occasion some disorder published next day an Order under the pain of corporal punishment That no body should say or do any thing to any person whatsoever whatever Ecclesiastical habit they should see them wear But Don Pedro de Ronquillo thought it not fit that that Jesuit should appear any more abroad in that manner The Nuncio himself left two Capucins of his houshold at Cleves and suffered them not to come until he was assured that they should enjoy a full liberty Don Paolo Spinola Doria Marquess de los Balbases first Ambassador of Spain arrived at Nimueguen the 4th of June and seeing he came from Germany he took passage down the Rhine as the Nuncio had done That Ambassador is a Genoese a Grandee of Spain and Grandchild to the great Spinola he hath been General of the Cavalry of Milain and since Governour of that State for a time He came from the Extraordinary Embassy of Vienna where he had continued seven years He is a tall lean man most civil and well bred and married the Sister of the Constable of Colonna Their eldest daughter is married to one Spinola Duke of St. Peter one of the richest Gentlemen in Italy and who lived at Nimueguen until the conclusion of the Treaty This Ambassador had another Daughter with him married by Proxy to the Marquess Quintana Son to the President of Castile He had likewise an only Son ten years old who was called Duke of Sesto This great Family made a very numerous Train yet among so many servants there were not above five or six native Spaniards When the French Ambassadors came to Nimueguen finding that the Catholicks though under the Diocess of the Bishop of Ruremond followed the old stile according to the practice of Guelderland they resolved likewise to conform to it The Catholicks of the Countrey have a dispensation so to do to the end they may celebrate Easter and the chief Festivals of the year at the same time the Protestants do and not appear singular in a Countrey where they are with much pain and difficulty suffered The French Ambassadors followed the same stile that they might not seeem to make a kind of Schism betwixt themselves and the Catholicks of the Town and that their Chappel where five or six Masses were said a day might serve for the devotion of the Catholick people The Imperial and Spanish Ambassadors did not at first conform to that stile but the Nuncio resolved at Cologn to follow it and even kept the Rogations at Nimueguen according to that custom Nevertheless next day about ten of the clock at night he sent to acquaint the French Ambassadors That he was to observe the New Stile according to which the next day was the Vigil of Pentecost The Ambassadors sent the Nuncio back word That having taken the Old Stile upon very pressing considerations and particularly that they might conform themselves to the Orders of the Bishop to whom the Catholicks of the place were subject they could not leave it off The Nuncio made answer That it was not his intention to oblige any body and that what he did concerned only his own Family Nevertheless he altered his opinion eight days after The Imperial and Spanish Ambassadors and all the Ministers of the Catholick Princes followed the example of the French Ambassadors and all the Chappels observed only one stile At that time the Nuncio rendered his visits of ceremony to the Imperial and French Ambassadors on one and the same day The French met at the house of the Marshal D' Estrades to receive him resting satisfied with that single visit instead of having each of them one as the Nuncio offer'd though he afterward saw them severally His Train made a great show he had three Coaches with six horses and many servants in Livery cloathed after the Roman fashion with hanging sleeves some laced all over and others of Velvet with long cloaks But all the other Ambassadors had their Equipage after the French Mode My Lord Barclay having at that time obtained leave to return to England by reason of his age and indisposition parted from Nimueguen the fifth of June The truth is the Negotiation was at such a stand that there was no discourse of any affairs then and both Mediators and Ambassadors had time to play At the same time news came from England that the Parliament being assembled the fourth of June had made a pressing Address to his Majesty of Great Britain to incline him to make a League offensive and defensive with the States of the Vnited Provinces for opposing the progress of the French Conquests The King was displeased at this Address and made them answer That it did invade so essential a Prerogative of the Crown that the like had never been done but during the Civil Wars That it did not belong to the Parliament to prescribe to him what kind of Leagues and far less with whom he should make them That it seemed rather that he should engage in it by their permission than at their sollicitation That foreign Princes might have cause to doubt whether the Soveraignty was in his person and refuse to treat for the future with a King that had only the bare name In a word that he could not suffer that prerogative to be invaded which no consideration should ever make him to renounce seeing it was the foundation of the Crown and Government And hereupon he dismissed the Parliament without having obtained from them the Supplies he demanded for procuring the satisfaction and safety of his subjects June the 23. the Marquess de los Balbases who desired to begin to appear in publick sent on his own and Colleagues parts to compliment all the Ambassadors of the Princes but the French received and rendered them the first of all The substance of the compliment that was made to every Ambassador in particular by a Gentleman accompanied with two others was That the Ambassadors of Spain upon their arrival at Nimueguen sent to salute their Excellencies to testifie the joy they had to find themselves in so illustrious an Assembly and to have occasion of treating with persons of so known worth as their Excellencies were and that his Master impatiently expected that his Colleagues were in a condition to be treated according to their character that he might come in person to testifie his joy to their Excellencies The Marquess de los Balbases gave thereby to understand that Don Pedro de Ronquillo and Mr. Christin had not as yet the quality of Ambassadors but it was known that the Court of Spain had sent to the Duke de Villa Hermosa Plenary Commissions in divers forms and left to the Marquess his disposal the characters that he pleased to give them but he being no Native Spaniard and being to treat about an affair of so great importance for Spain which he well foresaw would not prove advantageous for that Crown it was his interest as well as the dignity of his Embassy that the
means they made use of at Nimueguen to break off the peace with Spain was to get the Mediators to propose a Truce for six months during which they hoped that the differences of all the Princes who were engaged in the War might be happily ended But hitherto their opinions as to that were quite different seeing they had refused all the Truces that had been proposed to them In the mean time the Northern Confederates made great preparatives for putting in execution a new enterprise which they designed upon the Isle of Rugen Matters were in such a state that the decision of one difficulty seemed to be the necessary cause of another and that so great an affair as Peace could not be brought forth without great stratagems The seventh and eighth were spent in the Heer Bevernings frequent coming and going to demand of the French Ambassadors the clearing of several doubts which the Spaniards raised to all the Articles of the Treaty saying that they had secret notices which being but confused rendered them scrupulous and distrustful upon the smallest appearances In fine they demanded an explication concerning the Chattelleny of Aith which was the ground of a difficulty of little less consequence than that of Bonvignes and Beaumont Since that Chattelleny was yeilded to the French King by the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle his Majesty dismembred several Villages from it and adjected them to the government of Tournay and in that state the King pretended to deliver back this Chattelleny but whether the Spaniards thought fit of themselves to demand that explication or that they were put upon it by others they desired a particular clause concerning that to be put into the Treaty and upon the refusal of the French Ambabassadors they framed a Memoir which they gave to the States-General They said that the dismembring of the Chattelleny of Aith made by the French King absorped the chief part thereof that no less lay at stake than seventy Villages and the City of Leuze which is but a league and a half distant from Aith That since his most Christian Majesty had in the conditions made no reservation of the dependencies of that Chattelleny as he had of Verge and Memin depending on Courtray the French Ambassadors by refusing the clause demanded shewed but a captious fetch that they might restore to Spain but a part of so considerable a Chattelleny The French were in great pain to know what could have given the Spaniards ground at that time to make that reflection upon the dismembring of the Chattelleny of Aith and to think that the design of the French was to make their advantage of the omission that might have been made thereof in the Treaty The truth is the Spaniards would have had no ground of complaining if Aith and its Chattelleny should have been restored to them in the condition that it has been so long in They could not imagine what was the reason of this new emergent but it was obvious that the Prince de Lignes who has a great Estate in the dismembred part of that Chattelleny having sent a Secretary to Nimueguen upon the account that it concerned him to have his Lands return again to the Spanish Dominion had without doubt given the Spaniards information of that affair and of the necessity of inserting a clause concerning it in the Treaty The Heer Beverning acted not in that affair with the same zeal as he had formerly made appear The distasts he had received the last time that he had been at the Hague made him proceed much more slowly than his usual application did allow for after all the pains he had taken to end a War which the Vnited Provinces could no longer support he little expected to have his conduct blamed Nevertheless they endeavoured to let him see that there were several faults and considerable omissions in the Treaty which he had signed The five principal were these First that in the Preface the French King seemed to be the Protector of the States-General though it contain no term but what is conform to his Majesties Letters and the answers of the States Secondly That the Neutrality to which the States-General were engaged by that Treaty was indefinite and by consequent might be extended beyond the present War Thirdly That the Heer Beverning had exceeded his commission in having obliged the States to warrant the Neutrality of Spain Fourthly That he had omitted an Article of Amnistie and Oblivion which ought mutually to be stipulated in all treatties of Peace And Lastly That he had forgot to mention the Barriere which the French King granted to Spain in consideration and for the security of the States General Though most of those faults were more grounded on the discontent of those who regretted the conclusion of the Peace than on any important or dangerous consequence yet the French King was willing to satisfie the States General in any thing that might farther concern them And seeing the indefinite term of their Neutralitie and the warranting of that into which Spain was to enter were the points that appeared to be of greatest importance the explication thereof which the French Ambassadors gave to the Dutch according to the desire of the States was approved and ratified by his Majesty at Fontainblean the 5th of September in the same manner as if it had been inserted in the Treaty The French Ambassadors understood by the Letters which Courier brought them on the 9th that the Court was perswaded that there would be greater difficulty in concluding the Treaty with Spain than had been at first imagined and that was partly the cause why the French King gave Orders to the Count d' Avaux to go with all diligence to the Hague where his Majesty judged his presence necessary But seeing affairs appeared then to be in a better state at Nimueguen than was believed at Court that Ambassador departed not However another Courier having on the 10th brought a compromise from the King whereby his Majesty referred to the States-General the decision of all the differences that retarded the conclusion of the Peace with Spain The Count d' Avaux arrived on the 11th at the Hague where it was not difficult for him to observe that there were many there fully inclined to introduce if they could some change in the State whereinto the signing of the Peace had put the affairs of the Vnited Provinces Nevertheless it was already known that all the Provinces had consented to the ratification of the Peace some absolutely and others upon conditions which they submitted to the determination of the States insomuch that before the end of six weeks the Ratifications might be exchanged if no difficulties stopt the conclusion of the Peace with Spain In the mean time the English forces that in so great number came over into the Low-countreys bred great umbrages in Holland the people could not tell what need there was of an Assistance that came not till the peace was concluded And seeing
were not in such readiness as they were made believe so that one in Charleville foretold the Count D' Avaux That his stay in that Town should be as long as that of the late Count D' Avaux his Uncle who had waited there four months for his Passports when he went to Munster in the character of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary for the French King for the Treaty of the General Peace that was afterward concluded there The Ambassadors after two months stay perceiving that the difficulties which were started sometimes about the reciprocal liberty of sending messengers from Nimueguen upon their own single Passports and sometimes about the quality of Prince Charles who demanded of the French King the Titles of Brother and Duke of Lorrain might still detain them long at Charleville they resolved to cause their Goods which were already Embarqued to be brought ashore again and to wait for their Passports in that Town which came at length on the fourth of June bearing date the last of December in the foregoing year with an order of Court immediately to set forward accordingly they Embarked on the seventh of June The sickness of the Duke of Vitry still continued and was thought desperate which obliged the King to nominate in his place the Mareschal d' Estrade who was visited by his Colleagues in their passage at Maestricht and having staid there only a day on Sunday the 13 of June about one of the Clock aftâ—â—â—â—n they came to Moock two Leagues from Nimueguen where having instantly put ashore their Coaches and most part of their Equipage they set forward and came to Nimueguen about five of the Clock at night Though the French Ambassadors were incognito and without Train having left almost all their servants in the Boats with the rest of their Goods which did not arrive till next day yet it may be said that they made a publick entry by reason of the great concourse of people who out of curiosity and impatience to see the so much wisht-for Ambassadors flocked out of the Town upon the Ramparts into the streets and windows The vast number of Waggons laden with packs of Goods that came after and filled the whole street from the gate of the Town to the Ambassadors houses gave ground of admiration to that people who had never seen the like before The people seeing this and being perswaded of the grandeur of France believed that the Ambassadors had brought with them things of vast value and richness so that their houses were presently filled with those of the Town that crouded thither to see them and they were not only looked upon as sure pledges of Peace but also as a probable cause of the wealth of the Town All the people being falsly perswaded that the French were only to be blamed for the delay of the Treaty but now seeing they were come they concluded that in a short time Nimueguen was to be the Theater on which the greatness and magnificence of Europe was to appear Nevertheless matters advanced not so fast as people had imagined for as yet there were none at Nimueguen but Sir Lionel Jenkins one of the three Plenipotentiary Mediators from England and the Heer 's Beverning and Haren Ambassadors Plenipotentiary from the States General of the Vnited Provinces The French Ambassadors sent immedialy to acquaint my Lord Ambassador Jenkins with their arrival who rendered them the Complement and gave them next day a visit in a Coach with six Horses The Dutch Ambassadors did the like and the French rendered the Visits so soon as their Train and Equipage were in a condition to appear abroad The Mareshal d' Estrades had orders with all expedition to part from Maestricht and though his Train and Equipage were not as yet in readiness yet he arrived at Nimueguen the 28 of June whither Sir William Temple another of the Mediators from England came shortly after with my Lady Gifford his Sister my Lady Temple not coming till two months after My Lord Ambassador Temple is a person of much learning singular in his ways and opinions Some judged him partial in the Mediation and somewhat unequal in his humour he is nevertheless a person of great abilities and well acquainted with the Republican principles as appears by the remarks he hath written upon the State of the Vnited Provinces His Colleague Sir Lionel Jenkins is a civil well-bred Gentleman of great integrity and firm to his Religion a person endued with much knowledg who always shewed himself to be good Mediator These Ambassadors had aâ— 100 l. sterling a week besides an hundred and fifty pounds given them for providing their Equipage with Furniture for the Chamber of Audience and a service of the Royal Plate according to the custom of England The report that came abroad at that time that the Prince of Orange intended to besiege Maestricht seemed as unprobable as the enterprize was dangerous notwithstanding the Hollanders flattered themselves with the hopes of carrying that place in a fortnights time and it seemed they only waited for the departure of the Mareshal d' Estrades that they might accomplish their designs but the conclusion of that siege was much to the advantage of the French who that year succeeded in every thing almost that they undertook either by Sea or Land The King in four days took Condâ— and on the 25 of April obliged it to render on discretion After five days siege the Duke of Orleans carried Bouchain on the 12 of May in sight of the strongest Army that the Confederates ever had in the Low-Countries under the command of the Prince of Orange who thought it not fit to hazard a Battel with the Kings Army that lay within Canon-shot of him Aire on the last of July suffered the same fate The King laid the design and the Marquess of Louvois in the command of the Mareshal d' Humieres put it in execution The Fort of Linck was taken the 9th of August The Mareshal Duke of Vivonne was very successful in his Fights on the Sicilian Seas and in the Port of Palermo bâ—rnt part of the Spanish and Dutch Fleet. The death of de Ruyter that happened a little before by a great shot that he received on board his own Ship in an engagement against the French was an irreparable loss to the Dutch who never had an Admiral of so much merit and reputation In the mean while it was easie to be judged by what began to appear that if the Prince of Orange had taken Maestricht there was no hopes of finding the Dutch any ways inclinable to accommodation but an event so contrary to their expectation and the ruin of a great part of their Army of which most of the residue was seen to march by Nimueguen dejected them extreamly and made them think of other measures The first thing that began to be talked of was the Neutrality of the Country about Nimueguen The Mediators at the solicitation of the Dutch desired that the
Confederates And by three different Articles Spain demanded the same thing of Sueden France said That the King being contrary to Justice and the obligation of the Treaty of Aix la Chapel attacqued by the Catholick King his Majesty had reason to pretend that in respect of that Crown all things should remain in the condition that the fortune of War had put them into without prejudice to his Majesties Rights which were to continue still in full force and power The Danes pretended that France should give them compleat satisfaction and reimburse all the charges of the War and by four Articles they demanded of the Suedes that betwixt the two Kingdoms and two Kings all things should be restored into the same condition as they were before the War that was ended by the Treaties of Westphalia and that the Treaties of Rochilde and Copenhagen should be abolished and that all the Provinces which had been dismembred from Denmark and Norway should be restored to the Danes that all that the Suedes possest in the Empire should be taken from them that Wismar and the Isle of Rugen should remain in possession of the Danes and that for the security of his Danish Majesty and Kingdoms they might put Garisons in all the strong places of Sueden that lye upon the frontiers of the two Kingdoms The propositions of France in reference to the Danes were That seeing the King had not declared War against the King of Denmark but he runs contrary to the Treaty of Copenhagen made in the year 1660. for performance whereof the King was Guarantee the King of Denmark had attacqued Sueden His most Christian Majesty was ready to desist from hostility on his part provided that the aforesaid Treaties and those of Westphalia were re-established In respect of France and Sueden the States General demanded That Maestricht Dalen Fangumont and all the dependencies of Maestricht should be restored to them That they were willing for the publick peace to sacrifice the inestimable losses whereof they might pretend reparation and that for avoiding all differences for the future the Treaty might contain a general and particular renuntiation of all sorts of pretensions There were afterward sixteen Articles concerning the full satisfaction to be made to the Prince of Orange in regard of what depended on the Crown of France and particularly the restauration of the fortifications of Orange that were ruined in the year 1660. and of the Castle demolished in the year 1663. the rights of Toll upon Salt and other Commodities as well upon the Rone as through the Principality of Orange the rights of Coyning of money of Laick Patronage for nomination to the Bishoprick the exemptions priviledges and other Immunities granted to the inhabitants of that Principality by the Kings his Majesties Predecessors and particularly by Lewis XIII The Estates General demanded nothing of Sueden but that the future Treaty might contain some regulations for obviating the frequent inconveniences that happened concerning Commerce France proposed to the States General That seeing the Union that hath always been betwixt the Crown of France and the States was only interrupted upon account of some causes of discontent which were easie at present to be removed and to be prevented for the future His Majesty was willing to restore the States General to his former amity and to hearken favourably to all propositions that might be made to him on their part even concerning a Treaty of Commerce And as to the propositions made for the re-establishment of the Prince of Orange the French Ambassadors made an answer to them but upon occasion opposed the pretensions of the Count D' Auvergne demanding that his Marquisate and Town of Bergen-op-zoom might be restored to all the rights of Soveraignty which the other Towns of Holland enjoyed conform to the Treaties of Pacification of Ghent The Elector of Brandenburgh demanded that France should make reparation for the damages that his Territories had sustained by the French Forces during the course of this War that all security should be given him for the future for the same Territories and that all his Allies should be comprehended in a general Treaty France made no propositions to the Elector of Brandenbourg besides those that were made to the Emperor and Empire which comprehended the full performance of the Treaties of Westphalia In all the propositions that the Suedes made to the Emperor the Kings of Spain and Denmark the States General and to the Elector of Brandenbourg they demanded of the one but the renovation of their former amity and good correspondence and of the others the execution of the Treaties of Westphalia and Copenhagen which contained the restitution of all that had been taken from that Crown Prince Charles of Lorrain to whom thâ— French King had granted the title of Duke with a general protestation made to the Mediators that the titles taken or given should be without prejudice caused his propositions to be made by which he said That as heir to his Predecessors he hoped from the Justice of the King that he would restore to him his Dutchies of Lorrain and Bar with their dependencies his titles records movables and effects taken from him and make reparation for the Towns Burroughs Castles and Villages that were ruined throughout all his Dominions But seeing the Ministers of the Confederates would not admit of the Sieur Duker the Envoy of the Bishop of Strasbourg whom the French King reckoned among the Confederate Princes the French Ambassadors made no propositions concerning Lorrain nor shewed any Plenary Commission for treating about the Interests of that Prince though much urged to it by the Confederates that by this means they might oblige the Imperialists to own the Minister of the Bishop of Strasbourg On the other side the propositions of the Duke of Holstein Gottorp which the Sieurs Vlkens and Wetterkop that Princes Envoys had put into the hands of the Mediators lay there without answer or being interchanged because the Danish Ambassador hindred the Minister of that Prince from being admitted as being an Ally of Sueden and protected by France and upon that account dispossessed of his Territories by the King of Denmark The Propositions of the Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenbourg were not made publick because the Ministers of those Princes kept incognito pretending to the character and rank of Ambassadors yea and these Princes wrote to the King of England for obtaining the effect of their Pretensions but what instance soever they made during the whole course of the Negotiation no Crowned head yielded to their demand I have here but inserted the substance of the first propositions of Peace yet thereby may be seen how unreasonable the demands of Spain and Denmark were seeing that not only the Mediators but even the Ambassadors of the States General thought them exorbitant The sixth of this Month Monsieur Stratman gave the French Ambassadors notice of his arrival who at the same time sent each of them a Secretary to make him
been more inclined to peace than any other not only because it suffered more by the interruption of commerce but also because it hath been more tender of its liberty having Magistrates disinterested and zealous for the Commonwealth Rotterdam had its advantage by the continuation of the War because there being but little or no Trade at that time in Holland but what came by means of the English all was brought to that Port as to the center of the Province and the most convenient place for them Nevertheless one of the most considerable Magistrates of Rotterdam so powerfully assisted those that were well affected towards the Peace that they gained almost all the voices of Holland The rest of the Provinces have found it always to be so much their interest to follow the example of that Province in matters of greatest importance that they still acknowledg that they owe their last preservation to its prudent conduct The Provinces of Guelderland Vtricht and Overyssel in which the Prince of Orange has acquired a great authority since the French King forsook his Conquests there durst not openly declare for peace because it evidently appeared to be contrary to the interests of that Prince but they referred themselves to what Holland should think fit to be done concerning that great affair The effect of all these Declarations was That the Hier Beverning received orders from the States-General secretly to acquaint the French Ambassadors that they accepted the conditions which that King was pleased to grant to them This Ambassador that he might act according to the intention of his Superiors who would not allarm their Allies gave the Count d' Avaux notice that he earnestly desired to discourse with him in private and that for that end he would fetch a walk alone upon the Rampart of the Town about seven a Clock in the morning because at that time no body would be there The Count d' Avaux failed not to be there and had an hours conference with him after which he gave his Colleagues an account of the result of that discourse which gave occasion to the Dispatches whereby the King was informed of the good disposition of the States General in consideration whereof his Majesty granted them ten days longer than the tenth of May as they had desired that during that time they might endeavour to perswade their Allies to accept of the conditions proposed as themselves had done The Marquess of Fuentes arrived at Nimueguen the sixth of May he is Son to the Ambassador of the same name who was in France after the Kings Marriage he came from Venice where he had resided Ambassador thirteen years and the Court of Spain called him thence that they might employ him in England but it was believed that the nature of those important affairs which were then treating at London was the cause why the Duke of Villa Hermosa detained him at Brussels that he might send him to Nimueguen there to fill the place of second Ambassador The Peace began to be so certain in Holland that the joy of the people appeared in all places who at the Hague expressed the same by shouting God save the States-General and the Prince of Orange the Peace is concluded It was not so at Nimueguen where the Confederates were troubled because they saw the effect which the conditions offered by the French King were like to produce They declared to the Mediators That it was impossible an affair of so great importance as that of the Peace could be resolved and concluded in so short a time as the French King had prefixed On the 20 of May a Courier brought to Nimueguen a copy of the Letter which the French King wrote to the States-General from the Camp at St. Denis The 18th the King acquainted them that with pleasure he was informed that they had sentiments conform to the sincere desire which he had of contributing all that could conduce to the establishing of Peace whilst he enjoyed the advantages that his Arms had procured to him and which he might still expect in the sequel of the War By the same Letter the King granted to the States-General the seventh Article of the Treaty of Commerce about which the Ambassadors had not agreed at Nimueguen and that he might fully remove the apprehensions they were in of the loss of Flanders his Majesty promised That so soon as by a Treaty concluded upon the conditions proposed they should return to his ancient Alliance and oblige themselves to be Neutral during the course of the War he would still in consideration of them grant the same conditions to Spain and that in the mean time he should not attack any place in the Low-countries but that he should always be ready to grant them that Barriere which they judged so necessary for their repose That if they thought fit to send Deputies unto him they should find him in the Neighbourhood of Ghent until the twenty-seventh of that Month. So soon as that Letter came to Nimueguen the Count d' Avaux went with two Coaches and all his Retinue to give the Dutch Ambassadors notice of the same The noise of this Letter and that publick visit which much rejoiced the people gave an alarm to the Ministers of the Confederates Every one of them dispatched Couriers the same day clearly perceiving that the conduct of the French would infallibly produce the effect which his Majesty expected from the States-General This beginning of Negotiation gave so large a subject to the conferences of the Confederates that the meetings which for a long time they had held were at that time doubled That Letter of the French Kings was the same day brought to the States-General by a Trumpeter whom his Majesty sent to the Hague and was there received with all the demonstrations of joy The States after four days consultation on the 25th sent their Answer by one of their Trumpeters whom the Kings Trumpeter conducted to the Camp They expressed in few words the profound respect wherewith they had received the Letter which his Majesty had done them the honour to write to them and testified the exceeding joy which they conceived from the sincere desire that his Majesty had of contributing to the peace of Europe humbly beseeching him to give credit to the Hier Beverning their Extraordinary Ambassador whom they would send to his Majesty to inform him how desirous they were of giving him fresh assurances of their sincere intentions for the Peace The Dutch Ambassadors having on the 26th received a copy of the answer of the States-General gave it to the French Ambassadors who sent it to the King by the same Courier who brought the copy of his Majesties Letter to Nimueguen his Majesty was well satisfied to find therein that the States-General fully corresponded with the inclination that he had for the Peace At the same time the Heer Beverning received orders to go within a few days and wait upon the King that he might be more
particularly informed of his Majesties intentions That Ambassador would willingly have excused himself but the States Order being renewed on the 29th he set out from Nimueguen in Laid-coaches The reluctancy of the Heer Beverning was attributed to the fear he had of disobliging the Prince of Orange whose Interests did not admit of the Peace till that time this Ambassador was reputed a very good Republican but afterward he was thought wedded to the concerns of the Prince of Orange though it could not be affirmed whether fear or inclination were the cause of that engagement He is a man of a penetrating wit who knows what is good and always pursues it by just means He is assiduous and painful and hath been employed by the States in many Embassies and in all the Treaties that have been made since the year 1650 but he loves retirement and it was not without trouble that he left his Country-house near Leyden to come to Nimueguen The Heer Haren his Colleague is a Gentleman of Friesland of much credit in that Province and addicted to the interests of the Prince of Nassan Governour and Hereditary State-holder of the Provinces of Friesland and Groninguen The Heer Beverning arrived on the 30th at Antwerp and there found a Trumpeter who stayed for him to conduct him to the French Camp where having seen Monsieur de Pompone he had Audience of his Most Christian Majesty He found him so sincere in his intentions towards the Peace and so favourably inclined towards the States-General that on the first of June he left the Camp but in the account that he gave his Superiors of his Negotiation he told them that he found the French King as well informed of the condition of his enemies and of the places that he might attack as he was of his own affairs About the same time the Marquess de la Fuente gave notice of his arrival to the French Ambassadors but seeing he had already visited those of the Emperour in publick without giving the same declaration that his Colleagues had given to the Mediators to whom all the Ambassadors gave the precedency the French Ambassadors ordered a Gentleman to tell the person that came from him that they could not see him unless he first performed what was due to the English as Mediators By that the French Ambassadors obliged Ambassador Jenkins to whom they had given their promise constantly to maintain the honour of the Mediation It was alledged that it was to no purpose for the Marquess de la Fuente to give that particular declaration since that instead of one which might suffice for the three Ambassadors of Spain they had already given two But the French Ambassadors maintained that for the same reason they ought to have a third and that no consideration should hinder the Marquess de la Fuente from following the example of his Colleagues in that matter that on the contrary they had great cause to wonder that by such a refusal he would in some measure seem to condemn their conduct so that for want of that declaration the French Ambassadors saw not the Marquess de la Fuente during the whole course of the Treaty unless at the meetings of the Ladies where he used to come as the other Ambassadors did The news from England were at that time very tumultuary they advised that the King of Great Britain had Prorogued the Parliament to the third of June promising at that time to give them good news of the Peace Seeing a Prorogation of it self cuts off all that hath been proposed and treated in preceding Sessions without being concluded and confirmed this Prorogation put a stop to some pert Addresses which the House of Commons had made to his Majesty of Great Britain such as that whereby they desired the King would declare who they were that had counselled his Majesty to give the answers which he made in the mouth of May the year before and in the Month of January of the present June 1678 The Marquess de la Fuente who had not as yet communicated his plenary Commission caused on the first of June a copy thereof to be given which was collationed by the Nuncio's Auditor The French Ambassadors found it not to be in the form that it ought to be because all the four Ambassadors of Spain being named therein and being Posteriour in date to that of the three Ambassadors who were approved it seemed that by that means the Spaniards might disown when they should please all that they had done till then since that that new plenary commission might annul the former And therefore the French Ambassadors refused to accept of it and pretended that the Marquess de la Fuente should have one apart or that this last should be of the same date with the former without which they declared that they would not acknowledg him for an Ambassador In the mean time they were in great impatience at Nimueguen to know what had been the success of the deputation of the Heer Beverning who to the trouble of the Confederates went from thence to the French Camp not doubting but that all these proceedings would at length terminate in a Peace with the Dutch They thought it a matter of so much importance to divert that blow that for that end they set all engines at work but on the fourth of June a Courier from the Camp brought the French Ambassadors a copy of the answer which that King had made to the Letter of the States-General and another of the Memoir that his Majesty had caused to be given to the Heer Beverning The King by that Letter testified the pleasure which he had to see the States-General in a disposition towards Peace that his Majesty was willing to condescend to several things in favour of their Allies and how joyful he would be by restoring to them his ancient amity to enter with them into such engagements as might for ever secure their repose and liberty It can hardly be believed what good effect the word Liberty produced in the minds of the Dutch that word was so agreeable to them and so sensibly affected them that in all the impressions that have been made of that Letter in Holland the word Repose is left out to make that of Liberty sound the louder They talked publickly that whatever secret or publick enemy they might have for the future they would not fear the loss of their Liberty in which the present War had made so great a breach By the Memoir given to the Heer Beverning the French King at the desire of the States-General granted a Truce for six weeks to begin the first of the ensuing Month which extended that Truce until the fifteenth of August to the end that the States might have all the time they wished for to perswade their Allies to consent to the Peace in consideration whereof the States should promise not to assist them in any manner during the whole course of that War if they would
not incline them to embrace the conditions offered by the King it being unjust that his Majesty in the condition that his forces were in should lose the occasions of action and should engage himself of new as he had already done by the Letter of the 18th of the foregoing Month. But to evidence the sincerity of his intentions his Majesty at the same time gave orders to the Mareshal of Luxembourg General of his Army not to attack any place during all that time and to stay for the answer of the States in the Neighbourhood of Brussels The good disposition that the King of England seemed to be in at that time contributed much to the advancement of the Peace The Heer Beverning who came to the Camp from London brought word that the King of England approved all the proceedings that the Dutch had made towards the Peace And by the Harangue that his Majesty of Great Britain made to the Parliament the third of June he declared that none were to be blamed but the House of Commons if he could not engage in the War And the Chancellor told the whole Parliament that their manner of acting could not but provoke a powerful Prince who might resent it and for that reason that they ought to strengthen themselves at home and abroad for their own security against all kind of attempts In the mean time the Confederates set all Engines at work to incline the King of England to favour their interests The Marquess of Borgomanero Envoy Extraordinary from Spain at that Court on the fifth of June represented to his Majesty of Great Britain how necessary it was that he should send his Fleet and Army towards the Low-countries for a curb to the common enemy and a Guard to all Christendom against the oppression and ruin wherewith it was threatned by the most Christian King and how advantageous it would be for his Majesty to make a League offensive and defensive with the Catholick King his Master and the Emperour who would prove his constant Allies in all the concerns of the common cause The Ambassadors of the Confederates held long and frequent conferences at Nimueguen but they found it difficult to agree upon the answer that they were to give upon the communication which the Ambassadors of the States-General had made to them of the Memoir that the French King had given to the Heer Beverning and whereupon the Ambassadors urged their resolution that they might take their measures accordingly at length all of them gave their Answers in their Conference of the tenth The Imperial Ambassadors gave it in Latin and very long but the purport of all was that they expected from the candour and equity of the States-General that they would do nothing to the prejudice of the Emperour the Empire and all the Confederates who were only engaged in the present War for the preservation of the Vnited-Provinces which the States themselves knew sufficiently without being put in mind of it That they had to do with an enemy whose design was only to divide the Confederates that he might the more easily surprize them all That if there was an absolute necessity that they must make Peace the Emperour offered to concur with them in it upon fair and honest conditions but that they would not take such precipitate resolutions as were demanded by the enemy That they well perceived the design was only to throw them upon a precipice since they were not so much as allowed to treat of those matters without the decision of which no Peace could ever be had That they intreated them not to be over-hasty That the general Peace was ruined if France perceived that the States-General had a design to treat separately assuring them that when the Emperour should make Peace he would not be less careful of the needs of the Vnited Provinces and Low-countries than he had been zealous in undertaking and maintaining the War for their defence The Ambassador of Denmark made answer on the same subject That he believed that the States-General would never do any thing to the disadvantage of his Danish Majesty who had exposed his person and spent his revenues to comply with the engagements into which he had entered with them That if they were absolutely obliged to accept of Peace they expected that they would not do any thing that might force those whose affairs were in a better posture to accept of absolute conditions That it was not fit that the constancy which the French shewed to their Allies should triumph over the firmness of their Union that they ought to guard against the inconveniencies that the least precipitancy might plunge them into and that provided the King his Master found his security in a Treaty he would sacrifice all his interests to the publick weal. The Ambassador of Brandenbourg assured himself that the States-General would promise nothing to the French King that might be contrary to the League that the Elector his Master had with them since he had neither spared his Blood nor Countries to preserve their Republick from utter ruin and that far less they would conclude a Peace with France till they first procured his Master the satisfaction they had promised him by their Treaty of Alliance That as to the rest his Electoral Highness desired nothing more than a reasonable Peace for procuring whereof he should always make appear his moderation and the respect he had to the urgent reasons which the States-General pretended for concluding of Peace Whilst the Confederates made all these Remonstrances to the Ambassadors of the States-General at Nimueguen it was known that the Spaniards declared at the Hague that they accepted the conditions offered by France and as the Deputies of the States-General in their Memoirs presented to the Duke de Villa Hermosa alledged the weakness of Spain as one of the strongest reasons that disabled them longer to continue the War so upon this occasion the Spaniards failed not to do the like and to impute the necessity they were in of accepting the Peace on the inability of the States-General of supporting any longer the charge and burden of so great a War The Imperialists in the mean time and all the Ministers of the Northern Princes exclaimed against the inclination that the Spaniards and Dutch had to so disadvantageous a Peace they made their own interpretations of the French Kings condescensions saying that France laid snares for them which they could not discover until they were out of condition of avoiding them or that otherwise there must needs be some internal weakness in the forces of France how formidable soever they appeared that standing of it out would do the business and that it was too base to submit to an absolute Law whilst they were not yet out of hopes of gaining those advantages that would render their condition better The Dutch who saw evidently by the Declarations of the Ambassadors of their Confederates that their design was to give no positive answer
thing perhaps might have befallen that Town which happened to Valenciennes a considerable number of French Soldiers having entered into it pell-mell with those that run At that time the Duke of Trimouille sent the Sieur de Sanguiniere a Counseller of the Chastelet of Paris to Nimueguen with Letters of Procuration and the Titles that justified the pretensions he had to the Kingdom of Naples to the end that the same protestation might be made to the Mediators as was made to those of the Treaty of Munster for preservation of the rights that he has to that Kingdom by Anne de Laval of the House of Arragon from whom that Duke descended in right line The Mareshal d' Estrades his Lady arrived at Nimueguen the 12th and was met by the French Ambassadors at Moock on the Meuse two Leagues from thence where she disembarked As all the French were very curious to be present at that first Interview so the people of Nimueguen shewed no less desire of seeing that Lady Immediately after her arrival all the Ambassadors and their Ladies rendered her their publick visits The Nuncio about this time received a Courier from Rome but the cause of his coming was not fully known Nevertheless seeing the noise of the Peace was already spread all over Europe it was not doubted but that that Court desired to find some expedient that might remove the obstacles which hindered the Ambassadors of France from admitting the facultative Brief of the Nuncio because the Pope had named none but the Emperour in it The Nuncio offered then three overtures to satisfie the French Ambassadors the first was to present a Brief in which no Prince should be named The second to give as many Briefs as there were Christian Princes in War wherein every one might have the rank that he desired And the third to follow the stile of the plenary Commissions of the English Mediators by giving a Brief facultative to end the War which was betwixt the Emperour Spain Holland and their Confederates on the one side and the most Christian King the King of Sueden and their Allies on the other But the French Ambassadors continued firm in their Pretensions and would according to the ancient custom have the King their Master named immediately after the Emperour and that was the reason why in all the Treaties of Peace that have been since concluded there is no mention made of the Mediation of the Pope Notwithstanding of that conduct of the Nuncio the pains he took in promoting of the peace were as grateful to the French Ambassadors as they were conducive to the repose of Christendom That Mediator carried himself also in so different a manner from the former practice of Nuncio's in regard of Protestant Princes that it was not his fault if he did not visit all the Ambassadors that were at Nimueguen He render'd the visit to the Envoy of Osnabrug who had visited him and received the Protestants with as much civility as the Catholicks which produced so good effects for the Catholick Interest in all these Provinces and corresponded so well with the reputation of the Pope that on occasion of the Bull which was then believed the Pope would emit one of the most eminent subjects of the States-General said That their Ministers might well preach that the Pope was Antichrist but that for his own part he was persuaded that this man was not News came on the 13. That the Mareshal de Schomberg was advanced with Twenty thousand men towards Duren in the Countrey of Juliers and that he had sent to demand of the City of Cologn the forty thousand Crowns and twelve thousand of Interest which that Town ought to restore to the French King seeing that contrary to the Neutrality agreed upon at the first Assembly held there for the peace the Magistrates suffered that money to be taken by the Garison The Envoy of Cologn who was at Nimueguen demanded audience of the French Ambassadors but they refused it because he came to the Assembly without a Pasport from France The French Army which encamped at the gates of Brussels so netled the Spaniards and incommoded the whole Countrey that there happened some tumult in the Town where Don Pedro de Ronquillo was accused for being the author of those counsels that delayed the conclusion of the peace insomuch that it was affirmed for a certain that the Duke de Villa Hermosa wrote to the Marquess de los Balbases that he would make him accountable for the loss of the Low-countreys if with all diligence he did not conclude the peace The French Ambassadors still expected the last resolution of the States-General that they might send back the Courier which the Mareshal de Luxembourg had at Nimueguen with the news according to which he was to take his measures for putting into action or drawing of the Armies he was upon the point to have marched towards the frontiers of France upon the Letter of the States-General wherein they informed him that they had given orders to their Ambassadors to sign the Peace at Nimueguen but the advice that the French Ambassadors gave him of the new difficulty which hinder'd the signing of it made him to remain still in those parts My Lord Ambassador Temple parted for the Hague on the 14th where finding no final resolution for concluding the peace if the impediment which hinder'd the signing of it were not removed he bestirred himself with all industry to incline the States-General to enter into new engagements with the King his Master that might procure them and their Allies more advantageous conditions than those which France proposed to them The French Ambassadors thought fit in the mean time to make publick the reasons that his most Christian Majesty had to retain the places until Sueden had satisfaction and for that end they caused to be printed the Memoir which on the 17th they gave to the Dutch Ambassadors By this Paper it was given out That the French King having equally espoused the Interests of Sueden with his own and on that account only abandoned so many places which was no less advantageous to the Dutch than Spaniards his Majesty had grounds to hope that these Powers would contribute with him for the re-establishment of that Crown or at least that they would not oppose his design in making use of those places as of a very proper expedient to procure the performance of a condition to which they agreed by accepting the peace But since that the Kings Enemies endeavoured to render his Majesties word suspected he was willing to engage with the States General in all the measures they should judg most convenient for precuring satisfaction to Sueden This Memoir being enlarged and published in way of a Manifesto the States-General caused an Answer containing thirty pages to be made to it by their Ambassadors which was printed in French and Dutch and on the 25th given to the French Ambassadors It contained a long recital of all the
Negotiation whereby they alledged that after all the favourable expressions that the King was pleased to use towards them they could not believe that the sentiments of his Majesty agreed with the expressions of the Ambassadors Memoir That they could not impute that emergent to any thing but the artifice of those who for private interests were against the publick peace That in all the Negotiation no mention being made of Sueden to them it would be unjust to pretend that the King having demanded a neutrality from the States-General as an essential condition in their separate peace they ought to give their places to be made use of against their Allies That the States promised as they had already done to contribute what in them lay for the accommodation of the Northern powers by all the good offices they were capable to perform and they protested that it was not their fault if the peace were not presently brought to a happy conclusion That Answer made it evidently appear that the States-General had no design to condescend and indeed they began to think of other measures for their Deputies about Foreign affairs signed a second Treaty with Ambassador Temple grounded on this That the States-General having accepted the offers of his most Christian Majesty and engaged that his Catholick Majesty should do the same as to what concerned him they perceived to their grief that the Ministers of France opposed the peace by the refusal of delivering up the places That therefore they were obliged to have recourse to his Majesty of Great Britain to the end that if his Mediation with the most Christian King should prove ineffectual he would protect so just a cause and assist them with his forces This Treaty was still conditional as to the circumstance of time and was not to take effect but in case they could not obtain from the French King a Declaration favourable to their pretensions before the eleventh of August and that his Majesty absolutely refused to render up the places upon the exchange of the Ratifications In case of such a refusal they agreed with his Majesty of Great Britain to declare War against France that by united force they might oblige that King to embrace the conditions stipulated by that Treaty These conditions were far different from those which the French King proposed the 9th of April but they were only specified for the Empire Spain and Lorrain Whilst that Treaty was concluding at the Hague and that the Ministers at Nimueguen impatiently expected to know what resolution would at length be taken on either side concerning the restitution of places the Marquess de los Balbases made some instances to the French Ambassadors to incline them to admit of the Marquess de la Fuente that he might not have the displeasure of being come to that Assembly and not have the power to sign the Treaty of peace but they would not consent until that Ambassador produced a plenary Commission in the same form with the rest and they were satisfied with a collationed copy which the Nuncio's Auditor gave them without receiving the visit of that Ambassador for the reason that I mentioned before The Marquess de la Fuente that loves to be very gallant resolved to treat the Ambassadors Ladies after the Spanish fashion but seeing they visited no Ambassadors that wanted Ladies they were invited in the name of the Marchioness of Quintana who did the Honours of the Feast The two French Ambassadors Ladies went thither but the Ambassadors excused themselves because they visited not the Marquess de la Fuente Whether it was there or that there had been before some difference betwixt the Servants of Monsieur Colbert and the Marquess de la Fuente which might have occasioned some resentment it happened that this time a Lackey belonging to Monsieur Colbert was somewhat ill used at the Gate this Footman did the like to one of the Servants of the Marquess de la Fuente the first time that they came to the house of Monsieur Colbert in so much that the difference made such noise that the Nuncio thought fit to take cognizance of it and to make both sides promise that the matter should go no further The same day being the 29th the French Ambassadors by a Courier-Express received Orders from Court according to which they framed a Memoir which they gave to the Dutch Ambassadors whereby they signified to them that the satisfaction of a King in Alliance with the King their Master being the sole end that his Majesty proposed to himself in the present affair of the retention of Places he would willingly admit of all Propositions that might tend to that end and that for that effect he would come as far as St. Quentin to hear what the States had to propose to him by Deputies assuring them that they would find him so equitably inclined that they should have no more cause to doubt of the sincerity wherewith his Majesty had begun and continued to treat with them concerning Peace The Dutch Ambassadors had nothing to answer to these Propositions they said That they saw no expedient to remove that difficulty which was made about the restitution of the places that if the French Ambassadors had any they might propose them and that their Masters did not think that a deputation upon that subject would be to any purpose It seemed that the mistrust which the Ambassadors entertained mutually of one another upon occasion of the impediment that stopt the conclusion of the Peace and even infected their Servants for the accommodation that I just now spoke which was made two days before did not so appease either party but that on the last of July at night there happened amongst them a scuffle of far more dangerous consequence That evening there was a great Rendezvouz at the House of the Heer Odyke and as it was on a Saturday they intended to stay by it and drank to their wives The French Ambassadors had notice given them about ten of the Clock that the Servants of the Duke of St. Peter had been there with Arms. They immediately acquainted the Nuncio with it who had concerned himself in adjusting that Quarrel who was not indeed wanting in giving necessary Orders about it But about Eleven of the Clock at night the Marquess de la Fuente his Pages who had been the Authors of the first difference went and fired some Pistols about the House of Monsieur Colbert which made the Servants of the French Ambassadors to provide against what might happen The Company being set down to Table at the House of the Heer Odyke the French Ambassadors observed that all the Servants of the Spanish were about the Table and filled the Hall whilst they were without attendance according to their custom that they might not pester the house they went to This made them send to call all their Gentlemen to come and wait on them to stand behind them and to order their Pages to serve them These Orders
presently obeyed so surprized the Spaniards and especially the Ladies that for some time there was not a word spoken at Table The Heer Odyke thought himself obliged to rise from Table and reassume the Ladies by inviting them to eat but he was no sooner up but that the Spaniards and Company rose likewise The Marq. de los Balbases with his whole Family and the Marquess de la Fuente took leave of the Company at the very instant and went home in four Coaches without telling why or informing themselves of the reason of that proceeding The Spanish Ambassadors passed by the House of the Mareshal d' Estrades which was not twelve-score paces distant from thence where all the Livery-men belonging to the French Ambassadors were shut up for fear of some disorder to which they were observed to be much inclined Three Coaches had already past when some of those who were in the fourth with Arms fired a Carabin at the Gate of the Mareshal d' Estrades his House Perhaps they did it only in bravado thinking they might safely do it since they saw the Gate shut but at this shot whereof the Bullets left impression on the Gate all the Servants that were in the House finding themselves insulted over snatched up what Arms they could find opened the Gate and ran after the Coaches who again firing upon them were answered in the same kind The French Ambassadors were in the mean time in Discourse with the Heer Odyke and complained of the extraordinary carriage of the Spaniards and of their numerous attendants but the Gentlemen who were with them having heard the first shots ran thither in all haste and coming up with those Servants that were about to attack the Coaches with much ado stopt them They came certainly in the nick of time for finding none on their side wounded and none to engage with but Coaches wherein were so many Ladies of quality amongst whom was the Dutchess of St. Peter ready to be brought to bed they so ordered the matter by threatening their people that the tumult went no farther The Spaniards had cause of fear at that time their Lacqueys threw away their Flamboys and their Coachmen put to a gallop through the Market-place and along a descending Street at the end whereof they lodged The whole Town was alarmed at the noise of shot about two of the Clock in the morning The Town-guard sent the Court of Guard and did not appear and all people ran to the windows But a stop was put to this tumult in a trice and amongst so many people there were none but a Spanish Coachman wounded in the foot and a French Lacquey in the hand The Mediators and especially the Nuncio employed themselves next day to compose that difference The Spaniards would never confess publickly that they were the aggressors Nevertheless seeing it was but a scuffle amongst Servants it was consented to on either hand that the French Ambassadors and the Marquess de los Balbases should each of them send to the Nuncio and the Lord Ambassador Jenkins a Gentleman with some Servants in Livery to be delivered into their hands and to intreat them to cause what punishment they thought fit to be inflicted on them for transgressing the Orders that were made against their carrying of Arms. But seeing the French Ambassadors had not owned the Marquess de la Fuente for an Ambassador they would not suffer him to make any kind of satisfaction though his Servants were known to have been the first Authors of that disorder August 1678 this was put in execution the third of August but the Spanish Ladies having been extreamly discomposed by an accident which they unawares expected the French Ambassadors sent to compliment them severally The Gentleman whom they sent on that errand spoke to the Marchioness de los Balbases her Husband being present to this effect in Italian That the Ambassadors his Masters were vexed that an unexpected accident should have given her Ladiship any trouble but that they doubted not but as she was perswaded that they had always endeavoured to entertain good correspondence so she did not believe but that they likewise condemned the least thing that might displease her and whatever was inconsistent with the respect that they professed to have for persons of her quality That Gentleman made such another compliment to the Dutchess of St. Peter and the Marchioness de Quintana and some days after the Assemblies for diversion which were thought wholly laid aside began to be kept again as before At that time the Heer Boreel Envoy Extraordinary from the States-General arrived at Nimueguen his arrival was taken as a good presage for the Peace of Holland for the States as I have said had employed him to incline the Duke de Villa Hermosa to accept the Conditions proposed by the French King And the interest of the Town of Amsterdam the place of his birth being very dear unto him it was not doubted but that he was very zealous for the Peace The Mareshal of Luxembourg sent at the same time to Nimueguen the Sieur de Villevart Captain of his Guards to make a Protestation to the Mediators against the detention of the Dutchy of Luxembourg which falling to the heir-female ought to belong to him in right of his Wife as he proved by her Genealogy and by the Laws and Customs of that Dutchy The Ambassador of Brandenbourg perceiving by the copy of the Memoir which the French Ambassadors had given to the Dutch for justifying the detention of the Places that the French King had openly declared that it was his design to make use of them for carrying the War into the Dominions of the Elector his Master in favours of Sueden made a long remonstrance which he gave to the Ambassadors of the States-General He represented to them that his Master their neighbour and good friend had ventured all and suffered much for the preservation and settlement of their Republick that he had grounds to hope that the States-General would not comply with so pernicious designs contrary to the faith of their Treaties but on the contrary that they would be no less careful to procure a Barrier on the side of the Rhine than they had been for obtaining one in Flanders and that the preservation of the Country of Cleves was no less necessary for their security than the frontiers of their own Country On the second of August the French Ambassadors received Orders from Court by an Express to make new Instances to the States-General to incline them to send Deputies to Ghent assuring them that they should there find his Majesty as well disposed as they could desire to surmount all obstacles that hindered the conclusion of the Peace It was generally believed that the French King did really design to remove all those difficulties but all the Confederates did equally bestir themselves to hinder the States from complying with his Majesties intentions and amongst the other reasons that they alledged to take
were persuaded that his errand was not to facilitate the signing of the Peace nor to bring the distant parties to a nearer accommodation as to the conclusion of it His proceedings appeared all along too contrary to the character of a Mediator to make that to be believed In the mean time on the 9th in the evening the Ambassadors of the States-General had a long conference with the French they represented to them the short time that remained for ending that great work the accomplishment whereof was only retarded by a difficulty which ought not to seem of great importance to them in comparison of the great advantages which the peace would produce and seeing they had not time to translate into French the Memoir which they had to give in concerning that they contented themselves to tell them the substance of it The French Ambassadors made no answer to the instances of the Dutch but that their hands were tied and that without new Orders they could proceed no further At length the tenth came which was the great day that was to give a happy beginning to the repose of Europe or quite quash all hopes of it for a long time Nevertheless there appeared no hopes that the peace could be signed that day and it could not be conceived why the refusal of a deputation which was not absolutely necessary should put a stop to the accomplishment of so great a good The Hier Odyke returned to the Hague the 7th because he had lost all hopes of peace but both by reason that he believed that the tenth day might produce some change in affairs and that he had Orders from the Prince of Orange to make on the eleventh a protestation in name of the States against all that could be concluded if that day past without signing the peace he came back the same day in haste to Nimueguen The Hier Boreel Envoy Extraordinary from the States-General went at nine in the morning to wait on the Marshal D' Estrades and gave him the Memoir made the day before wherein the States-General thanked his Majesty for the care which he still took to remove all obstacles that occurred in the conclusion of the peace not only with them but Spain also and prayed his Majesty to consider that the enemies of their State having represented to them the evacuation of the places and the peace at the same time as desperate they had been obliged to enter into engagements with the King of Great Britain not to stave off the peace but to take from them the pretext they made use of and to clear his Majesty from being the cause of the same That for that end they had reserved to themselves a certain time which being ready to expire suffered them not to make the deputation that his Majesty desired but not doubting but that since all the conditions were at present agreed upon the peace would be signed before the eleventh they would not fail to make a deputation not to St. Quentin but to Paris to give his Majesty the testimonies of their respect and of the satisfaction they had from the conclusion of the peace M. Colbert and the Count D' Avaux went at the same time to the Marshal D' Estrades house but being unwilling to meet the Heer Boreel there because they designed all three to go that morning to the House of the Dutch Ambassadors and to tell them their last resolution they let the Heer Boreel come out without seeing him and immediately after they all three took coach and went to the Dutch Ambassadors It was believed so certainly that the French Ambassadors had no power to sign the peace that Ambassador Temple himself advised those of Holland to press them to it because he really believed they could not do it Nevertheless the French Ambassadors declared to them in that conference that they had power to sign their Treaties of Peace and Commerce and that it must be done the same morning if it were possible The Dutch being no less persuaded than the rest of the Confederates that without new Orders the French could conclude nothing were no less surprized than overjoyed at that proposition All the Articles about which there had been any debate were read over and they agreed to sign the Peace that day But seeing that conference had lasted from ten of the clock in the morning until half an hour after two in the afternoon and that some time was still required to write over the Treaties fair the signing was delayed until the evening The French Ambassadors had found by experience the importance of secresie for carrying on such a Negotiation to a happy end in so great an Assembly where there were almost as many persons to be feared as there were Ambassadors and where there was no less disposition to conceive jealousies of the conduct of France than it was easie for the Confederates to create new grounds of distrust and that was the cause why the French Ambassadors pretended to the last that they could not sign the peace upon pretext of a very slight obstacle to the end that the conclusion having almost nothing to hinder it they might in an instant surprise those who expected nothing less than such a change The length of the French and Dutch conference had already so alarm'd the Confederates that they were all in commotion before it was ended but they were very sensibly touched when they came to know that the peace was concluded and that it was to be signed that day without any possibility of hindering it It troubled them the more that they found England acting in their favours in the same manner as they had long desired Ambassador Temple could not forbear to evidence his discontent to the French Ambassadors who went all three together to visit him in the afternoon and to acquaint him that if he thought fit they would sign the Treaty at his house for upon pretext of some indisposition he received them in his night-cap and gown and absolutely refused their offers whether it was that he had instructions so to do or that he despaired not for all the matter was gone so far but that before night some impediment might arise that might break off the conclusion thereof That Mediator so little expected that the peace should be concluded that day that he had a Messenger ready in his house to part at midnight and to carry news to the States-General of the expiration of the term which engaged them to the execution of the Treaty that they had signed and that he might let the French Ambassadors see more clearly that the Mediation approved not that Treaty he prayed them to put his own and Colleagues names out of the Preface saying that the King their Master had not sent them as Mediators to a General Treaty there to sign a Separate Peace The Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg with the Bishop of Munster did all they could to hinder the signing of the peace They framed a
protestation in the terms that were most proper to express their resentment They declared to the Ambassadors of the States-General That the resolution they had taken of abandoning their Confederates was contrary to the faith of the leagues they had so religiously contracted that they conjured them by all that was sacred that they would not proceed with so much precipitation to the signing of a separate peace in a time when they had all taken vigorous resolutions and agreeable to the desires of the States-General in sending vast numbers of Forces into the Spanish Netherlands for the relief of Mons which was reduced to extremity They further added That such a hasty and precipitate conduct was unworthy of a State that had always governed it self with reason and justice and that so extraordinary a step would be an everlasting blot to the honour and reputation of the States-General That if notwithstanding of all that they were resolved to proceed and to enter into a Neutrality so contrary to their Engagements they protested against that separate Treaty and against all the calamities that Christendom in general and the Princes their Masters in particular might suffer by that separation Those who considered without passion the conduct of the Dutch found that they were unjustly accused of having acted without acquainting their Confederates since that by the publick Declarations which they themselves had given to the Dutch Ambassadors on the 10th and 20th of the preceding Month they took notice of the necessity to which the Vnited-Provinces were reduced And the States-General were very far from acting with precipitation seeing they signed not the Peace until the last day of the time that they had agreed to with England in case that France removed as was then done all the impediments that for more than six weeks obstructed the signing thereof In a word it was an easie matter for the Northern Confederates to exhort the Dutch to wait patiently when according to their own confession their affairs were in a better state and who daily found new advantages in continuing the War with Sueden whilst notwithstanding of all the forces that were in the Low-countries the French King took as many places as he pleased and Holland ran on into utter ruin The desire of the States-General being conform to the intentions of France as to the Peace nothing could stop the signing of it all diligence was used to have the Treaties ready and at eleven of the Clock at night the Dutch Ambassadors came to the house of the Mareshal d' Estrades in two Coaches with many Flamboys to light them The two Treaties of Peace and Commerce were there signed betwixt eleven and twelve of the Clock at night with a separate article concerning the States which the Prince of Orange possesses in the Provinces that are under the dominion of the French King The Ambassadors wished one another mutual joy for the re-establishment of the good correspondence which had been interrupted by the War and the joy was great and reciprocal amongst all their servants and attendants but it appeared especially among the servants of the Dutch Ambassadors who upon their return knocked at all the Towns-peoples doors calling to them in Dutch that the Peace was made Next day the Marquess d' Estrates who was at Nimueguen parted to carry those two Treaties to the French King and the Ambassadors had the satisfaction to find by the first dispatches they received even before the news was brought to Court that all they had done should be conform to his Majesties intentions who upon information of the signing of the Peace acquainted them that he was very well satisfied with the wise conduct they had observed in so great an Affair Seeing the Spaniards were engaged to the States General jointly to accept of the peace on the conditions proposed by France and that the States by the thirteenth Article of the Treaty which they had signed were Guarantees to the French King of all the obligations to which Spain was to be bound and especially to that of an exact Neutrality the Dutch Ambassadors would lose no time in promoting the peace of Spain but on that occasion performed the office of Mediators as it was necessary they should since the English had in a manner excused themselves from mediating by refusing to propose the conditions of the ninth of April and to sign the peace with the Dutch The news that were brought of the advantages which the French Army obtained daily over the Forces of the Empire made it probable that after the peace with Spain which began seriously to be treated it would not be long before the Emperor and Empire came to an accommodation The Marshal de Crequi had ruin'd the Fort of Kiel at the end of the bridg of Strasbourg on the side of Germany and having burnt the Bridg and raised the Fort on the other side he very much incommoded that great City and made them apprehensive of the same fate that had befallen all those places which the French had attacqued In the mean while the States General who looked upon the peace of Spain to be as necessary for their repose and the renewing of their Commerce as their own peace made the success of that Negotiation their own particular affair It was indeed expected in Holland that those two Treaties should be signed at the same time and therefore the joy which the people conceived upon the conclusion of the former was much lessened by the fear they had that the second would not be so soon concluded as was desired but seeing both parties were equally desirous of the same the French Ambassadors went first to the Ambassadors of the States General and there exchanged the projects of peace betwixt France and Spain That they might the better facilitate the Treaty and conclude it with as little loss of time as possibly could be they agreed to meet at the House of the Dutch Ambassadors and for that effect they gave one of their Chambers which was at the end of their Hall of Audience to the French Ambassadors another that had an Entry from the Porch was for the Ambassadors of Spain and all the Gentlemen belonging to the several Ambassadors stayed in the Hall of Audience which served for a passage to the Heer Beverning who accompanied with the Heer Haaren applied himself industriously to remove the difficulties that happened in that Negotiation carrying back and for from one Chamber to another all the controverted Articles Mr. Beverning is no less a man of dispatch than knowledg and ability and therefore in the Conferences of the thirteenth which lasted four hours in the morning and as long after dinner a great part of the Articles of the Treaty with Spain were condescended to and agreed upon but the fourteenth being Sunday the Conferences were interrupted and all people were surprised to hear that Ambassador Temple parted that day from Nimueguen about four of the clock in the morning for the Hague where
perhaps he had still hopes of bringing some obstacle to the ratification of the Treaty though he could not hinder the signing of it In the mean while seeing it is almost impossible that so important an affair as the Negotiation of a peace betwixt two potent States can be so happily ended and no unexpcted accident fall out that may hinder the conclusion of it several obstacles arose in the course of this Treaty which retarded it much longer than was expected It was hoped that the Conferences would be renewed on the fifteenth but that day the Dutch Ambassadours made report to the French that the design the French King had of retaining Bouvignes and Beaumont put a stop to the Treaty and might quite break it off If his Majesty persisted in his pretensions to those two places whereof the one is a little Town almost ruined situated upon a hill below Dinant and the other a Bourg without fortifications lying towards France in the Countrey betwixt the Meuse and the Sambre It is true that in the project of the peace no mention was made neither of Bouvignes nor Beaumont and that they were not named in the printed Conditions But to that the French Ambassadors made answer That they were in the Conditions which the French King had proposed to his Majesty of Great Britain who by his Ambassadors had communicated the same to all the Ministers of the Princes that were at Nimueguen and seeing his Majesty had in his Conditions of the ninth of April named precisely all the places which he intended to restore to Spain and not all those which his Majesty resolved to retain these were necessarily comprehended amongst the last seeing they were in actual possession of the French and of too small importance to be expresly named in the Conditions Whilst these difficulties put a stop to the Treaty at Nimueguen there was a report spread abroad of the defeating of the French Army before Mons into which it was affirmed that great relief was put during the Fight The truth was that the Prince of Orange having drawn together the Forces of Holland Spain and the Confederates resolved to attempt the relieving of it on the fourteenth afternoon the hopes he had of succeeding in that enterprise with so great forces and of ending so many Campagns by a famous action which till then had been so unfortunate to him concurring with the urgent instances of the Marquess de Grana Envoy extraordinary from the Emperor were motives powerful enough to incline him to give battel and to make the best of so fair an opportunity Many have thought that that Prince had advice by an Express from Nimueguen that the peace was concluded there on the tenth but however it be having had no information thereof from the States-General he was not obliged to know it The Marshal of Luxemburgh who had received advice of the Peace by an Express from the French Ambassadors could not persuade himself that the Enemies who appeared on the Eminencies of the Abbey of St. Denis had a design to attacque him But when it was past all doubt and that he perceived they had possessed themselves of the Village of Casteau he passed over the rivolet that divided his Camp from that post with some Regiments of Horse Dragoons and foot these Troops led by the best Officers of the Army marched through narrow passes gullies and unfrequented ways beset by the Enemies on the right and left and had a smart and bloody engagement but the French retook Casteau and set it on fire with less loss on their side than on that of the Enemy's though the fight continued till night put an end to the action Next morning the Prince of Orange sent a Messenger to the Camp to acquaint the Marshal of Luxemburgh that the peace betwixt France and the States-General was signed the tenth and that he had not received the news of it until that night He therefore desired that since the countenance of affairs was changed he might be permitted to send a Convoy unto Mons. But the General refused it seeing he could not consent thereunto till he had received Orders from Court This action of the Prince of Orange received various constructions and was not altogether approved by the States-General who saw to their regret so many brave soldiers uselesly sacrificed to private interests Nor was it well relished in England because two thousand of the ancient Regiments of his Majesty of Great Britains forces who were in the States service were totally routed in that Engagement The particulars of that Fight being brought to Nimueguen undeceived the Confederates who were at first informed that the success of it was much more advantageous to them than indeed it was The Nuncio who was very solicitous for promoting the General Peace by means of the Imperialists inclined all the Confederates to a Months truce He was hopeful that in that time the Negotiation might have some success and that Truce had been concluded if the Bishop of Gurck who then returned from Cologn had not broken all the measures that were taken in his absence The impediment which the Confederates observed to be put to the Peace of Spain made them less concerned to make their own But the Heer Beverning being gone to the Hague made many hope that that Minister would bring from thence some expedient to remove the difficulties that put a stop to that Negotiation and that at the same time he would have assurance of the Ratifications of the Dutch Peace In the mean time since by the Letters which the States General wrote to the French King the 22. of June they entreated his Majesty to grant them Passports for the security of their Merchant Ships a Courier brought a great many from Court to the French Ambassadors but they would not exchange them at Nimueguen for a like number with the Dutch Ambassadors It behoved the Dutch to deliver theirs first at Maestricht into the hands of the Post-Master of France who was to acquaint the Court that he had received them But seeing it was not just that the subjects of the States-General should have freedom to trade alone with the Passports of France whilst the subjects of that King might suffer prejudice by the Spanish men of War notwithstanding the Passport of the States the Dutch Ambassadors engaged themselves to procure from the Duke de Villa Hermosa as many Passports for the French as France should give to the States The French King continued to testifie the sincerity of his intentions by ratifying the Treaty of Peace without delay On the 22. a Courier brought the Ratification to Nimueguen and at the same time his Majesty appointed the Count d' Avaux to be his Ambassador Extraordinary to the States-General The terms wherein his Majesty wrote to them on that subject testified the affection that he had for that Republick by the choice he made of a subject whom he judged the fittest to renew the ancient ties of amity which
the late times had interrupted The Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg who could not but with great trouble see the great disposition that appeared for the Peace of Spain made the same day a vigorous Remonstrance to the Ambassadors of that Crown They doubted not but that the glory that was to be acquired in signifying the same constancy after the unexpected signing of the Dutch Peace would render them stedfast and unshaken in the observation of their Treaties of Alliance They said that their Masters desired nothing more than the repose of Christendom but that their Enemy proposed the Law to them instead of admitting a Treaty upon the conditions which might conduce to a General Peace These Ambassadors employed afterwards all their Eloquence to divert Spain from the course they saw it taking they represented to them That the constancy of that Crown was alone capable to reclaim those who had deviated from their duty through the influence of the Cabal and the levity of some who understood not how dear faith and sincerity ought to be to a Free State That what France left to Spain by that Peace in the Netherlands was rather to exhaust its Treasures than that they intended to leave that crown in the peaceable possession thereof That they hoped Spain would not yield to the common Enemy the glory of being more constant in favours of their Allies than themselves In fine that if their Masters found themselves forsaken and abused they would have care another time how they helped to quench the fire since they saw themselves so ill rewarded for their pains On the 24. the Articles that were made betwixt the two Armies were brought to Nimueguen They were both at the same time to draw off to an equal distance from before Mons but the Troops that blocked up the place were not to retire till two days after In the mean time there were various reports of the Ratification of the States-General All the Provinces at that time held their several Assemblies to give their resolutions as to that point to the States who seemed less inclined than the Provinces to keep their word and correspond with the exactitude with which France seemed to act in execution of the signed Treaty The Heer Beverning returned to Nimueguen on the 27. where having conferred with Ambassador Jenkins who had received new instructions from England he had audience of the French Ambassadors and would have them to understand that his Masters were so far engaged to procure the peace of Spain that they would be very glad to see the difficulties that hinder'd the conclusion of it removed before they ratified the Peace which they themselves had made and that his Majesty of Great Britain had by Mr. Hyde his Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary whom he had sent purposely to the Hague made very pressing instances to them on that subject in favour of Spain The truth is the expressions of the Memoir which that Ambassador gave to the States-General on the 25th agreed not with the procedure that England had hitherto held for promoting of the peace That King made known to the States that he was surprised to understand that they had signed a separate peace without including Spain and without any Guarantee for the evacuation of the places within the time limited That since the new pretensions which France formed to the County of Beaumont and the Town of Bouvignes retarded the accomplishment of the peace his Majesty thought that the condition put into the last Treaty was fallen and that he and the States-General were equally obliged to enter into a joynt War against France That if the States would refuse to ratifie what they had signed at Nimueguen his Majesty of Great Britain offers to declare actual War against France The States-General having already made great instances to the King of England that he would use his power with the French King for obtaining for them the Neutrality of the Countrey of Cleves and Juliers the Ambassador of his Majesty of Great Britain by the same Memoir assured them That the King his Master knowing it to be no less necessary to the States that their Provinces should be covered on that side than on the side of Flanders he was ready upon that account to enter with them into what measures they should judg convenient and that the obtaining of that security depended only on themselves In the mean time the Forces that were newly raised in England for the assistance of the Low-countreys passed daily over into Flanders by Ostend Some of them at Bruges upon a mistake had suffered a Riot from the Rabble upon the account of Religion and the Flemings who are Catholicks were not well pleased with Heretical succors But the Spaniards who found in their Confederates and the King of Great Britain so great a disposition of maintaining their Interests rested satisfi'd and shewed no more desire for the conclusion of the peace They found some advantage by that delay for the French Forces being now by the Treaty of Mons retired out of the Spanish Territories attempted no enterprise and France being uncertain of the issue of the Spanish peace and of the ratification of the Dutch Treaties their Forces could not march into Germany where they had already ruined the affairs of the Emperor and Empire Besides the Spaniards by the debates which they started concerning the difficulties in which they were so well supported in some manner saved the honour of their Nation and they had at least the advantage of not receiving the Law without disputes and oppositions which was so far from rendering their conditions worse that it could not on the contrary but procure for them more advantageous terms On the first of September 1678. the French Ambassadors by an Express from Court received new instructions and in the conference which they had the same day with the Dutch Ambassadors they told them That for the good of the general peace they had power to remit in their pretensions So that next day the conferences were again renewed at the house of the Dutch Ambassadors who carried the propositions and answers back and for betwixt the French and Spaniards who were in several rooms The Articles in controversie were adjusted on the mornings and forenoons meetings Next day they continued but the difficulties that were raised concerning the condition of the places which the French King was to deliver up as well in respect of Ammunition and Artillery as of the Fortifications hindered the Treaty from any great progress Those whom it most concerned to prevent the peace with Spain omitted nothing that could put a stop to it and upon a pretext that France kept not to the sole Articles of the ninth of April they made great noise in England and engaged his Majesty of Great Britain so far by many proceedings conform to their intentions that in the sequel it would not be easie for him to abandon any of their concerns One of the chief
added to their declaration of the Instances which they said were made to them by the Bishop of Gurck in the name of the Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg so sensibly touched those two Ambassadors that thinking their Honour thereby much offended they took a great deal of pains to make the contrary appear by long answers which they made on that subject on the eighteenth affirming that they had never neither desired nor rejected the cessation of Arms but nevertheless that they might omit nothing that might in any probability tend to the promoting of the Peace they accepted the Truce upon such conditions as should on both sides be agreed upon Never were any Ambassadors more fond of Writing than those of Denmark and Brandenbourg their debates had already occasioned as many publick Writings during the Month of March alone as had been made during the negotiation of all the other Treaties put together In the mean time the French Ambassadors that they might give these Ambassadors all the satisfaction that they could desire upon so nice a point declared on the Nineteenth That since the Ambassadors of Denmark and Brandenbourg thought themselves wronged in that they could be suspected to have demanded or desired a cessation of Arms they consented that the Mediators might give them a publick Act thereupon to be joyned to the protestations which they had made against the peace of the Empire whilst that they on the contrary being perswaded that all the proceedings of the King their Master for the advancement of the general Peace in a time when he was in a condition to continue the War with advantage argued great glory to his Majesty They still offered the cessation on the same conditions which they proposed to the English Mediators without derogating in the mean time from their Declaration of the 24th of February in case that the Peace was not signed in the Month of March and that they accepted not the Truce But that if they consented to it for the whole Month of April it was his Majesties will that during all that Month the King of Denmark and Elector of Brandenbourg might have liberty to conclude the Peace without requiring the new Conditions that had been demanded of them At length after so many debates and proceedings to no great purpose the Treaty of cessation was signed at Nimueguen the last of March to continue till the first of May and was exchanged both in name of his most Christian Majesty and King of Sweden betwixt the French Ambassadors on the one part and those of Denmark and Brandenbourg on the other But seeing that before the signing of that Treaty the French Intendant had caused Contributions to be demanded from the Country of Cleves on the other side of the Raine and that the French Ambassadors could not promise that they should not be pretended notwithstanding the conclusion of the cessation the same Ambassadors consented by a publick Act that the Dutch Ambassadors should pass their word for them that they should Write about it to the King that they might know his intentions and that in the mean time no hostile execution should be made during the space of Fifteen days after which if his Majesty thought good that these Contributions should be exacted they engaged to give the Inhabitants of the Countrey Three days more to take such measures in as they should think fit The Truce that was now signed instead of advancing the negotiation on the contrary stopped the course thereof during all the time that it lasted because the French Ambassadors sticking to their Declarations there was no more to be said So that the Two Princes that remained still in War Judged it more convenient to negotiate their Peace with the King himself than at Nimueguen not doubting but that they might promise themselves some advantage to their interests from Treating rather with a great Prince than being too headstrong in defending the same at Nimueguen by a long train of proceedings from which they had no great cause to expect a happy conclusion The Elector of Brandenbourg had for that effect already sent M. Meinders to the French Court and his Danish Majesty ordered M. de Mayerkron his Envoy to the States General to go immediately and wait upon the King In the mean time a great part of Europe was allarmed at the Fleet which the most Christian King was setting out to Sea Italy and particularly the Republick of Genoa were much startled thereat Denmark feared a descent in the Countrey of Holstein and the Parliament of England where there happened such commotions that the Duke of York was obliged to depart out of the Kingdom conceived some Jealousies at the French Naval preparations In the mean while the Ambassadors of Sweden having by two several Couriers and contrary ways sent to the King their Master the Treaty of Peace which they had signed with the Emperor that by that means notwithstanding the severity of the Danes concerning free passage they might receive the ratification in time these two Couriers arrived at Nimueguen from several places the 17th and 18th with the ratification in good form But his Swedish Majesty refused to confirm the Treaty which was concluded with the Princes of Brunswick because they thought in Sweden that they had yielded to them a great deal too much and the rather that the most Christian King indemnified all these Princes at his proper charges About the same time the President Canon Plenipotentiary from the Duke of Lorrain renewed his instances with the French Ambassadors that he might obtain some moderation of the conditions that had been stipulated for his Master The Imperial Ambassadors did also the like but without any success So that they thought it enough to declare that his Imperial Majesty pretended to be no longer obliged by the Articles that concerned that Prince by which his most Christian Majesty had declared himself obliged and they demanded that that Peace might be deferred until another time in so much that the Imperialists being unwilling that the time mentioned in the Treaty should expire without exchanging the ratifications because of the pretensions made by the French in their last declaration of the 26th past they resolved to make the exchange the 19th of April April 1679 There arose an unexpected difficulty concerning the exchange of the ratifications for the Mediators who had not signed the Peace would not take it upon them The Nuncio likewise excused himself from doing it because he had protested against the same Peace in respect it was concluded in conformity to the Treaties of Westphalia against which Rome had then protested because of the revenues of the Church which they were then obliged to secularise and yield up to Protestants without which it had been impossible to have procured Peace to Germany So that the expedient that was found out was to make the exchange of the ratifications by the hands of Secretaries who were reciprocally sent on both sides And seeing the
ratifications of Sweden were happily arrived the day before they were exchanged in the same manner so that that was a day of Ratifications The Ratifications of the Treaty of Peace concluded betwixt France and the Bishop of Munster being the same day exchanged On the 20th the Envoy of Lorrain protested to the Mediators that the Duke his Master pretended not to be obliged by the Articles stipulated for him in the Treaty of the Empire and Eight days after declared to the same Mediators that though his Highness of Lorrain thought it not convenient to accept nor ratifie the Articles that concerned him yet it was not his intention to continue nor to be reckoned an enemy of France nor of his most Christian Majesty whose humble Servant he protested he was the same Declaration was by the same Envoy made to the French Ambassadors telling them moreover that he did it by express order from his Master and not in compliment In the mean time the French Forces that were in the Countrey of Cleves and Juliers seeing the time of the Truce expired and having no advice given them that there was appearance that the Elector of Brandenbourg would conclude his Peace upon the conditions demanded by the French King put themselves in a condition the first of May 1679 to pass the Rhine over which they had made a Bridge at Ordingâ—en General Spaen who commanded the Brandenbourg Forces seemed as if he would oppose their passage with what Soldiers and Trained-bands he had on the other side of that River but he soon retreated when he understood that the French Army had passed it on flying Bridges above and below Augerorts at the meeting of the Auger and Rhine So that the shortest expedient that that General and the Ambassador of his Electoral Highness could find to secure as much as was possible the Countreys into which the French Forces were about to enter was to procure a conference at Santhen with M. Colbert that they might endeavour to get the Truce prolonged Santhen is a little Town three Leagues from Wesel whether Monsieur Blaspiel and General Spaen went Monsieur Colbert came there the Third of the Month and Monsieur Calvo who commanded the French Forces was ordered to be present to the end that according to the success of that negotiation he might desist or pursue the enterprises that he was in condition to make And therefore since they were straitened by time and that the Generals could not leave their Quarters this place was chosen as not being far distant for holding of that conference wherein the very same day the Treaty of Truce which was signed at Nimueguen until the first of May was prolonged for Fifteen days to begin next day the Fourth of the Month which lengthened the cessation of Arms until the 19th the King being unwilling to grant a longer time that he might sooner hasten the Peace and not leave so many people in an uncertainty of a thing they so much desired The chief cenditions that M. Colbert obtained for the prolongation of the Truce were that as a proof of the sincerity wherewith the Elector intended to act with his most Christian Majesty General Spaen put Wesel and Lipstadt into his hands to be kept by him until the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies on the one part and his Electoral Highness on the other should be signed and ratified These Conditions seemed the stranger in that the Elector of Brandenbourg made no great difficulty in granting of them offering even to put Schinkenscance into his Majesties hands who refused it that he might not any ways allarm the States General to whom by the Count D'Avaux his extraordinary Ambassador he gave that testimony of his good will It was not easie to be conceived what could be the policy of the Elector of Brandenbourg in willingly delivering up those places if he desired the Peace in good earnest as it was probable since he thereby put himself in greater need of concluding it what advantage did he find in exposing his Countrey to ruine for some few weeks delay in the conclusion of the Treaty Or if he had a design to defend himself and that he hoped he was able to resist a powerful Army he might have begun by Wesel which was a strong place and wherein he had a good Carison that might have afforded his Enemies business upon their entry into his Countrey It was thought that the Elector of Brandenbourg perceived very well that he could not hold out long and that he knew that if the French entered by force not only that whole Countrey would be utterly ruined but that likewise there would be so great a consternation throughout all his other Territories that it would be hard for him to secure any of them that upon these considerations he had yielded up those places that he might the better preserve them and the rather that with the Forces he drew out of Wesel and Lipstadt he would be in a condition of making a vigorous resistance at Minden and to obtain from France more advantageous conditions than those which he could not as yet resolve to embrace but before experience made appear how little security there was in that choice it was not very hard to foresee that the Elector of Brandenbourg was not like to find great advantage thereby About this time the Mareshal D' Estrades having got leave from the King his Master to leave Nimueguen parted from thence with his whole Family on the Fifth and M. Colbert to whom alone the King referred what remained of the negotiation at Nimueguen signed the same day the prolongation of the Truce with the Ambassador of Denmark upon the same conditions that were agreed upon at Santhen with the Ambassador of Brandenbourg except the Article concerning the places which were to be delivered up to his Majesty M. Meinders finding no success in his Negotiation with his most Christian Majesty having parted from the French Court upon his return to the Elector his Master that he might receive from him more ample instructions and a larger commission returned at that time to Nimueguen where on the morrow the 11th of the Month he had a long conference with M. Colbert which made it hoped that the Peace of Brandenbourg would be speedily concluded but a few days after M. Meinders took his Journey back to Paris The Emperor in the mean time gave no orders to his Ambassadors concerning the fulfilling of the Treaty of the Empire which occasioned great complaining amongst all the people of the Countries that were possessed by the French seeing that far from enjoying the fruit of Peace they found themselves on the contrary almost undone by the vast contributions which they payed for maintanance of the French Forces they carried their grievances even to the Mediators at Nimueguen and the Nuncio having reported them to M. Colbert by a Memoir that he gave him the 14th that Ambassador offered to cause the French Forces to draw out of
a Squadron of about thirty Ships The half-free Ships are Vessels of about One hundred Tuns burden their priviledges and number are so small that they cannot be very prejudicial to the Dutch Trade Nevertheless the Dutch found that all these priviledged Vessels might carry away the greatest part of the Trade of the Baltick and therefore the States insisted vigorously upon the abrogation of all those priviledges as contrary to the equality of advantage which the subjects of both Nations were to enjoy But in that debate the same mean was taken which served to remove the former difficulty and it was agreed upon that these Vessels should only enjoy their exemptions in the Territories of the Kingdom of Sueden and Finland and that in the other Provinces on the Baltick-sea depending on the Crown of Sueden there should be no distinction between Suedish Ships and Dutch It could not be believed after this that any new difficulty could retard the conclusion of the Treaty of Commerce whereof the Negotiation had lasted above a year Nevertheless there happened one which put a full stop to the affair The Ambassadors of the States-General had put in the 7th Article of their project That the subjects on either side should be used as the Nation in greatest friendship ut quaeque gens amicissima The Suedes took occasion from this to demand a freedom from the duties which the Dutch had imposed upon the Suedish commodities that pass the Sound and the rather because that imposition was never laid on till the Suedes had obtained from the Danes by Treaties concluded to their advantage and exemption from part of the duties that are exacted in the Sound The truth is that the States to hinder that exemption from being prejudicial to the trade of their subjects who enjoy not the same priviledg setled then in their Countrey upon those that had the priviledg of the Sound and Imposition almost equivalent to that Exemption The Dutch said That the equality which ought to be observed in the Trade of the two Nations was not hurt by that kind of compensation and alledged that it was so little contrary to it that in all the Treaties which had been concluded in the long time since these duties were imposed the abrogation of them was never thought upon when other Treaties was made The Suedes however who would not lose to the profit of the Dutch what they obtained to the prejudice of Denmark stood firmly to that point so that the conferences at the Hague were broken up and the Count D' Avaux could not promise himself to renew them again on that subject with the same success that they had had in the other difficulties insomuch that M. Oliver Krants came back to Nimueguen Aug. 1679. where the Assembly being shortly after wholly dissolved the conclusion of these Treaties could no longer be prolonged which yet were not signed until the second of October the annulling of the Imposts laid on in Holland and the reduction of those of Sueden to the standard of the Treaty of 1640. remaining undecided and referred to other conferences which were to be held at the Hague for adjusting these affairs within eighteen Months after the signing of the Treaty In the mean time M. de Mayerkroon who had been for some time at the French Court perceiving that the conferences in Schonen did not advance the Negotiation of the peace betwixt Sueden and Denmark began to seem more inclined to conclude the Treaty of the King his Master tho' he had no cause to expect more advantageous conditions than those he had at first On the contrary experience and example made appear that it could not but be prejudicial to the King of Denmark to be the last in making his peace The French King on his part desiring nothing more than to correspond with that good disposition and to render the peace general by the conclusion of that of Denmark gave for that end on the 24th of August a full power to M. de Pompone and by that means within a few days the Treaty was concluded betwixt his Majesty and the Kings of Sueden and Denmark and was signed at St. Germans the second of September on the same conditions that the King had always proposed for the full satisfaction of his Ally It is known that his Majesty declared from the beginning That he could not make peace with the King of Denmark but upon condition of a full restitu ion to Sueden The delays and difficulties that were made thereupon moved not his Majesty to abate any thing of the Treaties of Roschild Copenhaghen and Westphalia and these Treaties were the ground-work of the peace of Denmark in the fourth Article whereof his Danish Majesty declared That in consideration of his most Christian Majesty he consented that the Crown of Sueden be restored to all that it possessed before the War and to all the Territories States Provinces Towns and places that have been yielded up and acquired by those three Treaties and by consequent to all that the Danish Arms had possessed during that War As to the differences that heretofore happened betwixt the subjects of the two Nations by reason of the priviledges and exemptions which the Suedes as I said enjoy from a part of the duties that the King of Denmark raises in the Sound and in the Belt the most Christian King being uncertain whether or not the intention of the King of Sueden was that his subjects should any ways make use of their priviledges to the prejudice of the revenue of the K. of Denmark thought fit so to order affairs by that Treaty that Commissioners named by each party should meet three months after the exchange of the Ratifications and by the mediation of a Minister appointed by his Majesty adjust all these differences in an amicable way The Restauration of the Duke of Sleswick Holstein-Gottorp having been one of the conditions on which the French King consented to this Peace it was likewise one of the greatest difficulties that happened in the carrying on of the Treaty That Prince was stript of all by the King of Denmark only for being an Ally to the King of Sueden and therefore ought to be restored to all again To which the King of Denmark as an evidence of the desire he had to put an end to the War with all expedition consented at the desire and requisition of the French King granting that the Duke of Sleswick Holstein-Gottorp should enjoy his Territories Provinces Towns and Places in the same state as they were in at the signing of the Treaty with all the Soveraignty that belonged to him by virtue of the Treaties of Roschild Copenhagen and Westphalia That Prince could hardly pretend to more unless it were the damage that his Territories had suffered during the War by the vast sums of Money that the King of Denmark had raised therein as being one of the best Countries of all the North. The Elector of Brandenbourg the Princes of the