all their Hopes dashed to pieces and therefore they stood still for a Time to see what so mighty a Revolution in England might produce and what mighty things a King in the Vigour of his Years whom they had sufficiently provoked during his Exile so high in the Love of his Subjects the ancient Emulators of the French and the People now in the most Martial Posture that ever they were in since England was a Nation would undertake but finding all were Haleyon Daâ—s and that then there was no apparent Disposition in our Court to make any Incroachment on their Neighbours the French Ministers began to re-assume fresh Hopes and to consider what Expedients might be proper for to promote their Designs which now for some time had lain Dormant one Project was that of the Match mentioned by me to your Lordship in my Last which succeeding so well and finding still that the King was far enough from designing any War for the enlargment of his Territories they resolved to make an Essay and see whether he was willing to part with any thing that was already his own I do suppose your Lordship may have heard of Cardinal de Retz being in disgrace at the French Court of his being forced to flee the Kingdom of his being at London incognito some time after the Restoration what he was publickly accused for in France was that he had favoured the Adverse Party about the Point of the Legitimacy that he had invited Madamoisell d' Orleans to aspire to a Match with our King and Abetted the Pretensions of Rome against those of the Court about the then growing Difficulties concerning the Regale but what ever the Reasons were they were never Published nor suffered to be so much as entred in the Minutes of other Secrets but this is certain that our King interceded with the French King on his behalf and that he was admitted to return and I have been assured it was by the way of Dunkirk and was sent afterward Embassador to Rome but whether all this was a Juggle to carry on a Negotiation about Dunkirk I will not positively affirm but it looks as much like a French Trick as one Egg does another That the Spaniards pressed our King very early for the Restitution of Dunkirk is uncontroulably true and made pretty large offers and it is as true that the King rejected their Proposals which yet did not discourage the French Emissaries of whom they had by this Time many in England as the Minutes shew who having ingratiated themselves with the Chancellor and other hungry Courtiers made also their Overtures and told the King withal that Cromwel was to have that Town only for a Temporary Caution for so much Money due to him for his Assistance against the Spaniards and that therefore it was a Matter of Right they insisted upon seeing they were now ready to lay down the Summ with more then Interest nay and they were so bold as to tell him farther that if he refused to give it for Money they would endeavour to recover the same by a War and questioned not the Junction of the Hollanders with them both by Sea and Land in that Case they being as unwilling as the French that the English should have footing so near them on the Continent and in effect they made use of the Dutch Faction and some Jews their Emissaries in England more then any Body else to bring that Affair about and because they would be sure to meet with no Obstructions from the Spaniards by renewing their Instances to the King and alleadging a greater right to the Town then the French they amused them with a Design they had to restore it to them again upon a reasonable equivalent in Flanders and gave it out that they had entred into a Treaty already with them upon that Head but whether it was so in Reality I cannot tell and this is all that I am able to inform your Lordship concerning our parting with that Important Place Only that the summ paid for it was two Millions and five hundred thousand Lirves and so I remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris March 4. 1676. N. St. LETTER V. Overtures made to King Charles II. for the Sale of Tangier to the French and how prevented My Lord THe French having as I have given your Lordship an Account in my Last gained their Point in the buying of Dunkirk whereof the French Forces took Possession about October in the Year 1662. they paused a little to see how the English would resent it before they would make any further Paces for the Promotion of their Cause to our Disadvantage but finding the Memory of the Anarchical Times together with the Nation 's according the Example of the Court daily degenerating from the Severity of Manners in Former Times had in a manner laid them fast asleep and quite obliterated all Thoughts of Military Glory so far as if there had been a sudden Transmutation of the Genius of the People they resolved to make another Essay upon the easie temper of the King and try whether he would also part with Tangier unto them but whether it were that the King was sensible already of his Mistake in parting with Dunkirk or that this very Motion of theirs put him upon considering what he had done and the great Error he had committed in Policy thereby it is certain he gave them an absolute Denial and that their Minutes speak but say withal that to be revenged of his Denial and make him odious after their usual Manner this Court ordered it however to be reported as if he had been willing for it and further add that the Kings real Answer was that Tangier being his Queens Dowry to whom he had not long been Married it would not at all suit with his Honour to sell it neither could he well part with it unless he parted with Her that it was by Parliament annext to the Imperial Crown of England and so could not be Sold without them that if both He and his Parliament too might be willing to sell it at another Time yet to be sure it was not proper to think of it just then when after so much Treasure and Blood spent upon it already it might if ever prove of some use to the Nation in the War then like to begin with the Dutch that he could not part with it to the French King so well as to any other Christian Prince nay not so well as even to the Moors themselves without giving a very just and therefore a dangerous Cause of Jealousie to his People especially in that Juncture when by the Carriage of the French he had great Cause to suspect they were Jealous of his grandeur at Sea and would joyn with the Dutch against him which refusal of his I must tell your Lordship was indeed one of the secret Causes among others why they soon after actually joyned with that Nation to diminish our Power to sham
or otherwise interrupt the only Powers in Christendom that were able to prevent that Disaster and render it quite of none Effect 6. That his Most Christian Majesty Lewis the XIVth of France had solemnly engaged to his Britannick Majesty the King of England that upon the Condition of a Neutrality agreed by Spain he was willing to relinquish all pretensions to the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and all the other Dominions of Spain and to get that same Renunciation Signed and Ratified by the Dauphine his Son as well as by himself and to leave no room for any future Jealousies even by the consent and approbation of the Three Estates of his Kingdom whom he would take care to Assemble for that very end and purpose as also by the Parliament of Paris that so all occasions and pretences of any future War between the Two Crowns of France and Spain might be entirely and totally cut off by this one Amicable and Advantageous Concession nay and that rather than fail in this particular his Most Christian Majesty would be brought to re-deliver to the Catholick King even all the Towns Cities and Territories taken from him by France in the last War and keep strictly to the other as well as the Pyrenaean Treaty which was as much as the Spaniards could wish for themselves or had upon any occasion insisted upon 7. That the French King would be punctual to give such strict Orders to his Troops and Armies that in all their Marches through the Countries belonging to the King of Spain they should be so far from being injurious and burdensom to the respective Inhabitants of them that they should receive very great benefit and advantage from them by their exact and liberal paying for what ever they had of them and that he would afterward leave such a firm barrier on all sides the Country as should for ever secure them from all Apprehensions of encroatchments from France or any other Neighbouring Nation whatsoever and that by this means the Spanish Territories would remain very fertil and be filled with Money and all sorts of Rich Commodities whilst the United Provinces would be run down and never be in a condition to molest or annoy them more and what advantage and security that would be to them they themselves could tell and a remembrance of former experiences in that kind must needs corroborate and add strength to the same 8. That there was no just cause of Jealousie to be entertained or any great Reason to fear the growing greatness of the Kingdom of France upon such an occasion for that the accession of strength which by such means might in some degree happen to her would be much more than ballanced by that which would accur to England by which his Britannick Majesty would become a much more powerful Assistant to Spain and the Spanish Territories against any Violations of Treaties that might afterward upon any account whatsoever happen to be offered by the French then he could be at this juncture of time even tho joyned with the Republick of Holland and yet rid the Catholick King even at the same time of such a dishonourable as well as dangerous Ally as Holland was at present and which would certainly prove within a small Revolution of Years a destructive Enemy also if they were not now in this favourable nick of time obstructed and throughly prevented 9. That the King of Swedland who was the other Crowned head that had engaged himself in the Triple Alliance for the protection and security of the Spanish Netherlands was likewise of the same mind and disposition to remain Neuter in the present case unless he were provoked to joyn with the French and English But that however he would at the same time joyn and sincerely concur with his Britannick Majesty for the guaranty of this desired and useful Neutrality with France that both Kings would be ready to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the Crown of Spain to assist the same with their full force and whole power against any manner of infractions that should happen to be made or fall out against this or any other former Treaty or Treaties on the part of France whatsoever 10. And Lastly That the French King was ready and willing to accept their guaranty and not only so but freely to permit the Emperor of Germany and other of the German Princes that could be brought to stand Neuters and were willing to enter into the same to be made Partners therein that all the World as well as the Council of Spain might be convinced beyond all suspitions to the contrary of his Most Christian Majesties as well as the King of England's sincerity in that matter These my Lord were the instructions Mr. Coleman had and the Topicks he was to go upon for the carrying on this pretty Design but how far he put the same in practise that I could never learn but he was not the only Engine they imploy'd for that purpose they had their Agents in Spain it self who did their utmost to effect this Neutrality of which I may be able to give your Lordship an account another time In the mean while I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris July 24. 1677. N. S. LETTER XXIII A farther Argument used at the Court of Spain by the French Agents to perswade that Nation to a Neutrality My Lord TO the Topicks used by Mr. Coleman and other French Emissaries of which I have given your Lorship an account already to perswade the Spaniards to a Neutrality they judged fit to superadd another to be more particularly and closely insisted upon at the Court of Spain it self alledging that the ruine of the Republick of Holland was very necessary as upon other accounts so more especially in that thereby the King of England who was so well enclined to the Roman Catholick Religion and only wanted an opportunity to declare for it and to have the Glory to Establish it in His Dominions which had now for above an Age and half groaned under the burden of a pestilent Heresie would become so much master of his Subjects that he would be in a condition without any danger to himself and the Royal Family to introduce the same Roman Catholick Religion into his Kingdoms again which great and glorious as well as meritorious Work the Catholick King and those who had the Administration of his Dominions ought to have to heart above all other Interests and Considerations whatsoever especially since this would enable the Crown of England to do Spain many good and friendly offices in the Court of Rome as well as elsewhere and be a means to ballance the French Faction there when they should take upon them as they frequently did to oppose the Interests and Advantages of the House of Austria as Henry the VIIIth and other Kings of England had formerly done before the Schism broke out and their Kingdom came to be overspread
to push on their Conquest to the utmost without demurring upon any Points or Scruples relating to us even into those Parts belonging to our Repartition and especially to seize on Amsterdam it self if possible before we could reflect on and much less oppose so sudden an Exploit which Capture alone they not without Reason thought would be succeeded with a voluntary Cession of all the remaining Places and Provinces and with the Accession of the most part of the Fleets Merchants and Colonies of that potent Republick who would not fail to conceive partly for fear of losing otherwise their whole Proprieties in the Moneys and Effects leâ—t by them in that great Magazine of both Hemisphears and partly to enjoy the pretended Liberties and Immunities mighty Priviledges and other prodigious Advantages with which their Agents contrary to their League withus had already privately tempted and had Instructions further to allure those industrious and thriving People with to come over perfectly to them and decline us Against whom their Emissaries imployed so many Arts to exasperate those People That tho' both Enemies and the French much more formidable then we to what by them and all free-born People was most Prizable viz. Liberty Property and Religion yet the English was at that time the more hated name of the two to their depraved Apprehension And as for our King they reckoned him so enchanted with the Opinion both of the Necessity and Integrity of their Friendship to him and so intent in that confidence on his beloved Pleasures with another She-Magitian of theirs newly sent him for that purpose tempered with the most intoxicating Venom known to Female Arts that they never thought he could have any sense at liberty to mind what they did and therefore knowing on the other side there could arrive no disturbance time enough from the Empire to spoile their Game it thundring from thence yet but a far off they were moving with all greediness their Harpy-Talons to seize on t his important Prey And had without all doubt attained their purpose in the strange and pannick Terror that at that time seemed to disable the Hands and lock up the Senses of the otherwise couragious and politick Inhabitants of that famous Emporium had not Divine Providence just in that Moment by two most unlikely Accidents but yet most effectual Expedients interposed between them and Destruction of which I may give your Lordship some hints in my next who am in the mean time My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris Apr. 29. 1678. N. S. LETTER XXIX Of the Massacring the De Wits the Revolution in Holland and the Restitution of the Prince of Orange to all the Authority of his Ancestors with Offers made him by the French King of the Soveraignty of the United Provinces and his Rejection of them My Lord. IN my last to your Lordship I gave you some account of the Progress of the French Army in their Conquest of the United Provinces the Resolutions they had taken both to elude the Crown of England of receiving any Benefit by the War to push on their own Conquests and Wheedles to induce the City of Amsterdam to yield to them And I have more over hinted to your Lordship that there fell out two unexpected Accidents at that time which put a full stop to their Arms The first whereof I shall briefly run over to your Lordship For while the French Armies were ready to seize that important Place and that every individual Person was in that Consternation that they only thought of saving their own Families without otherwise concerning themselves about the Interest of their Countrey nay and that without staying for the French King 's sending a Summons for the Town to yield a Council was held in the City whether they should not go out to meet him to desire he would be pleased to take it into his Protection as well as all the Inhabitants thereof there was very great Danger of their coming to this Resolution when the Divine Providence wonderfully appeared by inspiring a couragious Citizen tho' till then no very remarkable one neither whose Name and perhaps your Lordship ne'er heard it before was Offe and ought certainly to be consecrated to Posterity so as never to be left out of the Annals of Time and who was immediately seconded by another called Hassenaer to stand up alone in the dreadful Gap and with a Voice like a Trumpet to awaken his dispirited Country-men out of the Lethargy of black Despondency with which the cowardly Tyrant Fear had bound up both their Limbs and Intellectuals and to excite them as the poor Geese formerly did the drowsy Romans at least to make some Defence for that Capital and Capitâ—l of the Batavian Commonwealth and not rashly to deliver up that great Palladium viz. The vast Bank of Riches therein on which seemed to depend the state of Europe into the Hand of a Prince who wanted only Manacles from thence to enfetter her and whose Courage to attack said the same Citizen and I have heard the French-men themselves mention his Name with many Elogiums depended solely on the Fears which the Artifices of his treacherous Correspondents within their Walls more then the Noise of his Armies had raised among them and consequently on the least shew of Unity and Resolution among them would sink with their Cause nay continued he rather then fall into the Hands of him who however his Emissaries here have represented him slily to the contrary will assuredly prove a merciless Tyrant unto us let us call in the Sea it self whom we shall find a much more merciful Element to our assistance And this my Lord being seconded by the Dutch Mob now astonished and confounded with the loss of their Country by Land and opposed by two the most potent Kings in the World by Sea they in a Rage assassinated the two De Wits as the Betrayers of their Country and Causers of that same Calamity and then deposed the States who they looked upon to be of the Lovestein or De Wits Faction and then restored the Prince of Orange now at Age to the hereditary Authority and Command of his Ancestors which sudden and violent Proceedings did more then stun the French King but after a little recovery and finding that his Friends in Amsterdam and other places yet unconquered were dispossest of all Authority and that now the Prince of Orange managed all the Affairs of the State with Pensionary Fagel he made an Essay to catch the Prince in a Net he with his Council had finely spun for him by proposing to make him Soveraign of the United Provinces under his and his Brother of England's Protection I never could learn who it was they employed to the Prince upon this occasion and what Arguments they induced to gain his Consent tho' they may be easily guest at they being never entred into their Cabinet Minutes and perhaps it was because they met with such a Success upon the
the King's Privity or Knowledge 4. That if it were done by the King's Consent the Sum of Five and twenty Millions of Livres should be without fail remitted to him at two Payments the first as soon as the Princess should arrive in the Kingdom of France and the other three Months after And that the King and Duke in that Case should seem highly concerned and disposed to declare War against France on that Account and with the Money sent raise Forces as if it were for the War and call to the Parliament for Mony to maintain it which if they granted to take it there was no doubt of their Consent to that After which the French King was to send a very submissive Embassage to England offering to make ample Satisfaction for the Injury and to strike up a Peace with Holland at any rate Upon which our King was to take upon him to be appeased and to pretend the Dutch were in the fault that he did not make War 5. That then if there should happen any Motions for Exclusion that His Majesty might make use of the Money and of the Forces raised as aforesaid for his own Security And that if any Rebellion happen'd he might be assured the French King would send him both Men and Money enough in case of Need. 6. That if it were done without the King's Consent he the Duke should pretend himself wholly ignorant of the Rape and seem as much concerned as the King for Satisfaction 7. But that if the King should be so displeased with His Highness as to side with the adverse Party against him after he had stood his Ground as long as he could and made as many Friends as was possible that then he should privately retire to Scotland or Ireland and raise Arms there where he should be powerfully assisted both with Men and Money from the French King who would likewise use Means to raise Divisions among his Enemies by several Methods they had concerted and suddenly discourage them all by an unexpected Peace with Holland tho' there was but little Prospect that Things should come to this Extremity 8. That the Princess still the better to appease the Heats in England should upon her Marriage have in ample manner a Protestant Chapel allowed her and that at the same time the Protestants in the Kingdom of France should be used with extraordinary Kindness and Favour for her sake till a general Peace or other fiâ— time to take off the Mask were come 9. That the better to take off the Edge of the English Fury to a War with France besides the Peace to be made between the French and the Dutch a third War was to be raised by the Hollanders against England and they put with might and main upon new Encroachments and Insolencies against the English 10. That the better to cover all this the Duke was not only to make a Semblance but really to go to the Protestant Church again and to give out with a full Cry that he had been most maliciously traduced and that he never was reconciled to the Church of Rome and that his Non-compliance in some things lately put upon him did only arise in that he conceived such things were not to be imposed upon a Prince as on a Subject I have had the Opportunity my Lord to see several other things of lesser Consequence projected here for the Management of this Affair to the Interest of the French Court with which I shall not trouble your Lordship and remain My LORD Your very humble Servant Paris Aug. 13. 1679. N. S. LETTER LIX Arguments used by the French Emissaries in England to the Royal and Church of England Party against the matching of the Lady Mary with the Prince of Orange My LORD THe French Emissaries finding notwithstanding the strong opposition made by them to the matching of the Lady Mary with his Highness the Prince of Orange as I have some time since informed your Lordship that there was a very strong Current in the Nation for that Allyance and having informed their Principals in the French Court therewith they had fresh Instructions sent them to gain if possible the time desired by them which was till a General Peace were concluded and to ply the Royalists and high Members of the Church of England not only close upon that Head but their Instructions were reduced to these Branches 1. They were to represent the Match as dishonourable and too much reflecting on the Honour of Crowned Heads to match a Daughter in so fair a way to be Heiress to three Crowns to a Prince who was not only no Sovereign but descended of a Family which had distinguished it self chiefly by heading a Rebellion against his lawful Prince and who was himself but the chief Officer of a Government so hateful to all Kings as a Common-Wealth and that of one founded by Rebellion too that such an Allyance must needs be more particularly dishonourable to the Royal Family of England which had so lately and deeply suffered by a Rebellion moved against it by their own People chiefly out of an Emulation to be like those Rebels That indeed King Charles I. did match his Daughter to the present Prince of Orange's Father but it was because he was involved in Troubles and had not time or opportunity to dispose of her better and thought by that Match to please the people appease the Faction animated against him and by such a protestant Match allay the Jealousies conceived of his being popishly inclined or having Leagued with popish Powers to their prejudice and lastly obtain some Assistance from the States of Holland in his Distress and yet that after all his projection hereby that Match was condemned by most of his Friends as highly Dishonourable and of very ill Example and Consequence and is charged upon him as one of the great Errours of his Reign and therefore by no means to be reiterated by a new one of the same kind 2. They were to remonstrate That the Prince of Orange was bred in Presbyterian Principles and to exaggerate with all the terrible Circumstances that could be supposed the danger the Church of England and Episcopacy would be in by the accession of such a Prince to the Crown Presbyterians being no less passionate Enemies to the Church of England than Papists and being much the more dangerous of the two as being incomparably the more numerous the strange success they lately had in effecting so total a Subversion as they did of the Episcopal Church in the last Reign under rebellious Leaders being too sensible a proof of both what they could and what they would do again more effectually and more irrecoverably when headed by a lawful Superior and strengthned by the assistance of their Brethren in Holland This my Lord is the substance of the Instructions sent from hence to their Emissaries in England for the managing of the forementioned part and with which I shall conclude this Epistle who am My
LORD Your Honours to serve You. Paris Aug. 23. 1679. N. S. LETTER LX. Instructions given to the French Emissaries whereby to manage the Dissenters and Republican Party in England in reference to the Prince of Orange's matching with the Lady Mary My LORD I Have in my last given your Lordship an Account of the French Intrigues in managing the Royal and Church of England Party in respect to the March with the Prince of Orange here follows their Instructions to their Agents with the Dissenters and Republican Party upon the same Head To them they were to use many of the Arguments used to those of Holland of which hereafter and make them believe if they could that if the P. of Orange should come to the Crown of England notwithstanding his Humility now he would fly higher at Absolute Power than any before him or that the present King or his Brother could that under an humble appearance he subtilly hid an aspiring Mind and that having in many things encroached already upon the Power of the States General he would totally oppress them and by that accession of Strength raise his Authority in England to what pitch he pleased and Adieu to all hopes of a Common-wealth there when that of Holland should be subject to his Scepter and Adieu to all expectation of making Presbytery the predominant Religion there for that it was almost incompatible with a moderate Monarchy much less with Absolute Power and that whatever Principles the Prince had been bred in as to Religion though he might like them well enough as a Member of a State with whose Constitutions they perfectly agreed it was not to be doubted that when he came to be a Monarch and so powerful an one too as the United Provinces thrown into the weight of three Crowns would make him but he would like most Princes make his Religion conform to the Model of his Politicks and when he became a Monarch and so great an one too take up Monarchs principles which could be no other than Popish or such as exceed them if possible in malignity viz. Those of the Tantivy Sons of the Church of England none else agreeing with despotick Rule so that whatever hopes they might flatter themselves with from such a Match and the Prince's accession to the Throne they should find themselves so far disappointed as not to have any reason left them to expect as much as a Tolleration in Religion and the Freedom of their Consciences Which with my humble Respects to your Lordship is all I have to Communicate at this time who am in all lowly Observance My LORD Your Honour 's to Command Paris Sept. 5. 1679. N. S. POST-SCRIPT My LORD SInce I had finished my Letter I happening occasionally to run over some of our Minutes I thought fit to sub-join what I meet with there briefly inserted in order to the management of meer Politicians and Adiaphorites in Religion upon the account of the Prince's Match and to them the forementioned Emissaries were to suggest on the contrary that the Prince though he should in time by virtue of the said Match come to be King of England yet that it could not be thought but that still he would continue a Dutch-Man in all his Inclinations sacrifice our Commerce and Interest to those of that Nation yea and perhaps part with the chief Prerogatives of the Crown to make the King of England like a Doge of Venice or Dutch Stadt-holder c. which though sufficiently ridiculous I could not forbear noting to your Lordship who am My LORD Yours c. LETTER LXI The Arguments used in Holland by the French Emissaries to the Lovestein Faction against the Prince of Orange's matching with the Lady Mary c. My LORD IF it was any pleasure to your Lordship to peruse the Accounts I have already given you of the Stratagems of this Court to incite the Church of England and Dissenting Parties against the Match with the Prince of Orange as I am desirous and I hope not unwilling to interpret your silence in that regard to imply it I cannot think it will be less to your Honour's satisfaction to understand how they managed the same Affair in Holland where no less Subtilty and Address was wanting than in England to divert a Match that predicted no good Omen to France as they imagined the Party in that Republick which their Emissaries had Instructions to work upon were the Lovestein Faction to whom nevertheless they were to address themselves very cautiously and covertly and first to insinuate to them and by them to the State-Party That indeed it was true the Illustrious Princes of the House of Nassau had not only been the first Founders but also the great preservers of their Common-wealth and that it could not be denied but that the present Prince of Orange had very much contributed to its late Recovery after it had been brought to the very brink of Destruction and that they were fully convinced that same Family must remain a necessary Bulwark to their Common-wealth so long as their Interests should continue inseperably intwisted with those of the State but if they should be so blinded as to consent or but tacitely give way to any Steps that might alter those of the Prince into any other Channel that same House might in process of time prove the fatal Cadency and Dissolution as it had been the happy Rise and Glory of that flourishing State That the implacability of the Spanish Royal Family against those that have once offended them and their bloody and unjust Proscription of the noble House of Orange had so firmly cemented the Interests of the Princes of that Family with those of the States during the Wars with Spain that there could not possibly any Danger arise to them from that House how much soever they were intrusted with the Authority of the States they being then best secured by the Greatness and Power of that Nay and that after the Peace made between that Republick and the Crown of Spain there could be no Danger from those Princes neither so long as they matched into inferior Princes Families as those of Germany c. which might add Strength but never could Power enough to the Princes of Orange to crush the State or in the least divide from its true Interests But that it might be of the dangerousest Consequence if any of them were suffered to match into the Family of any Crowned Head and especially of any near Neighbour to the Republick for that would be an effectual Means to fill their Heads with aspiring Thoughts and great Designs to Aggrandize themselves and might afford them Power enough to put them in Execution a Temptation too strong for almost any active spirited Prince to resist And therefore such an one as this present Prince ought by no means to be exposed to by any wise States-men whose Interest it was to keep him from it and who had Cunning enough to put him by it That
serve in the Militia was but a trouble to them as well as a Charge and Burthen to the Country yet without any Use or Security to the Crown or Kingdom when all our Neighbour Nations were armed with Veteran Troops the King was advised and now thought fit to discharge them of the Trouble and the Country of the Charge of maintaining of them for the future and so order them to deliver up their Arms to be distributed among regular Troops that would be more useful and serviceable But before this was to be put in Execution it was my Lord resolved a Toleration of Religion should be first granted and severe Orders given to the Soldiers for to pay their Quarters duly demean themselves quietly and orderly and to abstain from any manner of Violence and all manner of Persons as well Protestants Dissenters from the Church of England as others of the Roman Communion should be admitted into the Army either as Officers or Soldiers and if any of the Church-men should grumble thereat and begin to stomach it it should be alledged There was no Reason in the World the King should be deprived of the Services of any of his Subjects however denominated as to their respective Religions for the Carping of a few Churchmen who were more concerned for their own worldly Interests and so would have all Places of Profit confined to those of their own Stamp than they were for the real Interest of the Church Then there were to be sufficient Bodies of Soldiers to be placed all over England to assist the Lords Lieutenants to see all the forementioned Orders put quietly in Execution and ready to suppress any Tumult that might be occasioned thereby This my Lord was the Projection I shall endeavour to give your Lordship in my next an account of the Opposition made hereunto as this and the rest have been lately entred here in our Minutes from Papers transmitted by the Resident of Modena and Count Dada the Pope's Nuntio in England to the Resident of that Name and Papal Nuncio in this Kingdom and by them communicated to Monsieur Louvois till then I am and ever shall be My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Feb. 9. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXIV Of the Opposition made by several Noblemen and particularly by the Lord Marquess of Powis against discarding the Militia of the Kingdom My Lord 'T Is but a few Days since I sent to your Lordship the particular Resolutions formed in the Cabinet Council of discarding the Militia and other Methods that were to be pursued as either previous to or subsequent of such a Design and now I can assure your Lordship That same Project was chiefly broken by the Marquess of H. D of N. and some other Noble Persons and worthy Patriots but the Marquess of Powis had a greater Hand in it than any of them as being of greater Credit with the King who represented how dangerous and in a Word how impracticable such a Project was For said he it will be impossible to find such Lord Lieutenants in the Kingdom as will undertake to put the same in Execution nor no Officers that will obey If they could find such that such a Practice would necessitate the King to call in a French Army which would as much inslave his Majesty to the French as his own People would be thereby inthralled to him and that he might assure himself the French Faction had no other Intent in advising him to it So that I find my Lord it was resolved to let the Militia alone as it is and go on to secure their Proceedings by stuffing the Army with a Mixture of Nations as well as Perswasions and to chop and change them so often till at last they shall get Roman Catholicks enough in their Troops so as considerably to out-number the Protestants there without calling in any Bodies of French Which Resolution as I find it did not fully content this Court so it hath madded them to use Stratagems to counterpoise it by putting the King upon unseasonable and impolitick Artifices and among others to model and pack Parliaments whereof I shall be able in my next I think to procure your Lordship the Projects laid before him humbly hoping you 'll take all in good part from one that has an English Heart and will love both his Country and your Lordship whilst I am Paris Feb. 17. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXV Propositions made to King James II. by the French Agents for modelling and bridling of Parliaments My Lord I Find abundance of Projects offered to the King by the Agency of this Court concerning modelling and bridling of English Parliaments some were for putting in Execution the Advises given formerly for that purpose to King I. I. specified I think in Rushworth's Collections to which I refer your Lordship but that Proposition was rejected and others of more modern date urged upon him and particularly there were some who would have him procure a Parliament by Oliver Cromwel's Methods chiefly to be composed of the Officers of the Army with an Intermixture of some few others and that being effected he might by them increase very much the Revenue of his Crown by setting up again the Court of Wards and the Right of Purveyance and by obliging all such Noblemen who were by their Tenures anciently obliged to furnish so many Horse and Men and other Necessaries in the Wars either against France or Scotland to supply a full Equivalent towards Ships Men Artillery Provisions c. for a War with the Republick of Holland or any other Enemy whatsoever which they would have called for the greater Amusement of the People a restoring to the Crown the Jewels which had been usurped from it which that it might be further secured it was likewise advised That a Star Chamber with the same Jurisdiction as in the King's Father's Time should be set up again as also an High Commission which last tho' a sort of Tribunal introduced into England since it had proved schismatical and that the Kings thereof had been declared Head of the Church yet it might very well serve a present Turn and give the less Jealousie of his designing to introduce the Roman Catholick Religion among them thereby but that if he did not look upon that Expedient seasonable and that the rather because it had been abolished in Parliament as a Grievance to the Subject he had no reason to oppose the setting up of an Ecclesiastical Commission since the Parliament themselves had erected the same tho' with a more limited Power than the other in lieu of it and since they had judged it necessary for the repressing of the Insolencies of the Churchmen regulating their Manners and obliging them to discharge their respective Duties in their several Stations He being a Catholick King had more reason than any other to make use of it the last your Lordship has seen they have gained and tho' the King hath a great Stomach to that other yet my Lord Powis's
heard it more than whisper'd here for a general Revolt of the Irish Natives in their favour whom they had provided to succour on a sudden without declaring War or the least Intimation beforehand of their Designs to the King But now having prevail'd with him to make such Advances as he has begun against the said famous Act which they have looked upon as it were the Band of Peace not only to Ireland but even to the Three Nations and perhaps they are right enough in their Judgment they believe they have hereby put him on a Point that will quickly bring him into Distress enough to need them and consequently to the necessity of taking his future measures from them expecting henceforward a more implicite Complyance than ever Thus my Lord have they laid their Foundation the Success and Event Time must determine but from such undermining Politicians Good Lord deliver England c. for the Dangers which threaten both its Religion and Civil Liberty are very great tho' I hope not inevitable Pardon the freedom in these Particulars of him who is and ever shall remain ready to please your Lordship to the utmost of my power and cannot but subscribe himself My Lord Your Honour 's most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Mar. 26. 1687. LETTER XXXII Of K. James's Closetting several Persons and the Arguments he was advis'd to use to them to consent to the Abrogating of the Penal Laws and Test. My Lord YOur Lordship for ought I know may know much better than I can inform you what Arguments the King has us'd to such as have been lately Closetted by him and if Fame be not a you are one of that number for a List of them is not yet come into our but I can transmit into your Hands what has been concerted here in the nature of Instructions to the French Emissaries at White-Hall hereupon they were to represent to the King and he to the closetted Gentlemen That there were four Kings who had endeavour'd to bring the Kingdom of England into an Uniformity in Religion that so the People might live in Amity one with another and notwithstanding all the Expedients tho' seemingly very likely to take effect and succeed according to wish which wise Politicians had suggested from time to time yet they had hitherto proved abortive and their Endeavours had been in vain That therefore the only way left for to settle Tranquillity in a State so as to be no more to be disturb'd about Religion was to grant every one the freedom fully to enjoy his own That such an Iudulgence of all Religions in Holland was as much a cause of the flourishing of that State in Wealth and Greatness and more than any other that could be assign'd and to say that such a Liberty tho' it might be compatible enough with a Republick was not yet with Monarchical Governments was a gross Mistake and Experience shewd it to be quite otherwise both in the Turkish Empire Kingdom of Persia and elsewhere where the Greek and Armenian Christians have been tolerated in their Religion for many Ages and yet have been so far from being mutinous or Disturbers of the respective States they have liv'd under that they are great Supporters of them especially the Armenians who are almost the only Merchants they have in that mighty and extensive Kingdom of Persia That the Persecutions which our Nonconformists in England have from time to time been under had been the cause of the flight of many good Subjects beyond the Seas of whom our neighbouring Nations drew great and solid Advantages and that those who have staid at home have by reason of the Pressures they have labour'd under provd uneasie and turn'd Malecontents and if they have not had Virtue and Constancy enough patiently to suffer under their Misfortunes they were alwaies ready to favour Revolts and enter into Factions whereof they had seen fatal effects in the late Reigns from which no King could be able to secure his Person and his Subjects but that uneasie and turbulent Spirits would be alwaies ready under Pretence of Religion which they abused to disturb and molest them Which Reasons the King was to back closely with large Promises of Favour and if he found any obstinate to mix his Reasons and Promises with some Intimations of his Displeasure and upon an absolute Refusal to proceed to divest some of their Places under him and to alledge for a Reason of his so doing That it was not reasonable that they who refused their Services should enjoy his Favours and that if hereupon any should be so audacious as to tell him That this Practice of his was irregular and contrary to the Freedom which the Laws of the Land allow'd to them especially as Members of Parliament whose Suffrages ought to be spontaneous and free they were to be put in mind that they had forgot the Violences used by King Henry VIII upon the like occasions and the methods so many other Kings had put in practise to engage their Parliaments to subscribe to their Wills that they might consider that two of the most famous Parliaments that ever were in the Kingdom of England had authoriz'd this Conduct in the Reign of Edward III and King Richard II when some of the Pope of Rome's Bulls were contested as being looked upon too much to entrench on the King's Prerogative that the Parliament prayed King Edward and obliged Richard almost against his Will to give their Consent by particular Conferences with the Members to promise to use the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Prerogative and the Rights of the Crown against that See c. But if that after all the King should find that neither Arguments Promises Threats nor Examples would do he was advis'd to proceed in his Brother's Steps by â—uo Warranto and so to concert measures with those that presided over Elections for the regulating of Corporations whereon they depended tho' this was by far the more tedious way but yet there was one way to hasten it for whereas new Charters in his Brother's time granted in lieu of the old ones were many of them retarded because the Court-Officers insisted upon too much Mony the King now might give positive Directions to such persons to dispatch them without such Considerations with a Promise to gratifie them another way and if he found that would not do then he was to cashier such Officers and put others in their room who would engage to do the business to effect I am afraid my Lord I have wearied you with an impertinent Letter and therefore if an abrupt conclusion will any way mend the matter I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Paris Nov. 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXXIII Of my Lord Castlemain's being sent Ambassador to Rome by K. James and of his receiving the Pope's Nuncio in England My Lord THAT my Lord of Castlemain was sent Ambassador to Rome has been transacted wholly on your
been very forward to pay all the Devoirs due from a Son to a Father-in-law affecting much Zeil for his Interest and acting with his Ministers of State as if himself were the Prime of them Yet they desire him to consider the thoughtful and designing Nature of the Prince who to be sure was not wanting to observe every pace made by the English and to dispose of his own Affairs and People accordingly That His Majesty could not but remember the Applications made to him formerly in his Brother's Reign from England when he was but Nephew to the King and himself but now that he was advanced by his Marriage to a much nigher Degree to the Crown could it be thought that he had less Thoughts concerning it or less Application made unto him on that behalf especially in so ticklish a time That some persons of note 's going over lately into Holland was no sign he was unconcern'd at the English Affairs or unapplied to but must needs give Umbrage and more than a Suspicion that he had already a strong Party within the Kingdom and that indeed his Conduct without was next to a demonstration of it since he had done all that ever he could to hinder His Majesty from all the Succours he could expect from abroad in case of any domestick Troubles for tho' His Majesty was sure of France and had made a general Alliance with Spain and might then be apt to believe that the House of Austria would not oppose him especially when the Catholick Religion was the Dispute yet it was manifest the Prince had bid fair for the deoriving him of both those Supports first by entering himself and then by causing the United Provâ—nces to enter into the League at Ausburg against France to the end he might draw down upon that Monarchy the united Forces of the Confederates in case the French King should offer to attack the States Territories while he might make use of their Power both by Sea and Land to carry on his Designs against His Majesty and his Kingdoms And then that he had render'd the House of Austria very suspicious of His Majesty as being a Prince contrary to their Designs one in Interests and closely engag'd with France in a secret Treaty which would appear in due time I can assure your Lordship that by the Returns which have been made hither the King has been but too susceptible of these Calumnies against the Prince and I fear to his prejudice tho' I heartily wish it otherwise who am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and Obedient Servant Paris Jan. 11. 1688. LETTER XXXVI Of the Spaniards attempting to bring King James over to their Interest but failed My Lord HOwever the Emissaries of this Court have traduced the Noble Prince of Orange to the King yet they have in some sort given the Lye to themselves when notwithstanding all their Rhodomantade about the Prince's engaging the House of Austria against his Majesty they have been so alarmed at the Proposals made to him by the Spaniards of a stricter Allyance which they knew if entred into must invalidate that made with them the Emperor and King of Spain being suspicious of the Allyance with France had entred into a Confederacy with the Princes of Germany at Ausburg as I have hinted in my last and that they might make their Party as strong as they could and having at the same time no clear demonstration of our King 's private Leaguing with France they resolved to leave nothing unessayed either to know that it was really so or if not to engage the King in their Interest the Marquess de Gastanaga Govenour of Flanders and the Spanish Embassador Don Pedro de Ronquillo were the Persons employed by that illustrious House in that Affair it 's well known here that the latter has omitted nothing that could be done to bring the King over urging to him the Honour and Interest of such an Allyance that it was the only Opportunity he had left to recover the good Opinion of his Subjects who he must needs know himself were somewhat alienated in their Affections from him with a great deal more to the same purpose and he did at last proceed so far well knowing his blind as to engage if his Majesty would enter into and be cordial in such an Allyance to order it so that his Parliament should acquiesce with whatever he was then attempting to get established in respect of Religion which he could never effect by the Assistance and Agency of France their harsh Procedure against the Reformed there being too green and fresh in Memory to be so soon forgotten by the English who had besides a natural Aversion to that Nation and their Politicks But my Lord all that Don Ronquillo has done was communicated to the French Emissaries who presently took the Scent and being not willing to give the King space to demur upon the Matter lost no Time in remonstrating to him That they who had told him That he ought to take that Opportunity to gain his Subjects by entring into the League of Ausburg had not reflected upon the inconsequence that followed upon such a Procedure That that League now agitated was but the consequence of another made at Magdenburg by the Protestants in favour of the Hugonots and that it were against all good Reason and Sense that a Prince who did his utmost to procure a Liberty to Roman Catholicks in England should concur to re-establish the most rigid of Protestants in France besides it would argue no good Policy for him to forsake a solid Friend such as the French King was to joyn himself to such Princes who would no longer be useful to him than while they had need of him since the Protestants had already begun to over-reach their Piety so far as to draw them into Leagues formed against a Catholick Prince in favour of the Calvinists whom he had driven out of his Dominions wherefore the King made answer to Don Ronquillo in general Terms That as he would faithfully preserve the Allyance made between him and his Master so the same Fidelity obliged him not to violate that Friendship which was between him and the Most Christian King his Kinsman who was willing to live at Peace with his Neighbours and mantain the same as far as he could between them Thus my Lord this hopeful Overture was blasted the Consequence whereof I refer to him who knows all things and to whose Protection I commend your Lordship who am My Lord Your very obliged Servant to command Paris Mar. 16. 1688 N. S. LETTER XXXVII Arguments used to King James by the Lord Marquess of Powis Pope's Nuntio c. against a War with Holland My Lord THat the King pursuant to his late Allyances with this Crown designs a War in conjunction with the French Arms against Holland is no longer a Secret here whatever it may be in England especially since Don Ronquillo's Artifices to gain him over to the Austrian
his acquainting the King his Master therewith My Lord MY last imported some Intimations to your Lordship of Mr. Skelton when the King's Envoy at the Hague his discovering some secret Correspondence negotiated between England and Holland as he judged to his Master's disadvantage I have also noted how the King had been advertised of it from this Court where Mr Skelton is now in the same Quality as at the Hague and who I can further assure your Lordship has made a further Progress to unriddle the Intrigue since his Arrival by the means of one whose Name is Budeus de Verace a Protestant of Geneva who having been some time since Captain of the Guards to the Prince of Orange and having had the Misfortune to kill a Man in a Duel was casheered by him Mr. Skelton being then at the Hague and acquainted with the said Verace found a way to reconcile him to his Master by the Recommendation of my Lord Clarendon who having brought up his Son my Lord Cornbury at Geneva was under great Obligations to Verace for the good Offices he had done him and care taken of him this Genevese being thus re-established in the Favour of the Prince his Master had it seems a greater Share of it than before as he had also in the Secrets of Monsieur B his Favorite however it was it should seem by the sequel that he was now by his second Introduction to Favour become quite of Mr. Skelton's Interest who was the Instrument to reconcile him For not long since he has taken occasion to be dissatisfied with the Service he engaged in and withdrawn and being as was given out but whether so in reality or no upon his return to his native City of Geneva he took occasion to write a Letter to Mr. Skelton now in this City That the Noise about the Armamont in Holland was so far from being a false thing or otherwise to be conceived that it was a Matter of the highest Importance and did no less than concern the Safety of the Crown of his Master the King of England and that it was highly necessary he should be made acquainted with a Son-in-Law whom he knew not This he desired Mr. Skelton to communicate to the King with all speed but he was not willing to make any further Discovery of his Secret to any other save to the King himself in Person if the King were so pleased as to send him Orders by Mr. Skelton to come and attend upon him Upon the receipt of which Letter from the said Genevese Mr. Skelton hath writ Five or Six Letters to the King in a very pressing lively and urgent manner but what effect they have had upon him may be the Subject of another Letter and perhaps of my next if my intelligence fail me not in the mean time I am and shall be My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris Aug. 14. 1688. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Slights used to make King James negligent to provide against the Inuasion from Holland My Lord I Do not find Mr. Skelton's Instances have had any great Effects upon the King towards quickening his Pace to ward off the Blow that seems to be preparing to be given him And I have something more than a Suspicion That it is the Desire of this Court the Kingdom should be invaded and that the Agents of it have been extraordinary busy to countermine whatever Advices have been given the King for taking a timely Precaution to defend himself so that there is my Lord in this Case a Wheel within a Wheel and whatever open Professions of Kindness is shewed him from hence by a timous Premonition of his Danger there is as great Care seriously to thwart all by contrary Counsels And among other things it has been eagerly urged to him That the Prince of Orange continues to carry himself towards him with such a Conduct as could not leave the least room to entertain any Suspicion of him and could it be thought that a Prince who had shewed his Devoirs to him so far as to make his Complements as other Princes had done upon the Birth of his Son the Prince of Wales and caused the Name of his new Brother-in-Law to be added to those of the Princes of the Family for whom they prayed in his Chappel should be unsincere or have the least Design to molest him or his Kingdoms by Arms especially since Van Citters the States Embassador had particularly assured him That what Preparations were made in Holland did not regard England but had given him to understand That France had a great deal more Reason to be alarmed than he But after all whatever were intended by such Preparations which they were well assure were much greater in Fame than in Reality his Majesty's Affairs were in so good a Posture that he had no Reason to fear any Enterprizes whatsoever That he had a Land Army a Fleet and such good Magazines as were sufficient to render the Efforts of almost all the complicated Powers of Europe ineffectual tho' such a Conjunction was as little to be expected as that his most Christian Majesty would abandon him who if he saw occasion as there was now but little likelihood would no fail to support him with all the Power of France both by Sea Land c. I will not be further Troublesome to your Lordship but remain My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Aug. â—8 1688. LETTER XLVI My Lord S charged by some of the French Faction with Infidelity to his Master King James My Lord IF your Lordship should ask me What the real Designs of this Court are in reference to England in such a conjuncture they seem to have other Sentiments now of the Invasion than they had a few days ago when they were secretly promoting the same Might and Main as I have intimated not long since to your Lordship with a View to engage us in a Civil War and thereby bring the King under a Necessity of calling in such a French Power to his Assistance as he should never be able to force out again But now they seem to be quite against it upon the opposition made by a great Minister of State to their Offer both of Men and Ships upon this occasion of whom they talk strange things here and say that in regard to the King however he has insinuated and winded himself into his Favour more than any they could recommend or propose he must be an Enemy reconciled only in a way of Policy and Necessity that he had in former Parliaments pushed on the Bill for his Exclusion with greater eagerness and warmth than any other That he had never attempted to recover his Favour but when he had a Prospect to injure him thereby that he is a Man intent to follow the prevailing Side but that he had always in case of any Change a safe Retreat to the other side that whilst he adhered to the Factions in Parliament against
help him to compass it and he was to urge closely 1. That tho' his Britannick Majesty had been by the intollerable Insolencies and base Outrages of the Dutch Nation constrained and necessitated much against his Inclinations to depart from so much of the tripple League as concerned the Hollanders yet he would not fail to retain still his Inclinations to promote as much as lay in him the chief Intent and Purport of it which was in Substance to hinder the French from aggrandizing themselves to the Diminution of their Neighbours but more particularly to the Prejudice of the Catholick King during his Minority provided he would stand Neuter 2. That his Neutrality would be a firm Security to him of what he yet possest in the Netherlands by obviating and taking clean away from the French all manner of pretences to molest his Subjects 3. That the destroying the Hollanders who were base Rebels to him and whom it was as much Scandalous as Pernicious for any Crowned Head to suffer to flourish and prosper in Wealth and Greatness as they had but too manifestly done to the Diminution of their Neighbours and much less to abet would be highly Beneficial and of manifold Advantage to his Catholick Majesty For that the vast Trade of Amsterdam and other great populous and flourishing Towns in Holland and the other Provinces being ruined and depopulated many of the Inhabitants at least all those of the Roman Catholick Religion or Perswasion a great many of the Deists and other Adiaphorites who were very indifferent and careless whether they frequented any publick Worship at all or no but chiefly and above all other things adored Trade and Gold with which the Dutch Territories swarmed above any other Nation either on this or the other side of the Hemisphere would without all doubt refugiate themselves as being nearest and most commodious for them in the Spanish Territories and Provinces especially Flanders and would quickly multiply and encrease in them not only People but Trade and Riches from whence encrease of Power and Strength both by Sea and Land would be a necessary and infallible Consequence And that then the now almost abandoned City of Antwerp once the most famous and most flourishing City in Trade of this part of Europe should have free liberty to lay open her Scheld again now damm'd up by the Hollanders and recover her former Riches Glory and Strength as would necessarily all the other Spanish Cities and trading Towns in that Country in a proportionable degree which would be a means to make Spain herself become much more Flourishing and Populous 4. That the Crown of Spain would by this means have her Hands quite rid of the most troublesome as well as dangerous Rival in Trade and Conquest in the East Indies of any other Europian Nation whatsoever in which respect neither England nor France tho' trading Nations as being Monarchies had not been nor indeed could possibly be or become so prejudicial to it However they might perhaps afterwards be fortified with new Accessions of Strength and Power as that one single Republick which tho' scarce of one age's Growth had yet already to the Amazement as well as Detriment of their Neighbour Nations and especially the Kingdom of Spain and Territories belonging to it monopolized into her own Hands the advantageous and incredibly gainful Trades to the great Kingdoms of China Iapan and many other Parts both of the East Indian and African Coasts whither in former times no other Nations in the World besides those of Spain and Portugal had any manner of Access 5. That the Power of that upstart Republick was already at that exorbitant Greatness and Grandure that there was no possibility either of humbling or depressing it and much less of a total Subversion of it by any other in Christendom then the united Powers of the Kingdoms of England and France and yet things were brought to that pass that if timely care were not taken to have the said Republick removed out of the way or at least mortified to a very great degree it must of necessity in a short time rise up as Old Rome did to such a prodigious Strength Power Dominion and Grandure that it would give Law to all the Crowned Heads in this part of the World and perhaps at last devour them since it well appeared and was conspicuous to all that did not wilfully shut their Eyes that by such little Blows as the Kingdom of England alone was able to give them in the late War and Sea Engagements they had with them their Experience numbers of Seamen Power Strength and Riches were every day advanced and encreased after the Respite of a small breathing time of Peace And that consequently if his Catholick Majesty the King of Spain or rather the Queen Regent and Ministers as also his Imperial Majesty should suffer themselves to be so over-ruled by such a needless as well as unseasonable Jealousie so far as by their Interposition to obstruct and hinder the now probable Downfal of that usurping and encroaching Republick what could they expect and hope for in the Revolution of a few Years but to see those very People whom by their needless Solicitude they had saved from Destruction be so adventurous as to seize into their own Hands by way of Retaliation for their Kindness their precious Mines of Gold and Silver in the Countreys of Peru and Mexico when it should be quite out of the Power either of the Kingdoms of England or France or indeed both of them together should they find themselves so disposed to prevent their inevitable Loss which would be not only a most pernicious Blow but as might very well be feared even a deadly one to the illustrious House of Austria as well as a very sensible one to all the other Princes and States of Christendom And therefore it could not but be a matter even of high Importance and greatly for the Interest and Benefit of his Catholick Majesty and his Subjects in general for him to resolve to remain and continue neuter in this War that was to commence shortly against the united Dutch Provinces and to connive at and give way to the Success of the French and English Nations since it was evidently as necessary and requisite for the Safety and Grandure of the Kingdom of Spain ut deleatur ist a Carthago as it was for that of England and France from whom a mutual Jealousie which as it ever was could not but be still continued would sufficiently secure Spain to all future Ages from offering any such Violence or making any such Attempts on their Golden and Silver West Indies as would certainly as well as unavoidably be made in less then half an Age upon them by the Republick of Holland If his Catholick Majesty the Emperour and his other Allies should stand so far in their own Light and become guilty of so much Imprudence which could hardly be thought of them as to give any divertion unto
of any thing that looked black or villanous or seemed too directly to aim at the detriment or destruction of their Country or Religion till such time as they had a long trial of their Tempers and found them fit for such Attempts or that they had got them first into such a Correspondence which tho' in the ultimate intention was not malicious but only an effect of zeal to their several Parties yet would if discovered be construed reasonable and so keep them under an hank to them and then they were to put them on such Barbarities and Villanies as they thought necessary for their purpose which if they then refused their Business was to abandon them and to imploy such Instruments as were as Bankrupt of Religion and Conscience as of Fortune and would be desperately determined to venture at any thing for Money and by these they were to be pretended to be detected as Traytors and prosecuted as guilty of the Designs which they have been only tempted to and so were to serve all People whom they once got within their Toil as occasions and their Interests did require But I see I have already past over the just bounds of a Letter and shall therefore only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordship 's most devoted Servant Paris May 5. 1681. N. S. LETTER XLI Containing the Practices of the French Agents for the amusement of Foreign Catholicks while they carry'd on their Designs against England My Lord IT would be very strange to think that the Ministers of this Court who have had a hand almost in every thing relating to our Nation should not be concerned in the affair of the Popish Plot but it is so far otherwise that they have been the chief managers and starters of many things which have since come to light Nay I am bold to say That the very actions and intentions of almost all the Instruments of the English Nation and even of some of the French themselves were very wide tho' villanous enough from those of the Machiavillian Off-spring which set them on work My Lord you have heard of Father St. Germain and perhaps of Father Columbiere too who succeeded him in England these were the Persons who together with their other assisting Emissaries disposed of Things and Parties in our Nation to favour their Designs in reference to the said Conspiracy and whose Instructions from Father La Chaise were to take upon them to inform and press upon the Creatures of the Pope and Ministers and Creatures of other Princes of the Roman Communion but of a different Interest from their Master 's the French King That for their parts they were only actuated by a Zeal for the propagation of the Catholick Religion and the re-union in time of so famous a Monarchy to the Church by gentle and peaceable ways and means and chiefly for the Conversion of our two Princes so nearly Related to their King in Blood and for whom he had so much Esteem and Affection and that their Master being their nearest Neighbour and seated most conveniently to assist them on occasion would with his Purse promote all he could the quiet Conversion of all sorts of People that could be drawn in by the Godly Eloquence of their Missionaries or by the more powerful language of Pensions with some and was heartily willing to supply our Princes with what was needful or might be so to maintain themselves against any Attempts that might be made against them upon the jealousie or discovery of any such design and succour them by a sufficient Military Force too in case they were likely to be reduced to Extremity by an open Rebellion of their stubborn and discontented Subjects on that account without once pretending to so idle and impracticable a design as some of them whom they spoke to were tutored to call it as by that means to go about to make the Crown of England seudatory to that of France or to strengthen himself with the additional power of England with intent to encroach afterwards upon the Rites and Prerogatives of the Holy See or give Umbrage to other Temporal Enemies of that Communion or to draw any other advantage to the French from the Alliance of the English Princes than to be able in the quality of Most Christian King and first Son of the Church to promote the growth of the Holy Catholick Religion in their Realms and Dominions and make use of their Mediation and Friendship to ballance in some measure the present force of so formidable a Confederacy as was lately formed against him That it was a thing ridiculous to think or once as much as imagin that whilst he was in actual War with so many considerable Powers at that time he could be so simple as to attempt England by force or if he were out of War with them that he could as much as offer at so considerable an Enterprize upon any pretence whatsoever without allarming them or expecting to be opposed Vigorously by them as well as by the other Protestent Powers of Europe or that he could be thought to be so rash as to venture on such a difficult Expedition whilst he foresaw so powerful an Opposition But that indeed upon the happy conclusion of a general and lasting Peace among the Catholick Princes he would most willingly and readily join and concur in any holy League with them and contribute his full proportion of Forces with theirs to so glorious and laudable a Work as would be the restoration of the Kings of England to their pristine Power and Majesty and the Holy See to its former just Authority and Jurisdiction in these famous Islands which for so many former Ages had made so considerable and profitable a Province of the Roman Church and therefore they were to desire and press them not to let any particular Interests which they had against their Master in worldly and secular Concerns prevail with them to go about to mis-interpret or any ways obstruct their Conversion of Souls which could be of no manner of prejudice to them in those other respects but rather readily to concur with their Endeavours in so pious and charitable a Work wherein they ought wholly to lay aside all distinction of Nations or Interests and Cooperate as Members of one Body and Subjects of one universal Prince Christ Jesus and his Vice-gerent-General the Pope With which Arguments and sly Suggestions they were to wheedle all Foreigners to at least a careless security and unconcernedness about the Affairs of England whilst they play'd their pranks to destroy both our Religion and Government and make us an Appennage of the Gallican Church and Crown which I pray God I may never live to see nor my Country feel and shall ever do so whilst I am as I am resolved always to be My Lord Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Most Devoted Servant Paris Mar. 11. 1682. LETTER XLII The Arguments of the French Emisaries for the Amusement of some of the
fiercely against King Lewis if they would but once consider the great Liberty and Priviledges which their Protestant Brethren enjoy'd in the French Dominions their former assisting the oppressed Protestant Dutch and other Protestant States against the Bloody Inquisitors and Unchristian Inquisition the severe Persecutions of the House of Austria the frequent differences of France with the Court of Rome and the little power the Pope was allowed in the Gallican Church no more than what was Titular and that if these things were but duly weighed it might be more than presumed the present French King would little concern himself or any way intermeddle with Religious Contests in England But that whatever opinion they might have of that Neighbouring King to his disadvantage which yet did but little affect or concern him they had on the contrary much occasion to look about them at home and to that end these Emissaries were to promote tooth and nail the belief of the King and Duke's being both Papists but particularly to affirm that the Duke was most certainly of that Religion and at the same time to discover assured Evidences of it as also of the Measures concerted to bring in both Popery and Arbitrary Power and really to detect some Measures which themselves had as yet but only projected or at least but proposed and that too but to the Duke only as if they had been fully consented to and begun underhand to be put in practice And having once well imprest this they were to exaggerate the greatness and eminency of the danger the more to alarm them and slily to insinuate that an Accommodation was Transacting between the two Churches of Rome and England and a thousand other Artifices they us'd besides to animate each Party against the other too tedious for your Lordship to read or me to relate neither need I tell you how they traversed one another's designs only I must Note Sir Roger L'Estrange and almost all the Writers for that side under a pretence of serving the Church of England and the Monarchy and some also of the other Party though unknown to themselves were and are still but the unhappy Tools and Instruments of French Jesuits and Machiavillian Emissaries who were the main Conjurers that by undiscovered Spells have raised up those Devils of Discord that under the Names of Whigs Tories and Trimmers have so much disturbed our Native Country and the LORD knoweth where it will terminate I am glad to hear your Lordship hath so well exerted the Caution and Prudence inherent in your Family in these times of difficulty and may it be so still which is the hearty desire of My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and most Obedient Servant Paris April 8. 1682. N. S. LETTER XLV Of the Duke of York's being drawn into a close Correspondence with the French Court with an Account of his Pension from thence My Lord I Cannot think your Lordship will so much admire that the Duke should suffer himself to engage into a close Correspondence with the French Court yea and to enter into a separate Treaty with them when other things more unlikely have been made evident enough so as not to be contradicted I cannot tell at present whether there be any other particulars of this same Treaty than what has come within my Cognizance but so much as has as I hope it will be acceptable I as freely communicate and was in substance as followeth First The Duke was engaged to stick close to his Alliance with France declining all Treaties with those of the House of Austria and even with the Pope himself without the French King's Privity and Approbation Secondly To oppose to the utmost of his Power the King his Brother from engaging in any War for the Confederates Thirdly To joyn with him the French King in making a strong Effort to draw in if possible the Prince of Orange to embrace a separate Interest from that of the States of Holland and if not to come over to the Roman Religion at least to enter into a separate Treaty with the Kingdoms of France and England under a pretence of laying a sure foundation for his own future Greatness and establish it on both sides the Sea by the suppression of all Factions which now disturbed his Uncle and might afterward disturb him and in case he proved still obstinate to second him in all Methods that might be used to hinder his Succession to the Crown of England by hindring any Match that might be proposed between the Prince and the Princess Mary and that he should for that purpose keep off Matching either of his Two Daughters upon several pretences to gain time till a fit juncture might come when Matches might be accomplished for them both with French Princes or some other Princes in that Interest viz. the eldest to the Dauphin and the younger to the Duke of Savoy or a Prince of the Houses of Conde or Conti or to the Duke of Modena Fourthly That the Duke should do his utmost to have the Government of his Children himself and to have them Tuâ—ored if possible in his own Religion and if they were obstinate in case he should sail of other Issue then they would have had him to exclude them and Adopt the Duke of Chartres for his Heir but this was only proposed and Intail the Crown thence forward to Heirs Male only and to have the Salique Law Established in England as well as in France but and if he should not be powerful enough to hinder a Match with the Prince of Orange or some other Protestant Prince but of the former they were most jealous then to concur with them to cut him off but this point would not be formally assented to neither But all Points proposed were on his part easily assented to As doing his utmost for the propagation of the Catholick Religion pursuing Measures concerted for dividing of Protestants undermining of Parliaments and putting forward Arbitrary Counsels without reserve and particularly to raise Arms in Scotland and Ireland and call in French Forces in case the King should at any time by any Motives whatsoever be influenced to act to the French King's prejudice Lastly The Duke was to take care That no Popish Clergy or Layety should be imploy'd by him but such as were in the French Interests and trust his main Secrets with none but such as were French-born Jesuits on which Conditions he was to have a considerable Annuity of Six hundred thousand Crowns and extraordinary Sums when necessary and the circumstances of things did require to carry on any of the forementioned Points even to what he pleased himself to demand So all things being thus concluded he received in hand Three hundred thousand Crowns of his Annuity and Six hundred thousand Crowns extraordinary and Jewish Bankers were accordingly imployed to transmit the Money to him from time to time Besides all which the French King's Confessor promised him a private Contribution from the Clergy
abroad should fall to so abject a State as to become a French Pensioner which without the addition of any other Crime is more than enough eternally to blast the Memory of an English Monarch but I know this Subject can be ungrateful to no one alive more than to your Lordship and therefore I shall forbear further insisting upon it and remain My Lord Your Honour 's to Serve and Obey Paris Jan. 27. 1680. N. S. LETTER XLIX Of King Charles II's Politick's upon his Entring into the fore-mentioned private League with France as represented by the French Court. My LORD IN my last your Lordship had the substance of the Private League entred into by our King and this Court it may not be now unworthy your curiosity to know the Censure they have past upon him in relation to that head they have said they understood well enough that what ever their Design might be in obtaining such a point that the King and his Brother 's too upon them was to draw as much Money out of them as they possibly could thereby and yet not to venture too far on any of those important and ticklish Points proposed without very large Summs to secure every Step made forward and that by advance too for that they both concluded that the best and only way to make the French stick close to them was to be always considerably before-hand with them not without reason as they imagined fearing that if they were not still before-hand when they had engaged them in Difficulties and saw them fast they would leave them in the lurch As for the King tho' they knew him to be no more a Papist than he was a Politician yet he was of the Opinion if the Popish Religion could be handsomly made predominant it might suit better with the Monarchy yet having no Children to succeed him that he was but careless in that point and his Brother only being concerned in that matter he moved only as he was spurred on by his importunity the Temptation of Money the Diffidence he had of his People and among others the Fears he had either of having his days shortned or his Crown very much endangered by the Intrigues of his Brother or the French King should he not keep fair and humour them both in some tollerable measure since he found himself so far intangled in their snares For as for his Nephew the Prince of Orange that he had no aversion for him but rather an inclination through Nature and Policy and therefore was of himself willing enough the Match should go on yet that he would have been glad if the Prince could have been drawn over to the French Interest for that then he thought he would have compassed many desirable Ends in one business and made a very great advance to have satisfied all parties in the greatest part of their several Pretensions because that then he supposed he could have satisfied the French King in bringing over a Prince to his Interest so very capable to serve him in that juncture of time that he would have satisfied also those of his own Subjects who were well affected to the English Monarchy as he would have likewise our Trading Companies by marrying our Princess to a Prince of the Protestant Religion whom he by separating from the Interests of the States of Holland and drawing into a League with two great Kings should have put into a condition to depress that Republick which was so ill a Neighbour to the Monarchy so much our rival in Trade and so great a fomenter of the Schisms and Factions in England that thereby he should have laid grounds to hope that if ever he succeeded to those Crowns he might be able to subject the Belgick to the British Lions and transfer the magazine of the Riches of the World from the Netherlands into England and that fie thought to have satisfied the Duke his Brother in a great measure by so satisfying his friend the French King and likewise by depressing a Republick so well scituated and inclined to abet his deadly Enemies that in all appearance would way-lay his Succession to the Throne and thereby cutting off all occasion from that Male-content party that continually sought occasion to stir up against him the old Devils of Fears and Jealousies of Popery and Arbitrary Power And that he thought to oblige the Prince too by putting him into a method to become a Sovereign in time And lastly that he was perswaded if the Prince complied with those Methods the Match could disoblige no body but the States of Holland and the sympathizing Factions of the Sectaries in England and the Republicans whom he thought inconsiderable but that how desirous soever he was of such a Compliance with France as they desired yet it was not in his inclination to break the Match for that he having in reality a much greater mind to the Alliance with the Prince of Orange than to that with the Dauphine in which he did imagine he foresaw unfurmountable Difficulties and such as might endanger if not over-turn his Throne ruine his Brother and the whole Royal Family and at last make Great Britain but a French Province however that knowing the Temper of the Duke his Brother and the vindicative humour of the French King he was willing to seem almost all complaisant and temporize for a while whereby he might appease them and at the same time get what Money could be drawn from France both for his own security and pleasure and when he had done that that he knew wheeling about and concluding the Match when they least thought of it or expected it would please his people again tho' never so unsatisfied by the delay These my Lord are the Sentiments of this Court concerning him which if true in all points I conceive they are more beholding to him than many persons in England are willing to believe of him but I shall leave it to your Lordships profound Judgment to revolve upon the particulars and remain My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Feb. 1. 1680. N. S. LETTER L. Of the Duke of York's Politicks upon his entring into a close Correspondence with France as the French Politicians represent them My LORD AS I have transmitted to your Lordship the exactest Particulars I could learn concerning the King's entring into a private Treaty with France and in my last the Censure of this Court thereupon I have also to the best of my remembrance given you likewise an Account of the Duke's being drawn into a close Correspondence with them some time before but whether it were that the Ministers on this side conceived such a Judgment of the King as I have already related and such of the Duke which I am just about to relate I cannot possitively determine but thus it is they censure him saying That though he was so much a Bigot in Religion that he was totally averse to the Aurangian Alliance unless it could be
they desired or negotiate a private Treaty with that Prince in their favour and to their advantage with that power and good effect desirable required as they might well imagine more than ordinary Summes of Money and all ready and in Specie too But that if besides his ordinary Allowance according to the Agreement which he expected should be punctually pay'd him every six months he could but have a Summ of a Million of Crowns again seasonably advanced him for Extraordinaries before the time of the next prorogation of the Parliament were expired then he did believe he might bring matters so to bear by such a Reinforcement so as to be able to gain Votes enough even in the Parliament it self to carry it against all others both in respect to the Neutrality and to the gaining their Consent for deferring any Foreign Allyance by way of Marriage of either of his Daughters till a General Peace was concluded and work very much with the Prince of Orange too to comply with their desires when he should see the Parliament gave him no hopes otherwise of compassing his Aims or if not yet at least he should be able hereby to keep himself still strongest in the Privy Council and in the Court where nothing should be transacted to their disadvantage That both his own Friends and theirs had been so very successful and made such wonderful progresses in Conversions of all sorts and Ranks of People as that of such and such Peers of the Realm I will not say your Lordship was one named among the rest such and such Courtiers and Members of Parliament c. that such and such Bishops Eminent Doctors in Divinity and other dignified Clergy and such and such Gentlemen who were remarkable for Interest and Estates or Eminent for exquisite Parts though they have learnt here since there was nothing more false were either already converted and quite brought over or extraordinarily well inclined and that there was no doubt to be made of it but by an augmentation of about four or five hundred thousand Crowns more for the Cause and Interest of Religion they might be able so to dispose of the greater and more noted part of the Conforming Church of England which was the main of their Work as to bring them over to their Religion yea and even to declare for it publickly too as soon as they should be freed from the Fears of the English Mobile and of the Fanatical Sectaries and see a General Peace concluded and the King himself declare for it being back'd with so powerful a Prince as his Most Christian Majesty was that however many of them were already brought over to the French Interest against the Dutch and many more might be so if timely Liberality were offered with many other Allegations set off with Coleman's usual flourishes on the behalf of his Master though he had countermined all before as I have already hinted And lastly that he had once more attacked the King his Brother as to Religion and that with great hopes and that if he could have but Money enough to carry on the Point with the Church of England he questioned not but by that time a General Peace were negotiated his Majesty would be induced to declare too when besides his support abroad from the Most Christian King he should see himself backt by almost all his Royalists then numerous enough in the Nation and so great yea more than a probability of an Accommodation between the two Churches of Rome and England and his potent Brother of France then by the Peace at full Liberty to lend him all needful Help My Lord you see here what little Sincerity there was in all their mutual Proceedings May the Reward be suitable is my unfeigned Wish as it has been already to some But I am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Mar. 9. 1680. N. S. LETTER LIII Of King Charles II's urging the French Court for his Remittances according to the private League between them My LORD YOU have heard what pressing Instances His Highness has made for his Remittances according to Agreement and what mighty Encouragements he has given this Court of gaining their Ends both in Court and Parliament And now 't is fit the King should put in his Plea at last which he did in this manner as their Minutes represent it That for his part he had advanced rather more than less Money than he had already received from them for carrying on their Work and that not to enumerate many Particulars he would observe to them that when he saw there was no other Probability of obliging his dear Brother of France in preserving the Neutrality so much desired by him but by Proroguing of his Parliament which they knew well enough was a tender Point That yet not to be wanting to his Brother's Interests and his own Engagements he had adventured so far as even twice to Prorogue them and had withal expended most of his own Moneys in endeavouring if possible against the next Meeting or Session of Parliament to make a Party so as to be able in a Parliamentary Way to over-match his Adversaries and those of the Most Christian King his Brother and not only that but to be in a Condition to support himself during their Recess in the Figure he ought as King of England to make both at home and abroad for his own Advantage as well as that of the Most Christian King 's and so carry on the Work of Mediation between him and the Confederates as his Brother of France would have as likewise the desired Negotiations in Holland to induce the Prince of Orange to a Compliance c. That they could not but know he was much involved in Debts by the last War in Conjunction with them against Holland and other extraordinary Occasions by Troubles arising and fomented chiefly by his adhering to his Brother of France's Interest and that he having Prorogued his Parliament upon his Account and thereby put himself under an absolute Necessity of being deprived of the Legal Assistance of his People it was but very reasonable and just they should advance such a Sum as might enable him not only further to gratifie His Most Christian Majesty's Desires but also to satisfie in part his own extraordinary Necessities and recompence him for the Subsidies he miss'd of thereby again and again from his own Subjects And Lastly He demanded at least such a Re-inforcement as he had before received at the Conclusion of the Treaty with France and that by way of Extraordinary besides his Annuity punctually paid And of this he expected an exact Performance before the besides another Advance at the Beginning of that Session that so he might be able to make his Party good against all Opposers at their next Meeting or else Prorogue them without fear of wanting Money during their Recess And did further insist beside some other Proposals not worth mentioning upon his having Five
King would be involved in equal Trouble on that Account as on the other For that if she were given to the Prince of Orange without first engaging him in the Interests of France that thereby he would have a double Claim to the Crown that of Course the King his Brother must be drawn into a War with France and that by so doing both the Royal Brethren would lose for ever the French King's Friendship and Support in case of Extremity which they would infallibly be reduced to by such a War or by but making a Shew of it For if it went on whether there were Cause or no there would be Jealousies of the Duke 's Corresponding with France yea and of the King too And that after all such a Match would be interpreted but for a piece of Policy only to hide from the People their Correspondence with France and would never cure their Jealousies nor take off the Fears they had of a Popish Succession by his new Dutchess but add Strength and Courage to them to oppose Remedies against it That thereupon when they had the King once in a War they would not give him any Money to carry it on unless they saw the laying of it out and had in a manner the Administration of the War in their own Hands in which His Highness would be but a Cypher and would never be trusted That then not content with that it was not to be doubted but that the Exclusion of himself and of his Heirs by the Second Bed unless educated in the Protestant Religion would likewise be hotly urged in the next place in favour of a Protestant Prince so doubly Allied to the Crown of England a professed Enemy of France and a Native of Holland the Country next their own so much adored by them That such an Alliance would strengthen that Faction that was already but too strong That such an Exclusion being press'd the King must either grant it or deny it if he granted it as it was to be feared he might then was His Highness and the Heirs of his Religion lost without Recovery and then it would be out of the French King's Power as well as Inclination to assist him after having been so disobliged against the Power of England and Holland united neither could he propose that Advantage to himself be it as it will That if the King should resist the said Importunity about Exclusion that then he would expose himself to the Distractions of a Civil War which might end both in the Ruin of the Royal Family and the Monarchy it self for that the Republicans would not fail to lift up their Crests again in those Troubles And that besides the Interest of the Prince of Orange the Duke of Monmouth being already very popular might be tempted by so fair an Opportunity to put in for a Pretender to the Succession and that it was not impossible that the King if he saw him favoured by the People might be tempted too to prefer the Interest of a Son before that of a Brother and a Brother too for whom he must be necessitated to undergo so much Vexation and Trouble and run so great a Risque to defend That in the mean while England being in a War with France that King instead of helping him must be obliged in his own Defence to foment those Troubles and abet his Enemies That perhaps he might think some of these Fears but imaginary but that His Highness might assure himself they had better Intelligence than he in that Case and were very well satisfied that all the said Parties were ready disposed and had concerted all their Designs against him and that they were abetted by Men of the greatest power and Interest in the three Kingdoms and then of what Power and Influence such plausible and popular Pretensions would be among the People when promoted and advanced by such Men His Royal Highness could not be ignorant of That therefore all summed up and duly compared the Dangers attending the Espousing his Daughter to the Prince of Orange were as great if not considerably greater than those that would be incurred by giving her up to the Disposal of the French King for more could not be feared from that than what had been mention'd Therefore they conjured him as he tender'd his own Good and Safety or that of his Posterity or of his Brother or lastly of the hopeful Beginnings of the Catholick Religion in these Kingdoms that he should be persuaded and also persuade his Brother to take the Council of France both in the Disposal of the Princess and other things relating thereto for that the Danger of adhering to the French King was no greater than that on the other side but that the Assistance on his side would be great and powerful as well as Cordial whereas it never could be in the other Party's Power much less in their Interest or Inclination to afford him any Succour in his Troubles but rather to add Oil to the Flame And above all never to be so rash as to suffer himself to be tempted to consent to a War against France for that the Factions would then have their Ends of him as having a full Opportunity put into their hands thereby to compleat his Ruin without Controul These were the Arguments used to His Royal Highness against the March with the Prince of Orange And with which I shall at present conclude who am My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Humble Servant Paris Aug. 4. 1679. N. S. LETTER LVIII Proposals made to the Duke of York about consenting to have his Daughter the Lady Mary privately Trapanned into France c. My LORD I Gave in my last to your Lordship a Relation of the Remonstrances used to the Duke in general against his consenting to have his Daughter married to the Prince of Orange I shall now endeavour to oblige your Lordship with some new Proposals made to him upon that Head 1. That the Duke should use all the Power and Interest he had with the King his Brother to let his Daughter the Lady Mary take a Voyage into France to take the Waters of Bourbon or else to consent she might be privily sent away by the Duke as against his Knowledge and Will and that then they would get her speedily married which putting things past Retrieve Matters might the better by good Management be composed and made up to all their Satisfactions 2. That to this purpose the French King would send a most splendid Embassy into England of one of the chief Peers of his Realm with a very numerous Train of choice Nobility But if the King consented publickly to that Proposition the Princess might go over in the said Ambassador's Company Or if he gave private Consent she might be conveyed away as in the first Article 3. If the King should by no means consent to it that then the Duke should contrive a Way to get her seized and shipped off at the Ambassador's Departure without
it tho they are somewhat desirous to give it another Term here and say His Britannick Majesty is well known to be the only Prince in the World that understands Shipping the best and that only out of a little Vanity to shew his great Abilities in that way he sent diverse Models not only into France but else where also tho the real Cause as I have heard it whisper'd was his want of Jealousy and withal to Coaks as much Mony out of them as he could and in order to enhance the same he sent also Artists over as well as Models for which by the Account I have seen tho it seems to be somewhat imperfect as to the particulars he hath already receiv'd at times above 600000 Pounds Sterling which is all the particulars I could ever attain to in relation to this matter that I know is the most ungrateful to your Lordship to understand perhaps of any thing that has at any time dropp'd from my Pen and therefore I am glad 't is thus contracted as I am always of an opportunity to acknowledg how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris June 4. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXI The Conduct of the Court of France towards the Duke of York during his aboad in Flanders and Scotland c. My Lord YOUR Lordship will hardly believe the Treachery of the Ministers of this Court who since I have known them would stick at no manner of Villany to gain their ends and our unhappy Princes have from time to time given them but too much opportunity to work their designs through their own sides and this I have already made to appear by several instances to your Lordship and shall further now by observing that notwithstanding his Royal Highnesses Compliance with them in the business of Marrying his Daughter so far as he could and upon diverse other occasions as I have formerly hinted Yet at that time when he was forc'd to retire to Bruxels they were very angry with him and almost all the rest of the English Papists hecause so many of them had seem'd Zealous to serve the Spanish interest under the Duke in Flanders nay and the French King himself was heard to say That had he followed his Counsel and had been constant to him he should not have needed to retire to Bruxels or to any other place but France as I think I mention'd before to your Lordship Tho they seem'd afterward to mollify somewhat towards him yet they set their Emissaries on work in England and Scotland to deal with some persons about whom they had formerly got some Light in Monsieur Ruvigni's time to get the Duke sent into Scotland to make a Party there while they privately engag'd the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the Exclusioners in England to do their utmost both in Court and Parliament to get him Excluded from the Succession in hopes and with this accursed view that England having proceeded so far as to put him by the Succession Scotland would declare for him and so the two Kingdoms be rent in sunder and afflicted with a tedious War wherein they had resolv'd to assist the latter and yet my Lord 't is strange to think it yet so it is that they were not true to him even there for they got it privately propos'd to a certain Noble Family in the Kingdom of Scotland deriv'd from Blood Royal that if they would put in a claim to the Scotch Crown and throw off the Title of the two Brothers upon pretensions to be suggested to them and that Scotland would set up again for a Kingdom under a King of its own and renew their Antient League with France they should be Assisted effectually and should besides have the Lands of the Dutchy of Chateâ—leraut and the Honours and Lands of Aubâ—ny c. with many other additions restor'd to them and over and above all this a large Annual Pension and all the old Priviledges granted formerly to the Sootch Nation renewed and considerably augmented but tho my Lord that Noble Family refus'd to hearken to these their Treacherous Invitations yet there cannot a greater instance scarce be given of their Villanous Designs than this which I could not but communicate to your Lordship upon this occasion who am My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Sept. 6. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXII Of King Charles II's Resolution a little before his Death to alter his method ef Government My Lord I Am very well satisfied your Lordship must know in a very great measure the present Resolutions of the King in respect to his Future Government when you know so well by whose Agency he was at first Undeceiv'd and by whose Council and Assistance he intends to proceed but the Ministers here have too many Agents still about him to remain long Ignorant of the Design and are not a little Allarm'd to understand his Majesty hath resolv'd to restore all Charters to call a Parliament and thereby to get a moderate Liberty settled on Dissenters and to have the Boundaries of Prerogative Parliamentary Priviledges and Popular Liberty so clearly settled and explain'd that there may arise no more Disputes about them between King and People for the Future and that it shall be made Treason after that even in Parliament once to move any thing prejudicial to the King 's declar'd and explain'd Prerogatives or to the Parliament and Peoples declar'd Priviledges and Liberties and that all Officers Military and Civil shall be equally Sworn to maintain the one as well as the other that the Duke for the present shall be Sollicited to go for Scotland attended with such Persons as would take care to observe his Steps narrowly and that in his Absence the Princess Mary be Declar'd Heir Presumptive to the Crown and the Prince invited to Reside with her in England till the King's Death and the Duke totally Excluded and confin'd to live at Modena or Rome and not in this Kingdom or elsewhere but to have all his Revenues allow'd him and that if he prove Refractory and refuse to Retire any where else but into France that then he shall not only be depriv'd of his Revenue but be altogether confin'd in some Castle in England under a good Guard c. I do not question my Lord but this matter is sufficiently aggravated by the French Emissaries and perhaps there may be something more in it than I am able to fathom however it was my Duty to Transmit the same as I find in represented tho your Lordship may know much more truly the Fact than My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Jan. 4. 1685. N. S. LETTER LXXIII Of King Charles II's Death My Lord YOur Lordship may expect I should acquaint you how much surpriz'd I was at the News of the King's Death but the manner it was receiv'd here quite drown'd my Astonishment in that Kind and so it would any true English Man to see this Court have the News of his Majesties Death or at
him to see the Prince and thus Matters stood when the late King died but the Brother succeeding he set all his Engines on work how he might get the Duke of Monmouth into his Clutches Dead or Alive But the French Agents my Lord did not think that now their Interest which in the late Reign they would have given any Money to have effected and therefore by their Correspondents in Holland they got the Duke secretly Advertised of the Danger who thereupon withdrew to Bruxels I know my Lord they gave it out that the Prince of Orange by his Favourite Monsieur Bentink got the Duke made acquainted therewith and that he gave him Money to go to Bruxels it was both Honourably and Charitably done of him if it was so to a distressed Gentlemen with an intent to make the King his Father-in-law more irreconcileable to him now he was King then when Duke of York tho' he was to dissemble it for a time and upon his Accession to the Throne to testifie to the Prince the sincere desire he had to live with him rather as a Father then an Ally and Neighbouring King I have had sufficient Experience my Lord of your great Honour Integrity and good Affection which makes me thus bold in a matter so nice at this time and so concludes My Lord Your humble Servant Paris March 17. 1685. N. St. LETTER III. Of King James's being Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury My Lord IT has been a matter of much discourse and reflection here that our King should be Crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury and not by one of the Roman Communion it was expected that since he had begun so briskly and openly to declare Himself for Rome that he would not have stuck at being Inaugurated by a Roman Bishop I find by the return made hither upon this Subject that his inclinations were violent enough for the latter but that the Reason of his Non-compliance was that having at his assumption of the Crown declar'd to the Council and by them to his People That he would maintain the Church and State of England as by Law Establish'd and that the Ceremony of his Coronation was such as the Laws of the Land did prescribe The thought it was a little two Early to begin and that by so publick an Act which to be sure would be interpreted not only as the most manifest Violation of the National Constitution but the Preludium to a despotick Power which no man knew the end of I shall not trouble your Lordship with a Repetition of the Arguments used here by the Gentlemen of the Roman Church pro and con upon the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of such a Compliance by a Catholick King to the Church of England which tho the Establish'd one they look upon to be false to the Truth as being matters which I suppose your Lordship cares not for and therefore having nothing further wherewith to entertain you that is worth Transmitting I conclude subscribing my self My Lord Your Honours most humble Servant Paris May 6. 1685. N. S. LETTER IV. Of the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Argyle's Invasions and Overthrows and of the Prince of Orange's offering to serve against the former but his offer was Malitiously Interpreted and so Rejected My Lord THE Reason of my long silence to your Lordship I hope will not be interpreted by you as any forgetfulness much less neglect of your Honours Commands and Expectation I am too sensible of the many Obligations that have been heap'd upon me from time to time to be guilty of so Notorious a Crime but the want of somewhat that was Solid and Grateful to your Lordship has been one genuine Cause that obstructed my Correspondence to which I may add what your self knows very well the private Orders given in England to open all Letters whether Domestick or Foreign and since I had for so long a time continu'd to write to your Lordship and that undiscover'd I was not willing for want of a little prudent caution and suspension in such a juncture either to expose your Lordship to any hazard or thereby for ever to exclude my self from any farther Correspondence with you whom I so much Love and Honour But now my Lord understanding that the Storm is over in England by the defeat and death of the Duke as we have had some days ago an Account from Scotland of the like misfortune to have attended the Earl of Argyle I have adventured to Salute you with these Lines and to tell my thoughts freely upon the matter I must confess I never had any great opinion of either of the Expeditions because concerted by Men who had very different ends in what they did the Duke and some others for Monarchy but the greatest part Republicans and therefore I do not wonder the whole hath miscarried especially when I can assure your Lordship both the one and the other were tho' very privately Abetted by French Agents to undertake such an Expedition such a procedure may well be wondred at I confess since there was apparently so little advantage like to arise to the French Court therefrom but besides their loving to fish always in Troubled Waters they have somewhat in them that is very like the Devil who loves to do Mischief tho' with no benefit to himself But whatever the World may think hereof those who are fled that escaped from either Kingdom after the Defeat are as kindly received here as those who formerly fled from the Popish Conspiracy but yet they are daily sifted and examin'd by the Spies that continually haunt them I would gladly know might I have the honour your Lordship's Sentiments of both Descents and the Miscarriage of them to be plain with you I own I have very different apprehensions of them now they are over than I had at first and the rather because the Prince of Orange so much resented it tho' most Maliciously interpreted by the King and his Popish Council whetted on by Gallican Agents When the Prince had the first News of the Duke's Landing in England he acquainted Mr. Skelton the King's Ambassador that the Duke of Monmouth though he were a Person but of indifferent Parts yet he had a Warlike Genius and had more Experience and Skill in the Art of War then most of them employ'd against him That for his part if the King his Father-in-Law pleased he would assist him not onely upon that occasion with his Troops but with his Person also and to that end was sending Mr. Bentinck over to England to know the King's pleasure But Skelton malevolent enough of himself and farther influenc'd with Malice against the Prince by French Incendiaries took care to inform the King before Bentinck came that such Assistance as was proposed by the Prince was very dangerous and much to the same purpose so that upon Mr. Bentinck's Motion the King answered That their Common Interest required that the Prince should stay in Holland and gave such
Interest as I mentioned to your Lordship in my my last have failed tho' he were briskly seconded therein by the Lord Marquess of Powis the Pope's Nuntio and Emperor's Minister whose Reasons or rather Remonstrances to the King upon that Head for want of better Intelligence I shall at present take notice of to your Lordship as entred in our Minutes and which indeed were such that 't is a wonder he should withstand them sed quem Deus 1. They prest it very home upon him That such a War against the States of Holland could not be attempted with any apparent Advantage to his Majesty without a junction with the French Power which yet in all human Probability would never enable him to conquer those Provinces since both the Crown of Spain and the Emperor nay the Empire would be obliged to protect them to war with whom especially with Spain whose Trade as he well knew was most beneficial to England of any in the World would be attended with such manifest Disadvantage as all the Power of France were that King a faithful Ally would never be able to make the Nation amends for and that supposing he should be able to conquer the said Republick by the Assistance of the French Arms yet to conquer it by French Force would necessarily but make himself as well as that Nation a Tributary and Underling of France 2. That in all likelihood a War with Holland and against the House of Austria would disgust his Subjects and set them all against him yea and perhaps move some hot Spirits to form Designs to dispossess him of his Throne or at least so far to make Opposition as to knock on the Head all his fine Projects for the Advancement of his own Religion in England and engaging of his very Catholick Subjects against him 3. That if his Majesty intended the re-establishment of the Catholick Faith in England it was to be considered that the same was a Work of Time and required great Moderation but that they were sure the hot and furious Methods of France and the Jesuits would never effect it 4. That to them for the effectual bringing about of the said Work there seemed a kind of necessity that he should stay till the Discords between the Catholick Princes were so far appeased as to be without Danger of breaking out in a long Time for that all their Concurrence would be found to be little enough to enable him to accomplish his Ends therein 5. That if he should chuse rather to enter into a strict Allyance with the House of Austria against the French he would thereby render himself secure of his People's Hearts and Affections of the Dutch Naval Force to strengthen him at Sea as occasion required and of all the other Allies Forces to divert the French Armies by Land And that if he should lose upon that account as 't was likely any Remittances from France they assured him the Pope would allow him a much better Pension to countervail it and that being engaged against France his People would be so intent against the French and upon that War so agreeable to their Inclination that they would not be so very jealous of and so prying into the Advances he should make in the Change of Religion at Home and that if by that means than which nothing could be thought on more feasible he could not settle that Religion he might at least secure it and make Matters easie to those of his own Perswasion 6. That if his Majesty persisted to make War against Holland which would inevitably draw on one with the House of Austria if his Arms did not prevail so far as to come to an entire Conquest he was certainly ruined and all the Catholicks in the three Kingdoms along with him without resource and would perish unpitied and without any Hopes or possibility of Succour from any Catholick Princes but the French King alone and that if on the contrary as it was the most unlikely thing in the World he should prevail to a Conquest over Holland and his own Country that yet thereby he should under the colour of an imaginary establishment of the Catholick Religion in the Brittish Kingdoms but settle an irreligious Tyrant over all Christendom worse to the Catholick Religion and Christianity in general than any Heretick in the World nay than the very Turk himself and who would insolently trample upon the Pope's as well as his Fellow Princes Power and set up a new Empire and a new Religion of a third sort neither Catholick nor Protestant but such as suited with his own ambitious Designs as the Steps he had already made that way did sufficiently declare And so instead of resettling the Roman Catholick Religion where it had lost Ground and in the Soil of Great Britain which would prove but a Quick-Sand to it he would destroy it all over Europe where it was now established in terra Firma c. I le leave it to the Decision of your Lordship's Judgment whether these or the French Remonstrances carried most of Reason Probability and Truth in them as I ever shall all that comes from My Lord Your Honours most humble and obedient Servant Paris Apr. 30. 1688. LETTER XXXVIII Of the Differences continued between the Pope and the French King and of King James sending am Embassador to Rome to reconcile them My Lord I Have already transmitted to your Lordship the Contents of his Holiness's Letters to the French King about the Regale and Franchises but there seems now to be a Disposition in these two high stomach'd Princes to come to an accommodation and the Conjuncture of Time lies so to the Heart of this Court that I am apt to believe they will precipitate an Agreement however because their forwardness therein might be disguised as much as French Policy could effect they have by their Agents insinuated to our King That an Embassy to Rome from him about accommodating of the foresaid Differences must be very grateful to his Holiness who paid more deference to his Majesty and would further regard his Mediation than any Prince in Christendom and that tho' the French Court stood very stiff upon their Rights yet it was not to be doubted but as they had so high a Valuation for his Friendship at all Times and Occasions so he might be confident that in so critical a Juncture of Time they would not be so purblind as not to see wherein their true Interest consisted It was no sooner my Lord proposed to the King but accepted by him and my Lord Howard is already arrived in this Kingdom in his Way to Italy as the King's Embassador extraordinary on this Errand but notwithstanding this Court has so far prevailed by their Artifices in England to procure the Kings Mediation yet an Accident if it may be called so has lately happened at Rome which may perhaps blast all the blooming Hopes entertained from this mighty Negotiation For Monsieur Lavardin Embassador from