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A81938 Geographia universalis: the present state of the whole world giving an account of the several religions, customs, and riches of each people; the strength and government of each polity and state; the curious and most remarkable things in every region; with other particulars necessary to the understanding history and the interests of princes. Written originally by the Sieur Duval, Geographer in Ordinary to the French King; and made English, and enlarged by Ferrand Spence. Duval, P. (Pierre), 1619-1682.; Spence, Ferrand. 1685 (1685) Wing D2919A; ESTC R229216 199,644 399

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the Flemmings wedded to Commerce to Manufacture and Navigation Both People are industrious in making Handy-craft-Works They have two sorts of Tongues the Walloon which is a corrupted French and which becomes purer since the French King's Conquests and the Flemming or Low Dutch The first is particularly in Artois in French-Flanders and in Haynault The Vnited Provinces and the Provinces of the King of Spain were in War until the Year 1609. when they made a Truce of Twelve Years His Catholick Majesty did then treat with the States General of the Vnited Provinces in quality and as holding them for Free-Countrys Provinces and States to whom he had no Pretension In the Year 1648. the Peace was made there before that of the Empire which was concluded at Munster in the same Year And since the Spaniards of Flanders and the Hollanders have thought fit to live neighbourly and in good intelligence nay to confederate together for their mutual defence The War having been declared by the French King upon the Hollanders in the Year 1672. the Spaniards fail'd not to take part in it for the traversing the Conquests of his Christian Majesty which cost them very considerable Cities and Provinces whereas the Hollanders recover'd what they had lost The Princes of Orange of the House of Nassau have almost ever had the Military and Civil Government in the Vnited Provinces The Vnited Provinces of the Low-Countries THe Vnited Provinces are so call'd from their Union at Vtrecht in the Year 1579. They are commonly called Holland that being the richest most populous Province of 'em all Their situation is towards the end of the Rivers Rhine and Meuse in the Northern part of the Low Countries between the Dominions of the King of Spain in Flanders England which is separated from 'em by the Sea and several Principalities of the Empire The Princes of the Empire who are their Neighbours are the Duke of Newbourg in his Dutchy of Juliers and his Barony of Ravestein the Elector of Brandenbourg in his Dutchy of Cleves the Elector of Cologn the Bishop of Munster the Count de Bentheim the Prince of East-Friesland in the Territories of the same Name The Vnited Provinces which before owed subjection to the King of Spain have since been independent of one another or to say rather as many Republicks which altogether make now but one under the Name of the States General of the Vnited Provinces of the Low Countries The Dignity of this State residing in the States General the Absolute authority over things reserved by reason of the alliance has remained in the States of each Province The Seal of the Republick is a Lion holding a Bundle of Seven bound Arrows with allusion to as many confederated Provinces these Provinces as the Politicians say have not always been so well united but that they resembled a Body which has several Heads some of which would draw it on one side while the others endeavour to tug it on the other There is no State in the World of so small an Extent which has so great a number of Fortresses and which seems better defended by the Nature of the Places than this It has the See and several Rivers which defend it the Rhine the Meuse the Waal the Issel Notwithstanding all these Defences the French King made surprising Conquests in the Year 1672. by the reduction of three Provinces and sixty considerable Towns which proceeded from raw unexpert meer Citizens sons being imploid in the Soldiery Besides the Vnited Previnces and the Places that are in them the States General have in Flanders the Cities of Sluyce Middlebourg Ardembourg Sasvan Gaunt Axel Hulst in Brabant Lisle Bergen-ap-Zoom Breda Boisleduc Grave and they have Maestricht in the Bishoprick of Liege Dalem Fauquemont Bolduc in the Land of Outre Meuse These Places were taken by the French King but restor'd to them by his Majesty in consideration of the Peace of 1678. In Germany they had upon the Rhine Orsoy Wesel Reez Emerik Genep in the Dutchy of Cleves Rhineberg in the Electorate of Cologn these are return'd into the hands of its true Masters in consideration of the aforesaid Peace Towards Westphalia the States General have Garrisons in the City of Embden in the Forts of Eideler and Leer-ort which belong to the Prince of East-Friesland There are in Holland two Companies of Merchants the one for the East-Indies the other for the West The first of these Companies seems it self to be a Potent Republick It boasts of having subdued more Leagues of Country than there are Acres of Land in all Holland Of having fourteen or fifteen thousand Soldiers and a Number of Ships in its Service Of employing commonly above fourscore thousand Men. It had long since above twenty very considerable Fortresses as many Magazines upon the Coasts of the Indian-Sea where it has endeavour'd to constrain several Petty Kings not to receive into their States any other Nations of Europe than their own The West-India Company is weak and feeble in respect of the other whether that the Portugals have had more right and more strength than the Hollanders in Brazil Or the term of the Concession of Priviledg obtained by these from their Sovereign be expired Or in short that the Company of the East-Indies has us'd all its efforts to ruin the other The Hollanders have hitherto been Powerful at Sea have often beaten the French the Spanish Fleets nay made Head against the English who are Sovereigns of the Sea The Number of their Ships is so great that if we may believe their Partizans it equals that of the rest of Europe They have always in their own Country wherewith to Equip a great Number tho' their Land neither produces Wood nor other things necessary for that purpose They are able to Arm out above a hundred to Sea if they had but the Mariners and Soldiers they had formerly At their first Establishment they only pretended to Fishing and Trading from Port to Port since they have drove the richest Commerce that is carried on at Sea Amongst the Vnited-Provinces there are four towards the West Holland Zealand Vtrecht Guelderland Four towards the East Zutphen Over-Yssel or Trans-Isalane Friesland Groninghen Those who reckon but seven make but one of that of Guelderland and Zutphen In the Assemblies these Provinces have ever given their Votes in the following Order Guelderland with Zutphen first of all then Holland Zealand Vtrecht Friesland Over-Yssel finally Groninghen with the Ommelands Each of 'em sends its Deputies to the Hague where are form'd three Colledges or Assemblies of them the States-General the Council of State and the Chamber of Accounts In the Assembly of the States-General all the Provinces above-mention'd must consent in General and in Particular to the Resolutions that are taken therein and do not follow the plurality of Voices Each Province may send thither one two three four or five Deputies but all these Deputies have together but one Voice and have right to
the Grandees of Spain to sit in publick under the Royal Canopy of the King of Spain Beira is fertile in Rye Millet Apples and Chestnuts It s City of Coimbra formerly the abode of Alphonso the first King of Portugal is famous for its University for its Bishoprick which is said to be worth above a hundred and fifty thousand Livres yearly Rent Estremadura another than that of Castile produces Wine Oyl Salt Honey which the Bees make there of the Flowers of Lemmons and of Roses It s City of Lisbon is the Capital of all the Kingdom one of the richest greatest most beautiful and most populous Towns of all Europe It has above thirty thousand Houses and an admirable Port with the conveniency of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea It particularly drives the trade of Brasile and of the East-Indies The small City of Belem which is near it is the Mausoleum or the place of burial of several Kings of Portugal Santaren has so great a number of Olive-Trees in its Dependencies that the Inhabitants boast of being able to make of their Oyl a River as great as the Tagus Setuval which the Flemmings call St. Hubes is well situated well built and of great trade It has the best Harbour in all the Kingdom thirty Miles in length three in breadth Its Salt-Pits and Fishery according to what the Portuguese say raise a greater Revenue to their King than all Arragon does to the King of Spain Alen-Teyo by reason of its Corn is reckon'd for the Granary of Portugal Its City of Evora pretends to the first rank after Lisbon In the Year 1663. the Portuguese gain'd a famous Battel over the Spaniards in its neighbourhood Elvas is known for its excellent Oyls for the Sieges which it has happily sustain'd against the Castillians Ourques in the Year 1139. saw that famous Battel fought which gave occasion to the proclaiming the first King of Portugal Algarve tho' of small extent has the Title of a Kingdom It was reunited to the Crown by the Marriage of Alphonso the Third with Beatrix of Castile it affords Figs Olives Almonds and Wines very much esteemed the Name of Algerbia in the Moorish Tongue signifies a fertile field The Seventeen Provinces of the Low-Countries THese Provinces are made to pass under the number of Seventeen because that formerly tho' at divers times they have each had their peculiar Lord. The Name of the Low-Countries is given them as a Country situated in the lower part of the Rhine The situation of the Low Countries is so much the more considerable as that it lies between England France and Germany These Seventeen Provinces touch France and Germany and are separated from England by the Sea There are four Dutchies Brabant Limbourg Luxembourg Guelderland Seven Counties Holland Zealand Zutphen Flanders Artois Hainault Namur a Marquisate of the Holy Empire which has only the City of Antwerp five Lordships Malines Vtrecht Over-Issel or Trans-Isalane Friesland Groninghen This Region is small but one of the richest and most populous in the World Its Air is temperate its Winter is more long than cold its Summer resembles the Spring of the Southern Provinces of France It s Soyl is generally fertile full of good Pasturages which furnish Cattel Milk Butter Cheese and other Commodities abundantly It s principal Rivers are the Rhine Maes Scheld The Rhine has its Sources in Suisserland most of its Course in Germany after having divided it self upon its entrance into the low Countrys at Skinckensckons it communicates most of its Waters to other Rivers those it keeps lose their Name in the Sand a little below Leyden in Holland The Maes which comes from France and from Lorrain has this advantage over the Rhine that it carries its Name and Waters to the very Ocean wherein it forms several good Harbours The Scheld serv'd for bounds to France and to the Empire in the time of the Emperour Charles the Bold It receives at Gaunt the Lis or Ley a navigable River and before it entirely loses its Name it makes two principal Branches the left called Hont the right whose Chanel passes by Tolen falls into the Meuse Besides these Rivers and those which fall into them there are Canals great store of Lakes Pools and Marshes which fortifie the Country provide it with Fish and afford the convenience of passage and the more easie transport of their Commodities The Emperour Charles the Fifth saw himself Master of all these Provinces In the Year 1581. they re●us'd for the most part Obedience to King Philip his Son taking for a Pretext of their Revolt the cruel Treatments of their Governours the Infraction of their Priviledges the Introduction of the Council of Trent and the Imposition of the Tenth Penny upon all the Commodities that were sold in that Country We may say that the two Real Causes of this Revolution were the Change of Religion and the Ambition of some Lords joyn'd to the Aversion of the People to a foreign Government Two Years before these Revolted Provinces had made the Union at Vtrecht for which reason the Duke of Alva who made War in those Provinces for the King of Spain did maintain that he ought not to treat them as the Patrimony of his Master but as his own Conquest There are in the Low-Countries two States very different from one another the one is a Republick or rather several Republicks and is called for that reason the Vnited Provinces otherwise Holland the other belongs in part to the King of Spain and goes under the Name of the Catbolick Provinces or that of Flanders The Christian King has Conquered the best of these Provinces and the strongest Towns which have been confirm'd to him by the Treaties of the Pyrenees of Aix la Chapelle and of Ni●●meghen or else possess'd by him under colour of Dependencies The Hague is the Residence of the Council of the States-General of the Vnited Provinces Bruxels that of the Princes or of the Governours established by the King of Spain Lisle Tournay Doway Ypres Dunkirk Arras St. Omar Cambray Valenciennes Luxembourg are Cities the most considerable of the Acquisition of France The Roman Catholick Religion is only receiv'd in Flanders All sorts of Sects are tolerated in Holland Each person is allowed to follow his own Opinion tho' not Preach it in Publick The Sect of Calvin is there principally exercised The National Synod held at Dort in the Year 1619. has regulated the principal Points of that Religion The Humours of the People of Flanders and Holland are as different from one another as are their Governments and Religions The Flemmings do much affect those fine Titles of Honour which the Kings of Spain have not been sparing of to them The Emperour Charles the Fifth had a design of making a Kingdom of this State so as would have done before him Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy who meant to have it called the Kingdom of the Lyon The Hollanders are more popular than
the midst of the Low Countries has four Cities the Capitals of as many Quarters Bruxels Louvain Breda Boisleduc Bruxels is very populous the abode of a Prince or Governour whose Palace is very spacious Its Chanel which leads to Antwerp is one of the finest Works of the Country with prodigious Sluces which have cost immens Sums As well as at Avignon some of its Publick Edifices are to the number of seven The Church of St. Gudule is one of the finest of the Country The Neighbourhood of the Forest of Soignes furnishes its Inhabitants with Game for hunting Louvain which some make to pass for the Capital of Brabant is one of the greatest Cities of Europe with a famous University which gives occasion to the By-word That it is a City of Scholars as Bruxels is a City of Courtiers Antwerp a City of Merchants Mechelin a City of Advocates and Lawyers by reason of its Parliament Tillemont was taken by force in the Year 1655. by the French and Hollanders Breda belongs to the Prince of Orange and Hertoghen-Bosch or Bois-le-Duc to the States General of the Vnited Provinces as do also Berghen-op-Zoom and the Grave All these Places are well fortified Bois-le-Duc is so extraordinary strong by reason of its Marshes that it pass'd for Impregnable before it was taken upon which account they were us'd to say in Holland out of Raillery I will pay you when Bois-le-Duc is became a Beggar that is to say never The Brabanzon pretends the Priviledge of deliberating nothing out of the Limits of their Country The Marquisate of the Holy Empire has this Name from its Site upon the ancient bounds of France and the Empire whither the Emperour sent Governours who were call'd Marquesses There is only the City of Antwerp one of the best and most pleasant of the Netherlands the Emperour Charles the Fifth call'd it his Sunday or Holy-day Town the importance of its Situation has occasioned the making sumptuous Fortifications which consist of ten great Bastions and one of the strongest Cittadels of Europe flank'd with five regular Bastions fac'd with Brick and hewed Stones This Cittadel was built towards the higher part of the River rather than towards the lower that it might command the Town and receive Succours from the Country subject to its Prince the Duke of Alva who had made it plac'd his Statue therein which has since been taken away The Jesuits in Antwerp have a Church all of Marble look'd upon as one of the finest in the World Formerly above two hundred thousand persons were reckoned in this Town and about two thousand five hundred Ships upon the Scheld But the Inhabitants of this place do not now drive that great Trade they did since the Hollanders have seiz'd upon the Avenues of their River The City of Mechelin is the Residence of the States or Parliament of the Catholick Provinces of the King of Spain It s Barony is very small the Women of Mechlin being ready to lye in are said to cause themselves to be carried upon the Lands of Brabant that so their Children may enjoy the Priviledge of the Brabantins Namur is a Town of importance by reason of its passage over the Meuse at the place where it receives the Sambre from hence they transport Marble Ardoise Pit-Coal Charle-Roy upon the Sambre is one of the best Fortresses in the Netherlands Limbourg has only the Town of the same Name which is in any consideration with a strong Castle upon a Rock The French King made the Conquest of it in the Year 1675. but was bound to restore it to the King of Spain by the Peace of Nimmeghen The Bishoprick of Liege owes subjection to its Bishop as well in Spirituals as Temporals the Inhabitants gave it formerly the Name of Grace He is Elected by the Chapter his Residence was formerly at Tongres and Mastricht This Country is of a great Extent with several places lying within the Marches of the neighbouring Provinces Liege is a trading Town and as they say the Paradise of the Ecclesiasticks It was observ'd in the Year 1131. that there were amongst the Canons of its Cathedral Church nine Sons of Kings fourteen Sons of Dukes nine and twenty Sons of Counts and seven Sons of Barons 'T is very populous notwithstanding it was ruin'd by the last Duke of Burgundy When the ancient Priviledges subsisted there it had thirty two Trades and a Body of two and twenty Burgesses composed of Ecclesiasticks of Nobles and of the third Estate or Commonalty these twenty two were call'd most Honoured Lords and had the principal direction of Affairs The Elector of Cologn its Prince caus'd a Cittadel to be built here which was demolish'd by the French in the time of the late Wars The Town of Spa is known to us for its Medicinal Water Mastricht for its Fortifications and for the famous Sieges it has sustain'd It is made up of two Towns Mastricht reckoned to belong to the Duke of Brabant Wick of the Appurtenances to the Bishoprick of Liege The Peace of Nimmeghen has resetled the Hollanders in possession of Mastricht Cambresis is near France The City of Cambray has a good Cittadel the guard whereof was only confided to natural Spaniards when their King was Master thereof It has a Clock singularly wrought by the hand of a Shepherd and furnishes extraordinary fine Linnen or Cambrick Since the Year 1595. the Kings of Spain have attributed to themselves the Tempoporal Jurisdiction of Cambray the Emperours did not contradict them in this matter because they are of the same Family and the Arch-bishops had to no purpose solicited the re-establishment of their Right those Prelates style themselves Arch bishops and Dukes of Cambray Counts of Cambresis Princes of the Holy Empire tho' commonly they have neither Session nor Voice in the Diets In the Year 1677. the French King commanding his Army in person made himself Master of the Town and Cittadel of Cambray which were confirm'd to him by the Peace of Nimmeghen Lorrain LOrrain is a Country with the Title of Dutchy considerable for several advantages particularly for its situation between Champagne French-Luxembourg the Palatinate of the Rhine Franche-Comte all these Provinces are possess'd by the French except the Palatinate It brings forth plentifully all the Conveniencies of Life unless it be Oyl It has Jasper and stuff for the making of Drinking and Looking-glasses The Lorrainers are bigotted Catholicks There are reckoned three Bailiwicks that of Nancy Vaudrevange and Vauge where is Mirecourt Under the general Name of Lorrain may be comprehended the Dutchy of Bar which is of a double kind there is Barrois Royal on this side the Meuse and Barrois Ducal beyond the same River several Territories adjacent the Bishopricks of Metz Toul Verdun formerly Principalities of the Empire Imperial Towns of the same Name which since the Reign of French Henry the Second have own'd Subjection to the Crown of France It is to be noted that these Bishops are