Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	cause_n	france_n	king_n	1,757	5	3.7397	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27546	The world's mistake in Oliver Cromwell, or, A short political discourse shewing that Cromwell's mal-administration, during his four years and nine moneths pretended protectorship, layed the foundation of our present condition in the decay of trade.	Bethel, Slingsby, 1617-1697.	1668 (1668)	Wing B2079; ESTC R2682	14,027	24

persecution and that the way to render them so was by keeping the ballance betwixt Spain and France even as that which would consequently make them usefull to their King But by overthrowing the ballance in his Warr with Spain and joyning with France he freed the French King from his fears of Spain inabled him to subdue all Factions at home and thereby to bring himself into a condition of not standing in need of any of them and from thence hath proceeded the persecution that hath since been and still is in that Nation against the reformed there so that Oliver instead of advancing the reformed Interest hath by an error in his Polliticks been the Author of destroying it The Honour and Advantage he propounded to this Nation in his pulling down of Spain had as ill a foundation For if true as was said that we were to have had O stend and Newport so well as Dunhirk when we could get them they bore no proportion in any kind to all the rest of the King of Spains European Dominions which must necessarily have fallen to the French Kings share because of their joyning and nearness to him and remoteness from us and the increasing the greatness of so near a Neighbour must have increased our future dangers But this man who through ignorance is so strangely cryed up in the world was not guilty of this error in State only but committed as great a solecisme in his designing the outing of the King of Denmark and setting up of the King of Sweden For had the Sweeds but got Copenhagen as in all probability had Oliver lived they would have done they had wanted nothing of consequence but the Cities of Lubeck and Dantzigge which by their then potencie they would easily have gained of being Masters of the whole Baltick Sea on both sides from the Sound or mouth down to the bottome of it by which together with all Denmark Norway and the Danes part of Holstein which would consequently have been theirs they then having as they still have the Land of ●remen there would have been nothing but the small Counties of Ouldenburge and East-Friezland which would easily have fallen into their mouths betwixt them and the United Netherlands whereby Sweden would on the one side to the North and North-East have been as great as France on the other to the South and South-West and they two able to have divided the Western Empire betwixt them And whereas it had in all Ages been the policies of the Northern States and Potentates to keep the Dominion of the Baltick Sea devided amongst several pettie Princes and States that no one might be sole Master of it because otherwise most of the necessary Commodities for shipping coming from thence and Norway any one Lord of the whole might lay up the shipping of Europe by the walls in shutting only of his Ports and denying the Commodities of his Country to other States Cromwell contrary to this wise Maxime endeavoured to put the whole Baltick Sea into the Sweeds hands and undoubtedly had though I suppose ingnorantly done it if his death had not given them that succeeded him the Long Parliament an opportunity of prudently preventing it For if he had understood the importance of the Baltick Sea to this Nation he could not have been so impolitick as to have projected so dangerous a design against his new Vtopia as giving the opening and shutting of it to any one Prince I am not ignorant that this error is excused by pretending that we were to have had Elsinore and Cronenburge Castle the first the Town upon the narrow entrance of the Baltick called the Sound where all Ships Rides and payes Toll to the King of Denmark and the latter the Fortress that defends both Town and Ships by which we should have been Masters of the Sound and consequently of the Baltick but they that knows those Countries and how great a Prince the Sweed would have been had he obtained all the rest besides these two Bables must confess we should have been at his devotion in our holding of any thing in his Countries And further if the dangerous consequence of setting up so great a Prince had not been in the case it had been against the Interest of England to have had an obligation upon us to maintain places so remote against the enmity of many States and Princes and that for these reasons First because the ordinary Tolls of the Sound would not have defrayed half the charge and to have taken more than the ordinary Tolls we could not have done without drawing a generall quarrel upon us from most of the Princes and States of the Northern parts of Europe Secondly because the experience of all former times sheweth us that foreign acquisitions have ever been Chargeable and prejudicial to the people of England as Sir Robert Cotton makes it clearly appear That not only all those Pieces of France which belonged to us by rightfull succession but also those we held by Conquest were alwayes great burthens to our Nation and cause of much poverty and misery to the People And it is not our Case alone to be the worse for Conquests although more ou●s than other Countries because of the Charge and uncertainty of the Windes and Weather in the Transportation of Succours and relief by Sea which contiguous Territories which are upon the Maine are not subject to but the Case also of I think I may say all other Kingdoms In France their burthens and oppressions have grown in all ages with the greatness of their Kings Nay even after their last peace with Spain by which they had given them peace with all the world besides many places in the Spanish Netherlands and Catalonia into boot Upon which the poor people promised themselves though vainly an unquestionable abatement of Taxes instead of that they found their pressures increased dayly and their King though overgrownly great and rich himself yet the people so poor that thousands are said to dye in a plentifull year for want of bread to their water nothing being free there but fresh water and aire For except in some few priviledged places wherever they have the conveniencie by their Situation of Sea-water least they should make use of the benefit of that which God and Nature hath given them for saving the charge of Salt every family is forced to take so much Salt of the King at his own rate which is above ten times the price it is sold for to strangers for transportation as is judged they may spend in a year the Lord deliver all other Countries from their example In Sweden that King Cou●t and their Military Officers are the better for their Conquests in Germany Denmark Russia and some places antiently belonging to Poland but the Commons the worse Spain is undone by the great number of people sent thence to the West-Indies which hath depopulated the Country France reaping more benefit by keeping their people at home to Manufactures than Spain

THE WORLD'S MISTAKE IN Oliver Cromwell OR A short Political Discourse SHEWING That CROMWELL'S Mal-administration during his Four Years and Nine Moneths pretended Protectorship layed the Foundation of Our present Condition in the Decay of TRADE LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXVIII THE WORLD'S MISTAKE IN Oliver Cromwell c. OF all the Sins that the Children of Men are guilty of there is none that our corrupt Natures are more inclinable unto than that of Idolatry a Sin that may be towards Men so well as other Creatures and things For as that which a Man unmeasurably relyes and setts his Heart upon is Called his GOD even as that which he falls down before and worshippeth so when one hath the Person of another in an excess of admiration whether for Greatness or Richness c. which we are subject to adore we are said to Idolize him and therefore the wise Venetians who of all men are most Jealous of their Liberty Considering that as the nature of Man is not prone to any thing more than the Adoration of Men So nothing is more destructive to Freedom hath for preventing the Mischiefs of it made it unlawfull even so much as to mourn for their Duke at his death Intimating thereby that their Felicity and Safety depends not upon the uncertain Thred of any one Man's life but upon the Vertue of their good Laws and Orders well executed and that they can never want vertuous Persons to succeed and how do such Principles in men lead by little more than Moralitie reprove those who have a great measure of Gospel-light for their senseless excess in their adoring the remembrance of Cromwell For as the Objects of Idolatry are mistaken Creatures or things proceeding some times from self-love so well as other causes So the undeserved approbation and applause that Cromwell's memory seems to have with his Adherents amounting to little less than the Idolizing of him appears to me to be the product of an excessive Veneration of Greatness and a selfish Partiality towards him for that the more honour is given to him the more prayse they think will consequently redound to them who were his Favourites and they fortifie themselves herein with the Credit they say he hath abroad though there is little in that because the opinion that Strangers have of him may well be put upon the accompt of their ignorance in the Affairs of England which Travellers do finde to be so great even amongst Ministers of State as is to be admired And now as this Error in Idolizing Oliver hath two moral Evils in it besides the sin in it self The one a reflection upon the present times as if the former were better than these And the other the unjust defrauding the Long Parliament of that which is due to them to give it Idolitrously to him to whom it doth not belong I esteem it a Duty incumbent upon me to discover the Mistake I am not insensible that I shall by this draw the envye of those upon me who being Jealous of their Honour will be angry for touching them in their Diana but knowing my self clear from the Vices of envying Vertue in any how contrary soever he may be to me in Judgment so well as from being unwilling to allow every one their due Commendations I will cast my self upon Providence for the success of this Paper And in reference to Cromwell's Government and the present times make some Observations relating to both and in order thereunto shew First That the original cause of the low condition that we are now in relation to Trade reduced unto had its beginning in Olivers time and the foundations of it layed either by his ignorant mistaking the Interest of this Kingdome or wilfully doing it for the advancement of his own particular Interest Secondly That his time for the short continuance had as much of oppression and injustice as any former times Thirdly and lastly That he never in his later dayes valued either honour or honesty when they stood in the way of his ambition and that there is nothing to be admired in him though so much Idolized but that the partiallity of the world should make him so great a favorite of ignorance and forgetfullness as he seems to be When this late Tyrant or Protector as some calls him turned out the Long Parliament the Kingdome was arrived at the highest pitch of Trade Wealth and Honour that it in any Age ever yet knew The Trade appeared by the great Sums offered then for the Customes and Excise Nine hundred thousand pounds a year being refused The Riches of the Nation shewed it self in the high value that Land and all our Native Commodities bore which are the certain marks of opulencie Our Honour was made known to all the world by a Conquering Navie which had brought the proud Hollanders upon their Knees to begg peace of us upon our own Conditions keeping all other Nations in awe And besides these advantages the publick stock was Five hundred thousand pounds in ready Money the value of seven hundred thousand pounds in Stores and the whole Army in Advance some four and none under two months so that though there might be a debt of near Five hundred thousand pounds upon the Kingdom he met with above twice the value in lieu of it The Nation being in this flourishing and formidable posture Cromwell began his Usurpation upon the greatest advantages imaginable having it in his power to have made peace and profitable Leagues in what manner he had pleased withall our Neighbours every one courting us then and being ambitious of the friendship of England But as if the Lord had infatuated and deprived him of common sence and reason he neglected all our golden opportunities misimproved the Victory God had given us over the United Netherlands making peace without ever striking stroak so soon as ever things came into his hands upon equal tearms with them And immediately after contrary to our Interest made an unjust Warr with Spain and an impollitick League with France bringing the first thereby under and making the latter too great for Christendome and by that means broke the ballance betwixt the two Crowns of Spain and France which his Predecessors the Long Parliament had alwayes wisely preserved In this dishonest Warr with Spain he pretended and indeavoured to impose a belief upon the world that he had nothing in his eye but the advancement of the Protestant Cause and the honour of this Nation but his pretences were either fraudulent or he was ignorant in Forreign affairs as I am apt to think that he was not guilty of too much knowledge in them For he that had known any thing of the temper of the Popish Prelacie and the French Court pollicies could not but see that the way to increase or preserve the reformed Interest in France was by rendring the Protestants of necessary use to their King for that longer than they were so they could not be free from