see themselves undone, or run away by the light of their own houses; and so very few, whatever they pretend, that will stand by the king with their lives and fortunes, and fight for their religion, laws, and liberties; in short, we are so crumbled into factions, civil and religious, so debauched from the old English virtue and valour, and so destitute of the true love to our country and real principles of honour, so ripe for a civil war at home, and so exposed to an invasion from abroad; that our enemies are altogether infatuated, if they do not lay hold on this opportunity, in a week. or two; and we are all utterly undone if they do, unless a miracle be wrought to save us.

England is now the only nation in Europe, that hath any remains of substantial liberties; for arbitrary power, like a mighty deluge, has in a manner overspread the face of the whole earth, and is ready to break in upon us with an irresistible fury, unless we make ready to withstand it. Holland stands now exposed to military execution, and so do the counties of Kent and Surrey, who have forty or fifty thousand men ready to land upon them at a day or two's warning from Boulogne, Calais, Gravelin, Dunkirk, Newport, and Ostend ; there is but a hair's breadth betwixt us and ruin.

We have been so long fitting ourselves by our vices and our treachery for conquest and slavery, that I fear you have scarce ten thousand men left in city and country, that have spirit and bravery enough to march to our assistance, whenever we have occasion. You will be sure to have as early notice, as is possible, for our fears make us as watchful, as we hope you are indefatigable to provide for our security.

We cannot forget how the French troops treated the inhabitants of the Palatinate, in 1688 1, when they intirely ruined a country on both sides the Rhine, as large as Kent and Sussex; burnt down to the ground above two hundred burghs, and the three famous and populous cities of Worms, Spires, and Heidelburg; put the people to the sword in divers towns, and spared not the Popish temples and cathedrals, and this without provocation from the people or their prince. What sort of usage think you then may we expect at Dover and Winchelsea, &c. and you too in London, who are Englishmen, rebels, and hereticks, as bad as we. Our enemies have a particular eye upon your factious city, and the wealth of the Bank and Lombard Street, which the hungry priests and soldiers frequently talk of at Calais and Dunkirk with great indignation, but with some kind of assurance of late, that England will shortly receive her old master § and the Popish religion again.

Which I heartily wish may be prevented by the wisdom and prudence of the King and present Parliament. Mo-ds, Febr. 14, 1700.

If overcome by the French invasion.

All which ports were then in the power of the French.

I am, Sir,

See the Emperor's letter to King James II, at St. Germains, in Vol. I. Page 23.
A Popish prince, then King James II,

THE RIGHTS

OF THE

HOUSE OF AUSTRIA

TO THE

SPANISH SUCCESSION.

Published, by Order of his Imperial Majesty Leopold, and translated from the Original, printed at Vienna, MDCCI.

HE most illustrious and potent Prince, Charles the Second,

Europe, which was already very attentive on this sad event, found that Spain, for the future, was to embrace the ways and customs of France. And that, by an uncommon trick of state, a forged will was produced, which invited to the succession of all the kingdoms, dutchies, and principalities of Spain, not an indisputable relation, and withal the eldest of the family, but an ally of sixteen years, descended from a woman excluded from all manner of pretension to those dominions, and this contrary to oaths and treaties; contrary to a former disposition of the father and grandfather, and to the rights of birth in such a degree, as, according to the laws of Spain, was to succeed whenever the line male was extinct; contrary to the nearest affinity by the female side; and, which seems to be most considerable, contrary to the quiet and happiness of all Europe: which proves, as well in general as particular, that the crown of Spain should not have fallen to Philip of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, but to Leopold + of Austria, Emperor of the Romans.

To make this clear, let us take a view of affairs as they have past. Philip the First, as every one knows, lived above two ages ago, and was the son of the Emperor Maximilian, the happy offspring of the family of Austria. He had two sons, viz. Charles, who was the elder, born at Ghent in Flanders; and Ferdinand, who was the younger, born at Medina in Spain: the latter was the first Emperor of his name; and the former was the fifth of his name as Emperor, but the first as King of Spain. The partition, which was made of those dominions between the two brothers at Worms, in the year 1521, was such, that Charles, who was the eldest, was to have Spain, together with Burgundy and all Flanders; and that Ferdinand, who was the younger, and almost a child, should have the territories that are in Germany. Ferdinand rested content with his brother's happy lot, who was already be

The present King of Spain, a Frenchman.

+ Grandfather to the present Queen of Hungary and Bohemia.

come Emperor; and he was the more easily inclined so to do at that time, because that, though his share was but small, there was no reason or power which could do any thing in prejudice of his other rights, which he was willing to suspend for a time out of pure respect to his elder brother: that is to say, that he always reserved to himself and successors a power to take possession of that large inheritance, if the elder branch should happen to fail.

Under the favourable influences of this solid rule of life and death, Ferdinand has transmitted his posterity, by his son who was likewise called Charles, and by his grandson, and great grandson, viz. Ferdinand the Second and the Third, in a right line down to Leopold the present Emperor: and to the end he might maintain the union of the family, and follow the sense of the agreement at Worms, he appointed that the branch of Spain, excluding the females, should succeed to his sons. To Charles the Fifth, or First, according to the Spaniards, and, after Philips the First, the Second, the Third, and the Fourth, succeeded the lately deceased Charles of happy memory.

He had for his mother Mary-Anna of Austria, daughter to the said Ferdinand the Third, and sister to Leopold, so that he was doubly related to the Emperor, as well by the mother's side, and by the line of his predecessors of the house of Austria.

These reasons, and several others, which regard the common constitutions of kingdoms, and particularly that of Spain, did incline Philip IV. father of the lately deceased Charles, not to suffer that, Maria Teresa his eldest daughter, married to Lewis the XIV. King of France*, should be admitted directly or indirectly to succeed to the kingdoms and provinces of Spain, but that both she and her posterity, of what sex or quality soever, should be for ever excluded. Besides, he made a willt, in the year 1665, by which he expresly invites the collateral branch of Austria to the succession of Spain, upon the failing of the Spanish line.

The peace of Westphalia, which was signed in 1648, did not hinder, but that a cruel war did break out between Spain and France, attended with several calamities, which continued for some years, and seemed to have been in a way to continue much longer, to the great prejudice of both nations, as well by reason of the preparations, as of the alliances, which were made on both sides. Wherefore all pains was taken to put a stop to the violence of so implacable a hatred, by settling a good understanding between them; and, nothing seeming so much to contribute to this as a marriage, the chief endeavours were directed this way.

The French King at first had an eye upon Margaret of Savoy; and it was thought that he had so much love for her, as to incline him to marry her; but it was no hard matter to make this prince's first flames abate, by proposing to him a much more advantageous alliance in the person of the Infanta of Spain.

From whom Philip of Bourbon, the present King of Spain, is descended.

+ Which it becomes every honest man to have by him, when disputes arise about Spain, and the house of Austria.

Some reasons of importance made the French very much desire this marriage; and Christina, the King's own aunt, a lady of great solidity and judgment, having gone from Turin with Margaret her daughter, she came to Lyons, where she met the King her nephew'; and generously exhorted him not to think of marrying her daughter, but rather to make choice of the Infanta of Spain, as well for the common good of Christendom, as for the advantage of so many states, which were brought to ruin, by so long a war.

What this prudent lady would have persuaded the King her nephew to, generally preferring the publick good to her own private interest, was a business full of very considerable difficulties. The Spaniards had, a long time before, testified an insuperable aversion to this alliance, especially when they reflected on the fatal confusions that persons of a temper very contrary to theirs would cause in a government, if the issue of this marriage should happen to aspire to the succession of the kingdoms of Spain, under the specious pretext of relation by the mother's side. This difficulty seemed, and that too upon good grounds, of such consequence, that it was firmly resolved not to give way to it, unless that the Infanta would prefer the friendship of so considerable a husband to considerations, which otherwise perhaps might be of weight. Maria Teresa then must renounce not only for herself, in case of widowhood with offspring, but also for her children of both sexes, that so the posterity of France might not have the least hopes of sharing in the succession of Spain*.

This did not in the least trouble the Infanta, who, according to the way of the world, did look to the present, without vexing her head with the uneasy thoughts of uncertain futurity. She easily renounced, both for herself and posterity for ever, all hopes of the Spanish inheritance, that she might have a present share in the flourishing crown of France; considering that, if she should have children, they might be abundantly happy, though they were as far from the crown of Spain, as from the humour of the Spaniards. King Philip her father, and Lewis her husband, were not averse from this free consent of the Infanta.

It is true, that King Philip was under a prudent fear, that, if the renunciation was not made in plain and clear terms, the ministers of France, who were always inclined to captious interpretations, would take occasion to do the same in this juncture, to attain to their designs, which then prevailed by force. And that his fear was not groundless, experience has but too much shewn: for, though the matter and sense of treaties be never so clear, yet, the letter being more obscure, they wrest it into a wrong sense by force of arms, as far as their interest and power will allow.

For which reason, Cardinal Mazarine and Don Lewis Mendez de Haro, both chief ministers of two Kings, and their plenipotentiaries, after they had endeavoured very much, at the Pyrenean

It was from this marriage, that the present French King of Spain laid his claim, and in defiance to this renunciation, which was a condition of the marriage, and articled therein, supports the same by force of arms, under the protection of France.

treaty, to agree about the peace; and after they had, with extraordinary care, treated of the form of the renunciation, they agreed at length with joy upon a most ample one, containing most express clauses, which was to serve as a law, for the future *.

The most Christian King had cloathed his ambassador with a full power to agree to this renunciation: the same having likewise been done by the Emperor, with respect to his ambassador. And since, as Titus Livius says, That the law of nations prevails in things which are transacted by faith, by alliance, by treaties and oaths; and that there is a great difference between the publick faith and the private faith; that the publick faith owes its force to the dignity, and the private to the form of the agreement;' nobody doubted but that what was done, with respect to the renunciation, should have been more religiously observed, since both its dignity and form, in the treaty made about it, did equally contribute to give it power and force.

It was upon this foundation truly worthy of the majesty-royal, that so solemn an agreement, and the first and most noble part of the Pyrenean peace, was built.

It was impossible to find out words more strong, or more effectual, than those the Infanta and the King her husband made use of; the one to express her renunciation, the other to express his consent. There, in the most ample manner, you find a renunciation of all and every one of the rights, titles, laws, customs, constitutions, dispositions, remedies and pretexts by which the Infanta (unless she happened to be a widow without any offspring) or her children of either sex, born of that marriage, could at any time pretend to the succession of the Spanish dominions. Thus, the offspring of France were altogether excluded from the crown of Spain: nay, the Pope too was intreated to give his apostolical benediction to an agreement made with so much deliberation, and so unanimously, for the quiet of both kingdoms, and for the peace of all Christendom, subscribed with the Pyrenean treaty, November 7, 1659; and signed in a numerous assembly of the ministers of both princes with mutual applauses, and established on both sides, with a most prudent foresight,

Let any one who is disinterested, and free from passion, but read the fourth, fifth, and sixth paragraphs of the Contract of Marriage, and without much enquiry he shall clearly see, that no disposition or order could be made, nor any pretext found, by which a male child of France could aspire to the crown of Spain, since he is excluded from all hopes thereto, by sentences so clear, words so express, and clauses so derogatory and declaratory. There is here no need of school-shifts and subterfuges to obscure the clearest terms. God, who is the searcher of hearts, and who was called upon as a witness in these conventions, does not allow of ambiguous explications; the cross of Christ; the holiness of the

Viz. The form of the Infanta's renunciation, which has never been regarded by her French successors, though the French King pretended to agree to it in due form, as well as by the treaty concerning the same.