Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	france_n	king_n	sovereign_a	2,743	5	8.9902	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48266	Letters written by a French gentleman, giving a faithful and particular account of the transactions at the court of France, relating to the publick interest of Europe with historical and political reflexions on the ancient and present state of that kingdom / communicated by Monsieur Vassor.	Le Vassor, Michel, 1646-1718.	1695 (1695)	Wing L1795; ESTC R12280	36,438	62

takes them you may assure your self that it will take them oftner then we desire This is the most certain mark of our Servitude the French Nation has lost both its Honour and its Liberty neither can I think of any Remedy for so cruel a Disaster Let us try the Virtue of those Maxims that we find in our dear Tacitus * Ulterior a mirari praesentiae s qui. Tacit. Histor l. 4. A Wise Man says he may admire the Happiness of former Ages but he bears present Misfortunes with Patience † Bonos Imperatores volo expetere qualescunque tolerare Idem We ought to wish for good Princes but must bear with such as we have ¶ Ut Steriltatem ●imios Imbres caetera Naturae mala ita Luxum vel Avaritiam Dominantium tolerate 8. d neque haec con inua meliorum interventu pensantur Idem The Reign of a bad Prince is like a Year of Dearth and Famine and our Miseries in this World are not Eternal For as the next good Year makes amends for our former losses so a Tyrant is sometimes succeeded by a good Prince Thus we may comfort our selves with hopes of better times under the Dauphin these Maxims I confess are not very proper to satisfie Men in our circumstances but they are the best that I am able to suggest to you Shall we entreat the King to call a general Meeting of the Estates of the Realm But who will undertake to present our Petition to him Shall the Princes of the Blood There is not one among them that durst offer the least Remonstrance to His Majesty shall the Dukes and Peers of France or the Officers of the Crown They might expect to be immediatly rewarded with a lodging in the Bastile and there are too many base compliers with the Times who would offer their Service to drag them thither Shall those of the First Order in the Church The Court has found out a way to make sure of them the Clergy has contributed already vast Sums and 't is said that several Millions more will be demanded of them shortly Should the Parliament of Paris deliver our Address they would instantly be interdicted and the Heads of that Assembly would be punished as seditious Traytors should it be presented by the Inhabitants of Paris and the rest of the great Cities we should see Gibbets erected in every corner of the Streets and the Troops of the Houshold sent to devour 'em Our Poor and Ill-paid Officers would barbarously pillage the Houses of those Persons who could be accus'd of no other Crime than of endeavouring to preserve that little remainder of Liberty which they seem still to enjoy I had the fortune some Days ago to be in a Company where they talk'd variously concerning the late Revolution in England A Man of Sense who is perfectly well acquainted with the Ancient and Modern History of France demonstrated plainly that our Government was formerly like to that of England and that the Sovereign Authority was properly lodg'd in the Meeting of the Estates There Laws were made there the most important Cases were decided and such Subsidies as were judg'd necessary for the Defence of the Kingdom were granted the King had no more Power than what was sufficient to enable him to cause the Decrees of those Assemblies te be put in Execution and to attend diligently to the Security and Preservation of the State These are obvious Remarks which every one that reads our Ancient Histories thô but with a very moderate degree of Application cannot fail to observe Such were in effect the inviolable Maxims of the Gauls and of the Northern Nations from whom both we and the English are descended * Servirent Syria Asiaque suetus Regibus Oriens multos adhuc in Gallia vivere ante tributa genitos Tacit. Hist l. 4. Let the People of the East who are accustom'd to the Despotic Government of their Kings submit to the Roman Yoke said a great Man among our Gauls we will not follow their Example We can still remember a time when we paid no Tribute † Libertatem Naturâ mutis Animalibus datam virtutem proprium hominum bonum Idem ibid. Nature made the Beasts free as well as Men with this only difference That Men are endued with Virtue and Courage to preserve their Liberty The Hollanders have not yet forgot the Heroical sentiments of their Country-man but we alas lose the Memory of 'em Dayly * Nec Regibus infinita aut libera potestas Tacit. de moribus Germanorum The Northern Nations never suffer'd their King 's to assume an Arbitrary and unlimited Power † Auctoritate suadendi magis quam juben●i potestate Idem ibid. their Princes govern rather by Perswasion than Force ¶ Regnantur paulo addictius quam ceterae Germanorum gentes nondum tamen supra libertatem Idem ibid. And even such of those Nations as were under the severest Government did still enjoy a great deal of Liberty To all these Observations my Friend added one more that since we have not like the Danes renounc'd our Liberty we may lawfully endeavour to shake off the Yoke that is imposed upon us For there is no just Prescription against the fundamental Laws of a State But how reasonable soever these Remarks be they appear so new and so surprising to certain Persons that they imagine it to be no less ridiculous to talk of assembling the Estates at this time of the Day than it would be to perswade them to resume the Ruff and Bonets that were used in the time of Francis the First These are obsolete Stories say they and we do not so much as remember that ever there were Estates in France 'T is true replied one of our Friends angrily we forgot that we are French-men and we shall forget too e'er long that we are reasonable Men. The Romans said one of their own Emperors * Nec totam servitutem pati possunt nec totam libertatem Tacit. Hist lib. 1. are no longer capable of enjoying a full and entire Liberty thô they were again put in possession of it nor will they bear too heavy a Yoke is it possible that we should be already more accustom'd to Slavery than a People that had serv'd such Masters as Tiberius Caligula and Nero I 'm perswaded the King will never give such advice to the Dauphin as Galba did to him whom he thought to make his Successor No care will be taken to sweeten our Bondage we are such tame Slaves that Policy would be lost upon us The Princes of the Blood are by their Birth chief Counsellors of State their Advice ought to be taken on all occasions that relate to the Interest of the Kingdom such as the making of War and Peace entering into Leagues raising of Subsidies and the like It were easy to prove this by our Histories and by the Edicts of our King 's But now the Face of

acquainted his Brethern with the King's Menaces and these good Magistrates having put on their Habits of Ceremony went all in a body to the Louvre The King surpris'd to see his Parliament come to pay him a visit with so much solemnity ask'd suddenly what brought them thither I know all the story said my Friend interrupting me hastily and can tell you the chief President 's Answer we come Sir said he to the King to offer our Heads to Your Majesty since our Conscience will not permit us to Register the Edict which you sent to us Very well reply'd I but how did that cruel and haughty Prince receive so unexpected a Compliment He dissembled his Anger and endeavoured to pacify their Minds by assuring them that he would never desire them to enroll any Edict contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom or the Interest of his Subjects Why then will not you adventure to make a like Attempt I 'm perswaded that the King would be strangely daunted if the chief President at the Head of the Parliament should entertain him with a lively and passionate Representation of the deplorable condition of the Kingdom But I had forgotten that you have long ago exhausted all your eloquence in writing Panegyricks on our invincible Monarch 'T is pity that you have not reserv'd some part of it for Discourses of another nature which would certainly be more seasonable at this time of the Day Be not cruel to your Friends answer'd the President We do all that we are able to do but we are not under the Reign of a Lewis XI In those Days the Nobility and People of France had not lost all their Courage and the Court dreaded the effects of it I acknowledge that replyed I but are you sure that the King would not treat you with as much complaisance if you spoke to him with the same vigour and show'd your selves capable of enlivening the benumm'd Spirits of our Countreymen Believe me Mr. President the King despises you for your Cowardise and you might make the Court tremble in its turn if you had the Courage to imitate your Predecessors After these words we laid aside Politicks and began to talk of other Matters Yes Sir I am still of the same opinion I know that the Inhabitants of Paris and our other Cities are extreamly dispirited but I dare be bold to answer for them that they would quickly resume their former Vigour if the Princes of the Blood the Nobility or Parliament of Paris would give them the least encouragement They begin to murmur strangely and I know not whether all their Patience be not already exhausted 'T is true the flatterers of the Court have bellow'd in their Ears so long that The King is Master of all the Estates of his Subjects that the poor People seem in good earnest to give credit to the most detestable Lie that ever was invented But how easily will they be undeceiv'd when it shall be made appear to them what our subtle Ministers have so industriously hid from them that Taxes and Subsidies were formerly Levied in France as they are in England and that we never resign'd our ancient Priviledges You remember Sir when I had the pleasure to enjoy your Conversation in that solitary but delightful place whither you have chosen to retire that we spent part of our time in reading the History of France and that we could not find that any Impositions were laid upon the People before the Reign of Philip the Fair. Our King 's in those Days had no standing Forces but the Nobility serv'd them at their own charge in those Wars that were made with the consent of the States-General If ever any of our Princes rais'd a Subsidy by way of Taxation it was only when the pressing necessity of his Affairs constrain'd him to take that Method and the Tax was Levied but once And even on such urgent occasions those Monarchs that had any sense of Humanity or Religion were very loath to proceed to so rough an expedient The good St. Lewis by his Testament enjoin'd his Children not to Tax their Subjects but Alas they who boast of their descent from so Just so Chaste and so Religious a Prince have no more regard to the good Advice that he left them than they have to the Virtuous example of his Life His Nephew attempted to raise the Hundred and fiftieth Denier of the Revenues of his Subjects But what was the event Paris Rouen and Orleans revolted the Commissioners appointed to gather the Taxation were kill'd and the King was forc'd to dissemble his Indignation Nor was Philip the Fair more successful in his second attempt to lay an Imposition of Six Deniers in the Livre on the sale of Commodities his Orders were universally contemn'd and he was forc'd to call a Meeting of the States General at Paris to harangue them himself and represent to them the necessity of his Affairs after which he obtain'd his desire The succeeding Princes observ'd the same Method Sometimes on urgent occasions Aids and extraordinary Subsidies were Granted but were never made perpetual but by the Authority of the States The King could not augment those perpetual Subsidies that were granted to him and far less could he impose new ones The Court Parasites made it their business to perswade Lewis XI that it was a branch of his Prerogative to lay what Impositions he pleas'd on his Subjects I have already told you what Philip de Comines thinks of this Maxim We have at least as much Reason to complain of Tyranny and Violence now as the Subjects of that Prince had in those Days but our Tongues are ty'd Charles VII was engag'd in a long and chargeable War against England yet he never Levied above Eighteen hundred thousand Livres per Annum 'T is true Lewis XI augmented the Impositions to Three Millions and Seven hundred thousand Livres Tearly but he had the Character of a very bad Prince and to say all in one word a Tyrant His Son Charles VIII fearing to meet with the same Fate and desirous to live according to the Commandments of God says Philip de Comines resolv'd to content himself with the Crown-lands together with the Sum of Twelve hundred thousand Livres which the Estates assembled at Tours had granted him France was happy under the Reign of Lewis XII who was call'd the Father of the People whence we may reasonably infer that the Face of Affairs is wonderfully chang'd since that time Under the late King Lewis XIII the Impositions amounted to near Fourscore Millions of which not above Five and Thirty were brought into the Treasury the rest being exhausted by the great charges of the Scate M. Colbert has found means to raise the King's Revenues to One hundred and Twenty Millions and upwards This could not be done without ruining an infinite number of Families by imposing a prodigious number of new Taxations besides the enormous augmentation of those that were already established Now if One