Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
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A40460
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The French King proved a bastard: or The amours of Anne (Queen to Lewis XIII.) With the Chevalier de Roan.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing F2185B; ESTC R215126
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36,033
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59
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small Oath when he Swore to the Edict of Nants and another Oath and Sacrament that he would never invade Flanders c. He was never Forsworn upon the Alcoran though he has been upon the Evangelists 'T is true the Clamours of Europe are justly loud against him for the Sanguinary Principles and unprecedented Cruelties of the hard-mouth'd Lewis But for my part it is a less Subject of my Admiration when my little Reading in Physicks leads me to consider that those Principles in him and that Propensity to Blood lye only at Nature's Door Do we not daily see the very same natural Inclinations predominant even in Inferior Animals What treacherous ill nature shall we find in a Mungril compared with the Generosity of a True Begotten Mastiff One Advertisement I must give my Reader viz. That our young Monsieur Legrand afterwards dignified the Chevalier de Roan whom in respect to his exalted Fortunes in his Royal Mistresses Favours I rather mention by his Title than his Name has not here finish'd his History The fatal Catastrophe of that poor Gentleman the Tragick Conclusion of his Dear bought Pleasures being reserved for a second Volum The Amours of Anne Queen to Lewis XIII with the Chevalier de Roan true Father to the present Lewis XIV King of France c. HIstorians have but too loudly and too infamously recorded the long usurp'd Dominion and Ascendance of the Triple Diadem over the Scepters of Temporal Princes an Acquisition obtained only by the implicit Resignation of the too bigotted Disciples of Infallibility whose strength of Romish Faith overpowring their weaker Royal Reason has sometimes subjected their Thrones to a Vassalage almost as intire as that of their Souls But this is not so much to be wondred at since Ecclesiasticks even of a lower station and of inferiour Dignity to that of their mighty Lord the Pope have sometimes been little less than sole Administrators Supreme whilst not only the whole Helm of States has been guided by them but also the whole Regalia of Power have been so totally lodged in their own Hands till the subministring depending Monarchs their kind Resigners have been little more than Titular An instance of which perhaps was never more famous than in the French Administration of the Illustrious Cardinal Richlieu under or rather over Lewis XIII That fatal Ego Rex meus I and my King so vainly and so unhappily arrogated by the unfortunate English Woolsey that memorably glorious Butchers Son who had kneeling Nobility for his Cup-beaters was a truer and more conspicuous Jewel in the greater and happier Richlieu's Cardinals Cap whilst no exalted Favourite possibly ever govern'd more absolute than himself And to fix this glorious Blazon in his Scutcheon perhaps it had a double Supporter First The exorbitant Favour of Mary de Medicis sometimes Queen Regent during the Minority of Lewis XIII that introduced and advanced him to all that Grandeur And next the poor spirited Weakness of Lewis himself that even after his Arrival at Manhood only changing the Regency from Mary to Richlieu continued still under the Cardinal's Guardianship either not willing not daring or not able or all of them to resume the unlimited Authority that that great Minister had so long possest And as true Greatness is only perfectly establish'd where no Controul or Opposition can shake it this Reigning Favourite had all the kindest Smiles of Fortune to gild his Brow for his Sovereignty over the Will of the King was not greater than the Dominion he held in the Favour of the Queen too the Royal Consort Anne of A. The Affections and pleasure of his generous Royal Mistris were so much under the Guide and Government of Richlieu that the Cardinal was her most trusted Cabinet Counsellor Thus in fine with no superiour Influence to malign him nor Equal to rival him with the Hearts of all with him or above him and the Knees of all below him his Power stood fixt and his Foundation immovable In this high station he grew so popular and withal so aspiring that together with the Exaltation of his personal Honours his Soul was no less elevated too Insomuch that he wanted not an over-large Taint of that common Contagion of Dignity Pride The Sanctity of his Spiritual Robe alas was no Fence against it whilst Ambition with all its attendant Vanities and Frailties so wholly possest our great Lord Cardinal that the Church-man was entirely lost in the Governing States-man and his Ecclesiastical Scarlet wholly truckled to his sairer and all commanding Royal Purple with which his propirious Fortune had so signally invested him Under the Umbrage of our great Richlieu the present tallest Cedar of the Grove sprung a fair Scion from so nourishing a Root a beautiful Niece who favour'd and cherish'd by so potent a Patron and so near a Relation made one of the brightest and most glittering Court Stars of France a Lady in her Person Mein and Ayre so extraordinary charming as could not sail of a whole train of Hearts To match these outward dazling Charms Nature had no less richly furnish'd her within viz. with that sprightly Wit and refined Sense as spoke her Mistress of a Soul no ways unworthy so fair a Lodging 'T is true indeed she had a natural Pride and an unbounded Ambition but those as hereditary Qualifications derived from Richlieu and which whatever Faults elsewhere in the present Estimate of the World are reputed Vertues in the fair Sex were rather her Ornament than Blemish This young Lady the Darling of Richlieu under the Tutelage of his peculiar Care and Protection you may imagin had no splendor nor Pomp wanting to bear that Port and render her that Figure in the Court of France to the highest that either Beauty deserved or almost Vanity could wish And as if her Alliance to the Cardinal had entituled her to share a part of his Trophies and Rule where he Reigned she had gained so far upon the Favour of the kind Queen so caress'd and so loved by her that the Queen had scarce that Secret which she lodged not in the Bosom of this fair Favourite so fond of her Company and so wedded to her Conversation that she could hardly relish a Pleasure without her To style her the Queens Confident and Friend is a Name of too narrow a comprehension their endearments were so extravagant that she treated her more like a Sister And that Court Ceremony and formal State might be no bar to their more particular Intimacy and Familiarity the Queen was generously pleased to give her self the Romantick Name of Statira and her fair Confident Parisatis Titles borrowed from the famed Daughters of the great Persian Darius with an absolute Command laid upon her in all their private Entertainments and Converse to use no other Names between them that the Title of Majesty or the customary respect and more awful Distance to a Crowned Head might be no impediment to that nearer Liberty and freer Ayre and
THE FRENCH KING PROVED A Bastard OR THE AMOURS OF ANNE Queen to Lewis XIII With the Chevalier de Roan The Second Edition Published by Authority LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Mitre in Fleet-street near Temple-Bar 1691. Price 4d To the Right Honourable John Lord Lovelace c. MY LORD THis small Treatise like a Travel into the Mountains of the Moon for the Bed of Nile being a full Inquiry into the Little Birth of our GREAT LEWIS Your Lordships Favour to the Subject of this History has encouraged the fixing so Noble a Name before it Nor let Our Mighty Monsieur's Idolizers themselves take Offence at the Theme it being perhaps not the least of his Honour that so Diminutive a Seed should give Root and Production to so Prodigious a Spreading Greatness Nor can I do his Homagers and Adorers a kinder piece of Justice than making a Consecrated Relique of his very Swaddling-Clouts I confess indeed I have taken the easier Work in hand the Delineation of his minuter Original being something a fezible Undertaking when the Description of his fuller Growth the Manhood of our Prodigious Hero is almost Impossible Impossible indeed when all the publick Declarations the whole Neighbouring World around him have so justly and so unanimously confess'd their Inability of matching his Lineaments even amongst Heathens and Turks and truly if the least resembling Feature of him can be found in the spacious Creation we must look amongst the Remoter Indies for it and consider Our Great Lewis's Ambition as only a more Hideous Wild Indian Delirium running a Muck at all Mankind But while I presume to commit this piece into your Lordships Protection my Duty leads me to a just and awful Veneration of that Honour to which I Address In all the Rapidity of our late Driving Jehu's your Lordship carries this Triumph that in their highest Exaltation and most formidable Prevalence you never bent a Knee Your Spirit was too Masculine to flow with a Tide and chose rather singly to stand the Indignation of Power than herd amongst the Flatterers of it And if so much true British Merit as shines in your Lordship so late a Royal Favourite makes so new a Figure in Court we are to consider that in the former Sway when French Counsels and French Gold reigned too Potent Your Lordship thought Your self a very unqualified English Courtier in a Court so little an English One and 't is perhaps Your Highest Glory to have no sooner a Call to Glory But alas Your Lordships Historian is not my Province 't is enough to have chosen a Patriot for a Patron and to pride my self in this occasion of publishing my self My Lord Your Lordships most Devoted Obedient Servant TO THE READER AFter so many Years Vassalage to France our too long and too Scandalous Degeneracy Providence having at last raised us the fair Hopes of being English-men once more I make my True British Reader no disacceptable Present in the Contents of this History unfolding the Great Mystery of Iniquity the true Extract and Generation of our Great Disturber of the World Lewis XIV But though this Narrative may be somewhat Novel here it has been the Universal Outcry of France The known Frigidity of Lewis XIII and the Birth of this Deodat so called after 23 years Childless Marriage with all other attending Circumstances so plainly convincing the Impossibility of his being his Reputed Royal Father's Begetting that nothing but the Forehead of a Legender must pretend it The famous Barricado of Paris and so formidable a Revolt under such Great Leaders against him at his first Accession to the Throne too publickly proclaimed his Extraneous Birth insomuch that all Tongues were full of it Reason confirmed it and scarce a Doubt or Scruple to question it 'T is true indeed His Canine Teeth and the French Slavery growing up together so bold and so dangerous a Truth was a little hush'd and durst talk no louder than in the Whispers and Murmurs of Closets And if any critical Reader should ask why this History never saw Light in England till now let him but think when he moves that Question and he will soon answer himself by considering that in the two last French-pension Reigns when Coleman told Le Chaise The Interest of My Master and Yours are inseparable the very Attempt of so hideous a Profanation against our then adored Idol of France our Grand Master Lewis had pull'd down that inevitable Thunder against so capital a Transgressor as had undoubtedly raised both Publisher and Printer a higher Gibbet than Hamans For Instance of which a Paper but a little inclining this way only in some Minute Reflections upon the Birth of Lewis our present Theme was about the latter end of King Charles's Reign burnt at Charing-Cross by the common Hangman and the Impression suppress'd And if the Prosecution stop'd there 't was more for the politick hushing of the Subject of the Paper than in any Mercy to the Author or Promoter Now after this full and thorough Search into the Cradle of our Son of Thunder Lewis after examining the Nest the Egg the Brooding and the Hatching though the whole Conduct of his Reign has been so much the Subject of Humane Amazement and Horror I must do him this publick Right as to own I am not so much startled as the rest of the foolish World may be For example to survey him round what if in the first place History or Chronicle have rarely or never afforded his Match in Breach of Treaties abroad or Oaths and Sacraments at home For let us consider him as he is Why should we expect His Honour any Stronger than his Mothers Imposture was his Foundation and Falshood and Treachery run in his Veins What Wonder then that he should Reign in Perjury when he was Begot in it Infidelity govern'd the whole Ascendant at his Conception and the continuing of its Influence ever since is only to make his Life of a piece with his Nativity and the Wielding of his Scepter an Original like his Means of Gaining it But then he takes Delight in shamefully Falsifying and Faith-breaking with Sovereign Heads Yes Royalty is no Kin to him and therefore his Aversion The Cannibal never devours a Cannibal and Lewis preys upon Princes because they are Aliens and Heterogenes to Himself I confess however there is yet one Prince in the World at least that our Lewis has some kindness for And strong cause why For he was learning after his own Copy to keep Faith as little as Himself and as once so hopeful a Proficient under so Great a Gamaliel he loves him for some little Likeness-sake But then what 's more Monstrous he Leagues with Mahomet-Yes his Engagement with the Turk against Christendom is a little Notorious and the Alcoran is more in his Favour than the Bible And good Reason For That will never rise up in Judgment against him though This shall Though he has made bold to crack a