Faction to them at Paris A second was their then Madamoisell D' Orleans the French King's Aunt which Match agreed very well both with her and King Charles's Inclination and the King seemed forward to press it but it was not so with the French Court who by their Artifices put it by as remembring likewise her Martial Temper and what she had done when with her own Hands she had fired off the Guns of the Bastile against the King's Party in the Wars of Paris and how hotly she abetted the Party that stood up against the King's Legitimacy for they looked upon her still with a Jealous Eye as thinking her yet full of Resentment and that she would put our King in a Martial Mood cause him to renew the Old Pretensions to France and to abet the Princes that might have been disposed to renew the Dispute of the French King's Illegitimacy and to advance their own Title to that Crown or at least-wise that she would put King Charles upon thwarting in all things whatever might promote the Grandure of Lewis XIVth Nay so great was their Fear of that Ladies Issue by any Person whatsoever that after they had Treacherously sham'd her into a Clandestine Match with the Count D' Lauzun to hinder her Matching with any greater Person they likewise took Care she should have no Issue even by him by keeping of him in Prison and never suffering them to come together again till they were both past Children The third Person I find proposed and that in Earnest was Cardinal Mazarine's Niece Hortensia a Match of which the French Court were very fond and such as was every way agreeable to their Gusto the Cardinal besides many other Sophistical Addresses to bring the Business to bear got the Hook baited with the Appearance of a great stock of Beauty besides the tender of a vast Sum of Money to boot He took Care also to have it rumoured abroad that such a Match was not only in agitation but in a fair way to be accomplished all which 't was believed might have done the Feat but that it having been unluckily rumoured abroad that she had paid her first Fruits already to the French King K. C. said He would not be content with her upon the second hand However it were the Reasons transmitted to the French Court why such an Advantageous Offer was rejected by our King were 1. Because her Unkle had so ungenerously opposed his Restoration and used him so Contemptuously at the Treaty of the Pyrenees 2. Because that Alliance could be of no Advantage to him but by a little present Money and would besides raise Jealousies in his People against him for which the Day was yet too early so that seeing they found they could put no French Lady upon him they resolved to promote the Match with Portugal whereby they were sure the King would have no Issue But that was not all for by this means they were in hopes to render him destitute of any Powerful Forreign Ally and that the Duke of York being already Married to Chancellor Hide 's Daughter and in Prospect of a fair Issue both them Matches might together lay a Foundation for New Discontents weaken the Union between King and People and put the Younger Brother upon Aspiring Thoughts in Prejudice to the Elder But because the foresaid Match with Portugal might not be thought to be of their Contrivance and for some self-ends they put this piece of drudgery upon the Queen-Mother whom they managed so as to give her assured Hopes her second Son who was her Darling would by that means one Day ascend the English Throne and what might not she and all of them hope from him who had ever been much more open in Profession of and Zealous for the Roman Religion c. But great Care was taken to give it out betimes that this Journey of the Queen was only a Visit to her Son now a King de facto and in all Royal State and that she designed quickly to return and spend the remainder of her Days in France her Native Country and at the same time how highly she was offended at her other Son the Duke of York's Marriage with the Chancellor's Daughter which about that Conjuncture came to be publickly known and by whom he had now a Child Born but whether she had any Instructions upon this Journey to break the Ice and make Overtures to her Son about the Sale of Dunkirk I could never learn and our Minutes are in a profound silence concerning it however I shall in my next give you all the Intimations that ever came within the verge of my Knowledge upon this Head and in the mean time am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Feb. 25. 1676. N. St. LETTER IV. Of the Sale of Dunkirk to the French and by what Methods effected My Lord THat Cardinal Richlieu had â—ong before laid a Foundation for the French greatness and even to nourish Thoughts of France's attaining in Time the universal Monarchy is notoriously known to all that are conversant in the Histories of his Time and that Cardinal Mazarine who succeeded him as Primier Minister of State pursued his Steps and made considerable Advances in the Design before he Dyed which was about the Time of the Negotiation for the Sale of Dunkirk is no less manifest and that the Methods both the one and the other pursued was to set their Engines on work continually to embroil their Neighbours either in Intestine Jarrs or in an open Invasion of one anothers Territories and then to invite themselves in to assist the weaker that they might run away with the Prey from both but among all their Neighbour Nations the English were those they most dreaded both out of Fear and Emulation of their Military Strength and Glory and whom consequently they made their utmost Efforts to entangle in Civil Discords and therefore it was that Richlieu took Advantage of the unhappy Conjuncture in the first sowing the Seeds of Discontent between King Charles I. and his Parliaments And then by his Incendiaries kindled such a flame in the Three Kingdoms as terminated not only in the Destruction of the King but even of the Monarchy it self so that the Nation after having undergone a Succession of almost all the Forms of Government that have been in use among the Sons of Men run at last into the very Dregs of all Government even Anarchy it self which Mazarine did as streâ—uosly endeavour to keep up amongst us as his Predecessor Richlieu had been forward to run us upon those dangerous Precipices that introduced it but when after all the French Efforts to prevent our return to our Old and known Form again by the Kings Restoration had failed it struck no small damp upon the French Polititians to see the Babel they had been so long Erecting and were now in a fair way to have laid on the Top-stone in danger to be overthrown at one Clap and to have
from the Ravishment of the most enterprizing Monarch and break that mischievous Devil that had of late been so busie in asserting pretended Liberties and advancing the Soveraignty of old hateful Laws above the more Sacred Majesty of the Princes the only rightful Legislators whilst the Crown as securely as unregardedly might seize and seizing â—or all Perpetuity appropriate as to it sell the important Jewel of Dispensing Power which would fix and fasten the whole Chappelet of unbounded Soveraignty by making usâ— of that Popular Relaxation to indulge the Faction esteemed the most dangerous to the Monarchy and to decoy them into a favouring of those Encroachments upon the Laws and upon the Peoples Fundamental Right and therein the Legislation who seemed of all Men the most deeply principled against them And so in effect to make those very Persons the tools for the Erection of Absolute and Despotick Sway who otherwise could hardly be reconciled to the most Just most Legal and most Moderate Royalty So far were the measures to be observed at home and those which she and their Brother of France advised to be used abroad were 1. To endeavour by all possible means the Subversion of the Republick of Holland the perpetual Source of Rebellion in England 2. In order with so much the more Expedition certainty and Safety to effect the Reduction both of his own People and of that â—ntâ—ward Neighbouring Nest and receptacle of Plotters and Rebels To resolve upon a firm and inviolable adherence to the Interest of the most Christian King who in that Case would no way desert him but vigorously and powerfully aid him and carry him through all Difficulties But in Case added she his Majesty could not satisfie his Conscience weâ—l enough to attempt any such Change in Religion as she just now had mentioned or notwithstanding all remonstrances to the contrary should continue over-perswaded of the two great Difficulty or impracticableness of such an enterprize that however as a Protestant of the Church of England which was firm to Monarchy if he desired to put himself into a Condition to Protect and that Reciprocally to Defend him and his Successors in time to come It would be absolutely necessary for him at least to concurr with his most Christian Majesty in Subduing the Republick of Holland That besides the Advantage of such a Repartition of the Conquered Country as he could reasonably expect he should find upon the reduction of it that the Commonwealth Faction in England and her Two other Sister Kingdoms would dwindle away of it self and so the King would not only become Absolute Master of his People but as his Christian Majesty would concert the Sharing of those Provinces with his Brother of England the Naval Power and Trade of Great Brittain would receive an incredible augmentation by the Destruction of a State that was her only Competitor at Sea and for Commerce and Riches promoted thereby For that not only their Shipping and Seamen together with their Chief Sea-ports and beâ—t Sea provinces all entire would be his Majesty's but also that all the most Wealthy and Substantial Merchants and Industrious and Ingenious Tradesmen and Artificers even of the Provinces and Parts that should fall to the Share of the most Christian King would in all appearance transplant themselves either into England or Ireland as lying more convenient for Trade than their own Country or at least into those Parts of the Netherlands which should be reduced under the Power of the King of Great Brittain To whose Domination as approaching nearest the Sweetness and Freedom of that they now were under they would certainly more willingly submit their Persons and Fortunes than to that of the more Absolute one of the French Monarch for which they had entertained a Thousand Prejudices In fine she most earnestly and affectionately besought him to take those Matters into his most serious Consideration and to return a speedy and if it might any ways be a favourable Answer that she might have the Happiness to return back the Messenger of good News and such News as might prove a Foundation of a lasting Felicity to both the Illustrious Families from which both his Majesty and her self were descended The King after a little silence told her by way of Reply to the things she had represented to him That it was impossible for him to doubt of the ardency and reality of the Affection of a Sister so Amiable and who had always exprest so much Tenderness for his Interest That he as little questioned but that she had penetrated as far into the Interiors of his Brother of France as it was possible any one could into the Heart of a King and therefore upon her Representation of him chiefly which he assured her would induce him to give the more Credit to the Favourable Conjectures he had made of his Temper during the little time he had the Honour to Converse with him whilst in Exile and to the general Character he had since his Personal Administration of Publick Affairs obtained in the World of being a Prince of great-Honour and Generosity and thereupon passing by some former unhandsom and unkind Treatments in his Court as pure Effects and Influences of the over-ruling Ascendant of the then Regnant Mazarine and not of that Prince's own Inclination he should put much Confidence in the sincerity of the most Christian King and accordingly desired her to return his said Majesty his Royal and most Hearty Thanks for those obliging Expressions of Amity and Affection he had signified to him by her and to assure him in his Name he should ever have his Friendship in high Esteem and would go as great lengths as in Prudence and Interest he could to serve him and to comply with his Desires But that the Matters proposed being of the highest Consequence he must beg his Excuse if he required more time to give him a positive and satisfactory Answer thereto than the short space limitted for her stay in England would permit however that he would with all convenient Expedition give him a better Account In the mean while he should Request his most Christian Brother by her to do him the Justice to believe he was as sincerely affectioned to his Person as he could be to his and should ever persist to be as far as a King of Engl. could his constant and most Obsequious Friend The like Complement as far as it was agreeable to his Circumstances was returned by the Duke After which the Princess renewing the Charge in the Business of Religion the King freely told her That as to that Point tho' he had entertained very kind and favourable Thoughts of the Roman Religion and its Professors for several Reasons he instanced and did believe that if it were Re-established in his Dominions the Monarchy would be safer and easier than it could be under the present state of Protestancy yet he was not so fully satisfied in it as to make it his own Religion and
to push on their Conquest to the utmost without demurring upon any Points or Scruples relating to us even into those Parts belonging to our Repartition and especially to seize on Amsterdam it self if possible before we could reflect on and much less oppose so sudden an Exploit which Capture alone they not without Reason thought would be succeeded with a voluntary Cession of all the remaining Places and Provinces and with the Accession of the most part of the Fleets Merchants and Colonies of that potent Republick who would not fail to conceive partly for fear of losing otherwise their whole Proprieties in the Moneys and Effects leâ—t by them in that great Magazine of both Hemisphears and partly to enjoy the pretended Liberties and Immunities mighty Priviledges and other prodigious Advantages with which their Agents contrary to their League withus had already privately tempted and had Instructions further to allure those industrious and thriving People with to come over perfectly to them and decline us Against whom their Emissaries imployed so many Arts to exasperate those People That tho' both Enemies and the French much more formidable then we to what by them and all free-born People was most Prizable viz. Liberty Property and Religion yet the English was at that time the more hated name of the two to their depraved Apprehension And as for our King they reckoned him so enchanted with the Opinion both of the Necessity and Integrity of their Friendship to him and so intent in that confidence on his beloved Pleasures with another She-Magitian of theirs newly sent him for that purpose tempered with the most intoxicating Venom known to Female Arts that they never thought he could have any sense at liberty to mind what they did and therefore knowing on the other side there could arrive no disturbance time enough from the Empire to spoile their Game it thundring from thence yet but a far off they were moving with all greediness their Harpy-Talons to seize on t his important Prey And had without all doubt attained their purpose in the strange and pannick Terror that at that time seemed to disable the Hands and lock up the Senses of the otherwise couragious and politick Inhabitants of that famous Emporium had not Divine Providence just in that Moment by two most unlikely Accidents but yet most effectual Expedients interposed between them and Destruction of which I may give your Lordship some hints in my next who am in the mean time My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris Apr. 29. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXIX Of the Massacring the De Wits the Revolution in Holland and the Restitution of the Prince of Orange to all the Authority of his Ancestors with Offers made him by the French King of the Soveraignty of the United Provinces and his Rejection of them My Lord. IN my last to your Lordship I gave you some account of the Progress of the French Army in their Conquest of the United Provinces the Resolutions they had taken both to elude the Crown of England of receiving any Benefit by the War to push on their own Conquests and Wheedles to induce the City of Amsterdam to yield to them And I have more over hinted to your Lordship that there fell out two unexpected Accidents at that time which put a full stop to their Arms The first whereof I shall briefly run over to your Lordship For while the French Armies were ready to seize that important Place and that every individual Person was in that Consternation that they only thought of saving their own Families without otherwise concerning themselves about the Interest of their Countrey nay and that without staying for the French King 's sending a Summons for the Town to yield a Council was held in the City whether they should not go out to meet him to desire he would be pleased to take it into his Protection as well as all the Inhabitants thereof there was very great Danger of their coming to this Resolution when the Divine Providence wonderfully appeared by inspiring a couragious Citizen tho' till then no very remarkable one neither whose Name and perhaps your Lordship ne'er heard it before was Offe and ought certainly to be consecrated to Posterity so as never to be left out of the Annals of Time and who was immediately seconded by another called Hassenaer to stand up alone in the dreadful Gap and with a Voice like a Trumpet to awaken his dispirited Country-men out of the Lethargy of black Despondency with which the cowardly Tyrant Fear had bound up both their Limbs and Intellectuals and to excite them as the poor Geese formerly did the drowsy Romans at least to make some Defence for that Capital and Capitâ—l of the Batavian Commonwealth and not rashly to deliver up that great Palladium viz. The vast Bank of Riches therein on which seemed to depend the state of Europe into the Hand of a Prince who wanted only Manacles from thence to enfetter her and whose Courage to attack said the same Citizen and I have heard the French-men themselves mention his Name with many Elogiums depended solely on the Fears which the Artifices of his treacherous Correspondents within their Walls more then the Noise of his Armies had raised among them and consequently on the least shew of Unity and Resolution among them would sink with their Cause nay continued he rather then fall into the Hands of him who however his Emissaries here have represented him slily to the contrary will assuredly prove a merciless Tyrant unto us let us call in the Sea it self whom we shall find a much more merciful Element to our assistance And this my Lord being seconded by the Dutch Mob now astonished and confounded with the loss of their Country by Land and opposed by two the most potent Kings in the World by Sea they in a Rage assassinated the two De Wits as the Betrayers of their Country and Causers of that same Calamity and then deposed the States who they looked upon to be of the Lovestein or De Wits Faction and then restored the Prince of Orange now at Age to the hereditary Authority and Command of his Ancestors which sudden and violent Proceedings did more then stun the French King but after a little recovery and finding that his Friends in Amsterdam and other places yet unconquered were dispossest of all Authority and that now the Prince of Orange managed all the Affairs of the State with Pensionary Fagel he made an Essay to catch the Prince in a Net he with his Council had finely spun for him by proposing to make him Soveraign of the United Provinces under his and his Brother of England's Protection I never could learn who it was they employed to the Prince upon this occasion and what Arguments they induced to gain his Consent tho' they may be easily guest at they being never entred into their Cabinet Minutes and perhaps it was because they met with such a Success upon the
has been as it were dubious in the World to this day for little did the Councellors of State and other Princes and Grandees at the Court of Vienna think that those very Jews who sold them Jewels Pearl and other rich Moveables were wont at the same time to bring and carry Letters to the forementioned Prince Lohkowitz and other vile Traytors to the Emperor and Empire and though these sort of Vermin have been banished the Emperor's Territories and Dominions yet for filthy Lucre-sake to which they are addicted above any Nation or People under Heaven and to serve the French whom above any other they value for the Reasons I have formerly given your Lordship upon another occasion They make no scruple of assuming those Shapes which they outwardly would most seem to abhor and whose Principles they have disbeliev'd above these Sixteen hundred years I mean Christians and to this day drive on the old trade But our private minutes relating to this Country and which I have had the opportunity lately a little to inspect tell us positively That at least two of the Emperor 's own Confessors of the Iesuitical Order the much more dangerous Traytors than any other could be were guilty of the same Crime The next year after the Disgrace of this Prince happened that memorable Success the Emperor's Forces had upon the Rhine against the French but it is no less memorable after such a signal Victory against the Mareshal de Crequi c. that Montecuculi the Imperial General should after he had besieged Sabern and was in a fair way to carry the Place so suddenly rise from before it re-pass the Rhine with his whole Army and leave the French after all wholly in possession of Alsatia where he might easily have Wintered his whole Army The World were then and have ever since been occasionally very busy about the reason of this Action which is very unaccountable to this very day It was whispered then that Montecuculi was so far from offering to do this of himself that he had express orders from the Emperor or at leastwise from Vienna to do it and which he obeyed with a great deal of reluctancy and ill-will but little have the World thought that it was chiefly the influence which Father la Chaise had over the Emperor's Confessor that produced those positive though most noxious Orders so far the Minutes mention that Affair and no farther I would not have troubled your Lordship with these Foreign Affairs had I been supplied with any that was domestick though I hope they are not so unacceptable but that you will freely pardon him who is desirous to serve and honour you to the utmost of my power and remain My Lord Your humble Servant Paris June 20. 1678. N. St. LETTER XXXVII Of the French Ambassador's the Mareschal d'Estrades and Monsieur Colbert's Instructions to attack Sir William Temple and Pensioner Fagell to engage the Prince of Orange into the French Interests and to promote the Peace My Lord THis Court have left no Stone unturn'd neither in England nor Holland in order to the winning of the Prince of Orange over to their Interests but they have met with more constancy in him than could be expected from a young Prince of his years which has plainly manifested him to be an Inheritor as well of the Vertues as of the Fortune of his great Ancestors and when they found there was nothing to be done with him directly by any of their own Emissaries they resolved to attack him in the most sensible part by the Ministry of two persons whom they knew he as much valued as any other on this side and they were the English Ambassador Sir William Temple and Monsieur Fagell Pensionary of Holland Their Agents in this hopeful business were Monsieur Colbert and the Mareschal d'Esâ—rades their Plenipotentiaries for the Treaty of Nimeguen who quickly began their attack upon Sir William according to the Instructions I find they had given them I. To insinuate slily what a value the French King their Master had for his Person and Character and that therefore during the course of the Negotiation they were to enter upon they had Orders to make their application to him That they knew how much he was in the confidence of the King his Master and of his chief Ministers and therefore how filly qualified he was to put the finishing-stroke to a Treaty he had had the greatest hand to set on foot and of which he must needs reap all the Glory That he might reckon very much upon the facility of the King their Master in that weighty Affair but yet so far still as to have a just regard had to the great Successes of his Arms during the War II. They were to make a Mien of their being fully possest of the States great forwardness to strike up a Peace which their Allies must comply with tho' they might for a time retard it That therefore the only way they could see for to give Europe Tranquillity was for the Prince of Orange to interpose his Authority which was so great with all the Allies that they were very well satisfied in their willingness to agree to whatever terms he should be resolved on in proposing the Peace That therefore in order to bring that grand affair to an happy and sudden issue it was their Opinion there was no other or better way for it than for his Highness first privately to agree with France upon the Conditions and what each Party's Proposition should be and when that was once done afterterwards in the course of the Treaty which was to be supposed could not spin out to any great length of time then to draw all matters by concert together to the scope agreed upon between them III. To seem very confident this Method would do but that if it should so happen that the unreasonable pretences of the Allies should obstruct or delay a General Peace that then the Prince might make use of the usual Temper of the States to bring it to a sudden issue and make a separate Peace that if the Prince pursued this method it would be in his power to do great things for himself and his Family for which they were to produce as many instances as they could of parallel cases And that as for what concerned the Prince's own personal Advantages and Interests the King their Master had given them full power to assure him That he might set down his own Conditions and they should be accepted IV. That tho' they had many others to make these Overtures to his Highness some whereof they were also darkly to intimate yet that they were to pursue their Master's Orders which was to apply themselves to none but to him if he thought fit to charge himself with it That they were very sensible of the Credit and Confidence he was in with his Highness and how much deference he had to his Judgment in what concerned the publick Interests of the Allies
fiercely against King Lewis if they would but once consider the great Liberty and Priviledges which their Protestant Brethren enjoy'd in the French Dominions their former assisting the oppressed Protestant Dutch and other Protestant States against the Bloody Inquisitors and Unchristian Inquisition the severe Persecutions of the House of Austria the frequent differences of France with the Court of Rome and the little power the Pope was allowed in the Gallican Church no more than what was Titular and that if these things were but duly weighed it might be more than presumed the present French King would little concern himself or any way intermeddle with Religious Contests in England But that whatever opinion they might have of that Neighbouring King to his disadvantage which yet did but little affect or concern him they had on the contrary much occasion to look about them at home and to that end these Emissaries were to promote tooth and nail the belief of the King and Duke's being both Papists but particularly to affirm that the Duke was most certainly of that Religion and at the same time to discover assured Evidences of it as also of the Measures concerted to bring in both Popery and Arbitrary Power and really to detect some Measures which themselves had as yet but only projected or at least but proposed and that too but to the Duke only as if they had been fully consented to and begun underhand to be put in practice And having once well imprest this they were to exaggerate the greatness and eminency of the danger the more to alarm them and slily to insinuate that an Accommodation was Transacting between the two Churches of Rome and England and a thousand other Artifices they us'd besides to animate each Party against the other too tedious for your Lordship to read or me to relate neither need I tell you how they traversed one another's designs only I must Note Sir Roger L'Estrange and almost all the Writers for that side under a pretence of serving the Church of England and the Monarchy and some also of the other Party though unknown to themselves were and are still but the unhappy Tools and Instruments of French Jesuits and Machiavillian Emissaries who were the main Conjurers that by undiscovered Spells have raised up those Devils of Discord that under the Names of Whigs Tories and Trimmers have so much disturbed our Native Country and the LORD knoweth where it will terminate I am glad to hear your Lordship hath so well exerted the Caution and Prudence inherent in your Family in these times of difficulty and may it be so still which is the hearty desire of My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris April 8. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Duke of York's being drawn into a close Correspondence with the French Court with an Account of his Pension from thence My Lord I Cannot think your Lordship will so much admire that the Duke should suffer himself to engage into a close Correspondence with the French Court yea and to enter into a separate Treaty with them when other things more unlikely have been made evident enough so as not to be contradicted I cannot tell at present whether there be any other particulars of this same Treaty than what has come within my Cognizance but so much as has as I hope it will be acceptable I as freely communicate and was in substance as followeth First The Duke was engaged to stick close to his Alliance with France declining all Treaties with those of the House of Austria and even with the Pope himself without the French King's Privity and Approbation Secondly To oppose to the utmost of his Power the King his Brother from engaging in any War for the Confederates Thirdly To joyn with him the French King in making a strong Effort to draw in if possible the Prince of Orange to embrace a separate Interest from that of the States of Holland and if not to come over to the Roman Religion at least to enter into a separate Treaty with the Kingdoms of France and England under a pretence of laying a sure foundation for his own future Greatness and establish it on both sides the Sea by the suppression of all Factions which now disturbed his Uncle and might afterward disturb him and in case he proved still obstinate to second him in all Methods that might be used to hinder his Succession to the Crown of England by hindring any Match that might be proposed between the Prince and the Princess Mary and that he should for that purpose keep off Matching either of his Two Daughters upon several pretences to gain time till a fit juncture might come when Matches might be accomplished for them both with French Princes or some other Princes in that Interest viz. the eldest to the Dauphin and the younger to the Duke of Savoy or a Prince of the Houses of Conde or Conti or to the Duke of Modena Fourthly That the Duke should do his utmost to have the Government of his Children himself and to have them Tuâ—ored if possible in his own Religion and if they were obstinate in case he should sail of other Issue then they would have had him to exclude them and Adopt the Duke of Chartres for his Heir but this was only proposed and Intail the Crown thence forward to Heirs Male only and to have the Salique Law Established in England as well as in France but and if he should not be powerful enough to hinder a Match with the Prince of Orange or some other Protestant Prince but of the former they were most jealous then to concur with them to cut him off but this point would not be formally assented to neither But all Points proposed were on his part easily assented to As doing his utmost for the propagation of the Catholick Religion pursuing Measures concerted for dividing of Protestants undermining of Parliaments and putting forward Arbitrary Counsels without reserve and particularly to raise Arms in Scotland and Ireland and call in French Forces in case the King should at any time by any Motives whatsoever be influenced to act to the French King's prejudice Lastly The Duke was to take care That no Popish Clergy or Layety should be imploy'd by him but such as were in the French Interests and trust his main Secrets with none but such as were French-born Jesuits on which Conditions he was to have a considerable Annuity of Six hundred thousand Crowns and extraordinary Sums when necessary and the circumstances of things did require to carry on any of the forementioned Points even to what he pleased himself to demand So all things being thus concluded he received in hand Three hundred thousand Crowns of his Annuity and Six hundred thousand Crowns extraordinary and Jewish Bankers were accordingly imployed to transmit the Money to him from time to time Besides all which the French King's Confessor promised him a private Contribution from the Clergy
abroad should fall to so abject a State as to become a French Pensioner which without the addition of any other Crime is more than enough eternally to blast the Memory of an English Monarch but I know this Subject can be ungrateful to no one alive more than to your Lordship and therefore I shall forbear further insisting upon it and remain My Lord Your Honour 's to Serve and Obey Paris Jan. 27. 1680. N. S. LETTER XLIX Of King Charles II's Politick's upon his Entring into the fore-mentioned private League with France as represented by the French Court. My LORD IN my last your Lordship had the substance of the Private League entred into by our King and this Court it may not be now unworthy your curiosity to know the Censure they have past upon him in relation to that head they have said they understood well enough that what ever their Design might be in obtaining such a point that the King and his Brother 's too upon them was to draw as much Money out of them as they possibly could thereby and yet not to venture too far on any of those important and ticklish Points proposed without very large Summs to secure every Step made forward and that by advance too for that they both concluded that the best and only way to make the French stick close to them was to be always considerably before-hand with them not without reason as they imagined fearing that if they were not still before-hand when they had engaged them in Difficulties and saw them fast they would leave them in the lurch As for the King tho' they knew him to be no more a Papist than he was a Politician yet he was of the Opinion if the Popish Religion could be handsomly made predominant it might suit better with the Monarchy yet having no Children to succeed him that he was but careless in that point and his Brother only being concerned in that matter he moved only as he was spurred on by his importunity the Temptation of Money the Diffidence he had of his People and among others the Fears he had either of having his days shortned or his Crown very much endangered by the Intrigues of his Brother or the French King should he not keep fair and humour them both in some tollerable measure since he found himself so far intangled in their snares For as for his Nephew the Prince of Orange that he had no aversion for him but rather an inclination through Nature and Policy and therefore was of himself willing enough the Match should go on yet that he would have been glad if the Prince could have been drawn over to the French Interest for that then he thought he would have compassed many desirable Ends in one business and made a very great advance to have satisfied all parties in the greatest part of their several Pretensions because that then he supposed he could have satisfied the French King in bringing over a Prince to his Interest so very capable to serve him in that juncture of time that he would have satisfied also those of his own Subjects who were well affected to the English Monarchy as he would have likewise our Trading Companies by marrying our Princess to a Prince of the Protestant Religion whom he by separating from the Interests of the States of Holland and drawing into a League with two great Kings should have put into a condition to depress that Republick which was so ill a Neighbour to the Monarchy so much our rival in Trade and so great a fomenter of the Schisms and Factions in England that thereby he should have laid grounds to hope that if ever he succeeded to those Crowns he might be able to subject the Belgick to the British Lions and transfer the magazine of the Riches of the World from the Netherlands into England and that fie thought to have satisfied the Duke his Brother in a great measure by so satisfying his friend the French King and likewise by depressing a Republick so well scituated and inclined to abet his deadly Enemies that in all appearance would way-lay his Succession to the Throne and thereby cutting off all occasion from that Male-content party that continually sought occasion to stir up against him the old Devils of Fears and Jealousies of Popery and Arbitrary Power And that he thought to oblige the Prince too by putting him into a method to become a Sovereign in time And lastly that he was perswaded if the Prince complied with those Methods the Match could disoblige no body but the States of Holland and the sympathizing Factions of the Sectaries in England and the Republicans whom he thought inconsiderable but that how desirous soever he was of such a Compliance with France as they desired yet it was not in his inclination to break the Match for that he having in reality a much greater mind to the Alliance with the Prince of Orange than to that with the Dauphine in which he did imagine he foresaw unfurmountable Difficulties and such as might endanger if not over-turn his Throne ruine his Brother and the whole Royal Family and at last make Great Britain but a French Province however that knowing the Temper of the Duke his Brother and the vindicative humour of the French King he was willing to seem almost all complaisant and temporize for a while whereby he might appease them and at the same time get what Money could be drawn from France both for his own security and pleasure and when he had done that that he knew wheeling about and concluding the Match when they least thought of it or expected it would please his people again tho' never so unsatisfied by the delay These my Lord are the Sentiments of this Court concerning him which if true in all points I conceive they are more beholding to him than many persons in England are willing to believe of him but I shall leave it to your Lordships profound Judgment to revolve upon the particulars and remain My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Feb. 1. 1680. N. S. LETTER L. Of the Duke of York's Politicks upon his entring into a close Correspondence with France as the French Politicians represent them My LORD AS I have transmitted to your Lordship the exactest Particulars I could learn concerning the King's entring into a private Treaty with France and in my last the Censure of this Court thereupon I have also to the best of my remembrance given you likewise an Account of the Duke's being drawn into a close Correspondence with them some time before but whether it were that the Ministers on this side conceived such a Judgment of the King as I have already related and such of the Duke which I am just about to relate I cannot possitively determine but thus it is they censure him saying That though he was so much a Bigot in Religion that he was totally averse to the Aurangian Alliance unless it could be
never any of His present Highness's Predecessors have been ever as much as suspected of aspiring at any Power over the Commonwealth but what tended to its greater Security and for the Elevation of the Majesty of the Republick without the least Glances of assuming any to themselves unless it were His Highness's Father who in all probability was animated thereunto by his matching with a Daughter of England And that his Ambition might have proved fatal to the Republick beyond Retrieve if his immature Death and other seasonable Providences had not intervened That the Influence of that Match had proved very detrimental to that illustrious House by stirring up such a Jealousie in the States against them as would not suffer them to admit the present Prince for a long time to enjoy the Places of Honour Authority and Trust formerly so well maintained and officiated by his noble Ancestors And that at the same time it had proved as pernicious to the States themselves in creating and nourishing Factions among them and Endeavours to keep up the Republick upon a new Model without Captain-General Stadtholder Admiral c. and to deprive themselves of the so necessary and Auspicious Assistance and Conduct of that most Illustrious House and thereby exposed even almost to be made a Prey to the dangerous Ambition of the French Monarch And therefore now when they had so newly re-enter'd into their true Interests and happily re-fixed all things on the old Foundation by restoring the present Prince to the Dignity of his Ancestors and calling him to the Helm of the Tempest-beaten State and had by his Courage Conduct and Interest recovered the Common-wealth to a very hopeful Condition of Power and Prosperity again it would be no less than a Madness to venture the Ruin of all those fair Hopes by a second Match with England when by the former they had been almost all Shipwrack'd and to suffer a Prince who was now wholly their own to espouse in such a Marriage as was then in Agitation a Foreign Interest and such as in all probability could not in time but interfere with theirs And therefore desired it might not be 1. Because though the Prince's Intentions should happen to continue never so right and firm to the Interest of the Republick yet this Match could not but be still very detrimental both to him and them by causing incurable Jealousies Factions and Animosities amongst them without end and which could not but be of pernicious Consequence to them both 2. That by reason of the little probability of the Duke of York's having any Vivacious Male Issue this would give the Prince such a near Prospect of the British Crowns that it could not but engage him in that View upon all Occasions to strain his Power and Interest in the United Provinces to the utmost for the advantage of the English Nation to the prejudice of the Dutch increase of Power and Interest 3. That if he ever came to be King of England the Power he would thereby obtain added to that he had already in the United Provinces as Stadt-holder Captain General c. and to the great Influence he had among the Soldiery in the States pay would undoubtedly be a great temptation to him for to reduce that State under the English Crown and influence the others to assist him in it And that if he should have Issue by his Princess as it was likely enough he might the danger under that Circumstance would be in a manner inevitable It s likely my Lord our Politicians here forsaw very great Difficulties would arise in making any manner of Impressions upon the States against the Prince's Match for by the foresaid Remonstrances it does appear to me their Master-battery was turned on that side but though all their Politicks have failed them for the prevention of the Marriage yet they have not failed to put some of these Arguments foâ—â—ards to render the Prince and all his Proceedings suspect to the States and they have already bragged that all the Constancy his Highness is well known to be Master of will find work enough to ver-come the Jealousies entertained of him and which they are resolved never to be wanting on their part to foment and to make it believe that all he has acted since his marriage has been to the aggrandizing of himself and his Authority and the Diminution of that of the Republick I fear I have already too much transgrest by my tediousness and shall therefore only subscribe my self as I am in sincerity My LORD Your Lordships Most humble Servant Paris Sept. 20. 1679. N. S. LETTER LXII Of the Solemn Embassy sent by the French King to King Charles II. in the Year 1677 in order to break off the Match with the Prince of Orange c. My LORD PUrsuant to what I have already mentioned to your Lordship of the Designs concerted between his Royal Highness and the French King about getting of the Lady Mary by a Stratagem into France if their other Measures about hindring the Match were broken was the late solemn Embassy sent over from hence into England whereof the Count d' Estree was the head accompanied with the Duke de Vendosme the Archbishop of Rheims one of our great Minister the Marquiss de Louvois's Sons and at least fifty Lords more of principal Note and whose publick instructions tho' they imported nothing more then a great Complement and some overtures about forbiding any recruits to be sent over to our Land Forces in the service of the Confederates yet privately they were to endeavour a French match and if they saw they could not succeed therein to concert closer measures with the Duke about puting in practise what he had before consented to about geting the Princess his daughter privately convey'd away in Company of this Embassador into France and perhaps your Lordship will not be dissatisfied if I recount what I have heard discoursed one day at this Court between our Commissioner and some other Courtiers concerning the Embassy Said one of them to theother What needed so splendid and costly an Embassy at this time of day to the King of England when there is so little hopes that he durst give his Consent to what we desire of him if he were of himself disposed thereto Yes says the other 'T will be well worth the Cost let things go as they will upon this occasion for 't is a greater honour our King now does to the King of England than he has ever yet done to any other Prince or ever to the Emperor himself when at Peace with him and such an Honour cannot but work sensibly upon the heart of a Prince who is so easily wrought upon and may work some good Effects for us in time if not for the present And however if the worst come to the worst this extraordinary Honour now done him by our Monarch will make his Parliament and People so fully persuaded that he hath entred into an extraordinary
quarter of the Suâ— he was to have had for that Affair and much less the Expences he had been at And that now at last he had lost his dear Life for serving his Majesty by which sad disaster she and her Family being ruin'd and reduc'd to misery and great want she therefore humbly besought his Majesty if he would be pleas'd to do nothing else for her that he would order her the payment of her Husband's Arrears c. To which Petition my Lord this Court Reply'd That Mr. Coleman her Husband had had more Mony from them than he deserv'd That he had been a false inconstant Rascal and had brought himself to that shameful end by his own Folly and Knavery having had the impudence to threaten his Majesties Embassador to turn Cat in Pan c. That his Majesty had nothing to say to her and would not give her one Farthing which surly Answer so thunder-struck the Poor Woman that she return'd over into England so enrag'd and in such a dreadful Fit of Despair that she miserably cut her own Throat at her Lodging in London which relation and Coppy of the Petition I had delivered me by an English Priest who was Coleman's Wife's Confessor and which after I had Transcrib'd it I delivered to the English E to be sent to King Charles the Ild. that he might see how his Brother's Creatures served him but how he represented it is beyond my knowledge to tell I have been tedious and am affraid troublesome to your Lordship by a long Epistle but the Curiosities whereof the various parts of it are Composed will I hope be as powerful a lenitiue against any Displeasure I may have incurred from your Lordship as they have been incitatives for me to write it who am My Lord Your most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Apr. â— 1683. N. St. LETTER LXVIII Of the Marquess de Louvois's being in England several times in King Charles the II. Reign and about what Business My Lord IN my last to your Lordship I have given some intimations concerning the Dukes being in France and Closetted by the French King and of Mr. Coleman's Negotiations and imbroylments with this Court together with his Wifes Calamitous life and Tragical death which I believe were wholly new to you And I cannot think but that of the Marquess de Louvois our great Minister of State here his being again and again in England and Closetted there with the King and Duke must be equally strange and surprizing to you but tho it be a secret I verily believe to all other persons on your side except the two foremention'd persons yet it is not so entirely such here especially in our Office that he has been wanting sometimes and hardly any of his Family knew what was become of him is most certain and upon such occasions it was sometimes given out he was indispos'd in the Country sometimes that he was sent into Handers Alsatia c. whether he afterwards went actually with so much expedition tho he rode in a â—â—tter that his Journeys into â—â—â—land were never perceiv'd I find two several occasions wherein he was Closetted 1. About a year before the breaking out of the second Dutch War when he was sent particularly to help the King and his Brother to concert the Preparations for and manner of Carrying on that War 2. To concert measures how to stave off the effects of the Popish Plot by remitting of Mony to dissolve Parliaments and by other methods when they saw they were carrying things farther then the French Interest required to have them driven but upon condition the two Brothers should not depart from their Interests for the future To complot measures how to ensnare the Protestant Party and especially the high Patriots in a Plot that should quite extinguish the Popish one and give the Duke of York opportunity to cut off all those who stood in the way between him and the Crown and between the Crown and absolute Power All which Closettings have been very short as well as private and performed with incredible diligence and of which 't is all I am able to inform your Lordship and with which I conclude remaining My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris May 16. 1683. N. St. LETTER LXIX Of that called the Presbyterian Plot. My Lord I Was not a little transported with Joy to find your Lordship's Name was not incerted in the List I have seen of Persons taken up for the Plot I have had the vanity to flatter my self that some things that I have Writ lately to your Honour concerning Monsieur Louvois's Negotiations in England may inspire you with a more than ordinary Caution upon such an occasion wherein when it shall lye with your Lordship's conveniency to let me have a Line from you I do not desire so much to be satisfied as what Rules I am to observe for my future conduct in respect to my Correspondence since I have some reason to suspect your Honour may be uneasy under the present Circumstance of things and I have heard â—â—settled too I have little to say at present how far the Ministers of this Court are engaged in starting of this Conspiracy what I have formerly Written concerning their Management of the several Factions in England may give your Lordship some view of their Designs but what they generally say of it is That it was now seasonable to set up a Protestant one as a fresh game and since by their strong concurrence when they saw it time they had enabl'd the King to stiffe the other Popish one and thereby diverted the current of his Arms ready to fall upon them it was necessary having new Designs of Conquests in view and what can it be but Luxemburg block't up by them last year to raise a new Disturbance in his Dominions which could not be better effected now than by starting a Plot of another Stamp which would not only incapacitate the King to interpose and put a stop to their career but would also be an effectual means to make the holding of Parliaments impracticable at least for a time and make him quite fast in a manner to their King's Purse-strings towards which they had by the other Plot made such considerable Advances I do presume your Lordship retains the same English Spirit you were ever Master of and are as constant notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of State which have happen'd in your time which is the Reason I retain still my usual freedom who am My Lord Your humble Servant Paris July 21. 1683. N. S. LETTER LXX Of the Model of Ships sent by King Charles II. to the French King c. My Lord I Do presume it is a matter no longer doubted of that our King is fallen in more than ever with the interests of this Court the many Models and Draughts of Ships which he has sent over hither and some whereof I have seen at the Marquess de Louvois is a convincing proof of
least pretend to have it and give Orders for Mourning before our English Envoy had any such Notice given so that when he came according to Custom to give them intimation of it all the Court was seen in Mourning before Night and all persons of Note in this City the next day I 'll leave your Lordship to Reflect upon the Transactions and Circumstances of it which tho comprehended in a few words may afford a larger Field for Thought than any thing my mind can at present suggest unto me or my Intelligence reach unto but it puts me in mind of somewhat I think I have writ in my last to your Lordship and so I suppose it may do your Honour if it has not already but I am My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Feb. 22. 1635. N. S. LETTER I. Of King James when Duke of York his pervertion to the Popish Religion how and when it was done c. My Lord YOUR Lordship cannot imagine how over-joy'd both Court and Country are here upon the News of the King 's going Publickly to the Roman Catholick Chappel upon His Assumption of the Crown and many and various Discourses it has occasion'd concerning His first Imbracing the Roman Faith an Account whereof may not perhaps be unpleasing to your Lordship And therefore I shall endeavour to gratifie your Honour therein to the utmost of my power some have been of opinion that the Zeal Example and Exhortations of the Queen His Mother to whom He seemed always to pay the greatest Deference had wrought this Change early in him and that the long Conversation he had had with those of the Roman Communion in France Flanders and other places had fortify'd him in the same Sentiments he had before imbib'd and which at last appear'd in an open Profession but however this has a very great appearance of truth it s utterly deny'd here and averred with great Elogium's upon him that it happened to him as it did to one of the Ancients as Recorded in Holy Writ that he should find in the Gall of a Monster that was about to devour him that wherewith to cure him of his Blindness For that it was in Reading of the History of the Reformation written by a Protestant Author that he came to see the Error wherein his Birth had engag'd him that when he was oblig'd when in Exile to leave the Kingdom of France and to retire to Bruxels and having leasure enough to Read he lighted there upon the History of the Reformation written by Dr. Heylin which he Read with much Attention and notwithstanding the many strained pretences say they which the Protestants made use of to colour the Schism of their Country he clearly saw that their Separation so plainly contrary to the Maxim of Unity which is the Foundation of the Church was nothing else but a meer effect of Humane Passions that it was the Dissolute Life and Incontinency of King Henry the Eighth the Ambition of the Duke of Sommerset the Pollicy of Queen Elizabeth the Avarice of those that were greedy to seize upon the Revenues of the Church had been the Principal Causes of that Change wherein the Spirit of God had no concern that upon reflecting with himself That God of old made use of Prophets of a most Holy Life to be the Guides of his People and to Intimate his will unto them in respect to Religion that upon the change of the Divine Dispensation the Apostles Inspired with Heavenly Vertue and more like to Disimbodyed Angels than Carnal Men Preached the Gospel and that upon Disorders and Irregularities both under the one and the other Testament They were not carnal persons Vindictive Souls Ambitious Spirits that had Preached Reformation but Men full of Moses's Spirit or of Christ's the only Channels worthy to receive the Waters which run from his Living Sources so as that there might be no room left to render them suspected of Corruption or Falsity he from thenceforward became a Roman Catholick in his heart That he had acquainted the King his Brother with it soon after the Restoration who highly Applauded him but engaged him to put that restraint upon himself as to keep it secret But that some years after having by his Conduct given occasion to others to observe his Steps more warily and finding he was not Cordial to the Protestant Religion and Interest they say here the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and two of his Brethren Remonstrated the same to him that he heard them with much Patience and did not decline to Confer with them but that their Conferences and Arguments were so far from Staggering and Seducing of him that they Confirmed him the more in the Faith And they say farther That tho' it was given out in England That the late Dutchess of York's Complaisance to the Duke her Husband had wrought her Conversion to the Romish Church in the Communion of which she dy'd yet it was notoriously false for that she was brought over by a very remarkable event next to a Miracle by Reading the same Book that had Converted the Duke But I shall trouble your Lordship no more with a Matter which I am sure you cannot think of without trouble of Mind and so I remain My Lord Your Honours to serve and Command Paris March 2. 1685. N. S. LETTER II. Of the Duke of Monmouth's being in Holland and King James's Design to seize him there Miscarryed My Lord THE Misfortunes of the Duke of Monmouth in the King his Father's time are beter known to your Lordship then I can pretend to inform you and that when he was forced to quit England for his own safety and that it came to be known he was retir'd into Holland the Duke and French Emissaries never left Importuning the King to send to the States and Prince of Orange to drive him from thence alleadging continually that there were very great Honours done him by the States and especially by the Prince of Orange who had given his Troops Orders to Salute him at their Reviews when-ever he came to see them designing thereby to make that Republick and especially the Prince of Orange more and more obnoxious to the King so that he gave at last Orders to His Embassador Mr. Chudley at the Hague to forbid the English Troops in that Service to shew the Duke any Respects Having gain'd this Point and that they might embroyl the King and Prince of Orange the more Chudley was Instructed to make the Officers of the said Regiments acquainted with the afore-mention'd Orders without first giving the Prince notice thereof under whose Command they were which they knew well enough the Prince could not but Resent as he did accordingly Threatning Chudley for Interfereing with his Authority without his leave and this upon the Embassador's Complaint to the King his Master and which was sufficiently Improved and Aggravated by the Duke and French Agents about him incensed him so against the Prince that he dispatch'd Letters to Chudley forbidding
his acquainting the King his Master therewith My Lord MY last imported some Intimations to your Lordship of Mr. Skelton when the King's Envoy at the Hague his discovering some secret Correspondence negotiated between England and Holland as he judged to his Master's disadvantage I have also noted how the King had been advertised of it from this Court where Mr Skelton is now in the same Quality as at the Hague and who I can further assure your Lordship has made a further Progress to unriddle the Intrigue since his Arrival by the means of one whose Name is Budeus de Verace a Protestant of Geneva who having been some time since Captain of the Guards to the Prince of Orange and having had the Misfortune to kill a Man in a Duel was casheered by him Mr. Skelton being then at the Hague and acquainted with the said Verace found a way to reconcile him to his Master by the Recommendation of my Lord Clarendon who having brought up his Son my Lord Cornbury at Geneva was under great Obligations to Verace for the good Offices he had done him and care taken of him this Genevese being thus re-established in the Favour of the Prince his Master had it seems a greater Share of it than before as he had also in the Secrets of Monsieur B his Favorite however it was it should seem by the sequel that he was now by his second Introduction to Favour become quite of Mr. Skelton's Interest who was the Instrument to reconcile him For not long since he has taken occasion to be dissatisfied with the Service he engaged in and withdrawn and being as was given out but whether so in reality or no upon his return to his native City of Geneva he took occasion to write a Letter to Mr. Skelton now in this City That the Noise about the Armamont in Holland was so far from being a false thing or otherwise to be conceived that it was a Matter of the highest Importance and did no less than concern the Safety of the Crown of his Master the King of England and that it was highly necessary he should be made acquainted with a Son-in-Law whom he knew not This he desired Mr. Skelton to communicate to the King with all speed but he was not willing to make any further Discovery of his Secret to any other save to the King himself in Person if the King were so pleased as to send him Orders by Mr. Skelton to come and attend upon him Upon the receipt of which Letter from the said Genevese Mr. Skelton hath writ Five or Six Letters to the King in a very pressing lively and urgent manner but what effect they have had upon him may be the Subject of another Letter and perhaps of my next if my intelligence fail me not in the mean time I am and shall be My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. 14. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Slights used to make King James negligent to provide against the Inuasion from Holland My Lord I Do not find Mr. Skelton's Instances have had any great Effects upon the King towards quickening his Pace to ward off the Blow that seems to be preparing to be given him And I have something more than a Suspicion That it is the Desire of this Court the Kingdom should be invaded and that the Agents of it have been extraordinary busy to countermine whatever Advices have been given the King for taking a timely Precaution to defend himself so that there is my Lord in this Case a Wheel within a Wheel and whatever open Professions of Kindness is shewed him from hence by a timous Premonition of his Danger there is as great Care seriously to thwart all by contrary Counsels And among other things it has been eagerly urged to him That the Prince of Orange continues to carry himself towards him with such a Conduct as could not leave the least room to entertain any Suspicion of him and could it be thought that a Prince who had shewed his Devoirs to him so far as to make his Complements as other Princes had done upon the Birth of his Son the Prince of Wales and caused the Name of his new Brother-in-Law to be added to those of the Princes of the Family for whom they prayed in his Chappel should be unsincere or have the least Design to molest him or his Kingdoms by Arms especially since Van Citters the States Embassador had particularly assured him That what Preparations were made in Holland did not regard England but had given him to understand That France had a great deal more Reason to be alarmed than he But after all whatever were intended by such Preparations which they were well assure were much greater in Fame than in Reality his Majesty's Affairs were in so good a Posture that he had no Reason to fear any Enterprizes whatsoever That he had a Land Army a Fleet and such good Magazines as were sufficient to render the Efforts of almost all the complicated Powers of Europe ineffectual tho' such a Conjunction was as little to be expected as that his most Christian Majesty would abandon him who if he saw occasion as there was now but little likelihood would no fail to support him with all the Power of France both by Sea Land c. I will not be further Troublesome to your Lordship but remain My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Aug. â—8 1688. LETTER XLVI My Lord S charged by some of the French Faction with Infidelity to his Master King James My Lord IF your Lordship should ask me What the real Designs of this Court are in reference to England in such a conjuncture they seem to have other Sentiments now of the Invasion than they had a few days ago when they were secretly promoting the same Might and Main as I have intimated not long since to your Lordship with a View to engage us in a Civil War and thereby bring the King under a Necessity of calling in such a French Power to his Assistance as he should never be able to force out again But now they seem to be quite against it upon the opposition made by a great Minister of State to their Offer both of Men and Ships upon this occasion of whom they talk strange things here and say that in regard to the King however he has insinuated and winded himself into his Favour more than any they could recommend or propose he must be an Enemy reconciled only in a way of Policy and Necessity that he had in former Parliaments pushed on the Bill for his Exclusion with greater eagerness and warmth than any other That he had never attempted to recover his Favour but when he had a Prospect to injure him thereby that he is a Man intent to follow the prevailing Side but that he had always in case of any Change a safe Retreat to the other side that whilst he adhered to the Factions in Parliament against
THE SEâ—â—â—T HISTORY OF White-Hall FROM THE Restoration of Charles II. Down to the Abdication of the late K. James Writ at the Request of a Noble Lord and conveyed to him in Letters by late Secretary-Interpreter to the Marquess of Louvois who by that means had the perusal of all the Private Minutes between England and France for many Years The Whole consisting of Secret Memoirs which have hitherto lain conceal'd as not being discoverable by any other Hand Publish'd from the Original Papers By D. JONES Gent. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms Inn in Warwick-Lane MDCXCVII THE PREFACE I Do not question but the Reader will expect somewhat should be premised by way of Satisfaction to such Scruples as may be suggested in general concerning the Authentickness of the ensuing Letters which as I conceive they are reducible to the following heads viz. An Account of the Author and the Means whereby he got his Intelligence the Verity of the Matters related the Nature of the Correspondence and what part the Methodizer has had in the Undertaking so I shall endeavour to give as distinct and satisfactory a Solution of each Particular as may reasonably be expected from me or the Circumstance of the Things will justly admit of First then for the Author and his Intelligence The first time he went over into France was in the Year 1675 where he had not stay'd above a Year but that the place of General Commis or Clark of the Dispatches and Particular Commis Interpreter to that great French Minister of State the Marquess de Louvois for the Affairs relating to our Three Kingdoms falling vacant by the Death of one Mr. Kilpatrick a Scotchman ' s Son that same Imployment was conferred by him upon a Frenchman a Favourite of his named Belou Who understanding no English and therefore not being able to manage the Affair without an English Man our Author was recommended to him for that service as he hints in his first Letter which yet you are to Note by the way was not the first he writ from that Country to that Noble Person he corresponded with and to whom he was previously engaged to transmit all the Intelligence he could learn of the Proceedings of the French Court before he entred upon the said Imployment but they being not very material he took no care to reserve the Transcripts by him and continued to be Interpreter of the English tongue till after the time of our Grand Revolution when he came over into England where his stay was not long but that he was imployed by the same Noble Person to return into France again where the dangerous part he was to Act may be better conceived than now exprest but concerning which you may hear more hereafter It s no hard matter to imagine what Qualifications were necessary to recommend our Author to the Imployment afore noted and how far his out-side must differ from his in-side during his aboad there which together with that part which he has Acted in that Kingdom since his present Majesty King William ' s Accession to the Throne and that he knows not how soon he may still be engaged to return though he be at present in London are Reasons of themselves without superadding any other of the many that might be produced more than sufficient for the suppression of his Name and of my being engaged in the Work which yet rather than Truth should suffer I am satisfied he will be as forward to render as well known to the World as 't is to that Noble Person who has imployed him I am of Opinion the Reader will be much better perswaded of the verity of the Facts as well as much more pleased with the new Discoveries of State-Mysteries he will meet with here by the perusal of the Work himself than by any thing I can pretend to say in the Defence of the one or the Commendations of the other And were it not to obviate a vulgar Error and Objection that I foresee would be made upon this Subject That all that could be Writ has been written already concerning the late Reigns I should dismiss it But now I am necessitated not to single out but promiscuously to call to mind a few Heads for to make an Enumeration of all the remarkable Particulars were to run through the Contents of every individual Letter and to ask the Objector where it is he meets with an exact Account of the Private League between King Charles the Second and the French King The Duke of York ' s secret Correspondence with that Court Coleman ' s interventien with both for his own Advantage The Interest the French made both in England and Holland among the several Sects and Parties of Men to prevent the late Queen's being married to his present Majesty The Methods concerted to Trapan her into France with her Father's concurrence and how prevented Father St. Germain's attempting King Charles the Second in his Religion with the King's Answer c. His unseasonable boasting of it the Occasion of his flight into France and the Censure he underwent from those of his Order for it Coleman ' s Wife's Petition to the French King the Answer and her destroying her self Monsieur le Tellier ' s Speech about the Invasion of England the Duke of York his pervertion to the Church of Rome King James his Private League with France when Regnant the Essay made by Don Ronquillo the Spanish Ambassador to draw him into the Austrian Interest with his Answer and Refusal in savour of France How Father Petre came to be made a Privy Councellor wherefore Mr. Skelton was imprisoned in the Tower c. which to name no more though the rest are of equal curiosity as they had in all likelihood been for ever buried in the profoundest Oblivion had not the Fate and Address of this Gentleman led him to fetch them out of the Dark and almost inscrutable Recesses of the French Cabinet-minutes so the Reader will find they carry so much Evidence of Truth with them not only by the Connexion they have with many material Passages in Sir William Temple ' s Memoirs Mr. Coke ' s Detection of the Court and State of England during the Four last Reigns c. but by so natural an unfolding of what is obscurely or but transiently hinted at by those learned Authors who could not see beyond their light and yet so remote from those Scurrulities as well as Inconsistencies to say no worse which occur in some other pieces of the same Reigns that it were a Crime to make any farther Apology for them Yet it may be noted by the way that this same doth evince the necessity of this Supplemental Part as well for the detecting of past Falsities as for the perfecting of past Discoveries And 't is hoped no body will quarrel that this Piece which is Entituled by the Name of a Secret History c. should be written in an
at which they whom they thus incited did not so much as dream of Thus while many in our Parliaments were so fierce against Papists Arbitrary Power and the French Interest and cried out against all of the Court-party as French Pensioners tho' 't is true too many of them were so as does appear yet little thought they that they were likewise so themselves and never imagined the same French were Abettors of both Parties And the better to cover this underhand play they drew off most of the Money they employ'd to this latter sort by the way of Genoa Florence Amsterdam and Hamburg that it might not be discovered it came Originally from France Nay my Lord by the by be pleased to take notice that one main cause of the French King's Indignation against Genua tho' it be a very secret one and known to few was their Bankers cackling and discovering to the Agents of the House of Austria the Money privately sent and dispersed and sent towards Poland Hungary Turky and some other Parts not named and has made them imploy none ever since almost but what are openly or covertly Jews who serve the French King with great Fidelity for these Reasons 1. He is in their Esteem the most Powerful in Christendom 2. Because he Favours the Grand Turk where they have so great a Commerce and are in such numbers 3. Because he gives them a liberty by connivance tho' not open Toleration 4. Because he is so great an Enemy to the Austrian Family who have been so Cruel to them by the Inquisition and by Banishing them not only out of the Spanish Territories but likewise out of the Emperor 's Hereditary Countries 5. And lastly Because he seems to them to be of no Religion but almost as great a Scourge to the Christians in general both Popish and others as the Turk Tartar or Barbarian their Principles naturally leading them to admire and revere any thing they think a Plague to Christians whom they are taught to Curse daily even in their Solemn Prayers and therefore England had need have a Care of them in this Juncture But as for the Pensions they gave the Courtiers they Industriously affected the transmission of those Moneys from France and had their Agents busie to buzz it abroad in order to render them odious to the People and to incite the Patriots the more violently against them And tho' a great part of the Money they allowed the King from time to time were sometimes transmitted from the abovementioned Places and some from Venice yet private notice was presently given to their Agents in England and elsewhere with positive Orders to inform the World of the Truth of that Intrigue unless it were some time when a particular Critical Juncture might require a contrary Procedure My Lord this is the Sum of what I could learn in respect to their Correspondence in England either from the Minutes or private Conversation of which your Lordship is sensible I have as great an Opportunity as any other and with which I shall at present conclude who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble Servant Paris Iuly 11. 1684. N. St. LETTER XVI Of the French King 's frequent Reviews of his Troops in 1670. and of the umbrage taken in England thereupon and of the Duke of Buckingham's Embassy into France My Lord I Have formerly given your Lordship an Account of the great Levies in France and vast Preparations for War both by Sea and Land what Care had been taken to secure the Domestick Peace in the mean time and what the Opinion of the French Ministers of State were in regard to what Country should be Invaded by them And I am now to acquaint your Lordship that when their Military Preparations were pretty forward which was in the Year 1670. they began to make frequent Reviews of their Troops which to amuse they continued till the end of the next Year in several Bodies towards as many different Frontiers that their Neighbour Nations being used to them and seeing no Effects follow might think they were only done out of a Vanity to make Ostentation of the French Power and Grandure to keep their Soldiers in Discipline and find their Nobility and Active Spirits Employment who else might busie themselves for want of Occupation in disturbing the State The Artifice took so that most of their Neighbours tho' now and then they were troubled with a Fit of Thoughtfulness and Suspicion begun to grow secure and particularly the Hollanders who thought the French King so much in Jest that they tauâ—tingly called him Le Roy des Reveues till more extraordinary and more visible Preparations and Movements did by degrees begin to convince them of their Errour for when they had thus finished their Reviews they suddenly drew a very considerable Army composed of the Flower of all their Forces towards Calais and Dunkirk the Dutch being in the mean time tampered with as I am apt to believe concerning the Invasion of England but yet now full of Jealousie at their Proceedings and here it was the Council was held about the Eligibility of employing their Force the Debates whereof I have already given your Lordship an Account And as the Dutch were Jealous upon this approach the English were much more as your Lordship may well remember to see such a Power brave England on the opposite Shore and look with an Amorous Eye towards it and the more because of the unprepared Posture the Nation was then in insomuch that it was thought advisable to dispatch an Embassy to sound the Intentions of the French Monarch in regard to England whereupon Choice was made of the Duke of Buckingham who admirably well maintained that Character and the Glory of Great Britain on that Occasion and demeaned himself with such an Intrepidity of Mind and Conduct and with such a Grandure and Unconcernedness at the Formidable Armed Powers he saw before his Eyes that those who had been Strangers to the then Condition of our Nation would have thought he had been sent from a Prince that was at the Head of twice as big an Army as the French King at that time shewed the Duke And that Conduct did not a little appall the Presumption of that Ambitious King and contributed much to the inclining of him to acquiesce in Monsieur Le Tellier's Counsel but then withal making him take notice of the Rare and more than ordinary Parts and Abilities of the said Duke it put him naturally upon concluding that it was well worth the while to endeavour to gain such a Person over to his Interest whose Influence might be great either in bringing his Prince to such a Compliance as he desired or at least in briguing for France against him in case he proved inflexible To this end such Complements were past upon the Duke and such extraordinary Honours done him and Presents made him as never no Embassador before nor since hardly ever received insomuch as the Duke suffered himself
unprovided The Duke forward enough before but now quite overcome by these pretences became their most earnest Sollicitor anew to the King but tho' he neglected nothing in that case that a Prince of that great influence over his Brother could do to bring him over to consent to the Measures concerted between the French and him He found him still inflexible and averse to a War not out of any disaffection to the Cause but out of a love to ease and a Principle of Fear as I have formerly hinted to your Lordship Upon which the French Council proceeded to their last Master Stroak in this business resolving in case they succeeded not therein in spite of all hazzards to take the opportunity of joyning with Holland to Invade and Conquer England if possible To this end they had all along managed a close Treaty with Holland even while they were endeavouring one in England by the powerful Negotiation of their Friends the De Wits and Lovestein Faction So then still the more to rouse up our King's Resentments or to Force him to make appear to the World that he had indeed none neither for his own Royal Dignity and Honour nor for the Honour or Interest of his Relations and Kingdoms nay not so much as a sense of the preservation of any of them from Dangers tho' never so visible so present and so fatal to all and every of them they put the De Wits on all the efforts they could to keep down the most Ancient and Illustrious Family of Nasâ—aw under the specious pretences of the danger of the Liberty the Commonwealth might one day run from the suspitious Greatness of that House so well deserving of them especially if ever it were so Fortunate as to mount the Throne of Great Britain their incompatible Rival in Naval Power and Trade and with whom by reason of their near Relation to that Crown that House could not but by Inclination and Interest have such a Correspondence as must needs render it imprudent and unsafe in the States to admit the present Prince into the same Honours and important Charges in that Juncture which his Ancestors in the Infancy of the Commonwealth had enjoyed and exercised so much to their Advantage and accordingly what Steps were made by those two Ministers to keep the Prince of Orange from the Possession of the Ancient Honours and Priviledges of his House is too well known to need mention Which Design being thus set on foot by those Ministers the French still the more eagerly to incite them to pursue their Point insinuated to them That the only way to expect the full Accomplishment of their Desires in the total Destruction of that Family would be to cause a new War to be declared against England upon the plausible Pretences and Encouragements before mentioned in which Juncture the People of Holland who in the Prince his Fathers time had begun to conceive an Umbrage of that Family would be the more easily brought to consent to what remained to the utter Depriving and Disinabling them to aspire to any Greatness that might be above their Pity and that by the potent and auspicious Assistance of the French Monarch in that War the States coming to overpower so gloriously their Rival in Trade and to acquire a Possession of so great a share of the British Dominions â—s was projected between them and as they would in all appearance under the Eavour of that present Conjuncture not fail to attain to they the De Wits by procuring the States so â—easonable and powerful an Assistance and pushing them on to a War that should end with so much Glory and Advantage to them would quite â—ulipse the great Services and Merits of the Nassovian and Orangian Heroes in the earlier Years of the Republick and give the said De Wits opportunity by degrees to raise their own Family to the same if not much greater Honours and Priviledges then those that had been so long enjoyed by that illustrious House in which addeth they you may be assured that from time to time you shall never want the friendly Offices and most efficacious Assistances of our invincible Monarch who is no less Constant Generous and Magnificent in his Resentments towards his Allies and Friends then he is Formidable and Inflexible in those towards his Enemies In fine they soothed these miserable ambitious Ministers to that degree and acted that Sham-Treaty with Holland by their means so to the Life that the States not doubting but they were in earnest made all the forward Steps imaginable towards the Alliance proposed and began to Arm by Sea not minding how careless a Posture they left all their Places by Land as dreaming of nothing from France but Friendship and Assistance And accordingly that Faction having with all the Heat and Diligence imaginable concerted and concluded a Treaty with the French Ambassador he like a sly Gamester wheedled them to sign their part in it and sent it forthwith as privately to his Master who said he would not fail immediately to answer them with a Counter-Change telling them that by this means they should shew a great deference to his Dignity and the Figure he made in Europe and testifie their great Confidence in him then which nothing could be more obliging to a Crowned Head especially to him who much more then any other Prince valued himself upon his Honour and Integrity and besides would contribute much to the success of the great Enterprise they were joyntly to go upon because by this means their common Design would be most dexterously concealed from the English Court whom his Master said he amused all this while with a sham-Alliance and hopes of making Peace with you for them c. And so keeping them from Arming for their Defence and so afterwards be executed with such a surprising Celerity on them that they should sooner see the Dutch Fleet on their Coasts and the French Troops on their Land then hear of them The Stratagem took and the Instrument of the said Treaty was with all expedition sent ready Signed by the said Faction to the great Monsieur who promised speedily to answer the Ceremony on his side And now the De Wits and their Party were Cock-a-hoop and were already in hopes sharing their part in the projected Spoil and Division of the English Monarchy when the more politick Monsieur having brought them into the Snare he had laid for them instead of sending back and Signing a Counter-change of the said League to them sent it secretly to his Embassador in England with Orders privately to shew it our King that he might by that be convinced what advances the People he was so hard to be perswaded to wage War with had made to attack him and his Kingdoms as they had already insulted his Person Honour and Relations And how affectionate his Master was to his Majesty who was ready to depart from all the Advantages he might prudentially hope to reap by such an
help him to compass it and he was to urge closely 1. That tho' his Britannick Majesty had been by the intollerable Insolencies and base Outrages of the Dutch Nation constrained and necessitated much against his Inclinations to depart from so much of the tripple League as concerned the Hollanders yet he would not fail to retain still his Inclinations to promote as much as lay in him the chief Intent and Purport of it which was in Substance to hinder the French from aggrandizing themselves to the Diminution of their Neighbours but more particularly to the Prejudice of the Catholick King during his Minority provided he would stand Neuter 2. That his Neutrality would be a firm Security to him of what he yet possest in the Netherlands by obviating and taking clean away from the French all manner of pretences to molest his Subjects 3. That the destroying the Hollanders who were base Rebels to him and whom it was as much Scandalous as Pernicious for any Crowned Head to suffer to flourish and prosper in Wealth and Greatness as they had but too manifestly done to the Diminution of their Neighbours and much less to abet would be highly Beneficial and of manifold Advantage to his Catholick Majesty For that the vast Trade of Amsterdam and other great populous and flourishing Towns in Holland and the other Provinces being ruined and depopulated many of the Inhabitants at least all those of the Roman Catholick Religion or Perswasion a great many of the Deists and other Adiaphorites who were very indifferent and careless whether they frequented any publick Worship at all or no but chiefly and above all other things adored Trade and Gold with which the Dutch Territories swarmed above any other Nation either on this or the other side of the Hemisphere would without all doubt refugiate themselves as being nearest and most commodious for them in the Spanish Territories and Provinces especially Flanders and would quickly multiply and encrease in them not only People but Trade and Riches from whence encrease of Power and Strength both by Sea and Land would be a necessary and infallible Consequence And that then the now almost abandoned City of Antwerp once the most famous and most flourishing City in Trade of this part of Europe should have free liberty to lay open her Scheld again now damm'd up by the Hollanders and recover her former Riches Glory and Strength as would necessarily all the other Spanish Cities and trading Towns in that Country in a proportionable degree which would be a means to make Spain herself become much more Flourishing and Populous 4. That the Crown of Spain would by this means have her Hands quite rid of the most troublesome as well as dangerous Rival in Trade and Conquest in the East Indies of any other Europian Nation whatsoever in which respect neither England nor France tho' trading Nations as being Monarchies had not been nor indeed could possibly be or become so prejudicial to it However they might perhaps afterwards be fortified with new Accessions of Strength and Power as that one single Republick which tho' scarce of one age's Growth had yet already to the Amazement as well as Detriment of their Neighbour Nations and especially the Kingdom of Spain and Territories belonging to it monopolized into her own Hands the advantageous and incredibly gainful Trades to the great Kingdoms of China Iapan and many other Parts both of the East Indian and African Coasts whither in former times no other Nations in the World besides those of Spain and Portugal had any manner of Access 5. That the Power of that upstart Republick was already at that exorbitant Greatness and Grandure that there was no possibility either of humbling or depressing it and much less of a total Subversion of it by any other in Christendom then the united Powers of the Kingdoms of England and France and yet things were brought to that pass that if timely care were not taken to have the said Republick removed out of the way or at least mortified to a very great degree it must of necessity in a short time rise up as Old Rome did to such a prodigious Strength Power Dominion and Grandure that it would give Law to all the Crowned Heads in this part of the World and perhaps at last devour them since it well appeared and was conspicuous to all that did not wilfully shut their Eyes that by such little Blows as the Kingdom of England alone was able to give them in the late War and Sea Engagements they had with them their Experience numbers of Seamen Power Strength and Riches were every day advanced and encreased after the Respite of a small breathing time of Peace And that consequently if his Catholick Majesty the King of Spain or rather the Queen Regent and Ministers as also his Imperial Majesty should suffer themselves to be so over-ruled by such a needless as well as unseasonable Jealousie so far as by their Interposition to obstruct and hinder the now probable Downfal of that usurping and encroaching Republick what could they expect and hope for in the Revolution of a few Years but to see those very People whom by their needless Solicitude they had saved from Destruction be so adventurous as to seize into their own Hands by way of Retaliation for their Kindness their precious Mines of Gold and Silver in the Countreys of Peru and Mexico when it should be quite out of the Power either of the Kingdoms of England or France or indeed both of them together should they find themselves so disposed to prevent their inevitable Loss which would be not only a most pernicious Blow but as might very well be feared even a deadly one to the illustrious House of Austria as well as a very sensible one to all the other Princes and States of Christendom And therefore it could not but be a matter even of high Importance and greatly for the Interest and Benefit of his Catholick Majesty and his Subjects in general for him to resolve to remain and continue neuter in this War that was to commence shortly against the united Dutch Provinces and to connive at and give way to the Success of the French and English Nations since it was evidently as necessary and requisite for the Safety and Grandure of the Kingdom of Spain ut deleatur ist a Carthago as it was for that of England and France from whom a mutual Jealousie which as it ever was could not but be still continued would sufficiently secure Spain to all future Ages from offering any such Violence or making any such Attempts on their Golden and Silver West Indies as would certainly as well as unavoidably be made in less then half an Age upon them by the Republick of Holland If his Catholick Majesty the Emperour and his other Allies should stand so far in their own Light and become guilty of so much Imprudence which could hardly be thought of them as to give any divertion unto
was a long time Banker to the Cabal and is still I believe on this side the Water and coming to hear by the Correspondence he held with his Complotters in England there were some who scrupled such Undertakings he went Over saying He would procure enough to do either of the Works if occasion were I had once a Bill upon him for a Friend of mine and then I remember he railed mightily against both King and Duke and said they were both Knaves Fools and Cowards for that having forsaken the French Interest they would be Ruined and see all their Kingdoms quickly in Flames That it was an easie matter for the King of France to do it That it would very quickly be effected and be a most laudable Action and would he hoped end in the total subjection of the Three Kingdoms to the French King's Power which he heartily wished for his poor Country's sake so tyrannized over by Hereticks with abundance more of such Stuff but I knew not then he was so deeply concerned as afterward when I found his name for an Undertaker in Portsmouth's Cabal one Father Patrick also who used often to go and come and was wont to conceal his Intriguing under a peculiar appearance was another of the same Cabal with two or three French Men whose Names I have not at present Your Lordship will pardon this imperfect Account and judge favourably of his Endeavours who desires nothing more than to gratifie your Expectation who am My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Jan. 19. 1680 N. S. LETTER XLVIII Of the Private Treaty between King Charles the Second and the French King Anno 1576 My Lord I Have already upon two several occasions observed to Your Lordship how the Duke and Dutchess were drawn into private Correspondences with the French Court which when they had once happily effected and by them and some others already in their Interests whereof I have mentioned soome drawn in many more both Courtiers and others they proceeded being thus so considerably re-inforced to hedge in the King himself and it was high time for they had now a greater Jealousie than ever of the Match with the Prince of Orange tho' he were not yet come over into England to that purpose and so far they did prevail that he did oblige himself to do all he could to observe still a partial Neutrality with them Then they proposed his hindring the Match with the Prince of Orange unless he could be drawn into a separate Treaty with the two Kings and delay at all Matching of the Princesses till a general Peace and to reserve the Eldest for the Dauphin tho' in the mean while they promised the Duke of Bavaria the same advantage for his Daughter the better to keep him in a Neutrality with them during the then War with the Confederates but never intended it with the latter if they could have effected it with our Princess But in that the King told them There might be difficulties insuperable and so could promise them nothing but his Endeavours which by reason the Parliament and People were much out of Humour upon the Duke 's late Match would require much Money because now for him to go about to cross them afresh in obstructing or so much as delaying such a Match the proposal whereof was already so much known to his People and found to be so much desired by them as the only remedy they imagined they had left them against the feared mischief of the other would hinder them perhaps from granting him such Supplies as he might otherwise expect of them unless his Most Christian Majesty obliged himself to supply him with Money enough to need them not or at least to buy Votes and to stop clamorous Mouths but as for that Motion of theirs about committing the Children to the Duke's Care and Tuâ—orage tho' they were seconded in it by the Duke himself with all the importunity imaginable yet he absolutely denied them saying They were his Children or rather the Nation 's and not the Duke's especially now he had Matched so much against the Nation 's liking and that could he have believed the People of England would have taken so much Allarm at that Marriage he should have taken care to have stopped it in time But that having let one Fault pass to admit another much worse was a thing he doubted not but would cause such Earthquakes as he was resolved not to run the risque of therefore should not do it so that Article was wholly laid aside and the Treaty concluded without by which the French King was to pay ours an Annuity of Twelve hundred thousand Crowns whereof Six hundred thousand in hand besides a Donative of a like Sum at the same time for Extraordinaries and if any occasion should happen by crosness of Parliaments Rebellion or otherwise that should reasonably require so much then he was promised to have it augmented to twelve Millions of Livres whilst such Troubles should last tho' this latter part they never intended but gave orders he should be treated only with a Bit now and then as was the Duke his Brother only if a Civil War should happen they were to feed it on both sides till it were fit to pour in French Forces among them c. Yet I have observed during my abode in this Station that there was a Fund of Twenty Millions of Livres designed for our three Kingdoms whereof sometimes they gave largely to the King and Duke his Brother and slenderly to the several Factions only to keep them in heart and sometimes again largely to them and little or none to the King and Duke to make the former Lusty and Mettlesome to kick and keep the others Low that being in a crowing condition they might comply with them Of those Sums there has gone some years Four sometimes Six and sometimes Eight Millions to Scotland and Ireland but to the King and Duke there never went more than than I have mentioned and that but the first Year neither all the rest went to the other Courtiers and to the several Factions who of late have had most of it In this Treaty which was concluded by a private Agent as were the others there was a Clause incerted which gave the King leave if too much press'd upon to pretend as if he would side with the Confederates against France and to get Money of them as also of his Parliament on that account but yet he was by no means to Declare but to get an Army and Revenue settled for some time such as was supposed to be the duration of the War and then to use both the one and the other to settle his Prerogative-Royal and make himself Absolute c. I cannot My Lord without some Reluctancy think of several Passages in this Epistle and particularly that a King who above Twenty Years had had the greatest opportunity of any of his Predecessors to make himself great both at Home and
LORD Your Honours to serve You. Paris Aug. 23. 1679. N. S. LETTER LX. Instructions given to the French Emissaries whereby to manage the Dissenters and Republican Party in England in reference to the Prince of Orange's matching with the Lady Mary My LORD I Have in my last given your Lordship an Account of the French Intrigues in managing the Royal and Church of England Party in respect to the March with the Prince of Orange here follows their Instructions to their Agents with the Dissenters and Republican Party upon the same Head To them they were to use many of the Arguments used to those of Holland of which hereafter and make them believe if they could that if the P. of Orange should come to the Crown of England notwithstanding his Humility now he would fly higher at Absolute Power than any before him or that the present King or his Brother could that under an humble appearance he subtilly hid an aspiring Mind and that having in many things encroached already upon the Power of the States General he would totally oppress them and by that accession of Strength raise his Authority in England to what pitch he pleased and Adieu to all hopes of a Common-wealth there when that of Holland should be subject to his Scepter and Adieu to all expectation of making Presbytery the predominant Religion there for that it was almost incompatible with a moderate Monarchy much less with Absolute Power and that whatever Principles the Prince had been bred in as to Religion though he might like them well enough as a Member of a State with whose Constitutions they perfectly agreed it was not to be doubted that when he came to be a Monarch and so powerful an one too as the United Provinces thrown into the weight of three Crowns would make him but he would like most Princes make his Religion conform to the Model of his Politicks and when he became a Monarch and so great an one too take up Monarchs principles which could be no other than Popish or such as exceed them if possible in malignity viz. Those of the Tantivy Sons of the Church of England none else agreeing with despotick Rule so that whatever hopes they might flatter themselves with from such a Match and the Prince's accession to the Throne they should find themselves so far disappointed as not to have any reason left them to expect as much as a Tolleration in Religion and the Freedom of their Consciences Which with my humble Respects to your Lordship is all I have to Communicate at this time who am in all lowly Observance My LORD Your Honour 's to Command Paris Sept. 5. 1679. N. S. POST-SCRIPT My LORD SInce I had finished my Letter I happening occasionally to run over some of our Minutes I thought fit to sub-join what I meet with there briefly inserted in order to the management of meer Politicians and Adiaphorites in Religion upon the account of the Prince's Match and to them the forementioned Emissaries were to suggest on the contrary that the Prince though he should in time by virtue of the said Match come to be King of England yet that it could not be thought but that still he would continue a Dutch-Man in all his Inclinations sacrifice our Commerce and Interest to those of that Nation yea and perhaps part with the chief Prerogatives of the Crown to make the King of England like a Doge of Venice or Dutch Stadt-holder c. which though sufficiently ridiculous I could not forbear noting to your Lordship who am My LORD Yours c. LETTER LXI The Arguments used in Holland by the French Emissaries to the Lovestein Faction against the Prince of Orange's matching with the Lady Mary c. My LORD IF it was any pleasure to your Lordship to peruse the Accounts I have already given you of the Stratagems of this Court to incite the Church of England and Dissenting Parties against the Match with the Prince of Orange as I am desirous and I hope not unwilling to interpret your silence in that regard to imply it I cannot think it will be less to your Honour's satisfaction to understand how they managed the same Affair in Holland where no less Subtilty and Address was wanting than in England to divert a Match that predicted no good Omen to France as they imagined the Party in that Republick which their Emissaries had Instructions to work upon were the Lovestein Faction to whom nevertheless they were to address themselves very cautiously and covertly and first to insinuate to them and by them to the State-Party That indeed it was true the Illustrious Princes of the House of Nassau had not only been the first Founders but also the great preservers of their Common-wealth and that it could not be denied but that the present Prince of Orange had very much contributed to its late Recovery after it had been brought to the very brink of Destruction and that they were fully convinced that same Family must remain a necessary Bulwark to their Common-wealth so long as their Interests should continue inseperably intwisted with those of the State but if they should be so blinded as to consent or but tacitely give way to any Steps that might alter those of the Prince into any other Channel that same House might in process of time prove the fatal Cadency and Dissolution as it had been the happy Rise and Glory of that flourishing State That the implacability of the Spanish Royal Family against those that have once offended them and their bloody and unjust Proscription of the noble House of Orange had so firmly cemented the Interests of the Princes of that Family with those of the States during the Wars with Spain that there could not possibly any Danger arise to them from that House how much soever they were intrusted with the Authority of the States they being then best secured by the Greatness and Power of that Nay and that after the Peace made between that Republick and the Crown of Spain there could be no Danger from those Princes neither so long as they matched into inferior Princes Families as those of Germany c. which might add Strength but never could Power enough to the Princes of Orange to crush the State or in the least divide from its true Interests But that it might be of the dangerousest Consequence if any of them were suffered to match into the Family of any Crowned Head and especially of any near Neighbour to the Republick for that would be an effectual Means to fill their Heads with aspiring Thoughts and great Designs to Aggrandize themselves and might afford them Power enough to put them in Execution a Temptation too strong for almost any active spirited Prince to resist And therefore such an one as this present Prince ought by no means to be exposed to by any wise States-men whose Interest it was to keep him from it and who had Cunning enough to put him by it That