strong whereas on the contrary the Prince of Orange was necessitated to weaken his Army and to send or leave more than ten thousand men in the greatest Cities for fear they should render themselvs then must he have an artillerie well furnished regulated and governed for to open the Campaign to some conquests the Germans being still constrained to stay in their winter-quarters uncapable to act or cause any diversion through defect of forrage in the Netherlands Then after an enterprize don upon any place as is ordinary His Majestie rereturns back re benè gestâ and without any hazard of a battel then makes detachements from Flanders to Germany and so illudeth the great designs of the Allies We conclude then by all this that the irregular ambition of the French their unsatiable avarice their old pretences upon quasi all the Provinces of Europe their will and inclination to robbery their vain inconstant and unquiet humour not permitting their Neighbours to live in rest are the true causes of all the calamities and miseries of Christendom and especially of the Netherlands whom it seems God had placed as in his anger in the midst of Europe to the end they might be the beam of the Ballance Now in this case It is necessary to have recourse to other Remedies under God than those which to this time have been used for the healing us of this French Disease that cometh now to the Noble parts of the Body of the Seventeen Provinces making them rotten and fall off by pieces being in danger of a total destruction Better means know we not than the application of English Mercury to make the Enemies salivate and evacuate what they have with so great greediness swallowed in For whither else shall we betake ourselvs for refuge but to the English for reestablishing the counterpois so necessary for the publick rest and felicity of Christendom and especially of the Netherlands for whose Conservation England is so greatly in it's interest concerned having also received of God the advantage of a situation so excellent as to be fit to keep the ballance of Europe and be an Arbiter of all things therein shewing in effect that it hath reason on all occasions to say Cui adhaerco ille praeest Whom I incline to shall prevail And truly it is a glory for the King of England that whilst Other people are very unable to help or are menaced and so in an appreehension of the terrible forces of the King of France or are overcome by his presents against their own interest or elsely still in a deep lethargy He alone can praescribe limits to the almost endless ambition of the French to bring them to reason and put them in mind that they with their Monarchy now so idolized the designs whereof they believe to be infallible are yet no other than men and subject to change of fortune which would ensue in case the English should take the party of the Allies And what help can there be expected if we cast our eyes on other places for relief Let 's begin with the Alpes there we have an object of astonishment in observing the Low-spiritedness of the Switsers that mercenary people obliged by reason of State and formal Treaties to the guarrantie of the Dukedom of Milain and the French County which yet they suffered not long since to be taken in their sight If we come to Turin there we shall find a Duke de Savoy under the government of a French Mother and depending on intelligences from the French Court and in some sort bridled by the Fort of Pignarol which is the Key of his Land Not far from thence shall we find those of Geneva irresolved trembling for fear prepared to suffer insultings and to make all sorts of curteous addresses for preserving their quiet the conquest of whom would but be as the fruit of one Campagne or it may be of three months time If we enter further into Italie there we shall find Princes weak and timid who will not oppose themselvs against the progresses of the victorious arms of France unless in the greatest extremitie The Republick of Venice in former times called the Buckler of Italie being newly delivered from a grievous war against the Turks shall not engage or but very slowly and putting off so long as they can in a new war against France which might be worse to them than the former I shall not here mention the Pope nor the Great Duke of Tuscany who shall never undertake any thing of themselvs unless what properly relates to the reading of their Breviarie or at best they may be good to contrive a Treaty or to fortifie one that is already made by Others If we pass into Poland and Portugal we shall stand admiring as we might not long since have don in Savoy and Bavaria to see the Mistresses to be French Wives who possess and govern their Husbands kept by the French and driven by the same spirit of ambition to endeavour that Kings greatness and who perswade themselvs that they have don a singular favour to the Allies that they have till this timeforborn to give them some notable diversion which we have reason to apprehend for the future In so much that there is none but his Majestie of Great Britain that is capable and worthy to sustain the quality and heavy though glorious burden of Arbiter and Peacemaker of the troubled world for we shall here leave out as unworthy to be Mediatours the Swedes those mercenary Souls and boutefeus of Germany those infortunate Braves who in stead of procuring the peace and rest of the Empire where of they were Considerable Members have disturbed the tranquility thereof by their unjust invasion into the Lands of an Elector then employed on the Frontiers for the common defence of his Countrey having sold themselvs to France for finishing the combustion of the rest of Christendom There is therefore no other that can sustain the rank and do the function of a true Esculapius to heal our sicknesses by Others incurable but the King of England and that by prescribing to the French such conditions of peace as shall reduce them from beyond the River the Somme to keep within their old limits as in the time of Louis XI in the beginning of his Reign And in case they refuse it there is none but the King of England that can make them swallow Ellebore to purge their brains of those ill humours and fumeswhich corrupt them and blot out of their corrupted imaginations the vast idea's and Chimaera's of their Charlemagne and so to calm all the troubles and tempests of Europe whereof they are the Cause His Majesty shall but follow therein the footsteps of his glorious Ancestors who passed beyond the Seas with numerous Armies to reliev the Netherlands and not suffer them to fall into the hands of the French believing that whole England should be in great danger of destruction Phil. de Comines chap. 1. l. 4.
oalamità delle quali si può dire che per diversi accidenti habbia dipoi participato una gran parte del mondo par les prodiges qui presageoient cette guerre d'incredibile timore si riempivano i popoli spaventati gia per la Fama della potentia de Francesi c. And indeed King Charles the VIII made himself Master of the Kingdom of Naples in few days by the terrour of his Arms doing it by assault burning the Mount Sr. Iohn passing with his sword through all that was to be found an unheard of Case in those times and he soon lost it again afterwards by his negligence and too little care he had to preserve it But We must not now so flatter ourselvs Their present Monarch know's no less how to conserve than to conquer Provinces If we do but observe the marches of this Imperious Nation on the borders of Germany there we shall see Alsatia turned out of the hands of the Almains and joyned to their Crown a Duke of Lorrain driven out of his own Land 3. Bishops viz. Thoul Metz and Verdun dismember'd from the Empire which He Keeps in continuall divisions and agitations by his Emissaries by his intrigues and by his corruptions Lastly Descending to the Netherlands the Principall Subject of our Discourse It is to be considered in what manner the French have en deavoured to bring them into that miserable Condition wherein we see them at this day and to discover the true cause of their maladies to this end We must have recourse to the reign of Louis the XI King of France who by his subtilty and deceits ruined Charles the Stout Duke of Burgondy and Lord of all the Netherlands stirring him up new Enemies from time to time who at last gathered together before Nancy where he lost his life and his people all their welfare which since that time they never could recover Some years before this Prince who possed Bourgondy all the Netherlands and the Citie Paris being then a Frontier of the Kingdom of France almost whole Picardy did bridle by his intelligence and courage the ambition of this King so full of artifices but because for easing of his people he was not provided with a good and well ordered Militia he came to be surprized by the Other who by his horrible exactions of taxes and laying impositions upon his people was always accompanied and encompassed with a great quantity of armed men the which gave him means and therewith desire to extend his limits in despite of his Neighbours but the matter was well enough ballanced untill the death of Charles the Stout whose death caused to his people an abyss of calamities and miseries seeing Louis the XI at that time kept to himself Bourgondia whole Piccardy Arras and many other considerable places He likewise always amused the English after the death of the said Duke to the end they should not hinder him in the conquests of those Lands Yet by the marriage of Mary of Bourgondy Heyress of the Netherlands with Maximilian of Austria Philip. de Comines Chapit second du 6. Livre as also by the loss of the battel of Guinegate the French could not execute their design to bring under their power the Seventeen Provinces which yet they might very easily have joyned to their Crown The same Author 12. Chap. of the 5. Book by a marriage of their Dauphine with the said Damsel Mary of Bourgondy if the good God had not blinded Louis de XI and taken away his senses and hereby was the way to the Universal Monarchy wonderfully made plain clear for Philip the Fair Son of Maximilian and for Charles the Fifth Then again the Netherlanders took a little breath howbeit They were often incommodated by the invasions of the French who nevertheless found themselvs not in posture to undertake any thing against their Neighbours because of the Parties and leagues which soon after were formed in the bosom of that Kingdom And yet however hindred by so many cruel civil warrs the French quickly recovered again and retook very much vigour by the courage and wise conduct of Henry the Great The Netherlands having been in that intervall always rent by a perpetuall warr in the bowells of their Provinces but all that was not capable of ruining them there was need of the engins of a Cardinal de Richelieu for an absolute abasing of them and reestablishing the French in their ancient splendour and making them after the reduction of Rochel and suppressing those of the Refored Religion to follow on in the footsteps of their glorious Ancestours taking the way of Charlemagne unto the Monarchy to which end they must throw down or debase the greatness of the House of Austria now prodigiously encreased more by Marriages than by Arms which fell out exceeding well He leaving behind him a worthy Successour the Cardinal Mazarin for to atchieve the prosecution of his Designs who would not have missed to emport the Netherlands in case it had not then been prevented by the Queen of France Anna d' Austria who did oblige him to make a marriage between the King Louis XIV and the Infanta of Spain and at the same time to conclude the peace of the Pirenées by which means the rest of the then staggering Netherlands was preserved then were affairs in a tolerable state whereof the good Subjects wished a long continuance and confirmation having begun to tast the sweetness of the Peace When yet in the year 1667 without any denunciation or reasonable cause of war upon a weak cause and pretext of a Custom of Devolution of Fief upon the Children of the First Marriage practised in Brabant and other places in particular houses which had never been confirmed by the Soveraign nor used in Families of Princes the French as an effect of their enterprizing humour invested the best Cities of those Lands the rest whereof cannot maintain themselvs otherwise than by miracles But this deservs a more particular Examination The King Louis XIV having conceived an unchangeable design of reaching hard for the Monarchy of the greatest part of Europe or at lest to limit his Kingdom by the Alpes the Pirenées the Mediterranean Sea the Ocean and the Rhine judging that the Netherlands now in a state of welfare and comliness might serve for a wall of planks for the further propagating of his Conquests Did in the Moneth of May in the year 1667. in time of a full peace without any subject of rupture with Spain and notwithstanding good and positive assuranees of good correspondence and friendship given by his Ambassadour at Madrid march with an Army of 50000 men for to take possession so as they could and not make war of the Netherlands devolved by the death of Philip the IV. King of Spain upon the Queen his Wife and therewith He approached Charleroy which the Spanjards had abandoned because it was not in a State of defence But the
French having in a short time brought it into a good posture soon after took without great resistance the Towns of Tournay Douay Orchier Lisle Courtray Audenard Aeth Bergen St. Winox and Turnes that is to say all the best Cities of Flanders situated in the bosom of the Land which had very little or no Garrisons in them because of the assurance they had of a Peace which had been so solemnly sworn and confirmed by a Marriage which yet in stead of serving as a band as was hoped for the nearer uniting of the two Crowns was by the French made use of for a pretext of war and by this means they were soon Masters of three of the principall Rivers of the Land viz. of the Liz the Escarpes and the Scheld thereby breaking their Comerce and Communication with the remaining Towns to their great decay of trade And really the Spanjards being obliged by the Treaty of Aken to yield over to the French all that they took from them in the Netherlands they became very unable to preserve the rest For as is evident when we will pass the Center within Bruxels we cannot pass the circumference of the Frontier for it's defence otherwise than by three or four semidiameters which are very narrow One whereof goeth by Mons or Bergen in Hainaut or Henegow St. Gillain and Valencienne to Cambray the Second by Namour or Namen to Luxemburgh the Third by Gent and Ypre to St. Omer the Last by Weert and Roermonde a village of Gelderland all which passages are incommodated by the French who by their continual concourses in those parts do very lightly hinder the Convoys which should be brought into the Cities of the Frontiers And who can without tears in his eyes look upon this Countrey that is so miserably subjected to a cruel Contribution being not a fingers breadth of Land without vexation the value whereof amounteth unto prodigious summs the Citie of Mastricht alone bringing up for their share four Millions by which 't is very easy to comprehend That they pursue their Warrs at the charge of their Enemies which doubtless they therefore desire to continue notwithstanding all their shows and expressions they make for Peace and so will they make the poor people desperate who wish for nothing else but a good Peace and an end of the warrs or a Master that is powerfull to defend them and that they may be driven to that extremity I very much apprehend and fear we shall shortly see effected this having already been shewed in diverse rencounters particularly at Aire or Arien where the Burgers did constrain the Garrison which consisted of 400 men to give it over to the French It is very true that the Netherlands are in a poor condition unprovided of all things and that the King of Spain hath no more there than 6000 horse to bring into the field wherein their whole army consisteth and 5000 Spanish foot to keep their Cittadels and places whereof they are most jealous besides about 15000 Waloons and Germans for the ordinary Garrisons of the Towns which number is yet too little and the Soldiers not well enough treated to be able to keep their places in so much that the Hollanders are obliged to leave there more than ten thousand men for their defence My hairs rise upon my head when I consider the danger wherein we are and that the welfare of the Land depends onely upon the taking or surprizing of one or two Cities the loss whereof would undoubtedly cause the rendition of the rest for if the French take Bergen in Henegow where the Burgers are malcontent and murmure against the disorders of the Spanish Valencien and Cambray are cut off and without succour having already much to do being blocked up by parties of the French Army by Bouchain and by a considerable Corps of the French that lodge in Cambresis And in case we loose Namur then the Citie and Land of Luxemburgh will immediately follow for want of relief so that one or two of those Columns being taken out of the way the rest of the Building will fall of themselvs and applaud the triumph of the Overcomer For the Great Cities as Bruges Gent Bruxels and Antwerp either because of their conformity in Religion with the Most Christian King or that they are in hopes not without grounds thereby to see the reflourishing of the Commerce and to have their River Scheld opened or that they apprehend that their Soveraign is too far off or hath not strength enough to guard them from the insultings of their Enemies who consume them to their bones will very lightly embrace the French yoke for the multitude of people that are there chuse such Party as they will which shall certainly be the strongest and that is the French There is no man now who discerns not the manifest danger of the Whole Netherlands which are so drained out by these warrs and among whom you rencounter many people that have not the greatest affections for the Prince of Orange and others for reasons too long here to deduce enclining to the French Who then shall after this doubt but that this French Monarch shall at last attain his aim viz. first to extend his limits to the Alpes to the Pirenées and to the Rhine and then to think further The French declare openly enough that they will not suffer the Spanish within the Netherlands who during the minority of their King or in their Civil Warrs may give any trouble to this great and mighty Kingdom Men must reform this errour which till now hath prevailed in their Opinions That the Prince of Orange joyning his troops with those of Spain should be able to save the Netherlands the contrarie having been experienced for notwithstanding what efforts he used the French this last year took Condé Bouchain and Aire being three places which mightily incommodate the Other the last whereof had more than 200000 livres of contribution of France Further is to be consider'd the advantages they have over us by their Magazins which make them subsist in the Camp with their numerous Cavalry when their Enemies cannot shew themselvs for want of forrage by which means they have the opportunity to make siege by some detachement opposing the body of their Army which is stronger in Cavalry than the Army of the Allies in some advantagious place against those who would bring succour to the place they besiege and so they play sure play not hazarding their reputation and glory The King came in at the beginning of the Spring when there was no grass on the field to feed the horses with an Army of 20000 horse and 30000 foot leaving a few men within the Cittadels now almost impregnable which he had caused to be built after the peace made at Aken at Lisle Tournay Arras Dunkerk and other places and drawing out all the Garrisons which make up 30000 men he joyned them to the troops of the Kings house who were 16000 men