King 's leaving Salisbury by a person privy to that King's Design that there were betwixt Calis and Bullen about thirty thousand French Soldiers design'd to Embark for England and Dover-Castle was to protect such as should Land there and Shereness and Tilbury Fort were to receive others to block up London and Chatham and had not the Lord by the same Providence defeated their Designs partly by the Divisions of the late King's Council as in the case of Absolon and by the measures that the French King took thereupon as in another Discourse enlarged which had it not been thus but that the French Army had Landed and any considerable part of the King's Army stood by him what Confusion must this poor Nation have been in viz. England before now might have had the same fate of Germany and Flanders where the French hath destroyed or are in possession and thereby the English Government and the Protestant Religion at once had been endangered if not destroyed and been subject to the French King's Tyranny And that some of those persons that then invited and encouraged the Prince of Orange now our King not only to expose his Royal Person in coming hither from Holland but also when come in pursuance of the said Invitation desired his acceptation of the Government and put the Sword in his hands why such persons in so short a time should oppose what they had then just before done I will not presume to be judge of but this I may say what was then matter of fact viz. the hindring a speedy Reduction of Ireland which for that reason occasioned the spilling of so much Bloud and expending so vast a Treasure to the undoing several Thousands thereby And we cannot but own also a Divine Hand in that Reduction when that whole Kingdom except Londonderry and some few Forts were then in the hands of the French for I look upon the late King to be but his Deputy if so much And why English Protestants should so soon contradict themselves in so short a time is strange and oppose that Deliverance from the French Tyranny which they well knew was all along design'd in both the late Reigns and more plainly appearing by Coleman's Letters and several other Transactions publickly detected since And that Freemen should so earnestly long to be in Bondage and Slavery to that most Vnchristian King may seem strange who hath so much delighted in Bloud and not only destroyed without cause so many Thousand Subjects of other Princes but also of those whom he hath himself owned to be his most Industrious and Loyal Subjects which may appear in a Letter to the Elector of Brandenburgh dated the Sixth of September 1666. The French King's Letter to the Duke of Brandenburgh BROTHER I would not have Discoursed the matter you wrote to me about on the behalf of my Subjects of the pretended Reformed Religion with any other Prince besides your self but to shew you the particular esteem I have for you I shall begin with telling you that some persons disaffected to my service have spread Seditious Pamphlets among Strangers as if the Acts and Edicts that were passed in favour of my said Subjects of the pretended Reformed Religion by the Kings my Predecessors and confirmed by my Self were not kept and executed in my Dominions which would have been contrary to my intentions For I take care that they be maintained in all the Priviledges which have been Granted them and be as kindly used as my other Subjects to this I am engaged both by my Royal Word and in acknowledgment of the proofs they have given me of their Loyalty during the late Troubles in which they took up Arms for my Service and did vigorously oppose and successfully overthrow the ill designs which a Rebellious Party were contriving within my own Dominions against my Authority Royal. What his Hypocrisie was then appears in his Edict October 1685. viz. when he thought he was ready to put in execution his Design and had the late King James to join with him to carry it on in which Edict he exposes his Granfather Henry the Great who had so nobly declared himself in his Edict of Nants April 1598. he begins thus The Edict of Henry the Great the French King's Grandfather NOW it hath pleased God to give us a beginning of enjoying some rest we think we cannot employ our selves better than to apply to that which may tend to the Service and Glory of his Holy Name and to provide that he may be adored and prayed to by all our Subjects and if it hath not yet pleased him to permit it to be in one and the same form of Religion that it may at least be in one and the same intention and with such Rules that may prevent amongst them all Troubles and Tumults and that we and this Kingdom may always conserve the Glorious Title of Most Christian and by the same means take away the cause of Mischief and Trouble which may happen from the Actions of Religion which of all others are most prevalent and penetrating for this cause acknowledging this Affair to be of the greatest Importance and worthy of the best consideration after having considered the complaints of our Catholick Subjects and having also permitted to our Subjects of the Reformed Religion to assemble themselves by Deputies for framing their Complaints and making a Collection of all their Remonstrances Having therefore conferred divers times with them we have upon the whole judged it necessary to give to all our said Subjects one general Law clear plain and absolute by which they shall be regulated in all differences which have heretofore risen among them or may rise hereafter having had no other reguard in this deliberation than solely the zeal we have to the Service of God praying that he would henceforward grant to all our Subjects a durable and established Peace And we Implore and Expect from his Divine Bounty the same Protection and Favour he hath always bestowed upon this Kingdom from our Birth and that he would give our said Subjects the Grace to understand That in observation of this our Ordinance consisteth next to their Duty towards God and Vs the principal foundation of their Vnion Concord Tranquility Rest and the re-establishment of this State in its first Splendour Opulency and Strength As on Our part We promise that all the parts of it shall be exactly observed without suffering any contravention And for these causes having with the Advice of the Princes of our Bloud other Princes and Offieers of our Crown and other Great and Eminent Persons of our Council of State well and diligently weighed and considered all this Affair we have by this Edict or Statute perpetual and irrevocable said declared and ordained c. That after the said Edict of Henry the Great was so long quietly enjoyed by the Protestants in France who continued always Loyal to their Prince and as the present French King confesseth in his Letter to
they went to Antwerp and so to Eyndhoven where Grandval was seized and Bois le dâ—c Loofdate upon Examination made out clearly all the circumstances of the Conspiracy and said Grandval told him That the King of Great Britain was looked upon as the only obstacle to the French King's Designs John d' Amours being Examined next Depos'd that Grandval told him at Brussels he had a great business to do which had miscarried the last year and they two falling into Discourse about His Majesty John d' Amours asked Grandval if he had any thing to say to the King Yes answered he To break his Neck Du Mont being Examined owned the fact in all its circumstances adding several other particulars viz. that Madam Maintenon the French King 's old Concubine was acquainted with the Design and that if he Grandval succeeded in the business he should have an ample Recompence even to be a Duke Grandval himself was Examined and perceiving that the matter was Discovered and that his own Letter could be produced to convict him he freely confessed all the circumstances of the Design without so much as naming the Rack to him either before or after Sentence Grandval declared that he acted in this Damned Design wholly in obedience to the Orders he had received from Monsieur Larbesieux and Monsieur Chanlais Ministers of State to the Vnchristian King Monsieur Barbesieux promised Grandval an Annual Revenue of 20000 Livres and to make him Knight of the Order of St. Lazarus in case the design took effect Grandval Loofdate and Colonel Parker went to St. Germain on the 16th of April 1692 to speak with the late King James about the said Design who had knowledge of it They all had Audience of the said King the late Queen being present King James told Grandval that Parker had given him an an account of the Business and sai That if he and the other Officers would do him that Service they should never want Grandval owned himself Guilty of the Design and said He deserved Death and that He had an Original Paper under Monsieur Barbesieux's own hand to justifie himself This Relation is so necessary at this time to be mentioned because it agrees with our late discovered Plot and Answers all the Objections produced by the French Advocates This Conspiracy was carried on at that time when the late King James was preparing to Invade England that very Summer 1692 And to this I shall crave leave to add an Abstract of what was not long since Published which was the Relation of a Gentleman of very good Note who had seen most of the Transactions at St. Germains from 90 to 94 who reported In the Year 92 the late King had great hopes to be restored with Triumph and fed himself with the thought of being an absolute Monarch having about that time received great encouragement as well from the Pope as from the French King which made him look above the reach of his late Subjects as he thought and to reject all the Lord Preston's Undertakings and the rest concerned in that Intrigue which was like to have cost the Lord Preston his Life and for which he had no Thanks but on the contrary was despised for meddling the late King protesting then That he had rather never see England and it 's hoped never shall then Come To or Capitulate with his Subjects again But he soon alter'd his Resolutions seeing Affairs abroad thwart his Designs and meeting with such unexpected Disappointments which abated much of the thoughts he retain'd but a little before so that of a sudden Motion he with great impatience consulted some of his Protestant Council telling them that he was resolved to Treat with his late Subjects and give them any Conditions rather than stand out any longer concluding that nothing would more conduce to his Restauration than to reconcile himself to his late Subjects In order thereto an Express was sent to England with Instructions to the Lord Midleton and some others to Treat with the People and to know their Inclinations by feeling how their Pulses beat and accordingly to proceed which the Lord Middleton did and drew a Declaration answerable to the desires of the Churchmen of England and Ireland and some other Heads of both the Kingdoms After some Debates the Lord Midleton went away for France and arrived at St. Germains the beginning of March 1692 towards the beginning of the year 93. produced the Declaration which admitted of high Debates and long Arguments Pro and Con as their several separate Interests moved the Ministers of St. Germains But the Lord Melford started several Cases of Conscience against the late King 's signing the said Declaration insomuch that to be satisfied therein and to remove all scruples of Conscience the late King consulted the Colledge of Sorbon and the Irish Colledge likewise The Faculty of Sorbon declared against the said Declaration and the Irish Colledge for it The Irish Colledge gave these Reasons That the King was in Exile banished his Kingdom by his own Children and Subjects for his Religion that as the Case stood with him there was no remedy for his Restauration left him but to comply with his Subjects and to sign any Instrument whatever for to prevail with them to accept of him home again and whatever he should sign while in Exile and under Tribulation abroad he should not in Conscience be obliged to perform after his Restoration as exacted from him per force in distress which renders all conditions and agreements of that kind neither obligatory nor binding any longer than a fair opportunity should offer to break them and wherein he would but imitate his Brother Charles the Second who took the Covenant in Scotland and after his Restoration burnt it at London by the hands of the Common Hangman The Faculty of Sorbon declared against this kind of Machiavilian Doctrine and against the Declaration too Yet notwithstanding the late King did sign the said Declaration on the consideration aforesaid But the Lord Melford and the Lord Middleton fell out and are to this day irreconcileable The said Declaration so signed by the late King was ordered to be sent into Flanders to be read there at the Head of the Irish Troops but was to them the most unwelcome and unacceptable Message that ever they met withal or that the late King could send them finding by the said Declaration that they lost themselves both at home and abroad by the late King which caused such a consternation in the Camp that the Soldiers who would be glad of any occasion to quit the Service and to return home openly mutined having started the Question That now being Deserted by King James why should they not go over to King William and accept of Conditions But the Question was carried in the Negative and an Express sent immediately to St. Germains to let the late King know the Discontent among the Soldiers and the Disorders in the Camp occasion'd by the said
of Tuscany that had so long stood out come to acknowledge our King's Authority let us not now lose Ground again for if we will but observe the particular Providences of God to this Nation we must needs own it hath been still kept almost by Miracles Let us consider some of our late Deliverances and particularly that in the year 1692 compar'd with that lately discoverd and a little reflect thereon and call to mind how near we were then to destruction and knew it not and what the Providence of God was at that time it may cause us to stand amazed for I had some private hints at that time and wrote them to a Friend of mine attending the King in Flanders which Person had been just then preserved from being drowned An Abstract of which Letter I shall Transcribe London 25th April 1692. Sir I am glad to hear of your great Deliverance since you Landed on that side but sorry I have occasion to tell you what my fears are viz. that if the Lord be not as wonderful at this time in the preservation of that Liberty he was pleased to work for us at His Majesties first arrival from Holland in 1688 we are very like to go back again to that Bondage we were then delivered from for the daily Collections furnisheth me with fresh occasions of mourning and but yesterday I was caution'd not to expose my self in that Post I have stood so long in viz by opposing the French Interest for that the late King James would be here in a Month and little opposition be made against him having a security of a quiet reception and many reasons were then given to induce me to believe it which I shall for other reasons no â—omit naming them and if the Wind continue long as it is and that the French Fleet are joined they may come and do what they please because our Fleet are in no condition to oppose them they being kept so long to Rendevouz in the Nore when it was urged long before to Rendevouz at Spithead I was in hopes that the King was ready to come back but tho dispairing of that am now informed that he will be in the Fleet to animate the Descent c. Postscript Before Sealing the Wind shifting hath blowed away some of my fears It was a great and wonderful Providence it was not effected that had not the Wind shifted at that time and prevented the French Fleet from coming upon us they might have soon destroyed that Squadron then off the Isle of Wight and have Landed there and at Portsmouth but as before hinted the Wind shifting the French Preparations proved not only abortive but very destructive to them at that time And it must be owned to be a Divine Hand at that time in the very Wind as now lately upon this last Design of France for as the Thoulon Squadron being stopt from coming as was design'd into the Channel and when we were inform'd of their Design to Invade us that then the Wind served just so long as to carry our Fleet from the Nore to the Downs and then immediately in having it shift till the Dutch joined us so that England may say of the Wind as Deborah of old did of the Stars who in their order fought for Israel Let it be remembred that the Wind at that time held West and South-West about 5 Weeks was an apparent Providence to this Nation and if we will observe any thing of that Nature we may conclude by the same Providence what a Noble Peer of this Nation said some years ago upon a Defeat of some Rebels in Scotland and discovery of a Plot in Lancashire That God would deliver us whether we would or no. So that the Enemies Preparations proved then not only abortive but an opportunity was offered to gain a great Victory upon them and had it been pursued France to speak humanely had in a great measure been ruined for I was credibly inform'd by a Relation of mine who was in the Engagement and after the Fight did burn two great Ships of War at La Hogue who observed that had there been a few Men Landed the French had fled when none pursued their temerity of the one hand and oppression on the other would have render'd them uncapable or unwilling to defend their Country the two powerful Motives that render'd the Revolution among us in 1688 so feasible and easie I speak not at random but on good Grounds from the Information I then received a little before the said Victory by a person that had been in France about that time who inform'd me that altho the Policy of the French King were such as that his Maritime and Frontier Towns were not so much oppress'd yet most of the Inland Provinces were so depopulated and impoverished that there were not Men left to Till the Ground nor Dress the Vines as afterwards was more plainly demonstrated and were we once unanimous we might strike Terrour into the mind of that haughty Monarch of France I am not ignorant what sly Insinuations have been used to undermine our present Government by telling us by way of objection viz. How the Authors of the Hungarian and Piedmont Persecution and the Spanish Inquisition should establish the Protestant Belief amongst us I would answer That the present War in which we are engaged with the Emperor the King of Spain and the Duke of Savoy is not upon the account of Religion but upon Property and Civil Rights in those Princes who opposed the French King's Ambition and the War with the Emperor c. was long before our Revolution And therefore it was a very great Providence to us in England as well as other Protestant Countrys that there is that agreement in all those Princes united against France And should not England assist the rest of the Allies they would soon be over-run by France and should Holland be under that Government England could not hold out very long for when the Marine Forces in Holland is united to France we may then rationally conclude that not only England but the two Neutral Northern Crowns and Portugal must at length receive Laws from France I will not undertake that his Holiness at Rome shall be exempt from his Jurisdiction I might enlarge upon such reasons as may be convincing if it were necessary but it would be superfluous matters of fact having been so much before-hand of that nature how the French Monarch hath treated all persons that endeavour to thwart his Ambition c. So that it is our real Interest to assist the rest of the Confederates notwithstanding all the present inconveniences and evil consequents that do attend us which in a little time may be avoided It is not now a thing Disputable for we have too evident Experience and the Nation has been convinced that the Growth of France would be the Ruine of England as witness those many Parliamentary Addresses made to King Charles the Second as well as