Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	prince_n	subject_n	3,995	5	6.4954	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57249	The compleat statesman, or, The political will and testament of that great minister of state, Cardinal Duke de Richilieu from whence Lewis the XIV ... has taken his measures and maxims of government : in two parts / done out of French.	Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, duc de, 1585-1642.; Du Chastelet, Paul Hay, marquis, b. ca. 1630.	1695 (1695)	Wing R1418; ESTC R35327	209,076	398

not much longer be in a Condition to do them any harm they must needs acknowledge that the Goodness of God has contributed more towards your good Successes than the Prudence and Force of Men. It was at that very time the Queen your Mother us'd her utmost Endeavours to change your Majesty's Council and to establish one to her own mind It was at that very time also the Evil Spirits which possess'd Monsieur's Mind were labouring in his Name as much as in them lay to ruine me The Mother and the Son had made an Agreement which was more contrary to the State than hurtful to those whose Ruine they openly prosecuted since in the present state of Affairs it was impossible to alter without ruining them The Son had promis'd not to marry the Princess Mary which the Mother dreaded to that degree that in order to prevent it she had put him into the Castle of Vincenne in your Absence where he tarry'd until that Agreement procur'd his Liberty in exchange of which the Mother had promis'd to put me out of your Majesty's favour and to remove me from Court In order to render these Promises the more inviolable they were put in Writing and the Duke de Bellegarde carry'd them long between his Shirt and his Skin to shew that they touch'd his Heart and to make those that had made them sensible that he would never lose them without his Life There never was a stronger Faction in any State it would be easier to name those who were not concerned in it than those that were And that which encreas'd the wonder of your Conduct on that occasion is that being sollicitous my self to withdraw from your Majesty to oblige the Queen who desir'd it passionately your Majesty being destitute of all other Counsel at that time had no body to consult with and to help you to resist the Authority of a Mother the Artifices of all her Adherents and my earnest Sollicitations against my self I say this because the Marshal of Schomberg who was faithful to you was absent at that time and that the Lord Keeper Marillac was one of those who seconding the Queen in her Designs serv'd her against her self Your Prudence was such that in removing the Lord Keeper of your own accord you deliver'd your self of a Man who had so great an Opinion of himself that he thought nothing well done unless done by his Order and who thought many ill ways lawful to compass the Ends which were suggested to him out of a Zeal which may be styl'd Indiscreet In fine your Proceeding had so much Wisdom in it that you granted nothing to the Queen to the prejudice of your State and yet refus'd her nothing that could be granted without wounding your Conscience and without acting as much against her as against your self I might forbear speaking of the Peace which was concluded at Ratisbonne between your Majesty and the House of Austria by reason that as it was agreed on by your Ambassador on Conditions which the Emperour himself was sensible he had no Power to grant for that reason it cannot be plac'd in the number of your Actions But if the World considers that tho' the Fault of your Ambassador could not be imputed to you as it requir'd a great deal of Goodness to suffer it it requir'd no less Address to repair it in some measure and not to lose the Fruit of a Peace which was so necessary to this State at a time in which your Majesty had so many Crosses This Action will be look'd upon as one of the greatest you ever did and consequently such as cannot be omitted in this place Reason and Conduct of State did require an Exemplary Punishment of him who had exceeded your Orders in so nice a Point and in so important an occasion But your Goodness ty'd up the Hands of your Justice by reason that tho' there was no Ambassadour but himself he had not acted alone in that Affair but with an Associate of such a Quality as made you rather consider the Motive of the Fault than the Fault it self They were both surpriz'd to that degree with the extream Illness you fell into at Lions that they acted rather according to the Condition into which the Kingdom would have been by your Loss than that in which it was and according to the Orders they had receiv'd Notwithstanding the ill Conditions of their Treaties the Imperialists were soon after forc'd to restore Mantua the Dread of your Arms oblig'd them to restore what they had usurp'd over the Venetians and Grisons and after your Majesty had suffer'd the Duke of Savoy's Forces to enter into Pignerol and into the Fort and Valley of Perouse according to the Treaty of Querasque You agreed so well with him that by vertue of a new Treaty those two Places did remain in your Majesty's Hands to the general Satisfaction as well as Advantage of all Italy which for the future will be less in dread of an unjust Oppression since it sets a Door open to its Relief At that very time the Discontents the Duke of Bavaria had receiv'd from the Emperour and from the Spaniards and the Dread which all the other Electors both Catholicks and Protestants were in of being divested of their States like many other Princes at their Sollicitations having induc'd them secretly to desire your Assistance your Majesty treated so dexterously with them and with so much Success that they hinder'd even in the Emperour's Presence the Election of the King of the Romans notwithstanding the Dyet of Ratisbone had only been Conven'd to that end After which to pleasure the said Duke of Bavaria and to satisfie the Electors as well as to confirm them in their Resolution of rendring the Catholick League not only Independent of the Empire but of Spain also which usurp'd the Direction of it your Ambassadors kept so good a Correspondence with those Princes that they facilitated the means to them of depriving Walstein of the Command of the Armies of the Empire which prov'd very prejudicial to his Majesty's Affairs Your Majesty's Credit prov'd as great towards the North since the Baron de Charnau without the Title of Ambassador procur'd almost at the same time a Peace between the Kings of Poland and of Sweden a Peace which had been attempted in vain by many other Potentates The said Peace gave way to the Enterprize the King of Sweden made soon after to prevent the Oppression of the Princes of the Empire in Germany which Design was no sooner known to your Majesty but to prevent the Prejudice the Catholick Religion might receive by it you made a Treaty with him which oblig'd him not to interrupt the Exercise thereof in all the places of his Conquest I am sensible that your Enemies who endeavour to justifie their own Actions by crying down yours have us'd their best Endeavours to render that Agreement odious but their Design had no other Effect than to discover their Malice

is the bare reward of his Contumacy As if it were ever allowable to betray Truth and justice because they make no defence The old Duke d'Espernon who till then had been an object of envy began to become an object of Pity 1639. In six months time of the year 1639 he lost the Duke de Candale his eldest Son he saw the second Condemn'd to Death on whom he had fix'd his heart and all his hopes besides the Death of the Cardinal de la Valette his third Son to whom it was thought Cardinal de Richelieu as a recompence for his Services had promis'd not to disturb the repose of his Father's old age Orders follow'd immediately to Confine him first to his House of Plassa● next to Loches where he ended his days some years after His constancy was such in that great Age that after having perform'd in his last sickness what ever could be desir'd of him for his Conscience without Pride or Weakness for he ever had Religion and Faith he let fall never a Word in relation to the Cardinal but what was at once Christian like and Noble He ordered the Duke de la Vallette's two Children to be recommended to the King they having the honor to be related to him they were the Children of his first Marriage for he had none by the second And some suggesting to him that he would do well to do them the same office with the Minister whose power was so well known he only answer'd mildly I am his Servant without being able to resolve to request any thing of him He dyed on the 13. of January 1642 being 88 years of Age repeating often even in the middle of his Prayers and in the very Arms of Death the Name of his Son de la Valette whom he look'd upon as his Martyr The Cardinal de Richelteu did not out-live him long He dyed on the 4th of December of the same Year being only 58 years of Age leaving to Courtiers one of those ●ine but too subtile Examples of what Fortune Grandeur and Favour is never certain never contented and which is worse little present and long pass'd The King who griev'd in secret for having allow'd him so much Power and who had reason to dread all things from him if he had liv'd much longer did not think himself so much depriv'd of a faithful Minister as deliver'd of a proud insupportable Master It then prov'd a kind of Merit at Court not to have been too much his Friend But all things were soon alter'd there a second time by the King 's own Death on the 14th of May 1643. The Duke de la Valette call'd Duke d'Espernon since his Father's Death came back from England and surrender'd himself in the Prison of the Palace of Paris and was absolv'd by the unanimous Voice of the Parliament with a general Applause of the Grandees and of the People No Man of any Note that I know of ever laid the ill Success at Fontarabie to his charge but the Cardinal and as to the pretended Intelligence or Conspiracy with the two Princes far from upbraiding himself with it he plac'd it among his best Actions since that tho ill us'd and oppress'd by the Cardinal to the highest degree he had been able to resist the Temptation to right himself and the Duke his Father by a Civil War the greatest and most dangerous of all those of that time if both had hearkn'd to it As the Cardinal de Berulle dyed with the repute of sanctity and that all those who have known him have testify'd the same except Cardinal Richelieu it is a very material point to inform the Public with the Motives that could induce the said Cardinal de Richelieu to insert these Words in the Tenth Page of his Political Testament Your Majesty would thereby have freed the Nation of the Grisons for ever from the Tyranny of the House of Austria had not Fargis your Ambassador in Spain at the Sollicitation of Cardinal de Berulle made as he has confess'd it since without the knowledge and contrary to your Majesty's express Orders a very disadvantageous Treaty to which you adher'd at last to please the Pope who pretended to be somewhat concern'd in that Affair and in the 14 Page the Cardinal de Berulle and the Lord Keeper Marrillac advised your Majesty to abandon that poor Prince he speaks of the Duke of Mantua to the injustice and Insatiable avidity of that Nation which is an Enemy to the Repose of Christendom he means the Spaniards to hinder them from disturbing it the rest of your Council proved of a different opinion both because Spain durst not have formed such a Resolution immediately after the making of a Treaty of Vnion among the English and because if they should have followed so ill an advcie they could not have been able to stop the progress of your Arms. A Little insight into the principal Affairs transacted in the reign of Lewis the XIII is sufficient to know that the Cardinals de Berulle and de Richelieu were both ingag'd in the Interest of the Queen Mother Mary de Medicis and that they liv'd in perfect Intelligence until the year 1622 when the War of the Pon de Cee broke out All the Queen Mother's Creatures did expect that Cardinal de Richelieu to whom that Princess had given Order Power to conclude an accommodation with the King her Son's Ministers would mind their advantages as much as his own and would not expose them to the Vengance of their Enemys whom they had only irritated to remain Faithful to the Queen Mother Nevertheless Cardinal de Richelieu only thought of obtaining a Place for himself in the Sacred College and neglected all the rest For which reason Cardinal de Berulle the Marshal and Lord Keeper Marillac Monsieur and Madam du Fargis and several others fell out with him In the Second Place the first considerable affair which occur'd in the Council of France in 1624 immediately after the Cardinal's being introduc'd there upon the Marriage of Madam Henrietta of France youngest Sister to the King with the Prince of Wales The Cardinal de Richelieu pretended to attribute all the honor of it to himself and negotiated with so much address that he obtained from the Earls of Holland and Carlile Ambassadors from England more advantageous Conditions for the Catholic Religion than those which the King of Great Britain had granted to the Spaniards when he desir'd their Infanta for the said Prince of Wales But the main difficulty was to prevail with the Court of Rome to approve the Conditions Cardinal de Richelieu had made with the English Ambassadors The Court pitched upon Cardinal de Berulle in order thereunto He went to Rome and there began continued and concluded the famous Negotiation which is found among the Manuscripts of Lomenie in the King's Library He obtain'd what ever he desir'd of the Pope and that was sufficient to excite Cardinal de Richelieu's jealousy As to

The Court was full of Men who accus'd those of Rashness who should dare to attempt it and all of them knowing that Princes are apt to impute the ill Success of things that have been well advis'd to those that are about them so few expected a good Event of the Alterations it was said I design'd that many concluded my Fall even before your Majesty had rais'd me Notwithstanding all these Difficulties which I represented to your Majesty knowing what Kings can do when they make a good use of their Power I presum'd to promise you without Temerity in my Opinion what is come to pass in your State and that in a short time your Prudence your Power and the Blessing of God would alter the Affairs of this Kingdom I promis'd your Majesty that I would use my utmost Endeavours and all the Authority you were pleas'd to give me to ruine the Huguenot Party to abate the Pride of the Grandees to reduce all your Subjects to their Duty and to raise your Name again in Foreign Nations to the Degree it ought to be Moreover I represented to your Majesty that in order to compass a happy end it was absolutely necessary you should confide in me and that notwithstanding for the time past all those who had serv'd you had thought no way so proper to obtain and to preserve your Confidence as to remove the Queen your Mother from it I would take the contrary way and that nothing should be wanting on my side to keep your Majesties in a strict Union so necessary for your Reputation and for the Welfare of the Kingdom As the Success which has attended the good Intentions which God has been pleas'd to inspire me with for the Settlement of this State will justifie to future Ages the steadiness wherewith I have constantly pursued that Design so your Majesty will be a faithful Witness that I have us'd my best Endeavours lest the Artifice of some Evil-minded Persons should be powerful enough to divide that which being united by Nature ought also to be united by Grace If after having for many years happily resisted their divers Efforts their Malice has finally prevail'd it is a very great Comfort to me that your Majesty has often been pleas'd to express That while I was most intent on the Grandeur of the Queen your Mother she labour'd for my Ruine But I refer this matter to another place to keep to my present Subject and not to break the Order I am to keep in this Work The Huguenots who have never slipt any occasion to increase their Party having in 1624. surpriz'd certain Ships which the Duke of Nevers was preparing against the Turk afterwards rais'd a potent Navy against your Majesty Notwithstanding the Care of the Sea had been so far neglected till then that you had not one Ship your Majesty behav'd your self with so much Address and Courage that with those you could get among your Subjects 20 from Holland and 7 from England you defeated the Army the Rochelois had put out to Sea Which prov'd the more wonderful and happy in that this advantageous Effect proceeded from a Succour which was only granted to serve you in appearance You took the Isle of Ré by the same means which the Rochelois had unjustly made themselves Masters of long before You routed 4 or 5000 Men they had put into it to defend it and forc'd Soubise who commanded them to fly to Oleron which your Friends not only drove him out of but also forc'd him to fly the Kingdom This happy Success reduc'd those Rebellious Souls to make a Peace so glorious for your Majesty that the most difficult were pleas'd with it and all agreed that it was the most advantagious that had been made till then The Kings your Predecessors having for the time past rather received from than given a Peace to their Subjects though they were diverted by no Foreign Wars they were Losers in all the Treaties they made with them and tho' your Majesty had many other Occupations at that time you then granted it to them reserving Fort St. Lewis as a Citadel at Rochel and the Isles of Re and of Oleron as two other Places which serv'd as a good Circumvallation about it At the same time your Majesty secur'd the Duke of Savoy from the Oppression of the Spaniards who had attack'd him openly and notwithstanding they had one of the greatest Armies that had been seen of a long while in Italy which was Commanded by the Duke of Feria a great Man you hinder'd them from taking Verua of which your Arms jointly with the Duke of Savoy's sustain'd the Siege with so much Glory that they were finally forc'd to raise the Siege shamefully The Spaniards soon afterwards making themselves Masters of all the Passes of the Grisons and having fortify'd the best Posts of all their Vallies your Majesty not being able by a bare Negotiation to free your ancient Allies from that Invasion in which those unjust Usurpers had the more success by reason that the Pope favour'd them upon the vain Hopes they gave him of procuring some Advantages for Religion did that by force of Arms which you had not been able to obtain by strength of Reason Your Majesty had by that means for ever freed that Nation from the Tyranny of the House of Austria had not Fargis your Ambassador in Spain at the Sollicitation of Cardinal de Berulle made as he has confess'd it since without your Knowledge and contrary to your Majesty's strict Orders a very disadvantagious Treaty to which you adher'd at last to oblige the Pope who pretended to be concern'd in that Affair The late King your Father of Immortal Memory designing to marry one of your Majesty's Sisters in England the Spaniards thought themselves oblig'd to break that Project by marrying one of their Infanta's there The Treaty thereof being concluded the Prince of Wales was so ill advisd as to expose himself to the Discretion of a Prince who being Master of his Person might impose whatever Law he thought fit upon him and pass'd through France incognito in order to go into Spain to marry her As soon as the thing was known here such Negotiations were set on foot that notwithstanding the great Honours he receiv'd in that Court where the King gave him the Right Hand all the while he tarry'd there altho' he was no Crown'd Head at that time the Marriage was broken off and soon after it that of France was treated of concluded and accomplish'd with Conditions three times more advantagious for Religion than those which were design'd to be propos'd in the late King's time Soon after that Powerful Cabals were form'd at Court into which the Duke of Orleans your Brother was engag'd by those who had the Care of his Conduct before his Age made him capable of it Being constrain'd to say with great Regret that a Person of the greatest Consideration was insensibly drawn into it with several others who formented

beat the Duke of Savoy assisted by the Spaniards rais'd the Siege of Cazal and constrain'd all your Enemies to agree with you This glorious Action which restor'd Peace in Italy was no sooner atchiev'd but your Majesty whose Mind and Heart never found any rest but in Labour pass'd directly into Languedoc where after having taken Privas and Alez by force you reduc'd the rest of the Huguenot Party throughout your Kingdom to Obedience and by your Clemency granted a Peace to those who had presum'd to wage a War against you not by granting them Advantages prejudicial to the State as had been done till then but by banishing him out of the Kingdom who was the only Head of that miserable Party and who had all along fomented it That which is most considerable in so glorious an Action is that you ruin'd that Party absolutely at a time when the King of Spain endeavour'd to raise it again and to settle it more than ever He had newly made a Treaty with the Duke of Rohan to form in this State a Body of Rebellious States to God and to your Majesty at once in consideration of a Million of Livres which he was to pay him yearly for which he made the Indies Tributaries to Hell But their Projects prov'd ineffectual And whilst he had the Mortification to hear that the Person he had employ'd to be the Bearer of so glorious an Establishment was executed upon a Scaffold by a Decree of the Parliament of Thoulouse before whom he was Try'd your Majesty had the Satisfaction and Advantage to pardon those who could no longer defend themselves to annihilate their Faction and to use their Persons well when they expected nothing but the Chastisement of the Crimes they had commited I am sensible that Spain thinks to excuse so ill an Action by the Succours you granted the Hollanders but that Excuse is as ill as their Cause Common Sense will convince every body that there is much difference between the continuation of a Succours established upon a Lawful Subject if Natural Defence is so and a new Establishment manifestly contrary to Religion and to the Lawful Authority Kings have received from Heaven over their Subjects The late King your Father never enter'd into a Treaty with the Hollanders until the King of Spain had form'd a League in this Kingdom to usurp the Crown This Truth is too evident to be question'd and there is no Theology in the World but will grant without going against the Principles of Natural Reason that as Necessity obliges those whose Life is attempted to make use of all Helps to preserve it so a Prince has the same Right to avoid the loss of his State That which is free in the beginning sometimes becomes necessary in the sequel Therefore no body can find fault with the Union your Majesty maintains with those People not only in consequence of the Treaties of the late King but moreover because Spain cannot be reputed otherwise than as an Enemy to this State whilst they retain part of its ancient Demeans It is evident that the Cause which has given a Rise to those Treaties not being remov'd the continuation of the Effect is as lawful as necessary The Spaniards are so far from any Pretence of being in the same case that on the contrary their Designs are so much the more unjust that instead of repairing the Injuries they have done this Kingdom they increase them daily Moreover the late King never join'd with the Hollanders until they were entred into a Body of State and was constrain'd to it by an Oppression which he could not wholly avoid He neither occasion'd their Revolt nor the Union of their Provinces And Spain has not only often favour'd the Revolted Huguenots against your Predecessors they also endeavour'd to unite them in a Body of State in yours A holy Zeal has induc'd them to be the Authors of so good an Establishment and that without any Necessity and consequently without Reason unless the Continuation of their ancient Usurpations and the new ones they design rectifie their Actions so much that what is forbidden to all the World besides is lawful in them upon the account of their good Intentions Having treated this matter more at large in another Treatise I will leave it to continue the Sequel of your Actions The ill Faith of the Spaniards having induc'd them to attack the Duke of Mantua again to the Prejudice of the Treaties they had made with your Majesty you march'd the second time into Italy where by the Blessing of God after having gloriously cross'd a River the Passage whereof was defended by the Duke of Savoy with an Army of 14000 Foot and 4000 Horse contrary to the Faith of the Treaty he had made with your Majesty the Year before You took Pignerol in sight of the Emperour 's and King of Spain's Forces and of the Person and all the Power of the Duke of Savoy and that which renders that Action the more Glorious in sight of the Marquess de Spinola one of the greatest Captains of his Time By that means you took Susa and overcame at once the three most considerable Powers of Europe the Plague Famine and the Impatiency of the French of which there are not many Examples in History After which you Conquer'd Savoy driving an Army of 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse before you which had a better Advantage to defend it self in that Mountainous Country than 30000 to attack them Soon after which the Combats of Veillane and of Coriane signaliz'd your Arms in Piemont and the taking of Valence Fortify'd by the Duke of Savoy in order to oppose your Designs made the World sensible that nothing could resist the Just Arms of a King as Fortunate as Powerful Cazal was reliev'd not only against the Opinion of most Men but even against the very Thoughts of the Duke de Montmorency who had been employ'd to that end and against the Opinion of Marillac who was substituted in his Place who both publickly declar'd that it was an impossible Enterprize The Relief of the said Place was the more glorious in that a stronger Army than your Majesty's retrench'd at the Head of the Milaneze which furnished them with all sorts of Conveniencies and shelter'd under the Walls of Cazal which had been consign'd in their Hands was constrain'd to quit it and five other Places at the same time which the Spaniards held thereabouts in the extent of Mont-Ferrat Those who know that in the very height of that Design your Majesty was reduc'd to the utmost Extremity by a Fit of Sickness and that tho' your Person was dangerously Ill your Heart was yet in a worse Condition If they consider that the Queen your Mother at the Instigation of some malicious Persons form'd a potent Party which weakning you considerably strengthen'd your Enemies If they also consider that they daily receiv'd Advice that your Majesty's most faithful Servants whom they both did hate and dread would