Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	army_n	king_n	land_n	2,510	5	5.6995	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26186	The lives of all the princes of Orange, from William the Great, founder of the Common-wealth of the United Provinces written in French by the Baron Maurier, in the year 1682, and published at Paris, by order of the French King ; to which is added the life of His present Majesty King William the Third, from his birth to his landing in England, by Mr. Thomas Brown ; together with all the princes heads taken from original draughts.; Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Hollande et des autres Provinces-Unies. English	Aubery du Maurier, Louis, 1609-1687.; Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.	1693 (1693)	Wing A4184; ESTC R22622	169,982	381

the injuries of Barnevelt's Party which revived itself in the persons of the two De-wits who were Brothers expecting with a silent patience which was greater much than that of his Ancestor the great Prince William what time would produce and what favorable occasions might occur at last for his Re-establishment for having by a solemn sentence been deprived of all the Employments of his Family after the sudden death of the Prince his Father he was restored to them again at the beginning of the last war by an Ordinance that was made on purpose for it His Rise and Re-establishment were owing to France which having made great Conquests for almost 8 years together the greatest part of the Frontier Towns and several capital places of the Provinces Utrecht and Zutphen among others were rendered up at the very sight of their Armies though these places were provided with large Garrisons yet being composed of Officers and Men without any experience the King of France became Master of more than 40 places in less than two months These misfortunes which seemed to be the presages of greater and had put the United Provinces into the utmost consternation gave occasion to the People to complain of the ill conduct of the two De Wits who governed till that time and furnished those who adhered to the House of Nassau with a reasonable pretext to affirm that the Princes of Orange were only able to uphold their tottering State and defend them against their most potent Enemies and that as heretofore they had protected them against the Tyranny of Spain so it was they alone who could preserve them from the Fury and Violence of the French Armies The Grand-mother of this young Prince who was a Woman of a Masculine courage and suffered the indignities that had been offered to the House of Orange with great impatience having beheld it in its greatest splendour was not a little serviceable in stirring up all the creatures and dependants on the House of Nassau who were very numerous these people being angry to see themselves fallen from their credit the principal employments being given to the Sons of Burgomasters and seconded by the fury of the people that were grown out of all patience at so many disasters and the sight of a victorious Army through the very bowels of the Countrey massacred the Enemies of the Young Prince who was afterwards restored to the possession of all the dignities that had belonged to his Ancestors which is to say that of General of their Forces Stadt-holder and Admiral which were moreover by a solemn decree made hereditary to his Family Upon this occasion it cannot but be admired how so powerful a State that had made head for Fourscore years against the Crown of Spain had taken such large Towns and gained so many Battels and had become formidable at Sea to all the Princes of the world having carried its Arms and Victory to the farthest part of the Earth that this State I say which had rendred itself so famous by the long defence of Ostend which has equall'd the reputation of the famous Sieges of Tire and the ancient Troy should be reduced in less than two months to the very brink of its ruine and it had assuredly been destroyed in the year 1672 if by a desperate resolution it had not resolved to save itself by drowning part of the Country as a Pilot who throws all his Cargo overboard during a furious Storm that so he may preserve his Men and Vessel But those who knew the constitution of these Provinces and were not ignorant that discord is the plague and certain destruction of the most flourishing States were not so much amazed considering it was more than Threescore years since that Country had been torn in pieces by two contrary Factions which threatned its subversion without any Foreign Forces This Gangreen likewise had so seized upon the most noble parts of the United Provinces that in the year 1672 by a strange fatality and an unaccountable passion the greatest part of the chief Persons in that Country desired the loss of their Land Army and the defeat of the Prince of Orange whose Rise and Power they so much envied For this reason they had not sufficiently provided his Army with necessary provisions whilst they applied their principal cares to increase the Fleet to resist the Kings of England and France who attacked them jointly with a Navy of above Fourscore Men of War But it is not less surprizing to consider the expedition the French made in this Campaign when as these people for fear of becoming subject to the House of Orange allied to these great Monarchs had committed a considerable fault in their Politicks for after the Peace of Munster imagining themselves to be in perfect security and that they had nothing more to be afraid of and being acknowledged Soveraigns by Spain they might rather give Laws than receive them from any body They disbanded the greatest part of their old Forces that were Strangers and those experienced Officers who had gained so great Glory to their Country imagining that the surest means of freeing themselves from the Slavery which they thought themselves threatened with was to take from the Prince of Orange the support of his Government by reforming those Troops which looked upon him as their Master having taken an Oath to him and were devoted perfectly to his service Besides the principal men in the Country had as they thought some interest in this change for they gave all the Commands in the Army and the Government of places to their own Relations thinking by the assistance of this Souldiery to sortifie themselves and at the same time to weaken the House of Orange but they found by sad experience that endeavoring to avoid one inconvenience they fell quickly into a greater For having given the great Employments in the Army and Government of places to Sons of Burgomasters and Deputies of Towns People without any experience and who wanted Tutors for themselves rather than to be Commanders when a strong and powerful Enemy made War against them these young men show'd none of their Northern courage in this storm and danger for there were places that were garrisoned with 5000 Foot and 800 Horse that rendred themselves all Prisoners of War at the very sight of the French Army without making any resistance My Brother de la Villaumaine who came into France a little before this last War giving me an account of the state of the Army in Holland told me that if a powerful Enemy should attack them the Officers must resolve to perish and bear the brunt in their own persons having no confidence in the Souldiers they commanded who did not know how to manage their Arms a Prophecy which was since accomplished at the expence of his Life A little before he told me likewise that the Dutch Horse were so ill equipped that 50 Reyters of Munster would put to flight two or three Hundred Dutch

with his Niece formed of himself a project of Peace which he sent to his Ambassador at Nimeguen there to be distributed amongst the other Ambassadors and Mediators by those of England The chief of these propositions were That the King of Sweden and the Duke of Gottorp should be intirely satisfied That the Prince and Bishop of Stasburg should be restored to all his Demains Goods Honours and Prerogatives and that his Brother Prince William of Furstemberg should be set at liberty That as for the Emperour he should alter nothing in the public Declarations that were made at the Treaty of Westphalia only he offer'd either to keep Philipsburg and give up Friburg or else to keep Friburg and give up Philipsburg That as for Spain he would restore Charleroy Aeth Oudenard Courtray Ghent and St. Guillain with their dependances but in recompence demanded all the Franche Comté Valenciennes Bouchain Condè Cambray Aire and St. Omers with all their dependances In a word all the Places he was in possession off except those above mentioned Besides he consented to surrender Charlemont or Dinant to the Catholic King provided the Bishop of Leige and the Emperor agreed to it That as for what concerned the States General besides the satisfaction he gave them by what he yielded up to Spain he wou'd restore Maestricht to them and continue the same treaty of Commerce they enjoy'd before And as for the Interests of the Duke of Lorrain he was willing to re-establish him according to the Pirenean Treaty or to surrender all his Territories to him except the City of Nancy but that by way of recompence he would give him Toul reserving nevertheless to himself a passage from his Frontiers into Alsatia and the Roads that would be necessary to him from France to Nancy and from Nancy to Mets Brisac and the Franche-Comte That the Confines between Spain and the Low-Countries to begin from the Sea should be the Meuse Nieuport Dixmuyde Courtrdy Oudenard Aeth Mons Charleroy and Namur and that these Confines should be secured by these Places since they had cost him some Millions to fortify and by quitting them he deprived himself of the advantage of marching up to the Gates of Brussels whenever he pleased These Conditions were liked by some but disapproved by others The States General for instance had no reason to reject them but the Ministers of the Allies in a conference at the Hague absolutely rejected them as unjust and unreasonable After several warm disputes upon this occasion the Spaniards began at last to comply and that the more because they saw both England and Holland consented to the proposals of France Besides this their Affairs grew every day worse and worse by the considerable loss of Fort Leeuw which was much about this time unfortunately surprized by the French But what served wholly to determine them was the return of the French King who besides an Army he had near Brussels had two more not far off one upon the Rhine and the other between the Meuse and the Sambre which threatned nothing less than the entire loss of the Spanish Netherlands in case the Hollanders made a Peace without them and continued Neuters after it during the course of this war to which the King of France earnestly perswaded them The Spaniards therefore being constrained to yield to the necessity of their Affairs declared they were ready to accept these Conditions of Peace Upon which the States General were very urgent with the other Allies to give their consent and upon the delay of the Ministers who amused themselves with making Memorials and Replies dispatched express Orders to their Ambassadors at Nimeguen to conclude the Treaty out of hand But they were extreamly surprized when the Plenipotentiares of France refused to sign it for they demanded that intire satisfaction should be given to the King of Sweden protesting that in case of refusal the King their master would conclude nothing This started new difficulties and gave occasion to the States General to make fresh complaints of the procedure of the King of France after they had so frankly submitted to the Conditions which he himself had proposed That King's answer was that he should come to St. Quintin where he wou'd carry six days for the Commissioners whom they should send to adjust this difference But the States thinking they had done enough on their part resolved in the presence of the Prince of Orange to send no body till the Treaty was signed The News of this difference and of the resolution of the Hollanders to continue the war unless the King of France would somewhat abate the interests of Sweden being arrived into England the Parliament who before had voted to disband the Army which the King had raised both by Sea and Land were now resolved to keep it on foot His Majesty sent part of the Army over to Flanders and made a League offensive and defensive with the United Provinces wherein a very short time was limited for the French King to sign the Treaty or declare his further pretensions This resolute conduct of the King of Great Britain put an end to this troublesome affair so the Treaty of Peace between France and Holland was signed on the 11th of August at midnight 'T is certain the French King had done better not to have refined so much in his Politics for it had like to have cost him the entire loss of the D. of Luxemburg's Army Mons had been a long time blocked up by the French and was now in a manner reduced to the last extremities when the Prince of Orange receiving advice that the Confederates had joined the Army of Spain and Holland which was near the Canal of Brussels he parted by night from the Hague on the 26 of Iuly Immediately after his arrival he call'd a Council of War with the Generals of the Allies where it was resolved that they should decamp and pursue the Duke of Luxemburg who marched by Mons with a design to hinder any relief from being put into the Town Thus resolved the Prince parted with the whole Army at the beginning of August and no sooner had he left Brussels but General Spaen joyned him with a reinforcement of six thousand men of the Elector of Brandenburg and the Bishop of Munster The French who had rested some days at Soignes hearing of the Prince of Orange's March suddenly decamped and the Confederate Army encamped in the very same place where the Enemy had been the day before His Highness marching from thence on the side of Rocles advanced with his left Wing as far as the Abby of St. Denys where the Duke of Luxemburg had his quarter And as this post was in a manner inaccessible by reason of the Woods the Briars and Precipices it was encompass'd with the Duke so little dreamt of being attack'd that he was at dinner when they brought him word that the Prince of Orange was coming to surprize him and so he was forced

moreover the mighty esteem they had of so glorious an Alliance and their sincere resolution to cultivate the ancient Friendship and good Correspondence which had always been and was between his Britanic Majesty and them This answer arriving at London on the 14t h of November which was his Highness's Birth-day the Marriage was celebrated at eleven at night but with so little noise that the People knew nothing of it till the next morning when they gave all public testimonies of their joy by Ringing of Bells and Bone fires But amidst all this rejoycing and feasting the Prince knowing how necessary his presence was in Holland made all possible expedition to arrive thither He parted from London on the 29th of November with his Princess and landed at Terheyde from whence he went to Hounslaerdyk where they tarried some time till they made their public Entry into the Hague which was a few days after performed with extraordinary Magnificence But I pass all these ceremonies over in silence in order to come to matters of greater importance Towards the beginning of the year 1678 tho it was the midst of Winter the French King made such mighty preparations of War that all Europe was alarmed at them but particularly Holland and the Consederates This made the King of Great Britain send the Earl of Feversham to his Most Christian Majesty with a project of Peace by which Charleroy Aeth Oudenard Courtray Tournay Conde Valenciennes St. Guillain and some other Towns were to be surrendred to the Spaniards and the King of France to keep all the Franche-Comte in his possession but he would not hearken to it and as for the King of England he was as unwilling to abate any thing in his propositions Which obliged his Britannic Majesty to sent orders to my Lord Hyde his Ambassador at Nimeguen to make a strict alliance with the States-General which being concluded he dispatched My Lord Montague into France to press the King to accept his terms and gave out Commissions at the same time for raising an Army but the French King rejected these conditions of Peace and made great provisions for the war on all sides but especially in his new acquisitions in the Low Countries Upon which the King of England recalled the Troops he had in the service of France which besides their other ill treatment were sent home without their pay The King of Great Britain held firm to his resolution and summoning a Parliament communicated to them the late alliance he had made with Holland for the public benefit and repose of Christendom protesting he was resolved to force the French King to a Peace and therefore desired them to furnish him with a summ of Money necessary for such a design The Lower House thanked his Majesty for the great care he took of the Protestant Religion in marrying his Niece to a Protestant Prince beseeching him not to consent to any conditions of Peace with France unless they were better than those at the Pyrenean Treaty To which the King having consented the Commons after a long deliberation resolved to equip a Fleet of Fourscore and ten Men of War and to raise an Army of 29870 Land Men and nominated Commissioners to compute the expence Whilst these things lay under debate the French King who was sensible what designs the Consederates were forming against him resolved to render them all ineffectual by being before hand with them For this effect he left Paris on the 7th of February and marching by the side of Mets entred Flanders no one being able to determine where the storm would fail All the World was of opinion that the design was upon Mons or Namur or some other place of like importance and Ghent which never expected to be attack'd had so weakned itsGarrison by drawing out their men and distributing them in other places that the French King who knew this very well sate down before it on the 1st of March with an Army of Threescore orFourscore Thousand men It was impossible for a City of so large a compass which had not above four or five Hundred Soldiers in Garrison besides the Inhabitants to defend themselves long against a vain-glorious Prince who valued the taking of a Half-moon more than the loss of a Thousand men and who by his assaults and batteries had extreamly weaken'd it So Ghent was forced to surrender nine days after it was besieged from thence the Enemy came before Ipres but that City being much stronger than Ghent and besides furnished with a better Garrison the Besiegers met so warm an opposition there and lost so many Officers and Soldiers before they took it that the King put the greatest part of his Army immediately into Garrison and returned to Paris whether he thought his Army sufficiently harrass'd by these two Sieges or whether he thought he had humbled his Enemies enough to incline them now to accept his own proposals of a Peace or lastly whether he was afraid of the English who had sent considerable Forces into Flanders For about this time the D. of Monmouth was arrived at Bruges with three thousand Horse and Foot which the K. of Great Britain had sent to re-inforce the Prince of Orange's Army and the Parliament was so earnestly bent to pursue the War against France that they petitioned the King to declare open War against it promising to stand by him with their lives and fortunes and to furnish him from time to time with sufficient summs to carry on so generous an undertaking In the mean time all the world was astonished to ●…ear that the French King had intirely abandon'd Messina and all Sicily The more able Politicians imagined that now there were no hopes of a Peace since this Prince had abandon'd his Conquests in Italy as he had lately done those in Holland for no other end but that he might the better compass his designs upon Spain and the Empire But others said it was an infallible sign he was not so strong as he pretended to be and that what he had done was rather out of meer necessity than for any other end However it was the Parliament of England were of belief that France was resolved to continue the War in Germany and the Low Countries and therefore to stop his Career granted his Majesty a Poll-bill and by the same Act prohibited the Importation of all French commodities King Charles who was desirous to enter into a League with the Empire Spain and the United Provinces would oblige them to make the same prohibition in relation to French goods in their own respective Dominions But while the Hollanders were demurring upon the last point believing that such a prohibition would ruine their trade an unexpected accident fell out that changed the whole face of affairs The King of France after his return to Paris seeing his Britannic Majesty was resolved to support the Interests of his Nephew the Prince of Orange particularly since his Voyage into England and his Marriage