particularly informed of his Majesties intentions That Ambassador would willingly have excused himself but the States Order being renewed on the 29th he set out from Nimueguen in Laid-coaches The reluctancy of the Heer Beverning was attributed to the fear he had of disobliging the Prince of Orange whose Interests did not admit of the Peace till that time this Ambassador was reputed a very good Republican but afterward he was thought wedded to the concerns of the Prince of Orange though it could not be affirmed whether fear or inclination were the cause of that engagement He is a man of a penetrating wit who knows what is good and always pursues it by just means He is assiduous and painful and hath been employed by the States in many Embassies and in all the Treaties that have been made since the year 1650 but he loves retirement and it was not without trouble that he left his Country-house near Leyden to come to Nimueguen The Heer Haren his Colleague is a Gentleman of Friesland of much credit in that Province and addicted to the interests of the Prince of Nassan Governour and Hereditary State-holder of the Provinces of Friesland and Groninguen The Heer Beverning arrived on the 30th at Antwerp and there found a Trumpeter who stayed for him to conduct him to the French Camp where having seen Monsieur de Pompone he had Audience of his Most Christian Majesty He found him so sincere in his intentions towards the Peace and so favourably inclined towards the States-General that on the first of June he left the Camp but in the account that he gave his Superiors of his Negotiation he told them that he found the French King as well informed of the condition of his enemies and of the places that he might attack as he was of his own affairs About the same time the Marquess de la Fuente gave notice of his arrival to the French Ambassadors but seeing he had already visited those of the Emperour in publick without giving the same declaration that his Colleagues had given to the Mediators to whom all the Ambassadors gave the precedency the French Ambassadors ordered a Gentleman to tell the person that came from him that they could not see him unless he first performed what was due to the English as Mediators By that the French Ambassadors obliged Ambassador Jenkins to whom they had given their promise constantly to maintain the honour of the Mediation It was alledged that it was to no purpose for the Marquess de la Fuente to give that particular declaration since that instead of one which might suffice for the three Ambassadors of Spain they had already given two But the French Ambassadors maintained that for the same reason they ought to have a third and that no consideration should hinder the Marquess de la Fuente from following the example of his Colleagues in that matter that on the contrary they had great cause to wonder that by such a refusal he would in some measure seem to condemn their conduct so that for want of that declaration the French Ambassadors saw not the Marquess de la Fuente during the whole course of the Treaty unless at the meetings of the Ladies where he used to come as the other Ambassadors did The news from England were at that time very tumultuary they advised that the King of Great Britain had Prorogued the Parliament to the third of June promising at that time to give them good news of the Peace Seeing a Prorogation of it self cuts off all that hath been proposed and treated in preceding Sessions without being concluded and confirmed this Prorogation put a stop to some pert Addresses which the House of Commons had made to his Majesty of Great Britain such as that whereby they desired the King would declare who they were that had counselled his Majesty to give the answers which he made in the mouth of May the year before and in the Month of January of the present June 1678 The Marquess de la Fuente who had not as yet communicated his plenary Commission caused on the first of June a copy thereof to be given which was collationed by the Nuncio's Auditor The French Ambassadors found it not to be in the form that it ought to be because all the four Ambassadors of Spain being named therein and being Posteriour in date to that of the three Ambassadors who were approved it seemed that by that means the Spaniards might disown when they should please all that they had done till then since that that new plenary commission might annul the former And therefore the French Ambassadors refused to accept of it and pretended that the Marquess de la Fuente should have one apart or that this last should be of the same date with the former without which they declared that they would not acknowledg him for an Ambassador In the mean time they were in great impatience at Nimueguen to know what had been the success of the deputation of the Heer Beverning who to the trouble of the Confederates went from thence to the French Camp not doubting but that all these proceedings would at length terminate in a Peace with the Dutch They thought it a matter of so much importance to divert that blow that for that end they set all engines at work but on the fourth of June a Courier from the Camp brought the French Ambassadors a copy of the answer which that King had made to the Letter of the States-General and another of the Memoir that his Majesty had caused to be given to the Heer Beverning The King by that Letter testified the pleasure which he had to see the States-General in a disposition towards Peace that his Majesty was willing to condescend to several things in favour of their Allies and how joyful he would be by restoring to them his ancient amity to enter with them into such engagements as might for ever secure their repose and liberty It can hardly be believed what good effect the word Liberty produced in the minds of the Dutch that word was so agreeable to them and so sensibly affected them that in all the impressions that have been made of that Letter in Holland the word Repose is left out to make that of Liberty sound the louder They talked publickly that whatever secret or publick enemy they might have for the future they would not fear the loss of their Liberty in which the present War had made so great a breach By the Memoir given to the Heer Beverning the French King at the desire of the States-General granted a Truce for six weeks to begin the first of the ensuing Month which extended that Truce until the fifteenth of August to the end that the States might have all the time they wished for to perswade their Allies to consent to the Peace in consideration whereof the States should promise not to assist them in any manner during the whole course of that War if they would
the late times had interrupted The Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg who could not but with great trouble see the great disposition that appeared for the Peace of Spain made the same day a vigorous Remonstrance to the Ambassadors of that Crown They doubted not but that the glory that was to be acquired in signifying the same constancy after the unexpected signing of the Dutch Peace would render them stedfast and unshaken in the observation of their Treaties of Alliance They said that their Masters desired nothing more than the repose of Christendom but that their Enemy proposed the Law to them instead of admitting a Treaty upon the conditions which might conduce to a General Peace These Ambassadors employed afterwards all their Eloquence to divert Spain from the course they saw it taking they represented to them That the constancy of that Crown was alone capable to reclaim those who had deviated from their duty through the influence of the Cabal and the levity of some who understood not how dear faith and sincerity ought to be to a Free State That what France left to Spain by that Peace in the Netherlands was rather to exhaust its Treasures than that they intended to leave that crown in the peaceable possession thereof That they hoped Spain would not yield to the common Enemy the glory of being more constant in favours of their Allies than themselves In fine that if their Masters found themselves forsaken and abused they would have care another time how they helped to quench the fire since they saw themselves so ill rewarded for their pains On the 24. the Articles that were made betwixt the two Armies were brought to Nimueguen They were both at the same time to draw off to an equal distance from before Mons but the Troops that blocked up the place were not to retire till two days after In the mean time there were various reports of the Ratification of the States-General All the Provinces at that time held their several Assemblies to give their resolutions as to that point to the States who seemed less inclined than the Provinces to keep their word and correspond with the exactitude with which France seemed to act in execution of the signed Treaty The Heer Beverning returned to Nimueguen on the 27. where having conferred with Ambassador Jenkins who had received new instructions from England he had audience of the French Ambassadors and would have them to understand that his Masters were so far engaged to procure the peace of Spain that they would be very glad to see the difficulties that hinder'd the conclusion of it removed before they ratified the Peace which they themselves had made and that his Majesty of Great Britain had by Mr. Hyde his Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary whom he had sent purposely to the Hague made very pressing instances to them on that subject in favour of Spain The truth is the expressions of the Memoir which that Ambassador gave to the States-General on the 25th agreed not with the procedure that England had hitherto held for promoting of the peace That King made known to the States that he was surprised to understand that they had signed a separate peace without including Spain and without any Guarantee for the evacuation of the places within the time limited That since the new pretensions which France formed to the County of Beaumont and the Town of Bouvignes retarded the accomplishment of the peace his Majesty thought that the condition put into the last Treaty was fallen and that he and the States-General were equally obliged to enter into a joynt War against France That if the States would refuse to ratifie what they had signed at Nimueguen his Majesty of Great Britain offers to declare actual War against France The States-General having already made great instances to the King of England that he would use his power with the French King for obtaining for them the Neutrality of the Countrey of Cleves and Juliers the Ambassador of his Majesty of Great Britain by the same Memoir assured them That the King his Master knowing it to be no less necessary to the States that their Provinces should be covered on that side than on the side of Flanders he was ready upon that account to enter with them into what measures they should judg convenient and that the obtaining of that security depended only on themselves In the mean time the Forces that were newly raised in England for the assistance of the Low-countreys passed daily over into Flanders by Ostend Some of them at Bruges upon a mistake had suffered a Riot from the Rabble upon the account of Religion and the Flemings who are Catholicks were not well pleased with Heretical succors But the Spaniards who found in their Confederates and the King of Great Britain so great a disposition of maintaining their Interests rested satisfi'd and shewed no more desire for the conclusion of the peace They found some advantage by that delay for the French Forces being now by the Treaty of Mons retired out of the Spanish Territories attempted no enterprise and France being uncertain of the issue of the Spanish peace and of the ratification of the Dutch Treaties their Forces could not march into Germany where they had already ruined the affairs of the Emperor and Empire Besides the Spaniards by the debates which they started concerning the difficulties in which they were so well supported in some manner saved the honour of their Nation and they had at least the advantage of not receiving the Law without disputes and oppositions which was so far from rendering their conditions worse that it could not on the contrary but procure for them more advantageous terms On the first of September 1678. the French Ambassadors by an Express from Court received new instructions and in the conference which they had the same day with the Dutch Ambassadors they told them That for the good of the general peace they had power to remit in their pretensions So that next day the conferences were again renewed at the house of the Dutch Ambassadors who carried the propositions and answers back and for betwixt the French and Spaniards who were in several rooms The Articles in controversie were adjusted on the mornings and forenoons meetings Next day they continued but the difficulties that were raised concerning the condition of the places which the French King was to deliver up as well in respect of Ammunition and Artillery as of the Fortifications hindered the Treaty from any great progress Those whom it most concerned to prevent the peace with Spain omitted nothing that could put a stop to it and upon a pretext that France kept not to the sole Articles of the ninth of April they made great noise in England and engaged his Majesty of Great Britain so far by many proceedings conform to their intentions that in the sequel it would not be easie for him to abandon any of their concerns One of the chief
means they made use of at Nimueguen to break off the peace with Spain was to get the Mediators to propose a Truce for six months during which they hoped that the differences of all the Princes who were engaged in the War might be happily ended But hitherto their opinions as to that were quite different seeing they had refused all the Truces that had been proposed to them In the mean time the Northern Confederates made great preparatives for putting in execution a new enterprise which they designed upon the Isle of Rugen Matters were in such a state that the decision of one difficulty seemed to be the necessary cause of another and that so great an affair as Peace could not be brought forth without great stratagems The seventh and eighth were spent in the Heer Bevernings frequent coming and going to demand of the French Ambassadors the clearing of several doubts which the Spaniards raised to all the Articles of the Treaty saying that they had secret notices which being but confused rendered them scrupulous and distrustful upon the smallest appearances In fine they demanded an explication concerning the Chattelleny of Aith which was the ground of a difficulty of little less consequence than that of Bonvignes and Beaumont Since that Chattelleny was yeilded to the French King by the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle his Majesty dismembred several Villages from it and adjected them to the government of Tournay and in that state the King pretended to deliver back this Chattelleny but whether the Spaniards thought fit of themselves to demand that explication or that they were put upon it by others they desired a particular clause concerning that to be put into the Treaty and upon the refusal of the French Ambabassadors they framed a Memoir which they gave to the States-General They said that the dismembring of the Chattelleny of Aith made by the French King absorped the chief part thereof that no less lay at stake than seventy Villages and the City of Leuze which is but a league and a half distant from Aith That since his most Christian Majesty had in the conditions made no reservation of the dependencies of that Chattelleny as he had of Verge and Memin depending on Courtray the French Ambassadors by refusing the clause demanded shewed but a captious fetch that they might restore to Spain but a part of so considerable a Chattelleny The French were in great pain to know what could have given the Spaniards ground at that time to make that reflection upon the dismembring of the Chattelleny of Aith and to think that the design of the French was to make their advantage of the omission that might have been made thereof in the Treaty The truth is the Spaniards would have had no ground of complaining if Aith and its Chattelleny should have been restored to them in the condition that it has been so long in They could not imagine what was the reason of this new emergent but it was obvious that the Prince de Lignes who has a great Estate in the dismembred part of that Chattelleny having sent a Secretary to Nimueguen upon the account that it concerned him to have his Lands return again to the Spanish Dominion had without doubt given the Spaniards information of that affair and of the necessity of inserting a clause concerning it in the Treaty The Heer Beverning acted not in that affair with the same zeal as he had formerly made appear The distasts he had received the last time that he had been at the Hague made him proceed much more slowly than his usual application did allow for after all the pains he had taken to end a War which the Vnited Provinces could no longer support he little expected to have his conduct blamed Nevertheless they endeavoured to let him see that there were several faults and considerable omissions in the Treaty which he had signed The five principal were these First that in the Preface the French King seemed to be the Protector of the States-General though it contain no term but what is conform to his Majesties Letters and the answers of the States Secondly That the Neutrality to which the States-General were engaged by that Treaty was indefinite and by consequent might be extended beyond the present War Thirdly That the Heer Beverning had exceeded his commission in having obliged the States to warrant the Neutrality of Spain Fourthly That he had omitted an Article of Amnistie and Oblivion which ought mutually to be stipulated in all treatties of Peace And Lastly That he had forgot to mention the Barriere which the French King granted to Spain in consideration and for the security of the States General Though most of those faults were more grounded on the discontent of those who regretted the conclusion of the Peace than on any important or dangerous consequence yet the French King was willing to satisfie the States General in any thing that might farther concern them And seeing the indefinite term of their Neutralitie and the warranting of that into which Spain was to enter were the points that appeared to be of greatest importance the explication thereof which the French Ambassadors gave to the Dutch according to the desire of the States was approved and ratified by his Majesty at Fontainblean the 5th of September in the same manner as if it had been inserted in the Treaty The French Ambassadors understood by the Letters which Courier brought them on the 9th that the Court was perswaded that there would be greater difficulty in concluding the Treaty with Spain than had been at first imagined and that was partly the cause why the French King gave Orders to the Count d' Avaux to go with all diligence to the Hague where his Majesty judged his presence necessary But seeing affairs appeared then to be in a better state at Nimueguen than was believed at Court that Ambassador departed not However another Courier having on the 10th brought a compromise from the King whereby his Majesty referred to the States-General the decision of all the differences that retarded the conclusion of the Peace with Spain The Count d' Avaux arrived on the 11th at the Hague where it was not difficult for him to observe that there were many there fully inclined to introduce if they could some change in the State whereinto the signing of the Peace had put the affairs of the Vnited Provinces Nevertheless it was already known that all the Provinces had consented to the ratification of the Peace some absolutely and others upon conditions which they submitted to the determination of the States insomuch that before the end of six weeks the Ratifications might be exchanged if no difficulties stopt the conclusion of the Peace with Spain In the mean time the English forces that in so great number came over into the Low-countreys bred great umbrages in Holland the people could not tell what need there was of an Assistance that came not till the peace was concluded And seeing
that the interest they had to bring things so about that by virtue of the Treaty they should not have power to dispose of their Estates was one of the chief reasons that had so long deferred the Ratification and by consequent had ruined so many private Families in Flanders The Spaniards likewise demanded That in case the Commissioners that should be appointed by the two Kings to make exchange of the Villages which they should find prejudicial to the setling of the limits could not agree amongst themselves as to the value of the exchanges the difference should be referred to the determination of the King of England But the French Ambassadors condescended to none of those unseasonable demands being resolved rather to break off than to innovate the least thing in the Articles that were agreed upon The States-General made even a Declaration to the Count D' Avaux on the 13. that they not only desisted from the inclusion which they pretended to give to the Emperor and Princes of the Empire but that they would likewise abandon the Spaniards if they ratifi'd not the Treaty within fifteen days being unwilling to importune the French King for a longer delay and that they hoped in a short time to incline the Emperor to accept the peace In effect the Imperialists on the 12. gave their counter-project wherein nevertheless they changed their mind as to the option that they had already made of Philipsbourg and added several Articles which were not conform to what was agreed unto with the Mediators They demanded that the French King should indempnifie all those of the Empire who had suffered any damage during the War That the Princes of Furstembourg should by their submissions crave pardon of and make publick satisfaction to the Emperor for having espoused contrary Interests And that the King should not have the Soveraignty over all the Ways that he demanded in Lorrain These propositions quite contrary to the project which the French Ambassadors gave to the Mediators who approved all the Articles therein contained made the sincerity of the desire and conduct of the Imperialists to be doubted of or at least they made their ordinary irresolution appear particularly touching the choice of the Alternative about which having once declared themselves they ought not to be admitted to change again But the truth was they never imagined that the French King liked Fribourg as well as Philipsbourg but that yielding to him the latter they would put his Majesty to a plunge insomuch that the desire that he would have to make them change their choice might produce some advantage for them But they were no less mistaken in that point than in their hopes of getting new Articles inserted into the Treaty for the French Ambassadors would not admit of any nor derogate in the least from the Treaties of Westphalia except in the Alternative of Fribourg for Philipsbourg The Spaniards had now spun out the time until the end of the last delay which the French King had granted to them but found no way longer to defer the exchange of the Ratifications nor any hopes that the French Ambassadors would grant them the least thing of what they remanded since the signing of the Treaty So that on the 15. they delivered their Ratification The exchange was made without any ceremony at the House of the Ambassadors of the States General whither the Secretaries went to fetch them But the French Ambassadors finding that the Ratification of Spain was not altogether in the form that it ought to have been in they declared that they accepted it no otherways than in so far as it should please the King their Master The Imperialists finding the French Ambassadors as inflexible in respect of them as they had been in regard of the Spaniards despaired of obtaining liberty to change the choice which they had already made of the Alternative so that on the 24. they declared that they stood to the Election that they had made of Philipsbourg and that they might not spend the whole Month after which the French Ambassadors had declared to them that the King would not adhere longer to the conditions of the 9th of April they entred into publick conference that they might in good earnest endeavour the conclusion of the peace These Conferences were held in the Town-house where the Ambassadors of the Emperor France and Sueden with the Mediator Jenkins had all separate rooms Tho' the Nuncio employed himself very usefully for promoting the peace yet he appeared not as publick Mediator because Rome and England could not join in one Mediation and that England was admitted by all the other Princes who were concerned in that Negotiation The Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg endeavoured presently to stop the course of those conferences and represented vigorously to the Imperialists that every step they made were so many breaches in the Treaties of Alliance which his Imperial Majesty had made with the Princes their Masters The Ambassadors of the States-General perceiving that in the few days which remained of the Month it was not possible to conclude a Treaty wherein so many difficulties appeared in the very beginning prayed the French Ambassadors to prolong the delay which that King had granted Their answer was that they had no power to do it but that nevertheless they believed that if the Treaty were in readiness to be signed his Majesty might give a new delay In the first Session of Conferences the four first Articles of the Project of the Imperialists were reduced to one the French refusing to fill the Treaties with needless Articles and such especially as only concerned those matters which France pretended to be sufficiently adjusted by the Treaties of Westphalia whereof they demanded the corroboration and accomplishment And seeing by the treaty the Emperor and all the Princes of the Empire were not only to remain neutral but were also to take from the Enemies of France and Sueden all means whereby they might make any advantage or profit by the Countreys of the Empire whilst the King might make use of them for restoring Sueden his Majesty by his Ambassadors demanded such places as he should stand in need of after the peace of the Empire for a free passage from his frontiers to the Rhine On the fifth of January 167 8 the French Ambassadors declared that the places which their King intended to reserve were Casselet Huys Verviers Aix-la-Chapelle Duren Linninch Nuys and Ordingen that was the straightest and shortest march that the French Forces could have to the Rhine and his Majesty was already possest of all those places which being open and without fortification shewed that the design of the King was only to make use of them that he might oblige to the observation of the Treaties of Westphalia those Princes who contrary to the faith of the same Treaties desired to continue the War after the peace of the Empire that they might retain the possession of the Countreys which they had
were not in such readiness as they were made believe so that one in Charleville foretold the Count D' Avaux That his stay in that Town should be as long as that of the late Count D' Avaux his Uncle who had waited there four months for his Passports when he went to Munster in the character of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary for the French King for the Treaty of the General Peace that was afterward concluded there The Ambassadors after two months stay perceiving that the difficulties which were started sometimes about the reciprocal liberty of sending messengers from Nimueguen upon their own single Passports and sometimes about the quality of Prince Charles who demanded of the French King the Titles of Brother and Duke of Lorrain might still detain them long at Charleville they resolved to cause their Goods which were already Embarqued to be brought ashore again and to wait for their Passports in that Town which came at length on the fourth of June bearing date the last of December in the foregoing year with an order of Court immediately to set forward accordingly they Embarked on the seventh of June The sickness of the Duke of Vitry still continued and was thought desperate which obliged the King to nominate in his place the Mareschal d' Estrade who was visited by his Colleagues in their passage at Maestricht and having staid there only a day on Sunday the 13 of June about one of the Clock aftâ—â—â—â—n they came to Moock two Leagues from Nimueguen where having instantly put ashore their Coaches and most part of their Equipage they set forward and came to Nimueguen about five of the Clock at night Though the French Ambassadors were incognito and without Train having left almost all their servants in the Boats with the rest of their Goods which did not arrive till next day yet it may be said that they made a publick entry by reason of the great concourse of people who out of curiosity and impatience to see the so much wisht-for Ambassadors flocked out of the Town upon the Ramparts into the streets and windows The vast number of Waggons laden with packs of Goods that came after and filled the whole street from the gate of the Town to the Ambassadors houses gave ground of admiration to that people who had never seen the like before The people seeing this and being perswaded of the grandeur of France believed that the Ambassadors had brought with them things of vast value and richness so that their houses were presently filled with those of the Town that crouded thither to see them and they were not only looked upon as sure pledges of Peace but also as a probable cause of the wealth of the Town All the people being falsly perswaded that the French were only to be blamed for the delay of the Treaty but now seeing they were come they concluded that in a short time Nimueguen was to be the Theater on which the greatness and magnificence of Europe was to appear Nevertheless matters advanced not so fast as people had imagined for as yet there were none at Nimueguen but Sir Lionel Jenkins one of the three Plenipotentiary Mediators from England and the Heer 's Beverning and Haren Ambassadors Plenipotentiary from the States General of the Vnited Provinces The French Ambassadors sent immedialy to acquaint my Lord Ambassador Jenkins with their arrival who rendered them the Complement and gave them next day a visit in a Coach with six Horses The Dutch Ambassadors did the like and the French rendered the Visits so soon as their Train and Equipage were in a condition to appear abroad The Mareshal d' Estrades had orders with all expedition to part from Maestricht and though his Train and Equipage were not as yet in readiness yet he arrived at Nimueguen the 28 of June whither Sir William Temple another of the Mediators from England came shortly after with my Lady Gifford his Sister my Lady Temple not coming till two months after My Lord Ambassador Temple is a person of much learning singular in his ways and opinions Some judged him partial in the Mediation and somewhat unequal in his humour he is nevertheless a person of great abilities and well acquainted with the Republican principles as appears by the remarks he hath written upon the State of the Vnited Provinces His Colleague Sir Lionel Jenkins is a civil well-bred Gentleman of great integrity and firm to his Religion a person endued with much knowledg who always shewed himself to be good Mediator These Ambassadors had aâ— 100 l. sterling a week besides an hundred and fifty pounds given them for providing their Equipage with Furniture for the Chamber of Audience and a service of the Royal Plate according to the custom of England The report that came abroad at that time that the Prince of Orange intended to besiege Maestricht seemed as unprobable as the enterprize was dangerous notwithstanding the Hollanders flattered themselves with the hopes of carrying that place in a fortnights time and it seemed they only waited for the departure of the Mareshal d' Estrades that they might accomplish their designs but the conclusion of that siege was much to the advantage of the French who that year succeeded in every thing almost that they undertook either by Sea or Land The King in four days took Condâ— and on the 25 of April obliged it to render on discretion After five days siege the Duke of Orleans carried Bouchain on the 12 of May in sight of the strongest Army that the Confederates ever had in the Low-Countries under the command of the Prince of Orange who thought it not fit to hazard a Battel with the Kings Army that lay within Canon-shot of him Aire on the last of July suffered the same fate The King laid the design and the Marquess of Louvois in the command of the Mareshal d' Humieres put it in execution The Fort of Linck was taken the 9th of August The Mareshal Duke of Vivonne was very successful in his Fights on the Sicilian Seas and in the Port of Palermo bâ—rnt part of the Spanish and Dutch Fleet. The death of de Ruyter that happened a little before by a great shot that he received on board his own Ship in an engagement against the French was an irreparable loss to the Dutch who never had an Admiral of so much merit and reputation In the mean while it was easie to be judged by what began to appear that if the Prince of Orange had taken Maestricht there was no hopes of finding the Dutch any ways inclinable to accommodation but an event so contrary to their expectation and the ruin of a great part of their Army of which most of the residue was seen to march by Nimueguen dejected them extreamly and made them think of other measures The first thing that began to be talked of was the Neutrality of the Country about Nimueguen The Mediators at the solicitation of the Dutch desired that the
the audience of the Count d' Avaux who that he might lose no time had servants abroad in the streets to acquaint him immediately when Monsieur Colbert should come out from his Audience so that he went to it punctually at half an hour after three But hardly was he entered when my Lord Barclay had notice that the Count of Oxenstierne was below in the Court He bid answer him that he was with the Count d' Avaux and that the Count of Oxenstierne was not to have his audience till half an hour after that The Ambassador of Suedeland who saw no body come to receive him at the foot of the stair caused his Coachman to drive out gain without staying for the answer That action suffered various constructions for it was alledged that he could not be ignorant but that the Count d' Avaux was at his audience The way to the Lodgings of my Lord Barclay was by his back-gate where some of his servants were observed to be in the streets and it was not then but exactly half an hour after three that if he had been ignorant of it and had had no other design in that case he might have come back having first made a short turn in expectation of the Count d' Avaux coming out or if he pretended that his visit was actually performed as he did afterwards he ought to have sent his Colleague to Audience immediately after the Count d' Avaux Whatever the matter was whether ignorance or a laid design as many did perswade themselves it was though they could not conceive the policy of that enterprise the business was taken up by the Mediation of the French Ambassadors The Visit was held to be performed and yet my Lord Barclay never render'd it nor saw the Count of Oxenstern but accidentally as it were at Madam Colberts Lodgings The unexpected Peace concluded between Poland and the Turk the advantages that the King of Sueden began to gain upon the Danes in Schonen by the taking of Elsinbourg and the Succors put into Malmoe the vigorous resistance of the Town of Stetin from before which the Elector of Brandenbourg was at that time forced to raise the siege all that I say and besides the progress of the French Arms in Sicily made it believed that the Confederates would at length appear more tractable than hitherto they had been In the mean time the Count of Kinsdi the second of the Emperors Ambassadors continued still at Cologne detained as it was said by the Gout and Don Pedro de Ronquillo the second Ambassador from Spain coming from England where he had been but Envoy Extraordinary stayed still at the Hague expecting the rest of his Equipage from England but being at length arrived at Nimueguen he continued long incognito because having no other character but that of Plenipotentiary the French Ambassadors refused to give him the hand Monsieur Somnitz and Blaspiel the Ambassadors of the Elector of Brandenbourg who had been sometime at Nimueguen on the 29. of December gave notice of their arrival The French Ambassadors consulted together and afterwards with the Mediators because contrary to what was practised at Munster both the Plenipotentiaries of Brandenbourg demanded the hand and title of Excellence But the French Ambassadors would not give it but to him that was first named in the Commission and upon occasion of that difficulty visited them not The English Mediators made their visit but with a resolution not to give the title of Excellence save only to Mr. Somnitz nor to demand audience of Mr. Blaspiel However being both lodged in the same house the second failed not to be at the audience and the first perceiving that the Mediators addressed their discourse only to him shewed them his Colleague giving him the title of Excellence But they answered that their visit was only to him The Ambassador of Denmark stuck not at these formalities having to do with the Ministers of one of the chief of his Masters Allies But the Suedish Ambassadors followed the example of the French So that the Elector of Brandenbourgs Ministers found themselves far enough from being able to establish their pretension at Nimueguen The States General who payed great Subsidies to the Princes that were confederate with them began at that time to think of retrenching that great expence and they thought they had the greater reason that they needlesly drained their Treasury by the charge of a War which was now become wholly that of their Confederates unto which they ought to have no greater concern than in a publick and common assault What glory soever redounded to the States General in that they could reckon among their Pensioners the Emperor King of Spain King of Denmark all the Electors almost the Princes of Brunswick the Duke of Newbourg and the Bishop of Munster yet that hindered them not from acquainting them with the inability they lay under to continue those great Subsidies excepting only the Duke of Newbourg in consideration of the new Alliance that he had made with them and the Bishop of Munster of whose humour and Neighbourhood the States General have been always apprehensive They did not as yet cut off those subsidies but the Dutch Ambassadors declared to the Ministers of their Allies that they would pay none for the ensuing Campagn unless they put the French in the wrong that is if they made it not appear by their refusal of reasonable propositions that if the peace were not concluded the French were only to be blamed for it By this means the Dutch stopt their Confederates mouths they obliged them to hasten the opening of the Conferences to which no step had hitherto been made and put themselves in right of complaining of those who for their own private interests desired not to see the War so soon put to an end and therefore they thought it not enough to speak of cutting off the Subsidies but began also to hint at a separate and particular Treaty in such a manner that the Confederates took the allarm the more easily in that the excessive charges the States General had been at during this War had been exceeding burdensome to all the Provinces The Count of Kinski arrived at length at Nimueguen the third of January 1677. He is a Bohemean Gentleman never before employed in any Embassie and therefore all his actings were in the beginning full of difficulties and diffidence but it appeared afterward that he had more sincere intentions for peace than his Colleagues had with whom he clashed so as not to be reconciled again He is a valetudnary man and melancholick but of great merit and sagacity He had two thousand German Florins a month which make about three hundred and thirty pounds English Don Pedro de Ronquillo remained incognito above a month and neither he nor the other Ministers of the Confederates seemed to act with the same frankness and sincerity the French did even in the opinion of my Lord Ambassador Temple who confessed that
Confederates And by three different Articles Spain demanded the same thing of Sueden France said That the King being contrary to Justice and the obligation of the Treaty of Aix la Chapel attacqued by the Catholick King his Majesty had reason to pretend that in respect of that Crown all things should remain in the condition that the fortune of War had put them into without prejudice to his Majesties Rights which were to continue still in full force and power The Danes pretended that France should give them compleat satisfaction and reimburse all the charges of the War and by four Articles they demanded of the Suedes that betwixt the two Kingdoms and two Kings all things should be restored into the same condition as they were before the War that was ended by the Treaties of Westphalia and that the Treaties of Rochilde and Copenhagen should be abolished and that all the Provinces which had been dismembred from Denmark and Norway should be restored to the Danes that all that the Suedes possest in the Empire should be taken from them that Wismar and the Isle of Rugen should remain in possession of the Danes and that for the security of his Danish Majesty and Kingdoms they might put Garisons in all the strong places of Sueden that lye upon the frontiers of the two Kingdoms The propositions of France in reference to the Danes were That seeing the King had not declared War against the King of Denmark but he runs contrary to the Treaty of Copenhagen made in the year 1660. for performance whereof the King was Guarantee the King of Denmark had attacqued Sueden His most Christian Majesty was ready to desist from hostility on his part provided that the aforesaid Treaties and those of Westphalia were re-established In respect of France and Sueden the States General demanded That Maestricht Dalen Fangumont and all the dependencies of Maestricht should be restored to them That they were willing for the publick peace to sacrifice the inestimable losses whereof they might pretend reparation and that for avoiding all differences for the future the Treaty might contain a general and particular renuntiation of all sorts of pretensions There were afterward sixteen Articles concerning the full satisfaction to be made to the Prince of Orange in regard of what depended on the Crown of France and particularly the restauration of the fortifications of Orange that were ruined in the year 1660. and of the Castle demolished in the year 1663. the rights of Toll upon Salt and other Commodities as well upon the Rone as through the Principality of Orange the rights of Coyning of money of Laick Patronage for nomination to the Bishoprick the exemptions priviledges and other Immunities granted to the inhabitants of that Principality by the Kings his Majesties Predecessors and particularly by Lewis XIII The Estates General demanded nothing of Sueden but that the future Treaty might contain some regulations for obviating the frequent inconveniences that happened concerning Commerce France proposed to the States General That seeing the Union that hath always been betwixt the Crown of France and the States was only interrupted upon account of some causes of discontent which were easie at present to be removed and to be prevented for the future His Majesty was willing to restore the States General to his former amity and to hearken favourably to all propositions that might be made to him on their part even concerning a Treaty of Commerce And as to the propositions made for the re-establishment of the Prince of Orange the French Ambassadors made an answer to them but upon occasion opposed the pretensions of the Count D' Auvergne demanding that his Marquisate and Town of Bergen-op-zoom might be restored to all the rights of Soveraignty which the other Towns of Holland enjoyed conform to the Treaties of Pacification of Ghent The Elector of Brandenburgh demanded that France should make reparation for the damages that his Territories had sustained by the French Forces during the course of this War that all security should be given him for the future for the same Territories and that all his Allies should be comprehended in a general Treaty France made no propositions to the Elector of Brandenbourg besides those that were made to the Emperor and Empire which comprehended the full performance of the Treaties of Westphalia In all the propositions that the Suedes made to the Emperor the Kings of Spain and Denmark the States General and to the Elector of Brandenbourg they demanded of the one but the renovation of their former amity and good correspondence and of the others the execution of the Treaties of Westphalia and Copenhagen which contained the restitution of all that had been taken from that Crown Prince Charles of Lorrain to whom thâ— French King had granted the title of Duke with a general protestation made to the Mediators that the titles taken or given should be without prejudice caused his propositions to be made by which he said That as heir to his Predecessors he hoped from the Justice of the King that he would restore to him his Dutchies of Lorrain and Bar with their dependencies his titles records movables and effects taken from him and make reparation for the Towns Burroughs Castles and Villages that were ruined throughout all his Dominions But seeing the Ministers of the Confederates would not admit of the Sieur Duker the Envoy of the Bishop of Strasbourg whom the French King reckoned among the Confederate Princes the French Ambassadors made no propositions concerning Lorrain nor shewed any Plenary Commission for treating about the Interests of that Prince though much urged to it by the Confederates that by this means they might oblige the Imperialists to own the Minister of the Bishop of Strasbourg On the other side the propositions of the Duke of Holstein Gottorp which the Sieurs Vlkens and Wetterkop that Princes Envoys had put into the hands of the Mediators lay there without answer or being interchanged because the Danish Ambassador hindred the Minister of that Prince from being admitted as being an Ally of Sueden and protected by France and upon that account dispossessed of his Territories by the King of Denmark The Propositions of the Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenbourg were not made publick because the Ministers of those Princes kept incognito pretending to the character and rank of Ambassadors yea and these Princes wrote to the King of England for obtaining the effect of their Pretensions but what instance soever they made during the whole course of the Negotiation no Crowned head yielded to their demand I have here but inserted the substance of the first propositions of Peace yet thereby may be seen how unreasonable the demands of Spain and Denmark were seeing that not only the Mediators but even the Ambassadors of the States General thought them exorbitant The sixth of this Month Monsieur Stratman gave the French Ambassadors notice of his arrival who at the same time sent each of them a Secretary to make him
their complement and demand audience either the same morning or immediately after dinner But he excused himself saying that he had a business of great importance to dispatch that day with an Envoy of the Elector of Cologn concerning urgent affairs of his Imperial Majesty and appointed them six of the clock at night The French Ambassadors began then to doubt of the sincerity of his conduct towards them and they could not imagin what pretext he could have It is true the Gentleman that made the complement to the French Ambassadors in the name of Mr. Stratman had waited sometime at the lodgings of the Count D' Avaux where at that time they were all three together but the time was but short and the Ambassadors saw very well that Mr. Stratman failed in what was due to their Character though he assured them that he had sent his Secretary to them and that he had taken all the measures that he conceived necessary to give them all manner of satisfaction Whatever the matter was the great affair that Mr. Stratman pretended to be for the important concerns of the Emperor was no more indeed but that he might have leisure at two of the clock to receive the visit of the Ambassador of Denmark and at four of the clock that of the first Ambassador of Sueden The French Ambassadors caused all the circumstances of Mr. Stratman's conduct to be observed nevertheless the made their visit all three together at six of the clock at night with seven Coaches and six Horses a piece a great number of servants in Livery and Flambeaux insomuch that there had not as yet so splendid a Train been seen at Nimueguen These Ambassadors intended to put Monsieur Stratman in the wrong they knew very well that the real distinction of preference is not to be made according to the order that visits are given in but according to the order they are rendered by those who have received them as to that they expected to see how Mr. Stratman would carry towards them that they might thereupon take their measures with him It was above a fortnight before Mr. Stratman put himself in a condition of rendering any visit during which time he pretended an indisposition That delay could not be attributed to any thing but the expectation of a Courier by whom it was said he was to be instructed how to behave himself in prospect of the inconveniences which he expected to meet with on the part of the French Ambassadors if he gave not to that Crown the preference which it hath always pretended to In the mean time he made an apology for that delay in a Letter which he wrote to the Marshal D' Estrades imputing it to an indisposition that had seized him The French Ambassadors sent a Gentleman to make him a complement and condole with him about his sickness To whom he answered That he hoped suddenly to be in a condition to 〈◊〉 and thanâ— them for their civility No man doubted but that Monsieur Stratman found himself in some perplexity and that he was very sensible how hard a task it would be for him to go on as he had begun without exposing himself to troublesome consequences He perceived how the French Ambassadors had deported themselves towards the Count of Kinski who would have observed a particular way of conduct as to them He understood that the French Ambassadors would refuse his visit if he failed in giving them the preference and he was ignorant that if his procedure should deprive him of the opportunity of seeing the Ambassadors during the whole time of the Treaty it might be a considerable prejudice and obstacle to the peace At length the 22. Mr. Stratman sent to demand audience of the Marshal D' Estrades but not till he had visited the first Ambassador of Sueden and sent in formality to demand audience of the Danish Ambassador who was not then in Town The French Ambassadors had agreed among themselves about the answer that was to be given to the Gentleman that should demand audience so that so soon as he had made his complement the Marshal D' Estrades told him that Mr. Stratman knew not what was due to the King his Master and his Ambassadors and that therefore he would not admit of his visit Mr. Stratman was not willing to expose himself to the receiving of the same answer from the other French Ambassadors and therefore did not send unto them He expected indeed that the French would shew some discontent but as being Ambassador from the Emperor he looked not for an answer of that nature That Minister is a learned man and writes well both in Latin and French He hath always adhered to the Bishop of Gurck and opposed the Count of Kinski He was preferred to the Emperor from the service of the Duke of Newbourg at that time when the Emperor married the daughter of that Prince All the discourse at Nimueguen at this time was of the great atchievements that the Confederates pretended they would do in this Campagn The Elector of Brandenbourg was come into the Countrey of Cleves to order affairs there this Countrey being daily threatned by the Carisâ—◠〈◊〉 Maestricht to oblige the inhabiâ—â—nts to pâ—â— the Contributions that were laid upon them The Elector was detained by the Gout at Ham four leagues beyond Wesel whither the Ambassador of Denmark was gone to visit him and whither many other of the Confederate Ministers were to go The Prince of Orange was set out to come to that Assembly which was called the Great Council of War But the news of the siege of Valenciennes and the urgent instances of the Duke de Villa Hermosa for succors from the States General made the Prince of Orange alter his course broke up the Diet at Ham and for some time disconcerted the measures of the Confederates In the mean time the difficulties that hindred the French Ambassadors from visiting those of the Emperor and Elector of Brandenbourgs produced sad effects and might have put a stop to the cause of the Negotiation that was begun had not their pretensions been so well grounded as they were The Ambassadors of Brandenbourg published a printed Paper to prove that their Master had right and was in possession of sending and having admitted several Ambassadors into one and the same Assembly tâ—â—â— endeavoured to give instances of it taken from the Relations that Abbot Ciry printed of the Transactions which passed at the Treaties of Munster and Osnabrug However that made nothing to their advantage They denied those matters of fact that made against their pretensions which are related in the Memoirs of Mr. Chanut as well as the late instances of the Assembly at Frankfort at the Coronation of the Emperor and they insisted particularly on the conduct that Monsieur Colbert held at Cleves towards three Ambassadors of the Elector whom he treated equally and without distinction The last instance signified nothing for confirmation of their pretension Mr.
occasion some disorder published next day an Order under the pain of corporal punishment That no body should say or do any thing to any person whatsoever whatever Ecclesiastical habit they should see them wear But Don Pedro de Ronquillo thought it not fit that that Jesuit should appear any more abroad in that manner The Nuncio himself left two Capucins of his houshold at Cleves and suffered them not to come until he was assured that they should enjoy a full liberty Don Paolo Spinola Doria Marquess de los Balbases first Ambassador of Spain arrived at Nimueguen the 4th of June and seeing he came from Germany he took passage down the Rhine as the Nuncio had done That Ambassador is a Genoese a Grandee of Spain and Grandchild to the great Spinola he hath been General of the Cavalry of Milain and since Governour of that State for a time He came from the Extraordinary Embassy of Vienna where he had continued seven years He is a tall lean man most civil and well bred and married the Sister of the Constable of Colonna Their eldest daughter is married to one Spinola Duke of St. Peter one of the richest Gentlemen in Italy and who lived at Nimueguen until the conclusion of the Treaty This Ambassador had another Daughter with him married by Proxy to the Marquess Quintana Son to the President of Castile He had likewise an only Son ten years old who was called Duke of Sesto This great Family made a very numerous Train yet among so many servants there were not above five or six native Spaniards When the French Ambassadors came to Nimueguen finding that the Catholicks though under the Diocess of the Bishop of Ruremond followed the old stile according to the practice of Guelderland they resolved likewise to conform to it The Catholicks of the Countrey have a dispensation so to do to the end they may celebrate Easter and the chief Festivals of the year at the same time the Protestants do and not appear singular in a Countrey where they are with much pain and difficulty suffered The French Ambassadors followed the same stile that they might not seeem to make a kind of Schism betwixt themselves and the Catholicks of the Town and that their Chappel where five or six Masses were said a day might serve for the devotion of the Catholick people The Imperial and Spanish Ambassadors did not at first conform to that stile but the Nuncio resolved at Cologn to follow it and even kept the Rogations at Nimueguen according to that custom Nevertheless next day about ten of the clock at night he sent to acquaint the French Ambassadors That he was to observe the New Stile according to which the next day was the Vigil of Pentecost The Ambassadors sent the Nuncio back word That having taken the Old Stile upon very pressing considerations and particularly that they might conform themselves to the Orders of the Bishop to whom the Catholicks of the place were subject they could not leave it off The Nuncio made answer That it was not his intention to oblige any body and that what he did concerned only his own Family Nevertheless he altered his opinion eight days after The Imperial and Spanish Ambassadors and all the Ministers of the Catholick Princes followed the example of the French Ambassadors and all the Chappels observed only one stile At that time the Nuncio rendered his visits of ceremony to the Imperial and French Ambassadors on one and the same day The French met at the house of the Marshal D' Estrades to receive him resting satisfied with that single visit instead of having each of them one as the Nuncio offer'd though he afterward saw them severally His Train made a great show he had three Coaches with six horses and many servants in Livery cloathed after the Roman fashion with hanging sleeves some laced all over and others of Velvet with long cloaks But all the other Ambassadors had their Equipage after the French Mode My Lord Barclay having at that time obtained leave to return to England by reason of his age and indisposition parted from Nimueguen the fifth of June The truth is the Negotiation was at such a stand that there was no discourse of any affairs then and both Mediators and Ambassadors had time to play At the same time news came from England that the Parliament being assembled the fourth of June had made a pressing Address to his Majesty of Great Britain to incline him to make a League offensive and defensive with the States of the Vnited Provinces for opposing the progress of the French Conquests The King was displeased at this Address and made them answer That it did invade so essential a Prerogative of the Crown that the like had never been done but during the Civil Wars That it did not belong to the Parliament to prescribe to him what kind of Leagues and far less with whom he should make them That it seemed rather that he should engage in it by their permission than at their sollicitation That foreign Princes might have cause to doubt whether the Soveraignty was in his person and refuse to treat for the future with a King that had only the bare name In a word that he could not suffer that prerogative to be invaded which no consideration should ever make him to renounce seeing it was the foundation of the Crown and Government And hereupon he dismissed the Parliament without having obtained from them the Supplies he demanded for procuring the satisfaction and safety of his subjects June the 23. the Marquess de los Balbases who desired to begin to appear in publick sent on his own and Colleagues parts to compliment all the Ambassadors of the Princes but the French received and rendered them the first of all The substance of the compliment that was made to every Ambassador in particular by a Gentleman accompanied with two others was That the Ambassadors of Spain upon their arrival at Nimueguen sent to salute their Excellencies to testifie the joy they had to find themselves in so illustrious an Assembly and to have occasion of treating with persons of so known worth as their Excellencies were and that his Master impatiently expected that his Colleagues were in a condition to be treated according to their character that he might come in person to testifie his joy to their Excellencies The Marquess de los Balbases gave thereby to understand that Don Pedro de Ronquillo and Mr. Christin had not as yet the quality of Ambassadors but it was known that the Court of Spain had sent to the Duke de Villa Hermosa Plenary Commissions in divers forms and left to the Marquess his disposal the characters that he pleased to give them but he being no Native Spaniard and being to treat about an affair of so great importance for Spain which he well foresaw would not prove advantageous for that Crown it was his interest as well as the dignity of his Embassy that the
protestation in the terms that were most proper to express their resentment They declared to the Ambassadors of the States-General That the resolution they had taken of abandoning their Confederates was contrary to the faith of the leagues they had so religiously contracted that they conjured them by all that was sacred that they would not proceed with so much precipitation to the signing of a separate peace in a time when they had all taken vigorous resolutions and agreeable to the desires of the States-General in sending vast numbers of Forces into the Spanish Netherlands for the relief of Mons which was reduced to extremity They further added That such a hasty and precipitate conduct was unworthy of a State that had always governed it self with reason and justice and that so extraordinary a step would be an everlasting blot to the honour and reputation of the States-General That if notwithstanding of all that they were resolved to proceed and to enter into a Neutrality so contrary to their Engagements they protested against that separate Treaty and against all the calamities that Christendom in general and the Princes their Masters in particular might suffer by that separation Those who considered without passion the conduct of the Dutch found that they were unjustly accused of having acted without acquainting their Confederates since that by the publick Declarations which they themselves had given to the Dutch Ambassadors on the 10th and 20th of the preceding Month they took notice of the necessity to which the Vnited-Provinces were reduced And the States-General were very far from acting with precipitation seeing they signed not the Peace until the last day of the time that they had agreed to with England in case that France removed as was then done all the impediments that for more than six weeks obstructed the signing thereof In a word it was an easie matter for the Northern Confederates to exhort the Dutch to wait patiently when according to their own confession their affairs were in a better state and who daily found new advantages in continuing the War with Sueden whilst notwithstanding of all the forces that were in the Low-countries the French King took as many places as he pleased and Holland ran on into utter ruin The desire of the States-General being conform to the intentions of France as to the Peace nothing could stop the signing of it all diligence was used to have the Treaties ready and at eleven of the Clock at night the Dutch Ambassadors came to the house of the Mareshal d' Estrades in two Coaches with many Flamboys to light them The two Treaties of Peace and Commerce were there signed betwixt eleven and twelve of the Clock at night with a separate article concerning the States which the Prince of Orange possesses in the Provinces that are under the dominion of the French King The Ambassadors wished one another mutual joy for the re-establishment of the good correspondence which had been interrupted by the War and the joy was great and reciprocal amongst all their servants and attendants but it appeared especially among the servants of the Dutch Ambassadors who upon their return knocked at all the Towns-peoples doors calling to them in Dutch that the Peace was made Next day the Marquess d' Estrates who was at Nimueguen parted to carry those two Treaties to the French King and the Ambassadors had the satisfaction to find by the first dispatches they received even before the news was brought to Court that all they had done should be conform to his Majesties intentions who upon information of the signing of the Peace acquainted them that he was very well satisfied with the wise conduct they had observed in so great an Affair Seeing the Spaniards were engaged to the States General jointly to accept of the peace on the conditions proposed by France and that the States by the thirteenth Article of the Treaty which they had signed were Guarantees to the French King of all the obligations to which Spain was to be bound and especially to that of an exact Neutrality the Dutch Ambassadors would lose no time in promoting the peace of Spain but on that occasion performed the office of Mediators as it was necessary they should since the English had in a manner excused themselves from mediating by refusing to propose the conditions of the ninth of April and to sign the peace with the Dutch The news that were brought of the advantages which the French Army obtained daily over the Forces of the Empire made it probable that after the peace with Spain which began seriously to be treated it would not be long before the Emperor and Empire came to an accommodation The Marshal de Crequi had ruin'd the Fort of Kiel at the end of the bridg of Strasbourg on the side of Germany and having burnt the Bridg and raised the Fort on the other side he very much incommoded that great City and made them apprehensive of the same fate that had befallen all those places which the French had attacqued In the mean while the States General who looked upon the peace of Spain to be as necessary for their repose and the renewing of their Commerce as their own peace made the success of that Negotiation their own particular affair It was indeed expected in Holland that those two Treaties should be signed at the same time and therefore the joy which the people conceived upon the conclusion of the former was much lessened by the fear they had that the second would not be so soon concluded as was desired but seeing both parties were equally desirous of the same the French Ambassadors went first to the Ambassadors of the States General and there exchanged the projects of peace betwixt France and Spain That they might the better facilitate the Treaty and conclude it with as little loss of time as possibly could be they agreed to meet at the House of the Dutch Ambassadors and for that effect they gave one of their Chambers which was at the end of their Hall of Audience to the French Ambassadors another that had an Entry from the Porch was for the Ambassadors of Spain and all the Gentlemen belonging to the several Ambassadors stayed in the Hall of Audience which served for a passage to the Heer Beverning who accompanied with the Heer Haaren applied himself industriously to remove the difficulties that happened in that Negotiation carrying back and for from one Chamber to another all the controverted Articles Mr. Beverning is no less a man of dispatch than knowledg and ability and therefore in the Conferences of the thirteenth which lasted four hours in the morning and as long after dinner a great part of the Articles of the Treaty with Spain were condescended to and agreed upon but the fourteenth being Sunday the Conferences were interrupted and all people were surprised to hear that Ambassador Temple parted that day from Nimueguen about four of the clock in the morning for the Hague where
perhaps he had still hopes of bringing some obstacle to the ratification of the Treaty though he could not hinder the signing of it In the mean while seeing it is almost impossible that so important an affair as the Negotiation of a peace betwixt two potent States can be so happily ended and no unexpcted accident fall out that may hinder the conclusion of it several obstacles arose in the course of this Treaty which retarded it much longer than was expected It was hoped that the Conferences would be renewed on the fifteenth but that day the Dutch Ambassadours made report to the French that the design the French King had of retaining Bouvignes and Beaumont put a stop to the Treaty and might quite break it off If his Majesty persisted in his pretensions to those two places whereof the one is a little Town almost ruined situated upon a hill below Dinant and the other a Bourg without fortifications lying towards France in the Countrey betwixt the Meuse and the Sambre It is true that in the project of the peace no mention was made neither of Bouvignes nor Beaumont and that they were not named in the printed Conditions But to that the French Ambassadors made answer That they were in the Conditions which the French King had proposed to his Majesty of Great Britain who by his Ambassadors had communicated the same to all the Ministers of the Princes that were at Nimueguen and seeing his Majesty had in his Conditions of the ninth of April named precisely all the places which he intended to restore to Spain and not all those which his Majesty resolved to retain these were necessarily comprehended amongst the last seeing they were in actual possession of the French and of too small importance to be expresly named in the Conditions Whilst these difficulties put a stop to the Treaty at Nimueguen there was a report spread abroad of the defeating of the French Army before Mons into which it was affirmed that great relief was put during the Fight The truth was that the Prince of Orange having drawn together the Forces of Holland Spain and the Confederates resolved to attempt the relieving of it on the fourteenth afternoon the hopes he had of succeeding in that enterprise with so great forces and of ending so many Campagns by a famous action which till then had been so unfortunate to him concurring with the urgent instances of the Marquess de Grana Envoy extraordinary from the Emperor were motives powerful enough to incline him to give battel and to make the best of so fair an opportunity Many have thought that that Prince had advice by an Express from Nimueguen that the peace was concluded there on the tenth but however it be having had no information thereof from the States-General he was not obliged to know it The Marshal of Luxemburgh who had received advice of the Peace by an Express from the French Ambassadors could not persuade himself that the Enemies who appeared on the Eminencies of the Abbey of St. Denis had a design to attacque him But when it was past all doubt and that he perceived they had possessed themselves of the Village of Casteau he passed over the rivolet that divided his Camp from that post with some Regiments of Horse Dragoons and foot these Troops led by the best Officers of the Army marched through narrow passes gullies and unfrequented ways beset by the Enemies on the right and left and had a smart and bloody engagement but the French retook Casteau and set it on fire with less loss on their side than on that of the Enemy's though the fight continued till night put an end to the action Next morning the Prince of Orange sent a Messenger to the Camp to acquaint the Marshal of Luxemburgh that the peace betwixt France and the States-General was signed the tenth and that he had not received the news of it until that night He therefore desired that since the countenance of affairs was changed he might be permitted to send a Convoy unto Mons. But the General refused it seeing he could not consent thereunto till he had received Orders from Court This action of the Prince of Orange received various constructions and was not altogether approved by the States-General who saw to their regret so many brave soldiers uselesly sacrificed to private interests Nor was it well relished in England because two thousand of the ancient Regiments of his Majesty of Great Britains forces who were in the States service were totally routed in that Engagement The particulars of that Fight being brought to Nimueguen undeceived the Confederates who were at first informed that the success of it was much more advantageous to them than indeed it was The Nuncio who was very solicitous for promoting the General Peace by means of the Imperialists inclined all the Confederates to a Months truce He was hopeful that in that time the Negotiation might have some success and that Truce had been concluded if the Bishop of Gurck who then returned from Cologn had not broken all the measures that were taken in his absence The impediment which the Confederates observed to be put to the Peace of Spain made them less concerned to make their own But the Heer Beverning being gone to the Hague made many hope that that Minister would bring from thence some expedient to remove the difficulties that put a stop to that Negotiation and that at the same time he would have assurance of the Ratifications of the Dutch Peace In the mean time since by the Letters which the States General wrote to the French King the 22. of June they entreated his Majesty to grant them Passports for the security of their Merchant Ships a Courier brought a great many from Court to the French Ambassadors but they would not exchange them at Nimueguen for a like number with the Dutch Ambassadors It behoved the Dutch to deliver theirs first at Maestricht into the hands of the Post-Master of France who was to acquaint the Court that he had received them But seeing it was not just that the subjects of the States-General should have freedom to trade alone with the Passports of France whilst the subjects of that King might suffer prejudice by the Spanish men of War notwithstanding the Passport of the States the Dutch Ambassadors engaged themselves to procure from the Duke de Villa Hermosa as many Passports for the French as France should give to the States The French King continued to testifie the sincerity of his intentions by ratifying the Treaty of Peace without delay On the 22. a Courier brought the Ratification to Nimueguen and at the same time his Majesty appointed the Count d' Avaux to be his Ambassador Extraordinary to the States-General The terms wherein his Majesty wrote to them on that subject testified the affection that he had for that Republick by the choice he made of a subject whom he judged the fittest to renew the ancient ties of amity which
they were not as yet totally cured of the doubts they had conceived of the sincerity of France no more than of the jealousie that some entertained of the too great authority of the Prince of Orange most part knew not but the peace which was made might be an occasion to make them fall the more easily under a dominion the encrease of which was possibly one of the reasons that made them embrace the peace In fine a Courier on the 13th having brought Letters from the French King whereby his Majesty removed all obstacles that hindered the conclusion of the peace with Spain the Count d' Avaux returned on the 17th to Nimueguen and in the Conference which he had that day at the Dutch Ambassador's house that lasted till two of the clock afternoon all the Articles were agreed upon and that the peace should be signed that evening The Spanish Ambassadors caused the Treaty to be translated into Spanish and the Translation was examined by Mr. Colbert who found two or three words to be amended which did not exactly quadrate with the sense of the French Seeing the Dutch Ambassadors had been the Mediators of the Peace betwixt France and Spain their house was thought the most convenient place to sign the Peace at They caused their Hall of Audience to be prepared for that Ceremony They entered it by a great door about the middle the Chair of State stood at one end on the left hand of the door and the Chimney just opposite on the right The French Ambassadors room had an Entry into the Hall on the side of the Chimney and that which was appointed for the Ambassadors of Spain had its Entry on that of the Chair of State There was a long Table set cross the Hall one end of it towards the door and the other towards the windows but seeing the French would not have the Chair of State to be on the Spanish side it behoved to be removed and the Chimney which was on the right hand as one entred making too great a distinction on that side the Dutch Ambassadors caused it to be covered with a piece of Tapistry that none in their house might have any cause of discontent The French Ambassadors came to the Dutch Ambassadors House about nine of the clock at night with several Coaches filled with Gentlemen They were no sooner in their Chamber but the Heer Beverning gave them notice that all things were ready and having the Treaties in his hand he went and sate down at the upper end of the Table and the Heer Haaren his Colleague at the other end At the same time were opened the doors of the two Chambers and the Ambassadors advanced in equal pace from their several Apartments walking all three a breast As matters were disposed the Ambassadors of Spain had two disadvantages first that they were on the left hand as they entred the Hall and next that advancing to the Table in the rank which they were to keep the Marquess de los Balbases was forced to give his Colleagues the right hand because otherways he could not sit opposite to the Marshal d' Estrades nor at the upper end of the Table All the Ambassadors sate down at the same time the Gentlemen on either side standing at the backs of their Chairs The Marshal d' Estrades and the Marquess de los Balbases took each of them a Pen and at the same time signed the Treaty which the Heer Beverning presented to them Then the other Ambassadors took the Treaty and the Pen and signed it in the same colume every one on the right hand of his Treaty and exchanged them after the first signing The French signed that of Spain and the Spaniards that of France in one colume to the left of the former leaving room for the seals which the Secretaries took care to place at the end of every subscription This being done all the Ambassadors arose and complimented one another standing during the space of half a quarter of an hour after which they returned to their Chambers as before from whence they severally retired to their Lodgings Next day after the signing of the Treaty of Peace the Count d' Avaux with his whole Train parted for Nimueguen by water in quality of Ambassador Extraordinary to the States-General who told him upon his arrival that the Ratification of the Treaty was sent to Nimueguen where they were exchanged on the 20th with all the testimonies of mutual satisfaction among the Ambassadors who gave marks of their good intelligence by feasting and mutual rejoycings The Northern Confederates were at that time more than ever inclined to consent to a truce but the Suedes would not absolutely agree to it they would have willingly accepted of it in Pomerania because they had ground to fear that the great losses they had there sustained might be followed by others more considerable but they were not for it in Schonen where their affairs were in a better condition by the taking of Christianstadt which they had at length made themselves Masters of However the losses they felt in Pomerania were of greater importance to them than all they could gain elsewhere The Confederates at Nimueguen were at that time much surprised at the news of the death of the Bishop of Munster they had reason to fear that it might bring some alteration to the projects that they were forming However the great preparations that the King of Denmark and Elector of Brandenbourg were making against the Isle of Rugen were not at all retarded The Elector embarked his forces in several ships and was himself present at their landing which was so happily conducted that in less than a day he render'd himself Master of the whole Isle and without losing of time he went and besieged Stralsond which he took two days after he had begun to batter it Octob. 1678. The peace with the United Provinces was proclaimed at the Hague on the 28th of September and on the fifth of October publick rejoycings were solemnized throughout all the Towns of the United Provinces except Nimueguen because that Town being Neutral and appointed for the Treaty of the General Peace it did not seem expedient that they who by a separate Treaty were freed from the calamities of War should therefore rejoyce in presence of those who still lay under the burden thereof And it was upon that account that the Ambassadors of the Emperor and of the other Confederates desired the Ambassadors of the States-General that they would not suffer any publick rejoycing to be made in that place before the conclusion of the General Peace The French King who seemed to be no less desirous of the peace of the Empire than of that of Spain put himself in a posture of making the Princes who were engaged in that War to consent to it and for that end he caused a considerable body of his forces to march into the Countrey of Juliers under the command of Monsieur Calvo who possessed
himself of Aix la Chapelle whither part of the Ammunition of Maestricht which then was evacuating in order to its being rendered up to the States-General was transported the rest being carried by water to Huy which was put in a condition necessary for the security of the Magazines What inclination in the mean time the French King made appear to the peace of Germany the Ministers of the Emperor still laboured to persuade the Diet at Ratisbon that his Majesty desired no peace seeing he proposed an Alternative of which both parts were equally impractible They said that the Emperor could not render Philipsbourg because by the Leagues which he had made with most of the Princes of the Empire he had obliged himself to demolish it as a place prejudicial to their liberty and that if he delivered up Fribourg he would thereby leave all Brisgow and the Forest-Towns under the jurisdiction of France and give the French a footing in the Empire with more advantage than they had before by the possession of Philipsbourg For overthrowing these reasons which were thought pretexts to stave off the Peace and to render the intentions of the French King suspected the French Ambassadors declared in his Majesty's name That he consented to the demolishing of Philipsbourg and that to remove from the Emperor and Empire all causes of jealousie and fear concerning Brisgow and the Forest-Towns he was satisfied with the City of Fribourg and three Villages under its jurisdiction This proposition blasted all the reasons of impossibility which were alledged against the practability of the Alternative on which the peace of Germany depended In the mean time all diligence was used to put Maestricht in a condition of being render'd up to the States-General according to the intent of the Treaty of peace And in effect the Count d' Avaux having given his word to the States-General that it should be evacuated by the sixth of October the same day they took possession of it with the greater satisfaction to the Dutch that there were some still amongst them who continued to possess them with distrust and to persuade the people that France intended only to cheat them and that the King would not surrender Maestricht The French Forces that possessed almost all the passes on the Rhine were very uneasie to all the Neighbouring Princes who were engaged in the War The Duke of Newbourg who had most reason to fear was the first that desired of the States-General that he might be comprehended in their Treaty and enjoy the benefit of the Peace according to the 19th Article which gave them power to name their Allies within the space of six weeks that they might be included in the Treaty That Prince had the greater reason to hope that by this means he might put himself out of danger in that he was really an Ally of the States and that he had declared that he would accept the Peace before the expiration of the six weeks The Elector of Mayence and Treves made the same Declaration and the same demand to the States-General by a Memoir which the Baron of Leyen presented in their names at the Hague But what instances soever the States made in favour of those Princes and what assurances soever they gave that the Emperor himself would ere long accept the Peace they could not obtain any thing in a matter which they thought just and conform to the Article of their Treaty before they heard the reasons which the French alledged against that pretension On the 30th the Marquess de los Balbases returned from Brussels whither he went after the signing of the Peace with Spain It was thought that he brought the Ratification of the Treaty because the six weeks wherein the exchange was to be made were expired the day before Nevertheless he brought it not but the French King having sent an Express to the Count d' Avaux that Ambassador declared to the States on the fifth of November 1678. that notwithstanding the negligence of Spain his Majesty was willing in consideration of them to prolong the time of the exchange of the Ratifications until the 20th of that month And by the next Courier that came news was brought that in compliance with the instances of the Ambassadors of the States-General his Majesty had granted the whole Month. At that time the Plenipotentiary of Lorrain declared That his Master accepted the Peace upon the terms proposed by the French King the 9th of April and at the same time chose the second part of the Alternative by which Nancy was to remain to his Majesty who in exchange thereof gave him the City of Toul upon the conditions specified in the Article of the Kings project which concerns that Prince The Nuncio who promised himself that all these particular acceptations of Peace would terminate in the conclusion of the General Peace employed all his care and pains with much zeal to incline the Emperors Ambassadors and the Ministers of other Catholick Princes not to defer any longer the complishment of so great a blessing The French King in the mean time well perceived that these Princes of the Empire consented only to a separate Peace in prospect of putting themselves out of danger of his Arms and not with design to conclude it upon conditions that respected the Empire in general seeing they desired no more but to be comprehended in the Dutch Treaty and consented not to the reinforcement of the Treaties of Westphalia which granted free passage to his Majesties forces through the Empire so often as it was necessary they should march that way for the execution of the same Treaties And therefore the King yeilded not to the desire of those Princes though the States-General who made it a point of honour to procure them the benefit of their peace in the midst of War pretended they had right to have them included in their Treaty The Count de Bouvean d' Epense whom the King permitted the Spring before to take a journey to Berlin to see the Elector of Brandenbourg his old Master about that time came back to Nimueguen though he was wholly addicted to the Interests of his Electoral Highness before the War yet his Majesty did not for all that repose less confidence in him for upon his return from Berlin finding the King in Flanders after the taking of Ghent his Majesty ordered him still to wait upon him designing to make use of all opportunities that might offer to renew a good correspondence with the Elector And therefore he came to Nimueguen with particular instructions from the Court to contribute what he could to that peace and the French Ambassadors acted nothing without his consent in the transactions that passed at Nimueguen concerning that Negotiation The Imperial Ambassadors could not as yet resolve to give their consent to the entire confirmation of the Treaties of Westphalia it was the thing that created them most trouble and which was most prejudicial to the Authority that the
taken from Sueden whilst his Majesty to procure satisfaction to that King his Ally had surrendred a great many good places and made peace in a time when he might have expected great advantages from the success and prosperity of his Arms. At that time news was brought that the Suedish Army was come out of Livonia For the space of two years there was a talk of its marching though it advanced not one step But at length it entred into Prussia and having possessed some places on the River of Wemel it was advanced to the middle of that Province There was the greater probability that the Suedish Enterprise would contribute to their peace with the Elector of Brandenbourg that in the mean time whilst that Prince was marching all the Forces he had in Pomerania and Germany to oppose that irruption he ordered M. Meinders his Minister and Councellor of State to go in diligence to the French Court the King having granted him a Pasport for that effect M. Meinders was at that time at Nimuegueu being come back from the Elector his Master to whom he went upon occasion of the propositions which the Count D' Espenses had brought but seeing the chief thing contained in these propositions was the entire restitution of all the Conquests which the Elector had obtained from Sueden the obstacles that hinder'd the conclusion of the Treaty were so hard to be digested that his Electoral Highness judged it far more convenient to negotiate the peace with his Majesty than to treat at Nimueguen This Prince was the rather inclined to take this resolution because those who continued still in War were severally thinking of making their Treaties apart In the mean while the Conferences betwixt the Imperial and French ambassadors continued in the Town-house and it began to be hoped that the Negotiation would come to a happy conclusion The Plenipotentiary of the Duke of Lorrain at that time endeavoured to obtain what the Imperial Ambassadors had in vain essayed he supposed that his Master dreamt not that the ways which the French King demanded from Nancy to Mets into Alsatia the French County and France should belong to the King in soveraignty and upon that pretext he pretended to change the choice he had made of the Alternative and to accept Nancy for Toul but the reason he alledged having no appearance of the least foundation he could not obtain the liberty of a new choice no more than the Imperialists could after they had once accepted Philipsbourg so that the Duke of Lorrain might easily have perceived in the course of that Negotiation that he was mistaken in expecting greater advantages if he were admitted into the possession of Lorrain under the protection of the Emperor than if he received it from the bounty and generosity of the French King Seeing new difficulties were daily started in the Negotiation of the Peace of the Empire the King was willing to prolong the delay he had given until the end of the Month but that retarded rather the Negotiation than it promoted the Treaty for besides that the Imperialists who always seemed irresolute in bringing things to a conclusion desired no better than not to push on business when they had time before them they were so sensibly touched at those burthensom conditions wherewith the King clog'd that prolongation that if they could have found any other remedy for the calamities of the Empire besides a speedy Peace they would not have dissembled their resentment The King consented not to that delay but on condition that if the Peace were not signed before the Month was expired Philipsbourg should be demolished for the reimbursment of the charges that his Majesty was obliged to be at for maintainsng his Forces and that if February likewise passed without concluding the Peace his Majesty would moreover have all Brisgow in recompence of his charges The truth is the French King could be no less than absolute Master of Peace and War to impose such a necessity upon the Imperialists Nevertheless whether it were the fears of seeing themselves exposed to undergo these conditions or a sincere desire of freeing the Empire as soon as possibly could be from so troublesome a War set the Imperial Ambassadours to work the Negotiations of Peace grew brisker than before they met morning and evening and had very long conferences so that Sir Lionell Jenkins had trouble enough in going back and fore betwixt them labouring to renew the impediments which retarded the Negotiation and yet for all that the Peace advanced but slowly The Imperialists started great difficulties about the 26. and 27. Articles of the Treaty and seeing they all tended to annul the rights which France had obtained in the Empire by the peace of Westphalia and especially those which have been yeilded to that King over the ten Towns of Alsatia the debates that arose upon that subject were many and hard to be adjusted The Ambassadors of the Emperor perceiving that they gained no ground by these debates and that the French Ambassadors would not consent that those things which were concluded by the peace of Munster should any ways be infringed by this Treaty They endeavoured at least to obtain that the points to which the French would not condescend might be referred to arbitration But this was to as little purpose as the extraordinary repugnancy they shewed against the Emperor being obliged to observe a neutrality in the Empire whilst the French King might march his forces for the relief of his Allies Nevertheless all these points were at length agreed unto in the manner as the French Ambassadors demanded The jollities of the Carnaval were at that time very great in Nimueguen where the people who since the change of Religion and Government has not been accustomed to see Masquarades took great pleasure in these Novelties and especially in a frolick of Spaniards magnificently disguised who went through all the Town drawn on sledges upon the snow at a Ball in the House of the Ambassador of Denmark on the 24. Two men appeared disguised into Capucins of whom one having danced with the Neece of the Danish Ambassador presented the hand to Madamoiselle Colbert but Monsieur Colbert being present stopped the Masquer telling him that it was not the custom of France to dance in such habits and that if he had him at his house he would serve him as he deserved The forwardness of the peace of the Empire gave the Northern Confederates enough to think of for for all they were so well united among themselves yet when the matter was of opposing those who seemed inclined to make a separate peace they were not wanting to mind their own particular concerns The journey of M. Meinders Envoy from the Elector of Brandenbourg into France gave them great umbrage and made them fear that a separate peace with that Prince would quite ruine their affairs and therefore they resolved severally to prevent the disadvantage that might happen to them by continuing
added to their declaration of the Instances which they said were made to them by the Bishop of Gurck in the name of the Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg so sensibly touched those two Ambassadors that thinking their Honour thereby much offended they took a great deal of pains to make the contrary appear by long answers which they made on that subject on the eighteenth affirming that they had never neither desired nor rejected the cessation of Arms but nevertheless that they might omit nothing that might in any probability tend to the promoting of the Peace they accepted the Truce upon such conditions as should on both sides be agreed upon Never were any Ambassadors more fond of Writing than those of Denmark and Brandenbourg their debates had already occasioned as many publick Writings during the Month of March alone as had been made during the negotiation of all the other Treaties put together In the mean time the French Ambassadors that they might give these Ambassadors all the satisfaction that they could desire upon so nice a point declared on the Nineteenth That since the Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg thought themselves wronged in that they could be suspected to have demanded or desired a cessation of Arms they consented that the Mediators might give them a publick Act thereupon to be joyned to the protestations which they had made against the peace of the Empire whilst that they on the contrary being perswaded that all the proceedings of the King their Master for the advancement of the general Peace in a time when he was in a condition to continue the War with advantage argued great glory to his Majesty They still offered the cessation on the same conditions which they proposed to the English Mediators without derogating in the mean time from their Declaration of the 24th of February in case that the Peace was not signed in the Month of March and that they accepted not the Truce But that if they consented to it for the whole Month of April it was his Majesties will that during all that Month the King of Denmark and Elector of Brandenbourg might have liberty to conclude the Peace without requiring the new Conditions that had been demanded of them At length after so many debates and proceedings to no great purpose the Treaty of cessation was signed at Nimueguen the last of March to continue till the first of May and was exchanged both in name of his most Christian Majesty and King of Sweden betwixt the French Ambassadors on the one part and those of Denmark and Brandenbourg on the other But seeing that before the signing of that Treaty the French Intendant had caused Contributions to be demanded from the Country of Cleves on the other side of the Raine and that the French Ambassadors could not promise that they should not be pretended notwithstanding the conclusion of the cessation the same Ambassadors consented by a publick Act that the Dutch Ambassadors should pass their word for them that they should Write about it to the King that they might know his intentions and that in the mean time no hostile execution should be made during the space of Fifteen days after which if his Majesty thought good that these Contributions should be exacted they engaged to give the Inhabitants of the Countrey Three days more to take such measures in as they should think fit The Truce that was now signed instead of advancing the negotiation on the contrary stopped the course thereof during all the time that it lasted because the French Ambassadors sticking to their Declarations there was no more to be said So that the Two Princes that remained still in War Judged it more convenient to negotiate their Peace with the King himself than at Nimueguen not doubting but that they might promise themselves some advantage to their interests from Treating rather with a great Prince than being too headstrong in defending the same at Nimueguen by a long train of proceedings from which they had no great cause to expect a happy conclusion The Elector of Brandenbourg had for that effect already sent M. Meinders to the French Court and his Danish Majesty ordered M. de Mayerkron his Envoy to the States General to go immediately and wait upon the King In the mean time a great part of Europe was allarmed at the Fleet which the most Christian King was setting out to Sea Italy and particularly the Republick of Genoa were much startled thereat Denmark feared a descent in the Countrey of Holstein and the Parliament of England where there happened such commotions that the Duke of York was obliged to depart out of the Kingdom conceived some Jealousies at the French Naval preparations In the mean while the Ambassadors of Sweden having by two several Couriers and contrary ways sent to the King their Master the Treaty of Peace which they had signed with the Emperor that by that means notwithstanding the severity of the Danes concerning free passage they might receive the ratification in time these two Couriers arrived at Nimueguen from several places the 17th and 18th with the ratification in good form But his Swedish Majesty refused to confirm the Treaty which was concluded with the Princes of Brunswick because they thought in Sweden that they had yielded to them a great deal too much and the rather that the most Christian King indemnified all these Princes at his proper charges About the same time the President Canon Plenipotentiary from the Duke of Lorrain renewed his instances with the French Ambassadors that he might obtain some moderation of the conditions that had been stipulated for his Master The Imperial Ambassadors did also the like but without any success So that they thought it enough to declare that his Imperial Majesty pretended to be no longer obliged by the Articles that concerned that Prince by which his most Christian Majesty had declared himself obliged and they demanded that that Peace might be deferred until another time in so much that the Imperialists being unwilling that the time mentioned in the Treaty should expire without exchanging the ratifications because of the pretensions made by the French in their last declaration of the 26th past they resolved to make the exchange the 19th of April April 1679 There arose an unexpected difficulty concerning the exchange of the ratifications for the Mediators who had not signed the Peace would not take it upon them The Nuncio likewise excused himself from doing it because he had protested against the same Peace in respect it was concluded in conformity to the Treaties of Westphalia against which Rome had then protested because of the revenues of the Church which they were then obliged to secularise and yield up to Protestants without which it had been impossible to have procured Peace to Germany So that the expedient that was found out was to make the exchange of the ratifications by the hands of Secretaries who were reciprocally sent on both sides And seeing the
ratifications of Sweden were happily arrived the day before they were exchanged in the same manner so that that was a day of Ratifications The Ratifications of the Treaty of Peace concluded betwixt France and the Bishop of Munster being the same day exchanged On the 20th the Envoy of Lorrain protested to the Mediators that the Duke his Master pretended not to be obliged by the Articles stipulated for him in the Treaty of the Empire and Eight days after declared to the same Mediators that though his Highness of Lorrain thought it not convenient to accept nor ratifie the Articles that concerned him yet it was not his intention to continue nor to be reckoned an enemy of France nor of his most Christian Majesty whose humble Servant he protested he was the same Declaration was by the same Envoy made to the French Ambassadors telling them moreover that he did it by express order from his Master and not in compliment In the mean time the French Forces that were in the Countrey of Cleves and Juliers seeing the time of the Truce expired and having no advice given them that there was appearance that the Elector of Brandenbourg would conclude his Peace upon the conditions demanded by the French King put themselves in a condition the first of May 1679 to pass the Rhine over which they had made a Bridge at Ordingâ—en General Spaen who commanded the Brandenbourg Forces seemed as if he would oppose their passage with what Soldiers and Trained-bands he had on the other side of that River but he soon retreated when he understood that the French Army had passed it on flying Bridges above and below Augerorts at the meeting of the Auger and Rhine So that the shortest expedient that that General and the Ambassador of his Electoral Highness could find to secure as much as was possible the Countreys into which the French Forces were about to enter was to procure a conference at Santhen with M. Colbert that they might endeavour to get the Truce prolonged Santhen is a little Town three Leagues from Wesel whether Monsieur Blaspiel and General Spaen went Monsieur Colbert came there the Third of the Month and Monsieur Calvo who commanded the French Forces was ordered to be present to the end that according to the success of that negotiation he might desist or pursue the enterprises that he was in condition to make And therefore since they were straitened by time and that the Generals could not leave their Quarters this place was chosen as not being far distant for holding of that conference wherein the very same day the Treaty of Truce which was signed at Nimueguen until the first of May was prolonged for Fifteen days to begin next day the Fourth of the Month which lengthened the cessation of Arms until the 19th the King being unwilling to grant a longer time that he might sooner hasten the Peace and not leave so many people in an uncertainty of a thing they so much desired The chief cenditions that M. Colbert obtained for the prolongation of the Truce were that as a proof of the sincerity wherewith the Elector intended to act with his most Christian Majesty General Spaen put Wesel and Lipstadt into his hands to be kept by him until the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies on the one part and his Electoral Highness on the other should be signed and ratified These Conditions seemed the stranger in that the Elector of Brandenbourg made no great difficulty in granting of them offering even to put Schinkenscance into his Majesties hands who refused it that he might not any ways allarm the States General to whom by the Count D'Avaux his extraordinary Ambassador he gave that testimony of his good will It was not easie to be conceived what could be the policy of the Elector of Brandenbourg in willingly delivering up those places if he desired the Peace in good earnest as it was probable since he thereby put himself in greater need of concluding it what advantage did he find in exposing his Countrey to ruine for some few weeks delay in the conclusion of the Treaty Or if he had a design to defend himself and that he hoped he was able to resist a powerful Army he might have begun by Wesel which was a strong place and wherein he had a good Carison that might have afforded his Enemies business upon their entry into his Countrey It was thought that the Elector of Brandenbourg perceived very well that he could not hold out long and that he knew that if the French entered by force not only that whole Countrey would be utterly ruined but that likewise there would be so great a consternation throughout all his other Territories that it would be hard for him to secure any of them that upon these considerations he had yielded up those places that he might the better preserve them and the rather that with the Forces he drew out of Wesel and Lipstadt he would be in a condition of making a vigorous resistance at Minden and to obtain from France more advantageous conditions than those which he could not as yet resolve to embrace but before experience made appear how little security there was in that choice it was not very hard to foresee that the Elector of Brandenbourg was not like to find great advantage thereby About this time the Mareshal D' Estrades having got leave from the King his Master to leave Nimueguen parted from thence with his whole Family on the Fifth and M. Colbert to whom alone the King referred what remained of the negotiation at Nimueguen signed the same day the prolongation of the Truce with the Ambassador of Denmark upon the same conditions that were agreed upon at Santhen with the Ambassador of Brandenbourg except the Article concerning the places which were to be delivered up to his Majesty M. Meinders finding no success in his Negotiation with his most Christian Majesty having parted from the French Court upon his return to the Elector his Master that he might receive from him more ample instructions and a larger commission returned at that time to Nimueguen where on the morrow the 11th of the Month he had a long conference with M. Colbert which made it hoped that the Peace of Brandenbourg would be speedily concluded but a few days after M. Meinders took his Journey back to Paris The Emperor in the mean time gave no orders to his Ambassadors concerning the fulfilling of the Treaty of the Empire which occasioned great complaining amongst all the people of the Countries that were possessed by the French seeing that far from enjoying the fruit of Peace they found themselves on the contrary almost undone by the vast contributions which they payed for maintanance of the French Forces they carried their grievances even to the Mediators at Nimueguen and the Nuncio having reported them to M. Colbert by a Memoir that he gave him the 14th that Ambassador offered to cause the French Forces to draw out of
General And the Nuncio intending to stay until the end that he might give proofs of the sincerity of the intentions which he brought to that Assembly was also one of the last that departed Since all the Princes who had still some concerns to be adjusted were comprehended in the Treaties which France had concluded with the principal parties and by consequent all hostilities amongst them ceased the greatest difficulties that remained to be determined were about the Commerce of Sueden and the States General The Peace betwixt Spain and Sueden was easie to be concluded seeing that in that Negotiation there was no new interest to be managed betwixt those Two Crowns Neither was there any need of a Treaty for that Peace only some Conditions were agreed upon under which it was to be published in the Countries of the Spanish Dominion and those that depend on Sueden The greatest perplexity that happened in that affair proceeded from this that Sir Lionel Jenkins the Mediator and the Ambassadors of Sueden had not no more than the French for the Reasons I mentioned before seen the Marquess de la Fuente the Spanish ambassador so that since the Mediator could not directly mediate betwixt that Ambassador of Spain and those of Sueden the Negotiation on the part of Spain behoved to be managed betwixt Sir Lionel Jenkins and the Marquess de la Fuente by the mediation of the Imperial Ambassadors by this means and by the great care that the Lord Ambassador Jenkins took in that Affair the parties agreed upon a form for the re-establishment and publication of the Peace betwixt the Two Crowns of Spain and Sueden and the mutual Acts of acceptation being reciprocally interchanged the form was sent to Spain and Sueden to be signed by the Two Kings and afterwards published at Madrid and Brussels and at Stockholme and Riga in Livonia The substance of that formulary was that the Declaration of War which had been made some years ago especially since the 17th of September of the foregoing year betwixt the Kings of Sueden and Spain should be reputed as never made that his Catholick Majesty consented that the King of Sueden should be comprehended in the Treaty of Peace which had been signed and since ratified betwixt France and Spain and then that his Suedish Majesty approved that the King of Spain should in like manner be comprehended in the Treaty of Peace that had been signed and ratified betwixt his Imperial Majesty and the most Christian King these Two Kings commanding and declaring that a true sincere and Christian Peace be renewed and setled betwixt them their Kingdoms and Subjects as fully as there had never been War nor any Hostility betwixt them The interest of Sueden and Holland were attended with so many difficulties that those Two Treaties of Peace and Commerce betwixt those Two Powers were the last that were concluded at Nimueguen So many obstacles and so hard to be surmounted were started concerning Navigation that it would be tedious and contrary to the design I proposed to my self in writing if I should enlarge upon the particulars I shall only hint at the principal points on which were founded the difficulties that lasted so long So soon as the Peace was signed betwixt France and the States-General the Negotiation of another betwixt Sueden and the same States was begun The most difficult point to be adjusted in the Negotiation of that peace was the renewing of the Treaties of Alliance and Commerce which have been betwixt the two Nations The Suedes insisted much upon the renewing of the Treaty of 1673 but it being made when the affairs of Holland were in a bad condition and in hopes that the Suedes having undertaken to be the Mediators of the peace would have no occasion to declare as they did for France in prospect of that the States-General scrupled not by that Treaty to grant great advantages to Sueden but they would not at all consent that it should be mentioned in the fourth Article of the Treaty of peace wherein they only renewed those of 1640. 1645. 1646. and 1667. Of seven and thirty Articles which compose the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation there was hardly one which did not produce some difficulty They had already for almost the space of a whole year laboured in vain to surmount those obstacles and therefore it was expected that at the Hague rather than Nimueguen the principal points in debate would be more easily adjusted With these hopes M. Oliverkrans went in the Month of May to the Hague and the States-General having named Commissioners to treat with that Ambassador they met at the House of the Count D' Avaux who in that juncture performed the Office of Mediator Besides the particular interest that the Town of Amsterdam and some other Towns of Holland have in the commerce with Sueden requiring more exact informations as to every particular difficulty it was reasonably hoped that that affair would be more easily determined at the Hague than at Nimueguen They had many conferences upon that subject The States demanded a diminution of the impositions that Sueden had laid upon bulky commodities especially since the Treaty that Sueden made with the States in 1640. These commodities are such as are of a great bulk and small price as Stone and Marble Hemp Wax Pitch Tar Pot-ashes Corn and Timber But the States waved the three first sort of bulky Commodities and the Ambassador of Sueden after much repugnancy in two conferences successively consented at length that the four other sorts of bulky commodities should be regulated according to the Rates of 1659. which neverthelss are but little lower than those whereof the States complained It was also agreed upon That all duties and customs unequally imposed which tended to the lessening of the mutual freedom of Trade and which have been introduced in Sueden since the year 1656. should be discharged for the future and that the subjects on both sides should pay no other duties but those that the native subjects do pay Nevertheless that equality was not to be observed in the Kingdom of Sueden and Finland that is to say that that clause of the Treaty should only reach Riga in Livonia Ingria Pomerania and the other Dominions of Sueden upon the Baltick-sea the Provinces of Ischonen Bleking and Holland being reckoned as parts of the ancient Kingdom of Sueden though they be not specified in the Treaty The free and half-free Ships of Sueden gave occasion to another difficulty The free Ships are vessels built for War carrying from 24. to 30. piece of Cannon and are obliged to serve in the Kings Fleet in time of War and therefore the King hath priviledged them in trading in respect of duties and customs that the benefit which they thereby enjoy may recompence their service and supply the charges of rigging and fitting of them out from which Merchants ships are exempted By means whereof the King of Sueden hath always men trained to the Sea and
a Squadron of about thirty Ships The half-free Ships are Vessels of about One hundred Tuns burden their priviledges and number are so small that they cannot be very prejudicial to the Dutch Trade Nevertheless the Dutch found that all these priviledged Vessels might carry away the greatest part of the Trade of the Baltick and therefore the States insisted vigorously upon the abrogation of all those priviledges as contrary to the equality of advantage which the subjects of both Nations were to enjoy But in that debate the same mean was taken which served to remove the former difficulty and it was agreed upon that these Vessels should only enjoy their exemptions in the Territories of the Kingdom of Sueden and Finland and that in the other Provinces on the Baltick-sea depending on the Crown of Sueden there should be no distinction between Suedish Ships and Dutch It could not be believed after this that any new difficulty could retard the conclusion of the Treaty of Commerce whereof the Negotiation had lasted above a year Nevertheless there happened one which put a full stop to the affair The Ambassadors of the States-General had put in the 7th Article of their project That the subjects on either side should be used as the Nation in greatest friendship ut quaeque gens amicissima The Suedes took occasion from this to demand a freedom from the duties which the Dutch had imposed upon the Suedish commodities that pass the Sound and the rather because that imposition was never laid on till the Suedes had obtained from the Danes by Treaties concluded to their advantage and exemption from part of the duties that are exacted in the Sound The truth is that the States to hinder that exemption from being prejudicial to the trade of their subjects who enjoy not the same priviledg setled then in their Countrey upon those that had the priviledg of the Sound and Imposition almost equivalent to that Exemption The Dutch said That the equality which ought to be observed in the Trade of the two Nations was not hurt by that kind of compensation and alledged that it was so little contrary to it that in all the Treaties which had been concluded in the long time since these duties were imposed the abrogation of them was never thought upon when other Treaties was made The Suedes however who would not lose to the profit of the Dutch what they obtained to the prejudice of Denmark stood firmly to that point so that the conferences at the Hague were broken up and the Count D' Avaux could not promise himself to renew them again on that subject with the same success that they had had in the other difficulties insomuch that M. Oliver Krants came back to Nimueguen Aug. 1679. where the Assembly being shortly after wholly dissolved the conclusion of these Treaties could no longer be prolonged which yet were not signed until the second of October the annulling of the Imposts laid on in Holland and the reduction of those of Sueden to the standard of the Treaty of 1640. remaining undecided and referred to other conferences which were to be held at the Hague for adjusting these affairs within eighteen Months after the signing of the Treaty In the mean time M. de Mayerkroon who had been for some time at the French Court perceiving that the conferences in Schonen did not advance the Negotiation of the peace betwixt Sueden and Denmark began to seem more inclined to conclude the Treaty of the King his Master tho' he had no cause to expect more advantageous conditions than those he had at first On the contrary experience and example made appear that it could not but be prejudicial to the King of Denmark to be the last in making his peace The French King on his part desiring nothing more than to correspond with that good disposition and to render the peace general by the conclusion of that of Denmark gave for that end on the 24th of August a full power to M. de Pompone and by that means within a few days the Treaty was concluded betwixt his Majesty and the Kings of Sueden and Denmark and was signed at St. Germans the second of September on the same conditions that the King had always proposed for the full satisfaction of his Ally It is known that his Majesty declared from the beginning That he could not make peace with the King of Denmark but upon condition of a full restitu ion to Sueden The delays and difficulties that were made thereupon moved not his Majesty to abate any thing of the Treaties of Roschild Copenhaghen and Westphalia and these Treaties were the ground-work of the peace of Denmark in the fourth Article whereof his Danish Majesty declared That in consideration of his most Christian Majesty he consented that the Crown of Sueden be restored to all that it possessed before the War and to all the Territories States Provinces Towns and places that have been yielded up and acquired by those three Treaties and by consequent to all that the Danish Arms had possessed during that War As to the differences that heretofore happened betwixt the subjects of the two Nations by reason of the priviledges and exemptions which the Suedes as I said enjoy from a part of the duties that the King of Denmark raises in the Sound and in the Belt the most Christian King being uncertain whether or not the intention of the King of Sueden was that his subjects should any ways make use of their priviledges to the prejudice of the revenue of the K. of Denmark thought fit so to order affairs by that Treaty that Commissioners named by each party should meet three months after the exchange of the Ratifications and by the mediation of a Minister appointed by his Majesty adjust all these differences in an amicable way The Restauration of the Duke of Sleswick Holstein-Gottorp having been one of the conditions on which the French King consented to this Peace it was likewise one of the greatest difficulties that happened in the carrying on of the Treaty That Prince was stript of all by the King of Denmark only for being an Ally to the King of Sueden and therefore ought to be restored to all again To which the King of Denmark as an evidence of the desire he had to put an end to the War with all expedition consented at the desire and requisition of the French King granting that the Duke of Sleswick Holstein-Gottorp should enjoy his Territories Provinces Towns and Places in the same state as they were in at the signing of the Treaty with all the Soveraignty that belonged to him by virtue of the Treaties of Roschild Copenhagen and Westphalia That Prince could hardly pretend to more unless it were the damage that his Territories had suffered during the War by the vast sums of Money that the King of Denmark had raised therein as being one of the best Countries of all the North. The Elector of Brandenbourg the Princes of the
not incline them to embrace the conditions offered by the King it being unjust that his Majesty in the condition that his forces were in should lose the occasions of action and should engage himself of new as he had already done by the Letter of the 18th of the foregoing Month. But to evidence the sincerity of his intentions his Majesty at the same time gave orders to the Mareshal of Luxembourg General of his Army not to attack any place during all that time and to stay for the answer of the States in the Neighbourhood of Brussels The good disposition that the King of England seemed to be in at that time contributed much to the advancement of the Peace The Heer Beverning who came to the Camp from London brought word that the King of England approved all the proceedings that the Dutch had made towards the Peace And by the Harangue that his Majesty of Great Britain made to the Parliament the third of June he declared that none were to be blamed but the House of Commons if he could not engage in the War And the Chancellor told the whole Parliament that their manner of acting could not but provoke a powerful Prince who might resent it and for that reason that they ought to strengthen themselves at home and abroad for their own security against all kind of attempts In the mean time the Confederates set all Engines at work to incline the King of England to favour their interests The Marquess of Borgomanero Envoy Extraordinary from Spain at that Court on the fifth of June represented to his Majesty of Great Britain how necessary it was that he should send his Fleet and Army towards the Low-countries for a curb to the common enemy and a Guard to all Christendom against the oppression and ruin wherewith it was threatned by the most Christian King and how advantageous it would be for his Majesty to make a League offensive and defensive with the Catholick King his Master and the Emperour who would prove his constant Allies in all the concerns of the common cause The Ambassadors of the Confederates held long and frequent conferences at Nimueguen but they found it difficult to agree upon the answer that they were to give upon the communication which the Ambassadors of the States-General had made to them of the Memoir that the French King had given to the Heer Beverning and whereupon the Ambassadors urged their resolution that they might take their measures accordingly at length all of them gave their Answers in their Conference of the tenth The Imperial Ambassadors gave it in Latin and very long but the purport of all was that they expected from the candour and equity of the States-General that they would do nothing to the prejudice of the Emperour the Empire and all the Confederates who were only engaged in the present War for the preservation of the Vnited-Provinces which the States themselves knew sufficiently without being put in mind of it That they had to do with an enemy whose design was only to divide the Confederates that he might the more easily surprize them all That if there was an absolute necessity that they must make Peace the Emperour offered to concur with them in it upon fair and honest conditions but that they would not take such precipitate resolutions as were demanded by the enemy That they well perceived the design was only to throw them upon a precipice since they were not so much as allowed to treat of those matters without the decision of which no Peace could ever be had That they intreated them not to be over-hasty That the general Peace was ruined if France perceived that the States-General had a design to treat separately assuring them that when the Emperour should make Peace he would not be less careful of the needs of the Vnited Provinces and Low-countries than he had been zealous in undertaking and maintaining the War for their defence The Ambassador of Denmark made answer on the same subject That he believed that the States-General would never do any thing to the disadvantage of his Danish Majesty who had exposed his person and spent his revenues to comply with the engagements into which he had entered with them That if they were absolutely obliged to accept of Peace they expected that they would not do any thing that might force those whose affairs were in a better posture to accept of absolute conditions That it was not fit that the constancy which the French shewed to their Allies should triumph over the firmness of their Union that they ought to guard against the inconveniencies that the least precipitancy might plunge them into and that provided the King his Master found his security in a Treaty he would sacrifice all his interests to the publick weal. The Ambassador of Brandenbourg assured himself that the States-General would promise nothing to the French King that might be contrary to the League that the Elector his Master had with them since he had neither spared his Blood nor Countries to preserve their Republick from utter ruin and that far less they would conclude a Peace with France till they first procured his Master the satisfaction they had promised him by their Treaty of Alliance That as to the rest his Electoral Highness desired nothing more than a reasonable Peace for procuring whereof he should always make appear his moderation and the respect he had to the urgent reasons which the States-General pretended for concluding of Peace Whilst the Confederates made all these Remonstrances to the Ambassadors of the States-General at Nimueguen it was known that the Spaniards declared at the Hague that they accepted the conditions offered by France and as the Deputies of the States-General in their Memoirs presented to the Duke de Villa Hermosa alledged the weakness of Spain as one of the strongest reasons that disabled them longer to continue the War so upon this occasion the Spaniards failed not to do the like and to impute the necessity they were in of accepting the Peace on the inability of the States-General of supporting any longer the charge and burden of so great a War The Imperialists in the mean time and all the Ministers of the Northern Princes exclaimed against the inclination that the Spaniards and Dutch had to so disadvantageous a Peace they made their own interpretations of the French Kings condescensions saying that France laid snares for them which they could not discover until they were out of condition of avoiding them or that otherwise there must needs be some internal weakness in the forces of France how formidable soever they appeared that standing of it out would do the business and that it was too base to submit to an absolute Law whilst they were not yet out of hopes of gaining those advantages that would render their condition better The Dutch who saw evidently by the Declarations of the Ambassadors of their Confederates that their design was to give no positive answer