Lavinians against the Romans but they put off their resolution so long that when they were going forth of Town to give Summons to them News came that the Latines were defeated whereupon Milonius the Pretor said We shall pay deerly to the Romans for this little way we are gone For if they had resolved not to have given Aid they had not given offence to the Romans by helping of them and had their Aid come in time with the addition of their own Forces they might have gained the Victory But by delays loss and misfortunes came every way And whether this may not be the Case of England I submit it to your great judgment This is not such a War as was between the Etolians and Archadians for a wild Boar nor for a Cart-load of Sheep-skins as was between Charles Duke of Burgondy and the Switzers nor like that between the Scoâ—s and picts for a few Dogs but it 's pro aris focis We fight to preserve our own Interest and to avoid Beggery and Slavery which will unavoidably fall upon us if the Ambition of that aspiring Prince be not stinted When England shall vigorously appear against them the French King will be necessitated to desire Peace and to do Justice The apprehension of your Forces will be a terrour unto him our Allies will be greatly encouraged and they with united Forces will act more powerfully Our Fleets will give them such just fears that they will be obliged to employ some great part of their Troops to defend their own Coasts and will be necessitated to quit some of their new Conquests as they have done Messina to secure their own Dominions The conquering of Villages and Towns are like Bonfires of Straw but if they meet with a stout opposition they are mortal as other men and one good blow will cause a reverter of all their new Acquests It 's storied that Charles the fifth after he had clasped Germany almost in his fist he was forced in the end to go from Jusprug as if it had been in a Masque by Torch-light and to give up every foot in Germany that he had gotten Which I doubt not will be the Hereditary fate of the late Purchases and Conquests of France I know the Most Christian King hath as many experienced Captains and disciplined Souldiers as any Prince in Europe but that sorts to the honour of the English seeing they ever have had the better of it in all Rencounters and never left the Field but with Glory The French Valour lieth to the eye of the lookers on but the English Courage lieth about the Souldiers heart and the Fury of the French the first blast being over turns to Fear No King or Prince hath such a spring and seminary of brave Military people as be in England Scotland and Ireland and who will be ready to sacrifice their Lives for their King and Country Where was Caesar in greater danger than in England Where was there a Prince that durst challenge him to a single Combat but in England The Romans conquered Gallia in ten years whereas they did not subdue England in 200 years and not then till they had conquered all the rest of the World Because they reserved the Conquest of England as Conquerors use to do most commonly in great Enterprizes for the last and greatest Conquest that they had to do If you will consult the Register of times you will observe England never had any Encounter with France but it came off with Honour I shall give you a particular List of some of them in an Historical truth no ways strouted nor made greater by Language that 's becoming a General at the head of an Army when they are going to Battle but not with me And I shall begin with that at Cressey the first great Battel That Heroick King Edward the third having been provoked by divers Affronts that Philip of Valois the French King had offered him goes over in person into France with an Army of 8000 men at Arms and 10000 Archers he takes with him his Son the Prince of Wales and Duke of Guyenne being but fifteen years of age called afterwards the black Prince to train him up in feats of Arms. Landing in Normandy he marches within ten miles of Paris and after divers Skirmages a Battel was appointed King Edward incamped near a Village called Cressey the French Kings Army was above twice the number consisting of above 60000 with all the Flower of the French Nobility The Battle began the Fight grew hot and doubtful insomuch that the Commanders sent to King Edward who was gotten into a Wind-mill where as from a Centinel he might behold the face of the Enemy to come up with more power the King asked the Messenger whether his Son was hurt or slain and being answered no he replies Then tell them who sent you that so long as my Son is alive they send no more to me for my will is that he have the honour of the day The Fight on both sides was very furious the French King having his horse killed under him withdrew which being known to the English it added so to their Courage that they soon after won the Field This Battle was so bloudy that there were none made Prisoners but all put to the Sword The number of the slain French surmounted the whole Army of the English for the number of the slain were about thirty thousand The next great Victory in France was the Battle of Poitiers The black Prince being tapred up now to a good growth was sent by advice of Parliament to Gascony the Truce being expired He ravaged the Country as far as Tourane John the French King raiseth a potent Army more numerous than that at Cressey and going to finde out the Prince of Wales found him about Poitiers not much above 10000 men effective in his Army The Prince finding the main strength of the French Army consisted in Horse he intrenched amongst the Vineyards where when the French Cavalry entred being wrapt and intangled amongst the Vines the English Archers did so ply and gall them that thereby being defeated and put to rout the whole Army was soon defected In this Battel King John himself was taken prisoner whom the Prince brought into England where he continued four years And as the French Historians themselves confess he was so nobly received that he knew not whether he was a free King or a Captive Besides Lords and Nobles that were slain in this Battle there were upon the whole more French slain than the whole English Army was in number We will now to Agencourt Henry the fifth that Mirror of Princes being come to the Crown he cast his eyes towards France and for claiming of his Title he sent the Duke of Exeter in a magnisicent Embassie to demand the Crown but receiving no satisfactory Answer but rather a kind of Jeer the Dauphin sending him a Sack full of Racket-balls to pass away his time he
replied That for every one of those Balls he had so many Fiery Bullets to shoot at the proudest Terrets in France as he should shortly find And he was as good as his word for he presently got over and encountering the French Army at Agencourt he gave it an utter Overthrow and took more prisoners than his own Army had Souldiers And this King made so absolute a Conquest of France that Charles the seventh of France like a poor Roy de Juidot consined himself to Burges where having cashiered his Retinue he was found in a little Chamber at supper with a Napkin laid before him a Rump of Mutton and two Chickins There were many other Warlike Encounters betwixt England and France whereof the stories are full and it 's observed that the English at most were but half sometimes not the third or fourth part in number to the French in the Engagements And though the Scots did always confederate with the French against England and when the King of England was in France would for diversion invade England yet England bore up single and victoriously against them both I must beg your pardon if I cannot omit one story Edward the third being engaged in France with his Army David King of Scots with about 60000 men being a Confederate with the French King invaded England Queen Philippa with the Archbishop of York the Lords and the Knights of the North encountered the Kings Army and utterly defeated it The Scottish King was taken prisoner and reserved as a Present for Edward the third when he returned out of France to keep company with John the French King taken prisoner by the black Prince And there were but six weeks difference between both Victories Nor were such high Exploits performed by the English on Land onely but by Sea they have been as glorious Philip the French King not long before the Battle of Cressey to hinder Edward the third's return into France got a mighty Navy in equipage of 200 sail of Ships besides Gallies in the Haven of Sluce where of King Edward being advertised prepared such another Fleet and encounters the French with such resolution and success having the Wind and Sea for him that he thereby defeated the whole Navy slew about 30000 men and so returned with mighty Triumphs and the Admiration of all Europe In the year 1591. was that memorable Fight of an English Ship called the Revenge under the command of Sir Richard Greenfield memorable I say beyond credit and to the hight of some Heroical Fable This Ship for the space of 15 hours sate like a Stag amongst Hounds at the Bay and was seiged and fought with in turn by 15 great Ships of Spain part of a Navy of 55 Ships in all the rest like Abettors looking on a far off And amongst the 15 Ships that fought the great St. Philip was one a Ship of 1500 Tun Prince of the twelve Sea-Apostles which was glad when she was shifted off from the Revenge This brave Ship the Revenge was maned onely with 200 men whereof 80 laid sick yet nevertheless after a Fight maintained 15 hours and three Ships of the Enemies sunk by her side and 15 more of them so torn and battered that they perished in the Sea before they could recover the Tercera that gallant Ship never came to be entred but was taken by composition the Enemies themselves having in admiration the Vertue of the Commander and the whole Tragedy of that Ship Nor doth that Primitive innate Courage and Gallantry languish or decline in them as some think the World doth and as we find it doth in other Nations as the Jews and Greeks but it continueth in the same height The ancient Stourness and Gallantry of the English appeared in many Traverses of the late War here in England The French King confessed that the Brigade of English before Dunkirk though not the fifth part of the Army did contribute most to the taking of that Preditory Town And I doubt not but when his sacred Majesty of Great Britain shall be pleased to give his Royal Fiat we shall see the same valiant Bloud is now channelled in the English veins and that every Royal Subject will be ready to take Talbot's Motto upon his Sword Sum Talboti pro defendendo Rege contra inimicos So that if the King of Great Britain will take into his Royal Consideration the Galamities and miserable condition that all Europe is in by the Oppression of the French and their designes of an Universal Monarchy and potently act having such a Warlike People with the rest of the Confederates the Reduction of France to its ancient Boundaries would be no great work I doubt not but that the Parliament of England will give Aid cheerfully and Sir Money is the Primum Mobile that moves the Spheres which are the hearts and hands of men his Majesties Fame and Power will be admired his Subjects highly pleased the Nations under his Scepter feared and it will beget a perfect Union between his Majesty and all his People who in a grateful and humble acknowledgement of his Royal Care and Protection of them will bring to his service a Magazine of Hearts and to his Coffers a Treasury of Money which is the Soveraign Cordial that gives life to all Warlike Actions What the touring and ambitious thoughts of the French King signifie his great Preparations by Sea do manifest to all Europe for he hath raised a greater Naval strength in few years since he hath applied himself to it than ever yet was raised in the world for the time And if he shall yearly increase in power at Sea as he hath done for these twenty years last past the whole world will not be Elbow-room enough for his Ambition Having so prodigioully advanced in number of Ships after he hath gained more Harbours and Ports as it 's his designe and bred up experienced Commanders and Sea-men as no Prince can be more industrious he will then pull off the Vizard and declare that all Kings Princes and States must give Obedience to his Monarchy and become his Vassals Sir it 's certain that those States whose Renown are greatest in Story did establish their Supream Dominion upon the Power they attained at Sea The Romans did not impose upon the World their Laws till they had forced the Sea to receive and acknowledge them Had they not set out Warlike Fleets they had never accomplished their glorious designes they had never extended their Fronteers beyond Italy nor brought down the pride of Garthage nor triumphed over all the Crowns on Earth The Egyptians the Persians and the Grecians considered the Sea as the best Support of their Dominions And whether the designes of the French King be not as large and great by his Naval Preparations as those of the Romans Greeians or of the Egyptian or Persian Monarchs were it 's well suiting with the Wisdom of the Kings and Princes of Europe to consider Be assured Sir if this
Treaties can be reckoned which the French Ministers have not violated Have they not broken the famous Pyrenean Treaty confirmed by Oaths and Sacraments and contrary to a solemn Renunciation and the double Tyes of Bloud and Marriage Before a Breach complained of or a War declared they invaded the Territories of an Infant King Have they not by Addresses and Cunning by Bribes and Rewards endeavoured to corrupt most of the Ministers of State in Europe How well they have kept the Articles of Peace concluded at Westphalia and Nimmeguen the Emperour King of Spain and Princes of Germany can tell you And can you prudently hope that the future Practices of the Most Christian King will be more just than his former He that hath broken thorow so many Obligations Alliances and Treaties will he not do so again Be assured Sir you cannot anchor any faith or confidence in the Alliance or Friendship of France for France is a floating Island and no Terra firma It 's prudence to keep an Enemy at the Swords point and not to suffer him to come within you The Spanish Dominions are the Fountain from whence you draw a great part of your Traffick and by consequence your Riches The Netherlands are the Out works of England if they are taken you are weak and dismantled And let me tell you Sir the day of the Ruine of Flanders is the eve of the Subversion of England If the Vnited Provinces should be brought under the subjection of France it would be a thing of that dreadful consequence that the very thoughts of it must needs raise the bloud of all true English men They are so scituated that several of the greatest Rivers in Europe not onely run thorow their Country but disembogue into the Ocean within their Precincts If the French make themselves Masters of the Rivers as it 's their designe and endeavour will they not in a short time bring all the Havens and all the Inhabitants bordering upon the Sea under the same subjection The Sea-ports without the Rivers and the Rivers without the Sea-ports being altogether useless if they be reduced under the Obedience of the French their Country will be the Nursery of his Sea-men and in all other respects the support of his Naval strength If they must be Slaves will it not be some satisfaction to them to lend a helping hand to bring their Neighbours and in truth all Europe into the same condition with themselves The conquering of the Vnited Provinces is not onely a fair step but it 's the best part of the way to the Universal Monarchy They being conquered the Spanish Netherlands will of course fall into their hands being the Key which opens the door to the Throne of that Monarchy And if you do not act vigorously with the rest of the Confederates the Most Catholick King will be enforced to take new Measures and break with you I need not use many words to make all England sensible of the sad consequence of a Spanish War 1. The seizure of all your Merchants Estates amounting in the whole to a vast sum 2. The loss of your Trade with them which of all others is the most beneficial to England and without which your Woollen draperies must lie upon your hands and half of your Weavers and Spinners c. go a begging 3. The interruption of your Levant and Plantation-trade which cannot in case of a Breach be secured by ordinary Convoys With what encouragement or safety can your Traders venture abroad when the Seas come to be infested with Ostenders Biscainers Majorcans and Minorcans Did not those very men without any help take above 1500 Ships from you in the late Spanish War when Spain was at the lowest and fought alone against England and France I could offer many other reasons but I am unwilling to be troublesome When the French King suffered the Duke of Alenson his Brother to take upon him the Title of Duke of Brabant and defence of those Countries he sent an Embassadour into Spain to excuse his Brother's going thither and signifie unto the Spanish King that which was done was done without his privity or consent The Spanish King was highly displeased with the Message and answered the Embassadour That he had rather have the French King his professed Enemy than a dissembling Friend And whether England ought not to have the same Sentiments I pray consider The French have no kindness for England but an inlaid and hereditary Malice against them When Lewis of France sent an Army into England to the assistance of the Barons there against King John their Soveraign Prince he vowed utterly to extinguish the English Nation whom he held vile unjust perfidious and never to be trusted as it was declared with much compunction by Viscount Melun a French Gentleman lying at the point of death And I can easily believe that the same Rancor doth yet run in the veins of the French I pray Sir who contrived and encouraged the Distempers of the Scots against King Charles the First was it not France And the Peace at Rippon Anno 1639. being concluded between the two Nations but much against their will did not France stir them up to break that Peace and to make a second attempt by their Arms on England Which they durst never have done if they had not received countenance and encouragement from France By their Emissaries they formed a Rebellion in England and underhand supported it and his Majesties Forces being defeated and broken France look'd on till that great King was sacrificed to the Tyranny of his worst Enemies His now most Sacred Majesty England being hang'd all with Blacks and the best of his Subjects weeping over the Kingdoms funeral for the safety of his person retired into France where he might have expected protection from so near a Relation and comfort as a distressed Prince but found none for by virtue of an execrable Treaty made with the then Usurper he was forced to forsake that Kingdom or else would have been resigned up to Cromwel For the chief Article of that Alliance was That his Majesty the Dukes of York and Gloucester with all their Relations and Friends should be expelled out of and no more admitted into the Kingdom of France If the French King had had the least trillo or touch of Honour in him he would never have yielded to such a Condition as to banish out of his Kingdom those who came to him for succour and relief in the utmost extremity that ever Princes were put to and they his nearest Relations being his Sisters Children And what could be more unbecoming so great a Prince than to make a League Offensive with him who had murdered their Father and expelled them out of their Dominions What was this but the owning of that Murder and aggravating their Oppressions instead of relieving of them Such practices as these amongst private Christians would be abominable and much more amongst any Kings not stiled the Most Christian
THE French Intrigues DISCOVERED With the Methods and Arts TO Retrench the Potency OF FRANCE BY LAND and SEA And to Confine that MONARCH Within his Antient DOMINIONS and TERRITORIES Humbly submitted to the Consideration of the PRINCES and STATES of EUROPE especially of ENGLAND Written in a LETTER From a Person of Quality abroad to his Correspondent here Nulla potentia scelere quaesita est diuturna LONDON Printed for R. Baldwin 1681. THE French Intrigues DISCOVERED c. SIR IN obedience to your Commands I have soberly considered your learned Discourse wherein are such excellent Prudentials of Government such grave Aphorisms of State and the whole composed with so great judgment that it makes me think the Opinion of the equality of Souls to be a Paradox Yet I must beg your pardon if I cannot obtain so much favour of my Reason as to agree with you that in this Juncture of Affairs in Europe it 's England's Interest to stand Neutral When Neighbour Princes are at difference and their Forces not greatly unequal and no fear of any Parties aggrandizing it self it may be prudence But when Kingdoms are tottering Nation reeling against Nation and France endeavouring to set up an Empire over the Emperour himself and by the power of Arms reducing Princes and States under an Vniversal Dominion as it 's evident to be the French Designe then I take it for England to be an idle Spectator and to sit still is the greatest Soloecism in point of State For that Prince which stands Neutral and suffers his weaker Neighbours to be subdued except his strength doth over-ballance the Victors doth but expose himself to danger and his own Dominions to the mercie of the Conqueror Theramenes thought it a great instance of prudence during the Peloponnesian War and the troubles of the Athenians to keep himself quiet without taking part with the one or with the other but in the end was deserted by all his Dominions made a Prey and his Life a Sacrifice to the prevailing Powers Certainly Sir nothing can be more becoming the wisdom of the greatest Prince than to be watchful that the States about him should not in-greaten themselves by access of Dominions by ruining of Confederates blocking up of Trade or by the like means Hence it was that Sextus Quintus being jealous of the Spanish Greatness and that his designe was of aggrandizing himself with great efficacy stirred up the Crown of France to assist and defend the States of Holland And for this reason of State Pope Julius the second Maximilian the Emperour Lewis the twelfth of France Ferdinand of Aragon and other Princes and States An. Dom. 1508. at Cambray entred into a League against the Venetians yet so as the Confederates had a perpetual Eye one upon the other that none of them should over top And the best Guard which the Italian Princes have is the reciprocal fear which the one of them hath of the other The wisest Princes have ever been in this point very jealous and the more jealous the less they have been deceived for then are Kingdoms and States most safe when their Neighbouring Forces are not greatly superiour to their own Strength And it 's prudence in a Prince as well to contain his best Friends within a moderate Greatness as to weaken and depress his most potent Enemies The safety of Princes consists in the equal counterpoise of Power for Power is never safe when it groweth bold and doth exceed And therefore it was great weakness and oversight in the Neighbouring Princes and States to the Commonwealth of Rome to suffer it to grow to that magnitude of Reputation and Power that when forty Princes and States being jealous of its Power with united Forces did endeavour to reduce it they were all subdued and their Conspiracies did much contribute to the enlarging ber Dominions for by seeking to suppress Rome they made them not onely provide for their own defence but also gave them the means how they might with more Force better advice and greater Power offend them It hath been looked upon as a great imprudence in Lewis the twelfth of France after he had gotten Millain to give Aid to Pope Alexander to seize upon Romagnia who thereby became so powerful that he would have made himself Lord of Tuscany if Lewis had not with his Army made a descent into Italy The Neighbouring Princes to the Signiory of Geneva would not suffer it though but a palm of ground to fall into the hands of the Duke of Savoy or of any other Potentate of more strength than himself insomuch that when he besieged it An. 1589. England the State of Venice and Florence aided them And at another time when the Pope the French King the Spaniard and Savoy had designes upon it the Emperour offered them assistance both of men and money and sometimes the Duke of Savoy hath assisted them against the others So watchful were Princes and States in those times that none of them could enlarge their Dominions thereby to become troublesom or formidable to their Neighbours France and Spain were the Scales of the great Ballance of Europe and England was then the Beam of that Ballance which kept it in an even Counterpoise And let me tell you Sir England by observing this fundamental Maxime of their State and by contributing Aid to one Party hath ever risen in Honour and Reputation and most commonly hath kept both Parties at their Devotion and in Dependancy the one in hopes of Succors from them the other for fear of their giving Assistance against them And in case England should not take any Party yet in prudence a Fleet must be equipped Souldiers raised an Army maintained and all this Expence and Charge without any Fruit or Glory otherwise the Scene of the War may be turned upon you and the Ambition of the Victor may erect his Trophies and extend his Triumphs into England Whereas by giving Aid unto one Party you will maintain a Spring and Seminary of brave men at the expence of others which will make you considerable to your Neighbours And in case of an Accommodation or Peace you shall be sure therein to be comprized which will be your Safety Otherwise you will remain friendless exposed to the charity of the Conqueror and to the scorn and contempt of the Conquered who upon all occasions will meditate revenge against you for not giving them your Aid and it may be that both Parties with united Forces may attempt against you However that Prince or State which will stand for a Cypher when in prudence he is obliged to arm shall with Servilius in Rome please neither side of whom the Historian observeth that P. Servilius medium se gerendo nec Plebis vitavit odium nec apud Patres gratiam inivit Henry the Eighth amongst several other Princes understood this Maxime of England so well that he assumed unto himself this Motto Cui adhaereo praeest Sometimes he would make Charles the Fisth weigh
down sometimes Francis the First Anno 1522. at Cambray he settled all Europe in quiet when it was much turmoiled and Italy in security therefore he was stiled Protector of the Clementine League the Instrument whereof doth still remain in the Treasury at Westminster sealed with gold And Clement the Seventh being cooped up by Charles the Fifth in the Castle of St. Angelo was freed by the means of Henry of England and therefore by the whole Consistory of Rome he was called Liberator Orbis Charles the Fifth An. 1521. was by him made Emperour as he doth acknowledge in two Letters to Henry of England and indeed he was the great Arbitrator of all the Assairs of Europe in his time If Henry the Eighth was so much celebrated for keeping the ballance in aequilibrio what Glory and Renown will his now Sacred Majesty of Great Britain have by putting a Batricado to the Ambition of the French Empire and reintegrating all Princes and States in their ancient Liberties and just Rights and setling the Peace of all Europe upon a solid Basis which onely by his Wisdom and Power is to be effected An Act certainly so full of Grandeur that it will tread upon the grave of History bury Monuments see the Worlds funeral Time laid in the dust and stand up with Eternity The glory of Soveraignty consists not in a Chair of State but in such Acts as are well-becoming a Prince Private men may direct their Counsels to such things as they think may be prositable to them but the Actions of Princes must tend to Grandeur and the attaining of Honour and Fame For want of due observation of this prime and Alphabetical Maxime of England the French King of late hath risen up to that Greatness and is arrived to that Pyramid of Grandeur that Europe begins to bow to his Power Universal Empire was first attempted by Charles the Fifth designed by Henry the Great but will be effected if not timely prevented by Lewis the Potent And how great a Progress he hath made towards so vast a Designe it well becomes your great Judgment to consider He hath gotten Brisac and Friburg to enter Germany the French Comte to a we the Switzers Pignoral to enter Italy Perpignan to enter Spain and almost all Flanders to enter England Besides he hath impatronized himself of the Countries of Rousillon and Catalonia the Dutchies of Lorrain and Barr Alsatia Burgundy The French Comte all the Spanish Netherlands are in his Talons and he hath a hovering possession of the remainder as a Hobby hath over a Lark The Italian Garison in Avignion is casheer'd and he is Master of that place though it was part of St. Peter's possession three hundred years The Garison of Foreign Souldiers which were in Orange is dismissed and the Castle is dismantled which was in the bowels of one of his Provinces What will he not be able to compass against the rest of Europe when he hath gotten the Accession of Germany and all the Low Countries to that already too boundless Power by which he hath inslaved his own people and subjected them to an absolute Vassalage Can England and the rest of Europe expect better terms than he hath given to his own Subjects 'T is well if he allow them Canvas and Salowes By Sea he is become so potent that I question if he were but furnished with Mariners and experienced Commanders suitable to the goodness of his Ships if he might not contrast the power of all Europe and make the Sea between Callis and Dover as a Ferry to pass over what Armies he pleased into England In the beginning of the year 1665. he was not able to put to Sea twenty Ships of War now he hath two hundred and upwards and many larger than most in Europe and is every day building more Is it not then necessary for England the Vnited Netherlands and all Europe to look about them and to secure their Necks against the Yoke of Slavery with which he threatens them If some timely Expedient be not applied from this Naval Power of France the destruction of Europe may take its date before we be much older It will much concern England in point of Interest to consider if Ireland by the Scheme of their designes may not be looked upon as a Country which may procure France the absolute dominion of the Sea of Trade and the Conquest of the West Indies which have been their antient Project For he being so potent at Sea they may from Brest transmit an Army into Ireland they having many of the Irish Nation in their service and those discontented if they should seize upon Kingsale or Waterford and keep a good Squadron of Ships there which they may do having such numbers of Men of War And though it should not prove the loss of that Nation yet it would obstruct and debar all Trade upon those Seas And if you have any Ship pass there it must be by their favour and paying what Tribute they please to impose Be assured Sir the French Cabal have some notable Designe against England either to engage you in a Civil War by disseminating of Divisions amongst you thereby to put a disability upon his Majesty of Great Britain to give any Assistance or contribute any Aid to the relief of the Spanish or Vnited Netherlands in case by his Arms he should attack them as without dispute he will in case there be not a stop put to his Career Or peradventure the French King if the Capricio shall take him may by his Arms give disturbance to England it self For he cannot think it safe to proceed in his Conquest on the Continent whiles he hath so dangerous an Enemy as England at his reer He well knows the Courage and Gallantry of the English and your Talbots and Bedfords are not by them forgotten They are setting up an Vniversal Monarchy of Commerce and to make France the Staple of Trade and to that purpose do labour to get what Ports they can into their power After the Pyrenean Peace they immediately entred into a League Offensive and Defensive with Portugal though contrary to the Faith of that Treaty and all the Harbours and Ports which the Portugal should take in Spain either upon the one or other Sea were to be put into the power of France No sooner was Dunkirk in the French King's hands but he made it a free Port. And that he might want no Seamen of his own he hath by all imaginable Encouragements established a mighty Navigation in France and thereby will lay the foundation of a greater Empire than ever was in Charlemain For one trading Ship twenty years since there are now forty For this purpose he hath propagated the Fishery in Newfound Land which is the Propriety of the Crown of England and where they formerly till now of late never fished but by License and paying a Tribute to the Kings of England and besides hath yearly educated supernumerary Seamen on board
Sea Gyant be not timely destroyed but suffered like the Crocadile yearly to grow in Magnitude it will devour all Europe and with it it's Trade Traffick and Commerce Therefore it's Europe's Interest as well as England's Safety to destroy the Naval Power of France which with the conjunction of our Allies may be effected who being once brought down there their Commerce will wax feeble and by consequence their Power at Land will soon abate For we have observed that until the Spaniards lost his Maratine Forces he maintained his designes for the Vniversal Monarchy very vigorously and never sunk till then The French King of late is become so potent at Sea that if he should be pleased to give trouble to you or to any other Prince we mâ—st be at his discretion how kindly he will deal with us And Sir it 's no wisdom in any Prince to depend upon the discretion of another That Prince or State which is Master at Sea may make a descent at what place they please unless they be hindered by a Fleet of equal strength and except every Creek Port and sandy Bay had a powerful Army to make opposition If we have an Army in one place as in all places we cannot have then they may by reason of their Fleet transport their Army to another place and so take ransack burn and consume the Country round about as Agathocles did who being besieged by the Carthagenians in Syracuse put his Army into his Fleet and transported it into Africa and the Carthagenians for security of Carthage and their own Dominions were forced to raise their Seige and follow with their Army Methinks the Miseries Devastations and Infelicities England heretofore suffered by the Naval power of the Danes might teach you wisdom for the future Sir to deal plainly with you it 's impossible for any Mavitine Country as England is though the Coasts thereof be never so well fortified to defend it self against a powerful Enemy that is Master at Sea for a good Fleet of Men of War under a wise and judicious conduct need not fear to pass by the best appointed Fort in Europe though never so many great Artillery are planted in it with the help of a good Tyde and leading gale of Wind. The Duke of Parma besieged Antwerp and finding no possibility to master it otherwise than by Famine laid his Cannon on the bank of the River so well to purpose and so even with the face of the water that he thought it impossible for the least Boat to pass by yet the Hollanders and Zelanders to sell their Butter and Cheese at Antwerp where it was dear passed in their Boats by the mouth of the Duke's Cannon in despight of it when a strong Westerly wind and a Tyde of flood favoured them as also with a contrary wind and ebbing water they turned back again In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when Denmark and Sweden were at war our Eastland Fleet bound for Liefland was forbidden by the King of Denmark to trade with the Subjects of his Enemies and he threatned to sink their Ships if they came through the Streights of Elsenore Yet our Merchants having a Ship of her Majesties called the Minion to defend them made their adventure and sustained some Vollies of shot but kept on their course The King made all the provisions he could to stop or sink them at their return but the Minion leading the way did not onely pass without loss but did beat down with their Artillery a great part of the Fort of Elsenore and the Fleet of Merchants which followed went thorough without any wound received Sir Imperator Maris est Dominus Terrae When Augustus and Mark Anthony at Actium fought by Sea for the Empire of the World Mark Anthony's Fleet being defeated all the People and the Souldiers submitted to Augustus well knowing they could never effect any thing by Land as long as Augustus continued Master at Sea Aladine a poor Fisherman but famous for his great Actions at Sea Abraham King of Achen in Sumatra preferred him to be his Lord-Lieutenant and married him to one of his Kindswomen and gave him the care and protection of his Son and Heir Aladine having the Naval power at his command he murthered the Son and Heir and usurped the Kingdom to himself there being no resistance to be made against him because of his great power at Sea The State of Genoa by the advantage of their Naval power beat the Pisans out of Sardinia Corsica and the Baleares in the Mediterranean and having vanquished the Venetian Fleet they took the Island of Chioggia not far from Venice But the Genoesses being disabled in their Naval power by the oversight of Peter Doria their Admiral they lost their Islands in the Mediterranean to the King of Aragon Capha and Pera and the Islands of Lesbos and Chio with some other Islands in the Greek Sea to the Grand Seignior and most of their Holds in Tuscany whereof they had a good part to the Florentines and had nothing left them but Liguria and the Isle of Corsica and were enforced to put themselves into the protection of the Spaniard to preserve the same Therefore Sir you may please to observe how highly England being an Island is concerned in point of interest and safety to advance their own Naval power and to abate that of others There are three great Naval powers in Europe England France and those of the Vnited Provinces if the King of England joyn with one of them they will give Law to the third But what if France and the Vnited Provinces should joyn against England as you have great reason to fear they will if by his Majesties transcendent Wisdom and happy Conduct they be not prevented then you can expect nothing but Confusion and Ruine to fall upon you Therefore it will be the very test of Prudence in this juncture to retrench the power of France by Sea that being done from his Land-forces there can be no great danger to you At Land the Ballance is indifferently even but at Sea which ought to be your care there is no counterpoize The fighting and destroying of his Land-Armies doth not weaken him at Sea but when his new Conquests shall be taken from him or a Peace concluded if he should put an Army into his Navy no Prince in Europe is able to hinder his Attempts and those vast sums of money which he raiseth out of his Subjects if they should be employed in Traffick he being so potent at Sea all States and Princes especially England would be undone To strike the French King at Sea where his strength lieth is to cut his Sampsons locks it 's un Coup de Maistre a Master blow a War in his bowels To give him some light hurt is dangerous to us and to give our selves an incurable wound as the Horse did who falling out with the Lion bruised him with his heel but not long after his Carcass became food for