assisted in this occasion by the most expert and the ablest Ministers of his Kingdom who could not be ignorant whether the Infanta had power to renounce lawfully or not This Work was premeditated debated and concerted amongst the Parties by a long Negotiation which gave occasion to all the reflexions upon Law and Policie which the clearest Wits could frame in so important a matter If then they discovered that Truth which since they would make pass for so clear and palpable That this Act of Renunciation could not be valid either they must confess that they have been the authors of a signal Cheat by Treating upon this Foundation approving it accepting it and inserting it into the Treatie of Peace by an express Article promising to cause it to be Registred amongst the Acts of the Parliament of Paris and authorizing it by their Oath or else they must accuse themselves of Ignorance in not having understood before they concluded the business those Nullities which at present do appear so evident unto them To what condition go they to reduce the Affairs of the World if the solemn Treaties made betwixt such Great Monarchs for the universal Benefit of Christendom the Repose of the People and the Securitie of the neighbouring States are found exposed to mental Reservations and all the Subtilties of the Barr And if ordinary Merchants onely for the good of their Commerce have the liberty to form to themselves a Right and particular style which shelters them from the Intrigues of the Palace would it be convenient that Sovereign Princes in publick Treaties which do concern the publick good should not be exempt from that subjection If this pernicious Maxime be once established of reducing the publick Right to the condition of private Right we shall quickly see as many Wars arise amongst Princes as there be Suits of Law amongst Citizens To discourse to the bottom upon this matter we must deduce some circumstances of Fact which are most necessary to give it a full clearing When France rather wearied then satiated with War did resolve to listen to the Propositions of the Peace and that their domestick Disorders did oblige them to clear themselves from foreign business that they might reform those Abuses which undermined them at home the wisest Statesmen both of the one and the other side did conceive by a prudent foresight that nothing could be solidly and durably treated of This is proved by the Instrument of Peace and the Article of Renunciation if the Root of the Mischief were not pulled up and if some effectual means were not found out not onely to stifle all the Differences past and prevent those to come but also to extinguish by a real and undissolvible Union the ancient Emulation of the two Crowns and the natural Antipathy of the two Nations that all other Dressings could never reach the bottom of the Wound and would prove but Lenitives to mitigate the pain for a time without taking away the Cause of the Evil. Having long searched for Expedients answerable to the importance of the Design none was thought proper but that of a Marriage between the most Christian King and the most Serene Infanta Mary Teresa to joyn the Seal of the Sacrament to that of the Treaties Love to Concord and Alliance to Reconciliation Spain which desired the Peace but yet withall wished to have it firm and inviolable judged with reason that this was the onely mean to remedy all those Mischiefs which the continual Opposition of those two great Poles of Christendom had occasioned for the space of so many years but in this she found an essential Difficultie proceeding from the Contrarietie of the Fundamental Laws of the one and the other Realm in two principal Points Though those of Spain do always prefer Males in the Succession they do notwithstanding leave the Gate open for Daughters failing the Heirs Male in the same Line Those of France quite contrary do perpetually exclude the Females and to their prejudice make the Right of Succession pass even to Strangers The second is That one of the most ancient Constitutions of the Monarchie of Spain on which they lay all the foundation of their Government is that their Kingdom is not Alienable that they live always under their own peculiar Kings and that their Crown can neither be annexed nor incorporated with any other That of France on the contrary doth arrogate unto it self this Right as it appears by their Writers and Lawyers That whatsoever is possessed or acquired by the Kings of France by any kind of Title doth fall to the Crown is the proper Dominion of it and can never more be dismembred from it and ought to be subject to the same Laws and form of Government as their own Kingdom as well in relation to the sovereign Succession as to what concerns the publick State So that in case the Monarchie of Spain should fall by Marriage or otherwise under the power of a King of France she would become a member and an inseparable Accessorie of France she would be reduced to the same condition with Bretannie and other Provinces and failing of lawful Successors in her Line it would pass to the Collaterals and to all those who should attain to the Throne of the Flower-de-luces All French-men are so unanimous in this Pretension that it would be superfluous to prove it to them though it would not be hard to impugn it But 't is a Maxime received amongst them of which they have put themselves in possession by a long abuse and which they are resolved stubbornly to maintain in all manner of Rencounters This Incompatibility held for a while the Council of Spain in suspence they wished Peace yet would not buy it at the price of so hard a Servitude and the Directours of so many Kingdoms could never have perswaded themselves to become Subjects of another Realm nor to see their Ruling Crown reduced to a Province The Queen-Mother of France who with the tender feelings both of a Mother and an Aunt passionately and with ardour wished so fair and so fitting an union of two Persons which were so dear unto her applied all her cares to remove those Hinderances and this temperating mean was found out to secure the reasonable Doubts of the Council of Spain That by the Contract of Marriage the Infanta should absolutely renounce all kind of Rights which she might ever pretend either upon the whole or the parts of this great Succession under any Title or Pretext whatsoever which at any time she might have thereunto to the end that in no case the Spanish Monarchy might either be subject or dismembred And both sides the willinglier consented to this Expedient in regard that the way had already been beaten by the example of the Queen-Mother of France and that in effect the Renunciation which she made was of the same nature with this present one both in the form and in the substance as being founded on the very
White-Hall Sept. 19. 1667. Let this TRANSLATION be Printed By the Appointment of the Right Honourable the Lord ARLINGTON His MAJESTIES Principal Secretary of State Joseph Williamson THE BUCKLER OF State and Justice Against The DESIGN manifestly discovered of the UNIVERSAL MONARCHY Under the vain PRETEXT OF THE QUEEN of France HER PRETENSIONS Translated out of French LONDON Printed by James Flesher for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Excellent Majesty 1667. THE Preface WHILS'T we rested quietly under the shade of Peace and the faith of the Promises very lately renewed by France not to break it the noise of a mighty Preparation for War in our Neighbourhood unexpectedly struck our ears a Conspiracy was detected through the indefatigable pains of our * The Marquess of Castel-Rodrigo Governour upon one of our * The City of Luxemburg principal Places which hastily awakened us out of this Repose and scarce were our eyes opened but divers Libells the usual fore-runners of War were spred up and down promiscuously amongst the Nobility and Common people to seduce his Majestie 's faithful Subjects under colour of some Pretensions of the most Christian Queen upon all these Provinces One whereof is entituled A Dialogue on the Subject of the Rights of the most Christian Queen The next hath for Title A Treatise of the Rights which the most Christian Queen hath to sundry Estates of the Monarchy of Spain And the third goes by the Appellation of Threescore and fourteen Reasons which prove as clear as the day that the Renunciation made by the Queen of France is null c. These Pretensions tend onely to sap and undermine the foundation of the Pyrenean Treaty by overthrowing the most Christian Queen's Renunciation which she so solemnly swore to observe in favour both of the Peace and Marriage of all Rights that might belong to her and stretch themselves to no less then the Dutchy of Brabant with its Appurtenances the Seigniory of Machelen Antwerp the upper Gelderland Namur Limburg and the united places beyond the River of Maes Hainault Artois Cambray the Free County of Burgundy the Dutchy of Luxemburg and one of the principal parts of the County of Flanders After I had curiously read over the Contents of these Libells at first I could not be perswaded that such Writings were authorized by the Court of France and looked upon them a great while as passe-volants and the effects of some idle Pens which out of wantonnesse affected to make themselves remarkable by wittily maintaining a Paradox and indeed their proceeding was too irregular the matter too brittle and the form too unhandsome to believe with any ground of likelihood that they leaned upon publick Authority For I supposed and with Justice enough on my side that what Pretensions soever the most Christian King could have upon a Prince united unto him by so many tyes of Kindred and Amity he would never have begun by the way of Execution and the exciting of his People to Rebellion but that the voice of the Cannon should have been the last made use of to plead his Cause having before made triall of all other means This opinion was confirmed to me by the continual Assurances and positive words which his most Christian Majestie hath often sent to the Court of Spain by his * The Arch-bishop of Ambrun Embassador there and by the * Spanish Embassador in France Marquess de la Fuente That nothing should be able to hinder him from observing religiously the Peace In which belief he still fortified us by Propositions of Leagues and of Mediation and by reiterated Promises of an inviolable Friendship not sparing any care to dissipate all the Suspicions which his powerful Arming might justly have made us conceive Our own Consciences also did oblige us not to doubt of the sincerity of the Promises of France and the scrupulous care which we took to avoid the giving them any cause of displeasure even to the rejecting for their respect the means which were offered us from all parts for our safety gave us cause to believe that such a Comportment as this was being so neat and obliging should not onely stop the effects of their Arms by taking away all the Causes but should also have touched them with tenderness for the Innocence of an Infant a Cousin and a Brother-in-Law to let him pass his younger years in the quiet of a Peace which the King his Father had so dearly bought for him And though the Succours which France sent from time to time into Portugall and that too before they could pretend to the effect of this imaginary Devolution were manifest discoveries that the Faith of Treaties of Oaths were much inferiour to the Interest of State yet we flattered our selves that the longanimitie of our Patience might shelter us from receiving new injuries at their hands by dissembling our sense of the first and that they would be ashamed to heap so many without interruption the one upon the other But having heard that the same Libells had been solemnly presented by the * Monsieur de l' Estrade French Embassador to the States of the United Provinces and to the Imperial Diet and divers Princes of Germanie I thought that I should be wanting in all that I owe to my King my Countrey and the Publick as well as to my self if I did not employ the little knowledge and light which God hath given me towards the removal of the false Impressions which the artifice of a slight Eloquence much more then the solidity of Reasons might produce in the opinion of credulous spirits not throughly versed in our Laws and Customes Besides methought that I owed this Consolation to the afflicted people and this satisfaction to the neighbouring States to let them evidently understand that all the Pretexts with which the French do labour to disguise the vast Designs that they have in hand are but false colours to mask the true Spring which gives the Motion to this Machine and to make an Ambition which goes at a great pace to the Universal Monarchie pass under the veil of Justice Which consideration hath induced me seriously to weigh these Writings and maturely to examine all the Reasons Ends and Circumstances of them And after having carefully turned over all the Acts as much as the shortness of time and the confusion of the present Troubles would give me leave and examined the Treaties of Peace and Marriage with the Act of Renunciation and consulted the most expert Civiâ—ians that are amongst us in the Practick and Customes of places I found without any preoccupation of minde these Pretensions not onely to be contrary to publick Right to the Customes in Sovereign Successions and the sincere Faith of Treaties which are made betwixt Crown and Crown for the Tranquillitie of the People and the Conservation of Monarchies but even to that particular Right which regulates private Families and those Municipal Customes which every Nation doth
without destroying the Substance and this Mask of words would pass for a jearing sharper then single Expressions I beseech the Reader to be persuaded that my onely drift is to speak of Things without touching of Persons and if my Subject doth forcibly draw me into complaints and some reproches I do here solemnly protest That I pretend the most Christian King 's Sacred Person to be excepted and that I do ascribe all the Evils which are intended towards us onely to those mean Incendiarie Writers who out of a desire of Noveltie and perhaps with purposes more dangerous to their own King then to ourselves have so lightly and unseasonably sounded to horse THE CONTENTS I. Of the Ends which France doth propose unto it self in this War and in these Libells II. That the Entry of the King of France into the Estates of the Catholick King in the Low Countries is an evident Rupture III. That this Rupture is unjust admitting the Right of the Queen of France were well founded IV. That the Renunciation of the French Queen is just irrevocable necessary and usefull to the Publick good nor contains in it self any cause of Nullitie or Laesion and that the Queen of France hath been duly Doted V. That the Succession of the Soveraigntie of the Dutchy of Brabant and the other Provinces which are specified in these Libells ought not to be regulated by the particular Customes VI. A Discourse of the Interest of the Christian Princes in this War and of the precise Obligation which the Estates of the Empire have to warrant the Circle of Burgundy THE BUCKLER OF STATE JVSTICE AGAINST The Design manifestly discovered of the Vniversal Monarchy under the vain pretext of the Queen of France her Pretensions ARTICLE I. Of the Ends which FRANCE proposeth unto it self in this War and in these Libells THE Author of these Libells employs a great deal more of care and art to colour the Designs of his Party then to establish the Grounds of his imaginary Right In this last his Pen is both dry and crawling In the other it doth spread it self with a pleasant stream of words into a Thousand superfluous expressions endeavouring as much as it can to present without discovery a false Light hoping to change the Nature of things by changing only their Names He extolls the love which his Master hath for Peace at the very instant when he is breaking it he complains at the same time when he strikes he takes away by violence when he asks he pleads and decides at once he requires Peace and brings War attaques without Rupture forces without constraint and plaies with so much contempt upon the Ignorance and Credulity which he supposes to be in the Judgment of his Readers that he will needs have the way of Fact to pass for Justice Violence for Moderation Usurpation for Title and Defence for a Crime and so he can but onely take away the odious name of War from the Attempt which Frame is now making he thinks that she may freely practise all manner of Hostilities under that of Peace Which is the effect of the excellent opinion they have of the abilities of all other Nations whom they esteem barbarous or simple enough to believe things of this nature and afterwards glory in their jesting according to their obliging custome of turning into ridiculous the most Illustrious Nations That they took us for Germans This dull conceit tends evidently unto two Ends The one to extenuate a little the ugliness of their Enterprise and the Scandal and Confusion which they foresee it will produce throughout all Europe and that they may make all the cares which we shall take for our Defence pass for as many Contraventions of the Peace and by this means get some pretext whereby either they may press their Allies to joyn their Arms to theirs in favour of their Design or else may one of these daies bring the War upon themselves for having failed in performing the Obligation of their League of Warrantie By which it is obvious to all sorts of capacities that the Absolute Empire which they do equally affect over their Friends Enemies makes them act so Magisterially both with the one and the other So that to keep Peace with them it is requisite to give them all that they require and to satisfie the Alliances made with them it 's necessary to help them to take all But to judge of the injustice of this Pretension it is sufficient to read over the Treatie of the Peace of the Empire in the Article of Warrantie and that of the League of the Rhine and then it will be clearly seen that the Obligation of reciprocal Succours doth extend no farther then to those Lands which France did possess in the Empire at the time when these Leagues were concluded that they do not reach any new Conquests or Claims and ought not to be understood but against Aggressours Else the Princes of the Empire had imposed an horrible Servitude on themselves to be the Ministers and Instruments of the Ambition of an Allie to inlarge his Limits at the price of their bloud and of their own safetie and to be bound to take arms into their hands as often as the Writers of France should think fit to put their hand to the pen to frame to their Crown some new Rights It is not enough to understand the cunning of the Ends of their proceeding but it concerns all the World to penetrate farther even into the bottome of their Designs If we will take it upon their faith they have no other End but an honest Accommodation with Spain They themselves invite Forreign Princes to intermeddle in it They protest that they will suffer themselves to be brought to moderate Conditions That they do make War against their stomachs That they would lay down their arms with pleasure That they would submit themselves to the Judgement of those who are willing to imploy their pains in it Let us see then whether their behaviour doth suit with their words Spectemur agendo All their Actions and Motions tend towards a vast and deep Design This proud arming this prodigious expence this excessive profusion in their forreign Negotiations this forwardness in making of Leagues to gain Ministers to keep them in business who may give them jealousie the reiterated instances and the large offers which they have tendred to the Swedes to embroil the Empire the extraordinary application to force the Polanders by corruption and violence to chuse a Successor contrary to their Fundamental Laws are proofs capable to convince the darkest understandings that all this immense Preparation of Arms and Intrigues hath something in it of greater extent then the bare Conquest of some Provinces which our over-much Credulity hath exposed to them as a prey and ends not in a simple desire of tearing away a few pieces of them by a Treatie These huge Mountains are not to bring forth Mice but to vomit out Flames as the
which proves demonstratively that the Queen of France hath no manner of Right which way soever this business be looked upon For either the Devolution hath place as to the Sovereignties or not If it be received in them then the * The House of Savoy Successours of Catharine are the lawfull Lords of all the Lands which are subject to this Custom this is unquestionable But if the Devolution be of no force in relation to Lording Fiefs all the Pretensions which France doth build on this Title are annihilated So that all this great heap of Titles and inventions which he hath with so much solicitude gathered together to uphold the Right of the Queen of France cannot operate though it were approved of but in favour of a third partie and thus thinking to plead the Cause of the Queen he hath acted onely for the Duke of Savoy ARTICLE VI. A Discourse touching the Interest of Christian Princes in this War and the precife Obligation of the Estates of the Empire for the Warrantie of the Circle of Burgundy c. THere are two Motives of different nature which ought to incite the Princes of Christendom to undertake the defence of our Cause the one is the Interest of State the other is a strict Obligation of Justice The first regards generally all the Potentates of Europe the second is particular onely to the Princes and States of the Empire the one depends upon their foresight and their wise Conduct the other is joyned to the duty of the last to the Fundamental Laws of their State to the Treaties of Peace and Warrantie and to the reciprocal bond which unites all the Members of this vast Body which makes all its Greatness and Glory and which is the onely foundation of its Quiet and Safety We will begin with the first as being more universall and more considered at this day in the World and that will guide us insensibly to the second to let both the one and the other see that our Business is theirs that our Commotion is their Trouble and our Fall their own Ruine It is our business here to uphold the Law of Nations which is common to all and to hinder that Maximes may not be introduced into the World which would destroy the whole Commerce of mankind and render humane Societies as dangerous as the company of Lions and Tigers Here it is our design to defend the publick Faith of Treaties against the Subtilties of litigious Pleading to preserve the Law of Arms within the Rules and Formalities which the universal Consent of all Nations hath established and to remove out of the sight of Christendom a scandalous Example which by its lamentable consequences would expose the weakest to the discretion of the more powerfull and would make Force the sole Arbiter of all Processes We treat of the way to stop the course of a rapid Torrent against the Impetuosity whereof Peace Marriage Oaths Bloud Kindred Friendship and Condescensions are not Banks strong enough to keep it within its Chanel It is our purpose to defend the common Bulwark against a vast Design which hath for its cause nothing but the predominant desire of Conquests for its end Dominion for its means Arms and Intricacies nor for its limits any thing but what Chance will prescribe In fine we are here to decide the fortune of Europe and to pronounce the Sentence either of its Freedom or Slaverie Here I resolve to shake off all manner of interessed thoughts which I may have for my party I will consider my self in this Article no more then as a simple Citizen of the World and to shelter my self the better from all suspicions of Partialitie I will found my Discourse on no other Principles but those which I shall draw out of French Authours Since the Providence of God was pleased to raise the most August House of Austria to this high pitch of Greatness which hath dazled the eyes of Envy we have seen growing in the heart of France the lamentable seeds of this unjust Emulation which for so many years together hath produced all the Misfortunes Troubles of Christendom The principal Game of the French hath been to diffuse this Jealousie everywhere and to render its Jaundice contagious representing unto all the other Princes the Power of this August House as a fearfull Phantasm which would swallow them up and giving themselves out for the onely Perseus's able to deliver fettered Europe from the fury of this Chimerical Monster whereof they had made to them a vain Bugbear But experience hath made it known that they onely did render our Power suspected to raise their own that they did fright others with us onely to make themselves necessary and did not offer them their protection but to become their Masters and make them the Instruments of their Ends. Many have blindly fallen into this snare and to avoid an imaginary Danger have thrown themselves into a real Precipice This Artifice was so successfull that a part of Europe put it self in Arms against the Valour and Good fortune of Charles the Vth and the profound Wisedom of his Successour and all this Commotion was founded upon one onely Principle of State which the French Writers have established with an extraordinary diligence and upon which the Duke of Rohan had made roul all his Treatise of the Interest of Princes That there are two Powers in Christendom which be like the two Poles from whence all the Influences of Peace and War do descend upon the other States From whence he draws this Maxime to regulate the Conduct of all other Princes That their principal Interest is to hold the Balance so equally betwixt these two Great Monarchies that neither of them either by the way of Arms or Negotiation may ever come to prevail notablie and that in this Equality doth solely consist the Repose and Safety of all the rest Though he doth applie this Maxime very ill to the particular use of France and artificially serves his turn with it as of a false Lure insensibly to draw all the other Potentates into the French nets it is notwithstanding very wholsome in it self and if it had been managed with all the vigour and prudence which was necessary to render it usefull Europe at this day should enjoy a perfect Tranquillitie But many have been mistaken by a false supposition that the Power and the Designs of Spain were more to be apprehended then those of France and that by this very Reason of State they were obliged to put the Counterpoise into the French Scale of the Balance 'T is easie to believe that at present none will be found not fully undeceived of this errour in matter of Fact which hitherto made them abandon their true Reason of State But to examine this Question in its fountain and in every circumstance belonging thereunto it will be to the purpose to compare the most flourishing State of the House of Austria under the glorious Reigns of Charles the
Vth and Philip the II d and the Maximes of these two Princes with the present state and manner of acting of France and then it will be clearly discerned by this parallel that all which was apprehended from us at that time by a Panick fear now is to be feared and prevented in regard of the French by the solid principles of a true Prudence To discourse well of this we must consider the Situation both of the one and the other Monarchie the Genius of the Princes which govern them and the Inclinations of their People the Maximes of their Government and the circumstances of their Conduct both passed and present This would require a large Discourse I shall content my self onely to touch in passing by the Essentials and leave the Consequences to the consideration of the Readers The Monarchie of Spain is a large Machine which cannot easily be shaken but which cannot likewise move with the Agilitie which is necessarie to forein Enterprises The Situation of this Monarchie is advantagious for its own Defence being compassed with the Sea and the Pyrenean Mountains but it is inconvenient for invading other States because of the defect of a nearer conjunction betwixt the Members thereof which cannot hold any Communication with one another but by the large Chanels of the Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea which do expose their Designs to all the injuries of Weather and to the inconstancie of an Element on which no just measures can ever be taken The Union of the Empire to the power of Spain in the person of Charles the Vth was rather a step to the design of becoming greater then any addition to his power he espoused with the Empire all the Quarrels of Religion and of State which the conjuncture of those times had stirred up in that great Body which did take up in favour of others the most part of his care and forces In a word this powerful Monarchie seems to have been raised by God to be the Bulwark of the rest against the Turk in Hungarie and in Italie against the Moors in Spain and against France both in the Low-Countreys and in Italie But the neighbourhood of these three Powers by which it is invironed is a strong barr to stop its Designs if it should endeavour to form too vast ones The Genius of its Princes is suitable to its Situation They are naturally Courteous and inclined to Vertue and if they have exceeded in any thing it never was but in Goodness Charles the Vth loved noble Glory but he had so little Ambition that he resigned the Empire to his Brother and all his Kingdoms to his Son and used his Victories with so great Moderation that he reaped no other benefit thereby then the Honour to have overcome and the satisfaction to have preserved his Realms Philip the Second according to the confession of the Duke of Rohan himself had no inclination at all to Arms nor ever took them up but for his Defence or out of necessitie to humble those who fomented Rebellions within his Kingdomes It is to joyn two inconsistent things to represent him in one and the same time as an enemie to War and yet ardent to obtain Conquests His Successours have been endowed with so rare Clemency that their activeness had never appeared to the eyes of the World if the necessity of their defence had not excited and in a manner constrained them to shew themselves The people of Spain and of the other Kingdoms which live under the same Dominion are naturally friends to Quietness enemies to Noveltie satisfied with their present Condition and have not the least propension or itching to trouble their Neighbours But if we consider the Maximes which these great Princes have followed we shall find that the principal to which they have most adhered are directly opposite to those of Conquerours The first is To keep inviolably the Faith of publick Treaties which are powerful bridles to the Ambition of a Prince who desires to extend his Limits and do put great obstacles to his Designs by making him a Slave to his Word It cannot be found in all the Lives of these Monarchs since the Emperour Charles the Vth till our time that ever they have broken or prevaricated in any Treatie nor began a War for the inlarging of their Limits The second To prefer Religion always before Reason of State which is directly contrary to the Rule of Conquerours who do dexterously make use of all sorts of Sects to compass their own Ends. The third Not to make use of their Victories and the Advantages of their Arms nor of those of their Allies for we find that in all the Actions of those * Charles the Vth Philip the IId. two great Monarchs they never applied any one of their Conquests to their own particular benefit except what did belong unto them by just Successions The fourth To rule according to the Laws and leave their People in the peaceable possession of their Privileges which amongst Conquerours would pass for an essential fault against the first Principles of their Politicks which require before all other things that they make themselves absolute and independent at home and that they break all the Chains of Domestick Laws which might hinder their actings abroad The fifth Never to admit neither League nor Alliance nor Commerce nor Peace with the common Enemie of Christendom This is a bad undertaking of the Design of rendring themselves Masters of Europe when they draw upon themselves the emulation and the hatred of the Tyrant of Asia Let us adde to all these things the mature Circumspection which they observe in their Counsels which renders their Resolutions more slow and less active then is requisite to a Conquerour who ought to give more to Fortune then to Prudence This made a famous French Authour say Malherbe in his Epistles If it were true that Spain aspired to the Vniversal Monarchie he would advise them to desire God to grant a respite of the end of the World France is a Kingdome that hath all its Parts united abounding with Men industrious in Commerce which gains with their Baubles and their Modes the money of all other Nations which hath considerable Harbours upon the Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea and in their neighbourhood no considerable powers to fear but that of the House of Austria The Genius of the Nation is naturally inclined to Arms full of heat unquiet lovers of Novelty desirous of Conquests quick active and inclinable to all manner of Expedients which they conceive to be advantageous to their particular Ends. The Maximes of their Government according to what may be gathered from their Conduct both passed and present by their own Writers and by the same Treatise of the Duke of Rohan are the following First To entertain always War abroad and exercise their young Nobility at the expence of their Neighbours This is a most politick Maxime and most suiting with their own utilitie but most
troublesom to all the rest of the World In effect it is certain that the Genius of the Nation is such that it cannot endure to subsist long in the Idleness of Peace there must be Aliment for this Fire and if some were not given it from abroad it would form to it self matter at home To this natural Propension must yet be added the Custome of most part of their Provinces and the particular Dispositions of Noble Families which give so great advantages to the Elder Brothers that they leave almost nothing to the younger but their Industry and Sword and as they do not cultivate Letters and their Quality suffers them not to apply themselves to Mechanick Trades there is nothing left to them but the Warrs or Robberies to preserve themselves from Miserie Whence it comes that this Kingdom always finds it self filled with an idle and boyling Youth ready to undertake all and which seeks employment for their valour at whose cost soever it be The libertie which they had heretofore of voiding this Bilious humour and of running to supposititious glory by single Combats is at present taken from them by just Decrees the little shifts of Industry by which formerly they sheltred themselves from want are now severely prohibited But at the same time that all ways are shut unto them whereby to open their spleen in their own Countrey the Polititians of France held it necessary to furnish them with another gate by which they might evaporate this Flame which would gnaw their own Bowels if it did not find another vent Moreover as the greatest Revenues of the Crown of France consist in the Purse of the People and that the excessive Contributions cannot be exacted in times of Peace without making a great many Malecontents it is necessary to feed them with the smoke of some Conquests and always to have pretexts to remain in Arms and maintain by force the Royal Authority which hath so strangely overflowed the limits of their Fundamental Laws As it is impossible for them to satisfie all the Princes and great men of their Realm and that ever since the Reign of Henry the III d they have taken it for a Rule of their Conduct to bring them low so far as they can it is extremely convenient to hold them imployed in forrein Wars and to incite them to glory that they may be consumed in ruinous undertakings Their second Maxime is To enter into all sorts of Affairs either by right or wrong and everywhere to make themselves the Arbiters either by violence or by cunning by Authoritie or by surprize by threatnings or by friendship and to get in as Mediators even into those Treaties of Peace wherein they are interessed as Parties as they pretended to doe in that of the Bishop of Munster and do actually practise in the Assembly at Breda In all the Differences either past or present they have never doubted to take Partie there never yet was Quarrell in which they had not dexteritie enough to form unto themselves some kind of Interest and some Rights nor did ever any People shew the least inclination towards Rebellion but instantly they made them their Allies But experience hath made it visible that they never entred into any War but to exasperate it nor into any Peace but to sow the seeds of new Disputes It would be superfluous to number them since there is no body so little versed in the ancient Story who does not confess this truth and that the modern Examples have made us know it sufficiently In the last Troubles of Germanie into which they thrust themselves at first under the colour of Protection with a thousand specious protestations that they would never pretend any thing for themselves but barely the satisfaction of their Allies when the business came to its full Crisis they dismembred Alsatia from the Body of the Empire by the same Artifice with which they had dissolved from it * Metz Toul and Verdun three Bishopricks under the Reign of Henry the Third The third Maxime is To have for their onely Rule the Interest of State so that the Faith of Treaties the good of Religion or the ties of Bloud and Amitie cannot hold them 'T is this that the Duke of Rohan puts for the fundamental Principle of all his Work The Princes command over the People Interest commands over Princes All that the Turks have done in Christendom since Francis the First to our time they owe it to the Alliances of the Crown of France with the Ottoman Port and to the Diversions which they have made in their favour against all those who have desired to undertake something against this Common Enemy And though that the Protestant Religion is beholding to it for a part of its progress yet France doth not therefore desist from giving secret intelligences to the Catholicks to make them consider its power as the onely which being tied by no Capitulation is therefore in a condition to reduce all Sects under the Obedience of the Church In a word for the erection of their Monarchie they do imitate and apply to ill uses the Maxime which St. Paul practised for the enlarging of the Kingdom of Christ Factus sum omnibus omnia and as this Apostle complied with all sorts of spirits to gain them to the Church weeping with the afflicted and taking part in the consolation of those which he found to be satisfied these by a wrong Imitation of this holy Conduct conform themselves to the Interests of all the World to make them serve theirs and sacrifice Religion as often as it comes in competition with the Interest of State The examples are so fresh that we need not make any enumeration of them and many things might be said on this subject in reference to the last War against the Turks if Modesty did not oblige us to suppress them Their fourth Maxime is To keep as much as they can forrein States occupied and divided at home or else engaged in some external War England the Empire Italie Denmark and Spain have had a sad Experience of this and now both Poland and the States of the United Provinces do resent the deplorable effects thereof All these Maximes are proper to Conquerours and as many infallible marks of a vast and profound Design long ago contrived The Predecessors of the most Christian King could not bring it to perfection because the Civil Wars the power of Spain and the just Limits which the Royal Authoritie then acknowledged were powerful Barrs to stop them but at present having imposed at home an absolute Law over all their Subjects and having put Dissention amongst all Strangers there remains nothing but that they overcome the third Impediment by compleating the overthrow of the Monarchie of Spain that they may pass upon our Ruines to the Conquest of all the other States To attain this it was necessary they should full us asleep with the Assurances of Peace and Propositions of Leagues and Union The War
of Portugal was carefully to be nourished to consume by a slow fire this Monarchie and keep at the same time Portugal in their Dependencie by the necessity of their Assistance A War must be raised between England and Holland and prolonged by a thousand Artifices to get themselves elbow-room to Invade the Low-Countries whilst these two great Powers should be drowned in Bloud to their reciprocal Ruine It was held requisite to sow the Seeds of Division in the Empire by the means of particular Leagues which under colour of the Good of the Peace of Germany have no other End then to facilitate the Invasion of it and hinder Assistance to be given to one of its most precious Members A powerfull Faction likewise was to be raised in Poland to keep all the Princes of the North under check and a part of the Emperour's Forces unusefully imployed in the Gard of his Frontiers To seem indifferent to both Religions it was necessary one while to assist the Elector of Mentz against those of Erfort and then the Elector Palatine against Mentz and to seek everywhere their Advantages in the Troubles of others I cannot here omit one fresh Example which makes much to my purpose though I foresee that it will occasion as much horrour in the Reader as it hath done to my own Pen. France by virtue of a Treatie of Warrantie with the States of the United Provinces after divers unusefull Requisitions made by the said States found her self at last obliged by her Interest to make some shew of an inclination to imbrace their Defence against England This Treatie of reciprocal Warrantie expresly contains that the Allies should not so much as treat and much less conclude any Peace with the Common Enemie or Truce without the consent of the other and without procuring the same Satisfaction for their Allie which he should obtain for himself The States of the United Provinces did so scrupulously adhere to this Obligation that notwithstanding the little Reality of the French Succours against England and the considerable Advantages which they could have found by Treating apart they would never lend an ear unto any Proposition of this nature France on the contrary alwaies held a Negotiation open by the means of the Earl of S. Albans and upon the just Suspicions which they gave unto the said States by the frequent goings and comings and the flux and reflux of Courriers continually passing betwixt Paris and London the Court of France did so authentickly confirm to them their Faith and gave them so positive words that they would never hearken to any Proposition but in the common Assembly for the General Peace between all the Allies that even they ordained the Count de l'Estrade that in case credit were not given to what he assured in the quality of Embassadour so good an opinion have they of the honesty of their Ministerie he might devest himself of his Character to assure them of it in his own name A great honour indeed for Monsieur de l'Estrade which shews that he is not capable of deceiving but in the quality of a Minister of France and that the Probity of his Person exalts the Dignity of his Charge Notwithstanding if he had been so unadvised as to have engaged himself in this Surety he would at this day have found himself liable both to the Principal and the Interest it being out of doubt that England hath had the dexterity to engage France in this Quagmire to conclude a secret Treatie of Peace with them without the Consent nay without the Knowledge of their Allies without making any mention of them or of their Interests and without any reservation of or relation to the General Peace But that which is yet more astonishing is that after this Peace was concluded notwithstanding the Promise made to the English not to use any Hostility against them France used all its endeavours with the States of the United Provinces to put out their Fleet speedily to Sea binding themselves to joyn their own Fleet with it and agreeing with them upon all the Conditions necessary for this effect If this proceeding doth not open the eyes or all Europe they 'l have no cause to complain of the Calamities which they are to suffer by France which takes so much pains to undeceive them All the Maximes which I have above related are those of Conquerours but their manner of executing them is so much the more to be feared as it consists altogether in Quickness and Activity and that no Reason of Justice nor any Condescension to the Interposition of Neighbours and of their own Allies is able to stop the current of it It is no more now the fear nor the jealousie of the Power of the House of Austria which served them for a Pretext in their former Wars that makes them act at this day they dare no longer make use of that ridiculous Scarecrow of the Universal Monarchie aimed at by the Spaniards they have no occasion from the Discontents of the Protestants of Germanie and their Alliances with the United Provinces they can no longer cloak with the Interest of others the Itch which they have to conquer there remained nothing else for them to doe but to goe seek the occasions of War in the very Sanctuary of Peace and to form the project of it upon a Marriage which they themselves do avow was made for no other End but to render the Union eternal and inseparable It may be judged by all this discourse that these great Designs must needs have a vaster Idea then the Conquest of the Low-Countries that they are the first attaqued as the Out-works to the end they may lodge themselves without impediment in the Body of the place they have Pretensions to the greatest part of Gemanie as an ancient Domain of France which could not be alienated They are going to form to themselves a Precedent against the States of Holland by the Annulling of all the Royal Surrenders and the Establishment of the Devolution They covet Harbours in Spain Leagues in the Empire Factions in Poland Wars in England and Holland Passes into Italie and the Sovereign Arbitrage every-where Their Quiet consists in the Trouble of all others their Glory in Conquests and their Advantage in the publick Calamities In this they follow their sole and supreme Rule of Interest It is the part of all others to take their measures from this and to think seriously of prosecuting their own There remains something to be said of the particular Obligation of the Empire for the Defence of the Circle of Burgundie I shall pass but lightly over this matter because it is already decided by a solemn Act of the Chancerie of the Empire and that he who hath written on this Point at Ratisbon hath penetrated in few words so throughly into the Bottom of this Affair and so drained it that he hath left nothing to be added no more then to be replied thereto In effect I never