the Worlds take of him are likely never to wear out Things are now brought to that pass that I cannot rely upon the Enemies word nor they upon mine and I should be still in fear that they would violate their agreements with me supposing I would never keep faith with them any longer than I esteemed it for my conveniency I know it will be a fruitless thing for me to make protestations that what happened last year in reference to the violation of the Capitulation of the Cities in the Palatinate came to pass without my approbation or privity that excuse will be imputed to Folly or Treachery unless I could publickly put to death the Authors of that infidelity which the evil Counsellors about my Father will not permit for fear both the crime and the punishment should fall upon themselves These are generous Sentiments my Lord which if well cultivated may perhaps prove useful to himself and to the confederated Enemies of France at this time and I can think them no other than the remains of such as were infused into him by the good old Duke his Governour who stuck not once to tell his Father upon the account of his Cruelty to his Protestant Subjects That it became not a King to be a Bigot I shall confine my self now and always to a bare transmission of what I shall judge worthy your knowledge leaving the application wholly to your Lordship without I have other commands from you which I do not know how to receive in my ticklish circumstances at present but such when known to me as I shall always obey to the utmost of my power as far as I find them safe and consistent with your Honour and so I remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Entirely devoted Serv. Versailles May 30. 1689. N. S. LETTER III. Of the Declaration of War made by France against the Crown of Spain after she had endeavoured in vain to keep the Spaniards neutral My Lord YOur Lordship may perhaps call to mind what I formerly transmitted to you out of our Minutes concerning the efforts made by this Crown to induce the Spaniards to a Neutrality in the War formed by France against the Republick of Holland and her then Confederates And I am now to acquaint you there have been the like and greater efforts made to keep that same Crown from falling into the present Conjunction of the Allies against her though both the attempts have failed of the desired success It s true the Spaniards thought fit to temporize the latter end of the last Year and the beginning of this till they found the Revolution in England accomplished and the Government reduced to a settled form and then they made no bones openly to testify their Aversion to France and her interest as well as good-will to the Confederates at the same time by such Acts as gave evident signs both of the one and the other And your Lordship cannot think how greatly mortified this Court is at the News they have lately received of my Lord Stafford King James his Embassadors being dismist by the King of Spain and that they would no longer own his Character It has occasion'd much discourse here and People daily vend their Sentiments upon it as they are variously affected towards the parties concerned and among other things I cannot forbear mentioning one passage which though perhaps already known to your Lordship yet give me leave to please my self since I have nothing more momentous to transmit with a short relation of it It seems upon the late King James his Accession to the Throne the Spanish Embassador Don Ronquillo took upon himself to advise him not to suffer himself to be guided by Friars and Monks the King for answer told him That the Kings of Spain were wont to do it The Embassador replied again I know it Sir but that is our misfortune Therefore your Majesty ought to take warning by our Example and not to dash your self against that Rock and surely if he had taken up with this Counsel he might have been still in great security upon his Throne and his Embassador in the highest esteem in Spain But to return the foremention'd prevarications in the Court of Spain as they are pleased to denominate them here has at length produc'd a Declaration of War against Spain which has been dispatch'd by a Trumpeter to the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands and the substance whereof is here subjoined That the unfeigned desire his most Christian Majesty had to observe the Truce concluded on in the Year 1684. had caused him to take no notice of the demeanor of the Spanish Ministers in the Courts of all the European Princes where they had made it their whole business to animate the several Princes to take up Arms against France That His Majesty is not ignorant of the share they have had in the Negotiation of the League made at Ausburg That he is also well acquainted with what share the Governour of the Spanish Neatherlands has lately had in the Prince of Orange his Enterprize against the Kingdom of England But that yet not being inclinable to believe that what was transacted by him was done by his Catholick Majesty's Command his most Christian Majesty was in good hopes to have perswaded his Catholick Majesty to have concurred with him for the effectual Restoration of the lawful King of England and the preservation of the Catholick Religion against the Protestant League that was formed or at leastwise to have observed an exact Neutrality To which purpose he had made several proposals that seemed to have been well received so long as the success of the Prince of Orange continued doubtful but that when it came to be once known at Madrid that the King of England had left his Dominions that then nothing was meditated upon but a War against France That his Christian Majesty was moreover further informed that the Spanish Embassador in England paid dayly visits to the Prince of Orange and was very importunate with him to declare War against the Kingdom of France That the Governour of the Spanish Low Countries was raising Men with utmost diligence and had promised the States General to joyn their Forces in the beginning of the Campaign and laboured with the Prince of Orange to send numbers of Men into Flanders Of all which procedures he had informed his Catholick Majesty and offered him a sincere continuation of the Truce provided he would give no succour to his Majesty's Enemies But now finding after all that his Catholick Majesty was resolved to favour the Usurper of England whose Agents had received considerable Summs both at Cadiz and Madrid His Majesty therefore to prevent the Evil intentions of his Catholick Majesty has resolved to declare War against him both by Sea and Land c. Your Lordship cannot but discern by the whole purport of this Declaration where the shoe must Pinch and nothing is more manifest then that the successful enterprizes of
less of them in proportion to the Troops of his own Subjects and this after his full re-settlement on the Throne And not only so but shall deliver up Dover Castle Plymouth and Portsmouth to be Garrisoned by French Soldiers as cautionary Towns for the security of performance Seventhly That in regard of the Situation of the Irish Ports and their conveniency for the French Fleets as also in consideration of the agreement of the Irish with the People of France in Religion He shall after his full restoration to the English and Scotch Kingdoms be obliged to give Ireland to the French King in full compensation of all the Moneys he has already expended or shall expend further in his Quarrel and for vindicating of his right to his Dominions But that however because of the Scituation of the Islands of Sicily and Sardinia in the Mediteranean for the English Navigation and Trade into the Levant the sly Monsieur hath obliged himself to conquer those Kingdoms for the late King at his own Expence and with his own Arms and to give them up entirely to him in lieu of his Kingdom of Ireland Eighthly That still towards the furthering a stricter Friendship and Allyance between the two Nations of England and France and for perpetuating a mutual amity and sincere Correspondence If in case by the Violent or Natural Death either of King William or Prince George of Denmark or both of them one or both of the Princesses Royal shall become Widdows and that their Persons can be seized That then they shall be convey'd with all expedition and secrecy into France and be put into the French King's Power and shall there be Married Nolens Volens to such Prince or Princes as he shall appoint or think fit for them Ninthly That the Eldest or Surviving Issue of such Marriage shall succeed to the Crowns of Ireland and Scotland and England only to remain to the pretended Prince of Wales with the American Plantations Thus My Lord I have now given you the Stipulations so much desired by you I 'le leave your Lordship to descant and make such use of them as your known Wisdom and Ability shall direct for the good of the King and Country and shall reserve some further things which I cannot conveniently Write now and which relate to this subject to another opportunity and in the mean time I am and ever shall remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Faithful Servant Paris Aug. 19. 1689. N. S. LETTER IX Some Reflections upon King James's League with the French King with an account of some further terms agreed upon between them in relation to the English Protestants in Ireland My Lord THis Court is mighty uppish upon the success of the late King James or I may more truly say their own in Ireland which if totally reduced by their conjoint Arms is to be one day their own as appears by the seventh Article stipulated between the two Kings and of which I gave your Lordship an account in my last And 't is not doubted but the Count d' Avaux hath already taken Livery and seisin of it privately in his Majesty's Name And that it is really so I am not only assured of by the said Articles but the same is more then probable by the great care and exactness that is had at Brest and other Ports of the Ocean to keep an account of all the Cloaths Arms Ammunition and Provisions that are shipped off there for Ireland and which according to some of the accounts stated and transmitted hither somewhat whereof I have had the opportunity to have a slight view of are set down at such extravagant rates as if they designed in a short time not only to ballance the account with him for Ireland but to make him considerably their Debter over and above for the carrying on another Game But they may chance to reckon without their Host in this as well as all the rest I pray God keep King William and his Royal Consort and may she and her Royal Sister be never so unhappy as to fall into the French power as your Lordship sees has been again conserted by the Ninth and last Article If ever it should so happen which God of his Mercy avert and that any such Match or Matches shall come to pass and issue come thereof my Friend hath secretly whispered me That then the pretended Prince of Wales is not like to be long liv'd But I still trust all these towering hopes of our Enemies will evaporate into Smoak and that their designs shall have as little Effect upon the lives and fortunes of our true Princes as their contrivances against the Religion and property of their Subjects shall become abortive and fruitless and whom they have agreed upon to treat in the following manner First That all possessors of Lands in Ireland that are of the Protestant Religion and will not turn Papists shall be bound to sell their Estates at a set price to the French King who shall let them out to the old Irish proprietors at certain Quit-rents and services that shall in a reasonable time reimburse him of the purchase Money Secondly But still to shew their good Nature and Lenity it s agreed that all Protestants that will shall have leave freely to depart with their Effects whither soever they please And lastly That such as will stay shall have liberty of Conscience granted them for the space of Twenty Years till the Country shall be fuller stockt with French Catholicks and other Papists I am well satisfied your Lordship will not think these Machinations a matter of nothing but as a good Patriot which you have shewed your self to be in the most Arbitrary times will stir up your self and honest Countrymen to obviate them seasonably which I as heartily wish as I have little reason to doubt it who am My Lord Your faithful and most Obedient Servant Paris Octo. 27. 1689. N. S. LETTER X. Of King James's Army in Ireland and Duke Schomberg's with Cardinal Bouillon's Motion for a Contribution for the support of the former My Lord THE raising of the Siege of London-derry and the landing of the English Army without interruption in Ireland under Duke Schomherg with other successes and advantages are so far from discouraging this Court in their hopes of a speedy conquest of that Kingdom that they have already in the Cabinet vaunted it to be as good as their own and that perhaps they need not stay for another Campaign to re-establish the late King upon the Throne of England and put themselves in an entire possession of the other Kingdom according to the full extent and meaning of the Stipulated Articles which I have formerly transmitted to your Lordship But because Money here is very hard to come by in such a proportion as to answer those vast Expences they are at to carry on the War upon the Continent which must be got at any rate they have resolved to carry on the Irish
Affairs with two Court-projects which are of that Stamp that for all their boasting makes wise Men have but a poor opinion of the Event For it cannot be thought that any great matters should be done at Rome for the support of the late King though by this Court's contrivance and instigation the Cardinal de Bovillon in a Congregation of Cardinals lately held there propounded they should Tax a voluntary Contribution upon themselves for his supply and that to set a good and laudable example unto others he offered a considerable Summ But by all that I could learn hitherto the motion was not much relished and 't is very likely the Congregation smoak the design that the Cardinal thought that the best way to find the French King his Master Money who undoubtedly cannot but need it and that he that supplies the one King supplies the other And if the first carries so little probability of success with it I am sure your Lordship will say the other has much less and that to make Copper to pass for Silver Coin forbodes a general disatisfaction in the Inhabitants of that Country where that innovation is introduced and cannot be thought to make the soldiery over mertlesome and daring It s almost past belief how much this teagish invention for it will by no means be allowed to be the production of the French refined Policy is ridiculed in every Corner But I shall not presume to detain your Lordship any longer and therefore conclude subscribing my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most devoted Serv. Paris Decm 12. 1689. N. S. LETTER XI Of the Resolutions taken in France to support King James in Ireland and to reinforce his Army with a good body of French Troops c. My Lord AS to what secret and underhand machinations there may be on foot against the Established Government in England or Scotland I cannot perceive this Court have any great share therein otherwise then as the Emissaries of it in Ireland are assistant to the late King to promote and execute his designs and therefore I am in no capacity at present of giving your Lordship any the least intimations of such projections But this is in general your Honour may be fully assured of that there will be no efforts wanting on the part of this Crown both by Sea and Land this Spring to further him in his Pretentions there being all dilligence and expedition used to get both the Convoy and Forces ready which both the one and the other will be found to be more considerable than perhaps you are aware of in England If there be any apprehensions of such a design there my Lord as it becomes his Majesty to take all effectual care for to hinder the further progress of the French Arms in Ireland there is not a whit less care to be used that the contagion do not spread further in Scotland least after all the pretenses these Forces and Squadrons are designed for the lattet and land there when least expected However they seem to demur at present upon the matter and that out of design as 't is whispered to be first fully informed in what forwardness the Prince of Orange as they call him is in his Preparations and how formidable his force is like to be I am heartily sorry my Lord that I cannot penetrate more to the quick to the design of this Court but yet I hope what I have here suggested of the Fruit of my own observation and converse may be of some use to my Country and be a means to propagate your Honours good Opinion of my ready Willingness at all times and to the utmost of my power to serve both it and you who am My Lord Your Lordships very Humble and most devoted Servant Versailles Feb. 5. 1690. N. S. LETTER XII Of Count de Lauzune's going for Ireland and of some secret designs of the French King against some place in the Netherlands My Lord WHat I intimated to your Lordship in my last of the Resolutions of this Court to support the late King's Interest in Ireland doth now daily appear more and more visible by the many men of War that with utmost diligence are fitted up and the Troops that dayly defile towards Brest c. As to the certain number either of the one or the other there can be nothing gathered from common fame and therefore having pryed as narrowly as I could into the Cabinet by the means of I am assured the Landmen will amount at least to the number of Seaven Thousand and the convoy will hardly be less than Forty men of War which according to computation may be ready to sail in a fortnights time But as there is nothing omitted here for keeping up an interest in Ireland and so to divert the King of Englands Army that way there is no less care taken to allarm the Confederates on Flanders side and they talk as if the King had an Eye upon Charleroy or some other of the frontier Towns I could wish Leige were well looked too for however that 't is given out that the Count de Montal has promised the King to make him Master of Charleroy in twelve days time with an Army of Ten Thousand strong provided he can hinder the Confederates from relieving it yet the King's Journey which is whispered will be very sudden and speedy to Campaign gives no small Umbrage to the other which upon the whole is of great concern to the Confederates I am also well assured the Guards of the body have or will shortly have orders to march to the last montioned place near which are a great number of Troops posted which can draw together in a very short time which with my humble duty to your Lordship is all I have at this time to communicate who am My Lord Your Honours to serve and Command whilst Paris Feb. 14. 1690. N. S. LETTER XIII Of the Death of Madam the Dauphiness and an account of the deportment of the French Court thereupon My Lord WHat I writ to your Lordship in my last letter concerning some design upon Leige or Charleroy doth by the sequel now appear to have miscarried and I am desirous to attribute the same to the conduct and watchfulness of the Confederates And though the King after his return to Versailles has publickly declared he will not take the Field this Summer which is interpreted by many to be a tacit Confession of the disappointment of his designs yet your Lordship may be satisfied from me that no diligence is omitted to get ready another Convoy and Reinforcement besides that mentioned in my last which Convoy is not yet returned for Ireland And so intent is this Court upon Business and Diversion that the Death of the Dauphiness hath not discontinued the latter and less necessary of them for above the space of two days which has afforded cause of much discourse and censure already thereupon I shall not trouble your Lordship with a long
King William for Lawful and Rightful King of England c. upon Condition he shall allow to the late King James and his Consort a handsom and competent Subsistence during each of their Lives and the Survivor of them Secondly That towards promoting effectually so good a Work he is willing to restore to His Catholick Majesty of Spain the City of Mons and other Places he has taken from him c. Thirdly That the City and Fortress of Philipsburg shall be restored by him to the Bishop of Spire in the Condition it is now in without any Alteration whatsoever Fourthly That he will entirely quit Strasburg and restore it to its ancient Privileges of a Free and Imperial City Fifthly That he will demolish all the Fortresses he has built along the Rhine for several Years past Sixthly and Lastly That the Duke of Savoy shall be restored to all the Territories he has lost since the War and also receive full Satisfaction for all the Losses sustained therein But my Lord whether any such Offers have been or are like shortly to be offered to the Confederates by this Court I am not fully satisfied but of this I am and desire your Honour to be so too that Things are not yet brought to that Extremity with France whatever some Men may be apt to flatter themselves with as for her to be truly real and sincere in such like Offers Neither indeed do I find it believed here at all and they are much more concerned to break off the Negotiation which is on foot between the Emperor and the Grand Seignior than they have present real Intentions to accommodate their own immediate Affairs and be at Peace with their Neighbours But what Progress they have made to keep their Mahometan Friend in their Alliance I will not take upon me to inform your Lordship with any Certainty I only note that they begin to talk of it here already with very great Assurance as a thing at least three quarters done I am afraid I have been both tedious and impertinent too for which I heartily beg your Lordship to pardon me and to construe all as proceeding from the unfeigned Intentions I have to serve you to the farthest Extent of my Power who am and ever shall remain My Lord Your most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris July 27. 1691. N. S. LETTER XXII Of a Couple of Pamphlets spread up and down Paris One Intituled A Letter from a Burgher of Norinburg to a Deputy of the Dyet at Ratisbonne And the other From my Lord an English Privy-Counsellor to the Earl of P with an Intent to foment Divisions amongst us My Lord TO trouble your Lordship with an Account of the many Forgeries daily published here to the intended Dis-service of the Confederates I hold it none of my Business But there has very lately appeared up and down this City a pair of such singular Pamphlets levelled to the forementioned Purpose that since I cannot possibly inclose them herein without manifestly incurring the Hazard of my Life and your Lordship's Reputation yet I hold my self obliged to give you the Import of them The one is intituled A Letter from a Burgher-master of Norinberg to a nameless Deputy of the Dyet of Ratisbonne and contains in Substance That Germany has no Reason to rejoice at the Progress of the Imperial Arms against the Infidels under a Pretence of Fear lest the Emperor's Power should increase to the prejudice of the Liberty of the German Potentates and other Dependants upon the Empire It does insinuate That as soon as he has Peace with the Turk he will have at least an Army of Fourscore Thousand Men all composed of his own Soldiers which he will not fail to quarter by fair or foul Means upon the Territories of the Electors other Princes of the Empire and the Free Cities And then would slily infuse in the Close a Terrour into the Germans of their being reduced to the same deplorable Condition as they were in the Year 1628. when they had none but the City of Stralsburg c. which yet by the help of the Swede withstood the whole Force of the Emperor Ferdinand II. Your Lordship knows the Story full well I need not relate it as you do how to make a solid Judgment of the Invalidity of these Whimwham Pretensions as well as to refute such Cobweb-Arguments The Second is much of the same Stamp only the Text is taken from the Progress of King William's Arms in Ireland From whence they would foolishly infer as in the former That his growing thus formidable foreboded no Good to the Nations round him to France I believe it does not and that not only England Scotland and Ireland but Holland too and even the Catholick Spanish Low-Countries ought to look about them since it was very manifest he had now formed a Design to reign with an Arbitrary and Despotick Power over all those Countries and more particularly the former of them notwithstanding all Pretensions of vindicating their Rights and restoring to them their lost Liberties and his present allowing to the Parliament seemingly a greater Extent of Authority than they enjoyed in former Times 'T is too impertinent to run through all the vain Repetitions used by them upon this Subject I shall therefore content my self to say in a Word there is a great deal more of the Ribaldry behind to the same purpose and that I 'll trouble your Lordship no longer with it Though I confess I could meet at this time with no better Entertainment for you who am yet proud of the Opportunity to caution my Country against any Snares laid for its Liberty from hence and overturning its Settlement by groundless and unseasonable Jealousies as I am always to acknowledge how much I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris Octob. 12. 1691. N. S. LETTER XXIII Of the great Preparations made in France for the Carrying on the War against the Confederates in the Year 1692. My Lord 'T IS more the profound Respect I have always had and ever shall retain for your Lordship that makes me thus continue my Correspondence than the Weight of any Informations I am able to transmit from hence where things are managed with as much Application as the Contrivances are secret and mysterious I have in a former Letter hinted to your Honour That whatever Appearances there might be made for to dazzle the Eyes of the Confederates yet that Things were not really brought to that pass in France Which appears confirmed to me now Day by Day by the formidable Preparations that are even already made for the approaching Campaign of which let your Lordship be pleased to take such Particulars as I have been able to learn and whose Effects I wish the Confederates may seasonably obviate Our great Engineer here Mon. Vauban is lately gone by a secret Order to view Dinant Rocroy and other Frontier Places on that side where he has Orders to add as many
name of John for that forsooth was ominous for John King of France was a Prisoner in England but by the name of Robert It 's true there is no great matter in the thing it self either one way or other for an Alias or a double name cannot prejudice an honest and vertuous Man and when Judge Catiline took exception at one in this respect saying that no honest Man had a double name and came in with an Alias the party asked him what exception his Lordship could take to Jesus Christ Alias Jesus of Nazareth The Father was scarce well cold in his Grave or the Son warm in his Throne but his Progeny begot by him in the heat of his Blood began in their Stations to act their Tragical part This King in his Fathers life-time had the misfortune to be kicked on the Leg by an Horse of Sir James Douglass of Dalkeith and so lamed his Body as he was lame in his Intellectuals being a dull stupid Man and unfit to Govern insomuch that he had but the name of King the whole Administration being lodged in his Brother Robert Earl of Fife who did what he pleased with him and his as you 'll see by and by Alexander the youngest brother and Earl of Buchan a Man of a Fierce Nature could not long contain it but he begins to disturb the Government of his Brethren upon a slight displeasure conceived against the Bishop of Murray and seeing he could find no opportunity to kill him he revengfully sets fire to the Cathedral Church which was the stateliest Pile of Building in all the North of Scotland A Son he had whose name was Duncane or Dunach ten times more profligate if it were possible than himself and guilty of the basest and most degenerous actions He upon the death of his Grand-father lets the Reins loose and supposing now there was room for Rapine and Villany Heads a strong band of Thiefs and comes down to the Country of Angus spoils and ravages the Country as if he had been a professed Enemy and being elevated by some petty success they had against Walter Ogilby and Walter Lichton who opposed them they proceeded to perpetrate greater Villanies than before till at last being dispersed by the Earl of Crawford many of them were persued and slain and the rest taken and suffered condign Punishment King Robert had now Governed by his Governour for the space of Light Years when a Parliament was held at Perth wherein to manifest his Favour he made his Eldest Son David who was then Eighteen Years of Age Duke of Rothsay and his Brother the Governour Duke of Albany Virgin Titles that till this time had been unknown in Scotland saith Buchanan and which boded no good success to the Masters of them but generally proved very ominous About some three years after dyed Queen Annabella and Walter Tralie Archbishop of St. Andrew's the one while he lived keeping up the Ecclesiastical Discipline in the Church and the other the Dignity of the Court so that the death of two such useful and Illustrious Persons ushered in great Calamities in the Land and such a Tragedy as can scaâ—ce be met with in the Records of Time The Queen in her life-time had had a particular eye over and care of the Education of her Son David Duke of Rothsay and by a severe Discipline restrained his boisterous and untoward nature in a great measure But now the check was taken off he gave himself over to all manner of licentiousness His Fathers indulgence to him proved an incitative to his Lust and lack of Authority despoiled him of that Reverence that should have been paid unto him and made his admonitions of none effect So that at last he grew to that height of outrageousness and impiety that laying aside all manner of fear and shame he made it his business to defile mens Wives dâ—flower Virgins Nuns and all other kind of Women and where he found opposition he made use of Force and Violence These Tragedies could not go long undiscovered and therefore several complaints were prefered against him to his Father who at last perceiving it beyond his power to restrain those exorbitant Courses and that such violations would unavoidably bring both Father and Son to utmost Contempt and might have a very bad Consequence to attend them he Writes to his Brother the Governour and now Duke of Albany to take the young Man into his own governance and keeping till such time and in expectation he should be reclaimed and brought to a better temper This was that which the Governour for a long time had lacked as thinking if he were once taken out of the way his passage to the Crown might in time be made smooth and easie and therefore leaves no stone unturned to get him into his bloody Clutches at last he contrived the matter so that he seized him upon the Road near St. Andrew's and conveyed him to the Castle of the said place which he had taken into his own hands upon the death of the Bishop a little before under pretence of securing of it and in a short time after removed him thence into his own Castle of Falkland making him there a close Prisoner And now resolved he was to be rid of him and he could think of no method more expedient to effect his devilish design than by starving of him But that life which the barbarous cruelty of the Unkle had destined for a most miserable death the compassion of two young Women prolonged for a time One of them was daughter to the Governour of the Castle and who had the charge of the young Duke who as often as she had an opportunity to go into the Gardens adjacent to the Castle did put into him some oaten Cake folded up in a Vail which she carelesly wore on her head to keep off the Sun through a small chink rather than a Window The other was a poor Nurse who through a long Read fed him with the Milk from her own Breasts When the young Man's Punishment as well as his Life had by this hard shift been for some days prolonged which rather served for the increasing than allaying of his hunger the Women were at last discovered by the Spies they had every where about them and were both villanously put to death the Father shewing as much unhumane cruelty towards his daughter as she had shewn mercy to his Royal Prisoner bitterly cursing her perfidy as he called it as endeavouring thereby to shew himself faithful to a faithless Brother Unkle and Governour The young Man being thus deprived of all humane relief was constrain'd through the violence of hunger not only to eat all such filth as he could find within his Prison but at last to set upon his own flesh and to gnaw off his own Fingers and so ended his wretched life and died as I may say a double Death This barbarous act needs no Comment it bespeaks Villany to the height in
every part of it Some time elapsed before this dreadful news of the Prince's death came to the Ears of the King none adventuring to be the sad Messenger unto him of that which almost all knew off but when he was advertised of it and had also some secret intimations given him his Brother had had a deep if not the sole hand in it for none durst accuse so great a Man openly he grew very sad and melancholy thereupon and the rather in that he had not power to take Vengeance upon him for the perpetrating of so barbarous a deed and for doing him so unretrievable an injury However to make some semblance of Kingly Authority he sends for the Duke his Brother to come to him at leastwise to expostulate with him about the fact The Duke who knew the purport of the message as well as himself frames a fair and specious story to excuse himself as tho he were as innocent of the fact as the Child Unborn And for a farther proof of it urges his care to seek out the Perpetrators of that horrid deed and that he had now at length made so far a progress in the matter that he did not doubt but if the King would be pleased to come to Edenburgh he should be able to bring in all the Offenders The King who was then at a place called Bute where for the most part he ever resided tho he was very unfit to travel upon many accounts and especially by reason of a tedious fit of sickness he had laboured under yet so great and eager a desire he had to see his Son's death punished that he made a hard shift to get in a Chariot into Edenburgh When he was come thither the Governour convenes the Council and orders the parties accused to be brought before them the King himself being also present The Accusers as the Duke who was rather the guilty person had before contrived it stoutly charge them with the fact The King after he had imprecated Vengeance from Heaven and the most dreadful Curses upon them and their Posterity who had perpetrated so horrid an act being over-prest with sorrow and infirfirmity of Body returns to Bute from whence he came The Duke that he might colour the matter as much as might be brings the supposed Criminals to their Tryals and by corrupt Judges such as the Duke had provided for that purpose were Condemned as guilty of his Murder whom in all their life time they had never seen Tho this matter waâ— managed on the part of the Governor with all the Fineness and Address imaginable yet the King was not so satisfied in his Mind but that he retain'd still a great suspition of the Duke's having an Hand in his Sonâ—s Death But forasmuch as he well knew that the Duke had all the Kingdom of Scotland under his Obeisance partly by Policy and partly by virtue of his Office of Governour he durst not shew his resentment nor attempt to call him to an account for it but was rather afraid on the other hand lest having ambitious Desires to possess himself of the Crown he would also make it his Business to procure the death of his second Son James and by that means take off the only Rub in his way The King I say being thus sollicitous in Mind about securing that to his Posterity which his unnatural Brother was intent to deprive them of consults with Walter Wardlaw Arch-bishop of St. Andrews about his Son's Security After serious deliberation they at last conclude it was no ways safe for Prince James to remain in Scotland and therefore he resolved to send him over into France to Charles the VI. an old Allie and real Friend to the Scotish Nation knowing he could no where be more safely and liberally educated than there But considering the uncertain vicissitude of Humane things and that no Precautions for his future Security might be wanting the King delivers his Son a Letter written to the King of England in his Behalf if it should be his hard Fortune to fall into the Hands of the English The King in pursuance to the said Resolution orders all things to be got in a readiness for his Passage and appointed Henry Sinclear Earl of Orkney to take care for the safe Conveyance of him They took Shipping at the Bass and so shear'd their Course for the French Shoar but when they were got as far as Flamborough-Head they were as some say taken by the English who had heard of their sailing and laid in wait to intercept them But others write that the Prince finding himself extreamly Sea-sick and not able to endure it desired he might be put on Shoar there and so was taken into Custody and carry'd up to the English Court but however it happened taken he was in the ninth Year of his Age Anno 1406. Henry IV. was then King of England to whose Presence when the Prince was come he deliver'd him his Father's Letter which because of the rarity of it as being written in the Scotish Dialect of those times we have thought fit to insert and is as followeth Robert King of Scots to Henry King of England Greeting THY great Magnificence Humility and Justice are right patent to us by thy Governance of thy last Army in Scotland howbeit sike things had been uncertein to us afore for tho' thou seemed as Enemie with most awful Incursions in our Realme Èœit we found mair Humanities and Plaisures than Damage by thy cumming to our Subdities speciallie to yame that receivit thy noble Fader the Duke of Longcastle the time of his Exile in Scotland we may not câ—is your fare while we are on life but I yl layf and loif thee us maist noble and woarthy Prince to joys thy Realme for yocht Realmes and Nations contend among themself for Conâ—uests of Glory and Launds Èœit na accasioun is amang us to invade other Realmes or Lieges with Injuries but erar to contend amang our self â—uhay shall perseue other with maist humanitee and kindness As to us we will meis all occasion of battell quare any occurres at thy pleasure Farther bycause we have no lesse sollicitude in preserving our Children fra certein deidley Enemies than had some time thy noble Fader we are constreined 〈◊〉 seek Support at uncowth Princes Handâ— Howbeit the invasioun of Enemies is sa great that small defense oâ—urres against yame â—ithaut they be preserved by Amitie of nobill Men. For the World is sa full of perversit malice that na crueltie nor offence may be devisit in erd bot the samme may be wroucht be motion of gold or silver Heirfore because we knaw thy Hyness full of Monie nobill Vertueâ— with sike Puissance and Riches that na Prince in our daies may be compared thairto we desire thy Humanity and Support at this time We traist it is not unknowen to thy Majesty how our eldest Son David is slain miserablie in Prisoun by our Brother the Duke of Albanie quhome we
Sycophant or other that his kindred laid in wait for his life and that he was in great danger which agreeing with the sayings of the Witches which he had Consulted and who had told him that the Lyon should be devoured by his Whelps it made very deep impressions upon his suspicions mind and so from a Prince at first very hopefull and of great expeâ—â—ation degenerated to a Monstrous Tyrant So that now these suspicions having once possession of his mind from henceforth he looked upon his neer Relations and almost all the best of the Nobility as his Enemies The Nobility on the other hand finding none preferred by the K. but Men of base degree were not a little disatisfied and began to alienate their Affections from him wherefore they met together upon this occasion to concert measures how they might purge the Court of those abject Fellows and reduce it to its former State of Grandeur The principal of this Assembly were the Kings two Brothers Alexander and John the latter whereof having discoursed of the Irregularities and the present State of that Kingdom somewhat frankly and liberally and with less Caution than the rest he was suddenly taken by night in his own House by the Court Faction and conveyed to a place called Crâ—gmiller and there Imprisoned by the King's order and not long after by the same Courtly Crew was adjudged to Die and Executed accordingly in the Cannon Gate by cutting his Veins and letting him bleed to Death And as they had thus barbarously murdered his Person they proceeded also to murder the Earls fame for they gave out that his Crime was that he had had Secret Consultation with Witches about destroying the King and to put as good a Colour as they could upon this unnatural Act tho' it were by heaping up iniquity upon iniquity they brought several other Witches and Sorcerers to their Tryal for the said Fact and burnt them at Edenburg for the same So that here is one of the three Brothers dispatch'd you 'll here of the rest by and by Alexander the other Brother and Duke of Albany tho he had neither acted nor said any thing that might Justly disgust either the King or Courtiers that were about him yet as he was next of Kin so it seems he was next in danger for these Blood-suckers mistrusting with themselves that they could ne'er be safe as long as he was alive got him suddenly seized and sent Prisoner to Edenburg Castle He was kept close there by such as did believe his power might be Fatal to them and finding there was no way by his Friends for to pacify the Kings displeasure he had nothing to do now but to consider how he might make his escape he had none to communicate his design to or to further him in it but one only Servant of his own that was left to be with him in his Chamber him he sent to get a Ship ready to attend him at the next Part at the time appointed which he does effectually In the mean time his persecutors to Plague him the more with their delusions sent several Messengers from the Court who feigned in the presence of his Keepers for he was not allowed to talk with any privately that the King's Anger began to be pacified and that he might shortly hope for his Liberty but when the day appointed for his escape was come he puts as good a meen as possible he could upon the matter and begins to feign a belief in what the Messengers said in Favour of him and Questioned not but to have a speedy and honourable deliverance And to further the Design treats his Keepers with a splendid Supper and Drinks with them till it was late at night but when they were gone and fast asleep he falls to work and makes a Rope of the Sheets of his Bed long enough as he thought to reach the ground and first for to make a Tryal therof le ts down his Man by it by whole fall he finds it was shorter then it should have been Having therefore lengthened the Rope as much as the present Circumstance would admit he follows his Man who in his descent had broke his Leg takes him up upon his back and carries him about a mile to the Sea-side and having got a Favourable Wind set sail for Dumbarton and from thence having first well secured the Castle he sailed into France The Duke was honourably received in France and Married the Earl of Bologn's Daughter but upon the Death of his Wife who lived not long with him finding Affections cool towards him he goes over into England and was entertained by Edward IIII. then King of England who assisted him with an Army to invade Scotland under the Command of his Brother Richard Duke of Gloucester King James makes all the Force he could to oppose them but being Governed by his former Councells the Nobility took it in high disdain and therefore they met together in the Church of Lowder where the King and his Army then were to deliberate what they should do in such a conjuncture Where Archibald Dowglass Earl of Angus takes upon him to set forth the occasion of their meeting which he did in a very pathetick Speech and shew'd at large all the enormities of the King's Reign down to the present time the danger they then stood in from a Foreign Army and therefore exhorts them first to shake of the Domestick Yoke of servitude they were under before they Engaged with the Enemy c. this Oration wrought so effectually upon their minds that they were immediately ready to run in headlong into the Pallace without any Consideration of what they were to do But the principal Men amongst them appeasing the tumult advised that a sufficient number should only enter in without any shew of Commotion and take out the Criminals lead them to Judgment and Punish them according to Law In the mean time while these things were in Agitation comes a Rumour into the Court that the Nobles held a Consultation together before day in the Church the subject whereof was uncertain but that it must be strange that such Men should Assemble together without the King and his Councellors Knowledge The King hereupon being hastily awaken out of his sleep enquires of those about him what he had best to do in the mean time he sends Cockram before to observe what was done and to give him an Account of all with speed he with a few followers goes towards the Church and meets the cheif of the Nobility advancing towards the Court whom they no sooner espied but Dowglass laid hands on him and catching hold of a large Gold Chain he had about his neck squeezed him first a little and then sends him to Prison himself with the rest going directly to the King's Bed-Chamber Where when they came they filled all with Astonishment so as that there seemed to be a little pause upon the matter for the present but it was not
Henry VIIth's Daughter and lastly a Peace between both Kings during their Lives This Kings Reign is remarkable upon many accounts which being not the scope of this Treatise we designedly omit But one passage I meet with in Lesley's History of this Kingdom which for the rarity of it I cannot omit and hope the Reader will not think it an Impertinent Digression About this time says the aforesaid Author The King to tell you a business that to this day is remembred with great Laughter among the Roman people created a certain Italian with whose Wit and Pleasant Conversation he was much taken Abbot of Tungland This man thinking to magnifie his own parts did on a certain time perswade the King that he was so well skilled in the Secrets of Nature and more especially in the noble Science of Chimistry that he could transmute any other Metal into Gold if the King would please to bear the Charges thereof But after much Time and Treasure spent and long Expectation of this Glorious Effect all proved Abortive and came to nothing so that the vain Braccadocio fell into great contempt both by the King and People which grieved him very sore so that he sets all his Wits on work how he might do somewhat that might regain his fame in the world and at the same recover the King's Favour At last he gave out a Report that he would by flying be in France before the Kings Ambassadors who were sent thither and were then actually under sail to pursue their Voyage and that this might not be all talk without any Performance he boldly appointed a Day and Place which was Sterling from whence to begin his flight the noise whereof brought you may be sure a great concourse of People together among whom was the King himself When the Time was come the man gets up to the Top of Sterling Castle and having fastned the Wings which he had made of the Feathers of several Fowls to his sides he lifts himself into the Air thinking to pursue his course But alas he came quickly down headlong to the ground his Wings availing him nothing whereupon the people who knew not whether they should rather Rebuke his Presumption or Pity his Misfortune flocked about him and asked him how he did he made Answer that he had broken his Thigh-bone and despaired of ever flying any more at which they all laughed their fill But this Icarus to salve the matter laid the fault of his flying wholly upon his Wings because they were not made of Eagles Feathers and the like but only of Poultry which were not fit to cut the Air with flight and which by a certain innate Virtue operating according to the Nature of those Fowl drew the Feathers downwards to the Dunghill where those Birds fed But to re-assume the Thread of our Story things continued in a tollerable state of Tranquillity till the death of Henry VII the King's Father-in-law but Henry VIII a young ambitious and active Prince had not long mounted the English Throne when he makes Preparations to recover his Right in the Kingdom of France The French King to fortifie himself as much as possible against the impending Storm requir'd Aid of the King of Scotland who by his Embassadors would have accommodated Matters and perswaded both Kings to a Peace But King Henry persisting in his Resolution the Scot won by French Promises of Money and Ammunition joyns with them in League against England and because the English Commissioners appointed to accommodate the Differences between both Nations about some Irregularities and Depredations committed upon the Borders would not come up to their Terms James takes this occasion to send Lyon King at Arms to King Henry by this time besieging Terwin with Letters of Complaints commanding him for want of satisfying the Contents of the said Letters to denounce War against England When Henry had read the Letters and advised with his Council thereupon he told the Herauld he would make him answer If he would promise faithfully to declare the same to his Master Lyon replied Whatever his Master commanded him to say to others that he was obliged to do and would but for the Commands of others to his Master therein he desired to be excused but added your Highness Letters that declare your Pleasure I am willing to carry tho' your Answer requires doing and not saying I mean that you should immediately return home The King sharply retorted I 'll return at my own Pleasure to your Damage and not at thy Master's Summons and so delivers him a Letter to carry to his Master importing he had receiv'd his Full of frivolous Complaints which had been sufficiently answer'd before sharply sets forth the baseness of the Scotch Nation but says at the same time it was always their Ancestors custom to invade his Dominions in his absence which they never offered nor durst do while he was within the Land but however that he had taken caution for his security and would not desist from his present enterprize which the Scotch King had nothing to do with as being no Competent Judge for so the words are of so high Authority to require him in that behalf c. But before the Herault arrived and the Letters could be delivered King James had precipitated his own fall at Floddenfield For having dispatched Commissions for the raising of Forces he determines to put himself at the head of them before they were fully Compleated but first goes to a place called Limuch and there heard even Song as they called it where after he had entred the Chappel came an old man to him whose hair was somewhat of a yellow red hanging down over his Shouldiers his Forehead high with Baldness bare Headed clad in a Blewish Garment with a white Girdle and had a very Reverend Countenance and said King I am sent to admonish thee that thou go not forward to the place which thou hast determined which warning if thou dost despise it shall succeed ill with thee and all such as shall attend thee Further I am Commanded to give thee Intelligence before-hand that thou eschew the familiarity and Custom or Counsell of Women if thou do otherwise it shall tend to thy Dishonour and Hurt And when he had so said he mingled himself with other Company and when Prayers were over and that the K. sought for him he could by no means be found for he was never seen after the delivery of this Message which seemed the more strange because that many who stood near him and observing all he said and intent to hear more from him could not perceive his departure of which Number David Linsey a Person of known Virtue and approved Reputation was one who told me the same saith Buchanan of a most certain truth or else I would have past it over for a Fable handed down to us by Common Fame But no premonitions from Heaven nor Advises upon Earth could divert the Career of this willfull Prince
Castle with the King and Queen in it and so takes the poor King from the Mothers Bosom appointing him to be kept and managed as he pleased Upon which Hume and his Brother William flee into England and the Queen with her Husband soon followed them the Regent was concerned at their departure sets all his Engines at work to procure their return which Dowglass the Queens Husband and the Humes soon after did but Alexander Hume contrary to many large promises being Summoned to appear before the Assembly of Estates refused to come and thinking himself aggrieved encouraged Tories to commit great Outrages in the Neighbourhood for which being like to be called to an Account by an Armed Power he was perswaded to surrender himself so was Committed to the Custody of James Hamilton Earl of Arran his Sisters Husband at Edenburg with a charge that himself should be esteemed a Traytor if he suffered him to escape But Hume perswades Hamilton to make his escape with him and to make a Party so as to enter upon the Government himself he being the next Heir after the former Kings Children in regard he was born of a Sister of James III. and therefore it was more Just he should enjoy the next place to the King then John who its true was the Son of a Brother but born in Exile and in all other things a perfect Foreigner and one that could not as much as speak the Scottish Language With them joyns John Stuart Earl of Lennox with many of his followers but the Earl was soon after reconciled to the Governor and it was not long before Hamilton and Hume returned also to Court and had an amnesty for all that was past Hume and his Brother in a little while after upon some new suspicion the Governor had of them but mostly as 't was thought upon the Calumny of John Hepborn aforsaid their implacable Enemy were Seized Condemned and Executed the people looking on and judging they had hard measure The Regent having brought things into a tolerable state of Settlement Constitutes seaven Deputies whereof the Earl of Angus was one and goes over into France where he staid five years which were full of rapine scuffles and inquietude but I do not find but that the young King continued all this while in the same hands But the Regent finding that in his absence the Dowglasses had mightily prevailed he in order to prevent further seditions sends the Earl of Angus head of that Family into France and another of the name to Rome who died by the way and next Year after his return raised an Army to invade England in Favour of the French But the Nobility opposed his Design and so he was forced to Disband and quickly upon that goes into France again The English Army in the mean time enter Scotland carry all before them and take Jedburg and endeavour by their Navy to intercept the Regent in his return but herein they failed and he with the followers he brought with him from France Compleats another Army actually invades England and Besieged the Castle of Work But finding a vigorous resistance and withal Winter approaching breaks up his Siege The Spring following he calls an Assembly of the Nobles tells them the causes why he must needs go again into France but promised them a speedy return yet he never did For the young King upon Advice from his Mother and most of the Nobility enters upon the Government himself and so vacates the Regents power And now the mystery of iniquity begins to work for tho' the King had assumed the Royal Power yet he and his Kingdom shall be Subject to the Will of others as much and more than before You have heard how Archibald Dowglass had been sent by the Regent into France who hearing of this alteration at home sent one Simon Penning an active Person and one in whom he confided very much to the King of England to perswade him to let him to return home through his Dominions which was granted for it seems King Henry was well enough pleased at the diminution of the Authority of so active a Person as the Duke of Albany and at the change made in Scotland so that the Earl was entertained by him in a very Courteous manner and dismist Honourably But his return did variously affect the minds of the Scots for seeing all the Publick business now transacted by the Conduct of the Queen and the Earl of Arran a great many of the Nobility the head whereof were John Steward Earl of Lennox and Campell Earl of Argyle taking it in very ill part that they were not admitted to any part of the publick Administration received the Earl of Angus with high expressions of Joy as hoping by his aid either to gain over the Power of the adverse faction to themselves or at least to abate their pride On the other hand the Queen who was alienated from her Husband was much concerned at his arrival and sought by all means to undermine him Hamilton also out of the relicts of his own Hatred was none of his Friend besides he feared least Dowglass who he knew would not be content with a second place should mount the saddle and make him truckle under so that he strain'd to maintain his own Dignity and opposed him with all his might They kept themselves therefore within Edenburg Castle and tho' they had seen very well that many of the Nobility affected alterations yet considing in the strength of the place and the Authority of the Kingly Name a sorry defence they thought themselves secure from all force In the mean time the opposite party held a great meeting of the Nobles where they chose three of their own Faction to be Guardians both of King and Kingdom and who should they be but the Earl of Angus John Steward Earl of Lennox and Colen Campell Earl of Argyle And using great Celerity in their business first they passed the Forth and caused James Beaton a shrewd Man to joyn with them who perceiving the strength of the party durst not stand out From thence they went to Sterling and Conferred all publick Offices and imployments upon such as were of their own gang only and afterwards directed their march for Edenburg which they entred without any resistance For it was not Fortifyed at all and immediately fell to work with the Castle about which they cast a small Trench and Besieged it The Defendants who had made no Provision for a Siege surrender'd up both it themselves King and all All were sent away but the King who now had more especially three new Masters before named and who take the whole weight of the Government upon their Shoulders They agreed among themselves that they would manage it by turns each of them attending four Months a piece upon the King who was their prey But this Conjunction was neither hearty nor of long duration Dowglass his turn was first served who brought the King into the Archbishop
before the Army which so distasted all of them and especially the Lord Maxwell that all things were presently in a Confusion and the Army ready to disband The opportunity of an adjoining Hill gave the English a full prospect into their Army and invited them to make advantage thereof and so they fell upon the Scots with a furious charge quickly routed them slew a great number of them and took abundance of prisoners among whom Sinclair their General made one The News of this defeat was no sooner brought to the King who was not far off but he fell into a great rage and fury which terminated in sadness and heavy grief of heart as Robert II. his great Ancestor did upon the taking of his Son James by the English and this brought him to watch and be abstemious disdaining to eat his Victuals And coming to understand that the Country was full of murmurings that the Kingdom should be thus endangered for the Prelates pleasure and knowing withal that such Complaints were Just and True this made him burst out with some threatning and revengeful language against such as had given him such bad advice and so hastned his untimely Death For those evil Councellors had no sooner understood what he said but they considered the danger they might be in if he should survive and fearing the Effects of his displeasure they poisoned him having learnt the Art in Italy called an Italian Posit in the Three and Thirtieth year of his Age and two and Thirtieth of his Reign See Melvill's Memoirs Cardinal Beaton who t is supposed had a great hand in his Death counterfeited his will wherein himself and three more were appointed Governors of the Kingdom He left one only Daughter Mary that Succeeded him in his Kingdom and Misfortunes and was at her Fathers Death but eight Days old He never saw her and 't was said when he was informed of her Birth it did rather aggravate his sorrow then exhilarate his mind as foreseeing Scotland would one way or other fall under the Government of the English Nation The King cut thus off in the flower of his Age the tumults of the former times were rather hushed up then composed so that Wise men foresaw such a tempest impending over Scotland as they had neither ever heard before in the ancient records of time nor had themselves seen the like For what from private animosities and dissension upon the score of Religion and from a War from aboard with a puissant King now enraged with the Scots prevaricating with him there was reasonably to be hoped for little less then an utter desolation However something must be done and the Cardinal according to his Develish subornation takes the Administration into his hands but James Hamilton Earl of Arran being presumptive Heir to the Crown and his friends as well as many others disdaining to be under the bondage of a Mercenary Priest they encouraged him to assume the Regency which the return of the Prisoners taken in the last Battle by the English who were released by the King of England with the hopes and upon promise of procuring their young Queen to be married to Prince Edward and thereby to have the two Crowns United did not a little promote so that the Cardinals forgery being in a little time detected he was casheered and his Kinsman Arran substituted in his room Not long after came Sir Ralph Sadler Ambassador from King Henry into Scotland to treat about the foresaid Match but the Cardinal and his faction raise forty colourable pretences to affront him and elude his Message and to fortify themselves as much as might be sent for Mathew Stuart Earl of Lennox out of France by whose Interest they thought to ballance that of the Hamiltons But soon after his arrival finding the Regent and Cardinal had joined Interests and that himself was eluded in respect to the promise made him of Marrying the Queen Dowager and having the chief management of affairs and withal mis-representing his proceeding to the French King he has recourse to Arms But not finding himself to have Force sufficient to cope with the Regent with the additional Interest of the Queen and Cardinal he makes some sort of Accommodation with them But at last experimenting there was but little sincerity in all their Actions and that himself was opprest and in danger of his life every moment he made some faint resistance and in the end withdrew into England where he was Honourably received by the King who besides his other respects gave him Margaret Dowglass in Marriage who was Sister by the Mother side to James V. last King of Scotland begot by the Earl of Angus upon Margaret Sister to Henry VIII from which Marriage sprâ—ng Henry Stuart Lord Darnley Husband to Mary Queen of Scots and Father to James VI. of Scotland and I. of England of whom more here after The King of England in the mean time being highly affronted with the Scots violating of their faith with him in respect to the Marriage resolves to call them to a severe account for their perfidity and to that End invades their Country with a puissant Army commits great ravages and even Pillaged and Burnt Edenburg it self and then retreated The Scots with the assistance of the French whose Alliance they had preferred before that of the King of England endeavoured to retrieve the loss by the Invasion of the English Bordirs but made little of the matter So â—hat things for a time seemed to hang in â—uspence between both Nations and the Cardinal with his cut-throat Ecclesiasticks had leasure to prosecute those that espouesd the Reformation and because the Civil power would not meddle with the matter they take the whole into their own hands And among others put to Death one George Wiseheart burning him for an Heretick and who when the Governor who stood by exhorted him to be of good cheer and ask Pardon of God for his offences He replied This flame occasions trouble in deed to my body but it hath in no wise broken my spirit but he who now proudly looks down upon me from yonder lofty place pointing to the Cardinal shall e're long be as ignominiously thrown down as now he proudly â—ies at his ease Which strangely came to pass and which because of the Tragicalness of the Story we think will not be impertinent to insert in this place The Cardinal being on a time at St. Andrew's and having appointed a day for the Nobility and especially those whose Estates lay nearest the Sea to Meet and Consult what was fit to be done for the common safety for their Coasts were severely threatned by the great Naval preparations of the English made against them He determined for the more effectual Execution of his Design to take a strict view of all the Sea-Coasts to Fortify all Convenient Places and to put Garrisons into them Among the rest of the Noble Men Sons who came into the Cardinal Norman Lesley Son to the
dissuaded him from it while it was in prosecution and abhorred it when done there were some publick Ceremonies dissemblingly performed and Married they were for all that Those of the Nobility there present which were but few and they Bothwell's Friends and Creatures too the rest being gone to their homes were invited to Supper and so was Crocke the French Ambassador who though he were of the Guisian Faction and did besides dwell near the place yet absolutely refused to come as thinking it suited not with the Dignity of that Person he represented to countenance that Marriage by his presence which he heard the common People did Curse and Abominate and indeed the King of France and Queen of England did by their Ambassadors declare against the Turpitude of the thing and though that was troublesome to the Queen yet the silent sadness of the People did so much the more increase her fierce Disposition as things seen pierce deeper than things only heard As they both went through the City none Saluted them with wonted Acclamations only one said and that only but once God save the Queen whereupon another Woman near her spoke aloud once or twice so as the standers by might her Let every one have what his Desert is which inraged her still the more against the Citizens so that now seeing the danger she was in by the alienated Minds of her Subjects she casts about how she might establish her Power and first of all she determined to send an Ambassador into France to reconcile those Princes and the Guises to her whom she knew were offended with her precipitate Marriage and the Bishop of Dunblain was pitch'd upon for that purpose whose Instructions were Politickly framed and long and no great question made but they would do the Business The Bishop after his arrival in France obtains a day of Audience not knowing that by this time Bothwell was forced to fly and the Queen taken Prisoner as you 'l hear by and by whereof the very same day the French King and his Mother had received Letters one from Crocke the French Ambassador in Scotland and another from Ninian Cockerburn a Scot who had served as a Captain of Horse some years in France The Scotch Ambassador being admitted into the King's Presence made a long and accurate Speech partly to excuse the Queens Marriage without the advice of her Friends and partly to commend Bothwell to the skies beyond all Right and Reason Hereupon the Queen interrupted the vain Man by shewing him the Letters she had received from Scotland how that the Queen was made a Prisoner and Bothwell sted at which sudden ill News the Man was astonished and held his Peace whilst those that were present partly jeered him and partly smiled at this unlook'd for accident and there were none of them all but thought she suffered deservedly But to return to our Domestick Affairs the way they projected for their security was after they had fixed those by Gifts at present and Promises for the future who were either Perpetrators or Partizans in the King's Murder to make a Combination of the greater Nobility and if that were once done they might go on and undervalue the rest or cut them off if they remained obstinate whereupon they assembled the Nobility and propounded unto them the Heads of those Capitulations they were to Swear to the Sum of the whole was that they should maintain the Queen and Bothwell in all their Actings and on the otherside they were to Favour and Countenance the concerns of those of the Confederates then present a great many were perswaded to it before and so Subscribed the rest perceiving it was bad to Conspire and as dangerous to refuse Subscribed also But the Earl of Murray that his Authority which was great for his Vertue might give some Countenance to the thing was sent for upon this occasion but he after all the Tamperings with him that could be absolutely refused to Subscribe the said Association and thereupon got leave with much ado to Travel so went through England into France where we 'll leave him for a time The Riddance of whom as being a free Hearted and popular Man out of the way did not a little please the Queen who now also endeavours to remove the other Obstacles to her Harmony and those were such as would not willingly Subscribe to her Wickedness or were not like easily to Acquiesce with her Designs but she had a perpetual Hatred towards those who perceiving her to be no better affected towards her Son then towards her former Husband had entred into an Association at Sterling for no Wicked Design but to defend the Young Prince which his Mother desired to have under the Powder of his Father-in-law who they were sure would not fail to make away with him the chief of that Combination were the Earls of Argyle Morton Mar Athol and Glenoarn besides others and some of an inferior Degree as Linsey Boyd with their Friends and Partners but Argyl and Boyd were won over quickly to the Queens Party But all this would not do for the Families of the Humes Carrs and Scots living upon the English borders and by their Scituation as well as being otherwise Powerful became suspected by the Queen to have a Hand against her in this matter and their Power she endeavoured to lessen with all her might and there seemed a fit occasion to be offered for that purpose for Bothwell was preparing an expedition into Liddisdale to make amends for the Dishonour he had received there the Autumn before and also to gain some reputation by his Arms to take off the Envy of the Kings Death all the chief of the Families in Teviotdale were commanded by the Queen to come to the Castle of Edenburgh that there for soâ— short time they might be secure as in a free Custody upon a pretence that they might not be lead into an expedition which did not seem likely to be successfully accomplished against their Wiles and they also if at liberty might disturb the Design out of Envy and in their absence she might inure the Clans to the Government of others and so by Degrees wear off the Love of their Old Patrons and Masters but they well imagining there was some deeper Project concealed under that Command went home by Night all except Andrew Carr who was commonly reputed not to be ignorant of the King's Murder and another Carr at Seaford an harmless innocent Person this exasperated the rest and Hume being often summoned by Bothwell to come to Court refused so to do as knowing what his thoughts were towards him notwithstanding the Design for the Expedition went forward and the Queen stayd at Borthwick Castle about eight Miles from Edenburgh in the mean time the Prince's Assassinators being not ignorant of Bothwell's Design towards him thought it now necessary to proceed to Action not only for their own security but also that by demanding Justice upon the Author of the King's Murder
pleased over the King 's Natural Subjects but he must mock and deride with the ignorant multitude the Danish Ambassadors also and use them with all the despight imaginable for it seems they knowing his former meanness in Swedeland made no great Court to him which raised his Fury this was quickly perceived by some about the King whom the Earls Practices and Insolence had disobliged and who failed not to let the King know it and for all the Earls Ascendency made him somewhat to decline in Favour which another accident gave a helping hand to for Sir Francis Russell upon some disorders that fell out upon the Borders happening to be slain of the English side Mr. Woton the English Ambassador who stood in competition with the Earl for the King's Favour took occasion to lay the blame upon him alledging that the Laird of Fernihast who was Warden of the Scots Borders had Married the Earl of Arran's Brothers Daughter and that the said Earl had caused the slaughter to be committed that the Borders might break loose Wotton was seconded by others in this complaint so effectually that the Earl was committed prisoner to the Castle of St. Andrews where having remained for a few days he got by the intercession of the Master of Gray whom he won with fair promises to be his Friend It 's strange he should find any who had disobliged every Body leave to retire to his own House and here the King played a Noble prank but whether he used it as Lex talionis for the sham-Ring Arran had put upon Walsingham as aforesaid and which he durst not otherwise punish I am not certain but it looks like his little tricks which notwithstanding he dignified with the name of Kingcraft for when the Earl was upon his journey homeward he sends to him with all possible diligence for to lend him a great Gold Chain which he knew he had got from Sir James Belfour which weighed 57 Crowns to be given to the Danish Ambassadors which if the Earl had refused to do he would it's likely have lost the King and in delivering of it he lost his Chain Arran being thus retired makes several attempts to recover his former station and the King it was observed retained a Favour for him and would have been content to have Himself and Kingdom still Governed by him he was once again admitted to Court but others had stepped in and the King had not power to remove them so that the Earl after long retirement and discontent was surprized at last by James Douglass at Parkhead and slain by him in revenge of the death of the Earl of Morton his Unkle and but little care taken to punish the same many thinking it indeed strange that he should be permitted so long to live who had carried it so arrogantly and insolently towards all Men in the time of his Ascendency at Court but several other Accidents intervened before the Earls Exit The next Man that had the chief Credit and Management of Affairs was Mr. Wotton the English Ambassador but tho' the King begun now to be Governed by a Favourite and a Forreiner under this Character yet it did not end here as you shall hear by and by when the Scene is transplanted into England Wotton knew as well as any Man alive how to humour him in his pleasures and such familiar access had he at all times to his Person that he attempted to have brought in the banished Lords whose Interest he had espoused not without the direction to be sure of the English Court secretly into his presence in the Parish of Sterling at such a time as they should have so many Friends at Court that he must have remained once more at their Devotion but all things did not so concur as to put this Enterprize in practice so it was laid aside and Mr. Wotton essayed a Second but more desperate attempt which was to Kidnap Jemmy out of the foresaid Park into England see Sir James Melvill but Sir Robert Melvill coming to a timeous Knowledge hereof took measures to prevent it which made the English Ambassador withdraw home without bidding of them once a good night the Lords for all this enter the Borders being assisted by the Lords Hamilton Maxwel Hume and several others and advance to the number of Three thousand Men towards Sterling entring the Town without any opposition where they were no sooner arrived but there appear'd two Factions with the King in the Castle the one favouring the Lords whose part the King took as if he had really desired the Lords should have come thither in this manner to tear his Minions from his Heart and so once more the King is in their Power which they exercised with great moderation only a few were committed for the present to the custody of some Noblemen and so a Parliament was called as the best expedient to heal all their breaches Things continued in some sort of Concord for a little while and the Convicting and Beheading of the Queen his Mother in England seemed to possess all their Minds with amazement at the Fact for the present tho' I do not find he did at all resent it but this was no sooner over but there appears a new Faction at Court headed by the Earl of Huntley whose aim was at the removing of the Master of Gray and Maitland the Chancellor with their Adherents but finding it was not so easily to be effected Huntley Bothwell and others contrived to seize the King's Person and to keep him in their custody but this proving Abortive the noise of the Spanish Invasion which was dreaded in Scotland as well as in England seemed to lay all Animosâ—tâ—es aside for the present but this blowing over the King's Thoughts seemed to be taken all up about Marrying the Sister of the King of Denmark was the Lady proposed and Queen Elizabeth consulted with thereupon who disswaded him therefrom and said she had Interest with the King and Princess of Navarr and that she would imploy the same for effectuating of a Marriage between him and the said Princess but the King was bent upon the former and because he found the Chancellor and some others oppose it he could not or would not be seen openly to controul them but dealt secretly with some of the Deacons of the Craftsmen of Edenburg to form a Mutiny against the Chancellor and some of the Council threat'ning to kill them in case the Marriage with the Daughter of Denmark were hindred or any longer delayed whereupon the Earl of Marshal was sent thither with Power to Treat about the said Marriage but withal in so stinted and limited a degree contrived by the Craft of the Chancellor and his Faction that he was necessitated to send the Lord Dinguall back from thence to desire either liberty to return hence or to have sufficient Power to conclude the Treaty when he came he hapned to find the King at Aberdeen without the Chancellor c so
an entire disappointment of his hopes that way and they to be so beaten as they were never before nor after by the English Fleet. Oliver Cromwel sometime after assuming the Supream Power by the Title of Protector he and Mazarine grew so gracious one with another that France began now to be too hot to hold King Charles so as he was necessitated to retire thence to the Elector of Cologn and afterwards into the Spanish Netherlands where he ordered the English Scots and Irish in those parts which amounted to between four and five thousand Men to joyn the Spaniards to attempt the relief of Dunkirk then besieged by the French and English But herein he was as fatal in his Arms as he had been all along before for the Spanish Army were utterly routed and this defeat broke his whole design so that he never after made use of Arms to recover his Inheritance but retired to Bruges where he stay'd to see the event of things The death of Oliver Cromwell together with the many changes of Government that happened thereupon in England gave new life to his hope and made him go in person to the Pyrenaean Treaty to promote his Interest from whence he returned through France to Bruxells But coming to understand that Sir George Booth and the Cheshire Men were supprest by Lambert it did not a little damp his hopes and made him return again to Bruxells from about St. Maio's where he privately lay in readiness to take Shipping for England upon the first good event of Sir George and others undertakings for him But his Crown was not to be recovered by War how then came he to be restored A grand step towards it was the Rump Parliament's Jealousie of Monk and his Jealousie of them again But what contributed most to it was the unsetled state of the Nation under the many Vicissitudes of Government that had been introduced since the death of the King his Father which made the People very uneasie and long for a Settlement upon any terms and therefore the Convention when they met in order to it on April 25. 1660. did hand overhead without any Preliminaries of asserting the Rights and Liberties of the English so manifestly violated by his Father and Grandfather restore him without any contradiction which did not a little contribute to the succeeding uneasiness of his Reign as well as the Nations trouble But restored he was as aforesaid and on May 25. following Landed at Dover and was received every where with utmost Demonstrations of Joy About October following came over the Queen-Mother seemingly to Treat about a Marriage between Mounsieur of France and her fair Daughter Henrietta Maria But it 's like the Marriage between the King and the Infanta of Portugal was no less designed which was after Consummated and wherein he was as unhappy in respect to Procreation by her as he was fruitful in what ground soever else he sowed his seed which he was Prodigal enough of But there was yet somewhat else of far more dangerous consequence to poor England and more dishonourable to the King that brought the Queen-Mother over and that was the Sale of Dunkirk to the French whose Agent she was in that fine spot of work If the King's Arms whilst an Exile in conjunction with the Spaniards were so unsuccessful in the relief of Dunkirk then Besieged by the joint force of English and French he was much more unhappy in the Sale of it afterward for 400000 l. whereof one moiety was detained for the Portion of Henrietta Maria his Sister and not to the Spaniards who were kind to him in his adverse Fortunes and had most right to it but to the French who had done all they could by their Embassador Bourdeux to hinder his Restoration and on whose side the Ballance then lay which it had been his business to have kept even as his Predecessors the Kings of England were wont to do and particularly Henry 8. and Queen Elizabeth This action I think was us unparallel'd as any can be found in our English Annals It was indeed a Charge against Mary Queen of Scots that she would have transferred her Right of Succession to the English Crown to the then King of Spain Philip 2. but that if true was giving away what was not in her power to dispose of and much such another Donation as that of the Pope's to the Emperor Charles of the Kingdom of Mexico tho with a different fate to both Nations but here was neither Donation force nor any visible necessity but a voluntary act in King Charles to the inestimable damage of England as has been but too sensibly felt to this very day You must note that the gazing World stood a little while amazed at the strange Revolution in England by the King 's easie and pacifick Restoration and with what transports of Joy he was received by the Nation then in a most Warlike posture and as much dreaded by our Neighbours and particularly by the French who had formed designs for an Universal Monarchy But now they were put to a stand to see what such a mighty power and apparently lasting Settlement in England would produce yet finding at length that here all thoughts of Military glory and extention of Dominion seemed wholly to be laid aside and all the severity of the preceding times daily degenerate to the Luxuries of an Effeminate Reign they began to reassume their former design and to prosecute the foundation Cardinal Richlieu had laid for them But that they might make sure work on 't and see that they made a true judgment of the English affairs they resolved to try such an Experiment as would throughly decide the matter and what must that be but overtures for the buying of Dunkirk which succeeding as aforesaid according to their wishes raised their hopes higher than ever of attaining their ends And because they knew well enough that the English were a powerful People by Sea and that while they retained the Soveraignty of it it would be a hard rub in their way they joyn their strength with the Dutch to dispute the Dominion of it with us but the Dutch were as unfortunate in their Allyance in the first Dutch War as the English were in the second when they joyned with them against the Dutch for excepting the time that the English Fleet was divided in the first War and that base business of burning the Ships at Chatham so much to the King and Nations dishonour the Dutch came by the worst of it in all the rest of the Engagements and it was much the same luck the English had by their Conjunction in the second War the French both times standing aloof as looking on and no doubt laughing in their sleeves to see the two most Potent Nations in the World by Sea weaken and destroy one anothe whilst they in the mean time not only saved their own stake but learned how to fight and doubted not but in time
of War That the late King whom some have so much cried up for a Lover of Military Glory has no Share therein But his Admirers have found out as they think a very plausible Pretence for his Absence Because it is not known in what Quality he would have appeared in the Field But the Truth is my Lord they have no great Opinion of his Valour and Conduct and he has succeeded so very ill in his own Concerns and Undertakings that they are very much afraid his Presence should infuse some malignant Influence into the French King's Designs And whatever Veneration those now in England of his Interest and from thence denominated according to his Name may have for him there is hardly a Day passes here wherein some Satyrical Piece or other does not appear against him far enough from sparing Personal Reflections But this will make the Confederates in general but small Amends for the Loss of Mons However I could not but once take notice of it to your Lordship desiring you to believe how ready I am to the utmost of my Intelligence My Lord To Serve and Obey you whilst Paris April 18. 1691. N. S. LETTER XX. Of the Raising of the Siege of Coni and of the Death of that Grand Minister of State to the French King the Marquis of Louvois and also of Monsieur Barillon's once the French King's Ambassador in England My Lord THE general Affairs of the War are so publick that your Lordship cannot but come to the Knowledge of such Transactions as fall out from Time to Time as soon as any other in the Kingdom and they are such at this Juncture as sufficiently perplex this Court especially so far as they regard Italy and Savoy in particular from whence they have just received the bad News of the raising the Seige of Coni which is yet but whispered amongst them But your Lordship may so far rely upon my Intelligence in this particular as confidently to report it in England of which News I question not your giving hereby the first Intelligence But though this ill Success is so much the more mortifying to this Court in that they fully reckoned upon the Taking of the Place seeing all others that had hitherto been besieged by their Arms on that side have made little or on Resistance and that they own themselves they have lost before it Eighteen Hundred of the best of their Men Yet another Accident has my Lord this very Day happened here which at present seems more surprizing and a greater Subject of Discourse than the other and that is the Death of our Grand Minister of State the Marquess de Louvois Your Lordship knows what Relation I have stood to him in and what Word I sent you once by Major H if there was a Possibility of his seeing you of my then Circumstances upon the same Foot Things being still much the same I shall not further trouble you with a vain Repetition of what I am now well assured the said Major has reported to your Honour but observe That the Marquess having dined with the Princess d'Espenoy and Madam de Soubize he found himself presently after ill in the King's Chamber from whence he retired into his own to be Let Blood but not finding any Ease by Bleeding in one Arm and being extreamly oppressed in his Spirits nothing would content him but he must needs be Let Blood in the other and thereupon died at the same time These my Lord are the naked Circumstances of this Great Man's Departure and you may relie upon it though I do not question but many may be apt to ascribe his Death to some extraordinary and violent Cause since I have even already heard a Whisper of it in a Corner But whatever Reflections the World may make upon the Causes of his Death I foresee there will be no less Animadversions upon the Train of Consequences that may attend it Perhaps many of the Confederates may be apt to believe that the Death of Monsieur de Louvois may produce such an Alteration of Affairs here as may not a little contribute to the Advantage of theirs since much of the happy Success that has hitherto attended the King's Designs will be ascribed to the Address Cunning and Policy of this Minister and that the French Lilies will wither in another's hands I do very well know that such Suggestions carry a great Appearance of Truth in them But if I may freely deliver my Opinion to your Lordship from my own Observation and Experience I cannot but declare my self contrary to the aforesaid Sentiments which if any Ways relyed on will be found to prove but broken Reeds For believe me my Lord the French King has had a greater Share in the publick Transactions of his Kingdom than any of his Ministers for all the Time I have known France And no one understands his own Affairs and Interests as well as himself to say nothing of the Assistance of so many politick Persons and Men of great Abilities he has constantly about his Person and who serve him with more than ordinary Zeal and Affection which will sufficiently compensate for the Loss of one single Minister Your Honour cannot but be sensible why I observe this at the present Juncture such an Aery Advantage as this is like to prove can bring no solid benefit to my Country but a real Detriment will infallibly succeed a Dependance upon it But the Death of Monsieur Barillon which happened a few Hours before the other and who knew England better than any other French-man may I trust conduce more to the Tranquility of the Kingdom within which none more passionately desires to hear of than My Lord Your ever Obliged and Most Faithful Serv. Versailles July 16. 1691. N. S. LETTER XXI Of Monsieur Pompone's being made Minister of State And of some Particulars relating to a Peace said to be offered by France to the Confederates My Lord WHat I observed to your Lordship in my last how vain the Hopes of the Confederates were like to prove of any good Advantage to their Affairs by the Death of Monsieur de Louvois appears here daily more and more by divers Instances that might be given But I shall only confine my self to inform your Honour that the Advancement of Monsieur Pompone to be Prime Minister of State is a clear Demonstration of the Truth I have advanced as 't is of the King 's great Skill and Judgment also Though indeed it must be owned that this new Favourite enters upon his Ministry in a ticklish Juncture of Time yet for my own part I am fully satisfied Things are not so bad with France as the World would believe them to be and the following Proposals of Peace intended to be or as some say already offered to the Confederates would insinuate of which I communicate to your Lordship a Copy as I have received them from a Friend with some difficulty First That the Most Christian King will acknowledge
yet the Ministers have endeavoured to dissemble it with much Application and would make the drooping People believe it was a thing so inconsiderable as that it is in a manner quite repaired already and that their Fleet is already so reinforced as to be in condition not only to obviate the attempts of the Enemies Navy But after they have taken on board some Necessaries to put out to Sea and provoke them to a second Engagement To which end they have Published a List of Seventy Men of War besides Fâ—igâ—â—s c. that they pretend to have ready which I shall not trouble your Lordship with a Coppy of because I know it to be false And if the French Ministers are thus put to it to support their Master's Credit at this Juncture they are almost past all hopes at St. Germans where the late King and his disappointed Followers are arrived and who have nothing now to sollace themselves with but the happy delivery of his Queen of a Daughter Which second production it s hoped may overcome the obstinacy of Mens minds and make them at last believe the first was Genuine But if there were a cloud of unlucky circumstances that attended the former there is one already known to have accompanied this also viz. that the Delivery was so quick that Madame who was in this City and made all the hast she could to go to the Labour as soon as ever she had notice of it could not yet get thither soon enough The affairs of Flanders and other parts where the War is I forbear to touch on as supposing your Lordship has an exact account of all the Transactions that happen sooner and more truly too than I can inform you from hence where most things to their disadvantage are as cunningly veiled over as the successes are magnifyed wherefore I shall take my leave of you till something momentous does occur and only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris June 30. 1692. N. S. LETTER XXVII Conjectures of the French designs in the year 1693. against the Allies and of their Incendiaries to burn the Confederate Cities My Lord I am fully satisfyed what a great noise the scarcity of Bread in France makes in England and the other confederated Countries the misery indeed from that and other concurring causes is very great but yet what may seem to some less intelligent than your Lordship very little less than a Paradox is that the face of the Court is as splendid and gay as ever I have known it in the time of France's highest prosperity and nothing is talked of there my Lord but the mighty Armies they have on foot by Land and their great forwardness to enter upon Action as well as their their great power on the other Element I am assured the King will very shortly leave Versailles in order to be at the head of one of his Armies but whether he designs for Germany or the Neatherlands is yet a secret tho' the Vogue is that the intended Journey is for the latter and that provision is making for his Reception at Compeign and Valenciennes which I am told having occasioned a certain Courtier a day or two ago to say that that road leads directly for Flanders and the same discourse coming quickly to the King's Ears he made answer That a Man might go from Valenciennes to Germany Your Lordship may make what judgment you please upon the Expression I le leave it wholly to you and shall at present only further inform you that as I have formerly given you some account of what Fires have been kindled in several Cities of the Empire Hungary c. by the agency of this Court I have more than a suspition that the same practise is again set on foot and that there are very many incendiaries entertained by these Ministers to put the same in Execution in diverse parts of the Confederate Countries And I do desire your Lordship to believe that there is no villany they will boggle at for the compassing of their accursed ends as there is none but what I am very forward to discover to your Honour and proud of an opportunity so to do who am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Obedient Servant Versailles April 14. 1693. N. S. LETTER XXVIII Of Proposals of Peace made by France to the Emperor and Empire in the year 1693. My Lord THe successes of the French Arms since the commencement of this unhappy War against the Empire of Germany does not hinder this Court as I am well assured to make overtures of Peace on that side particularly the motions whereof the Confederates are narrowly to watch to prevent the fatality of such a disjunction in their present Allyance The Swedes are very busy in promoting the Work and the terms that are offered are to this purpose as I had them communicated to me by a particular hand First That in general the King desires That the Treaties of Westphalia and Nemeghen may remain in full force and vigour Secondly That the Truce concluded at Ratisbonne in August 1684. for 20 Years may be changed into a defensive Treaty of Peace with such alterations as are here after explained as First That in recompence of the City of Strasburg which the most Christian King is in possession of and designs to keep Mont Royal and Trarback shall be rased and restored to the Prince to whom they belong provided that neither of them be re-fortifyed for the future Secondly That all the Works of Fort Louis and Hunninghen that are beyond the Rhine shall in like manner be demolished Thirdly That Phillipsburg with the fortress thereof shall be restored as also Friburg in the same condition they are in at present Fourthly That Heidelburg shall be given up to the Elector Palatine and all the dependances of the Palatinate notwithstanding the claim of his Sister-in-law the Dutchess of Orleans to several Lands and Fiefs therein which losses the King will take upon him to repair And as for Saar Louis Biche and Homburg he is willing take condescend to any equivalent for them of equal Revenue to the Elector Fifthly That as for Re-unions if Commissioners appointed on each side shall not be able to adjust them in a limiâ—â—ed time the French King will refer himself to the arbitration of the Republick of Venice I am further informed my Lord that Cardinal Fourbin has orders to sollicite this point also with the Pope and to acquaint him how willing the King is to compose the affairs of Europe and those of Italy in particular and that himself shall have plenary Power to draw and regulate the conditions provided that in the first place the Restoration of the late King James be absolutely concluded upon with which I shall also conclude this Letter from My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Aug. 11. 1693. N. S. LETTER XXIX Of Libells in France against the Government c. My Lord I am not to give your
Lordship here the reason of my so long silence since you know it already by a remarkable instance and it is possible you may have by his time heard the issue of our King's mâ—â—ch towards Pont Esperies and the Daupâ—e's diligence to secure that Pass Were you to have seen the Consternation men generally were under in this City upon the first advice of the said March you would have thought all France had been in danger of being lost without retrieval and the letter of thanks which the King hâ—â— dispatched to the Dauphine the rest of the Generals and to every particular Regiment both French and Switz by Name for their Zeal and indefatigable industry for the preservation of their Country lifes and most important places on the Sea Coast is an evident demonstration hereof As the common Murmurs and many Libels that appear abroad every day against the Government are no less a proof of the decline of the French affairs and growing greatness of the Confederates the causes of both which I need not take upon me to commemorate to your Lordship since they are evident to none more than your self My Lord I must keep my Hand in use and write to you as long as I am here and can have any opportunity to testify thereby how much I am My Lord Your Humble and ever Obliged Servant Paris Octo. 2. 1694. N. S. LETTER XXX Of the King James his receiving an account of Queen Mary's death c. My Lord I have had often some Thoughts to inform your Lordship of many unhappy accidents that have befallen me of late in this Country but had I been now at length fully determined to transmit the particulars the general Calamity in the untimely fate of the Excellent Princess Mary Queen of Great Britain c. must have quite supprest it I am so concerned not only for the present loss but for the events to follow that I am not fit for ordinary Conversation It s scarce belief how elevated those in the late King's Interests are upon this turn of things but the truly vertuous tho' Enemies carry the signs of Sorrow in their Countenances This Court and the late King have had very timous information of this our misfortune and I am well assured they have had a long Conference together upon the said subject and that at the same time some Letters have been dispatch'd in order to a Tryal whether any Tares may be sown in England upon this occasion But I hope the prudenâ— Management of Affairs on your side of which the Nations Enemies of late begin to have an high Opinion will choke them in the production Neither of the Courts are yet gone into Mourning neither is there any appearance they will But several private Gentlemen under pretence of the Death of Relations in the Country are in Black For any other particulars I beg your Lordship to Pardon me that I can give no account and to believe that I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Jan. 10. 1695. N. S. POSTSCRIPT My Lord I had under my present concern of mind almost forgot to acquaint you that five days ago the Duke of Luxenburg departed this Life at Versailles in the Sixty Fourth Year of his Age while he was sick the King continually sent to see how he did and went often in person to visit and comfort him and when he was dead he publickly declared that a greater loss could not have befallen him I am My Lord Your c. LETTER XXXI Of the Successes of the Confederates in Flanders Italy c. in the year 1695. with some account of the designs of France for the succeeding year and of the Authors design to return to England My Lord THe great success the Confederate Arms have had this Compaign both in Italy and Brabant by the Reduction of Cazal and Namur is more mortifying to this Court than I am able to express tho' a good meen is put upon it and that it is already given out that the King of France being weary of acting defensively as has been done the last Summer will act offensively next Campaign and that the Council have already found out ways for the settling of sufficient Funds towards the maintaining not only of such forces as are already on foot but for a considerable augmentation of them And for Men the raising of them is made practicable by an Edict prohibiting all persons whatsoever to keep any Male Servants above One and Twenty Years of Age so that all Young Men that are above those Years must either starve steal or go to the Wars How far these projects may be put in Execution I know not but I do believe them in the main impracticable Yet I question not but there are some more secret and dangerous Machinations on foot and the more than ordinary consultations between the two Kings I fear forbodes no good to England in particular Some general observations that I have made of things during my aboad in I shall reserve till I see your Lordship which my present circumstances urge me to and which I hope and long to effect before who am in the mean time and always will be My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant 〈◊〉 Paris Nov. 3. 1695. N. S. THE Tragical History OF THE STUARTS FROM The First Rise of that Family in the Year 1086. down to the Death of Her Late Majesty Queen MARY of Blessed Memory By D. JONES Gent. LONDON Printed in the Year 1697. THE Tragical History OF THE STUARTS IN the Reign of Duncane King of Scotland who came to the Possession of the Scotish Crown upon the decease of his Uncle Milcolm in the Year 1040. while one Bancho Thane of Lochquaber from whom the Stuarts descended was gathering the King's Revenues within the bounds of his own Jurisdiction and withal somewhat severely punishing such as he found to be notorious Offenders it caused a Mutiny in the Country and so a Conspiracy was formed against Bancho by a parcel of Riotous and Lawless Fellows who first spoil'd his Goods and then assaulted his Person giving him many dangerous Wounds so that he had much ado to escape with his Life But assoon as he found himself a little recover'd and in a condition to travel he determined to repair to the Court in order to require Satisfaction for the Damages he had sustained where after he had made Complaint to the King of the same and of the Indignities that had been offer'd to him he at length prevail'd to have an Herald sent to the Offenders to cite them to make their personal Appearance for to answer to such Matters as should be laid to their Charge But they instead of complying with the Summons entertain'd the Messenger first with all manner of Reproaches and when they had as despitefully used him both in Words and Actions as they could slew him out-right and so entring into a Confederacy with their Friends and Kinsfolks as expecting to be call'd to a
his Army in Torbay he presently Published his Declaration setting forth the Cause of his coming Upon which some of the Nobility and Gentry joyned him and others made Preparations in the remoter parts to declare for him King James upon the News of the Princes Landing ordered his Army to march Westward with a resolution to follow in Person But before he went he thought it requisite to provide for the safety of his darling Prince of Wales whom the Prince of Orange in his Manifesto spread about the Kingdom some days before declared upon just and visible grounds that both himself and all the Good People of England did vehemently suspect not to be born of the Queen's Body Wherefore several Persons were summoned who were present at the pretended birth to declare the truth upon Oath and to have the same registred in Chancery but the King not daring to trust to the validity of these Affadavits which the Nation had all the reason in the world to suspect he ordered the Yonker to be sent away with a strong Guard to Portsmouth that if things went ill he should be convey'd over into France In the mean time the Prince of Orange prospered in his Army and advanced as far as Exeter and was joyned among multitudes of others that flocked in to him daily out of the adjacent Countries by the Lord Cornbury with Three Regiments along with him which he carried off from the King's Army About this time the Prince received also intelligence that the Lord Delamere had declared for him in Cheshire King James being informed of all these things was horribly dismayed and uncertain whether he should go to the Army or no However at length he took up a resolution of going to Salisbury where he began to bleed violently at the Nose which together with the many ill adventures that befell him there as his being forsaken by his own Daughter the Princess Anne Prince George the Duke of Grafton the Lord Churchill and many others who went over to the Prince then at Sherborn all of them dangerous limbs to be lost by him he returned Novemb. 26. in the Evening to London where for an accumulation of the rest of his Misfortunes he received an Address from the Fleet for a Free Parliament So that thinking London nay all England now too hot to hold him he first sent his Queen and pretended Son into France and quickly after followed himself In order thereunto he put himself Aboard a small Smach Commanded by one Captain Saunders but was forced for shelter to put into Eastwall the Eastern part of the Isle of Sheppy in order to the taking in of Ballast where the Inhabitants of Feversham being abroad to pick up Jesuits and other suspected persons met this Vessel and having seized it found this wretched Prince attended only by Sir Edward Hales and Mr. Labady therein who not being at first known were all of them but coarsly handled by the Mobilâ—ty more particularly the King himself who was rifled of what Gold and Jewels he had about him and had his Clothes rent and torn in the searching of him When the Lords at London had notice of his being at Feversham they sent some Persons to attend him to move him to return but they had in the mean time made their application to the Prince of Orange for to assist them for the Security of the Protestant Religion and sent some of their number with Four Aldermen and Eight Commoners to attend him at Henley The King who was detained at Feversham till the aforesaid Orders came from London did December 15. remove to Rochester and from thence next day being Sunday returned to Whitehall attended once more like a King of England with a Troop of Granadiers and three Troops of the Life-guard But it was only Pageant greatness for a set of Boys only followed him through the City and made some Huzza's but the rest of the People silently looked on And here he found the Popish Religious houses laid as flat to the ground as his own heart was now sunk deep in his body Upon his Arrival at London and finding there no ease he desired the Prince that he might return to Rochester again which being granted readily he took his final farewell of the City and went to the foresaid place where he staid till the 23. of December when about One or Two in the Morning he privately withdrew taking only Mr. Shâ—â—don and Delabady along with him with whom he went to Dover and there Embarkt in a Vessel that lay ready for his Transportation to France So he went out like a snuff in England but still retained some glimmering light in Scotland and Ireland in the last of which he arrived in Person the March following But his light in Scotland did not long burn for the Convention there as well as in England rejected him as the Violator of all their Rights and Dundee falling by the Sword the July following 1689 together with the Surrender of Edenburg Castle and other misfortunes quite extinguished his hopes there But in Ireland he had a name to live as King till about a year after when his Army being totally routed at the Boyn by our brave King William he made as much haste to get over into France as if he had been to go to take possession of a Crown instead of running away from one Various Struggles he made still to recover a Regal Life but he prosecuted his ends by such Villanous Methods and Instruments and more especially by setting his Vile Assassins on Work to Murder the best of Kings and bravest of Men our Lawful and Rightful Sovereign King William III. as are not to be mention'd but with utmost Horror But through the goodness of Heaven they have met with as little success as the Practices have been foul and Clandestine and so we leave him to him that made him and withall wish him a far greater proportion of rest and happy Tranquillity in the future World then he hath found of unrest and disquietude here and a much speedier translation into that state then the hast himself hath made to precipitate his own Abdicated fate The Abdicated Throne was filled up by the Advancement of a Prince and Princess to it that England was n'er blest with the like before one in Religion and one in Interest and Affection with the Nation our King Hero-like Fighting our Battels abroad and pray think it not a small thing for England has not enjoy'd such a Blessing these Hundred and fifty years and it has scarce ever been well with us when our Kings did not go in and out before our People and our Queen as wisely and gently Swaying the Scepter at Home to the Gladning of all our Hearts and in all Her excellent Comportment choosing to Rule in the Love and Affections rather than the Fears of Her People Here we promis'd our selves a lasting Tranquility and many happy days to come under the benign influence of her Reign but Alass alass our hopes quickly vanished our Joys faded our Hearts failed us for fear and sable clouds of Despair overshaddowed our whole Isle by Her unexpected by Her early I say by Her early tho' natural Transition from a Corruptible to an Incorruptible Diadem Her gain it was but our loss She tho' young yet ripe for ineffable Joys above And we tho' long inur'd to Tryal unripe for to sustain the loss of Her here below And surely no Prince ever departed this Transitory Life that was so unfeignedly lamented by his Subjects as this incomparable Queen as was apparent by our universal mournful weeds without a demonstration of the blackning sadness of our hearts within The last she was and incomparably the best of the Stuarts that wore a Crown and the Second of that number that went to Her Grave in Peace as Robert II. who was the first of the Stuarts that ever was King was the only other of the Kingly Race that did so I know Mr. Coke says in his Character of King Charles II. That none of His Name hereafter was ever like to have a Stone to cover his Grave as King of England but that I will not say as not pretending to know what is laid up in the Womb of Futurity But if you please after all this Mournful Entertainment I 'll tell you a Story The Lyon on a time called to the Sheep and asked her If his Breath smelt she innocently said Ay which made him bite off her head for a Fool then he called to the Wolf and asked him who reply'd No and his head he bit off for a Flatterer last of all he put the same Question to the Fox but the Fox truly for his part desired to be excused for he had a Cold upon him and could not Smell FINIS Robert Stuart by the Name of Robert II. tho' the first of the Stuarts was crowned King of Scotland Mar. 25. Anno Dom. 1370 Robert III. Alias John Stuart began his Reign An. Dom. 1390. James Stuart I. began his Reign actually Anno 1423. having been a Prisoner in England almost eighteen Years James Stuart II began his Reign March 27. 1437. James Stuart III. began his Reign Anno 1460. James Stuart IV. began his Reign An. 1488. James Stuart V. began his Reign Feb. 14th 1513. James Stuart I. began his Reign over Great-Britain Mar. 24. 1602. †Charles Stuart I. began His Reign over Great Britain March 27 th 1625. Charles Stuart II. assumed the Title of King upon his Father's Death Jan. 30. 1648. Charles Stuart II. Restored to his Dominions An. 166â— James Stuart II. came to the Crown February 6. 1684 5. William of Nassaw III. and Mary Stuart II. began their Reigns Febr. 13. 1688 9.