Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n
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A64312
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Memoirs of what past in Christendom, from the war begun 1672 to the peace concluded 1679; Selections. 1692
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Temple, William, Sir, 1628-1699.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing T642; ESTC R203003
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165,327
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545
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mention'd either upon the seisure of that Dutchy or since that time in the Accounts of it by their Ministers in the several Courts of Christendom they had only profess'd to have found such a seisure necessary for preserving the Peace wherein Christendom then was from the dangerous or uncertain dispositions of that present Duke with whom His Most Christian Majesty could take no certain Measures and his Enemies would be practising but that it was without any intention of retaining any part of that Dutchy otherwise than for this end of preserving the Peace of Christendom All this with many more Circumstances Monsieur Serinchamps the Lorain Envoy alledged at the Conferences with the States and Allies upon this occasion and for the Treaty of 1662. he seem'd to wonder it should ever be mention'd as a thing wholly invalid and as every body thought thereupon long since forgotten That the last Duke had no power to dispose of that Dutchy from his Nephew because if the Salique Law had place in Lorain it was unalienable from the next Heir-male if the Feminine Succession then that Duke himself had no Title at all to it but it belong'd to the present Duke even in the life of his Uncle Secondly That it was invalid by the French non-performance of the only condition on their side upon which the Old Duke pretended to have made it which was That the Princes of that Family should be assum'd into the Rank of Princes of the Blood in France and that upon registring that Treaty of 1662. in the parliament of Paris without that Clause the Old Duke had declar'd it void within three weeks after it was made Thirdly That a Treaty was concluded the year after being 1663. at Marsal between the Most Christian King and the said Duke by which he was to continue the possession of all his Territories besides Marsal in the same manner as he enjoy'd them by the Treaty of 1661. as he did till the seisure of them by France in 1670. during a profound Peace and with the Professions above-mentioned made by France to His Majesty at that time as Monsieur Serinchamps averred as well as to the other Courts of Christendom These Arguments were of such force with all the Confederates that they were unanimous and firm in positively insisting upon the Pasports of that Duke with the usual forms and the more since France had advanc'd a pretence to that Dutchy which was never thought of before among the Allies The Austrian Ministers told me frankly That the Treaty should never be without this allowance of the Duke of Lorain's Title nor the Peace without his Restitution The States said They for their parts would willingly refer his and any other matters concerning the Treaty to His Majesty's arbitration but that they were bound already by other Treaties to their Allies and particularly to the Duke of Lorain and could not break from them upon a Point of such apparent Right as this The Prince spoke the same Language and said further That he was bound by his Oath of Stadtholder among other things to endeavour to the utmost of his power to keep the States to the due observance of their Treaties and so by the Grace of God he would do in This as well as Others All this being signified to His Majesty and by Him to France that Court continued peremptory in the matter and the Allies persisting in the same disposition the Congress began to be look'd upon from all sides as a thing ended before it began The Allies took this pretence for a Declaration from France of their Resolution there should be no Treaty at present and grounded it upon some great expectation or design they had upon further progresses in Sicily or new ones in Naples or else from hopes of bringing in the Poles to the assistance of Sweden But the truth was That France had been forc'd to discover upon this Incident what they had always at heart and I ever observ'd in the course of all these Negotiations that there were three Points for which France thought the War worth continuing to the last extremity which were rather than restore Lorain or Burgundy or leave a good Frontier on both sides of the Spanish Territories in Flanders The last would hinder the progress of their great Design whether of extending their Empire only to the Rhine or beyond it The two first would hinder their Conquest of Flanders whenever they pursu'd the finishing of that Adventure by leaving a passage for the Germans to relieve it and by so great and dangerous a diversion as entring France through Lorain or Burgundy His Majesty most certainly disapproved and was surpriz'd with this pretence of France to the Dutchy of Lorain but yet was prevail'd with by Monsieur Ruvigny to offer the expedient of His Majesty as Mediator giving all Pasports necessary to the Congress at Nimeguen Monsieur Van Beuningham in this matter acted the part rather of a Bourgomaster of Amsterdam than an Ambassador of the States and to make court to that Town who began to express great impatience for the Peace he assur'd His Majesty That his Masters could not fail of consenting to this expedient I foresaw it would be refus'd and gave his Majesty notice of it before I propos'd it to the States as thinking His Honour and that of the Mediation concern'd in such a refusal but receiving direct Orders to propose it I did so The States told me They would of themselves consent to this or whatever else His Majesty should propose but having communicated it to their Allies they would not hear of it some refusing it with heat and reflection upon His Majesty's partiality to France others with sullenness and silence referring themselves to new Orders from their Masters Hereupon the Congress grew wholly desperate and all Parties prepar'd for the Field without any other View for the three months following the first rise of this Pretention In the mean time there pass'd a Fight between the French and Dutch and Spanish Ships near Messina wherein de Ruyter was shot in the Heel by a cannon-Cannon-bullet of which he died within few days after and determined the greatest loss to have certainly happen'd on that side by that of the ablest Sea-Captain of his Age and the best Servant that any Prince or State could have For the rest the Advantage was not considerable of either part in this Fight nor the consequence material in the progress of the French Arms in Sicily or in any prospect of great Enterprises upon Naples On the other side the Swedish Affairs went very ill in Pomerania and were threatned with great Invasions the following Campaign both from Denmark and Brandenburgh This decry'd the Councels of those Persons that engag'd them in this Quarrel Two Ambassadors Count Oxenstorn and Olivacrown were appointed for the Treaty at Nimeguen who had been ever of contrary Sentiments or Faction which now began to prevail in the Swedish Court They grew impatient for a Peace and
of the Pyrenees and in the year 1670. forc'd to escape by night and almost alone by a sudden surprize of the French Troops in the height and security of Peace after this he never had a home any more for the rest of his life which was spent in suing for Protection and Relief from the several Princes of Christendom who resented the injustice of his Case which none pretended to defend but yet none to concern themselves in it till upon the last War he fell into his share of the Confederacy with the weight of two or three thousand Lorainers that still follow'd his Fortune and enter'd into Leagues with the Emperor and most of the Allies for his restitution He seem'd not to deserve the Fortune of a Prince only because he seem'd not to care for it to hate the Constraints and Ceremonies that belong to it and to value no Pleasures in Life but the most natural and most easie and while he had them was never out of humour for wanting the rest Generous to his Servants and Soldiers when he had it and when he wanted endeavouring to make it up by the Liberties he gave them very much belov'd and familiar among both And to give his Picture by a small trait one of his Ministers told me That not long before he died all his Family was a Gentleman of the Horse as he was call'd another of his Chamber and a Boy that look'd to a little Nag he us'd to ride one day he call'd for his Horse the two first told him the Boy was not to be found He bid them however get him his Horse They could not agree which of them should go and Saddle him till the Duke bid them go and one or t'other of them do it or else he swore he would go down and Saddle his Horse himself they were as ham'd and 't was done About the same time died at the Hague the old Princess Dowager of Orange a Woman of the most Wit and good Sense in general that I have known and who had thereby a great part in forming the race of the Prince and the mighty improvement it receiv'd from three very extraordinary Women as well as three so great Men in the last descents None has shew'd more the force of Order and Oeconomy than this Princess who with small Revenues never above Twelve thousand pounds a year since her Husband's deash liv'd always in as great plenty and more curiousness and elegance than is seen in many greater Courts Among other pieces of Greatness She was constantly serv'd all in Gold Plate which went so far as to great Bottles for Water and a great Cistern for Bottles to the Key of her Closet and every thing of that kind She usually touched which I mention because I think 't is what the greatest Kings of Christendom have not pretended to do nor any I have heard of on this side Persia. In November this year happen'd a Storm at Northwest with a Spring-tide so violent as gave apprehensions of some loss irrecoverable to the Province of Holland and by several Breaches in the great Digues near Enckhuysen and others between Amsterdam and Harlem made way for such Inundations as had not been seen before by any man then alive and fill'd the Country with many relations of most deplorable Events But the incredible diligence and unanimous endeavours of the People upon such occasions gave a stop to the Fury of that Element and made way for recovering next year all the Lands tho' not the People Cattel and Houses that had been lost Before the end of the year the Danes took Wismar from the Suedes and by an open War those two Crowns came to be engag'd in the common quarrel and after a great expectation of some extraordinary Successes in the Spanish Affairs from Don John's intended expedition into Italy to command all the Forces and Provinces of that Crown both there and in Sicily when he was ready to go and meet de Ruyter at Barcelona who attended him there with the Dutch Fleet design'd for Messina he was by a Court-Intrigue recall'd to Madrid the King was then arriv'd in his Fourteenth year and took upon him the Government as now in Majority and by the advice of some near him in favour writ a Letter to Don John to invite him to Court to assist him in the Government he obey'd but stay'd not there above a Fortnight or three Weeks till by the Credit and Authority of the Queen Mother he was forc'd to quit his ground there and return to Saragoza and so vanish'd a mighty expectation that had been rais'd in Spain and other places of great effects that were to follow this Prince's coming to the Administration of Affairs and very great Sums of Money were wholly lost that had been employ'd in the Preparations of his Journey and Equipage for Italy And Sicily was left almost hopeless of recovery from the Successes of the French who had taken many Posts about Messina and threaten'd many more and other Towns were fear'd to follow the Example of that great Revolt After the Prince's return from the Campania to the Hague in October I had several Conferences with him upon the subject of the Peace and the Terms that both his Majesty and the States might think reasonable between France and Spain and both those Crowns be in any probability of consenting to That which France pretended was the terms of the Peace of Aix and retaining the County of Burgundy which had been since conquer'd or if either this Province or some of the most important Frontier Towns of Flanders should be restor'd then an equivalent to be made them for such restitution The Spaniards talk'd of nothing less than the Peace of the Pyrenees and that they would rather lose the rest of Flanders by the War than part with Burgundy by the Peace and said both the King and the States were as much concern'd in Flanders as the Crown of Spain and had the same Interest to see it safe by a War or a Peace which could not by such a Frontier as was left by that of Aix That which my Lord Arlington had propos'd to the Prince and Pensioner and which pass'd for his Majesty's Sentiment tho he pretended no Orders was the terms of Aix la Capelle but in regard of the necessity for the Spaniards to have a better Frontier in Flanders than was left by that Peace That the French should give up Aeth and Charleroy and Oudenarde for Aire and St. Omer And that if they parted with the County of Burgundy it should be for something in exchange His Majesty commanded me to assure the Prince That if a Peace could be made upon these terms or any so near them that he might hope to obtain the consent of France His Majesty for the security of Flanders would give his own Gaurranty to the Peace and enter into the strictest Alliance the States could desire for preserving it or defending Flanders in case