in practice to this very day so that we are an English-French and they a French-English But if the King of Great Britain will not joyn with nor assist my King yet he must notwithstanding that be Emperour all things tend to it Is not Paris now become like Rome in old time who gave Laws and taught Manners to the whole world As in those days all Nations learned Latin that thereby they might understand the Civilities Laws and Education of the Romans So now Do not all Nations learn French Do not you send all your choice and Noblest-born Princes Gentry and richest Merchants Sons to our Academies in Paris Do not We impose on you all the Modes of France Take but a view of all Christendom and you will find That there 's not so much as a little German Prince but he must have a Frenchman for his Barber Valet de chambre or Lackey and one of these often makes a Governour for the young Prince and a most Excellent Privy Councellour Somtimes I have known a Prince that hath kept himself undrest six days expecting with great impatience his perwiggs and feathers and other gallantries out of France Travel into what parts you please where there is a Court as in Rome and even in Madrid itself there you shall find every Prince and Gentilman hath a Frenchman to teach him how to dress himself yea and how to eat with a bon mein Go no farther than to Amsterdam or more especially to the Hagh where you may observe all to be turn'd perfect Monsieurs and in Amsterdam the old Hollander is so changed that there is scarce such a Creature to be found there is not a rich Merchants daughter there that will admit of a Bezuca much less go to Church to be married untill she hath her Modes Curls for her head her Tower c. from France or at lest buy the same of a French Madam who with the help of a French Dancing-Master set's Mrs. Brides Locks teacheth her the Courant and Coupé and then perswades her She is the most compleat Madam a la mode in the Town giving as an advise that nothing but a French Feile de Chambre can preserve the Dress and bon meyn they have left her in Thus are We French the Fashion-mongers and School of Manners and good breeding for the Universe Besides all this All Europe and Other parts of the world are beholden to us for Invention Our King hath established in Paris 2 Colledges One for a Royal Society of Virtuoso's the Other called Bon Esprit In a word France furnisheth the world with more numbers of Good Writers Fighters and Men Onet bein a juste than all Christendom besides Gentilmen I suppose you know I am a Son of the Church of Rome yet I wish from my very heart that the Dolphine were crowned King of the Romans For my part I wish that old Holy man and all the Fops about him were removed to some other place and so make room for a Brave Emperour such as my King or the Dolphine would make but if he must needs live in Rome let him be content to live in St. Iohn de Lateran as in old time Five hundred pistols a year is more than any honest Bishop in the world ought to spend if he live like a true Shepherd and useth onely his Crosiers Staff Murblew Since the Bishops traversed the sword over the Crosiers Staff in their Arms the Churchmen become Fighters and Executioners of Civil Justice which to my judgement is quite contrary to Sr. Pauls words Let not a Bishop be a striker My Opinion is That if the thirty five Millions of Livres which the Pope and his Idle-pack or lazy Drones devour were employed in the maintaining of a brave army against the Turk it might be better spent You shall see in some few years if my Master be not Emperour that the Turk will make bold to give his Holiness a Visit from Candia And on the contrary if my King be Emperour you will see the Flower-de Luces placed in the room of the 3. Half-Moons If Any think I have been too satyrical touching the Pope and his Cardinals and spoken too irreverently of them sith Some of those Bishops of Rome have been good men as Sixtus Quintus a Gentleman eminent both for learning and Religion the like whereof may be said of that devout man Cardinal Bona lately dead yet living in his highly esteemed works as also that Pope Alexander the VII was a Gentleman c. Yet for all that Know that I handle that sort of men very modestly I could blacken the See of Rome in this Discourse at another rate if I were not a Child of that Church I could tell of severall Popes who lived and died Heathens Some of their bodies having been taken up and burned as is for truth received after their tenents were found in their Closets neither have I painted out the Lives of Some Cardinals in my days those are things so well known by them who live among them that 't is needless here to repeat what 's in every vulgar mouth In short Let me say over again If the Pope and his Crew who possess Rome do continue so to rule and that Italy be thus governed most by the Church then say I the Turk or any Other Neighbour may take the Countrey from them Let it be remembred what my King did at Avignion for their Countrey is half depopulated which is occasioned by 3. things First by making such vast numbers of Eunuchs Secondly by practising the sin of Sodom so much as they do for it is most certainly true that many thousands of Italians perfectly hate the Female Sex Lastly by the innumerable Company of Monasteries and Nunneries in which may be modestly accounted two hundred thousand Nuns the which if lawfully employed in generation-work might produce great numbers of usefull Creatures whereas now on the contrary both Monks Friers and Nuns are forced to make use of all their skil and arts to destroy Gods image by them made in secret and all to hide the scandal of being accounted breakers of the unwarrantable oaths and vows they make to observe their Founders Maximes or Rules of their Order To conclude my Discourse I will onely say this One thing more touching the qualification of My Master to become Emperour rather than any Other King and that is His most Christian Toleration of Liberty of Conscience in all his Dominions and Territories In France you find severall Protestant-Universities and great numbers of Temples and Churches for the Protestant-Worship Consider but what abundance of French-Ministers are sent thence to serve the Protestant-Churches abroad as under that one Government of the States of the United Provinees where may be reckoned about Fiftie French Ministers besides what are in England Germany and other Countreys Our Doctors of the Sorbon are not such Fools as to maintain or nourish an Inquisition No Nor will Our King refuse the good service
oalamità delle quali si può dire che per diversi accidenti habbia dipoi participato una gran parte del mondo par les prodiges qui presageoient cette guerre d'incredibile timore si riempivano i popoli spaventati gia per la Fama della potentia de Francesi c. And indeed King Charles the VIII made himself Master of the Kingdom of Naples in few days by the terrour of his Arms doing it by assault burning the Mount Sr. Iohn passing with his sword through all that was to be found an unheard of Case in those times and he soon lost it again afterwards by his negligence and too little care he had to preserve it But We must not now so flatter ourselvs Their present Monarch know's no less how to conserve than to conquer Provinces If we do but observe the marches of this Imperious Nation on the borders of Germany there we shall see Alsatia turned out of the hands of the Almains and joyned to their Crown a Duke of Lorrain driven out of his own Land 3. Bishops viz. Thoul Metz and Verdun dismember'd from the Empire which He Keeps in continuall divisions and agitations by his Emissaries by his intrigues and by his corruptions Lastly Descending to the Netherlands the Principall Subject of our Discourse It is to be considered in what manner the French have en deavoured to bring them into that miserable Condition wherein we see them at this day and to discover the true cause of their maladies to this end We must have recourse to the reign of Louis the XI King of France who by his subtilty and deceits ruined Charles the Stout Duke of Burgondy and Lord of all the Netherlands stirring him up new Enemies from time to time who at last gathered together before Nancy where he lost his life and his people all their welfare which since that time they never could recover Some years before this Prince who possed Bourgondy all the Netherlands and the Citie Paris being then a Frontier of the Kingdom of France almost whole Picardy did bridle by his intelligence and courage the ambition of this King so full of artifices but because for easing of his people he was not provided with a good and well ordered Militia he came to be surprized by the Other who by his horrible exactions of taxes and laying impositions upon his people was always accompanied and encompassed with a great quantity of armed men the which gave him means and therewith desire to extend his limits in despite of his Neighbours but the matter was well enough ballanced untill the death of Charles the Stout whose death caused to his people an abyss of calamities and miseries seeing Louis the XI at that time kept to himself Bourgondia whole Piccardy Arras and many other considerable places He likewise always amused the English after the death of the said Duke to the end they should not hinder him in the conquests of those Lands Yet by the marriage of Mary of Bourgondy Heyress of the Netherlands with Maximilian of Austria Philip. de Comines Chapit second du 6. Livre as also by the loss of the battel of Guinegate the French could not execute their design to bring under their power the Seventeen Provinces which yet they might very easily have joyned to their Crown The same Author 12. Chap. of the 5. Book by a marriage of their Dauphine with the said Damsel Mary of Bourgondy if the good God had not blinded Louis de XI and taken away his senses and hereby was the way to the Universal Monarchy wonderfully made plain clear for Philip the Fair Son of Maximilian and for Charles the Fifth Then again the Netherlanders took a little breath howbeit They were often incommodated by the invasions of the French who nevertheless found themselvs not in posture to undertake any thing against their Neighbours because of the Parties and leagues which soon after were formed in the bosom of that Kingdom And yet however hindred by so many cruel civil warrs the French quickly recovered again and retook very much vigour by the courage and wise conduct of Henry the Great The Netherlands having been in that intervall always rent by a perpetuall warr in the bowells of their Provinces but all that was not capable of ruining them there was need of the engins of a Cardinal de Richelieu for an absolute abasing of them and reestablishing the French in their ancient splendour and making them after the reduction of Rochel and suppressing those of the Refored Religion to follow on in the footsteps of their glorious Ancestours taking the way of Charlemagne unto the Monarchy to which end they must throw down or debase the greatness of the House of Austria now prodigiously encreased more by Marriages than by Arms which fell out exceeding well He leaving behind him a worthy Successour the Cardinal Mazarin for to atchieve the prosecution of his Designs who would not have missed to emport the Netherlands in case it had not then been prevented by the Queen of France Anna d' Austria who did oblige him to make a marriage between the King Louis XIV and the Infanta of Spain and at the same time to conclude the peace of the Pirenées by which means the rest of the then staggering Netherlands was preserved then were affairs in a tolerable state whereof the good Subjects wished a long continuance and confirmation having begun to tast the sweetness of the Peace When yet in the year 1667 without any denunciation or reasonable cause of war upon a weak cause and pretext of a Custom of Devolution of Fief upon the Children of the First Marriage practised in Brabant and other places in particular houses which had never been confirmed by the Soveraign nor used in Families of Princes the French as an effect of their enterprizing humour invested the best Cities of those Lands the rest whereof cannot maintain themselvs otherwise than by miracles But this deservs a more particular Examination The King Louis XIV having conceived an unchangeable design of reaching hard for the Monarchy of the greatest part of Europe or at lest to limit his Kingdom by the Alpes the Pirenées the Mediterranean Sea the Ocean and the Rhine judging that the Netherlands now in a state of welfare and comliness might serve for a wall of planks for the further propagating of his Conquests Did in the Moneth of May in the year 1667. in time of a full peace without any subject of rupture with Spain and notwithstanding good and positive assuranees of good correspondence and friendship given by his Ambassadour at Madrid march with an Army of 50000 men for to take possession so as they could and not make war of the Netherlands devolved by the death of Philip the IV. King of Spain upon the Queen his Wife and therewith He approached Charleroy which the Spanjards had abandoned because it was not in a State of defence But the
they have now committed within these 2 last Months of Ianuary and February And whereas the Monsieur saith that if his Master were Emperour he would thrust the Grand Seigneur out at a farther distance from Italy and Hungary I believe 't is no hard matter to prove that it is He that hath invited him into Christendom to make diversion whilst he practiseth his designs upon the Emperour and 't is most certain that it was the French alone that widened the breach in Germany between the Emperour and the Princes in the last Civil War The Frenchman is not ashamed to boast of his Kings Actions about Avignion also telling us that there is no use for the Pope sith the Sorbon-Doctors can do all as well but as to the French Kings manner of treating the Pope at Avignion and his rendring the Pope useless let every true Catholick judge how religiously those things look For a Conclusion I shall onely put the Monsieur to a change of his countenance and it may be of his ambition also when I shall advertise him of the great disappointment of his Grand Masters expectations touching his hopes of intestin troubles in Spain the thoughts whereof do now wholly vanish upon the peaceable entrance of that Illustrious Prince Don Iohn into Madrid and the right understanding between the King my Master and him together with his present capacity of relieving Catalonia and perhaps giving a visit to the King of France where he will scarce be welcome From him doubtless I mean that honest heroick Spanjard Don Iohn all men of sober judgements expect both good and great things such as may become the grandour of his person and integrity of his principles Thus have you an account of the Essays made by the Champions of these aspiring Princes Much more of this Kind of polemical Discourse are We in this place bordering on the seat of War daily acquainted with Onely by pride saith Solomon comes contention The unsatiable desire of being great and having much makes all this strife from whence the misery of mankind is grievously aggravated and in particular this part of the world involvd in a present labyrinth of trouble and in danger of a future desolation the State whereof I shall endeavour with all modesty candor and indifferency to present to your view Herein Sr I shall give you the trouble of a short Relation of the Source and Rise of these Affairs and so descend to these last times which you will find to abound with all the abominable and horrid evills that can enter into the mind of Man to imagin Which account of things as a single-hearted Hollander I shall so manage that all passion Satyricall expressions provocations or offensive reflections shall be forborn and all due observance manifested to all Soveraign Potentates Princes and Powers whatsoever In the Beginning of the Fifth Age or Century in the midst of the divisions of Rome Mezeray a French Author in his Abbrev. Chronolog p. 4. they spoke of the French as of a barbarous people perfidious inconstant and full of lies they were enclined to warrs having much wit and understanding which gave them occasion courage and means to overthrow and ruin the Roman Empire in the West and upon those ruins they meant under their Clouis to lay the foundation of a Kingdom that should be formidable to it's Neighbours and that should have drawn along with it the rest of Europe Mezeray pag. 29. under it's dominion Which might haply have been if it had not immediately been weakened by the dividing of it among his Children and Successours Who by their continuall debates so hindred that it did not fall under One Monarchy and by that means conserved the Ballance so necessary for the rest of their Neighbours But this good time endured not longer than unto Charlemagne who having reunited those so formidable forces of the French and subdued the best part of Europe was proclaimed Emperour by the Pope of Rome and became the Arbiter of Christendom But by a secret fatalitie he fell into the same fault which Clouis had committed with his Children Mezeray pag. 157. and distributed this mighty Empire among his Children so making an Eclyps in the Universal Monarchy which the French at this day endeavour with so much zeal to retrieve And indeed the Posterity of Charle Magne have vexed themselvs exceedingly about the reestablishing this grand Empire though hitherto in vain they at the last growing sluggish gave over or however slacked much in that design which gave occasion that One of the Third Race came to be let upon the Throne who reigns at present more vigilant and more active than the Other of those Branches do who yet have never lost their view and prospect of the Monarchy of Clouis and of Charle Magne their Predecessours But upon the advancement of Capet to the Crown the Grandees of the Kingdom thought that He ought to suffer all things from them because they had put on his head the Diadem which he wore whereupon they divided the Kingdom among them and parted it into severall pieces which have not been reunited without great pains and trouble and you must grant it me that none at all saving Lewis the Eleventh was capable of effecting so great a work as the reuniting together of what was squandred abroad in so many Provinces and so to bring his Kingdom into a State not onely to defend himself against his Neighbours but also to Rule over them and to bring again to his Successours the appetite and envy of reestablishing the Monarchy of Charle Magne And this might have had a good issue by King Louis the XIV if he had known how to pursue his victorie in stead of standing amused at Seist near Utrecht in the year 1672. The high attempts of Louis the XI put the following Kings of France again upon the oppression of their people and abasing the greatest Personages under them And the truth is since the English were constrained to abandon the Kingdom of France Mezeray pag. 713. more by their own quarrels and divisions than by the valour of the French their Kingdom hath received a wonderfull encrease and access by the reunion of their best Provinces and their Monarchs have recalled to mind their ancient idea's and apprehensions of the Universal Monarchy and from time to time have ruined their Neighbours by warrs grounded upon their old pretences And to take a little nearer inspection into this affair you most know that when Louis the XI did in the beginning of his Reign take notice that his onely Brother Charles was allied with the Dukes of Burgondy and Britain against him for the publick welfare of the Kingdom He carried smoothly toward them and made semblance as if he would give them contentment but with intention to separatethem and to ruin them one after another which did succeed very well to his mind to the great dammage of the rest of Christendom and
8. chap. of l. 3. of his memorialls in case so many Soveraignties were joyned with that Crown This matter should be wonderfully taken to heart Witness Philip de Comines And there is no doubt but the English people would liberally contribute to that undertaking after their old custom yea were it to carry an Army into France as King Edward did requiring King Louis XI to render him the Kingdom of France that was his own that he might redress the State of the Religion and the Nobles and restore to the people their old Liberties and take off the great charge and vexation under which they groaned Comines chap. 5. of lib. 4. I wonder very much that the like design was not formed two years ago when the Inhabitants of Ghienne and Bretagne stretched out their arms to England for to tast under the conduct of the Duke of York or Monmouth the sweetness of an English Government which they wish for unto this day Do the English want Motives to excite them hereunto I beseech you what shall after such French Conquests become of the English Commerce is not that sufficiently ruined or lamentably decayed already The Hamburgh-trade is upon the matter quite lost as to the English manufactures which in times of peace were sold into Germany Pomerania and other adjacent Countreys and so also is the Dort-trade lost by which the Spanish Netherlands and the parts of Germany which ly that way were wont to be supplyed with English Cloath by reason whereof those English Manufactures as Cloath Serges Bayes c. which formerly gave 50. per piece are now sold for 35. or 37. at the highest which proves so great an evil to England that those Cloathiers which formerly employed 400 persons at work have not now work for 20 persons which hath caused the price of Wool to fall 40. per Cent cheaper than heretofore and the people are forced to steal it out of England and sell it to the French who with the same make Serges and other Stuffs to the dammage and utter loss of the English trade The complaints of this kind are every where heard as also of that palpable cause of this decay in Commerce from the taking roving plundering confiscating of so many English ships by the French within a short time the Value whereof with their Loadings is inaestimable and thereupon the provocations and grievances unsufferable But above all the English ought to cast their eyes upon and provide a remedy for the great strength and encrease of the French Ships which trouble all Navigation at present and what shall they do when they shall come to dispose Deus avertat omen God forbid it of the Navall Forces of Holland and of their riches in the Indies And more particularly is to be considered what shall become of the English Traffick in the Mediterranean Sea There is no Merchant that know's not how absolutely necessary the English Trade is with Spain as also with Smyrna and all those parts to which we must pass through those Mid-land Seas but how can that be maintaind if the French should make a Conquest of Cicilia Naples and Sardinia Let but in spection be made into their proceedings at Messina where besides what they have gained at Land they have now at Sea 25. Galleys and 50. great vessels menof war and a great number of others less but very commodious for transport of Soldiers and provisions they being absolute Masters and Dominators in those Seas whereto gives no small advantage the Commodity of their Ports of Marseilles and Toulon which are not far distant from whence succours and provisions may be sent to refresh them in Messina in less than eight days time and by consequence they may soon be Masters of those Islands and afterwards of the Kingdom of Napels for the Faction of Anjou that is of France is not all extinguished there and then can the French when they will ruin the navigation of the Northern Inhabitants who have there neither Ports nor Galleys which are two things very necessary in those Seas because of the great Calms which in Summer time are often met with there These Considerations with many more call aloud to the English Nation to awaken and help themselvs and us For a Conclusion I propose two particular ways for the further engaging of England to come into our help First that a true and firm Union may be cemented between England and Holland the Expedient of the so much discoursed of Marriage between Our Prince of Orange and Madam Maria daughter of the Duke of York ought to be endeavoured that it may speedily be effected His Highness ought to sollicite it with ardour and passion after the Example of Charles the Stout Duke of Bourgondy and Lord of the Netherlands who married the Sister of King Edward of the House of York for to fortifie himself against King Louis XI who had got advantage against him so much by surprizes and deceits in time of peace Phil. de Comines Chap. XI lib. 3. of his Memor like as our Frenchmen did in the year 1667. for otherwise he would never have don it for the great love he bore to the House of Lancaster whereof he was a near Relation by his Mothers side If therefore so great a Prince that followed rather the incitements of his anger than of reason sacrificed the interest of his House to the publick welfare what shall not Our Illustrious Prince who is so wise and Politique do to attain that design or end so necessarie for the saving of the Netherlands unto the preservation whereof that of England is in separably annexed For in case the French should now become Masters of the Spanish Netherlands will it not follow then that Holland and the other United Provinces shall be constrained at last to take upon them the same yoke and suppose the Hollanders could maintain themselvs with some assistance from England and Germany yet would they not be always the continual Theater and seat of war but rather at last submit themselvs to the great and mighty King of France in hopes to enjoy without fear of any Enemy a perfect tranquility and long continuing Rest A present hearty Conjunction between England and Us therefore is the present needfull to which the foresaid Marriage seems to be a proper medium for the accomplishing whereof the blessing of the Almighty is earnestly implored that he who straitneth and enlargeth Kings Kingsdoms and Common-wealths that limits the Grandees of the Earth putting a hook in their nostrils that maketh warrs to cease on the earth and setteth up the oppressed and the lowly will if it may stand with his good pleasure make this marriage of our great Prince with that Illustrious Princess Mary to become successfull for those righteous and happy ends that not onely by this great knot the hearts of those two Grand personages may be more united but also that the Two Nations may concur and conspire with more harmonie courage and activitie to procure a good peace for the rest and tranquilitie of Christendom and particularly of England and the Netherlands a peace I mean not coloured over nor plaistered and such as the French when the Allies shall be disarmed and separated shall presently break and so again surprize the Netherlands who indeed ought to be always in posture of defence and who when the ballance shall be kept equall in Europe ought to serve for a bank and barr against the inundations and attempts of this unquiet and imperious Nation Secondly As to a sure Asylum under our Almighty Protector We would address to the Renowned Parliament of England now beginning their Session Upon them are at present the eyes of all the Considerable and Considering Parties of Europe Ill men are jealous and conceive fears concerning them Good men hope for great advantages from their grave and wise Councels The loud clamours of the innumerable injuries don by the French to the honest Subjects of England in their Commerce more ways than one to their inestimable dammage we know have reached their ears and the sad state of these Lands with all the present evils and future dangers I have mention'd in this Letter cannot be unknown to them the Sympathy of their affections with our miseries and the identity of their Cause with Ours will we hope effect so much that Their Wisdoms will propose vote direct order and conclude of such ways and means whereby the sober Inhabitants and particularly the Trading Party of England may with Us be extricated out of this Labyrinth in which we are bewilder'd that at last we may arrive at such a state of just freedom and safety as may excite us with them to render to the God of wonders hearty praise and thanksgiving for his wonderfull deliverances and preservations for which you have the concurrent Vote of Sr Yours c.