Chapter XIII: Introduction: The Manuscripts (13)

The King in 1670 craving of his parliament a subsidie for defraying his debt, they proposed that ere any new tax could be granted account should be made of the former subsidies, whow the same ware employed by Mr. Cotteridge and others, whom the King made use of to that purposc. Sure this was very grieveous to the King to sie himselfe so controlled in his expence, and that he could give no gratuity to my Ladie Castlemain (now Dutchesse of Cleveland, etc.) but that which they behoved to get notice of, behold the stratagem he makes use of. The Presbyterians at that tyme, hearing of the Indulgence given to some ministers in Scotland, they offer to the King to pay all his debt, and advance him a considerable soume besyde, provydeing the same liberty be granted them. At the nixt sitting doune of parl. his mai. in a speach showed them whow harshly and uncivilly they had dealt with him, and, after much plain language, he told them if they would not grant his reasonable demands he know them that would do it. After they had come to know his majesties meaning by this,[634] who ware more forward then they, they passe fra craving any account of the former, they grant him a new subsidy of a million, they consent their should be a treaty wt Scotland anent ane union; yet onlie the dint of their fury falls on the Presbyterians, and they enact very strict statutes against them and against conventicles, because they had been the pin by which his mai. had scrued them up to that willingnesse. So we sie its usefull sometymes (as Matchiavell teaches) for a prince to entertaine and foment tua factions in his state, and whiles to boast the one with the other.

[634] His majesties meaning by this, _i.e._ 'what H.M. meant by
this imtimation.' As soon as they understood that, 'Who were more
forward than they?'

In October 1667 did at last break out that inveterat hatred of the wholle people of England against Chancellor Hide, and he is arraigned as guilty of hy treason by the house of commons, who pressed strongly that his persone might be secured till such tyme they had verified the crimes they attached him of. This motion the house of peers wt indignation rejected as derogatorie of their priviledges, he being a member of their house. While the 2 houses are thus contending he judges it safest for him to retire till this storme blow over, and this was also thought to have bein the King's advice to him, who was very sorrie at their procedor, thinking it a bad precedent for the house of commons to medle with persones so eminently neir to himselfe; yet in the breach he durst not stand but was forced to give them way, so much was Hyde hated in England, so that his Maj., rather then he will in the least endanger the disturbance of his oune peace and quiet, resolves now to quite his dearest minions and expose them to the malice of their ilwillers and haters then stand stoutly to their defence, and so make himselfe party against his people. So Hide makes his escape to France, leiving behind him a declaration wherin he refutes all the crimes they lay to his charge, as his being the author of the marriage of the King wt the Portugues, knowing she would be barren, and that his daughter's posterity might so reigne: item his being the occasion of the selling of Dunkerk to the French king, wheiras if it had bein in the English their possession in the year 1665, in their war betuixt them and Holland, they could have annoyed the States considerably theirby. But the truth is the Queen mother of England was wery instrumentall in that bargaine: item his being the active cause of the war betuixt England and Holland, of which he purges himselfe so largely that I think no man can scarse judge him any way accessor theirto.

That war (wt pardon) was hardly weill manadged on the English syde, and they committed errors most unpardonable in good policie: as first in that battell that was given on the 17 June 1665, wheir Admirall Obdan and his ship ware blowen up, being fired (as was supposed) by the English bullets levelled at it, they contented themselves with the simple wictorie and honor of commanding the seas, wheiras if they had followed forth their victorie and had got betuixt the Holland their shattered fleet and the coast of Holland and Zealand, it was thought by the most judicious men that that on battell might have put ane end to the war and have produced most advantagious conditions for the English: but they verified the knowen saying, _vincere scit Hannibal sed õ victoriâ uti_. Their pretence indeid was that they would not pousse their victory farder by hazarding what they had already won, because the appearand air of the croun, the Duc of York, was present in person. But whow weak this is let any man judge, unles they mean that by intercepting the Dutch their way home they might have made them desperat and so fight like Devils, and that it hes ever bein a good maxime to make a fleing ennemy a bridge of gold. Whowever the Dutch concluded that they would have no mo Admirals that ware gentlemen (for Obdam was so) because they never fought fortunatly with their ennemies when they had such. But certainly this is nought but a fiction made by a commonwealth to cast a blur upon nobility, seing thir same very states have fought most couragiously and advantagiously under the conduct of the Princes of Orange.

Upon his death De Ruyter was chosen admirall, and van Tromp the younger, upon a suspicion of being to affectionat to the intrest of the King of Britain, was disgraced. The nixt (but rather should have bein made the first) was his Mai:s bad choyse of a false chirking willain, Mr. Douning,[635] to be his agent to negotiat affaires at the States Generall in the beginning of that war, who steid of composing things rancored them worse and made them almost uncurable, judging it good fisching in troubled waters, wheiras if a moderat and ane honest man had bein made use of in that business, things would never have come to the height they were at, since the offers of reparation then made by the Dutch to his Majesty ware by all indifferent spectators judged most fair and reasonable. The 3^d is that in the engadgement the following summer, 1666, the King's intelligence should have bein so bad as to have apprehended at that tyme the joining of the French fleet wt the Hollander (wheiras their was no such thing, but it was of purpose done to divide his majesties fleet), and theiron ordering Prince Rupert with his squade away to attend their uniting; and in his absence the Dutch taking the advantage, provocked the Duck of Albemarle (who was a better land sojer then a sea, and who died in 1669) with sixtein ships to fight their wholle fleit, who more hardily then wisely encountering them, had undoubtedly bein totally routed and defeat had not Prince Rupert upon notice come up and releived them. By which conflict it at last appeared that it was possible for the English to be beat by the Hollander, which was never beleived before that.

[635] Sir George Downing, 1623(?), 1684, long Resident at the Hague
under the Commonwealth and Charles II. See _Nat. Dict. Biog._

The nixt error they committed was that the following summer, 1667, the King (for sparing of charges forsooth) was advysed not to set to sea that year, but to let his fleit lay up in the harbors, which gave cause to that mighty affront (then which since England was England it never received the like) given them at Chattan, and wheir the Scots regiment, brought over from France by the King's order, making braver resistance then all England beside, ware many of them slain, dying in the bed of honour. As for the Scots proclaiming war against France, and as for the more naturall way tane by our King in proclaiming the war then tane by France, I shall elsewheir speak more at large.

APPENDIX