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The disor

ders in Holland.

to the elector palatine, who accepted of it, being encouraged to it by his two uncles, Maurice prince of Orange, and the duke of Bullion. (Bouillon.) But he did not ask the advice of king James: he only gave him notice of it when he had accepted the offer. Here was the probablest occasion that has been offered since the reformation for its full establishment.

The English nation was much inclined to support it and it was expected that so near a conjunction might have prevailed on the king: but he had an invincible aversion to war; and was so possessed of the opinion of a divine right in all kings, that he could not bear that even an elective and limited king should be called in question by his subjects: so he would never acknowledge his son-in-law king, nor give him any assistance for the support of his new dignity. And though it was also reckoned on that France would enter into any design that should bring down the house of Austria, and Spain by consequence, yet even that was diverted by the means of De Luynes; a worthless but absolute favourite, whom the archduchess Isabella, princess of the Spanish Netherlands, gained to oblige the king (of France) into a neutrality by giving him the richest heiress then in Flanders, the daughter of Peguiney, left to her disposal, whom he married to his brother. Thus poor Frederick was left without any assistance. The jealousy that the Lutherans had of the

k The true cause of his want of friends to support his pretensions to the crown of Bohemia, was from an apprehension that king James having but one son living, if the succession of Great Britain had fallen to his wife, it must have

created a power, not only formidable to the house of Austria, but to all the princes in Europe: and the prince of Wales was then thought to be of a very weakly constitution. D.

ascendant that the Calvinists might gain by this accession had an unhappy share in the coldness which all the princes of that confession shewed towards him; though Saxony only declared for Ferdinand, who likewise engaged the duke of Bavaria at the head of a catholic league to maintain his interests. Maurice prince of Orange had embroiled Holland by the espousing the controversy about the decrees of God in opposition to the Arminian party, and by erecting a new and illegal court by the authority of the states general to judge of the affairs of the province of Holland; which was plainly contrary to their constitution, by which every province is a sovereignty within itself, not at all subordinate to the states general, who act only as plenipotentiaries of the several provinces to maintain their union and their common concerns. By that assembly Barnevelt was condemned and executed: Grotius and others were condemned to perpetual imprisonment: and an assembly of the ministers of the several provinces met at 14 Dort, by the same authority, and condemned and deprived the Arminians. Maurice's enemies gave it out, that he managed all this on design to make himself master of the provinces, and to put those who were like to oppose him out of the way. But though this seem a wild and groundless imagination, and not possible to be compassed; yet it is certain that he looked on Barnevelt and his party as men who were so jealous of him and of a military power, that as they had forced the truce with Spain, so they would be very unwilling to begin a new war; though the disputes about Juliers and Cleves had almost engaged them, and the truce was now near expiring; at the end of which he hoped, if delivered from the

Some passages of the

some

princes.

opposition that he might look for from that party, to begin the war anew. By these means there was a great fermentation over all the provinces, so that Maurice was not then in condition to give the elected king any considerable assistance; though indeed he needed it much, for his conduct was very weak. He affected the grandeur of a regal court, and the magnificence of a crowned head, too early: and his queen set up some of the gay diversions that she had been accustomed to in her father's court, such as balls and masks, which very much disgusted the good Bohemians, who thought that a revolution made on the account of religion ought to have put on a greater appearance of seriousness and simplicity. These particulars I had from the children of some who belonged to that court. The elected king was quickly overthrown, and driven, not only out of those his new dominions, but likewise out of his hereditary countries: he fled to Holland, where he ended his days. I will go no farther in a matter so well known as king James's ill conduct in the whole series of that war, and that unheard-of practice of sending his only son through France into Spain, of which the relations we have are so full, that I can add nothing to them.

I will only here tell some particulars with relareligion of tion to Germany, that Fabricius, the wisest divine I knew among them, told me he had from Charles Lewis the elector palatine's own mouth. He said, Frederick II. who first reformed the palatinate, whose life is so curiously writ by Thomas Hubert, of Liege, resolved to shake off popery, and to set up Lutheranism in his country: but a counsellor of his said to him, that the Lutherans would always de

pend chiefly on the house of Saxony: so it would
not become him who was the first elector to be only
the second in the party: it was more for his dignity
to become a Calvinist : he would be the head of that
party it would give him a great interest in Swit-
zerland, and make the Huguenots of France and in 15
the Netherlands depend on him. He was by that
determined to declare for the Helvetian confession.
But upon the ruin of his family the duke of New-
burgh had an interview with the elector of Branden-
burgh about their concerns in Juliers and Cleves:
and he persuaded that elector to turn Calvinist; for
since their family was fallen, nothing would more
contribute to raise the other than the espousing that
side, which would naturally come under his protec-
tion but he added, that for himself he had turned
papist, since his little principality lay so near both
Austria and Bavaria. This that elector told with a
sort of pleasure, when he made it appear that other
princes had no more sense of religion than he him-
self had'.

parted with

towns.

Other circumstances concurred to make king King James James's reign inglorious. The states having bor-the caurowed great sums of money of queen Elizabeth, they tionary gave her the Brill and Flushing, with some other places of less note, in pawn, till the money should be repaid. Soon after his coming to the crown of England he entered into secret treaties with Spain, in

The author might have added to these instances, that it was said, that prince Maurice was in his opinion an Arminian, and Barnevelt a Calvinist. But as these religious points became state divisions,

the one and the other took a
part different from their private
sentiments, to serve their po-
litical interests. The author
does mention this afterwards.
See page 316. 0.

order to the forcing the states to a peace: one article was, that if they were obstinate he would deliver these places to the Spaniards. When the truce was made, Barnevelt, though he had promoted it, yet knowing the secret article, he saw they were very unsafe, while the keys of Holland and Zealand were in the hands of a prince who might perhaps sell them, or make an ill use of them: so he persuaded the states to redeem the mortgage by repaying the money that England had lent, for which these places were put into their hands: and he came over himself to treat about it. King James, who was profuse upon his favourites and servants, was delighted with the prospect of so much money; and immediately, without calling a parliament to advise with them about it, he did yield to the proposition. So the money was paid, and the places were evacuated". But his profuseness drew two other things upon him, which broke the whole authority of the crown, and the dependence of the nation upon it. The crown had a great estate over all England, which was all let out upon leases for years, and a King James small rent was reserved. So most of the great families of the nation were the tenants of the crown, and a great many boroughs were depending on the estates so held. The renewal of these leases brought in fines to the crown and to the great officers: besides that the fear of being denied a renewal kept all in a dependence on the crown. King James obtained of his parliament a power of granting, that is selling, those estates for ever, with the reserve of the old quit-rent and all the money raised by this was

broke the

greatness of the crown

m An action more to be commended for its honesty than wisdom. O.

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