Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A42665
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The Germane spie truly discovering the deplorable condition of the kingdom and subjects of the French king : being an abstract of the several years observations of a gentleman who made that the peculiar business of his travels : with a continuation of Christianismus Christianandus.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing G614; ESTC R26764
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54,175
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78
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Disturbance and the better to succeed to leave nothing unattempted that force or fraud can procure It is no Quarrel between Nations bearing enmity to one another neither is it in revenge of Injuries received but an impotent Rage and Lust of Empire in one Man that has set all Europe together by the Ears Delirat Ludovicus plectitur Europa One man is mad for the Empire and that madness of one man sets all Europe in a Flame Now for that the worst of Usurpers would be thought to have some glittering pretence for their Injustice therefore it is that the French King makes it his business to find out men of Wit and Cavil to turmoil for Justifications of his illegal Actions such men are easily found and the Temptations of Gold makes them no less sedulous to gratifie the Jupiter that commands the Golden Showres so that if they can but find him a Pretence of Claim he 'll find Armies and Bombs to make it good Under the warmth of such Golden Encouragements was Hatch'd that Elaborate Peice Entitled The just Pretensions of the King meaning the French King to Europe wherein after the Author has laid it for a Foundation that the Demesnes and Conquests of Kingdoms are always the Demesnes and Conquests of Sovereigns and that the Conquests and Demesnes of Crowns cannot be ascertain'd or prescrib'd he adds That the greater part of Germany is the Patrimony and Ancient inheritance of the French Kings Charlemaigne possess'd Germany not as Emperor but as King of France From which Doctrine it is evident that his Imperial Majesty nor indeed any Prince in Europe can ever be safe nor hope for any quiet while the Ambition of France is in a condition to lay such a claim to their Dominions More especially since it is known by wofull experience that the French King gives no other Reasons for his unjust Violences nor cares to give any other than what the Lyon gave to the weaker Beasts one part is his Right as King of the Forest another because he is able to subdue the third he takes by Force and for the rest touch it who dares Another Cunning to set up a French Title is by the means of certain Scribes as good as ever Granger so dextrous at the strokes of their Pens that they will imitate the obsolete Gothick Characters with that exactness that you would swear they were Written above Five or Six Hundred Years agoe and by that means they will set up a Dependence from such a distance of time that Beelzebub himself shall not be able to disprove it Upon these Foundations it was that as if he were dealing only with the Farmers of his Revenues by a Publick Declaration he erected a Sovereign Court at Mets compos'd according to the custom of France of a dozen of his Lawyers who by virtue of the King's Authority and the Ministry of the Catchpoles of that clandestine Jurisdiction summon before them all such Kings and Princes as are possess'd of any Territory which the King is pleas'd to call a Dependence upon any State with which he has nothing to doe and when no body appears to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of this Tyrannical and Vniversal Piepoudre and to give them an account by what Right they possess what their Predecessors have for three or four Hundred Years peaceably enjoy'd presently the Most Christian Prince makes his own Power his Judges and his Army his Advocates and immediately with Fire and Sword seizes upon the confiscated Dominion And by virtue of such Pretensions as these he claims and has possess'd himself of the Dukedom of Lorrain the Dutchy of Deux Ponts and the best part of Alsatia as being dependencies of the Bishopricks of Toul Metz and Verdun and consequently must be united to the Demesnes of the Crown of France Having then so clear a Title to the Empire no wonder he pursues so dreadfully the recovery of his Right And yet the true Mother of the Child could not endure to see the Bowels of her Infant ript up before her Eyes no nor can we believe the Most Christian Prince to be the Hereditary Father of those Countries which in detestation of all Compassion he so inhumanly ransacks and depopulates being then a Spurious Title disown'd by the Legitimate Parents of all true Titles Law and Justice which only fraud and force could make good Of both how dreadfully and how too successfully the Ambitious Monarch has made use in asserting his illegal claims all Europe can too sadly testifie no less lavish of his Gold than of humane Bloud The Grand Visier and the Cham of Precopite Tartary were his Pensioners dazl'd with several Millions of his Louisian Medalls the one to divert the Arms of Poland the other to keep his Imperial Majesty employ'd in the utmost Limits of his Dominions bordering upon Turky that he with the less resistence might revel in the Ruins of the flourishing Gardens and Cities of the Rhine And as he tramples under foot all Faith and Honour at Home so by tampering with the Ministers and Subjects of other Princes he instructs them here to manage their fidelity to the best advantage of his own Ambition and by a Metal of his own tries what Metal they are made of before he deal with their Masters And with this sort of White Powder which does execution without Noise shoots down more Citadels Castles and strong Holds and takes in more Towns than all the Thunder of his Cannon In so much that it has been observ'd that when his Ambassadors go abroad they either carry along with them the Principal Engins or else they are sent after them an Ambassador or an Agent go before his Army and then usually a Conquest follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is his Motto A new way to Honour and Renown unknown to Alexander or any of the dull Roman Conquerors Had not the Steward of Commissary General Capellier's House been tainted with this golden Poison he had never been surpriz'd by his Master in the very Act of Traiterous Correspondence with the Minister of France to whom he gave an exact accompt of all he could discover in his Master's House And to confirm what his Master had detected at length certain Letters which the Steward was to have received from the French Minister were seiz'd at the Imperial Post-Office in Frankford After the Peace of Nimeguen the City of Strasburgh thought it self in full security confirm'd by several fervent and vehement Letters which the French King wrote to them from time to time and the assurances given them by his Resident abiding in the City that his Master desir'd nothing more than to live in Peace and Amity with the Emperor and with the Cities of the Empire And yet by the underhand contending and tampering with the same Resident a Traitor was chosen Burghermaster who acted altogether conformable to the Advice of France On the other side the Magistrates and Burghesses being lull'd asleep by the fair Promises and Protestations of
the Marquess of Bethune's Sister was married to the King of Poland jealousies between the King her Husband and the Emperor were fomented and Factions set up in that Country by the means of those Golden Rays which the Sun of France displays in that Court by the Hands of the Bankers of Hamburgh and Dantzick And the more to encourage her to play her Gaime according to the French Instructions his Most Christian Majesty made her Father a Duke and Peer of France and promis'd to receive her as a Queen and not as a Subject if she return'd a Widow in her own Country Thus he thought to have caught the Young Duke of Bavaria with one of his natural Daughters but that Heroick Prince despis'd the Motion And if the French King were assur'd that the Young Prince of Poland should succeed his Father there is another natural Daughter of France ready prepar'd for him for otherwise it would be a Daughter merely thrown away if she could not be in a Station to serve her own Country For that the main end of the French King in giving French Wives to the King of Poland and the several Princes of Germany is to divide the strength of the Empire and lessen the Authority of the Emperor by separating from his interest the particular Princes of the Empire by private Intrigues and distinct Treaties which though it be contrary to the Treaty of Munster yet that signifies nothing to a Prince who has no such Veneration for Leagues as to think them worth observing As for the French King 's dealing with the Duke of Nieuburgh it was somewhat Barbarous for that after the French King had caus'd him to Mortgage the greatest part of his Estate almost beyond the hopes of Redemption in expectation of the Polish Crown to which France had promis'd to advance him by the assistence of a strong Party which she had in that Kingdom contrary to the Treaties as well with the Duke as with the Elector of Brandenburgh and to his reiterated Promises and Vows both by word of Mouth and in Writing he underhand by his Creatures and Agents oppos'd the Duke's pretensions and endeavoured with all the industry and importunity imaginable to have the Prince of Conde preferr'd before him and all the rest of his Competitors a sufficient warning to all Princes how they relie upon the broken Reed of French Integrity The Elector of Brandenburgh was environed with French Emissaries and Spies and some of his Principal Ministers so intoxicated with the Elixirs of France that nothing was said or done in his Palace of which the French Envoy had not swift Intelligence And the World was well inform'd of all the Intrigues and large Presents which Monsieur De Rebenack scatter'd about in that Court of which the Agent himself was so unwary or so foolish as to make his boasts The Elector of Saxony better understood his own Interest and therefore would not bite at the Golden Hook as one that disdain'd the treacherous Offers of France but the French King endeavour'd by other ways to raise him disturbances in his own Family and to set him at Variance with his Neighbours which would have strangely imbroild him had not the Emperor in time provided against those Mischiefs However lest it should be said there was any Court in Christendom wherein the French King had not some Plough or other going he forbears not to send into Saxony such as know how to accommodate themselves to the Humour of the Country more especially the stoutest Drinkers he can find out who by that means making themselves familiar at the Tables of the Great Persons watch their opportunities in the highth of Jollity and Compotation to draw the Worms out of their Noses and dive into the bottoms of their open'd hearts The Palatine Electors neither Father nor Son would close with the Interest of the French and therefore his most Christian Majesty sacrificed the depopulated Cities of that Country to his Fury even to the compassion of some that were the Executioners of his Rage a Depopulation which none but such Monsters of Men as the Most Christian King employs would have undertaken Men so impious and fearless of God that one of them being mildly reprehended for the burning of a fair Town reply'd That he would burn God in Heaven if his Master the King of France commanded him to doe it But perhaps the Most Christian King is of the Opinion of the Antient Galls believing there is no way to give peace to a Country but by rooting out the Inhabitants according to that of Tacitus Galli ubi solitudinem fecerunt pacem appellant Nor could the Bishop of Munster as cunning as he was preserve himself from being out-witted by the French infidelity For that being comprehended in the League of the Rhine when he found himself attack'd by the States of Holland within the Empire he implored the Aid of France according to the Guarranty but in vain for which when he was about to make his complaint he was of a sudden overwhelm'd with the Forces of France and had not his Enemies us'd Moderation toward him more than his own Allie his Territories though the Patrimony of the Church had been laid in Ashes before now When the French King broke Faith with Holland to the surprize of a great part of their Country he was so far from assigning any Cause true or false for his Actions that he only publish'd a Declaration of War without any other Reasons than only the Ill satisfaction which His Majesty had of the behaviour of the States General toward him being risen to that Degree that he can no longer without Diminution of his Glory dissemble his Indignation against them c. Therefore he had resolv'd to make War against them by Sea and Land c. And commands all his Subjects courir sus upon the Hollanders for such is Our Pleasure Certainly it was never known that in any Age or Nation in the World the Sword was drawn upon no better Allegations a style so far from being Most Christian that nothing but some French Romance could parallel the Expression All that can be said 't was A-la-mode de France But Holland had no reason to wonder at these proceedings considering what a Prank the French King had plaid them before when he pretended to joyn with them in the War against England At what time France by virtue of a Treaty of Guarranty with the States of the United Provinces after several requests ineffectally made by the States found her self oblig'd to make a shew of undertaking to defend them against England among the rest of the Articles there was one by which it was concluded and agreed in express terms that the Allies should not Negotiate much less conclude any Peace or Truce with the common Enemy without the consent of the other and without procuring the same satisfaction for his Allie as he would for himself The States tied themselves with that Integrity to this Obligation