him alive or dead to him and besides a free Pardon and Indemnity of all his Crimes and to make him a Gentleman in case he was not so before He declared all his Adherents to have forfeited their Nobility Estate and Honour if within a Month after the Publication of this Out-law'ry they did not leave him and return to their Duty In December following the Prince of Orange published his Apology which is a very long eloquent and handsome Piece and read it publickly in the Assembly of the States-General The Prince made a Discovery of a great many Secrets which 't was the King's Interest never to have had known Kings have not so much Advantage in Defending themselves against their Subjects with their Pens as their Swords and for that Reason the King made no Answer to it but because this Apology is very considerable 't is proper to put down the Substance of it After having submitted his Life and Conduct to the Consideration of the States he says He was forc'd contrary to his Nature and Custom to discover some Indecencies which he would very willingly have concealed and if they had not loaded him with Injuries and Abuses he would have only answered the Proscription which he would have made appear unjust and without any Foundation That his Enemy who made it and the Duke of Parma who published it not being able to kill him by Poison or Sword endeavour to blot his Reputation by the Venom of their Tongues As for the Obligations they reproach'd him with he owns to have received a great deal of Honour from the Emperor Charles the V. who bred him up 9 years in his Chamber and that his Memory these are his own Words will be for ever honoured by him but at the same time he is obliged to justifie his own Innocence to declare that he never received any Advantages from the Emperor but on the contrary suffered great Losses in his Service That he could not deprive him of the Succession to Renè de Nassaw and de Chalons Prince of Orange his Cousin-german whose sole Heir he was without a manifest Injury unless they reckon the not seizing upon another Man 's Right to be a Liberality That he was so far from having received any Advantages from him that on the contrary the Emperor for the good of his own Affairs being pressed on one hand by the Protestant Princes and on the other by the King of France had by the Treaty of Nassaw disposed at his Expence of the County of Catzenellebogen in favour of the Landgrave of Hesse though it had been adjudged to him by the Imperial Chamber at Spires with above two millions of Arrears and the Emperor had taken no care to restore Prince Renè of Nassaw his Cousin-german to the Possession of the third Part of the Dutchy of Iuliers which belong'd to him by their Grandmother Margaret Countess de la Mark though he had gained the Victory by the Valour of that Prince That the King had deprived him of the Possession of the Seigniory de Chartel velin for which there was due to him above 350000 Livres by bringing the Cause to be tryed in his Council when it was to be judged by the Parliament at Molines and it has ever since continued undecided Which he mentions to show the World who ought to be taxed with Ingratitude he or the King That hâ—… had spent above 500000 Crowns in the Embassy he made against his Will to the Emperor Ferdinand and when he was Hostage in France for the Peace of Cambray and that year when he commanded the Imperial Army and built Charlemont and Philipville in sight of the French Generals in all which time he only received 300 Florins a Month which would not pay for the pitching his Tents That quite contrary those of his Family had spent great Estates and exposed their Lives freely in the Service of the Princes of the House of Austria that Engilbert the second Count of Nassaw his Great Grandfather being Governour of the Netherlands for the Emperor Maximilian the I. had secured him these Provinces by the gaining of a Victory That Count Henry of Nassaw his paternal Uncle prevail'd upon the Electors to preferr Charles of Austria Grandson of Maximilian to Francis the I. King of France and put the Imperial Crown upon his Head That Philibert de Chalon Prince of Orange had conquered Lombardy and the Kingdom of Naples for the Emperor and that by the taking of Rome and Clement the VII his Enemy he had gained him vast Honour and Renown That the Nephew of this Philibert Renè de Nassaw and de Chalon his Cousin-german was killed at the Emperor's Feet before St. Dizier after having repaired the Loss of a Battel and conquered the Dutchy of Gueldres That if the House of Nassaw had had noBeing in the World and had not done such great Exploits before the King was born he could never have been able to put so many Titles Countries and Seigneuries in the Front of that infamous Proscription which declares him a Traitor and a Villain Crimes which none of his Family had ever been guilty of That for so many Expences and signal Services of his Family they could not shew the least Mark of Acknowledgment from the House of Austria That the Kings of Hungary had given to his Predecessor as a perpetual Proof of their Valour in defending them from the Invasion of the Infidels several Pieces of Artillery which were carried away by Force out of his Castle of Breda when the Duke of Alva tyranniz'd in the Low Countries When the King reproaches him with having made him Governour of Holland Zealand Utrecht and Burgundy Knight of his Order and Councellor of State he answers That if he ought to thank any one for that 't is the Emperor Charles V. who at his Departure for Spain had so appointed it in consideration of his great Services That the King himself had forfeited his Pretensions to that Order by breaking the Statutes which expressly enjoyn that no Knight can be tryed but by his Peers in Condemning the Counts Egmont Horn de Bergues and Montigny by Rascals and Men of no Birth or Merit That the Government of Burgundy belonged to him hereditarily the House of Chalon having all along enjoyed it without Contradiction And as for the Employment of a Councellor of State he obtained that by the Policy of Cardinal Granville who screen'd himself from the People by the Authority of the Prince in whom they reposed an intire Credit and Confidence When the King to render him odious charges him with Marrying a Nun he answers That Slanderers ought to be free from all Blame and that 't is an unaccountable Impudence in the King to reproach him with a lawful Marriage and agreeable to the Word of God whereas the King is all covered over with Crimes He maintains that he was actually married to Donna Isabella Osorio and had three Children by her when he married the
of Nassaw who left a numerous and renowned Posterity behind him The Three other Sons were Lodowick Adolphus and Henry of Nassaw who signaliz'd themselves in the Civil Wars of France and the Netherlands They were never married and all three died with their Swords in their hands Couragiously seconding the Design of their elder Brother The Seven Daughters of William of Nassaw were all Married one to the Count of Bergues who was Mother to that Count de Bergues who in our days Commanded the Spanish Armies against his Cosin Germans Prince Maurice and Henry Frederick and afterwards quitted the Spanish Service upon some disgust The other Six were married to Sovereign Counts of Germany one amongst the rest to Count Schouarsbourg who had the misfortune to be present at Antwerp when Iohn Iauregny a Biscayner had like to have kill'd the Prince with a Pistol-shot and at Delft when he was Assassinated by Balthasar Guerard a Native of the Franche Comtè For she never left her dear Brother who loved her entirely William Prince of Orange was of a middle Stature a brown Complexion with Chesnut hair he talked little thought much but spoke always to the purpose and his words passed for Oracles No private Man in the time of Charles the Fifth liv'd with so much Splendour as the Prince of Orange he entertained all the Foreign Princes and Ministers at his House and in short was the Glory of the Emperours Court and his Sons who in his Proscription which he thunder'd out against the Prince of Orange having upbraided him with the Favours he had received from him how ill he had return'd them the Prince in his Apology replyed that he was so far from having any Obligations to the King or inriching himself in his Service that he had born the principal Expence of the Court composed of many Nations the King taking so little care of it that he was forced to desray it out of his own Pocket This splendid way of Living and this engaging manner of insinuating himself into all Peoples Affections gain'd him the Esteem and Friendship of all the World Besides he had a great advantage over all the Princes and Lords of the Emperors Court the House of Nassau having had the Honour to produce the Emperour Adolphus who was kill'd A. D. 1298. at the Battle of Spires upon whom these Verses were made Anno milleno trecent is his minus annis In Iulio mense Rex Adolphus cadit ense When King Philip who had been bred up in Spain came into the Low Countries in his Fathers Lifetime there appear'd such a vast difference between the Father and Son that all the People and particularly the Nobility conceived as much Aversion and Contempt for one as they had Love and Adoration for the other The Emperour was good Natur'd easie of Access treated all sorts of Nations familiarly and talked to 'em in their own Language which won him an universal Respect and Veneration King Philip rarely appeared in publick wore his Clothes always in the Spanish Fashion talked little and still Spanish which procured him the general hate of the Nobility and the People of the Netherlands who hating and dreading the Pride of the Spaniards that govern'd him demanded of him in full Assembly of the States held at Gand to withdraw all foreign Troops out of the Netherlands and use their own Forces for the Security of the Towns and make no Stranger Governour of the Low Countries these Demands surprized and incensed the King who believed all was done by the Instigation and Contrivance of the Prince of Orange but concealing his Resentment he gave the States hopes of complying with their Requests In this Assembly he made Margaret of Austria his natural Sister Wife of Octavio Farnese Duke of Parma absolute Governess of the Low Countries created many Knights of the Golden Fleece and then Embarked for Spain At his Departure he left Orders with the Governess to establish the Spanish Inquisition the in Netherlands and erect several new Bishopricks These Innovations were the Original cause of all the Civil Wars and Confusions so strange an Aversion had the People for the very name of the Inquisition and the new Bishops whom they considered as the Agents and under Officers of the Inquisition Anthony Perrenot Cardinal de Granville first Bishop of Arras and then of Malines was Minister of State and had all the Management of Affairs under the Dutchess of Parma He was Son to Nicholas Perrenot of Besancon Secretary of State to Charles the Seventh who for his personal Merit had advanced him from the Quality of a private Citizen This Cardinal naturally haughty and insolent treated the Nobility in a very imperious manner For which they hated him to that Degree that at last Count Egmont Count Horn and the Prince of Orange no longer able to bear his insupportable Pride writ plainly to King Philip that his Arrogance and violent Proceedings were abhorr'd by all the Nobility and People and would ruin the Netherlands if he was not recall'd in time This Remonstrance was considered as a criminal Boldness in Spain and from that time they took a Resolution to destroy these three Lords and all their Adherents But at that Conjuncture they were constrained to dissemble and recall the Cardinal Great disorders hapning in the Netherlands Count Iohn de Bergues Governour of Hainault and Iohn de Montmorency Lord of Montigny Governour of Tornay were dispatched into Spain with Orders to acquaint the King with what had passed and perswade him to compose the Differences by Mildness and Clemency rather than by Severity and Roughness But both losing their Lives there was a warning to the rest to stand upon their Guard Assoon as the Prince of Orange who was a great Politician knew of the Resolution the King had formed by the Advice of the Spanish Ministers and at the instance of Cardinal Granville who resented his being driven out of the Low Countries of sending the Duke of Alva with an Army of Spaniards and Italians into the Netherlands he wisely judg'd that the King design'd to revenge himself on the States for the Demands they had made him and the forcible removal of the Cardinal which was generally imputed to him Knowing besides that the Alterations which were to be made would infallibly occasion great Convulsions and Commotions he desired the Governess to request the King to give him leave to resign his Governments of Holland Zeland Utrecht and Burgundy which was denied him He was only perswaded to remove from him his Brother Count Lodowick who was thought to give him Counsels which were prejudicial to the Peace of the Netherlands Which he did not think fit to Consent too no more than the new Oath of Fidelity to the King which many other great Men refused to take for this Oath obliging him to root out Hereticks he must consequently have sworn the ruin of his own Wife who was a Lutheran Besides he alledged that having already taken
Infanta of Portugal Mother to Don Carlos That he murthered his own Son for speakiing in Favour of the Low-Countries and poisoned his third Wife Isabella of France Daughter to Henry the II. King of France in whose Life-time he publickly kept Donna Eufratia whom he forced the Prince of Ascoti to marry when she was big with Child by him that his Bastard might inherit the great Estate of this Prince who died of Grief if not says the Prince of a Morsel more easy to swallow than digest That afterwards he was not ashamed to commit publick Incest in marrying his own Niece Daughter to Maximilian the Emperor and his Sister But says the King I had a Dispensation Ay says the Prince only from the God on Earth for the God of Heaven would never have granted it These are the very Words of the Prince That it was as strange as insupportable that a Man blacken'd with Adultery Poisoning Incest and Parricide should make a Crime of a Marriage approved of by Monsieur de Montpensier his Father-in-law a more zealous Catholick than the Spaniards are with all their Grimaces and Preterisions That if his Wife had made Vows in her tender Age which is contrary to the Canons and Decrees according to the Opinion of the ablest Men And though she had never made any Protestations against it He was not so little vers'd in the Holy Scriptures but He knew that all Bonds and Engagements entred into meerly upon the Score of Interest had no Force before God To that Article where the King calls him a Stranger he answers That his Ancestors had possessed for many Ages Counties and Baronies in Luxemburg Brabant Holland and Flanders and that those who have Estates in the Provinces have still been reckoned Natives That the King is a Stranger as well as himself being born in Spain a Country which bears a natural Aversion to the Low-Countries and he in Germany a neighbouring Country and Friend of the Provinces But says the Prince they 'll say he is King to which he answers Then let him be King in Castile Arragon Naples the Indies and Ierusalem and in Africk and Asia if he please that for his part he will acknowledge but a Duke and a Count whose Power is limited by the Privileges of the Provinces which the King has sworn to ob serve That he must let the Spaniards know if they are not acquainted with it already that the Barons of Brabant when their Princes go beyond Bounds have often shown them what their Power was He ended this Discourse by saying That 't was strange that they had the Impudence to charge him with being a Stranger in regard his Predecessors were Dukes of Gueldres and Owners of great Possessions in the Provinces when the King's Ancestors were only Counts of Hapsburg living in Switzerland and their Family was not known in the World The Prince maintains that the Design of the Spaniards was always to enslave the Netherlands and erect a tyrannical Government as they have done in the Indies Naples Sicily and Milan That the Emperor Charles the V. being acquainted with it represented to King Philip in his Presence and the old Count of Bossut and many others That if he did not curb the Pride of the Spaniards he would be the Ruin of the Netherlands But that neither the paternal Authority nor the Interest of his Affairs nor Justice nor his Oath which is sacred among the Barbarians could bridle his unbounded Passion of Tyrannizing That the Country granted a considerable Supply of Money with which and the Courage of the Nobility of these Provinces having won two famous Battles and taken a great number of Prisoners of the highest Quality in France he concluded a Peace at Cambray as Profitable to himself as Disadvantageous to his Enemies That if the King had any Gratitude remaining he could not deny but that he was one of the principal Instruments in bringing it about having managed it in particular with the Constable de Montmorency and the Mareschal de St. Andre by the King's Orders who assured him that he could not do a more grateful piece of Service to him than by effecting a Peace at a time when he was resolved to go into Spain upon any Terms But these Supplies of Money and this great Success obtained by the Blood of their Nobility were reckoned Crimes of High-Treason because nothing would be granted but on Condition the States-General should meet and the promis'd Subsidies pass through the Hands of Commissaries of the Provinces to clip the Wings of these Harpies Barlaymont and others like him And these as he assures are the two great Crimes which created that implacable Hatred in the King and Council to the Low-Countries The first of these Crimes was the Demand of an Assembly of the States-General who are as much hated by bad Princes for bridling their Tyranny as they are loved and reverenced by good Kings the true Fathers of their Country who consider them as the most sure Foundation of a State and the true support of Soveraigns The second is the Demand they made of having Commissioners of the Provinces for managing the Subsidies the Prince affirming that these Devourers of the People reckon their Robberies and Cheatings a better Revenue than that of their Lands That seeing themselves out of Condition any longer to enrich themselves at the Expence of the publick with Indempnity they look out for all Pretences by flattering their Princes to incense them and set them at odds with their Subjects He concluded this Article by assuring the States-General to whom he addresses himself all along that he has seen their Actions heard their Discourses and been Witness of those Counsels whereby they designed to make a general Massacre of them as they had practised in the Indies where they had destroyed thirty times more People than are in the Low-Countries To that part of the Charge where the King accuses him of gaining the Hearts of all those who desired Innovation particularly those who were suspected of the Reformed Religion by his private Intrigues and of being the Author of the Request against the Inquisition He owns that he was always of the Reformed Religion in his Heart which had been established by his Father William Count of Nassaw in his Dominions That he heard the King of France Henry the II. say when he was Hostage in France that the Duke of Alva was then treating with him to root out all the Protestants of France the Low-Countries and all Christendom besides That they had resolved to establish the merciless Inquisition the Severity of which was such that the looking a squint upon an Image was Crime enough to deserve burning That he could not suffer that so many good Men and Lords of his Acquaintance should be design'd for the Slaughter which made him firmly resolve utterly to extirpate this cursed Race of Men and that if he had been well seconded in so just and generous a Design there would have been
nothing left to preserve the Memory of the Spaniards but their Bones and their Graves As for the Address which they make a Crime of he thinks it as advantageous to his own Credit and Honour as to the King's Service and the Interest of the Provinces to have advised the presenting it as a certain method to divert the Deluge of these infinite Disorders which afterwards happened And as for the Protestant Sermons he advised Madam de Parma to permit them things being in such a posture that they could not be hindered without a manifest danger of the entire Subversion of the Government When the King says that the Care and Providence of Madam de Parma was so great that he was obliged to quit the Netherlands he owns that the Charge would be true if his Treachery and Disloyalty had been the Cause of it but that a year before he would willingly have retired and surrendred all his Employments When he saw that Monsieur de Bergues and Montigny had lost their Lives in Spain and Gibbets were erected and Fires kindled all over the Country he thought it high time to put himself in a place of Security without trusting to the King's Lerters full of fair Promises and Offers the better to deceive him That they had fallen upon his Person and Estate That neither the Consideration of the Privileges of the University of Louvain nor the Province of Brabant could hinder them from carrying his Son Prisoner into Spain And that by so rigorous and unjust a Treatment he was absolved from all his Oaths and had good Ground to make War upon his Enemy which was objected to him as a Crime That the King laid nothing to his Charge but what his Predecessor Henry of Castile had been guilty of who tho' a Bastard rebell'd against his lawful Prince Don Pedro King of Castile and Leon and kill'd him with his ownhand If the King answers that Don Pedro was a Tyrant and that he possessed Castile only by that Title wherefore says the Prince should not the King of Spain be used in the same manner for there never was a Tyrant who subverted the Laws and Constitutions of the Country with more Arrogance or broke his Oath with more Impudence than King Philip. And that at least Don Pedro was neither guilty of Incest nor a Parricide nor a Murtherer of his Wife And though he was born the King's Subject and should take up Arms against him 't was no more than Albert the first Duke of Austria formerly Count of Hapsburg his Predecessor had done against the Emperor Adolphus of Nassaw his Lord one of the Prince's Ancestors The Prince affirms that there is an origiginal mutual Contract between the Dukes of Brabant and their Vassals that they owe Obedience to their Prince who on his side is bound to preserve their Privileges the chief of which are That the Dukes cannot change the Constitution of the Province by any Decree That they are to be satisfied with their ordinary Revenue That they can lay no new Impositions nor bring any Troops into the Province without the Consent of the States nor alter the Price of Money nor imprison any man without the Information of the Magistrate of the place nor send him out of the Country The Lords of the Provinces are obliged by their Oath to maintain and assert these Privileges because by their Prerogative they have the Charge of the Militia and the Arms of the Province and not doing it they are to be accounted Perjur'd and Enemies of their Country That the King has not violated only one of these Privileges but all and many times over He has seiz'd upon his Estates his Dignities and his Son contrary to his Immunities That for this Reason he was absolved from his Oath of Allegiance and by Consequence had a right to defend himself by Force of Arms and above all because the King would never redress and make Amends for his Faults having rejected the Intercessions of the Emperor Maximilian and the Petitions of his Subjects who deputed to him the principal Lords of the Netherlands which he put to Death by the Hands of the Hangman against the Law of Nations as he had served all others whom he could seize on by his Artifices and who were too credulous in believing his false Promises This abundantly justifies the Prince for taking up Arms for his own and his Country's Preservation and if he could not take footing in the Netherlands at his first Entry as the King reproaches to him 't was no more than what had happened to the greatest Generals and to the King himself who has often invaded Holland and Zealand and been driven shamefully out without being able to make himself Master of one Inch of Ground And in regard by his Oath he dispenses with his Subjects from obeying him if he acts contrary to the Laws why is he so impudent to say that the Prince has taken up Arms against him unjustly To that Article in which the King says he returned into Holland and Zealand by Bribery and Corrupting the Inhabitants he makes answer that he went there at the Instance and Sollicitation of the principal Men of the Province which he is able to make appear by their Letters When the King accuses him of having persecuted the Church-men driven out the Catholicks and banished that Religion he replies That all this had been done by a common Consent to preserve their Lives and Privileges against Men who had taken an Oath to the Pope and were setting all Engines a work to subvert their Liberties and the newly established Religion Which was represented at the Treaty of Peace at Breda where this Article of Religion was confirmed by the Decree and Seal of all the Cities and that 't was not fair to impute that to him which was done by an unanimous consent of the whole Country When he reproaches him for granting Liberty of Conscience he answers that he had always been as averse to the Burning so many Men as the Duke had taken pleasure in it and that he was of Opinion to put a Stop to all Persecutions He ingenuously owns that the King before the holding of the States at Ghent and his Departure into Spain had commanded him to put to Death many good Men suspected to favour the new Religion but he never put these cruel Orders in Execution but gave them notice of it not being able to do it with a safe Conscience and chusing rather to obey God than Man He says that they do him Wrong in laying the Murther of some Ecclesiasticks to his Charge for he punished the Criminals with Death and those who were of an illustrious Family as the Count de la Mark convicted of those Outrages were condemned only to Imprisonment and loss of their Employments in Consideration of their great Alliances To that Head wherein the King declares that he did not command the Duke of Alva to establish the Imposition of the 10th and 20th
that he had four Wives His first Wife was Anne D' Egmont Daughter to Maximilian D' Egmont Count of Burem and Leerdam a great Heiress whom he married by the Favour of Charles V. and had by her a Son and Daughter The Son was Philip William Prince of Orange of whom more hereafter and the Daughter Mary de Nassaw who was married to Philip Count de Hohenlo commonly called de Holac a great General who after the unexpected Death of the Prince of Orange which put the United Provinces into a strange Consternation generously resisted all the Efforts of the Spaniards and taught the first Rudiments of War to Prince Maurice his Brother in Law who was at the College at the time of this unhappy Accident His second Wife was Anne of Saxony Daughter to the Great Maurice Elector of Saxony who made head against the Emperor Charles the V. by whom he had the Famous Maurice of whom we shall give a very large Relation and a Daughter named Emilia de Nassau who married Emanuel King of Portugal Son to King Anthony of Portugal who was dispossessed by King Philip the II. This Prince Emmanuel won so much on the Princess by his Civility Courtship and Addresses that she chose him for her Husband as poor as he was and of a contrary Religion and tho' Prince Maurice opposed the Match as advantageous to neither They had two Sons whom I knew in my youth one of whom left a Son among other Children who went lately into Holland to demand of the Prince of Orange the Remainder of his Grandmother's Fortune and many Daughters some of whom were married to Persons of a very unsuitable Quality She was a very good Princess but about the end of her Life having fallen out with the Prince of Orange her Brother she retired to Geneva An. Dom. 1623. and died shortly after of Melancholy leaving six Daughters whom I saw at Geneva An. Dom. 1624. She was Godmother to one of my Sisters and gave her Her Name Emilia who is still alive and is married to the Seigneur de Montrevil near Menetoon in Champagne Her Godfather was the Count de Culembourg Son to Florent de Pallant Count de Culembourg whose House at Brussels was pulled down by Order of the Duke of Alva and who having done nothing after the Address of the Nobility retired into Holland and lived so privately that he died unknown to those of his own Party The third Wife of William Prince of Orange was Charlotte de Bourbon of the House of Montpensier whom I have declared before to have been a Religieuse or Abbess of Iouarre But the Love of Liberty which is an invaluable Blessing prevailed over all the Vows she had made in her youth which she pleaded she had been forced to and had made several Protestations against She died of a Pleurisy at Antwerp A. D. 1582. leaving six Daughters behind her The eldest Lovise Iulienne de Nassau was married to Frederick the IV. Elector Palatine Father to Frederick the V. Elected King of Bohemia who by the Princess Elizabeth of England Sister to Charles the I. King of Great Britain had many Princes and Princesses The eldest Henry Frederick Design'd King of Bohemia with his Father A. D. 1620. was a very handsom and hopeful Prince He studied at Leyden and Our Tutor Benjamin Prioleau Author of the Latin History of the last Regency carried us duely every Sunday after Dinner to play with this young Prince who loved us extreamly which made us the more regret his Death when we afterwards heard of it He perished unhappily in the Sea of Haerlem going in Company with the King his Father to see the Spanish Galleons laden with an inestimable Booty which had been taken by Peter Hain the Dutch Admiral near the Island of Cuba A Vessel by Night sailing full Speed having fall'n soul on his split it in two thus the Prince and all that were in it were drowned except the King his Father who by great Fortune having caught hold of a Rope that was thrown out to him from the Ship was miraculously drawn aboard The Second is the present Elector Palatine who has several Children by the Princess of Hesse among others Madam the Dutchess of Orleans a Princess of great Wit and Judgment who has already Children who are the first Princes of the Blood in France The third is the Famous Prince Robert who has won so much Reputation by Sea and Land having not deceived the hopes which he had given in his Infancy by the Martial and Manly Look which was then taken notice of The fourth was called Edward who lived a long time in France where turning Catholick he married the Princess Anne de Gonzague Daughter to the late Duke of Mantua Montferrat and Lions and Sister to Maria Louise Q. of Poland and Wife to two Brothers Uladislaus and Casimir Kings of Poland She was celebrated for her Beauty under the Name of the Princess Maria. Concerning whom I add this by the way that having been designed Queen of Poland and understanding that I was very well acquainted with the State of that Kingdom where I had been twice she desired me by the Duke de Noailles to give her some Instructions of it which I did several Afternoons and in Token of her Acknowledgment she would be Godmother to my eldest Daughter with Monsieur the Coadjutor of Paris then Archbishop of Corinth who is the famous Cardinal de Retz the learnedst Prelate in the Kingdom But to return to the Prince Palatine Edward He left three Daughters by the Princess Anne of Mantua the eldest of whom is Madam the Dutchess of Enguien already the Mother of several Princes and Princesses of the Blood The other married the Duke of Brunswick Hanouer who had only Daughters and the third the Prince of Solme who was made prisoner at the Battle of Seneff If I well remember for I write all this by my memory which is very good without the Assistance of any Book there was another Son of the King of Bohemia a very handsom Man Godson to Prince Maurice of Nassau called Maurice I saw another Son of his called Philip who retired to Venice for an Action which 't is better to pass over in Silence than mention Another Son was called Louis who died young whom my Father named so for the late King who was his Godfather by an Order of his Majesty which follows Monsieur de Maurier BEing acquainted with the Desire my Cousin the Count Palatine of the Rhine has to invite me to be Godfather to the last Son which God has given him I shall be extreamly glad to pay him this Testimony of my Friendship and good Affection and that you should perform this Office in my Name when the time is first informing him of the Charge I have given you and renewing the Assurances of my Affection to him Referring this to your Care I desire God Monsieur Maurier to keep and preserve you Written at Paris
visiting him by an Envoy Prince Philip came into Flanders with Albert the Arch-Duke who a little while after sent him back to Spain to bring the Infanta Isabella afterwards his â—…se into the Low Countries to whom her Father Philip gave in Marriage the Soveraignty of the Seventeen Provinces all Europe was very much astonished that the Son of a man so odious to Spain should be chose to execute so important a Commission which could not be given him without a large Testimony both of Esteem and Confidence He lived afterwards in the Court of Brussels with the Arch-Dukes of Flanders for the States of the United Provinces conceived such a distrust of him by reason of this employment and because King Philip had reestablished him in his Lands situated in the Spanish Low Countries and in the Franche Comte which had been confiscated that they would never let him come to visit their Provinces much less to continue there though he had often testified his desire of it He never appeared there before the Year 1608 when the Truce with the Spaniards was almost concluded and in this Journey he did nothing else but reconcile the Princess Emilia his Sister with his Brother Count Maurice who would never see her since her Marriage with Prince Emanuel of Portugal because it had been concluded without his consent He married Eleanor of Bourbon the Sister of the deceased Prince of Conde a very virtuous Princess by whom he had no Children This Marriage with the first Princess of the Blood of France put him in possession of his Principality and Town of Orange where the Sieur de Blacons who was Governor of it as being a Kinsman of Monsieur the Marshal des Lesdiguierres who commanded absolutely in Dauphiny would not let him enter but the Sieur de Blacons had so many express orders from the King to leave the place and Monsieur des Lesdiguierres had an order to make them be precisely obeyed that at last the Prince saw himself possess'd both of the Place and his Soveraignty for before he had been look'd upon as an Enemy having followed the Arch-Duke Albert when he was at Calais and would make King Henry IV. raise the Seige of Amiens Prince Philip farther confess'd to his most intimate Friends That in his whole Life he was never in so great pain and such strange uneasiness as at the time when the battle of Newport was fought for the Arch-Duke who presumed very far upon his own Forces thinking them as much superior in Valor as they were in Number to those of the Hollanders had boasted that if he had gained the day he would send the two Brothers Maurice and Henry Frederick bound hand and foot as his Prisoners into Spain So he sent out his Scouts on every side kept all his Horses ready sadled and bridled in his Stable and his People all in a condition to retire suddenly into some place of safety thinking that his Brothers being lost he likewise must perish by the Spaniards so that during the whole fight he was at his Prayers and made ardent and continual Vows that his Brothers might obtain the Victory During the Truce which was concluded for 12 years he made a Voyage into Holland in the Year 1615 with Madam the Princess his Wife and they lived generally at Breda My Father had the honor to see them and converse with them often and he was so far in both their good graces that they helped him to overthrow a great many calumnies which had been invented to draw upon him the indignation of Monsieur the Prince of Conde and several other Lords and great Persons of the Kingdom who during the Minority of the late King had been several times in Arms upon diverse pretences it having been told them by my Fathers Enemies that during these commotions he had acted with too much heat and violence against them having caused several Vessels full of Arms to be seized and stopped divers Officers from Holland who would have come over to their Service to all these disobliging actions were added some discourses to the disparagement of these great Persons which my Fathers Enemies had likewise imputed to him These Princes had so far given credit to such Impostors that not being able to seize upon my Fathers Person they testified their resentment by sacking his Castle of Fountayne Dangé near Chateleraut which they pillaged by their Troops but Mary de Medices the Queen Mother who had knowledge of this disorder being then at Poitiers made him ample satisfaction so that he had no further loss than of several original Papers and ancient Titles which were not in her Majesties Power to repair The King himself upon this occasion wrote to my Father as follows Monsieur de Maurier Then after this are two pages in Cypher AS for what remains I am very sorry that your House has suffered for the Services you have rendred me I will takecare of my Servants and encourage them to do well by the Protection which I give both to their Persons and Estates The Sieur de Puysieux may acquaint you with what I have ordered upon this account continue only to serve me with care and fidelity as you do at present and you shall receive both the Honor and the Profit of it I pray God keep you Monsieur de Maurier under his holy and safe Protection Written at Poitiers Jan. 20 1616. Signed Lewis and a little lower Brulard The Queen likewise wrote him the following Letter Monsieur de Maurier THE King my Son answers your dispatch by this Bearer whose intentions I am assured you can so well execute as they may produce the effect which we desire pursuant to your good Counsels we confide therefore in your affection and care in this encounter nor shall I add any further Command You know likewise what considerations he has made you for the House which you have lost in his Service to which if you continue firm with the same fidelity and diligence you shall receive all possible Content and Advantage I pray God keep you Monsieur de Maurier in his holy and safe Protection Written at Poitiers the 20th of January 1616. Signed Mary and a little lower Brulard Monsieur de Puysieux writ to him likewise towards the end of a long dispatch AS to what concerns your Interests and the loss and damage you have sustained in your House of Fontayne I have not been wanting to represent it to their Majesties in all those circumstances which were requisite at which they are much concerned and do not intend that any of their Servants shall suffer upon account of the good services they have rendred them They have ordered you 2000 Crowns for a Recompence of your loss and would have you know they do it upon that consideration and have thought fit to encrease your Pension to 1000 Crowns a Year I wish I could still testifie more to your content the extream desire I have of serving you that you may know
Prince who was his Nephew and had been bred up with him at Sedan and the Duke discovered some Ambition to have his Nephew a King when he wrote to some Friends at Paris that whilst Lewis was making Knights at Fountainbleau he was making Kings in Germany But this Royalty did not continue above 6 months so that his Enemies called him a King of Snow because the single battle of Prague in the beginning of the year 1621 lost him all Bohemia Silesia Lusatia Moravia with the adjoyning Provinces and the year following the Spanish Forces marching from the Low Countries deprived him of the Palatinate itself in which he was not re-established but by Adolphus's Descent into Germany Charles Duke of Lorrain who died many years after one of the oldest Captains of the age signalized himself very much at the Battle of Pragne where Count Harcourt was likewise tho very young But to return to Prince Maurice France being so apparently inclined to the Interests of Barnevelt's Party its Ministers which were then in Holland used to say that Prince Maurice would have pretended to the Soveraignty of the United Provinces but that such People who in the beginning had been hottest against Mr. Barnevelt and most devoted to the Prince yet when they fathom'd his designs became averse to them notwithstanding their former obligations besides the Exile Death and Imprisonment of persons who had been so considerable in the State and had likewise a great many Friends and Dependants wrought a mighty change in the Peoples affections to the Prince which appeared very visibly for whereas before when he went through the Towns of Holland every body came out of their houses praying for him with extraordinary Acclamations now as he was one day going through the Market-place at Gorcum which was full of people there was scarce a single man that pull'd his Hat off to him For the common people were so variable that the very Writings which heretofore had made Mr. Barnevelt become suspected by them were now produced as so many motives for their pity and compassion towards him To this they added that the assistance which probably he might have hop'd for from the Elector Palatine was since the loss of the battle of Prague no longer to be expected and the Emperor Ferdinand the 2d having by the happy success of his Generals Count Tilly and Wallestein made himself absolute Master of all Germany even to the Baltick Sea where he established an Admiralty at Wismar reduced all the Princes and Imperial Towns under his Obedience Prince Maurice could no longer expect Succors from Germany whatever Friends he might heretofore have had there But those who adhered to the Interests of Prince Maurice and the House of Orange acquitted him of a Design so prejudicial to the good of the United Provinces by maintaining that it was a perfect Artifice of his Enemies to make him become odious to the People of the Low Countries for said they what probability was there that Prince Maurice ever had it in his thoughts to become Soveraign of his Country since after the extirpation of Barnevelt and his party he never made one step towards it which he might have done having then no farther obstacles Prince Maurice did not long survive a great Conspiracy which the Sieur de Stautemburg youngest Son of Mr. Barnevelt had laid against his Life which being happily discovered some hours before its execution obliged him to punish a great number of the Conspirators throughout the pincipal Towns of Holland The Prince was never married but had several Natural Children the most considerable of them all was Mousieur de Beververt a man very well made and very brave he was Governor of Bolduc after whose death the Prince of Tarentum had that Government and was succeeded by Collonel Fitz Patrick a Scotchman Prince Maurice died in the Spring of the Year 1625 when the Marquess Spinola besieged the Town of Breda And as some pretended it was for grief that he did not succeed in the Soveraignty so others said that it was because he could not relieve that place which was his own propriety and had been surprized by him 34 years before FREDERICK HENRY Prince of Orange Henry Frederick of Nassau Prince of Orange and his Posterity THis Prince was born the 28th of February 1584. He was of a good mein and of a strong make and his parts were as eminent as his person was agreeable He was a very great Captain and equall'd the Glory of his Brother Maurice who taught him the Art of War and lead him into the most dangerous Adventures and amongst others at the battle of Newport where though he was very young he contributed much by his Valor to the gaining that great Victory in a conjuncture where the Army of the States General had before them a powerful body of men commanded by Albert the Arch-duke in person and the Sea behind them so that it was absolutely necessary either to make themselves Conquerors or to perish When Prince Maurice died in the year 1625 he advised his Brother Henry Frederick his chief Heir to marry Madam de Solmes who was come into Holland with the Queen of Bohemia whose Beauty and good Carriage were accompanied with a great deal of Modesty and Prudence she died a little while ago being very antient and her Name was Amelia Daughter to Iohn Albert Count de Solmes This Prince had one Son and four Daughters the eldest of these Ladies married Frederick William the Elector of Brandenburg by whom she had several Children This Prince has the greatest Territories in all Germany they reaching from the Low Countries to Poland and Curland The 2d Daughter Henrietta Emilia married the Count de Nassau The 3d Henrietta Catherina married Iohn George Prince of Anhalt and the 4th married the Duke of Simeren the youngest Son of the House Palatine who died a little while ago The Son was called William was born in 1626 and died the 6th of November 1650 after the business of Amsterdam He was a Prince naturally ambitious and of great Courage so that his Enemies reported of him that though he was so young yet he aimed at the execution of that design which had been laid to Prince Maurice's charge by Barnevelt and his Adherents His sudden death changed the whole face of affairs in the Low Countries He had great prospects from his alliance of England having married Princess Mary Daughter of Charles the first King of Great Britain by whom he left Prince William Henry of Nassau now King of England c. who was born the 14th of November 1650 some days after the death of his Father This young Prince William was very remarkable in his Infancy for his reservedness and moderation his Prudence increased as he grew up and such people as were nice observers of merit and took great notice of him have affirmed that never Prince gave greater hopes than he even in the most tender years He suffered with an admirable temper
long Combat where abundance of persons of France England and the Low Countries ran from all parts to see from the shore so extraordinary a spectacle The greatest part of so powerful a Fleet was burnt destroyed or separated and those which escaped put themselves under the covert of some English Vessels and so retreated into the River of Thames or some Port in Flanders The Spaniards lost above 7000 men that were burnt or drowned besides 2000 who were made Prisoners by the Hollanders This Victory was very great and memorable for there were 40 large Vessels sunk burnt or taken and amongst others the great Galeon of Portugal called Mater Tereza was burnt which was 62 foot broad and had 800 men on board who all perished This Tromp was the Father of Count Tromp who was engaged in the King of Denmark's service and gained great advantages over the Swedes In the year 1641 Prince Henry Frederick married his only Son Prince William to the Princess Mary of England eldest Daughter to Charles I. King of Great Britain and Madam Henrietta of France and this Marriage was celebrated with a great deal of Pomp and Magnificence The year 1645 was remarkable for the taking of the important Town of Hulsh in Flanders which was carried in spite of the Spaniards who could neither put succors into it nor make Prince Henry raise the Siege This Prince during the space of two and twenty years that he had the Government in his hands was remarkable for his wife and moderate conduct Because the Princess Louise de Coligny his Mother had maintained Barnevelt's Party some people thought that the Prince following his Mothers inclinations would re-establish that Party and recall such of them as had been banished and among others Mr Grotius But this Prince like a good Politician thought it better to let things continue in the posture he found them in than to embroil'em afresh by bringing a prevailing party upon his back I have seen Mr. Grotius in a great passion upon this occasion and he has spoke very ill of the Prince accusing him of Ingratitude and of having no respect for those who had been Friends to his Mother Prince Henry was very rich but instead of finding any support from England he was forc'd to help King Charles in his necessity with all his ready Money The greatest part of which has been repaid by the King of England since his Restauration to his Nephew the Prince of Orange Henry Frederick died the 14th of March 1647 and was buried with a great deal of State Besides his Children that we have mentioned before he left a Natural Son remarkable for his Valor his name was Mr. Zulestein Collonel of the Dutch Infantry who died at the attack of Vorden Prince William of Orange laid the Foundation of the Commonwealth of the United Provinces and was their first Founder his eldest Son Maurice secured and established this Commonwealth by his Victories which forced the Spaniards in the Treaty of Truce for 12 years to acknowledge the United Provinces for a free State and Henry Frederick Brother to Maurice and Grandfather to the present King of England by the continuation of his Conquests at last forced the Spaniards to renounce entirely the right which they had pretended to that Country so that we may say with reason and justice that this illustrious Father and his two generous Sons who have imitated his Vertues are the Founders of this Commonwealth which sends Ambassadors that are covered before the most powerful Kings in Christendom even before the King of Spain himself whose Vassals they were about 100 years ago Henry Frederick had for his devise this word Patriaeque Patrique intimating thereby that he thought of nothing but serving his Country and revenging the Death of his Father WILLIAM II Prince of Orange THE LIFE OF WILLIAM II. Prince of Orange THis Prince was born in the year 1626 the States General were his Godfathers and by the appointment of his Father was called William after the name of his Illustrious Grandfather In the year 1630 this young Prince was declared General of the Cavalry of the Low Countries and the year following the States granted him the Survivorship of the Government of their Province He was no sooner of Age to bear Arms but he followed his Father to the Army and was present at the Siege of Breda giving great proofs of his Courage though but 13 years old Immediately upon the death of his Father Frederick Henry he took the Oath of Fidelity to the States for the Government of which they had granted him the Reversion All Europe was in a profound Peace upon conclusion of the Treaty at Munster which was done the next year after Prince Henry's death The States considering the vast Debts they had contracted by the extraordinary Expences they had been obliged to make resolved to retrench all unnecessary ones having a great number of Troops in their pay that were of no use now the War was at an end they proposed to disband a considerable part of them William the Second who had succeeded in all the Places of the Prince his Father and knowing very well that nothing but the Army could support the credit of the Places he was possessed of made a strong opposition to this design of the States General He represented that it was against all the Rules of Policy to disband Troops who had been so faithful to the Provinces and that France or Spain might make use of this opportunity to fall upon their Common-wealth in a time when they could not be in a condition to defend themselves The States who were already resolved to break 120 Companies to make some sort of satisfaction to the Prince offered to continue the ordinary Pay to the disbanded Officers The Prince agreed to this proposal but the Province of Guelders and the City of Amsterdam opposed and protested against it for several reasons They who were in the Prince's Interests advised him to visit the principal Cities of the Netherlands to perswade the Magistrates to take a Resolution of leaving not only the Officers but the Troops in the same condition they were in before the War that they might be in a readiness to serve where-ever there was occasion Pursuant to this advice the Prince having sent for the principal Collonels of the Army went in person to four or fiveCities of Holland The Burghers of Amsterdam who were well assured that the Prince would visit them too and apprehending his presence would cross the Resolutions they had taken desired him by their Deputies to put off his intended Journey to this City for several Reasons which they gave him Haerlem Medemblic and several other places followed the Example of Amsterdam The Proceedings of these Cities was so considerable an Affliction to the Prince and incensed him so much that in a meeting of the States General he resented it with inexpressible concern He endeavoured to insinuate to them by a great number of Reasons
Battle of Senef p. 256. C. COligny Gaspor de His Character p. 3. Coeverden lost p. 231 retaken p. 232. Coligny Lovise de Her Life p. 137. Cambray besieged and surrendred p. 280. D. DOn Iohn of Austria made Governour of the Low Countreys p. 57. His Story p. 58 59 c. Surprises the Castle of Namur and Charlemont p. 61. Defeats the Army of the States at Gemblours p. 65. Dies of Grief p. 67. E. COunts Egmont and Horn Executed p. 20. Q. Elizabeth loved to be thought handsome p. 153 c. F. FRench King almost over-runs the United Provinces p. 214. G. CArdinal Granville his Character and Story p. 14 15 c. Name of Gueux or Beggars whence the Rise p. 17. Grave besieged p. 265. and taken p. 269. Ghent taken p. 291. H. HAerlem taken by Famine p. 42. Henry Frederick born p. 114. His Life p. 177 c. His Children p. 178. I. INquisition declares those guilty of High-Treason who had not opposed the Hereticks of the Netherlands p. 19. Ipres taken p. 291. L. COunt Lodovick c. presents a Petition to the Governess of the Low Countreys against the Inquisition New Bishops c. which at first is slighted p. 17 18 c. Lewis de Requesens made Governour in the place of the Duke of Alva p. 44. Leyden relieved by breaking down the Dykes p. 45 46. and the University settled there p. 47. M. MArgaret of Austria made absolute Governess of the Low Countreys with Orders to Establish the Spanish Inquisition and several new Bishopricks in the Netherlands p. 14. Mons surprised p. 32. and retaken by the Spaniards p. 34. Count de la Mark takes the Brill with several other Cities p. 36. Middburg taken by the Spaniards p. 44. Maurier traduced at the French Court c. p. 120 121 122. Maurice Prince of Orange his Character p. 125. raises the Siege of Berghen ap Zoom p. 129 and 140. takes Breda p. 130. and Sluise p. 134. defeats Arch Duke Albert p. 135. and the Lord de Balancon p. 138. his Description p. 148 149 150 c. Maestricht besieged by the French p. 235. and taken p. 236. Mansfeld's Story and Character p. 141 142 c. N. NArses the Eunuch his Story p. 8. House of Nassau their Genealogy p. 9 10 c. The Netherlands demanded to have all the ' Spanish Forces drawn out of the Low Countreys p. 14. Nimighen Treaty p. 273. O. OStend taken by the Spaniards p. 134. St. Omers surrendred to the French p. 285. P. KIng Philip the Cause of the Disorders in the Low Countreys p. 8. His Description p 13 14 c. Perpetual Edict concluded between the States and Don Iohn of Austria p. 60. Prince of Parma made Governour of the Low Countreys p. 68. King Philip published a Prescription against the Prince of Orange p. 74. Philip William of Nassau his Life p. 115. taken by force out of the Colledge of Lovaine by King Philip p. 115. shut up in a Castle in Spain at 13 Years Old p. 116. released and sent to bring the Infanta Isabella into the Low Countreys p. 117. marries Eleanor of Bourbon p. 118. S. STates General Consent to a Toleration of both Religions p. 66. Request the Duke of Anjou and Alemon to be their Lord and Protector p. 73. T. Treaty of Peace set on foot at Breda p. 48. Treaty of Peace at Ghent p. 50 51 â— Treaty of Peace at Nimighen concluded p. 297. V. MArquess Vitelli his Character and Epitaph p. 28. Valenciennes taken by the French p. 279. W. WIlliam the First of Nassau his Birth p. 3. the Favours show'd him by Charles 5th p. 4. made Generalissimo at 22 Years Old p. 5. builds Charlemont and Philipville p. 5. supports the Emperour at the Resignation of his Empire and is recommended by him to the King of Spain p. 6. his Description p. 12. Retires into Germany p. 19. Raises an Army there which is defeated near the River Ems p. 24. Raises another of Twenty Four Thousand German Horse and Foot p. 25. which refusing to follow him into France to assist the Hugonots he disbands p. 27. Enters the Low Countreys with a great Army and is received into Ruremond Malines c. p. 33. Acknowledg'd Governour of Holland Zealand c. by the States p. 38. banishes the Romish Ceremonies out of the Church p. 39. received into Brussels in great Triumph p. 62. lays the Common-Wealth of the United Provinces p. 68. publishes his Apology against King Philip's Prescription p. 75 76 77 c. Marries Lovise de Coligny p. 113. killed at Delft p. 115. his Funeral p. 119. William Count de Buren Eldest Son to Prince William seized at the Colledge of Lovain and carried Prisoner to Spain p. 23. William Henry of Nassau his Birth p. 211. deprived of the Offices belonging to his Family p. 212. chose General of the Army p. 215. and restored to all the other Commands belonging to him which Cornelius de Witt opposes p. 220. Prince William takes Naerden p. 237. falls sick of the Small-pox and recovers p. 270. besieges Maestricht p. 275. and raises it p. 277. Marries the Princess Mary p. 288. Attacks and almost Routs Luxemburgh near Mons p. 298. Cornelius de Witt and his Brother killed p. 224. William the Second born p. 203. besieges Amsterdam p. 206. dies of the Small-pox 208. THE Author's Preface THE Reader whoever he is must not expest in these Memoirs to find a gay or rather an impertinent Discourse fillâ—d with New Terms which some presumptuous little Authors who mind nothing but bare words call fine Language These people are to understand that I was never bred at a Colledge and that the little Skill I have in Languages I receiv'd from Masters at home or from common use in Conversation I never read one single Line of Priscian or of any other Grammarian Their Lexicons and their Syntaxes which my Father was used to call The Plague of Youth are as much unknown to me as the Isle of Pines I never was able to comprehend what a Gerund or a Supin meant and though perhaps I use them upon occasion I neither know how to define or describe them I have not without a great deal of pleasure read the Quintus Curtius of Monsieur de Vaugclas whose solid Vertue and extraordinary Sweetness as well as his inviolable Fidelity to his Friends I esteem although I was never able to edify much by his Remarks upon our Language And what is more than all this having had the misfortune to debauch my own Natural Language during my long abode in Forreign Countries where I was bred as also by my long stay at Mayne where their Language is extreamly vitious and thinking it not worth the while to spend money to no purpose at Court and to feed my self with Vain Expectations my Reader ought not to be surpris'd if he meets in this Work some terms and manners of speaking that have not receiv'd the
absolutely Commanded half the Roman Legions who governed all the World With these great forces and advantages they entred upon the Stage made their first Victories the fore-runners to the next pursued their blow and one overthrew the Empire of the Persians and the other the Roman Commonwealth But Prince William has equall'd the Glory of these great Conquerors by attaquing the formidable Power of King Philip of Spain without any Army or Forces and by maintaining himself many years against him His Courage was always greater than his Misfortunes and when all the World thought him ruin'd and he was driven out of the Netherlands he entred 'em again immediately at the Head of a new Army and by his great Conduct laid the foundations of a Commonwealth that covers the Ocean with its Fleets and over-matches all Europe in the number and strength of its Naval Forces His Enemies had no other way to ruin him but by a base Treachery which he might have avoided if he had reposed less confidence in the love of the People who served him instead of Guards and considered him as the Father and Tutelar God of their Country After having reflected on all the Illustrious Persons that have lived before him I can meet with no one that equall'd his profound Wisdom heroick Courage and Constancy under all his Adversities but Gaspar de Coligny Lord of Chastillon Admiral of France so great a Man that D'Avila his Enemy was forc'd to own that he was more talk'd of in Europe than the King of France himself This Admiral after the loss of four Battles was so far from being broken or ruin'd and continued still so powerfull that his Enemies were oblig'd to grant him a Peace and had it not been for a Treachery whose Memory will be eternally abhorr'd by all good Men he might have ended his days in Peace and done great service to his Country by the Conquest of the Low-Countries which he propos'd at so favourable a conjuncture that we might easily have made our selves masters of ' em But the ill maxims of those Divines who would conform all Religion to the humours and passions of Princes and the Doctrine That no Faith ought to be kept with Rebels and Hereticks and that 't is lawfull to do a small evil to bring about a greater good added to the powerfull Motive of Revenge prevail'd over all the Ties of Honour and Faith which ought always to be sacred and inviolable William of Nassaw Prince of Orange was Born in the Year 1533 at the Castle of Dillembourgh in the County of Nassaw He was Nine years Page of Honour to the Emperour Charles the Fifth who continually admired his extraordinary good sense and modesty This great Prince took delight to communicate his most important affairs to him and instruct him and has often declar'd to those he was most familiar with That this young Prince furnish'd him with Expedients and Counsels that surpriz'd him and which otherwise he had never thought of When he gave private Audience to Foreign Princes and Ministers and Prince William was about to retire with the rest of the Company he usually bid him stay All the World was surpriz'd to see this great and wife Monarch esteem him above all those that were about him and trust him at so tender an Age with all the secrets of his Empire the management of Affairs and the weightiest Negotiations He was scarce Twenty years old when Charles the Fifth chose him out among all the great Lords of his Court to carry the Imperial Crown which he resign'd to his Brother Ferdinand An Office which he discharged with much unwillingness assuring his good Master That 't was an unwelcome Task he had imposed on him of carrying that Crown to another which his Uncle Henry Count of Nassaw had put upon his Head And for a proof that Charles the Fifth set on less a value on his Courage than his Prudence when Philibert Emanuel Duke of Savoy was obliged by his own private affairs to be absent some time from the Netherlands tho' the Prince was but 22 years old and was in Breda at that time Charles the Fifth of his own accord against the advice of all his Counsel made him Generalissimo to the prejudice of so many experienc'd Captains and among the rest of Count Egmont who was Twelve years older at a time when he had to deal with two great Generals Mounsieur de Nevers and the Admiral of France But the Prince was so far from receiving any blow that Campagn that he built Charlemont and Philipville in sight of the French Armies I do not pretend to relate all the Actions of the Prince of Orange which would require a Volume and which so many Historians have done in several Languages 'T would be a strange itch of writing and a manifest robbery to publish what may be met with in particular Books My design is only to make some Reflections and Observations on this great Prince and acquaint the World with some particulars of his Life which I learn'd from my Father and other eminent Men of that Age. But in order to make my History more intelligible and agreeable to those who have not read his Life I was engaged contrary to my former intentions by an Illustrious Person to whom I have too many Obligations to refuse him any thing to make a short Abridgment of his Life enough to give a general Idea of him as Geographers present us at one view all the Old and New World in a little Map not doubting but a Narrow Portraicture of so extraordinary a Man will cause these Particulars I know of his Life to be read with greater pleasure and besides will show to all the World upon what foundations this Prince has erected the powerfull Commonwealth of the United Provinces Besides the esteem the Emperour had for his Vertue there was no Man at his Court whom he lov'd so tenderly as the Prince of Orange Which he made appear to the last moment of his Administration For at the famous Assembly at Brussels A. D. 1555 when the Emperour resign'd all his Kingdoms to his Son Philip 't was remarkable that in so considerable an Action he was supported by the Prince of Orange All these marks of Confidence and professions of Friendship which the Emperour made him were the cause of his Misfortunes For tho' at his departure into Spain the Emperour recommended him particularly to the King his Son the Spaniards who govern'd him for he had been bred always in Spain being jealous of the growing Greatness and good Fortune of this young Prince made the King entertain such suspicions of him that his most innocent words and actions had an ill interpretation put upon 'em and the refusel which the States made of complying with the demands of the King was laid to his charge He easily perceived by the cold receptions of the King that his Enemies had ruin'd him in his good opinion But he was confirm'd in his
belief when King Philip was going aboard the Ship at Flushing which was to carry him into Spain The King looking on him with a great deal of anger reproach'd him with hindring the execution of his designs by his private intrigues The Prince replying with much submission that the States had done every thing voluntarily and of their own accord the King took him by the hand and shaking it answer'd in Spanish No los Estadós mas vos vos vos repeating the word vos several times which the Spaniards use by way of contempt as we say in French Toy Ioy Thou thou This particular I had from my Father who learn'd it from a Confident of the Prince of Orange who was present The Prince after this publick affront had more wit than to conduct the King aboard his Vessel but contented himself with taking leave of him and wishing him a good Voyage into Spain For he was secure enough in the City where he was well beloved and where there was a great concourse of people from all parts to see the King 's Embarkment As a further proof of his disgrace instead of having the Government of the Netherlands conferr'd on him which his Ancestors had enjoy'd and which he passionately desired he saw Cardinal Granville his Enemy at the Helm intrusted with all the secrets of the Court of Spain under Margaret of Austria Duchess of Parma and Governess of the Netherlands who had particular Orders to have an eye on his Actions and to communicate no affair of importance to him which made him resolve for the preservation of his Honour and his Life too which he saw openly threatned to support himself with the love of the People and court Foreign Alliances From hence 't is reasonable enough to conclude that King Philip by his ill usage of the Prince of Orange who had done such great Services to the Emperour his Father was himself the cause of all the Disorders in the Low-Countries For had he continued a favourable Treatment to the Prince of Orange according to the advice and example of his Father he had without dispute been a good Subject and never had taken those desperate resolutions which kindled a fire that lasted above a Hundred years and cost the Lives of so many Thousand Men and drain'd the Treasure of the Indies This ought to be a warning never to drive great Courages to despair We meet with a Thousand instances of this nature in History but particularly of Narses This famous Eunuch after all his great Services were slighted for the Empress Sophia Wife of Iustin the Second had sent him word that she would make him Spin with her Women replied That he would weave such a Web that she and the whole Empire should never be able to cover And to make his Threatnings good he call'd the Lombards into Italy who conquer'd the best part of it to which they left their Name This done without returning to Constantinople he stay'd some time at Naples where he died quietly in his Bed in spite of all the designs of this proud Empress who had sent Longinus a wicked and cruel Man to succeed him with Orders to dispatch him But before I enter upon the General History of the Actions of this Prince 't will be proper to say something of his Family leaving the Particulars which would be too tedious to the Genealogists The House of Nassaw is without contradiction one of the greatest and ancientest in all Germany For besides its high Alliances the number of its Branches and the honour of giving an Emperour near Four hundred years since it has this particular advantage to have continued Ten entire Ages and to boast with the State of Venice as a Learned Man says That its Government is founded upon a Basis of a Thousand years standing Count Oiho of Nassaw who liv'd Six hundred years since had two Wives The first brought him in Marriage the Country of Gueldres and the other Zulphen which were preserved Three Ages in the House of Nassaw After him another Count Otho of Nassaw Married the Countess of Viandden who had great Estates in the Netherlands above Three hundred years since His Grandson Engilbert the first of that Name Count of Nassaw Married the Heiress of Laeke and Breda A. D. 1404 and was Grandfather to Engilbert of Nassaw the second of that Name This Prince was great in War and Peace He won the Battle of Guinegaste punish'd the Rebellion of Bruges and was Governour-General of the Netherlands under Maximilian the First He died without Children and made his Brother Iohn Heir of all his Estates This Count Iohn had two Sons Henry and William The Lands in the Low-Countries fell to Henry's share the Eldest William the Youngest had those of Germany This is that Henry Count of Nassaw to whose strong Solicitations against Francis the Fifth Charles the Fifth owed his Empire This was he who on the Day of his Coronation put the Imperial Crown upon his Head Nevertheless after the conclusion of Peace between those great Princes when he was sent by the Emperour to do Homage for the Counties of Flanders and Artois King Francis by an incredible generosity forgetting all what was pass'd Married him to Claude de Chalon only Sister to Philibert de Chalon Prince of Orange who had been brought up by Ann of Bretan his Mother-in-law By this means Rene de Nassaw and of Chalons his only Son was Prince of Orange after the Death of his Uncle Philibert de Chalons who died without Issue William Count of Nassaw Brother to Count Henry embraced the reform'd Religion and banish'd the Catholick out of his Dominions 'T was he who was the Father of the great William of Nassaw whose Life I am writing who became Prince of Orange and Lord of all the Estates of the House of Chalons by the Will of Rene de Nassaw and de Chalon his Cosin German who was kill'd at the Siege of St. Desier A. D. 1544. and left no Children behind him The Emperour Charles the fifth who was so much obliged to the House of Nassaw was extreamly concern'd to see this young Prince bred up a Heretick with much ado he removed him from his Father and placed him near his Person in order to his Conversion to the Catholick Religion which indeed the Prince made a publick profession of as long as the Emperour liv'd and in the beginning of the Reign of Philip the Third But the prejudice of the Education and the new Religion which he had suck'd in with his Milk and had a taste of afterwards at the Court of France where the new Opinions were very much in Vogue when he was a Hostage at Paris for the Peace of Cambray made so strong an Impression on him that he could never wear it off His Father Count William of Nassaw had Five Sons and seven Daughters by Iulienne Countess of Stolbourg The eldest was this William of Nassaw Prine of Orange The youngest was Iohn Count
Orange entred into Brabant But the Duke who would not stake the Netherlands upon the Success of a Battle against a fresh Army and stronger than his own having fortifyed all the Towns and covering himself with Rivers and posting himself very advantageously laughed at the Prince of Orange who presented him Battle every day For after the Prince had made Twenty nine Incampments without being able to draw the Duke to an Engagement being received into no City contrary to his hopes and pressed by Famine in a little Country uncapable of supplying longer so numerous an Army and his Souldiers mutinying and demanding their Pay in one of which Mutinies some Officers were killed in his sight and he himself had been shot if the Pistol bullet had not lighted on the Pommel of his Sword he was forced to disband his Army which refused to follow him into France to the Assistance of the Huguenots the greatest part of the Officers telling him That they promised to serve only against Spain not France He paid the Army with the little ready Money he had with his Plate and the Money which the Sale of his Artillery and his Baggage yielded him engaging to the principal Commanders his Principality of Orange and his other Lordships for the Security of what he ow'd them The extraordinary prudence and firmness of the Duke of Alva can never be enough admired who found out an excellent way of beating his Enemies without fighting whereas other Victories are usually won by bloody and hazardous Battles He swore to the Messenger who came from his eldest Son Frederick de Toledo and Chiapin Vitelli Marquess of Celone his Mareschal de Camp to press him to give the Enemies Battle That 't was a strange thing they would not suffer him to manage the War as he pleased and that if any durst talk to him of fighting again he should never return alive This Marquess of Vitelli was a brave Captain and had done such great Services to the Duke of Tuscany in his Wars that King Philip demanded him of the Duke to Command his Army under the Duke of Alva He behaved himself extreamly well in Flanders and died in the time of the Commendador de Requisons who succeeded the Duke of Alva in the Government of the Low Countries He was so prodigiously Fat that he was forced to gird up his Belly to be able to walk As he was a great Eater and reckoned an Atheist after his Death the Gueux made this Epitaph on him O Deus omnipotens crassi miserere Vitelli Quem Mors praeveniens non sinit esse bovem Corpus in Italiâ est tenet intestina Brabantus Ast animam nemo cur quia non habuit The Prince of Orange disbanded his Army in Strasbourg where he arrived from the Netherlands through the Frontiers of Picardy Champagne and Lorrain Between le Quesnoy and Cambray the Prince cut off Eighteen Companies of Foot and three hundred Horse and made almost all the Officers Prisoners Don Rufillé Henriquus Son to the Duke of Alva with many others were killed upon the place which was some satisfaction to him for the Blow he had received in Brabant where Count Hochstrate received a mortal Wound and died not long after very much regretted by the Prince of Orange for his Valour and unmovable Fidelity to his Party Philip de Morbais Lord of Louverval was taken Prisoner in the same Action and afterwards beheaded at Brussels The Prince out of this great Army reserved to himself only a Body of Twelve hundred Horse and with his Brothers Count Lodowick and Henry joyned the Prince Palatine Wolfgang Duke of Deuxponts whom he found ready to enter France to the Succours of the Huguenots He was present at the taking of la Charité which was very happy for that Party for if the Germans had not made themselves Masters of a passage over the River Loire they could never have joyned the Admiral He was afterwards in the Battle of Roche la ville D' Avila observes that the Prince of Orange on this occasion Commanded the main Battle of the Huguenots Army with the Count de Rochefoucaut and that Count Lodowick of Nassau his Brother signalized himself in the Vanguard against Philip Strozzi Colonel of the French Infantry who advancing too forward was made Prisoner by the Huguenots The same Author assures us that 't was at Roche la ville where the King of Navarre afterwards Henry the Great began to give Proofs of the Courage which he has since made appear on so many dangerous occasions He was afterwards at the Siege of Poictiers which was fatal to the Huguenots for when they had ruined their Army before the place they were forced to raise the Siege to relieve Chatelleraut At last he quitted the Camp at Foy la Binese near Richelieu disguised like a Peasant with four Men in his Company and after having crossed Tourrain and Berry with great difficulty he arrived at la Charité and then Montbeliard from whence he retired into his County of Nassau to raise new Forces His Brother Count Lodowick was afterwards at the Battle of Moncountour whence he saved himself in Company of the Admiral de Chatillon and a Body of the Huguenot Horse This year the Admiral advised the Prince of Orange to give out Commissions for Commands at Sea to several Persons of Quality who had been driven out of the Low Countries by the Duke of Alva who after having put to Death a vast number of Men forced all People to pay the Tenth penny for the Sale of their Moveables the Twentieth for immoveables and the Hundreth penny for all they possessed The Admiral assured the Prince that if he could once set Footing in Holland or in Zealand Countries very strongly situated 't would be difficult to force him out because he was so well beloved by the People who would never fail him at his need William Lord of Lumay descended from the Count de la Mare was the chief of these Refugees He and his Associates were called the Sea Gueux by way of distinction from the Land Gueux This advice of the Admiral was very useful to the Prince of Orange and was a sort of Prophecy of his Establishment in those Provinces for by this means he possessed himself of all Holland and Zealand and was as Successful and Victorious at Sea as he had been unfortunate at Land for 't was observed that in Ten years continual War the Spaniards were always beaten by the Hollanders at Sea In the Year 1570. Peace being concluded with the Huguenots the Court of France the better to amuse and over-reach the Huguenots made a shew of employing them against the Netherlands under the conduct of the Duke of Alenzon Admiral Colligny and Count Lodowick of Nassau The Court pretended to be dissatisfied with the King of Spain for poysoning Isabella of France his Wife whose Death the French gave out they would revenge and the Murders of the French that had been
Canon But this proved a long and a bloody Siege having lasted from December 1572. to Iuly 1573. The Spaniards lost above Four thousand Men before it among others the Sieur Crossonier Great Master of the Artillery and Bartholomew Campi de Besoro an excellent Engineer There was so great a Famine in the City that a little Child Three years old was dug up by its Parents some days after it was buried to prolong their miserable Life During this Siege Don Frederick tired with its length and despairing of good Success talked of returning into Brabant but the Duke of Alva blaming his impatience sent him word that if he resolved to raise the Siege he himself would come in Person sick as he was to carry it on But if his Indisposition hindred him he would send into Spain for his Mother to supply the place of her Son This reproach made Don Frederick resolve to continue the Siege In the heat of the Siege the Spaniards having thrown into the City the Head of a Man with this Inscription The Head of Philip Konigs id est King who came to relieve Harlem with an Army of Two thousand Men and aftewards another with this Inscription The Head of Anthony le Peintre who betrayed Mons to the French The Inhabitants of Harlem put to Death eleven Spanish Prisoners and put their Heads into a Barrel which by Night they rolled into the Enemies Camp With this Inscription The Citizens of Harlem pay the Duke of Alva ten Heads that he may no longer make Waer upon them for the Payment of the Tenth penny which they have not yet paid and for Interest they give him the Eleventh Head As they had hopes that the Siege would be raised they suffered themselves to be transported to prophane Mockeries making the Images of Priests Monks Cardinals and Popes and then tumbled them down from the top of the Walls after they had stabbed them in a hundred places At last the City being reduced to the greatest extremity by an unheard of Famine which swept away above Thirteen thousand Persons and all hopes of relief being vanished by the defeat of the Succours which the Count de la Mark and the Baron de Balemberg were bringing to the City they were obliged to surrender at Discretion by the Crys of the Women and Children for the Men had resolved to Sally out in a Body and cut out an honourable passage with their Swords through the Enemies Army The Spaniards forced the Citizens to pay a great Summ of Money to hinder the entire Destruction of the place and hang'd and drown'd above Two thousand Persons in some few days among others all the Ministers the principal Men of the City and the Officers of the Troops Wibald Riperda Governour and Lancelot a Bastard Son to Brederode were both beheaded The Cruelty of the Spaniards at Harlem instead of doing their Cause Service ruin'd it and made the People resolve rather to suffer the last Miseries than submit to so Cruel and Tyrannical a Government Thus the little City of Alkmar bravely repulsed all their Attacks and the Prince of Orange surprized Gertrudemberg which belonged to him in his own Right and which covered Dordrecht About the same time Maximilian de Henin Count de Bossut a famous Captain and very much valued by the Duke of Alva who was made Governour of Holland was taken in the Zuider-Zee which is the Sea of Amsterdam and his Fleet defeated by that of the Prince of Orange His great Ship was also taken which he called the Inquisition to reproach the Dutch with the principal Cause of their revolt This Count was carried to Horn where he remained Prisoner Four years till the Pacification of Ghent The Spaniards having taken Prisoner at the Hague Philip de Marnix Sieur de St. Aldegonde Minister of State to the Prince of Orange he assured the Duke of Alva that he would treat the Count de Bossut in the same manner as he did St. Aldegonde The Prince of Orange can never be enough commended for his good Nature in treating the Count with so much Kindness and Civility though not long before he had corrupted a Burgomaster of Delft and prevailed upon him to betray the Prince and deliver him into his hands whilst he was walking out of the City But the Conspiracy was discovered by a Letter intercepted from the Count to the Burgomaster About that time the Duke of Alva and his Son were recalled into Spain King Philip having found out too late that their Cruelty confirmed the Low-Countries in their Rebellion Lewis de Requesens great Commander of the Order of St. Iames in Castile and Governour of Milan who had a great share in the famous Victory of Lepanto succeeded the Duke of Alva in the Government of the Netherlands The Duke at his Departure boasted that he had put to Death by the hands of the Hangman above Eighteen thousand Men yet cruel Vargas who returned into Spain with him cryed at parting that his Clemency and Gentleness had lost the King the Netherlands A. D. 1574. Middleburg the Capital City of Zealand having been a long time defended by that renowned Captain Christopher de Mondragon and endured a great Famine and after the defeat of the Spanish Fleets who attempted in vain to relieâ—…e it was reunited to the rest of the Province This Siege lasted two years and the Spaniards spent above Seven Millions in the several Fleets they set out to Succour it The Prince of Orange so successful at Sea had always ill Luck at Land For the fourth Army which Count Lodowick of Nassau brought him out of Germany to assist him in driving out the Spaniards from the rest of Holland was defeated near Nimeguen by Sancho D'Avila a General of great Experience who from a private Souldier had advanced himself through all the Degrees and Employments of War to that great Command The Germans of Count Lodowicks Army instead of providing for their own and their General 's Defences fell to Mutiny according to their usual Custom and demand their Pay In this Action Count Lodowick and his Brother Count Henry of Nassau and Christopher Count Palatine were all three killed D'Avila remained Master of the Field of Battel of Sixteen pieces of Canon and all the Baggage This Battel was fought in the beginning of the Government of Requesens The Prince of Orange who loved his Brothers tenderly was sensibly afflicted with this loss But he abated nothing of his Constancy and Courage A. D. 1575. the Spaniards encouraged by the defeat and death of the two Brothers of the Prince of Orange laid Siege to the City of Leyden which after a long and unparallell'd Famine was miraculously saved by breaking down the Banks which drowned a great many Spaniards and by the Succours which was conveyed into the City by an infinite number of Boats that swam on the Lands that were overflown When the Prince represented to the States the Damage which the breaking down the Dikes
help you if not the Devil take you Body and Soul and all the standers by cryed Amen By Virtue of this Edict all Prisoners were released on both sides the Count Egmont the Sieur de S. Goignie the Sieur de Capres and others in the Custody of the Spaniards and Gaspar de Robb and others by the States This done Don Iohn was received into Brussels in great State as Governour-general of the Low-Countries But beginning to oppress the Provinces pursuant to the private Orders he received from the Court of Spain which were discovered by several Letters intercepted which Don Iohn and his Secretary Escovedo writ in Cyphers to the King and his Ministers which Philip de Mornix Seignieur de St. Aldegonde decyphered This made them resolve to oppose his pernicious Designs by Force of Arms. Don Iohn under a pretence that they had a Design upon his Person retired from Brussels and having received the Queen of Navarre into Namur surprized the Castle of Namur and then Charlemont and made preparations for War and recalled the Spanish and German Troops He called that day he seized the Gastle of Namur the first of his Government as Henry the III. afterwards called the Day of the Murther of the Duke of Guise the first of his Reign The States took up Arms on their side demolished the Castle of Antwerp and joined themselves to the Prince of Orange But the States-General assembled at Brussels demanding the free Exercise of the Catholick Religion in Holland and Zealand he made answer that he could make no Alterations in that Affair without consulting the States of these two Provinces who had the sole and absolute Power of doing it This was a fundamental Maxim of that State which was afterwards changed by the Factions and Force of Arms under the Government of Prince Maurice his Son as I shall manifest in his Life Prince William of Orange being arrived at Breda with his third Wife Charlotte de Bourbon he was invited by the States to come and encourage them by his Presence For this Effect the Burghers of Antwerp went out to meet him and conducted him into their City where the States-General deputed to him the Abbots of Villiers and Marotes the Barons de Fresin and Capres to beseech him to come in all haste to Brussels The Prince went to Brussels through the New-Canal attended by the Burghers of Antwerp who marched in good Order on one side of the Canal and on the other side by the Burghers of Brussels all in gilt Armour who came out of their City to meet him He was receiv'd into Brussels with great magnificence and Triumph with incredible Acclamations of Joy by all the World Immediately he was declared Governour of Brabant and Superintendant of the Finances of the Provinces Upon this we may observe that tho' the Life of this Prince has been cross'd by strange Disappointments and Misfortunes capable of sinking a Man of less Resolution than himself Yet these Accidents were sweeted from time to time with those secret pleasures and Delights which the most Stoical and insensible Men are overjoyed at as the Acclamations and Applauses of the People whose Hearts and Affections he entirely possess'd Other Princes command only the Bodies of their Subjects without having any Empire over their Minds which ought to make up the noblest part of their Dominions But as Envy is the inseparable Companion of Vertue and a great Reputation is often more dangerous than a bad one this pompous Reception of the Prince of Orange added to the Authority his great Birth Experience and Merit gained him in the States and in the Hearts of the People procured him the Jealousy of many Lords and Gentlemen of Quality the chief of whom were the Duke Arschot newly made Governour of Flanders the Marquess of Havret his Brother the Count de Lalain and his Brother the Siegneur de Montigny the Viscount of Ghent Count Egmont the Sieurs de Compigny de Rassinguem and de Sueveguem and many others This jealous Party dispatched privately the Sieur de Malstede to offer the Government of the Low-Countries to the Archduke Matthias Brother to the Emperor Rodolphus He made so much hast and pressed the Archduke so strongly to depart that he was arrived at Cologne from Vienna before 't was known that they had sent for him These Gentlemen imagined that they should have all the Management of the Government under the Archduke who would consider them as the Authors of his Establishment and at the same time should ruine the Authority of the Prince of Orange by giving him a Superiour of that Quality But the Prince of Orange who had the Art of Complying with all Times and turning Poison into Antidotes made a Modest Complement to the States General for not acquainting him with so important a Resolution as they had taken of sending for the Archduke whereas nothing ought to be transacted without the common Consent of all especially Matters of such Consequence But he made no Opposition to the Reception or Establishment of the Archduke Then having brought over to his party the Count de Lalain who had the chief Command of the Army he managed Matters so well by his Address and Submissions that he gained the Archduke who was made Governour of the Netherlands upon certain Conditions and he himself was declared Lieutenant-General by majority of Voices in the States and the Archduke in consideration of his great Abilities trusted him with the intire Management of Affairs In this manner the Prince of Orange by his good Conduct and Prudence turn'd that Storm upon his Enemies which they raised with Design to ruin him For the Duke of Arschot the head of the Faction had the Mortification to be seized in the Capital City of his Government Ghent by a Creature of the Prince of Orange Rehove who bore the greatest Sway in that large City And to make his Grief the more sensible his best Friends the Bishops of Bruges and Ypres and the Sieurs de Ressinguem and de Sueveguein and many others of his Dependants were seiz'd on at the same time Don Iohn of Austria having been declar'd Enemy of the Low-Countries by the States-General the 7th of September 1577. recall'd all the Spanish and Italian Troops who had retired out of the Netherlands in pursuance to the perpetual Edict with a great Body of Germans under the Command of Alexander Farneze Duke of Parma Son to Margaret of Austria formerly Governess of the Netherlands With this Reinforcement the last day of Ianuary An. Dom. 1578. he defeated the Army of the States at Gemblours commanded by the Sieur de Goiguin in the Absence of the Count de Lalain and the principal Officers who were at a Wedding in Brussels for which they were extreamly censured All the Cannon was taken with 30 Colours and 4 Cornets But the Reduction of the Famous City of Amsterdam which surrender'd to the States and was united to the Body of Holland the 8th of
Murtherer being killed by the Halberdiers of the Prince and Papers found in his pocket which proved him to be a Spamard they were undeceived and the People who had run to their Arms to revenge his Murther on the French at the Cloister of S. Michael where the Duke of Anjou lodged retired to their Houses The Prince of Orange to appease the Tumult with much Difficulty writ a Letter with his own Hand to the Magistrate to assure him that the Spaniards were the Authors of this Attempt The Grief and Concern of this great City for the Wounding of the Prince cannot be expressed Immediately publick Prayers were appointed and as long as he continued in Danger the People stayed in the Churches praying to God for his Recovery When he was well they kept a general Fast and the whole Day was imployed in thanking God for restoring to them the Father of their Country When he was in a Condition to travel the Duke of Anjou carried him to Ghent and Bruges where another great Conspiracy against those Princes was discovered The chief Man concerned in it was Nicholas Salvedo a Spaniard who confessed that he had received 4000 Crowns from the Duke of Parma to make away the Duke of Anjou and the Prince of Orange by Poyson or any other way and that he followed them in order to put his villainous Design in Execution Francis Baza an Italian and Native of Bresse one of his Complices was arrested likewise and confessed the same thing but before Execution stabbed himself with his Knife to prevent the Severity of the Punishment which was preparing for them Salvedo was carried to Paris where by a Decree of the Parliament he was drawn in pieces by four Horses in the Greve The wretched Salvedo seeing himself a Prisoner in the Conciergerie accused Monsieur de Villeroy in hopes to save himself by making so great a Man a Partner in his Guilt or at least suspend the Punishment he deserved But no Credit was given to so Hellish an Accusation of a Minister of the greatest Abilities and the most devoted to the Good and Interest of the State of all those who ever had the Administration of France And it must be acknowledged to his Honor that in all the Fury of the League he was the Man that prevented its falling into the Hands of Foreigners and after a Ministry of fifty years died poorer at the End than the Beginning of his Greatness His Father had been likewise Secretary of State and his Grandfather of the same Name De Neville was so under Francis the First and Superintendant of the Finances The Duke of Anjou imitating the Conduct of Rehoboam who ruined himself by following the Counsel of the young Men by the Advice of the Sieurs de Fervaques S. Agnan de la Rochepot and other hot-headed young Fellows that governed him without acquainting the Prince of Orange the Duke of Montpensier Count de Lavall nor any other Lords who were capable of giving him good Counsel resolved contrary to his Oath and against all Justice to seize the same day on all the most considerable Cities of the Netherlands as Dunkirk Dendermonde Bruges and Antwerp it self not being able to bear any longer the great Authority of the Prince of Orange and so limited a Power complaining to be only a Sovereign in Name And for a Proof of his just Resentment and in his own Justification he alledged that the People of Antwerp had taken up Arms to destroy him in his Lodgings and having rebelled against him by so rash an Act he was consequently absolved from his Oath Thus he surprized Dunkirk Dendermonde and some other places but missed of Bruges and Antwerp when he thought himself Master of it for though he had poured into the City 17 Companies of Foot supported by all his Army which he had advanced near the Walls under pretence of making a review of it nevertheless the Burghers ran in all hast to their Arms and made so brave a Resistance that the French were obliged to retire in Disorder to the Gate by which they entred where there was made such a terrible Slaughter of them that 't was impossible for those without to succour their Friends within for there were Mountains of dead Bodies pil'd in Heaps one upon the other which block'd up the Entry and cut off the Retreat of the French of whom there were more stifled than kill'd In this bloody Dispute called the Enterprize upon Antwerp there were killed only 83 Burghers and 1500 French among whom were 300 Gentlemen who were all buried without Distinction in a great Ditch And as the people of these Counties who are much of the same Humour with the Germans in all extraordinary Events make Computations upon the Numbers they observed that this Deliverance fell out in the Year 1583 which Number made up that of the 83 Burghers and 1500 French who were killed that day The Duke of Anjou having miscarried in his Attempt surrendred by a Treaty made with the States all the Places he had possessed himself of and returning into France died of Grief in his Appenage of Chateau-Thierry in the beginning of the next year with the Reputation of a violent and unsettled Temper The Flemmings believed that the Prince of Orange was concerned in the Attempt the French made to surprize Antwerp and his Enemies and Enviers which great Men never fail to have made use of this false pretence to lessen his great Credit and of his fourth Marriage with Louise de Coligny Daughter to the Admiral de Chastillon whom he married after he had lost his third Wise Charlotte de Bourbon who died at Antwerp not long after he was cured of his Wound which was a visible proof as they said of his Inclination to the French who at that time were had in Execration by all the Netherlands Seeing himself thus suspected and that the Party of the States declined in the Walloon Provinces he retired into Holland where he thought his Life in greater Security and less exposed to those Attempts which Superstition on one side and the Reward promised in the Proscription on the other made every one ready to undertake against his Person He chose the City of Delft for his ordinary Residence where at the Beginning of the year 1584. he had a Son born called Henry Frederick Grandfather to the present Prince of Orange who did not degenerate from the Vertue of his Ancestors Prince William employed Philip de Mornix Seigneur de S. Aldegonde in the Management of his greatest Affairs and made him Burgomaster of Antwerp when he left it He was a Man of Quality Integrity and Learning About the End of his Life he made use of Iohn Barneveld whom he valued very much upon the account of his Honesty and great Capacity Having been almost overset with the Tempests which had been raised up against him and having a Heart above the Storms he took for his Devise a Sea-Gull or Didapper in Latin
Gerard Trucses Archbishop and Elector of Cologne and on his Left Count de Hohenlo or Helac This was that Elector who falling desperately in love with Agnes de Mansfield a Nun chose rather to lose his Soveraignty and Electorate than his Mistress He was of the same Opinion with that Greek Poet who writ that a beloved Nymph stood in instead of all things and that we can want nothing with her but not enjoying her we are poor amidst the plenty of all other Goods This Archbishop delivered into the Hands of the United Provinces the City of Reneberg in the Diocess of Cologne It was so often taken by the Spaniards and Dutch that the Marquess Spinola called it the Whore of War and it was seven years since in the Hands of the States the Consideration of which made the present Elector of Cologne join with France to recover again this Place of his Electorate which this Trucses had alienated and this Alliance gave us an Opportunity of falling upon Holland behind which some years since was almost over-run The Gravers of Holland have represented this Magnificent Funeral Pomp of the Prince of Orange upon several Sheets of Paper glu'd together which take up the whole side of a great Hall in order to perpetuate the Memory of so remarkable a Mourning Count Maurice his Son built him a very stately Monument of Marble where his Images stands made to the Life the Basis of this fine Monument is adorn'd with several Statues representing all the Vertues and the upper part is surrounded with weeping Loves It stands in one of the principal Churches of Delft and is not inferiour to the most sumptuous and stately Tombs in Italy Reflecting on this Tragical Death of the Prince of Orange I have often wondred that so wife a Man and who had so powerful Enemies had not better guarded himself For when he passed through the Cities he was commonly attended by only three or four Domesticks and I wondred at it the more because not long before Iouregny had like to have killed him at Antwerp where he escaped miraculously And there were many Salcedes in the Country who wanted only an Opportunity to assassinate him For after his Death the Spaniards gave out that when he was murthered by this Burgundian there was the same time at Delft a Lorrainer an English Man and two more of different Nations who had the same Design and could not have failed to put it in Execution It seems to me that his own Dangers ought to have made him provide better for his Security but he feared only two Nations the Italians and Spaniards imploying all others but these two and in the City of Delft which he had made the Seat of his Residence there was neither Spaniard nor Italian He observed that though a Price had been set on Admiral Coligny's Head nevertheless no Man durst run the Hazard of Assassinating him in hopes of a Reward which could prove of no Service to them when they had lost their Lives for there was no Appearance of making an Escape after they had killed a Prince in his own Country and in the midst of his Attendants Had he lived till the year 1589. and seen a little Monk spurred on by a false Zeal of Religion have the Boldness to assassinate Henry the III. at St. Cloud in the midst of his Army he would have taken more Care of his Safety These dismal Accidents and the deplorable Death of Henry the IV. massacred in the middle of Paris were a Warning to Richelieu who had always in his Mind this Proverb that Suspicion is the Mother of Security For when he saw all Europe had conspired his Ruin he stood upon his Guard and died peaceably in his Bed in spite of all the Disgusts of his Master and the Contrivances of his Enemies The Superstitious Catholicks and Spaniards celebrate this Belthazar de Guerard and have ranked him in the Number of their Martyrs Upon which Subject I cannot but admire that Famianus Strada in his excellent History of the Low Countries has insinuated that Iouregny who narrowly missed of killing the Prince at Antwerp had a good Design because he had fortified and prepared himself before he executed it with the Sacraments of the Communion and Pennance as if God Almighty who has expressly forbid Murther in the Decalogue and our Lord Iesus Christ who hath said and taught that he who should strike with the Sword should perish by the Sword would guide and strengthen a Murtherer in his Attempt Some Examples of the Old Testament will not serve to justifie him where God Almighty for the Preservation and establishment of the people of Israel and for other Reasons best known to himself allowed of such Actions otherwise there could be no Security for the Life of any Prince The Huguenots on the other side made a Martyr of that execrable Poltrot who killed the Great Francis of Lorrain Duke of Guise who had given him a treat in his House and made him eat at his Table insomuch as Adrianus Turnebus one of the learnedst men of his Age made a Latin Poem in Honour of this Poltrot who was called Iohn de Merè where he says Conspicuus fulvo stabit Mereus in auro And toward the End Plurimus ut maneat Mereus in ore nepotum Another learned Heretick said this in his Poem Praemia multa Meret alluding to his Name de Merè Another Heretick goes so far as to say among other things in French Verse Ce valeureux Poltrot qui tant s'ever tua Que le tyran tueur de Chretiens il tua I knew in my youth the Lady of the Sieur Alard a Captain in the French Troops in Holland so prepossessed with false Zeal and Bigotry for Calvinism that she shewed publickly to all the World the Picture of Poltrot like Iudith having killed Holofernes which she kept in the Reuelle of her Bed as a great Martyr and whom she considered as the Deliverer of the little Flock The Doctors of the League honoured with many Elogies Iames Clement a Iacobin the Murtherer of Henry the III. comparing him to Ebud who freed the people of Israel from their Servitude by killing Eglon Prince of the Moabites in his Chamber For Men's Passions are so violent and their Animosities prejudice them in such a manner that they celebrate Actions which deserve not only the Blame of all good Men but an exemplary Punishment William Prince of Orange made more noise in Europe than all the Kings of his time put together and has left behind him a renowned Posterity who pursuing his glorious Example have amazed all the Christian World by Actions which are immortalized in History He may boast to have been the Father of two very great Captains to have produced Kings Electors Landtgraves and Sovereign Princes in Germany to have peopled France with Princes Princesses Dukes Cardinals Mareschals and many great Lords But for a clearer Understanding of the Matter we must first declare
the 15th day of Novemb. 1623. Signed LOWIS and below Brulart In pursuance of this Order the Ceremony of the Baptism was performed Prince Maurice represented the King of Sweden who was likewise Godfather and the Countess of Nassau the Queen of Sweden My Father Walked as Embassador of France with the King of Bohemia on his Right Hand and the Prince of Orange on his Left The Ceremony was celebrated with great Pomp in a Church at the Hague called the Cloistre where I was present with my three Brothers For which great Honour the King and Queen of Bohemia thanked the King of France by Monsieur D'Ausson de Villeroul of the House of Iaucourt Brother-in-Law to my Father who was in their Service and afterwards unhappily perished with Prince Henry Frederick by the splitting of the Vessel which I mentioned before The Pope's Nuncio Resident at Paris hearing of this Baptism made great Complaints of it at Court and said 't was a great Shame for the most Christian King and eldest Son of the Church to have his Person represented by a Huguenot in an Ecclesiastical Ceremony The King and Queen of Bohemia left behind them several Princesses eminent for their Beauty and Merit one of whom turned Catholick and is now Abbess de Maubuisson The Princess Louise Iuliane de Nassau eldest Daughter of Charlotte de Bourbon and William Prince of Orange had also a Daughter by Frederick the IV. Elector Palatine who was married to the late Elector of Brandenburg Father to the present Elector I saw A. D. 1635. the old Electoress Palatine a Konigsberg the Capital of the Ducal Prussia where she had retired to her Daughter the Electoress of Brandenbourg after the Disorders of the Palatinate These two Princesses were extreamly civil to me The second Daughter of Charlotte de Bourbon and William Prince of Orange was Elizabeth de Nassau Wife to Henry de la Tour Duke of Bouillon a Famous General in the the Wars of Henry the IV She was living in the year 1641. and I saw her in the Castle of Sedan after the Battle wherein the Count de Soissons was killed She left two Sons and four Daughters who had Children The eldest was Frederick Maurice de la Tour Duke of Bouillon as great a Captain as his Father who by the Countess de Bergue had the present Duke of Bouillon Great Chamberlain of France and the Cardinal de Bouillon a Prince of great Learning and Merit and the Count D'Auvergne who has distinguished himself in our Armies and other Children among the rest the Dutchess D'Elbeuf The second Son of Elizabeth de Nassau and Henry de la Tour Duke of Bouillon was the Famous Henry de la Tour Viscount de Turenne a General of as great Wisdom and Valour who during the whole Course of his Life was held for one of the firmest Pillars of the State and in consideration of his extraordinary Valour and great Services was interr'd at St. Denys with our Kings by a just Order of his Majesty He married the Heireress of the House de la Force whose Vertue equalled her Birth she was Daughter to the deceased Duke de la Force and Grand-daughter to a Mareschal of that Name two Famous Captains and died without Issue but if she had left any Children behind her they could not have failed of being great Men being descended on both sides from an illustrious Number of generous Ancestors Besides these two great Sons Elizabeth de Nassau had several Daughters by Henry de la Tour Duke de Bouillon The eldest Anna Maria de la Tour married Henry Duke de la Trimouille and de Thouars her Cousin German Iuliane de la Tour was married to Francis de Roye de la Rochefoucault Count de Roussy Father to the Count de Roye very Famous in our Armies Elizabeth Wife of Guy Alfonse de Darfort Marquess of Duras Father to Monsieur de Duras Captain of the Guards du Corps to the King Mareschal of France Governour of the Franche Comtè and of the Count de Lorge likewise Mareschal of France I believe that the youngest was called Henrietta de la Tour Wife to the late Marquess de la Moissy of the House of Matignon She is Mother to the Marquese Du Bordage and the Count de Quintine who married a Lady of the Illustrious Name of Montgomery as considerable for her Beauty and Merit as the Greatness of her Extraction The third Daughter of Charlotte de Bourbon and William Prince of Orange was named Catharine Belgique who married Philip Louis Count of Hanau a Sovereign Lord near Francfort on the Main from whom besides the Counts of Hanau is descended Amelia Elizabeth Wife to that generous William Landtgrave of Hesse who died in the year 1637. after whose Death this Princess a Woman of a masculine Courage continued on the War against the Imperialists and pursued the Steps of her Husband who after the Peace of Prague where most of the Protestant Princes forsook their Allies and joined with the House of Austria had the Courage and Resolution to make head almost alone against so formidable a Power Among other Children she left the present Landtgrave of Hesse called William as his Father was the Electoress Palatine Mother to the Dutchess of Orleans and the Princess of Tarente Mother to the present Duke de la Trimouille who is married to the Heiress of the House of Crequi The fourth Daughter of Charlotte de Bourbon and the Prince of Orange was Charlotte Brabantine Wife to Claude Duke de la Trimouille and de Thouars Count de la Val who had Henry Duke de la Trimouille dead lately and Frederick de la Trimouille Count de Laval killed in a Duel in Italy by the late Monsieur Du Coudray Montpensier I saw him and knew him in my youth and because his upper Lip was slit they called him Bec de lievere or Hare-Lip Henry Duke de la Trimouille had by Mary de la Tour his Cousin German formerly mentioned the Prince de Tarent and de Talmont who is dead and who had the Duke of Trimouille already mentioned by the Princess of Hesse The fifth Daughter of Charlotte de Bourbon and the Prince of Orange was Charlotte Flandrine de Nassau who returning to the Religion of her Ancestors died Abbess of S. Croix in Poictiers She was a very good Princess I knew her but was little and so deaf that she could not hear without a little Silver Trumpet The sixth Daughter of Charlotte de Bourbon Princess of Orange was Aemilia of Nassau Wife to Frederick Casimir Count Palatine of the Branch of Duponts called the Duke of Lansberg This is the illustrious and great Posterity of this Fruitful Abbess The fourth and last Wife of William of Nassau Prince of Orange was Louise de Coligny Widow to Monsieur de Teligny and Daughter to the great Admiral de Chatillon by whom he had only one Son the renowned Henry Frederick Prince of Orange of whom we
shall speak hereafter Besides his celebrated Posterity of legitimate Children the Prince of Orange left a Natural Son called Iustin de Nassau who led a considerable Body of Men to the Assistance of King Henry the IV. before the Peace of Vervins He was a Brave Vertuous Man and died Governour of Breda I have heard my Father say that in the year 1616. having dispatched to Court upon some important Affair a Garson Captain named Lanchere famous in the Netherlands where he served This Courier in his Return passing through Breda Monsieur Iustin de Nassau asked him what News He answered nothing considerable but the Imprisonment of the Count D' Auvergne since Duke of Angoulesme Iustin de Nassau asking him the Reason he replied bluntly striking him on the Back for he was acquainted with his true Extraction Don't you know Sir that a Son of a Whore was never good for any thing A Fault which the poor Lanchere confessed to my Father when he knew that he was a Bastard Which is a proof that 't is good to be informed of Pedigrees and Alliances otherwise we are liable to Mistakes and to offend innocently Persons of Quality The End of the Life of William of Nassau Prince of Orange THE LIFE OF LOVISE de COLIGNY THE Fourth and Last Wife of WILLIAM of NASSAU Prince of ORANGE THIS Lady had very excellent Vertues without having the least Mixture of any Weakness incident to her Sex through the Course of her whole Life though it was very long She had been married to Monsieur de Teligny before the Famous Day of St. Bartholomew which was in 1572. and she died in 1620. The Admiral her Father esteem'd her very much both for her Modesty and Prudence She gain'd every Body's Heart and Affection by her Way of Conversation which was easy and graceful and had an universal Respect as well for her true Sence as her extraordinary good Nature She was very well shap'd though her Stature was but low her Eyes were very beautiful and her Complexion lively The Admiral who loved her tenderly and passionately desired to have her well disposed of after having cast his Eyes upon all the Persons of Quality that were of his own Religion and Party he found none so deserving to marry this excellent Lady as Monsieur de Teligny Son of Monsieur de Teligny a Famous Captain in the Wars of Italy in whom he had observed more Valour and Conduct than in any other Gentleman of his time besides his Vertues were so considerable that those who writ in Favour of Queen Catharine Queen of Medices who mortally hated the Admiral have confessed that she and the King her Son had very great Difficulty to consent to the Death of Monsieur de Teligny who had rendred himself agreeable to both of them by his handsom Deportment and by his sincere and noble Way of Acting which shews that Vertue is always attractive from whencesoever it proceeds and that it has uncommon Charms to make it self admired and favoured though in the Person of an Enemy The Admiral then advised this beautiful Lady to accept of Monsieur de Teligny and to preferr a Man indued with so many good Qualities though of moderate Fortune to others who though they had greater Riches and Titles were still less worthy to possess her But she soon lost so good a Husband together with the Admiral her Father in the cruel Day of St. Bartholomew Having heard of this Misfortune in Burgundy her Mother-in-Law and she with the young Lord of Chatillon her Brother had much ado to get into Switzerland to secure their Lives the Massacre of the Protestants being universal throughout all France This great Admiral was Son of another Gaspar de Coligny Lord of Chatillon upon Loyr Mareschal of France under Louis the XII a Famous General who died at Aix as he was commanding the French Army against the Spaniards and of Louise de Montmorency Sister to Anne de Montmorency Constable of France He left behind him three Sons that were very considerable Odet Cardinal of Chatillon the eldest who was Patron to all the Wits and Learned Persons of his Age Iasper Admiral of France who before that had been Governour of Paris and Picardy and lastly Francis de Coligny Lord of Andelot Colonel General of the French Infantry A Son of the Admiral named Francis was likewise Colonel of the French Infantry he signalized himself as well upon the Bridge of Tours by saving the Persons of Henry the III. and the King of Navarre from the Forces of the League and afterwards in the Battle of Arques by which he gained the Reputation of surpassing the Admiral He left two Sons by a Daughter of the House of Chaune de Pequigny the eldest who promised much was taken off by a Cannon Bullet at the Siege of Ostend the other was the Mareschal de Chatillon Father to the Count de Coligny that died young and the Duke de Chatillon who was killed at Charenton The Mareschal Chatillon had likewise two Daughters one married to the Prince of Montbeliard and the other named Henrietta Countess of Adinton and Suze had so great a Genius for Poetry that she has out done Sappho her self by her exquisite Works which are the Delight of all such as are Lovers of Gallantry Madam de Teligny having lived during her Widowhood with a Conduct that made her admired by the whole World she was sought to by Prince William of Orange after the Death of Charlotte de Bourbon and he married her in the year 1583. upon the Reputation of her Vertue But soon after by a Fatality that usually snatches from us That which is most dear she saw him assassinated before her own Eyes having had but one Son by him born a little before his Father's Death who was the Famous Henry Frederick Prince of Orange She had this Advantage to be Sprung from the greatest Man in Europe and to have had two Husbands of very eminent Vertues the last of which left behind him an immortal Reputation but she had likewise the Misfortune to lose them all three by hasty and violent Deaths her Life having been nothing but a continued Series of Afflictions able to make any one sink under them but a Soul that like hers had resigned her self up so totally to the will of Heaven She has told my Father freely that at her coming into Holland she was very much surprized at their Rude Way of Living so different from that in France and whereas she had been used to a Coach she was there put into a Dutch Waggon open at Top guided by a Vourman where she sate upon a Board and that in going from Roterdam to Delft which is but two Leagues she was crippled and almost Frozen to death There never was one of a more noble Soul or a truer Lover of Justice than this Princess But it was observable during the great Differences between Maurice Prince of Orange her Son-in-Law and Monsieur
each day continually so that when Count Mansfeldt said one day to a Trumpeter whom P. Maurice had sent him That he admired his Master who was a young Prince full of heat and courage would always contain himself within the covert of his own retrenchments the Trumpeter answered him That his Excellency of Nassau was a young Prince who desired to become one day such an old and experienced General as his Excellency of Mansfeldt was at present The year following he took the great and famous Town of Groninghen Capital of the Province he likewise took and retook Rimbergues and seized upon Maeurs and the Grave Towns belonging to his own Patrimony having by the death of several Spaniards revenged the public injuries and those of his Private Family The Reputation of Prince Maurice was very much increased by the long and memorable defence of Ostend where the Spaniards having lost more than Threescore Thousand Men in a Siege that continued above 3 Years and exhausted their Treasures by the expence of above two Millions at last became Masters of a bit of ground which might seem to be a burying place rather than a City At the time of this loss Prince Maurice was so happy and diligent that to return it with Usury in a few days he seized upon the Town of Sluise in Flanders which was of more consequence than Ostend that had cost so many Men so much Time and so vast a Treasure upon which Theophilus says very well in the Ode he made for the Prince of Orange Much time and many years the Spaniards spend Before their Forces gain Ostend But Sir when you resolve to seize a Town Few Days suffice to beat its Bulwarks down Each Day of yours much more importance bears Than all that space of time which mortal Men call Years This Ode did not displease Prince Maurice and tho he was naturally an Enemy to Flattery and Vain glory yet he recompenced this Poet with a Chain of Gold and his Medal to a very great value But this Prince showed at the battle of Newport where he overcame the Arch-Duke Albert that he knew as well how to defeat a numerous and well appointed Army in open field as to defend places or else to force and surprize them The Arch-Duke and the Duke d'Aumale were wounded in the fight Francis Mendoza Admiral of Arragon Maister de Campe was taken Prisoner with a great many other Commanders and even the Arch-Dukes Pages whom Prince Maurice sent him back very civâ—…illy without any Ransom All the Cannon the Baggage and above 100 Cornets and Colors remained in the hands of the Conqueror who saw above 6000 Enemies dead upon the place and had all other marks of a full and entire Victory which made several People say because this great Success happened upon the 2d day of Iuly that the Fortune of the House of Nassau was changed seeing that 300 years before upon the same day of Iuly the Emperor Adolphus of Nassau had lost his Life and Empire near Spire in a Battle against Albert of Austria and that the same day Maurice had revenged the disgrace of his Ancestors by the defeat of the Arch-Duke Albert who was a Descendant from the former Albert of Austria A little before the fight there was a dispute of Honor between Prince Maurice and Prince Henry Frederick his younger Brother who was then but 17 Years old for when the Elder desired him to retire into some place of Safety that in case of any misfortune he might defend his Family and his Country Prince Henry being offended said he would run the same fortune with himself and live or dye by him Prince Maurice showed that no ill success could daunt his courage for the Resolution he had taken to give Battle was not altered notwithstanding that the night before the Arch-Duke had defeated the Count Ernest whom the Prince had sent to seize a pass with 2 Regiments of Foot and 4 Troops of Horse that were all cut off and several Colors with 2 pieces of Cannon taken It is remarkable that the Prince to take away from his Army all hopes of a retreat and to show his Men that they had nothing to trust to but their Arms made all those Vessels that brought them into Flanders to be sent away for which he was much commended by the Admiral of Arragon as the thing which had gained him the Victory by the necessity that was laid upon his Soldiers to fight boldly as having no prospect of Life but in the defeat of the Spaniards so he told his Men before the fight that they must either overcome the Enemy or drink up all the water in the Sea There came out at that time a magnificent Inscription upon this Battle in honor of Prince Maurice which is this Anno 1600 secunda die Iulij Mauricius Aransionensium Princeps in Flandriam terram hospitem traducto exercitu cum Alberto Archiduce Austriae conflixit copias ejus cecidit Duces multos primumque Mendosam coepit reversus ad suos victor signa hostium centum quinque in Hagiensi Capitolio suspendit Deo Bellatori In the year 1600 the 2d day of July Maurice Prince of Orange having brought his Army into Flanders then possessed by his Enemy fought with Albert Arch-Duke of Austria slew his Forces took several Commanders and especially Mendoza then returning Conqueror to his Country he hung up 105 of the Enemies Colors in the Councel House at the Hague to the Honor of God the Disposer of Victory This was not his first Essay of a Field Battle for otherwise he might have passed for one that was good only at the taking of Towns but he had long before forced the Duke of Parma to raise the Seige of Knotsemburg over against Nimiguen having defeated 7 Troops of his best Cavalry a disgrace which the Duke lessen'd by the necessity laid upon him by Orders from Spain to go and succor Roan In the year 1594 he had likewise at the Battle of Tournhout defeated and slain the Lord de Balancon Count de Varax General of the Artillery of Spain who commanded a body of 6000 Foot and 600 Horse of which besides the General above 2000 were left upon the place with several Prisoners of Note amongst whom a Count of Mansfeldt was one there were 38 Ensigns taken with the Cornet of Alonzo de Mondragon which were all hung up in the great Hall of the Castle at the Hague for a perpetual Memorial And upon this occasion I shall here relate how an Ambassador of Poland being come from King Sigismond to exhort the States General to reconcile themselves to the King of Spain whose Power he magnified so far as that sooner or later it would entirely subdue them and speaking as if he would frighten them with lofty words full of Vanity and according to the Eloquence of his Nation Count Maurice who was then present at this Harrangue upon his going out of the Assembly led the Ambassador
Troopers who would fly before these Germans as Sheep before a Wolf There happened the like inconvenience to the Swedes for having committed the same fault as the Hollanders because after the Peace of Munster they likewise disbanded the old Troops which had done such great actions and revived the antient Glory of the Goths who had conquered a great part of Europe being so bold as to attack the Elector of Brandenburg and his old Souldiers with their new Levies that never durst maintain their ground against him and were always beaten when he could joyn them so that if by an extraordinary good fortune they had not had so faithful and so mighty a Protector as the French King they had quite lost Pomerania and been sent back to their own cold Countries beyond the Baltick Sea All which shows us that a Prince ought always to keep a large body of old Troops to defend his State which without such a support runs the hazard of becoming a prey to the first Enemy that shall be bold and strong enough to attack it To these two causes of the extremities to which Holland was reduced in 1672 that is to say to the intestine divisions and to the disbanding of the old foreign Souldiers there may a third be likewise added which was the extraordinary and unheard of drowth that happen'd that year for it was so great that the Rhine one of the greatest Rivers in Europe that carries Men of War was so low that the French Troops were able to ford it so the Country being frightned to see itself attacked both by Sea and Land by the powers of France and England united to its ruine was reduced to the utmost despair seeing Heaven conspire to their destruction by taking away those Ramparts which Nature had designed for its preservation The French Army for the reasons before mentioned had penetrated into the very Heart of the Country and 40 places were taken in a small space of time whereas the State thought they might have found work for 20 years these people that were a little too haughty in their prosperity lay then under a terrible consternation almost in the same condition as the Venetians were heretofore when King Lewis the 12th made himself Master of the greatest part of the Territories which they had upon the Continent Being in this despair they were constrained to the last Remedy which was to overflow their Country and breaking down their Dykes to oppose a Sea to the French forces so hindring them from passing further they averted the ruine of the Commonwealth which else had assuredly run its period Heretofore seeing themselves reduced to a like extremity they made use of the same Remedy against the Spanish Army at the Siege of Leyden having succoured the place then at the very point of being lost with an innumerable company of Boats which swum upon the Land which they had overflow'd and then the United Provinces were reduced to so strange circumstances and to such a height of despair that the principal persons amongst them proposed in imitation of the ancient Switzers to burn all their Towns Villages and Castles and to spoyl the Country as much as they could and go on board their Ships to settle themselves in the Indies so to be delivered from the Spanish Tyranny but they had not Vessels enough to transport a fourth part of the people and were unwilling to leave the greater number to the mercy of so pityless an Enemy and for a Motto of the lamentable condition which this Country was then reduced to they engraved upon the Money which they coyned at that time a Vessel without Masts and Sayls tost by the waves and storm with these words Incertum quó fata ferant words which represented the extremity of their condition But to return to the Prince of Orange He appeared at the head of an Army at 22 years old as his Great Grandfather Prince William who was Generalissimo to the Emperour Charles the V. at the same Age and throughout the course of this great War he show'd so much Courage and Conduct both in Sieges and Battels that he had assuredly pass'd the Actions of his Illustrious Ancestors who for 200 years serv'd for a model to the greatest Generals if he had not had the misfortune to be born in the age of a King whose Genius and Power no common forces could stand against I do not design to make an exact Journal of the Actions of his Illustrious Father Prince Henry Frederick since they may be learnt from other Histories but speak of them in general and relate some certain passages not commonly known In the year 1626 he took Oldensell Capital of the Country of Tuiâ—…z in the Neighbourhood of Friezeland and Groninghen and the same year Peter Hein one of his Vice-Admirals in the Bay of Todos los Santos in the Road of St. Salvador took a Spanish Fleet laden with Sugar In the year 1627 he took Grolle before the face of Count Henry de Bergues General of a powerful Spanish Army that could put no succours into it nor make the Prince raise his Siege he being so well entrenched against the Enemies Army At the end of the year 1627 the same Peter Hein mentioned before took the Spanish Silver Fleet near the Isle of Cuba This prize without reckoning the Galeons and Vessels was esteemed at more than twenty Millions there were besides other Riches 356000 Marks of Silver and 300000 Marks of Gold abundance of Pearls Cochinele Jewels Bezoar Musk Ambergreese 250 Chests of Sugar and an infinite number of Stuffs and other merchandizes of great value This Vice-admiral Peter Hein arrived gloriously in Holland in the beginning of the year 1629 which was remarkable by the Conquest of the strong Town of Bolduc where by a Siege that was very long and difficult Prince Henry Frederick show'd by his conduct and valour that he could overcome that which had resisted his Brother Maurice who had heretofore attacqued that important place without success But what was more marvellous was that whilst Prince Henry Frederick lay before the place Count Henry de Bergues having pass'd the River Isell with a great Army ravaged all the Country of Utrecht where he seized upon Amersfort and put Holland into such a consternation that several people counselled the Prince to quit his enterprize upon Bolduc and succor the heart of his Country which was made desolate by the Enemy but he had the constancy to persevere till he had made himself Master of so considerable a Town without being moved by the Councels of his chief Officers or the Lamentations of the People that had been plundered At the same time the Prince by the vigilance and resolution of Otho de Guent Lord of Dieden Governour of Emeric having happily surprized the Town of Wesel where was the Magazine and Artillery of the Spanish Army which obliged Count Henry de Bergues to repass the Issel in all the haste imaginable he gained by this double
conquest the reputation not only of a very brave but likewise of a very fortunate Captain a quality so desirable to a General that Scilla the Dictator preferred the surname of Happy to that of Great In the year 1630 he seized upon the Town of Olind in Brazil by the conduct of his Vice-Admirals and the same year Count Iohn de Nassau his Cousin who for some discontent had gone out of the Dutch service to that of Spain was defeated near the Rhine and taken by Collonel Illestein who was not half so strong he was carried Prisoner to Wesel from whence he was ransomed for 18000 Rix Dollers The year following the same Count Iohn de Nassau who had gathered together a very strong Fleet in hopes to surprize Willemstat he was totally defeated by the Hollanders above 4000 of his men taken Prisoners and the rest either slain or wounded and the Count had much ado to save himself with the Prince of Brabanzoon In the same year 1631 the States General to gratify the Prince of Orange and to testify their acknowledgment for the services which he had continually done his Country gave the reversion of all his Offices to his Son Prince William and the writings for it were presented to the young Prince in a Box of Gold In the year 1632 Prince Henry after having taken Ruremond Venlo and Strale he set about the conquest of Maestricht a place somewhat distant from Holland scituated upon the River Meuse in the confines of Brabant where he provided his Ammunition and Victuals for the Siege with so much Prudence that he had enough to make himself Master of the place he had surrounded it with a great circumvallation which the Spanish Army could not force no more than another German Army under Henry Godfry Count of Papenheim a famous Captain both which were constrained to retire with disgrace after several efforts that were unsuccessful and many considerable losses In the year 1633 the Prince besieged and took Rhineberg and the year following the Spaniards having besieged the Fort of Phillipin which incommoded the Town of Ghent the Prince of Orange made them raise the Siege A little before Count Henry de Bergue complaining that he was ill used by the Spaniards had quitted their service and retired into Holland upon which he published a Manifesto and two years after in the year 1634 he was condemned as contumacious to have his Head cut off by the sentence of the Court of Mechlin In this place I must tell you how in the year 1628 after the taking of Rochel the Cardinal Richelieu who was absolute Governour in France was mighty desirous to gain the reputation of having destroyed all the retreats of Heresie having an unmeasurable desire of making himself be canoniz'd and to arrive at it the more easily he made his Confessors say that he had never committed so much as a Venial Sin as I have often heard from Mr. Lescot de S. Quintin his Confessor whom he made Bishop of Chartes as crafty a man as ever came out of Picardy who under the pretence of freedom and apparent simplicity conceal'd a great deal of subtilty and artifice The Cardinal to gain a reputation among the Zealots for the Catholic Religion had treated underhand with Iohn Osmael Lord of Walkembourg Governour of Orange who seemed discontented with his Master to deliver up the place to him This man bred up by the Family of Orange and intrusted by Prince Henry with the charge of his Soveraignty was gained by the promise of four hundred thousand Livres in ready Money and an Estate of twenty thousand Livres a Year in Provence whither he designed to retire and renounce Calvinism having no other Religion besides his interest But this affair being long in hand and Walkembourg resolving not to render the place till the Money was paid down the Prince was so happy as to get some intimation of this Treason He dispatched the Sieur Knuth a Zealander a man of Resolution in whom he had an entire confidence with an express order to dispatch this Traytor but that he might not cause the least suspicion he sent him to Orange alone as pretending other business This Knuth with whom I was acquainted and who was a very bold and dexterous person having made sure of the principal Inhabitants of the Town and of several Gentlemen in the Principality of Orange watched his opportunity to surprize the Governour who being one day come down from the Castle into the Town with very little company contrary to his usual custom he attack'd and killed him in the house of one Pyse a Scrivener whether he was retired Afterwards Knuth went directly to the Castle where the Lieutenant after having levelled the Cannon against the Town and being doubtful for some time what he should do at last received him upon sight of the Prince's order and took a new Oath of Fidelity to Prince Henry Frederick of Nassau together with all the Garrison the Prince afterwards sent the Baron de Dona his Brother-in-law to command in the place This Walkembourg had married the Daughter of the Sieur de Bic Treasurer to the States a Lady of great probity and merit who had used all possible endeavours to alter his pernicious designs She had the trouble as well as his Daughters to see him expire for he was forced to render himself to Knuth after having been wounded through a Chamber-door where he had for a long time defended himself I have heard my Father relate this story with great indignation he being a professed Enemy to all Ingratitude and Unfaithfulness and to shew me and my Brothers the horrors of those crimes he related to us upon this occasion the Treason of Bernardine de Corte who delivered up the Castle of Millan to King Lewis the 12th for a Hundred thousand Crowns that had been intrusted to him by Duke Lodowick Sforza his Master by whom he had been bred in the quality of a Page and was at present preferred before all his other Subjects to the command of that place where he had put all that he thought most precious whilst he was going to seek for succour in Germany He recounted likewise to us such another Treason of Donat Rafagnine who sold Valencia to the same King for fifty thousand Crowns and remarked to us from Guicciardine that these Traytors were so look'd on and detested in the French Army and that shame made them die with discontent This Mr. Knuth rendred an important piece of service to his Master who rewarded him with a Present and a Pension of two thousand Livers a year for his Life No body can imagine but that the Prince of Orange must bear some ill will to Cardinal Richelieu for having endeavoured to take away this Soveraignty which was as dear to him as his Eyes but he concealed his resentment as expecting some favourable opportunity of shewing it which it was not long before it was offered him for some time after the
that the Affront they had put upon him in refusing to give him Audience was designed only to lessen his Authority that nothing but a publick satisfaction would make him amends for this Affront which he demanded earnestly of the States The Deputies of Amsterdam and other Cities answered this Remonstrance by a long Manifesto wherein they alledged the Reasons that induced them to make the Prince that Request this touched him to the quick and made him continue more obstinate against disbanding the Souldiers and transported him so much that he Arrested six of the principal Magistrates and sent them Prisoners immediately after into the Castle of Lovestein This violent proceeding of the Prince alarm'd all Holland The people were generally apprehensive that he aspired to the Soveraignty of the United Provinces and that he opposed the disbanding the Troops for no other reason All Europe said something and tho probably the Prince had no such design the attempt that he made upon Amsterdam confirmed the suspicions all men had entertained of him that he was too arrogant to obey the orders of a popular Government But those who judge impartially of this action are of opinion that he never aim'd at making himself King and that he had no other prospect in besieging Amsterdam but to revenge some private affronts and support his authority and credit by humbling such a powerful City Whatever his reasons were he resolved to besiege it and actually perform'd it on the 30th of Iuly 1650 he narrowly miss'd of surprizing it for the Citizens had not the least apprehension of such a design The Troops appointed for this enterprize put their orders so punctually in execution and met so exactly at their rendezvous that the City must unavoidably have fallen into the Prince's hands but for the Hamburgh Courier who passed through the Prince's Army without being perceived and gave timely notice of it to the Magistrates The City immediately took the alarm the Council of Thirty six met the Burghers run to their Arms the Bridges were drawn up the Cannon mounted upon the Ramparts and the City put in a posture of defence Deputies were dispatched to the Prince with proposals which took up all the next day which was done to gain time for the opening of their Sluces The Prince seeing all the Country under water and the impossibility of continuing a long Siege and the firm resolution of the Burghers hearkened to a Treaty of accommodation which was concluded three days after very much to his advantage The Prince was sensible the States would resent this attempt and the better to make his peace with them he released the Prisoners out of the Castle of Lovestein upon condition that they should be for ever unqualified for any public employments or places and at the same time presented a Memorial to the States with a particular account of the motives he had to form this Siege The States sent it back without opening it assuring him that there needed no justification since the difference had been so soon adjusted About a month after the Prince assisted at a particular Assembly in the Dutchy of Guelders where by his prudence and good conduct he entirely quieted all the jealousies they had entertained of him He returned to the Hague about the beginning of November and went to bed very weary with his Journey He had been observed to be melancholy ever since the miscarriage of his design upon Amsterdam for which reason the Court was not alarm'd with this little indisposition He was let blood the next day and the day after the Small Pox appeared and proved so violent that the Physicians believed him in danger he died the 6th day in the Twenty fourth year of his age on the 6th of November 1650. There wanted but three things to make his memory immortal viz. The Continuation of the War which he passionately desired a longer Life and a little more Deference to the State whom he treated with too much authority for he was Master of a great many good qualities and eminently possessed the advantages of body and mind He was a great General and would have been as renowned for all civil and military vertues as the Heroes of his Family He had a vast comprehensive Genius and learned in his Youth the Mathematics and spoke English French Italian Spanish and High Dutch as readily and fluently as his Mother Tongue He was buried at Delf in the magnificent Tomb of the Princes of Orange in great state He married Mary Stuart eldest Daughter to Charles I. King of Great Britain An Illustrious Birth Interest of State and Glory are the three ordinary motives which sway Princes in the choice of their alliances and all three concur in the making this match for the Glory of the immortal actions of his Father Frederick were spread over all Europe William his Son had given a Thousand proofs that he did not degenerate from the Valour and Vertue of his Ancestors and the Family of Nassau had given five Electors to Cologne and Ments and an Emperor to Germany The proposals were no sooner made but they were accepted and the Marriage was celebrated at London with great magnificence From this Marriage was born William III. whose History we are now entring upon WILLIAM III. KING of ENGLAND Prince of Orange etc. THE HISTORY OF WILLIAM III. Prince of Orange AND King of GREAT BRITAIN Out of the French by Mr. Brown THe sudden and unexpected death of William II. who died in the 24th year of his age threw the Court and Friends of the House of Nassau into such a consternation as is not easie to be exprest But to moderate their grief the Princess Royal within eight days after was delivered of William Henry a Prince in whom the valour and all the other qualities of his glorious ancestors revived and who may justly be stiled the Restorer of that flourishing Republick whereof his Fathers were the Architects and Founders He was born on the fourteenth of November 1650 and had for his Godfathers the States of Holland and of Zealand the Cities of Delf Leiden and Amsterdam As it was his misfortune to be born at a calamitous conjuncture when his enemies were furnished with a plausible pretence to deprive him of those Dignities which his Ancestors had enjoy'd the States General finding themselves now at liberty by the death of William II. and concluding from the enterprize of Amsterdam what they might expect from a single Governour resolved to remedy all inconveniences that might for the future happen upon this occasion and so appointed a General Assembly to meet at the Hague This Assembly began on the eighteenth of Ianuary 1651 and did not end till the month of August the same year In the first Session it was resolved That since the Country was now without a Governour by the death of the Prince the choice of all Officers and Magistrates for the time to come should be in the disposal of the Cities and that not only