October 1682. SInce the lact Memorial which I had the Honour to present to your Majesty I have endeavoured according to the Advice of the Illustrious Lords of the Senate to furnish my self with some piece that might evidently appear what Correspondence the French King's Agents have in your Kingdom with Count Tekeley Head of the Malecontents in Hungary These wanted also to inform you what Bargains and Agreements passed between them which as I said tend to the breaking off the Peace and Treaties that are between your Majesty and the Emperor my Master You could not easily be informed of it from any but my self I know the French King's Ministers daily assured your Majesty that they had a hand in no such thing and that we accused them falsely And the French would no longer be suspected to have any ill Design against the Empire after the Declaration the French King had made at the raising the Bloccade of Luxembergh His most Christian Majesty would inform all Europe how he behaved himself in that occasion and they were careful to carry his Declaration to all the Courts of the chief Christian Princes The French King plausibly declares that having been informed of the Designs which are carrying on in the East against the Empire he would put nothing in execution which might hinder his Imperial Majesty and the most august House of Austria from opposing the Turk with all their Forces and providing for the common good of Christendom This could by no means allow your Majesty to believe that the French were in League with the Male-Contents and Turks and that they contributed to the taking and plundering the Towns of Hungary for that appeared to be quite contrary to such fair Declarations but God the Defender and Revenger of Christians has ordered those things to fall into my hands which I lay at the foot of your Majesties Throne and which I lay before the Eyes of the whole World These are the Sieur Du Vernay's Letters and Correspondence with Count Tekeley which you will find diametrically opposite to those Declarations so worthy the piety and generosity of the most Christian King I have made use of no evil practice for the obtaining these Letters I have not though I could have done it so much as employed any Body to observe the French And to tell you all I got these Letters by the means of the Steward of the most Illustrious Lord Stadnick's Estate The Sieur Du Vernay after having long importuned the Monks of a Monastry of St. Basil went also to importune the Steward who is Castellan at Premislaw So much he did that he stirred up the Gentlemans anger against himself and so consequently he became my friend and has ever since been very favourable to my Intentions This Castellan some days ago stopt certain Hungarians coming back from Nimiravia whither they went to see the Sieur Du Vernay immediately he ordered them to be brought to me with the Letters he found about them I presently took care to convey them to the Emperor my Master's Territories sending at the same time the Letters to the end that all the World might judg whether I had not just Cause to suspect that the Sieur Du Vernay exceeded his Masters Orders Certainly this Agent this Minister this Spy this Embassador I know not what to call him but I mean Monsieur Du Vernay has committed a great Outrage against all Christendom Against the Emperor in fomenting and contriving what he has against him Against your Majesty in entertaining a Commerce so unworthy so pernicious and for so long a time without your knowledg and in your Kingdom as if he had been at home I must add for the Interest of your Kingdom that this Conduct has given the World occasion to believe that the Polanders were blind enough not to see the dangers their Neighbours made them fear and that they would themselves drive the Ponyard to their own Breast in permitting the Sieur Du Vernay to live amongst them His Proceeding will without doubt appear very injurious to the French King for that Posterity may judg and believe that the great King Lewis the XIV authorized or commanded what the Sieur Du Vernay his Agent did in his Name Your Majesty will not take it ill that we have discovered to the Assemblies at Francfort and Ratisbone the Famous Exploits of the French with the Turks and Rebels of Hungary in your Kingdom which for so many Ages has been closely united with the August House of Austria and has always acknowledged its own Interest to preserve Hungary to the Empire thinking it impossible for Poland to subsist if Hungary shall fall It is now a year that the Sieur Du Vernay travels up and down several parts of your Majesties Dominions on the Borders of Hungary He always pretends his Masters as if we could see that Dantzick or Rogiomont which are the Places the French come through were not nearer and more proper to receive what Orders the French King would send but he stays there to observe the nearer the Affairs of Hungary It may be also to be in a better condition to give Count Tekeley Joy and to get the reputation with him of the progress the Turks by his means might make in that Country I desire your Majesty That after you have seen the Memorial I present and after you are convinced of all the Arts the French have used in this Kingdom you will be pleased to order the Seiur Du Vernay to depart your Dominions since he abuses his Employments to the prejudice of all Christendom and renders himself unworthy the protection the Law of Nations allows You may do so much the more justly great King because the Roman Catholick Church your Mother esteems them as Excommunicated Persons who side with Infidels whether it be carrying them Arms or treating with them The Seiur Du Vernay has drawn this upon his own head and if he is punished according to his deserts the most Christian King will banish him his Kingdom for exeeding his Orders engaging his Master's Honor and Reputation In fine he has committed his Vilanies in the French King's Name and broke his Masters word acting in all things contrary to the observance of it which if it should fail in the world could be no where found but in the Mouth of a King or Prince I doubt not great King but all my pressing reiterated and just Instances will at last take effect The Alliances and Treaties that are between this Kingdom and the Empire require it from your Majesty And I also with a most profound respect beg to be admitted to the honour of some part of your Affecti 〈…〉 A Letter from Monsieur Du Vernay to Count Emery Tekeley My Lord I Received with great joy the Letters you did me the honour to write to me from the Camp before Filleck enclosed in the Pacquets of our Embassadors at Constantinople nevertheless I was a little surprized that you should seal
Crown chiefly under John the First to free himself out of the hands of the English and afterwards under Francis the First to deliver himself out of the hands of the Spaniards had Authority given them to verify Treaties of Peace to prevent the Distipation of the Crown Revenues But their Authority is yet greater when it shall be a Law received in France that the Parliament may vacate Treaties which are not verifyed that is to say if the Treaties were not made in due Form or were found prejudicial to the People But it cannot be said that France receiv'd any prejudice by the Pyrenaean Treaty or that the Treaty was not concluded with all the usual Formalities In respect of Formalities there were so many observ'd as took up much more time than was necessary for the Repose of the People who after so tedious a War thirsted after nothing so much as Peace nor was it enough that De Lionne and Pimentell set their hands to the Treaty but to render it more solemn Cardinal Mazarine and Lewis de Haro the Principal Ministers of both Crowns were oblig'd to sign it also so that we may say that it was the most Authentick Treaty that had been concluded in a long time before Besides they had observ'd all the Circumstances imaginable insomuch that the place appointed for the Conferences was neither in France nor in Spain which nevertheless is very remarkable For that then they were willing that Spain should go cheek by jowle with France yet afterwards they would not allow that the Treaty had been ratify'd But that which seemed to put the Treaty not only out of the King 's but out of the reach of all France to do it Injury was that the chiefest of the Clergy and Nobility had sign'd the Contract of Marriage between the King and the Infanta wherein the aforesaid Renunciation was contain'd So that it was an idle thing to say that the Parliament which at most does but represent the Orders or Estates of the Kingdom would not approve a Treaty which was already approv'd by the King the Clergy and the Nobility Now that this Treaty brought no prejudice to France is as easie to prove For though France at that time had a great advantage over Spain we must consider nevertheless that this advantage might one day turn against it self as being oblig'd to share it's Conquests with England then in Alliance with her Now not to mention in the least what are the dangerous Consequences that I could draw from such a Partition it shall suffice to say That the Interest of France was not to let the English get Footing in Flanders who were an Enemy much more dangerous than the Spaniard Besides France by that Treaty had made sure of the greatest part of Her Conquests and had changed into a certain Right the Right of Nations which was a Right subject to several Chances of Fortune and then to object that the Dauphin had not ratify'd the Queens Renunciation is an Objection so weak that it does not deserve an Answer For I wouln fain know whether a Father and a Mother do not bind their Issue when they sign a Contract And whether the Dauphin had more right to question that which the King and Queen had sign'd than they who live under the same Laws and the same Monarchy All these Considerations give us plainly to see that whatever of Right belonging to the Queen was in the Treaty was only to amuse the Common People and particularly those of Flanders who being perswaded that the Queen had a Right to the Netherlands were in a capacity to foment a Rebellion to which they might be provok'd by the ill Usage of the Spanish Soldiery who for want of Pay commit many Violences and Disorders It being therefore a great piece of Prudence to prevent all Trouble that might arise from thence the Baron of Isola one of the Ministers of the House of Austria put Pen to Paper to shew the Vanity of the Consequences which the pretended Author of the Treatise drew from the Right of the Queen Of which a great number of Copies were sent into Flanders Germany and the Neighbouring Parts some were also conveyed into France but the Court resolving that the People should make it's Ambition an Article of their Faith made such an exact Enquiry after the Publishers that two or three were committed to the Bastile and were in great danger of their Lives For as it was not lawful in that Kingdom to write Truth either in Religion or Politicks neither was it permitted to be spoken or taught to any one whatsoever And therefore as well they who bought the Book as they who published these Books were oblig'd to keep out of the way as if they had been Malefactors But the more they thought to restrain the Peoples Wills the more the People endeavour'd to set their minds at Liberty so that many honest Folks made it their business to content their Curiosity in spight of all the publick Prohibitions By vertue of these Imaginary Pretensions the King fail'd not to send to the Governour of the Netherlands to surrender into his hands those places which as he pretended belong'd to the Queen And because he could not choose but know that the Governour would no way answer his Expectations he follow'd the Messenger with a puissant Army to make himself the Master of them by force thereupon having received the Governors Answer that the King his Master would fairly part with nothing he enter'd Flanders took Charleroy Aeth Courtray Audenard and Lisle while the Marshal D'Aumont with another Army attack'd the Cities and Towns that lay nearer the Sea These Conquests carried on with such a rapid Success astonish'd the Neighbouring States who thought it their Interest to stop these violent Proceedings especially the Low Countries who by no means liked the near Approach of so formidable and ambitious a Neighbour Therefore they engaged the King of England to enter into a League wherein the King of Swedeland also joyn'd by which they obliged themselves all three to make the French and Spaniard lay down their Arms with a Resolution to declare a War against the obstinate Refuser This League was call'd the Triple Alliance afterwards so fatal to Holland as I shall relate in due Place that it may be thought they had reason enough to repent their Negotiation They say it was a Person of Rochel who laid the first Foundations of it after he had made those Powerful Princes deeply sensible how little the Ambition of France was to be trusted however it were France who seldom easily pardons those that have once offended her well knowing that the same Person was in Switzerland labouring to insinuate the same Opinion among the Cantons sent thither the two Platells of which the Eldest was a Captain of Horse the other Esquire to Monsieur Turenne to apprehend him It had been a knotty Enterprize and of dangerous consequence for the Platells had their Errand been
or to change them let him be himself his own Minister as one that may be assur'd that if there be one Person in his Council who is Temtation-proof there are hundreds that cannot resist the Golden Charms And let him consider that if he himself as frequently now adays it happens will suffer himself to be purchased by him that offers most his Ministers may well do the same who have more need of Money then he has There might be something also said touching the Remedy to be applied for prevention of these Mischiefs with which we find our selves at this day overwhelm'd But in regard I can say no more then what other People have said before me I had rather be silent then to make too many repetitions in vain and for the most part rather Speculative then Real For when I consider what I have read in so many Authors and heard in so many places that it behoves all the Protestants to unite together since the Catholicks are so negligent to oppose themselves against the common Ruin may not I conclude that it is much more easie to discourse in this manner then probable to see the Effect of such advice For how is it possible that the Protestants should singly undertake a War against France when the Catholicks keep such a strict Watch upon them We find at this day an apparent example of the Catholick designs by which it is easie for us to judge how little Reliance there is upon the French Protestants in Silesia and other adjoyning Provinces where they are reduced to that misery that they have more need of our Assistance But they had rather the whole Empire should perish then remit any thing of their Cruelty The House of Austria which is maliciously incensed to our Destruction does not perceive the heavy Hand of God upon her for so many Crimes for which she is accomptable to his Justice in respect of us provoking still the same Justice by new transgressions in contempt of Heavenly Mercy Nor does she perceive that the Authors of all these violent Councels I mean the Jusuits do not advice these things but for their own Interest She is resolved to sacrifice the rest of the Empire to them as she has already sacrificed a good part Nevertheless let no man believe that what I have said proceeds from any natural Aversion to them so natural to those of my Religion I protest before God that I bear malice to no Man and that I would not impute to them the least of our Miseries but that I find that none of the honest and moderate party of their Religion have any greater affection for them than my self 'T is well known that it was their Hunger after the Estates of these four Hungarian Lords whose Heads the Emperor caused to be struck off rather to satisfie their urgent Importunities then for any Crime unless yo will say their zeal for their Religion was a Crime that was the main occasion of sheding their Blood But seeing all that I could say would as little prevail as what others have said before me it will be better to make an end and to confess that all our Miseries are at this day reduc'd to such a Condition as well as the Calamities of Germany that our Preservation is only to be expected from God alone The Speech of Monsieur ZIEROWSKI the Emperors Embassador in Poland Spoken in the Royal Palace before his Majesty of Poland and in the Presence of the Princes Noblemen and Embassadors at that Court at Tavoravia the 6th of October 1682. Most Great King AMongst other Books I have hit upon that of the Life and Exploits of Cardinal Commendon who was sent to this Court by the Pope with the Quality of extraordinary Legate in the Empire of Sigismond and Reign of Henry de Valois I have observed in it that it was that Cardinal's Maxim Never to answer but with an affected Silence and Contempt to all that his Ememies could do or say against him Without doubt in his Time the State of Affairs the Customs and Spirits were very different from what they now are at least a long experience has made me judge them very different and I know I cannot without great disadvantage conceal or connive at a thing that very much troubles me I have understood that the French King 's Minister's published some days ago certain Letters which brought as it were assured Testimonies that His Imperial Majesties Envoyes only Business with the Ottoman Court was to endeavour by all possible means to turn the Turkish Armies against Poland There is no Body but sees and your Majesty must needs perceive how injurious this is to the Empire and to what end it is done They give this out to disunite two Kingdoms both which at this present Conjuncture of Affairs have their chief Interest in being firmly united But the Letters took not so great an effect as they expected The Spirits of this Court were not so credulous as to believe them They are too well satisfied in Poland of the Piety and Affection of those of the House of Austria to think that the Emperor my Master gives his Embassadors such base and unworthy Commissions There is no body here that can doubt that his Imperial Majesty would be as sensible of the loss of Poland as of Hungary since it is as much his Interest to preserve the one as the other I come not hither great King to tell you what through my Aversion I could publish upon little Rumours that have been spread among us I bring your Majesty those things which I can beyond all dispute produce before the whole World as the true Originals of Letters and Answers which the most Christian Kings Embassador Monsieur Du Vernay Boucauld who is here present has writ to Count Teckeley the Head of the Malecontents or received from him These will evidently discover to your Majesty what Affairs Monsieur Du Vernay has Treated about with so much Secresie and Circumspection with Count Teckeley and the reason he had so cautiously to conceal from you the Commission he had in this Kingdom I humbly entreat your Majesty to remember how earnestly I intreated you to remove the Sieur Du Vernay from your Court and Dominions as a man pernicious to the Empire and Poland You would have great King invincible Proofs and Testimonies of what I related Here they are such as you will wish for and I am perswaded they will be sufficient to make you judge the speedy departure of Monsieur Du Vernay out of your Kingdom very necessary But I fear troubling your Majesty with a long Discourse I pass by a thousand things which I could add this Memorial is enough To you I present it with all imaginable respect A Memorial presented to the King of Poland by Monsieur Zierowsky the Emperor 's Resident Which was read in the Presence of his Majesty of Poland and before the Princes and Ministers of his Court at Tavoravia the 6th of
since insomuch that the Count Destoges the Eldest of the Family is this day nam'd Soladin If I might be permitted to make Reflexions upon this Story I could without difficulty prove that the present is far different from the Ages past Formerly they kept their word with Turks now adays a most Christian King will not keep his Faith with his Father-in-Law At this day the Descendants from a Christian Race are Christened Saladine because their Ancestor so promis'd to the Turk At this present a most Christian King neither minds the word which his Ancestors have past to their Subjects of the Reformed Religion nor the Promises which he has made himself At this day the Family of Anglure which is only a private Gentleman's derives all it's Honour from the Noble Act of one of its Ancestors who made good his profligated Faith to the Turk but the House of France the most renowned in the World for the Breach of an Infinite Number of the Edicts granted in favour of the Christians But to return to our Subject the King of France grounding his Claims upon Imaginary Pretences and upon a Nicety that the Parliament had not ratify'd the Pyrenaean Treaty resolved to break the Peace and carry his Arms into Flanders But here before I go any further give me leave to tell the World what the Authority of this Parliament is to prevent the Mistake of those who may think it equal in Power to the Parliament of England You are then to understand that the slightest Order of Council cancels all Edicts of Parliament the Power of which is so limited at this day that though it take Cognizance only of private and particular Interests the Council sends for the Cause before themselves and laughs at all that the Parliament has done in the same Case Formerly nevertheless it's Authority was very great nor was it long ago that it was grown to that height that every one admired at it I mean during the Minority of the King But there is such an Alteration since that time that there is little notice taken of the Parliament And indeed at that very time when the forementioned Manifesto appear'd the King took away all their Privileges banished all those that were suspected to have any affection for the publick Interest and in a word contemned it so far that he never went thither but in his Riding Boots and his Cane in his Hand He also deprived it of its very Name as he serv'd the rest of the Tribunals For to make it appear that there were no more Masters but himself he set forth an Edict That neither the Parliament nor the Grand Councel nor the Chamber of Accompts nor the Court of Aydes should be called by any other Title than that of Superiour whereas before they were call'd Soveraign Courts He also put forth another Edict which savoured in my opinion of much more wrong and Injustice For whereas when any new Imposition was thought upon and laid upon the People or any other Innovation was imposed upon the Government the King was wont to go in Person to see those Edicts ratifyed the Parliament is now obliged to make the Ratification upon a bare Letter under the Privy Signet many times carryed by a Footman So that this great Tribunal formerly erected to be a Mediator between the King and the People and to preserve the one from the Tyranny of the other is now it self enforced to bow and crouch to the Kings Will For now they dare not make those Remonstrances which formerly they did nor plead as before in behalf of the People Or if they are permitted to make any Addresses of that Nature they must be full of Flattery and Dissimulation and as some Parents humble their Children to kiss the Rod after Correction so it behoves the People who are the Kings Children or should be so at least to thank the King by the Mouths of their Magistrates for all the Taxes and heavy Impositions which he lays upon them to satisfy his profusion Upon this Authority which the Parliament has in the Kingdom it was That the King laid the Foundation of an approaching War In a Word the King of Spain was not sooner dead but presently there appeared a small Pamphlet under the Title of The Rights of the Queen by which they endeavoured to prove that the Renunciation of all Claims which the King had made by the Pyrenaean Treaty was utterly void because it was never verifyed by the Parliament And yet if the Renunciation had been good which they did not much matter to dispute it could not have been long in force by reason that the Dauphin had not ratifyed the Treaty who might pretend a greater Interest as being his Mothers Heir In truth this Pamphlet was nothing but a Composure of Words well put together conteining very little or no reason For to begin with the first true it is That the Parliament were wont to ratify the most remarkable Acts of the Kingdom but that such a Ratification was absolutely Essential is that which we deny and which I shall endeavour to prove For Example if the King happens to marry with any Foreign Princess the Parliament has nothing to do with the Contract Nor do we find that the Parliament had any knowledg of that between H. 4. and Marie Medici or which is still fresh in Memory of the Marriage between the Dauphin and Madam the Dauphiness And yet the Affairs transacted were as important as perhaps the Kings Renunciation made by the Pyrenaean Treaty But some perhaps will object That the Case is far different For in a Treaty of Peace is stated and handled the Establishment of the Peoples Peace whereas in a Treaty of Marriage there is nothing transacted but the Concern of two Persons I confess the reason seems plausible but easie to refute For if it be in respect of the Peoples Interest that a Treaty of Peace ought to be ratifyed by the Parliament why are not the Treaties of War ratifyed in the same manner They will have a Treaty which exterminates War and restores Peace to a Kingdom instead of Trouble and Confusion that Reigned there before to be subject to a Parliamentary Ratification but they will not have a Treaty of War that banishes Peace and brings in Disorder and Confusion to be ratifyed by Parliament which nevertheless was instituted to no other end than the Preservation of the People Let us rather say that the Custom of verifying Treaties of Peace in this manner was not introduced till after it was ordained that all the Royal Benevolences should be ratifyed in Parliament and that such as were not so verifyed should be of no value which was done to prevent Princes who are generally prone to profuse Liberality from giving away all their Patrimony and being afterwards oblig'd for want of Money to vex the People Let us grant then say I that the Parliament setting that by some Treaties of Peace considerable Alienations were made from the