by a Diabolical way of Reasoning it was concluded that it was the true Interest of the Crown that the Hugonots should be utterly destroyed By the way I must tho' contrary to my Inclination do a piece of Justice to Lowis the Fourteenth in vindicating him from a common Aspersion cast upon him by the Hugonots and it 's this Over and above the foulest Ingratitude imaginable in which Charge I heartily agree with them he is chargeable with a to them they will needs load him to the boor with no less than Perjury and Breach of Faith in not observing the famous Edict of Nants which was granted to them by King Henry the Fourth and declared by him to be in all time coming an irrevocable and fundamental Constitution of the State which Edict say they Lewis the Fourteenth swore at his Coronation inviolably to observe I confess this is a heavy charge but to speak no worse of the Devil than he deserves in
immediately after the Queen was found to be with Child M. le Grand was dismist the Court upon the Honourable pretence of being made Lieutenant Criminal of Provence the wily Cardinal fearing his intimacy with the Queen might prejudice him in her Favour and indeed after this Jobb was done the Cardinal had no more use for him as the sequel made it too evident Pliny tells us a Story of the Wolf That he never sees his Sire because says he he is Murdered by the rest of the Wolves out of envy that he was prefer'd by the she Wolf before them The same Fate had the Father of this Rapacious Creature Lowis the Fourteenth for being noos'd into the Conspiracy of Monsieur de Monmorancy he was beheaded at Tholouse by the Cardinal 's express Command who was unwilling the Queen should have an abler Gallant than himself for the future I cannot but regrate the Fate of this poor Gentleman in being first brought to the Bed of a Queen and thereafter in having his Head chopt off meerly that he might not tell Tales or give any Jealousy to his Rival in the Queens Favour yet I judge him Happy in this that he did not Live to see the Monster he had begotten There happen'd a memorable passage at his Death which was this Being all along after his Condemnation laid asleep with an assurance of a Pardon even upon the Scaffold to the end he might not discover any of his Criminal Secrecies with the Queen at last being desir'd to lay down his Head for the blow he came to understand too late that he was cheated out of his Life and just when he was beginning to express himself in these Words O! la Vanite d'estre aime d'une fame cruele c. O! the Vanity of being Lov'd by a Woman cruel and devoted to the Villanous Counsels of a Church Man Here the Fatal Ax did put an end to the Sentence and to his Life together This end had Monsieur le Grand Father of our August Monarch and it 's but just his Son should bear the Name of Le Grand not as an Epithet but as the Sirname of his Father Le Grand by way of Epithet being never his due and thus was Cardinal Richelew sevenged upon him for being a fitter and abler Gallant to the Queen than himself tho' at first he was not only the Privado but the first Incourager of their Amours When I am on this Subject I cannot but mention a Droll sert of Letter Written about that time by Monsieur to the Duke of Lorrain his Brother in Law from Brussels which was afterwards found among the Duke of Lorrain's Papers taken at St. Michel which was to this purpose Your Highness accuses me unjustly for not obtaining from Monsieur le Grand when he was with me a Declaration of his Privacies with the Queen which you say would have mightily furthered my Affairs But Sir tho' M. le Grand at some certain times out of a transport of fury against the Queen for her Vnkindness as he term'd it would confess to me the whole Secrets past betwixt the Queen and him yet the very next moment he would pass from all he had said and affirm that what he spoke formerly was but in jest One Night when we were speaking of retiring from Court I brought him to promise that he should wait on me the next Morning to give me an ample Declaration of what I sought of him but he changed his Mind that very Night and told me the next day that he would do it some other time when our Affairs were better ripened Being astonish'd at this sudden change I found by inquiry that the Cardinal had sent for him that very Night and that he was in his Privy-Chamber above an Hour together and what past betwixt them two I cannot devine but by the event Notwithstanding of all this concludes Monsieur's Letter I cannot think but this Vnfortunate has left some such Declaration in the hands of some of his Friends which if it could be fallen upon would mightily conduce to the good of our Affairs c. In this Letter we see Monsieur asserts plainly that Monsieur le Grand confessed to him his Privacies with the Queen and had promised in his angry Fits to declare them under his hand tho' I must say it was not generous on his part let the Queens Ingratitude to him be what it will and it 's more than probable that the taking vent of this Affair hastned his Ruine It seems Mademoselle who is yet alive Daughter to Monsieur was perswaded of the truth of this Intrigue and that her Father had told her how little Right Lowis the Fourteenth had to the Crown since a great many Years after at the Barricado of Paris this Princess went in Person to the Bastile and with her own Hand Fir'd the first Gun against the King's Forces with this Expression I know of no Right he has here If likeness be a Sign of a near Relation never was there two Faces liker to one another than these of our Invincible Monarch and M. le Grand and I must acknowledge the Wisdom of the Queen in causing M. le Visme her Painter to call in all the Pictures of M. le Grand that he could possibly get into his Hands when she found her Son betray'd his true Father by his Physiognomy for those who have seen both the Originals will say there was need of all this caution Thus the Cardinal Richelew had the Honour of being a Gallant to a Queen and upon trial of his own want of a prolifick quality had the goodness to provide another better qualified than himself Notwithstanding of this Obligation the Nation has to him I cannot forgive his Insolence in ordering these Words to be Engraven in Capital Letters upon on the Pedestal of Lowis the Thirteenth's Statue in the Palace Royal Cardinalis Richlieus Coadjutor suus in omnibus suis Negotiis The Cardinal Richlew his Helper in all his Affairs As if it had not been enough to have Cuckold'd his Master without erecting him a Statue meerly to tell the World that he did so As Similitude in Faces is often a Sign of a Relation in Blood so the Likeness of Condition is as often an Incentive to Love and the Motive to Friendship Let no Body therefore blame Lowis the Great for Patronizing the little Prince of Wales it 's but reasonable the Great Bastard should protect the Little One and endeavour to set upon the English Throne just such a Creature as is already upon the French one It 's just with our Great Bastard as with the Fox in the Fable who had the Misfortune to lose his Tail he would needs perswade his Neighbours to cut off theirs that thereby he might hide his own Infirmity It 's certain Lowis the Fourteenth would be content that all the Scepters of Christendom were only sway'd by Bastards that his own Spuriousness might be the less taken notice of And if it be true that some Lawyers affirm of the old Law of Normandy that by it Bastards did exclude the lawfully begotten no Body has Reason to exclaim against Lowis le Grand his Succession to the Crown of France since he is a Norman by Birth as Born at St. Germain en Laye the hithermost Town of that Province Methinks I hear the little Prince of Wales or rather his true Parents exclaiming against me heavily for calling him so often a Bastard and thus pleading against the Injustice of my Pen What Devil must inspire a Man to call one a Bastard that is really begotten in lawful Wedlock and though he had the good Fortune to be brought into Queen Marys Bed by a skilful Midwife to be there own'd for her own Son yet all this makes him not a Bastard And pray who would have refused to lend their Son to be the Heir of three Crowns I confess there is Reason in all this and I am very inclinable to excuse both the little Imposter and his Parents since few would have refused such an Offer and I oblige my self That if ever I happen to be in England when the Gentleman comes to be King I shall beg his Pardon for giving him a Name he deserves not FINIS