The religion of Charles, and his receiving the sacrament, on his death-bed, from Huddleston, a popish priest, while he refused it from the divines of the church of England, and disregarded their exhortations, have also afforded matter of reproach and altercation. But if the king was really a roman catholic, as is generally believed, and as I have ventured to affirm on respectable authorities, he could neither be blamed for concealing his religion from his subjects, nor for dying in that faith which he had embraced. If, as others contend, he was not a catholic, his brother took a very extraordinary step, in making him die in the romish communion. But if he was so weak, when Huddleston was introduced to him by the duke of York, as to be unable to refuse compliance: if he agreed to receive the sacrament from the divines of the church of England, but had not power to swallow the elements 55; these circumstances prove nothing but his own feeble condition, and the blind bigotry of his brother. The truth, however, seems to be, that Charles, while in high health, was of no particular religion; but that having been early initiated in the catholic faith, he always fled to the altar of superstition, when his spirits were low, or when his life was thought in danger. We must now, my dear Philip, return to the line of general history, and examine the farther progress of the ambition of Lewis XIV. before we carry lower the affairs of England. 54. Burnet, Halifax, Hume, &c. In confirmation of these authorities, see Barillon's Letter to Lewis XIV. Feb. 18, 1685, in Dalrymple's Append. 55. Macpherson, Hist. Brit. vol. i. chap. iv. LETTER XV. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE AFFAIRS ON THE CONTINENT FROM THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN, IN 1678, TO THE LEAGUE OF THE peace of Nimeguen, as might have been fore seen by the allies, instead of setting bounds to the ambition of Lewis XIV. only left him leisure to perfect that scheme of universal monarchy, or absolute sovereignty, A. D. 1678. in Europe at least, into which he was flattered by his poets and orators; and which, at length, roused a new and more powerful confederacy against him. While the Empire, Spain and Holland, disbanded their supernumerary troops, Lewis still kept up all his'; in the midst of profound peace, he maintained a formidable army, and acted as if he had been already the sole sovereign in Europe, and all other princes but his vassals. He established judicatures for reuniting such territories as had anciently depended upon the three bishoprics, Metz, Toul, and Verdun: upon Alsace, or any of his late conquests. These arbitrary courts enquired into titles buried in the most remote antiquity; they cited the neighbouring princes, and even the king of Spain, to appear before them, and to render homage to the king of France, or to behold the confiscation of their possessions. A. D. 1680. No European prince, since the time of Charlemagne, had acted so much like a master and a judge, as Lewis XIV. The elector Palatine, and the elector of Treves, were divested of the signories of Falkembourg, Germarsheim, Valdentz, and other places, by his imperious tribunals; and he laid claim to the ancient and free city of Strasburg, as the capital of Alsace. This large and rich city, which was mistress of the Rhine by means of its bridge over that river, had long attracted the eye of the A. D. 1681. French monarch: and his minister Louvois, by the most artful conduct, at last put him in possession of it. He He ordered troops to enter Lorrain, Franche Compte, and Alsace, under pretence of employing them in working on the fortifications in these provinces. But, according to concert, they all assembled in the neighbourhood of Strasburg, to the number of twenty thousand men, and took possession of the ground between the Rhine and the city, as well as of the redoubt that covered the bridge. Louvois appeared at their head, and demanded that the town should be put under the protection of his master. The magistrates had been corrupted; the inhabitants were all consternation; the city opened its gates, after having secured its privileges by capitulation. Vauban, who had fortified so many places, here exhausted his art, and rendered Strasburg the strongest barrier of France'. Nor did Lewis behave with less arrogance on the side of the Low Countries. He demanded the county of Alost from the Spaniards, on the most frivolous, and even ridiculous pretence. His minister, he said, had forgot to insert it in the articles of peace; and as it was not immediately yielded to him, he blockaded Luxembourg2. Alarmed at A. D. 1683. these ambitious pretensions, the Empire, Spain, and Holland, began to take measures for restraining the encroachments of France. But Spain was yet too feeble to enter upon a new war, and the Imperial armies were required in another quarter, to oppose a more pressing danger. The Hungarians, whose privileges Leopold had never sufficiently respected, had again broke out into rebellion; and Tekeli, the head of the insurgents, had called in the Turks to the support of his countrymen. By the assistance of the basha of Buda, he ravaged Silesia, and reduced many important places in Hungary; while Mahomet IV. the reigning sultan, was preparing the most formidable force that the Ottoman empire had ever sent against Christendom. 1. Hist. d'Alsace, liv. xxiii. Voltaire, Siecle, chap. xiii. 2. Voltaire, ubi sup. Leopold Leopold, foreseeing that the gathering storm would finally break upon Germany, beside demanding the assistance of the princes of the empire, concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with John Sobieski, king of Poland. Meanwhile the grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, passing through Hungary, at the head of fifty thousand Janizaries, thirty thousand spahis, and two hundred thousand common men assembled for the occasion, with baggage and artillery in proportion to such a multitude, advanced towards Vienna. The duke of Lorrain, who commanded the Imperial forces, attempted in vain to oppose the progress of the invader. The Turks, under the grand vizier, took the right of the Danube, and Tekeli, with the Hungarians, the left. Seeing his capital threatened on every side, the emperor retired first to Lintz, and afterwards to Passau. Two thirds of the inhabitants followed the court; and nothing was to be seen, on all sides, but fugitives, equipages, and carriages laden with moveables3. The whole empire was thrown into consternation. The garrison of Vienna amounted to about fifteen thou sand men; and the citizens able to bear arms, to near fifty thousand. The Turks invested the town on the 17th of July; and they had not only destroyed the suburbs, but made a breach in the body of the place by the first of September. The duke of Lorrain had been so fortunate as to prevent the Hungarians from joining the Turks, but was unable to lend the garrison any relief; and an assault was every moment expected, when a deliverer appeared. John Sobieski, king of Poland, having joined his troops to those of Saxony, Bavaria, and the Circles, made a signal to the besieged from the top of the mountain of Calemberg, and inspired them with new hopes. Kara Mustapha, who, from a contempt of the Christians, had neglected to push the assault, and who, amidst the progress of ruin, had wantoned in luxury, was now made sensible of his mistake, when too late to repair it. S. Annal. de l'Emp. tom. ii. Barre, tom. x. The The Christians, to the number of sixty-four thousand, descended the mountain, under the command of the king of Poland, the duke of Lorrain, and an incredible number of German princes. The grand vizier advanced to meet them at the head of the main body of the Turkish army, while he ordered an assault to be made upon the city with twenty thousand men, who were left in the trenches. The assault failed; and the Turks being seized with a panic, were routed almost without resistance. Only five hundred of the victors fell, and not above one thousand of the vanquished. And so great was the terror, and so precipitate the flight of the Infidels, that they abandoned not only their tents, artillery, and baggage, but left behind them even the famous standard of Mahomet, which was sent as a present to the pope4! The Turks received another defeat in the plain of Barcan; and all Hungary, on both sides of the Danube, was recovered by the Imperial arms. The king of France, who had supported the malecontents in Hungary, and who encouraged the invasion of the Turks, raised however the blockade of Luxembourg, when they approached Vienna. "I will never," said he, “ attack a "Christian prince, while Christendom is in danger from the "Infidels5." He was confident when he made this declaration, that the Imperial city would be taken, and had an army on the frontiers of Germany, ready to oppose the farther progress of those very Turks whom he had invited thither! By becoming the protector of the empire, he hoped to get his son elected king of the Romans". But this scheme being defeated, and the apprehensions of Christendom removed by the relief of Vienna and the expulsion .A. D. 1684. of the Turks, Lewis returned to the siege of Luxembourg; and reduced, in a short time, not only that place, but also Courtray and Dixmude. 4. Id. Ibid. 5. Voltaire, Siecle, chap. xiii. X VOL. IV. 6. Voltaire, ubi sup> Enraged |