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A35796
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The Detestable designs of France expos'd, or, The true sentiments of the Spanish Netherlanders representing the injustice of the King of France by his declaration of war against His Catholick Majesty, and the justice of the counter-declaration of the Marquess of Gastannaga his Governour General of the Low-Countries.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing D1212; ESTC R5366
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20,170
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32
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homeward consult his own Actions and that then he will suddenly make satisfaction to the Princes his Neighbours for so many Provinces of theirs which he himself has usurp'd He will restore Franche Conté the Dutchy of Luxenburgh and all Flanders to the Catholick King. He will surrender Strasburgh Friburgh the Palatinate and all the Rhine to the Empire and Lorain to it's own natural and lawful Prince and Duke For how is it possible that the declared Enemy of Usurpers and Usurpations should himself continue to be the greatest Usurper of all King James he says was lawful King of England it may be so Neither do we concern our selves whether he were or no. But was not the Catholick King as much the Lawful Sovereign of both the Burgundies Is it because that Flanders which was wrested from him during the Campaignes of 1667. and the rest that follow'd was not his by all manner of Right and Title Is it because he was not the true and lawful Duke of Luxenburgh which was came the Duke of Lorain to forfeit his Dutchy What right had the French to ravish Strasburgh for the Empire Who shall endure the Gracchi complaining of Sedition In good truth it is a thing altogether insupportable that a prince usurping with so much Violence and Injustice the Estates of all the World should complain so loudly of Usurpers and of our being so strictly united with them Nevertheless the Prince of Orange is a Prince of the Bloud of England he marry'd the next Heiress and he was called in by the Nation in General He was declared King by the Three Estates of the Kingdom Now had the French King any Veil like this to cover his Usurpation of several Provinces which being join'd together are as good as a Kingdom Our Eyes are not yet sufficiently open to see the difference between the King of France and a Usurper He wrested those Countries from Spain from the Empire from the Duke of Lorrain in open War and by the dint of Sword VVhat other way did Crowwel the most Infamous of all Usurpers ascend the Throne of England Was it not by the force of open VVar and with his Arms in his hand By what means did the Turks usurp the Estates of the Christian Princes Was it not by main force Therefore they are no Usupers And Excellent Definition of an Usurper If fraud be requir'd to make a Usurper was there ever known a more wicked piece of Treachery than that by which he got Strasburgh and all the re-united Countries But some will say the King of France is too Conscientious he would not have despoil'd a King he would not have dethron'd the King of England A most apparent piece of Truth It was the niceness of his Conscience I warrant ye that hinder'd hi from taking Brussels and Antwerp as he did Gaunt or as if he would not have taken Madrid if it had been in his power as well as Messina While we see him devour we see that he is Insatiable let him but alone till his hunger is asswaged and you shall see how far he will eat on If Castile had call'd him and made him King he would have gone thither f possible he could and would have conquer'd it was he conquer'd Sicily After all this you may if you please give ear to the most Christian King when he talks so like a Christian against Usurpers Nevertheless we ought not to refuse him the Honour of being an Enemy to Protestant Usurpers For that is a double Crime in a Catholick King to favour a Usurper and a Protestant Usurper that 's very bad indeed Yet we see that the most Christian King has chang'd his Principles and that we need not to be afraid for the future of his doing what he has done formerly We might very well set before his Eyes tekely the Usurper of Hungary who obtain'd that Title to be given him by the Ottoman Port and who has done his utmost endeavour to get possession of it That Usurper is a Protestant for he is a Lutheran Nevertheless the most Christian King must not disown but that he has acknowledg'd him for one of his best Friends Had France no other Veil to hide her Miscarriages than a Cobweb yet she is so brazen-fat'd that she would deny what she did behind that Curtain with the same confidence as if she had had a wall of a hundred foot thick to conceal her And therefore it is that you will find her perhaps denying all her strict ties of Friendship and Treaty with Tekely and the Turk But what will she say to her Union with Cromwel Here is an Example that nearly concerns England where now the Dispute lies Henry William of Nassau Prince of Orange Prince of the Bloud of England marry'd to Mary of England Eldest Daughter of James call'd in by the English Crown'd King by the three Estates is a Usurper He is a Protestant Let every Catholick be anathematiz'd that adheres to him But Cromwel a Person of mean Extraction yet a Protestant but the Abomination of all of his own Religion the Murtherer of his King whose Head he had cut off upon a publick Scaffold The Tyrant of England and sworn Enemy of all Catholicks is no Usurper It is lawful for a most Christian King to make a League Offensive and Defensive with him to give him Entrance into Flanders to invite him to invade the Countries of a Catholick Prince to deliver Dunkirk into his Hands and give it to that same English Usurper At that time the Motives and Inducements of Religion Bloud and safety of all Sovereign Princes were but Chimera's never any such tings really known in the World till the most Christian King begins to be afraid of England under the Government of the Prince of Orange 'T is a Crime for a Catholick King to have any Alliance with such a Person In good truth it is apparent that the most Christian King derides Religion and Christianity and laughs at all Europe beside Let us suppose the Catholick King to be at a loss behold him between two Usurpers between the King of France a Usurper without the least shadow of Pretence of two Dutchies two great Provinces and several Cities and Territories and between Henry William of Nassau Usurper of England as France pretends The most Christian King invites him by all the Motives of Religion Bloud and safety of Kings to unite with him in a War against the Vsurper of England at least if the Condition of his Affairs will not permit him to engage in such a Vnion to observe and exact Neutrality On the other side King William of England promises him great Advantages if he will join with Him. What shall the Catholick King do In my Opinion between one Usurper and t' other his Interest requires him to declare for the Vsurper that never took any thing from him against the Vsurper that has wrested from him by force so considerable a part of his Dominions VVhat
held with the Rebels of Hungary and their furnishing them with the Assistance both of Men and Money and all this since the General Peace of Nimeghen We know that it was France that sollicited the Port to invade the Emperor's Dominions and to undertake the Siege of Vienna We know that it was France that practised whatever could be devis'd to break the Peace between the Emperor and the Turk All this is so notorious that there is no necessity to prove it the Court of France moreover makes her brags of it We accuse her and she glories in it We agree the matter of Fact the dispute is onely concerning the Nature of it Let the World judge whether it be just and honest for a Christian Prince that would be thought so zealous a Catholick to sollicit the Forces of Infidels to overthrow and extirpate Christianity and whether the Emperor and the King of Spain have not more than sufficient reason to abhor Peace with a Prince that declares War against Jesus Christ by uniting with the profess'd Enemies of the Cross The next Reason which the Marquess of Gastannage alledges is founded upon the unheard of Inhumanities Cruelties and Barbarisms perpetrated in the States of the Empire by the French Forces by the peculiar Order of the most Christian King. This was a sound Argument when our Governour produc'd it but it is very much improv'd since that time in regard those Cruelties are multiply'd since at a strange rate There was enough then to priviledge our Governor to speak what he said But what might he not now have said had he seen what since has befall'n us The fair Cities of Wormes Spire and Oppenheim and all those other Towns that lie upon the Rhine from Philipsburg to Mayence have undergone the same Fate That lovely Canton of Germany the Delight of the Earth and true Terrestrial Paradise is now a dreadful Desert where there is nothing to be seen but smoaking Ruins the Crys of which mount up to Heaven Spire the Seat of Imperial Justice where God voic'd forth his Oracles to determine the differences between Man and Man and preserve the Peace of private Families is at present a heap of Ashes The very Names of considerable Lineages are annihilated the Seeds of Eternal Discord are sown in the Ground and the effects of the French Fury have extended themselves even to future Ages by the Destruction of so many German Families Wormes a spatious and renowned City is now become an Object that terrifies the Sight Nothing but Ruins are there to be seen which bespeak the most execrable Cruelty that ever was committed The whole Country round about presents nothing to your view but Desolation not to be imagined Neither Trees nor Vineyards no planted Orchards or Gardens no Corn no verdant Fields or Meadows nor any hope of Harvest All is become one dreadful Object all alike Conflagration Fire and Ashes Depopulation intermix'd with smoaking heaps of Ruin and Rubbish And what occasion'd these Extravagant Outrages Perhaps they might be done upon the first motions of an Indignation not easily master'd Perhaps it might be the effect of sudden Rage upon the Sacking of a City taken by Storm where the Soldiers incens'd by the dangers they have escaped and greedy of Plunder put all to the Sword. No it was in cold blood that these horrid Inhumanities were exercis'd and upon Cities and Provinces of which they had been in Possession for several Months upon People that endur'd their slavery with Patience and of whom they had not the least reason in the World to complain It was done after mature Deliberations and Resolutions taken in the Cabinet and Cabal at Versailles consisting of the King Louvay and de Croissy Did ever the whole Senate of Devils fix upon Resolutions so horrid and Infernal Lucifer and his Angels never imagin'd or executed any thing so dismal to the Destruction of Mankind Suppose you saw the Inhabitants of that spacious and lovely Country hurrying out of the midst of Fire and Flames Mothers with their Infants in their Arms bathing their Cheeks with Tears and sending up their piercing Crys to Heaven disconsolate Husbands dragging their Wives and Children after them old Men slowly creeping from the danger tottering at every step and bewailing the Loss and Desolation of a Country where they had enjoy'd Tranquillity and Pleasure for so many years together young Men abandoning the hopes of those Fortunes and Estates they were just ready to inherit by the Death of their Parents whom old Age was about to dispose to a better Life Set before your Eyes this numerous Multitude dispers'd among the Woods wandring over the Mountains laden with those small remains of that same fatal Shipwreck which every one could save consum'd with Weariness over-whelm'd with Grief surrounded with Affliction and making the Banks of the River eccho with the Plaints and Lamentations Lastly consider that as an Accumulation of Cruelty they refus'd these miserable Creatures the Consolation of seeking Sanctuary and Relief among their fellow Country-men beyond the Rhine All that they desir'd was to die Freemen and to breath forth their last gasp in the Arms of their Friends and Relations But they constrain'd them only to change the Place of their Captivity and to retire into the Cities which the French as yet are Masters of upon the Rhine on purpose to redouble their Affliction in seeing their abodes newly assign'd them destin'd to the same Desolation as their native Soil In these firs of general Fury there was nothing spar'd Things the most Sacred were prophan'd The Bishops and they that officiated at the Altars were dragg'd about the Streets in Pomp and Triumph They were constrain'd to save those sorry Remnants which the Soldiers left and what they could rescue out of their Churches among the Rocks and Forests The Religious Orders were hal'd from their Solitudes and the Spouses of Christ were expos'd to the Insolencies of the Victorious Soldiers Those Churches that were formerly the Sanctuaries of the unfortunate were laid level with the Earth the Devotion of our Ancestors that rear'd them not being able to preserve them Who would have thought or Age could have produced such dreadful Extravagancies And yet for all this we are Debtors to the King of France There needs no more to distinguish him from all the Princes in the World. Tho he was well enough known before by his new Law while he pretended that whatever had belonged or had formerly been annex'd to the Countries which had been conceded to him by the Treaties of Munster and Nimeghen ought to return to him Observe a Maxim of War which is no less new but very terrible That there is a necessity of burning destroying and annihilating whatever cannot be kept lest the Enemy should make any benefit of it Never was any conception of Hell so dreadful What would have become of the world if this Maxim had been in force two Ages ago What would have become of Germany