IV. May 13. CHAP. the national efforts, and inspired with greater confiA.D. 1673. dence the princes who dreaded the ascendancy of France. During the winter Louis made no additional conquests in the summer the reduction of Maestricht was the only exploit which distinguished his arms, After a succession of marches and operations in Flanders, undertaken for the sole purpose of masking his real object, he suddenly sat down before that fortress, which capitulated after an obstinate defence June 23. of twenty-three days. Monmouth, who led the English auxiliaries, commanded under him with the rank of lieutenant-general. His want of military experience was supplied by the counsels of Montal; his personal courage won the applause of the king and of the army.1 June 1. In England, the liberal supply voted by parliament gave new vigour to the preparations for war. A fleet of more than sixty sail of large ships was equipped, and an army of eight thousand men was raised and encamped at Blackheath for foreign service. But at first all men fixed their eyes on the duke of York, anxious to learn whether he would take or refuse the March 30. test. His conversion to the church of Rome still remained a matter of mere suspicion; but it was observed that, at Easter, when the king received the 1 Buckingham (Sheffield, Works, ii. 24) says that "a sure and easy attack was kept back till his day of commanding, that he "might have the credit of the success." This insinuation is ground loss. On that occasion, says Louis in a letter to Charles, il fi teut ce qui se pouvoit pour signaler davantage sa conduite et sa valeur. Je ne dois pas même oublier que le lendemain les assiegés étant sortis sur la demi-lune à la faveur d'un fourneau, il fut à eux l'épée à la main au premier bruit de la sortie, et leur fit quitter le Jogement. Louis, iii. 412. That this was not mere compliment appears from the following passage in the king's journal of the siege:"Le duc de Monmouth s'acquit à la tête des mousquetaires une grande reputation."-Ibid. 375. See also James, i. 493. IV. sacrament, James did not accompany him;' and soon CHAP. afterwards the fact became public by his voluntary A.D. 1673 resignation of all the offices which he held under the crown. At the same time, and for the same reason, June 19. the Lord Clifford relinquished the treasurer's staff, in opposition to the advice and entreaty of the king. By those who were acquainted with his aspiring character, and able to judge how much it must have cost him to suppress at once the hopes which he had so fondly therished, it was supposed that he had bound himself by promise to follow the duke of York; but that prince declares that Clifford was actuated by motives of conscience, and pronounces his conduct the more honourable, as it was the less to be expected from one who had so recently become a proselyte. By his resignation the ambition of Arlington was again awakened, but was again disappointed. The king, by the advice of James and Clifford, gave the staff to Arlington's enemy, Sir Thomas Osborne, who was soon afterwards raised to the peerage, by the title of August 15. Viscount Latymer. 2 By the retirement of James, the command of the combined fleet, amounting to ninety sail of the line, had devolved on Prince Rupert. With so formidable 1 Evelyn, ii. 380. The king had employed Lord Clifford to prevail on James to take the sacrament with him at Christmas; but the duke replied that his conscience forbade him.-James, i. 482. 2 Evelyn (ii. 383) says, "I am confident he (Clifford) forbore re"ceiving the communion, more from some promise he had entered "into to gratifie the duke, than from any prejudice to the Protestant "religion, though I found him wavering a pretty while." But he proved his sincerity, for "the test ousted him of the place of lord "treasurer of England, and of being any longer a privy councillor; "who, though a new convert, generously preferred his conscience to "his interests."-James, i. 484. These passages prove that those writers are incorrect who represent him all along as a Catholic. Besides Lord Clifford, Lord Belassye, Sir Thomas Strickland, and several others in eminent stations, resigned.-Marvell, i. 458. IV. May 28, CHAP. a force, it was expected that he would sweep the A.D. 1673. Dutch navy from the face of the ocean; but he performed nothing worthy of his reputation; and, though June 4 he fought three actions with De Ruyter, neither Angust 11. received nor inflicted considerable injury. His friends complained that his powers were limited by unusual restrictions, and that his ships wanted stores and provisions; an officer who was present asserts that he was too closely leagued with the country party to obtain a victory, which might render their opponents lords of the ascendant. He was ordered to take under his protection the army commanded by Schomberg, and to land it on the coast of Holland. Schomberg, unacquainted with naval etiquette, affixed the colours of his regiment to the mast of his vessel, as a signal to the officers in the other transports; but Rupert considered his conduct as an act of insubordination or insult; two shots were fired through the rigging; and orders were given to sink the general's vessel, unless the flag were immediately struck. Schomberg reluctantly submitted, and the armament proceeded to the Dutch coast; but no landing was July 23. effected. Rupert, having alarmed the inhabitants on several points, from the mouth of the Maese to that August 2. of the Ems, ordered the military force to return to Yarmouth, where it remained encamped during the rest of the season. Schomberg, attributing both the violence of the prince with respect to the flag, and his refusal to land the army in Holland, to personal dislike, sent him a challenge; but Charles interfered to prevent the meeting, and the general quitted the English service.1 1 Buckingham (Sheffield), ii. 25, 29. See also a letter from the king to Rupert, in which he calls the raising of the flag "a casual IV. - A congress had been held at Cologne, under the CHAP. mediation of the king of Sweden. But the States A.D. 1673. had now a brighter prospect before them, and scornfully refused conditions which they would have gladly accepted in the preceding summer. The assassination of the two De Witts by the populace had destroyed the influence of the Louvestein party; the Orange interest obtained the predominance in every province; and the young prince already displayed that decision of mind, that inflexibility of purpose, which marked his character through life. The other powers of August 25 Europe did not remain indifferent spectators of the contest. Leopold of Austria and Charles of Spain offered their assistance; and a defensive alliance bound them to unite their arms against the enemies of the republic.' This was not the least singular of the revolutions which the seventeenth century exhibited. The remembrance of past injuries was suppressed; the objections of religion were silenced; and the emperor and king of Spain, the representatives of that family from whose iron yoke the United Pro"and inoffensive error, laments the mortification of Schomberg, and "is not willing that the quarrel should be carried any further."Lansdowne MSS. 1206, p. 158. 1 Dumont, vii. 240, 243. Soon afterwards Louis, to keep Charles firm to his engagements, granted him a very singular favour. By the death of the last duke of Richmond, Aubigni, in the province of Berry, which had been granted to one of his ancestors, reverted to the French crown. On the 29th of July, 1672, Louise de Querouaille bore a son to Charles; the next year he created her duchess of Portsmouth; and Louis, at the desire of the king, conferred on her the domain of Aubigni, to be enjoyed by her during her life, and at her death to go to any one of the natural sons of Charles whom that monarch might please to name, and to the male descendants of that son, "to the end that the land of Aubigni might continue in "possession of the illustrious house of Stuart." Charles, of course, named his son by Querouaille, and created him duke of Richmond, Aug. 19, 1675. See the letters patent of Louis XIV. (Note D), who naturalized the duke on the 12th of Jan. 1685, three weeks before the death of his father. IV. CHAP. vinces had been lately freed, now hastened to their A.D. 1673. support in opposition to England and France, the two powers which had originally watched and protected the cradle of Dutch independence. 1 But the States not only obtained foreign aid, they indulged a well-founded hope of separating Charles from his alliance with France, and with that view kept up a close correspondence with the discontented party in England. If the religious antipathies of the people had been excited by the conversion of James to the Catholic faith, they were now blown into a flame by the intelligence that he had recently Bept. 30. married by proxy the sister to the reigning duke of Modena, Maria d'Este, a Catholic princess of the age of fifteen. The danger to the Protestant religion from this inauspicious union became the subject of every discourse; and Charles, that the popular excitation might have time to subside, and the real intention of the States be satisfactorily ascertained, resolved to postpone the meeting of parliament to the termination of the Christmas holidays. From this counsel he was seduced by the artful and treacherous suggestion of the chancellor, who had secretly been reconciled, and had made the promise of his services, Oct. 20. to the country party. On the appointed day, the 20th of October, the two houses assembled; but Shaftesbury, in defiance of the order which he had received, neglected to adjourn them till the Commons had voted an address to the king, praying that he would not permit "the marriage between the duke and the "princess of Modena to be consummated." They 1 James, i. 484. He had first solicited the hand of the archduchess of Inspruck, but that princess preferred the emperor Leopold. See the negotiation in Miscel. Aul. 65, 107. |