The secret history of White-Hall, from the restoration of Charles II down to the abdication of the late K. James writ at the request of a noble lord, and conveyed to him in letters, by ̲̲̲late secretary-interpreter to the Marquess of Louvois, who by that means had the perusal of all the private minutes between England and France for many years : the whole consisting of secret memoirs, which have hitherto lain conceal'd, as not being discoverable by any other hand / publish'd from the original papers, by D. Jones, gent.

LETTER. XIX. (Book 19)

The paces made by the Duke of Bucking∣ham, and afterward by the Princess Henrietta Maria Dutchess of Orleans, towards bringing the King over to joyn with the French against the Dutch, not fully succeeding according to ex∣pectation, they resolve upon other me∣thods: First by making sure of the Duke of York, and then by inciting the Dutch to provoke the King to a War with them.

My Lord,

I have given your Lordship an account of the Princess Henrietta's Negotia∣tion in England, and of the Kings dila∣tory Answer, in regard to his Conjuncti∣on with the French to make War upon the United Provinces, which put the French Polititians somewhat to a Nonplus; but considering how well inclined the Duke was to the Popish Re∣ligion, and how he had exprest his thoughts to the Princess, the King be∣ing present, of the advantage and reason∣ableness of the French Proposals, they made

an Essay, to see what they could do that way, and whether the great con∣fidence he had with, and Influence over his Brother might not induce him to accept of the offer. They found him plyable enough; but upon Application, he did not find the King so, but much more disposed to live at Rest and Pleasure, than to engage himself in so much Sollicitude, as a War would inevitably bring him to; And besides, he was much afraid to discontent his People further, who were already so ill satisfied, with the ill Conduct and Disasters that befel them in the last War, and whom he knew so wholly averse to a new one, unless the Fresh Water-Gandy-Caps and Feathers especially were dismissed, and the Con∣duct of it wholly left to the Old Tar∣polians, who so successfully asserted their Cause with those People in the Repub∣lican and Oliverian times, the happiness of which the late ill Success had much enhaunsed in their Eyes. Yet the French Agents continued pressing of him, and tampering with his Ministers to compass their ends; urging all the specious Mo∣tives in the World, and sparing neither present Advances of Money, nor the most Magnificent Promises of future Ac∣knowledgment; but finding still a great Resistance to any such Overtures; they at length resolved to play their Game

another way, and employ'd their Emis∣saries in Holland, to stir up those Peo∣ple to provoke the King's Resentments by all the ways that Artful Malice could devise; they caused him to be represented to them as a mean Spirited Prince, drowned in Pleasures, and by them Bank∣rupt; and that would put up any Affronts, rather than be weaned from them a Moment. That slender courage he had, be∣ing Cowed in the last War, as likewise were the Spirits of the proudest Merchants and Seamen, his Subjects, under such an Unactive Prince; adding moreover, that to their certain knowledge the Duke of York was now a Papist, tho' in hugger mugger, and that the People had a strong suspition of it, how clandestinely soever carried, and had thereupon con∣ceived such an implacable Jealousie against the Duke therefore, and against the King himself on his account, that they would never patiently brook the Command of the one, nor heartily assist or fight for the other, in a War against a Protestant State; but break into Factions, and rather abet them, then support so Unwarlike, so Unfortunate, and what was worst of all, so Popishly affected a Prince: that therefore now was the time to give that finishing stroak, to that so Great, so Glorious, and so Advantageous a Work to their most Puissant and Renowned Repub∣lick,

which they had more than half done in the last War, under the favour of the most Powerful Assistance of their great Master, Viz. to obtain for ever the dominion of the Seas, so highly con∣tended for by the English, and ingross the whole Trade of both the Hemispheares to themselves; And that in so Glorious an Undertaking, As the Great Monarch of France had, when in extremity, most op∣portunely and successfully assisted them in the preceding War; So he was deter∣mined to do in this, not with a few Auxilliary Troops and Ships as before, But with his whole Force; being resolv'd of nothing less than to concur with their High and Mightinesses for the Absolute Conquest of that Queen of Islands, that had so long domineered over the Sea, and pretended to give Laws upon that Element, which God and Nature had left as free as the Air it self. And that their High and Mightinesses might enter into no Umbrage of his designing any Greatness to himself, that might be prejudicial to them by such a Conquest; he was content to share it with them, and that so Parti∣ally in their Favour, that he would sa∣tisfie himself with the two Poorer King∣doms of Scotland and Ireland; the former for the sake of its Ancient Alliances with his Kingdom, and the latter because of the Conformity of the Religion of its

native Inhabitants, with that of his own Subjects; leaving to them the Prin∣cipal, which was England, where all the Chief Trade, Riches and Power, both by Sea and Land of the Brittish Empire, was concentred together, with all its good∣ly dependances both in the East and West Indies, with which he could not pretend to meddle; the success of which Proposals I design shall be the subject of another Letter with the first opportunity, From

My Lord

Your Lordships most Humble Servant.

Paris Feb. 28. 1677. N. S.