Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	earl_n	henry_n	sir_n	22,904	5	6.1717	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53478	A treatise of the art of war dedicated to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty / and written by the Right Honourable Roger, Earl of Orrery.	Orrery, Roger Boyle, Earl of, 1621-1679.	1677 (1677)	Wing O499; ESTC R200	162,506	242

〈◊〉 II 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. D●… Blois Sculp A TREATISE Of the Art of WAR Dedicated to the KINGS Most Excellent Majesty And Written by the Right Honourable ROGER Earl of ORRERY In the SAVOY Printed by T. N. for Henry Herringman at the Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange M. DC LXXVII To the KING SIR THE Ultimate and Onely Legitimate End of War is or at least ought to be among Christians The Obtaining of a Good and Lasting Peace And the sole Right in Your Majesties Dominions of Making War and Peace being One undoubted Prerogative of Your Imperial Crown I believ'd a Treatise of the Art of War written by One who has the Happiness to be born Your Subject Ought SIR to be Dedicated Onely to You Yet I durst not presume to do it before I had most humbly beg'd and obtain'd Your Majesties Leave to lay it at Your Feet I have SIR in the short Introduction to this Treatise lamented that none of Our English Generals whom I know of except the Noble Sir Francis Vere hath left to Posterity his own Observations in War When not Onely no Nation as I believe hath Excell'd them in Military Conduct in Success and in Valor But also when they had the Illustrious Examples of divers great Captains inviting them to do it who in many Ages past and possibly in all succeeding Ones will be at least as much esteemed and celebrated for their Commentaries as for their Victories since All who more desire to merit the Title of Commanders than only to bear the Name will more Instructively read the Commentaries or Memorials of one famous General written by himself than All the Relations of Battels Victories and Conquests written by the ordinary Historians For they tell us chiefly but the Events of Wars rarely the true Methods the Arts and the Industries by which they have been managed when the knowledge of these is exceedingly more useful than the knowledge of those I therefore most heartily wish That the present Age and the future may owe to Your Majesty the preserving them henceforth from the like unhappiness by Your expresly Ordering all such us hereafter shall have the Honor to Command Your Fleets or Armies to Present You constantly in writing and under their hands a particular Account of all their most important Actings of their Observations in the War and the Motives which induced them at any time to do as they did Such Memorials in my humble Opinion would be of eminent Advantage to All those of the present Times to whom Your Majesty would vouchsafe to Communicate them and to All those which in the Future should enjoy the Benefit of Perusing them It would more than probably make All Your Majesties chief Commanders the more circumspect in forming their final Results when they should know that so Great and Exact a Iudge of Reason as Your Majesty is would still examine and weigh the validity of them For though it is too usually said by some and believed by others That Success does cover all the Faults and Errors in War Yet doubtless the wiser Portion of Mankind had much rather owe their Victories to their good Conduct than to what is termed by the World their Good Fortune Nay had rather be less Successful by stedily pursuing the Dictates of Right Reason than be more Victorious by declining them at any Time Since Wise Councels are still within the Power of Wise Men But Success is not And if I might presume to acquaint Your Majesty with my humble Belief on this Subject I durst say That no Profession in the World is more built on true Reason and sound Iudgment than the Military is For both those are essentially requisite to Generals and the chief Officers under them As some manifestation of this Truth I shall particularize but one Instance and that shall be in Battels which are the most Glorious and commonly the most important Acts of War wherein usually the moments to obtain the Victory are so few that while an unconsummated Reasoning is considering the opportunity of acquiring it is vanished So that even the Romans themselves who were so jealous of what they call'd their Liberty as though they dreaded to intrust the Supreme Power in One yet they were never under Exigencies indeed but they chose a Dictator as is evident in the Cases of Quintus Cincinnatus Furius Camillus Fabius Maximus and divers others Necessity making them practice what Reason could not induce them to confess Nor did the Grecians owe their famous Victory at Marathon to their having Ten Generals but to their Generals having that Reason which the State of Athens wanted The placing of the absolute Power in Miltiades All which seems SIR to evidence That the management of War is Practically acknowledged to be best placed in One if that One is blest with the highest humane Prerogative of Well-Reasoning and therefore illustrates That a good General ought to have a perfect and clear Understanding else he will be too apt to imitate what others have done merely because they did it Nor have I ever known or read of any famous Captain who was not also a Person of strong Iudgment and blest with great Presence of Mind on all Emergencies Yet we too often see and I wish we may never feel the fatal Effects of it That in War as in most other things though of the nearest and highest Concernment to us we take upon Trust and with an implicite Belief whatever we are taught by those under whom we learn our first Rudiments Whereas if we would undergo the Duty I had almost said enjoy the Delight solidly to examine the true Reason of Things and then only embrace and practise what after such Inquiry we were convinced was the very best we should be less Magisterially imposed upon by others and be more satisfied in what we our selves undertook I think SIR no rational and considering Man was ever convinced merely by anothers saying the Imperialists or the French or any other Nation do thus and thus in the Wars unless withall he is acquainted and satisfied with the Reasons why they do it For Reason not Custom singly is what considering Men will only follow and the chearfullest Attempts are animated from first convincing of the Iudgment I know SIR the Art of War has been in many Ages Alter'd Cultivated and Heighten'd Yet no Monarch State or General though never so Absolute did ever make any considerable Alterations in the Military methods of his Countrey but Reason was produced or at least pretended to Authorize Them Whatever conduces most to bring all things to be weighed in that Ballance is what I would Promote I have SIR much Reverence for Old Customs but much more for Reason so that had I had the misfortune to have been born and educated in Spain yet I am confident I should not now have been for Arming the Cavalry with Lances or for Charging the Ordnance in a Sea-fight Over-deck If