Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A28883
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The bounds set to France by the Pyrenean treaty and the interest of the confederates not to accept of the offers of peace made at this time by the French King. To which are added some short reflections; shewing, how far England is concern'd in the restitution of that treaty. Together with a list of the towns and countries that the French have taken since that time.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing B3834A; ESTC R223870
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54,475
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121
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her to be confin'd within ' em Therefore she fell upon Pope Alexander VII and seiz'd upon Avignon after she had enrag'd the People of that City to mutiny against the Governour If you ask what Ground she had for her Pretensions She will answer That the Pope did not do what he would have had done for him Hence it came to pass that the order of all things was ranvers'd The eldest Son of the Church takes up the Rod to chastise the common Father of the Christians because he proves disobedient whereas 't is generally seen that Fathers correct their Children when they fail of their Duty Pepin the Son of Charles Martell the Twenty Third King of France of the second Race was the Glory of his Age and the greatest Example of Piety and Veneration towards the Popes of any among all our Kings His Zeal so eminent when he march'd into Italy to succour Pope Zachary most cruelly persecuted by the Lombards the Marks of his Friendship and Tenderness bestow'd upon Pope Stephen III. who fled for Refuge into France and his raising the Siege of Rome which Astolphus King of the Lombards was constrain'd to quit as being enforced to sue for Peace to Pepin who kept him close block'd up all these signal Services which he did the holy See acquir'd him the glorious Sir-name of Most Christian Now if we compare King Pepin's Conduct with the Behaviour of Lewis XIV toward the Popes 't will be no difficult thing to conclude that the Court of Rome never had a greater Enemy then this Prince and consequently that there is nothing which he less deserves then the Sir-name of Most Christian If you demand a Reason for all these Extravagancies you need no more then consult his Ambition that Passion will make answer That when once it got Possession of his Heart there was nothing in the World which it did not prompt him to undertake for the satisfaction of it So that 't is no wonder if the Rights of the Church and whatever is more Sacred and Augnst are become Victims to his Exorbitant Desires But what does France do further still She was oblig'd by one of the Articles to abandon the Protection of Portugal promising withal to employ her utmost Industry to persuade that Prince in Friendly Terms to compose the Differences which he had with Spain But hardly were the Ratifications exchang'd before she made a Laughing Stock of her Promises She gave out Commissions underhand and caus'd the Drums to beat up publickly at Paris in order to the Raising of Souldiers for the service of that Crown But all this is nothing Here comes another Tragical Event that makes her Mistress all of a sudden of a vast extent of Country of several Signiores Dukedoms Marquisats and Earldoms and because that was not enough to satisfy her unsatiable Avarice whole Kingdoms must become her Victim and her Prey I mean the Death of Philip IV. The loss of that Prince drew Tears from the Eyes of Spain and all Europe but France leapt for Joy That Ambitious Potentate finding the time was come to spread abroad his vast Designs and extend his Limits at the Expences of the House of Austria sacrifices whatever is most sacred in Religion and in the venerable Alliance which he had contracted Neither Honour Oaths Faith solemnly sworn nothing is capable to stop him However that he might still preserve some shadow of Justice and authorize his Conduce by some shew of Reason his Majesty public shed a Manifesto wherein he set up the Queens claim to Brabant and some other Provinces of the Low Countries This Right was otherwise called a devolved Right by vertue of which a Brother born in the second Wedlock is excluded from the Succession bâ— a Sister of the first Venter And this is the Dispute between France and Spain Charles II. being the Issue by the second Marriage The King of France therefore having demanded of the Queen Regent of Spain the Dominions devolved to him in right of Mari Teresa his Wife he would not stay till the Council of Sapin return'd him an Answer His Impatience to aggrandize himself and extend his Limits spurr'd him on to be before-hand with all the World So that without any Declaration of War he seizes upon Bergue Furnes Tournai Douay Courtray L'Isle Oudenard Alost and all the Places that lay convenient for him And to these Conquests he joins the Important Cities of Salins Besanson and Dole after which follow'd the total Reduction of Franche Conpte Nothing could stop the Rapidness of his Arms there was a necessity of altering his Bounds and he must enlarge 'em to the utmost extent of his boundless Ambition Nothing could stand in his way but the Triple Alliance nothing else could make him consent to a Treaty of Peace By which he restores back to Spain nothing but what he pleases himself while he keeps those Places which he deems of greatest Importance and most proper to savour his Enterprizes He therefore consents to a Treaty at Aix la Chapelle but with a mental Reservation as Mahonia call'd it that is to say That he promis'd Spain to lay down his Arms provided she quits to him all the Places and Towns that he had seiz'd in 1667. reserving to him self a Power to begin the War agen so soon as the Peace should be concluded Spain is there enforc'd to quit Chatleâ—â—â— Binch At h Douay Tournay Oudenard L'Isle Armentier Courtray Bergh and Furnes with all their Dependencies Appurtenances and Jurisdictions One would have thought that after so many Advantages France would have been satisfy'd and would have let the Confederates and Spain have been at quiet at least for some Years But that was the least of her Intention For in 1671. her old insatiable Passion rous'd her again and she that had violated the Pyrenean Peace the most solemn the most sacred that France ever made sign'd by all the Nobility and Grandees of both Crowns might with much more reason infringe the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle Well then without consulting any other then her old Mistress Ambition and always when that Passion gives the word his Armies are ready to march and his Generals are in a condition to put his Designs in Execution the first Step then that France made after the Peace of Aix la Chapelle was her declaring War against Holland after she had made use of all the Artifices imaginable to break off the Engagement that united 'em with England and Sweden If you demand a Reason for this Rupture she will answer That the King had Inducements to look upon those People no otherwise then as the Enemies of his Realm and upon no other Grounds marches his Armies and in less then six Weeks takes from the Hollanders three whole Provinces of seven that compose their Common-wealth together with all the strong Fortresses upon the Banks of the Vahal and the â—ld Rhine She seizes upon Franche Conte the second â—ime and pushes on her Conquests
Custody and Preservation of one of these Places is entrusted with the Spaniards and for that Luxemburg has had too much experience of the Bravery of the Hollanders 't is not his Opinion that his Majesty should adventure his Fame and Reputation upon a Siege where he must fight against whole Armies of which the Garisons are Compos'd So that his Majesty in all likelyhood will be contented with taking a Journey into Flanders to give his Ladies a little fresh Air and if he finds no probability of doing any thing considerable he will return by the way of Dinant under pretence of some Indisposition of Body If the Marshals of Luxemburg de Lorge Catinat and Bouflers are to be believ'd there will be some set-Battles this Year and therefore it was not thought convenient to undertake any this last Winter for fear of Tyring out the Soldiers considering the need of Fresh Men to support so many great Actions Only the French could wish their Cavalry were a little more Numerous and that they could be suppli'd with the Horses which the Jews of Metz engag'd to procure ' em But the strict Order taken by the Confederates was an Invincible Obstacle which they never expected Thus you see what famous Exploits were design'd in the Cabinet at Versailles But if the Confederate Princes do their Duty and act by concert 't is in a manner certain that France will only Triumph in Imagination and that she runs a great hazard of seeing her self in as bad or worse Condition in the end of the Campaign as she was at the Beginning The Confederates with much more reason hope to Ruin her by prolonging the War and to enforce her in despight of all her Flourishes and Bravado's to Surrender back all her Usurpations 'T is a good Omen for the Confederates that France begins the first of all to talke of Peace and that she offers to restore some part of her Conquests 'T is a sign she is weary of the War and that her Conscience upbraids her with Perfidiousness and at the same time ordains her to make restitution of her Usurpations if she intends to be Reconcil'd with her Enemies As for the Confederates who are without Reproach in that Particular they are not yet so Harrass'd by the incumbent Necessities and fatal Exigencies attending a long War but that with far less Prejudice they can still maintain their Resolutions of never hearkning to a Treaty unless that France submit to surrender whatever she has possess'd her self of by Invasion since the Pyrenean Peace ADDENDA THAT it is the general Interest of Europe to have the Pyrenean Treaty restor'd to its full Force has been shewn at large in the foregoing Discourses but how particularly England is concern'd in that Restitution is what will appear by the following Reflections wherein I intend to shew that it is particularly both the Interest and Honour of this Nation never to consent to a Peace till the Affairs of Europe be reduc'd to the same condition as they were when the Treaty we speak of was concluded 'T is agreed on all hands That the Peace of Christendom cannot be lasting and firm unless there be an Equilibrium between the two Greatest Powers For when at any Time one prevails over the other Ambition never wants a Pretence to make War which in its consequence tho at first began only between them Two yet in the end sets all the States of Christendom together by the Ears and involves them in all the Miseries that attends a most barbarous and unmerciful War So long as the Spaniards were at the Top of the Wheel what Troubles Wars and Misfortunes did they not occasion in Christendom by their foolish and immoderate Ambition to Lord it over all the World besides And since the French have succeeded them in their Fortunes and Designs what Barbarities desolations and Cruelties have we not seen and felt This therefore sheweth the absolute necessity of an Equilibrum between France and the House of Austria but the Question is how to come at it Whosoever will be at the pains to consider well what has bin said before must agree That there is no other way left to balance those two Powers but to revive the Pyrenean Treaty which put such reasonable Bounds to those two contending Empires that I dare say it would be very easy to preserve Peace in Christendom did the Christians but mind their own true Interest But perhaps some will say against this How can you affirm that that Treaty did set the Scales even between those two Crowns seeing the French are grown so powerful since that time and the Spaniards on the other Hand have suffer'd such considerable Losses This is a great Objection I confess indeed and that which seems at first a Demonstration that that Treaty was too advantagious to France yet when it is throughly enquir'd into it will appear to be very trivial and of no force at all as I hope to shew before I have done And the better to clear this Difficulty I say first That to pretend to set such an exact Equilibrium between France and the House of Austria as may infallibly secure the Peace of Europe without the concurrence of the other States is a foolish and an idle Speculation and indeed an Impossibility 2. That all that we can reasonably expect is to set France and the House of Austria in such a condition that whenever one of them shall venture to disturb the Peace of Europe it might be in the power of another State to turn the Scales and command them to be quiet And 3. I say That the Treaty concluded at the Pyrenees left France and the House of Austria in such a condition Now to prove this I have nothing else to do but to shew That there was then such a Power in being as was able to keep both the French and Spaniards in Peace and that was England But to set this truth in its full Light I shall only put the Reader in mind of the Causes of the Growth of France in which the Author of the foregoing Treatise is in my Opinion very defective For tho' the great Ability of their Ministers of State the good use of their Mony and the Arbitrary Power of their King may have contributed very much to these Conquests yet after all they owe more to say not all to the kindness of King Charles II. and to the supine carelesness of the English This will appear the more visible if we consider the happy Circumstances that King Charles was in upon his Restoration The Effeminacy Luxury and other Vices which have bin since so common amonst us were then unknown to the English for Cromwel had left him a true sober and warlike Nation Our Seamen having curbed the Dutch they defied and that with Justice all the Powers of the World to contend with them for the Empire of the Sea We were Masters of Dunkirk a very considerable Place and which lying between the French