JAMES II.
{1688.} While every motive, civil and religious, concurred to alienate
from the king every rank and denomination of men, it might be expected
that his throne would, without delay fall to pieces by its own weight:
but such is the influence of established government, so averse are men
from beginning hazardous enterprises, that, had not an attack been made
from abroad, affairs might long have remained in their present delicate
situation, and James might at last have prevailed in his rash and
ill-concerted projects.
The prince of Orange, ever since his marriage with the lady Mary, had
maintained a very prudent conduct; agreeably to that sound understanding
with which he was so eminently endowed. He made it a maxim to concern
himself little in English affairs, and never by any measure to disgust
any of the factions, or give umbrage to the prince who filled the
throne. His natural inclination, as well as his interest, led him
to employ himself with assiduous industry in the transactions on the
continent, and to oppose the grandeur of the French monarch, against
whom he had long, both from personal and political considerations,
conceived a violent animosity. By this conduct he gratified the
prejudices of the whole English nation: but, as he crossed the
inclinations of Charles, who sought peace by compliance with France, he
had much declined in the favor and affections of that monarch.
James, on his accession, found it so much his interest to live on
good terms with the heir apparent, that he showed the prince some
demonstrations of friendship; and the prince, on his part, was not
wanting in every instance of duty and regard towards the king. On
Monmouth’s invasion, he immediately despatched over six regiments of
British troops, which were in the Dutch service; and he offered to take
the command of the king’s forces against the rebels. How little however
he might approve of James’s administration, he always kept a total
silence on the subject, and gave no countenance to those discontents
which were propagated with such industry throughout the nation.
It was from the application of James himself that the prince first
openly took any part in English affairs. Notwithstanding the lofty ideas
which the king had entertained of his prerogative, he found that the
edicts emitted from it still wanted much of the authority of laws, and
that the continuance of them might in the issue become dangerous both
to himself and to the Catholics, whom he desired to favor. An act of
parliament alone could insure the indulgence or toleration which he had
labored to establish; and he hoped that, if the prince would declare in
favor of that scheme, the members who had hitherto resisted all his own
applications, would at last be prevailed with to adopt it. The consent,
therefore, of the prince to the repeal of the penal statutes and of the
test was strongly solicited by the king; and in order to engage him to
agree to that measure, hopes were given,[*] that England would second
him in all those enterprises which his active and extensive genius had
with such success planned on the continent. He was at this time the
centre of all the negotiations of Christendom.
* Bennet vol. i. p. 711. D’Avanx, April 15, 1688.
The emperor and the king of Spain, as the prince well knew, were enraged
by the repeated injuries which they had suffered from the ambition of
Lewis, and still more by the frequent insults which his pride had made
them undergo. He was apprised of the influence of these monarchs over
the Catholic princes of the empire: he had himself acquired great
authority with the Protestant: and he formed a project of uniting Europe
in one general league against the encroachments of France, which seemed
so nearly to threaten the independence of all its neighbors.
No characters are more incompatible than those of a conqueror and a
persecutor; and Lewis soon found, that besides his weakening France by
the banishment of so many useful subjects, the refugees had inflamed all
the Protestant rations against him, and had raised him enemies, who, in
defence of their religion as well as liberty, were obstinately resolved
to oppose his progress. The city of Amsterdam and other towns in
Holland, which had before fallen into a dependence on France, being
terrified with the accounts which they every moment received of the
furious persecutions against the Hugonots, had now dropped all domestic
faction, and had entered into an entire confidence with the prince of
Orange.[*] The Protestant princes of the empire formed a separate league
at Magdebourg for the defence of their religion. The English were anew
enraged at the blind bigotry of their sovereign, and were disposed to
embrace the most desperate resolutions against him. From a view of
the state of Europe during this period, it appears that Lewis, besides
sullying an illustrious reign, had wantonly, by this persecution, raised
invincible barriers to his arms, which otherwise it had been difficult,
if not impossible, to resist.
* D’Avaux, July 24, 1681; June 10 October 15, November 11
1688; vol. iv p. 30.
The prince of Orange knew how to avail himself of all these advantages.
By his intrigues and influence, there was formed at Augsbourg a league,
in which the whole empire united for its defence against the French
monarch. Spain and Holland became parties in the alliance. The accession
of Savoy was afterwards obtained. Sweden and Denmark seemed to favor the
same cause. But though these numerous states composed the greater part
of Europe, the league was still deemed imperfect and unequal to its end,
so long as England maintained that neutrality in which she had hitherto
persevered.
James, though more prone to bigotry, was more sensible to his own and to
national honor than his brother; and had he not been restrained by the
former motive, he would have maintained with more spirit the interests
and independence of his kingdoms. When a prospect, therefore, appeared
of effecting his religious schemes by opposing the progress of France,
he was not averse to that measure; and he gave his son-in-law room to
hope, that, by concurring with his views in England, he might prevail
with him to second those projects which the prince was so ambitious of
promoting.
A more tempting offer could not be made to a person of his enterprising
character: but the objections to that measure, upon deliberation,
appeared to him unsurmountable. The king, he observed, had incurred the
hatred of his own subjects. Great apprehensions were entertained of
his designs: the only resource which the nation saw, was in the future
succession of the prince and princess: should he concur in those dreaded
measures, he should draw on himself all the odium under which the king
labored; the nation might even refuse to bear the expense of alliances,
which would in that case become so suspicious: and he might himself
incur danger of losing a succession which was awaiting him, and which
the egregious indiscretion of the king seemed even to give him hopes
of reaping before it should devolve to him by the course of nature. The
prince, therefore, would go no further than to promise his consent to
the repeal of the penal statutes, by which the nonconformists as well
as Catholics were exposed to punishment: the test he deemed a security
absolutely necessary for the established religion.
The king did not remain satisfied with a single trial. There was one
Stuart, a Scotch lawyer, who had been banished for pretended treasonable
practices; but who had afterwards obtained a pardon, and had been
recalled. By the king’s directions, Stuart wrote several letters
to Pensionary Fagel, with whom he had contracted an acquaintance in
Holland; and besides urging all the motives for an unlimited toleration,
he desired that his reasons should, in the king’s name, be communicated
to the prince and princess of Orange. Fagel during a long time made no
reply; but finding that his silence was construed into an assent, he
at last expressed his own sentiments and those of their highnesses. He
said, that it was their fixed opinion, that no man, merely because he
differed from the established faith, should ever, while he remained a
peaceable subject, be exposed to any punishment, or even vexation:
that the prince and princess gave heartily their consent for repealing
legally all the penal statutes, as well those which had been enacted
against the Catholics as against the Protestant nonconformists; and
would concur with the king in any measure for that purpose: that the
test was not to be considered as a penalty inflicted on the professors
of any religion, but as a security provided for the established worship:
that it was no punishment on men to be excluded from public offices, and
to live peaceably on their own revenues or industry: that even in the
United Provinces, which were so often cited as models of toleration,
though all sects were admitted, yet civil offices were enjoyed by the
professors of the established religion alone: that military commands,
indeed, were sometimes bestowed on Catholics; but as they were
conferred with great precaution, and still lay under the control of the
magistrate, they could give no just reason for umbrage: and that their
highnesses, however desirous of gratifying the king, and of endeavoring
by every means to render his reign peaceable and happy, could not
agree to any measure which would expose their religion to such imminent
danger.
When this letter was published, as it soon was, it inspired great
courage into the Protestants of all denominations, and served to keep
them united in their opposition to the encroachments of the Catholics.
On the other hand, the king, who was not content with a simple
toleration for his own religion, but was resolved that it should enjoy
great credit, if not an absolute superiority, was extremely disgusted,
and took every occasion to express his displeasure, as well against the
prince of Orange as the United Provinces. He gave the Algerine pirates,
who preyed on the Dutch, a reception in his harbors, and liberty to
dispose of their prizes. He revived some complaints of the East India
Company with regard to the affair of Bantam,[*] He required the six
British regiments in the Dutch service to be sent over. He began to
put his navy in a formidable condition. And from all his movements, the
Hollanders entertained apprehensions that he sought only an occasion and
pretence for making war upon them.
The prince, in his turn, resolved to push affairs with more vigor, and
to preserve all the English Protestants in his interests, as well as
maintain them firm in their present union against the Catholics. He knew
that men of education in England were, many of them, retained in their
religion more by honor than by principle;[**] and that, though every one
was ashamed to be the first proselyte, yet if the example were once
set by some eminent persons, interest would every day make considerable
conversions to a communion which was so zealously encouraged by the
sovereign.
* D’Avaux, 21st of January, 1687.
** Burnet.
Dykvelt therefore was sent over as envoy to England; and the prince
gave him instructions, besides publicly remonstrating on the conduct of
affairs both at home and abroad, to apply in his name, after a proper
manner, to every sect and denomination. To the church party he sent
assurances of favor and regard, and protested, that his education in
Holland had nowise prejudiced him against Episcopal government. The
nonconformists were exhorted not to be deceived by the fallacious
caresses of a Popish court, but to wait patiently till, in the fulness
of time, laws enacted by Protestants should give them that toleration
which, with so much reason, they had long demanded. Dykvelt executed his
commission with such dexterity, that all orders of men cast their eyes
towards Holland, and expected thence a deliverance from those dangers
with which their religion and liberty were so nearly threatened.
Many of the most considerable persons, both in church and state, made
secret applications to Dykvelt, and through him to the prince of Orange.
Admiral Herbert too, though a man of great expense, and seemingly of
little religion, had thrown up his employments, and had retired to the
Hague, where he assured the prince of the disaffection of the seamen, by
whom that admiral was extremely beloved. Admiral Russel, cousin german
to the unfortunate lord of that name, passed frequently between England
and Holland, and kept the communication open with all the great men of
the Protestant party. Henry Sidney, brother to Algernon, and uncle to
the earl of Sunderland, came over under pretence of drinking the
waters at Spaw, and conveyed still stronger assurances of a universal
combination against the measures of the king. Lord Dumblaine, son of
the earl of Danby, being master of a frigate, made several voyages to
Holland, and carried from many of the nobility tenders of duty, and even
considerable sums of money,[*] to the prince of Orange.
* D’Avaux, 14th and 24th of September, 8th and 15th of
October, 1688.
There remained, however, some reasons which retained all parties in awe,
and kept them from breaking out into immediate hostility. The prince,
on the one hand, was afraid of hazarding, by violent measures, an
inheritance which the laws insured to the princess; and the English
Protestants, on the other, from the prospect of her succession, still
entertained hopes of obtaining at last a peaceable and a safe redress
of all their grievances. But when a son was born to the king, both
the prince and the English nation were reduced to despair, and saw no
resource but in a confederacy for their mutual interests. And thus
the event which James had so long made the object of his most ardent
prayers, and from which he expected the firm establishment of his
throne, proved the immediate cause of his ruin and downfall.
Zuylestein, who had been sent over to congratulate the king on the birth
of his son, brought back to the prince invitations from most of the
great men in England, to assist them by his arms in the recovery of
their laws and liberties. The bishop of London, the earls of Danby,
Nottingham, Devonshire, Dorset, the duke of Norfolk, the lords Lovelace
Delamere, Paulet, Eland, Mr. Hambden, Powle, Lester, besides many
eminent citizens of London; all these persons, though of opposite
parties, concurred in their applications to the prince. The whigs,
suitably to their ancient principles of liberty, which had led them
to attempt the exclusion bill, easily agreed to oppose a king, whose
conduct had justified whatever his worst enemies had prognosticated
concerning his succession. The tories and the church party, finding
their past services forgotten, their rights invaded, their religion
threatened, agreed to drop for the present all overstrained doctrines of
submission, and attend to the great and powerful dictates of nature. The
nonconformists, dreading the caresses of known and inveterate enemies,
deemed the offers of toleration more secure from a prince educated in
those principles, and accustomed to that practice. And thus all faction
was for a time laid asleep in England; and rival parties, forgetting
their animosity, had secretly concurred in a design of resisting
their unhappy and misguided sovereign. The earl of Shrewsbury, who
had acquired great popularity by deserting, at this time, the Catholic
religion, in which he had been educated, left his regiment, mortgaged
his estate for forty thousand pounds, and made a tender of his sword and
purse to the prince of Orange. Lord Wharton, notwithstanding his age and
infirmities, had taken a journey for the same purpose. Lord Mordaunt
was at the Hague, and pushed on the enterprise with that ardent and
courageous spirit for which he was so eminent. Even Sunderland,
the king’s favorite minister, is believed to have entered into a
correspondence with the prince; and, at the expense of his own honor
and his master’s interests, to have secretly favored a cause which, he
foresaw, was likely soon to predominate.[*]
* D’Avaux was always of that opinion. See his Negotiations,
6th and 20th of May, 18th, 27th of September, 22d of
November, 1688. On the whole, that opinion is the most
probable.
The prince was easily engaged to yield to the applications of the
English, and to embrace the defence of a nation which, during its
present fears and distresses, regarded him as its sole protector.
The great object of his ambition was to be placed at the head of a
confederate army, and by his valor to avenge the injuries which he
himself, his country, and his allies, had sustained from the haughty
Lewis. But while England remained under the present government, he
despaired of ever forming a league which would be able, with any
probability of success, to make opposition against that powerful
monarch. The ties of affinity could not be supposed to have great
influence over a person of the prince’s rank and temper much more as he
knew that they were at first unwillingly contracted by the king, and had
never since been cultivated by any essential favors or good offices. Or
should any reproach remain upon him for violating the duties of private
life, the glory of delivering oppressed nations would, he hoped, be
able, in the eyes of reasonable men, to make ample compensation. He
could not well expect, on the commencement of his enterprise, that
it would lead him to mount the throne of England: but he undoubtedly
foresaw, that its success would establish his authority in that kingdom.
And so egregious was James’s temerity, that there was no advantage so
great or obvious, which that prince’s indiscretion might not afford his
enemies.
The prince of Orange, throughout his whole life, was peculiarly happy
in the situations in which he was placed. He saved his own country from
ruin, he restored the liberties of these kingdoms, he supported the
general independency of Europe. And thus, though his virtue, it is
confessed, be not the purest which we meet with in history, it will be
difficult to find any person whose actions and conduct have contributed
more eminently to the general interests of society and of mankind.
The time when the prince entered on his enterprise was well chosen; as
the people were then in the highest ferment on account of the insult
which the imprisonment and trial of the bishops had put upon the
church, and indeed upon all the Protestants of the nation. His method
of conducting his preparations was no less wise and politic. Under other
pretences he had beforehand made considerable augmentations to the Dutch
navy; and the ships were at that time lying in harbor. Some additional
troops were also levied; and sums of money raised for other purposes,
were diverted by the prince to the use of this expedition. The states
had given him their entire confidence; and partly from terror of the
power of France, partly from disgust at some restraints laid on their
commerce in that kingdom, were sensible how necessary success in this
enterprise was become to their domestic happiness and security. Many of
the neighboring princes regarded him as their guardian and protector,
and were guided by him in all their counsels. He held conferences with
Castanaga, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, with the electors of
Brandenburgh and Saxony, with the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and with
the whole house of Lunenbourg. It was agreed, that these princes should
replace the troops employed against England, and should protect the
United Provinces during the absence of the prince of Orange. Their
forces were already on their march for that purpose: a considerable
encampment of the Dutch army was formed at Nimeguén: every place was in
movement: and though the roots of this conspiracy reached from one end
of Europe to the other, so secret were the prince’s counsels, and so
fortunate was the situation of affairs, that he could still cover his
preparations under other pretences; and little suspicion was entertained
of his real intentions.
The king of France, menaced by the league of Augsbourg, had resolved to
strike the first blow against the allies; and having sought a quarrel
with the emperor and the elector Palatine, he had invaded Germany with a
great Army, and had laid siege to Philipsbourg. The elector of Cologne,
who was also bishop of Liege and Munster, and whose territories almost
entirely surrounded the United Provinces, had died about this time; and
the candidates for that rich succession were Prince Clement of Bavaria,
supported by the house of Austria, and the cardinal of Furstemberg, a
prelate dependent on France. The pope, who favored the allies, was able
to throw the balance between the parties, and Prince Clement was chosen;
a circumstance which contributed extremely to the security of the
states. But as the cardinal kept possession of many of the fortresses,
and had applied to France for succor, the neighboring territories were
full of troops; and by this means the preparations of the Dutch and
their allies seemed intended merely for their own defence against the
different enterprises of Lewis.
All the artifices, however, of the prince could not entirely conceal his
real intentions from the sagacity of the French court. D’Avaux, Lewis’s
envoy at the Hague, had been able by a comparison of circumstances,
to trace the purposes of the preparations in Holland; and he instantly
informed his master of the discovery. Lewis conveyed the intelligence to
James, and accompanied the information with an important offer. He was
willing to join a squadron of French ships to the English fleet; and to
send over any number of troops which James should judge requisite for
his security. When this proposal was rejected, he again offered to raise
the siege of Philipsbourg, to march his army into the Netherlands,
and by the terror of his arms to detain the Dutch forces in their own
country. This proposal met with no better reception.
James was not, as yet, entirely convinced that his son-in-law intended
an invasion upon England. Fully persuaded himself of the sacredness
of his own authority, he fancied that a like belief had made deep
impression on his subjects: and notwithstanding the strong symptoms of
discontent which broke out every where, such a universal combination
in rebellion appeared to him nowise credible. His army, in which he
trusted, and which he had considerably augmented, would easily be able,
he thought, to repel foreign force, and to suppress any sedition among
the populace. A small number of French troops, joined to these, might
tend only to breed discontent; and afford them a pretence for mutinying
against foreigners, so much feared and hated by the nation. A great body
of auxiliaries might indeed secure him both against an invasion from
Holland, and against the rebellion of his own subjects; but would be
able afterwards to reduce him to dependence, and render his authority
entirely precarious. Even the French invasion of the Low Countries might
be attended with dangerous consequences; and would suffice, in these
jealous times, to revive the old suspicion of a combination against
Holland, and against the Protestant religion, a suspicion which had
already produced such discontents in England. These were the views
suggested by Sunderland, and it must be confessed, that the reasons
on which they were founded were sufficiently plausible; as indeed the
situation to which the king had reduced himself was, to the last degree,
delicate and perplexing.
Still Lewis was unwilling to abandon a friend and ally, whose interests
he regarded as closely connected with his own. By the suggestion of
Skelton, the king’s minister at Paris, orders were sent to D’Avaux to
remonstrate with the states, in Lewis’s name, against those preparations
which they were making to invade England. The strict amity, said the
French minister, which subsists between the two monarchs, will make
Lewis regard every attempt against his ally as an act of hostility
against himself. This remonstrance had a bad effect and put the states
in a flame. What is this alliance, they asked, between France and
England, which has been so care fully concealed from us? Is it of the
same nature with the former; meant for our destruction, and for the
extirpation of the Protestant religion? If so, it is high time for us to
provide for our own defence, and to anticipate those projects which are
forming against us.
Even James was displeased with the officious step taken by Lewis for his
service. He was not reduced, he said, to the condition of the cardinal
of Furstemberg, and obliged to seek the protection of France. He
recalled Skelton, and threw him into the Tower for his rash conduct. He
solemnly disavowed D’Avaux’s memorial; and protested that no alliance
subsisted between him and Lewis, but what was public and known to all
the world. The states, however, still affected to appear incredulous on
that head; [*] and the English, prepossessed against their sovereign,
firmly believed, that he had concerted a project with Lewis for their
entire subjection. Portsmouth, it was said, was to be put into the hands
of that ambitious monarch: England was to be filled with French
and Irish troops: and every man who refused to embrace the Romish
superstition, was by these bigoted princes devoted to certain
destruction.
* That there really was no new alliance formed betwixt
France and England, appears both, from Sunderland’s Apology,
and from D’Avaux’s Negotiations, lately published: see vol.
iv. p. 18. Eng translation, 27th of September, 1687; 16th of
March, 6th of May, 10th of August, 2d, 23d, and 24th of
September, 5th and 7th of October, 11th of November, 1688.
These suggestions were every where spread abroad, and tended to augment
the discontents of which both the fleet and army, as well as the people,
betrayed every day the most evident symptoms. The fleet had begun to
mutiny; because Stricland, the admiral, a Roman Catholic, introduced the
mass aboard his ship, and dismissed the Protestant chaplain. It was with
some difficulty the seamen could be appeased; and they still persisted
in declaring that they would not fight against the Dutch, whom they
called friends and brethren; but would willingly give battle to the
French, whom they regarded as national enemies. The king had intended
to augment his army with Irish recruits; and he resolved to try the
experiment on the regiment of the duke of Berwick, his natural son: but
Beaumont, the lieutenant-colonel, refused to admit them; and to this
opposition five captains steadily adhered. They were all cashiered;
and had not the discontents of the army on this occasion become very
apparent, it was resolved to have punished those officers for mutiny.
The king made a trial of the dispositions of his army, in a manner
still more undisguised. Finding opposition from all the civil and
ecclesiastical orders of the kingdom, he resolved to appeal to the
military, who, if unanimous, were able alone to serve all his purposes,
and to enforce universal obedience. His intention was to engage all the
regiments, one after another, to give their consent to the repeal of the
test and penal statutes; and accordingly, the major of Litchfield’s
drew out the battalion before the king, and told them, that they were
required either to enter into his majesty’s views in these particulars,
or to lay down their arms. James was surprised to find that, two
captains and a few Popish soldiers excepted, the whole battalion
immediately embraced the latter part of the alternative. For some time
he remained speechless; but having recovered from his astonishment, he
commanded them to take up their arms; adding with a sullen, discontented
air, “That for the future, he would not do them the honor to apply for
their approbation.”
While the king was dismayed with these symptoms of general disaffection,
he received a letter from the marquis of Albeville, his minister at the
Hague, which informed him with certainty, that he was soon to look for a
powerful invasion from Holland; and that Pensionary Fagel had at length
acknowledged, that the scope of all the Dutch naval preparations was to
transport forces into England. Though James could reasonably expect no
other intelligence, he was astonished at the news: he grew pale, and
the letter dropped from his hand: his eyes were now opened, and he found
himself on the brink of a frightful precipice, which his delusions had
hitherto concealed from him. His ministers and counsellors, equally
astonished, saw no resource but in a sudden and precipitate retraction
of all those fatal measures by which he had created to himself so many
enemies, foreign and domestic. He paid court to the Dutch, and offered
to enter into any alliance with them for common security: he replaced
in all the counties the deputy lieutenants and justices who had been
deprived of their commissions for their adherence to the test and
the penal laws: he restored the charters of London, and of all the
corporations: he annulled the court of ecclesiastical commission: he
took off the bishop of London’s suspension: he reinstated the expelled
president and fellows of Magdalen College: and he was even reduced to
caress those bishops whom he had so lately prosecuted and insulted. All
these measures were regarded as symptoms of fear, not of repentance.
The bishops, instead of promising succor or suggesting comfort,
recapitulated to him all the instances of his maleadministration, and
advised him thenceforwards to follow more salutary counsel. And as
intelligence arrived of a great disaster which had befallen the Dutch
fleet, it is commonly believed, that the king recalled, for some time,
the concessions which he had made to Magdalen College; a bad sign of
his sincerity in his other concessions. Nay, so prevalent were his
unfortunate prepossessions, that amidst all his present distresses, he
could not forbear, at the baptism of the young prince, appointing the
pope to be one of the god-fathers.
The report that a supposititious child was to be imposed on the nation,
had been widely spread, and greedily received, before the birth of the
prince of Wales: but the king, who, without seeming to take notice of
the matter, might easily have quashed that ridiculous rumor, had, from
an ill-timed haughtiness, totally neglected it. He disdained, he said,
to satisfy those who could deem him capable of so base and villanous
an action. Finding that the calumny gained ground, and had made
deep impression on his subjects, he was now obliged to submit to the
mortifying task of ascertaining the reality of the birth. Though no
particular attention had been beforehand given to insure proof, the
evidence both of the queen’s pregnancy and delivery was rendered
indisputable and so much the more, as no argument or proof of any
importance, nothing but popular rumor and surmise, could be thrown into
the opposite scale.
Meanwhile the prince of Orange’s declaration was dispersed over the
kingdom, and met with universal approbation. All the grievances of the
nation were there enumerated: the dispensing and suspending power; the
court of ecclesiastical commission; the filling of all offices with
Catholics, and the raising of a Jesuit to be privy counsellor; the
open encouragement given to Popery, by building every where churches,
colleges, and seminaries for that sect; the displacing of judges, if
they refused to give sentence according to orders received from
court; the annulling of the charters of all the corporations, and the
subjecting of elections to arbitrary will and pleasure; the treating of
petitions, even the most modest, and from persons of the highest rank,
as criminal and seditious; the committing of the whole authority of
Ireland, civil and military, into the hands of Papists; the assuming
of an absolute power over the religion and laws of Scotland, and openly
exacting in that kingdom an obedience without reserve; and the violent
presumptions against the legitimacy of the prince of Wales. In order to
redress all these grievances, the prince said, that he intended to come
over to England with an armed force, which might protect him from the
king’s evil counsellors; and that his sole aim was to have a legal and
free parliament assembled, who might provide for the safety and liberty
of the nation, as well as examine the proofs of the prince of Wales’s
legitimacy. No one, he added, could entertain such hard thoughts of him
as to imagine, that he had formed any other design than to procure the
full and lasting settlement of religion, liberty, and property. The
force which he meant to bring with him, was totally disproportioned
to any views of conquest; and it were absurd to suspect, that so many
persons of high rank, both in church and state, would have given him
so many solemn invitations for such a pernicious purpose. Though the
English ministers, terrified with his enterprise, had pretended to
redress some of the grievances complained of, there still remained the
foundation of all grievances, that upon which they could in an instant
be again erected, an arbitrary and despotic power in the crown. And for
this usurpation there was no possible remedy, but by a full declaration
of all the rights of the subject in a free parliament.
So well concerted were the prince’s measures, that, in three days,
above four hundred transports were hired; the army quickly fell down
the rivers and canals from Nimeguen; the artillery, arms, stores, and
horses, were embarked; and the prince set sail from Helvoet-Sluice,
with a fleet of near five hundred vessels, and an army of above fourteen
thousand men. He first encountered a storm, which drove him back: but
his loss being soon repaired, the fleet put to sea under the command
of Admiral Herbert, and made sail with a fair wind towards the west of
England. The same wind detained the king’s fleet in their station near
Harwich, and enabled the Dutch to pass the Straits of Dover without
opposition. Both shores were covered with multitudes of people, who,
besides admiring the grandeur of the spectacle, were held in anxious
suspense by the prospect of an enterprise, the most important which,
during some ages, had been undertaken in Europe. The prince had a
prosperous voyage, and landed his army safely in Torbay on the fifth of
November, the anniversary of the gunpowder treason.
The Dutch army marched first to Exeter; and the prince’s declaration was
there published. That whole county was so terrified with the executions
which had ensued upon Monmouth’s rebellion, that no one for several days
joined the prince. The bishop of Exeter in a fright fled to London and
carried to court intelligence of the invasion. As a reward of his zeal,
he received the archbishopric of York, which had long been kept vacant,
with an intention, as was universally believed, of bestowing it on some
Catholic. The first person who joined the prince, was Major Burrington;
and he was quickly followed by the gentry of the counties of Devon and
Somerset. Sir Edward Seymour made proposals for an association, which
every one signed. By degrees, the earl of Abingdon, Mr. Russel, son of
the earl of Bedford, Mr. Wharton, Godfrey, Howe, came to Exeter. All
England was in commotion. Lord Delamere took arms in Cheshire, the earl
of Danby seized York, the earl of Bath, governor of Plymouth, declared
for the prince, the earl of Devonshire made a like declaration in Derby.
The nobility and gentry of Nottinghamshire embraced the same cause; and
every day there appeared some effect of that universal combination into
which the nation had entered against the measures of the king. Even
those who took not the field against him, were able to embarrass and
confound his counsels. A petition for a free parliament was signed
by twenty-four bishops and peers of the greatest distinction, and was
presented to the king. No one thought of opposing or resisting the
invader.
But the most dangerous symptom was the disaffection which, from the
general spirit of the nation, not from any particular reason, had crept
into the army. The officers seemed ill disposed to prefer the interests
of their country and of their religion, to those principles of honor and
fidelity which are commonly esteemed the most sacred ties by men of that
profession. Lord Colchester, son of the earl of Rivers, was the first
officer that deserted to the prince; and he was attended by a few of
his troops. Lord Lovelace made a like effort: but was intercepted by the
militia under the duke of Beaufort, and taken prisoner; Lord Cornbury,
son of the earl of Clarendon, was more successful. He attempted to carry
over three regiments of cavalry; and he actually brought a considerable
part of them to the prince’s quarters. Several officers of distinction
informed Feversham, the general, that they could not in conscience fight
against the prince of Orange.
Lord Churchill had been raised from the rank of a page had been invested
with a high command in the army, had been created a peer, and had owed
his whole fortune to the king’s favor: yet even he could resolve,
during the present extremity, to desert his unhappy master, who had
ever reposed entire confidence in him. He carried with him the duke of
Grafton, natural son of the late king, Colonel Berkeley, and some troops
of dragoons. This conduct was a signal sacrifice to public virtue of
every duty in private life; and required ever after, the most upright,
disinterested, and public-spirited behavior to render it justifiable.
The king had arrived at Salisbury, the head-quarters of his army, when
he received this fatal intelligence. That prince, though a severe
enemy, had ever appeared a warm, steady, and sincere friend; and he was
extremely shocked with this, as with many other instances of ingratitude
to which he was now exposed. There remained none in whom he could
confide. As the whole army had discovered symptoms of discontent, he
concluded it full of treachery; and being deserted by those whom he had
most favored and obliged, he no longer expected that others would hazard
their lives in his service. During this distraction and perplexity,
he embraced a sudden resolution of drawing off his army, and retiring
towards London; a measure which could only serve to betray his fears,
and provoke further treachery.
But Churchill had prepared a still more mortal blow for his distressed
benefactor. His lady and he had an entire ascendant over the family
of Prince George of Denmark; and the time now appeared seasonable for
overwhelming the unhappy king, who was already staggering with the
violent shocks which he had received. Andover was the first stage of
James’s retreat towards London; and there Prince George together with
the young duke of Ormond,[*] Sir George Huet, and some other persons of
distinction, deserted him in the night-time, and retired to the prince’s
camp.
* His grandfather, the first duke of Ormond, had died this
year July 21.
No sooner had this news reached London, than the princess Anne,
pretending fear of the king’s displeasure, withdrew herself in company
with the bishop of London and Lady Churchill. She fled to Nottingham;
where the earl of Dorset received her with great respect, and the gentry
of the county quickly formed a troop for her protection.
The late king, in order to gratify the nation, had intrusted the
education of his nieces entirely to Protestants; and as these princesses
were deemed the chief resource of the established religion after their
father’s defection, great care had been taken to instil into them, from
their earliest infancy, the strongest prejudices against Popery. During
the violence too of such popular currents as now prevailed in England,
all private considerations are commonly lost in the general passion;
and the more principle any person possesses, the more apt is he, on
such occasions, to neglect and abandon his domestic duties. Though these
causes may account for the behavior of the princess, they had nowise
prepared the king to expect so astonishing an event. He burst into tears
when the first intelligence of it was conveyed to him. Undoubtedly he
foresaw in this incident the total expiration of his royal authority:
but the nearer and more intimate concern of a parent laid hold of his
heart, when he found himself abandoned in his uttermost distress by a
child, and a virtuous child, whom he had ever regarded with the most
tender affection. “God help me,” cried he, in the extremity of his
agony; “my own children have forsaken me!” It is indeed singular, that
a prince, whose chief blame consisted in imprudencies and misguided
principles, should be exposed, from religious antipathy, to such
treatment as even Nero, Domitian, or the most enormous tyrants that have
disgraced the records of history, never met with from their friends and
family.
So violent were the prejudices which at this time prevailed, that
this unhappy father, who had been deserted by his favorite child, was
believed, upon her disappearing, to have put her to death: and it was
fortunate that the truth was timely discovered, otherwise the populace,
even the king’s guards themselves, might have been engaged, in revenge,
to commence a massacre of the priests and Catholics.
The king s fortune now exposed him to the contempt of his enemies and
his behavior was not such as could gain him the esteem of his friends
and adherents. Unable to resist the torrent, he preserved not presence
of mind in yielding to it; but seemed in this emergence as much
depressed with adversity, as he had before been vainly elated by
prosperity. He called a council of all the peers and prelates who
were in London; and followed their advice in issuing writs for a
new parliament, and in sending Halifax, Nottingham, and Godolphin as
commissioners to treat with the prince of Orange. But these were the
last acts of royal authority which he exerted. He even hearkened to
imprudent counsel, by which he was prompted to desert the throne, and to
gratify his enemies beyond what their fondest hopes could have promised
them.
The queen, observing the fury of the people, and knowing how much she
was the object of general hatred, was struck with the deepest terror,
and began to apprehend a parliamentary impeachment, from which, she was
told, the queens of England were not exempted. The Popish courtiers,
and above all the priests, were aware that they should be the first
sacrifice, and that their perpetual banishment was the smallest penalty
which they must expect from national resentment. They were, therefore,
desirous of carrying the king along with them, whose presence, they
knew, would still be some resource and protection to them in foreign
countries, and whose restoration, if it ever happened, would again
reinstate them in power and authority. The general defection of the
Protestants made the king regard the Catholics as his only subjects on
whose counsel he could rely; and the fatal catastrophe of his father
afforded them a plausible reason for making him apprehend a like fate.
The great difference of circumstances was not, during men’s present
distractions, sufficiently weighed. Even after the people were inflamed
by a long civil war, the execution of Charles I. could not be deemed
a national deed: it was perpetrated by a fanatical army pushed on by
a daring and enthusiastic leader; and the whole kingdom had ever
entertained, and did still entertain, a violent abhorrence against that
enormity. The situation of public affairs, therefore, no more resembled
what it was forty years before, than the prince of Orange, either in
birth, character, fortune, or connections, could be supposed a parallel
to Cromwell.
The emissaries of France, and among the rest Barillon, the French
ambassador, were busy about the king, and they had entertained a very
false notion, which they instilled into him, that nothing would more
certainly retard the public settlement, and beget universal confusion,
than his deserting the kingdom.
The prince of Orange had with good reason embraced a contrary opinion;
and he deemed it extremely difficult to find expedients for securing
the nation, so long as the king kept possession of the crown. Actuated,
therefore, by this public motive, and no less, we may well presume, by
private ambition, he was determined to use every expedient which might
intimidate the king, and make him quit that throne which he himself was
alone enabled to fill. He declined a personal conference with James’s
commissioners, and sent the earls of Clarendon and Oxford to treat with
them: the terms which he proposed implied almost a present participation
of the sovereignty: and he stopped not a moment the march of his army
towards London.
The news which the king received from all quarters, served to continue
the panic into which he was fallen, and which his enemies expected to
improve to their advantage. Colonel Copel, deputy governor of Hull, made
himself master of that important fortress; and threw into prison Lord
Langdale, the governor, a Catholic; together with Lord Montgomery,
a nobleman of the same religion. The town of Newcastle received Lord
Lumley, and declared for the prince of Orange and a free parliament. The
duke of Norfolk, lord lieutenant of the county of that name, engaged it
in the same measure. The prince’s declaration was read at Oxford by
the duke of Ormond, and was received with great applause by that loyal
university, who also made an offer of their plate to the prince. Every
day some person of quality or distinction, and among the rest the duke
of Somerset, went over to the enemy. A violent declaration was dispersed
in the prince’s name, but without his participation; in which every one
was commanded to seize and punish all Papists, who, contrary to law,
pretended either to carry arms or exercise any act of authority. It
may not be unworthy of notice that a merry ballad, called Lillibullero,
being at this time published in derision of the Papists and the Irish,
it was greedily received by the people, and was sung by all ranks of
men, even by the king’s army, who were strongly seized with the national
spirit. This incident both discovered and served to increase the general
discontent of the kingdom.
The contagion of mutiny and disobedience had also reached Scotland,
whence the regular forces, contrary to the advice of Balcarras the
treasurer, were withdrawn, in order to reënforce the English army. The
marquis of Athole, together with Viscount Tarbat and others, finding
the opportunity favorable, began to form intrigues against Perth, the
chancellor; and the Presbyterians and other malecontents flocked
from all quarters to Edinburgh. The chancellor, apprehensive of the
consequences, found it expedient to abscond; and the populace, as if
that event were a signal for their insurrection, immediately rose
in arms, and rifled the Popish chapel in the king’s palace. All the
Catholics, even all the zealous royalists, were obliged to conceal
themselves; and the privy council, instead of their former submissive
strains of address to the king, and violent edicts against their
fellow-subjects, now made applications to the prince of Orange, as the
restorer of law and liberty.
The king, every moment alarmed more and more by these proofs of a
general disaffection, not daring to repose trust in any but those who
were exposed to more danger than himself, agitated by disdain towards
ingratitude, by indignation against disloyalty, impelled by his own
fears and those of others, precipitately embraced the resolution of
escaping into France; and he sent off beforehand the queen and the
infant prince, under the conduct of Count Lauzun, an old favorite of the
French monarch. He himself disappeared in the night-time, attended only
by Sir Edward Hales; and made the best of his way to a ship which waited
for him near the mouth of the river. As if this measure had not been
the most grateful to his enemies of any that he could adopt, he had
carefully concealed his intention from all the world; and nothing could
equal the surprise which seized the city, the court, and the kingdom,
upon the discovery of this strange event. Men beheld, all of a sudden,
the reins of government thrown up by the hand which held them; and saw
none who had any right, or even pretension, to take possession of them.
The more effectually to involve every thing in confusion, the king
appointed not any one who should, in his absence, exercise any part
of the administration; he threw the great seal into the river; and he
recalled all those writs which had been issued for the election of
the new parliament. It is often supposed, that the sole motive which
impelled him to this sudden desertion, was his reluctance to meet a free
parliament and his resolution not to submit to those terms which his
subjects would deem requisite for the security of their liberties and
their religion. But it must be considered, that his subjects had first
deserted him, and entirely lost his confidence; that he might reasonably
be supposed to entertain fears for his liberty, if not for his life; and
that the conditions would not probably be moderate, which the nation,
sensible of his inflexible temper, enraged with the violation of their
laws and the danger of their religion, and foreseeing his resentment on
account of their past resistance, would, in his present circumstances
exact from him.
By this temporary dissolution of government, the populace were masters;
and there was no disorder which, during their present ferment, might
not be dreaded from them. They rose in a tumult and destroyed all the
mass-houses. They even attacked and rifled the houses of the Florentine
envoy and Spanish ambassador, where many of the Catholics had lodged
their most valuable effects. Jefferies, the chancellor, who had
disguised himself in order to fly the kingdom, was discovered by them,
and so abused, that he died a little after. Even the army, which should
have suppressed those tumults, would, it was apprehended, serve rather
to increase the general disorder. Feversham had no sooner heard of the
king’s flight, than he disbanded the troops in the neighborhood, and
without either disarming or paying them, let them loose to prey upon the
country.
In this extremity, the bishops and peers who were in town, being the
only remaining authority of the state, (for the privy council, composed
of the king’s creatures, was totally disregarded,) thought proper to
assemble, and to interpose for the preservation of the community. They
chose the marquis of Halifax speaker: they gave directions to the mayor
and aldermen for keeping the peace of the city: they issued orders,
which were readily obeyed, to the fleet, the army, and all the
garrisons: and they made applications to the prince of Orange, whose
enterprise they highly applauded, and whose success they joyfully
congratulated.
The prince on his part was not wanting to the tide of success which
flowed in upon him, nor backward in assuming that authority which the
present exigency had put into his hands. Besides the general popularity
attending his cause, a new incident made his approach to London still
more grateful. In the present trepidation of the people, a rumor arose,
either from chance or design, that the disbanded Irish had taken
arms, and had commenced a universal massacre of the Protestants. This
ridiculous belief was spread all over the kingdom in one day, and begat
every where the deepest consternation. The alarum bells were rung; the
beacons fired; men fancied that they saw at a distance the smoke of the
burning cities, and heard the groans of those who were slaughtered in
their neighborhood. It is surprising that the Catholics did not all
perish in the rage which naturally succeeds to such popular panics.
While every one, from principle, interest, or animosity, turned his back
on the unhappy king, who had abandoned his own cause, the unwelcome news
arrived, that he had been seized by the populace at Feversham, as he was
making his escape in disguise; that he had been much abused, till he was
known; but that the gentry had then interposed and protected him, though
they still refused to consent to his escape. This intelligence threw all
parties into confusion. The prince sent Zuylestein with orders that the
king should approach no nearer than Rochester; but the message came too
late. He was already arrived in London, where the populace, moved by
compassion for his unhappy fate, and actuated by their own levity, had
received him with shouts and acclamations.
During the king’s abode at Whitehall, little attention was paid to him
by the nobility or any persons of distinction. They had all of them
been previously disgusted on account of his blind partiality to the
Catholics; and they knew that they were now become criminal in his eyes
by their late public applications to the prince of Orange. He himself
showed not any symptom of spirit, nor discovered any intention of
resuming the reins of government which he had once thrown aside. His
authority was now plainly expired; and as he had exercised his power,
while possessed of it, with very precipitate and haughty counsels, he
relinquished it by a despair equally precipitate and pusillanimous.
Nothing remained for the now ruling powers but to deliberate how they
should dispose of his person. Besides that the prince may justly be
supposed to have possessed more generosity than to think of offering
violence to an unhappy monarch, so nearly related to him, he knew
that nothing would so effectually promote his own views as the king’s
retiring into France, a country at all times obnoxious to the English.
It was determined, therefore, to push him into that measure, which of
himself he seemed sufficiently inclined to embrace. The king having sent
Lord Feversham on a civil message to the prince, desiring a conference
for an accommodation in order to the public settlement, that nobleman
was put in arrest, under pretence of his coming without a passport: the
Dutch guards were ordered to take possession of Whitehall, where James
then resided, and to displace the English: and Halifax, Shrewsbury, and
Delamere, brought a message from the prince, which they delivered to
the king in bed after midnight, ordering him to leave his palace next
morning, and to depart for Ham, a seat of the duchess of Lauderdale’s.
He desired permission, which was easily granted, of retiring to
Rochester, a town near the sea-coast. It was perceived, that the
artifice had taken effect; and that the king, terrified with this harsh
treatment, had renewed his former resolution of leaving the kingdom.
He lingered, however, some days at Rochester, under the protection of
a Dutch guard, and seemed desirous of an invitation still to keep
possession of the throne. He was undoubtedly sensible, that as he had
at first trusted too much to his people’s loyalty, and, in confidence of
their submission, had offered the greatest violence to their principles
and prejudices, so had he, at last, on finding his disappointment, gone
too far in the other extreme, and had hastily supposed them destitute
of all sense of duty or allegiance. But observing that the church, the
nobility, the city, the country, all concurred in neglecting him, and
leaving him to his own counsels, he submitted to his melancholy fate;
and being urged by earnest letters from the queen, he privately embarked
on board a frigate which waited for him; and he arrived safety at
Ambleteuse, in Picardy, whence he hastened to St. Germains. Lewis
received him with the highest generosity, sympathy, and regard: a
conduct which, more than his most signal victories, contributes to the
honor of that great monarch.
Thus ended the reign of a prince, whom if we consider his personal
character rather than his public conduct, we may safely pronounce more
unfortunate than criminal. He had many of those qualities which form a
good citizen: even some of those which, had they not been swallowed up
in bigotry and arbitrary principles, serve to compose a good sovereign.
In domestic life, his conduct was irreproachable, and is entitled to our
approbation. Severe, but open in his enmities, steady in his counsels,
diligent in his schemes, brave in his enterprises, faithful, sincere,
and honorable in his dealings with all men; such was the character
with which the duke of York mounted the throne of England. In that high
station, his frugality of public money was remarkable, his industry
exemplary, his application to naval affairs successful, his
encouragement of trade judicious, his jealousy of national honor
laudable: what then was wanting to make him an excellent sovereign?
A due regard and affection to the religion and constitution of his
country. Had he been possessed of this essential quality, even his
middling talents, aided by so many virtues, would have rendered his
reign honorable and happy. When it was wanting, every excellency which
he possessed became dangerous and pernicious to his kingdoms.
The sincerity of this prince (a virtue on which he highly valued
himself) has been much questioned in those reiterated promises which he
had made of preserving the liberties and religion of the nation. It must
be confessed, that his reign was almost one continued invasion of both;
yet it is known, that, to his last breath, he persisted in asserting,
that he never meant to subvert the laws, or procure more than a
toleration and an equality of privileges to his Catholic subjects. This
question can only affect the personal character of the king, not our
judgment of his public conduct. Though by a stretch of candor we should
admit of his sincerity in these professions, the people were equally
justifiable in their resistance of him. So lofty was the idea which he
had entertained of his _legal_ authority, that it left his subjects
little or no right to liberty, but what was dependent on his sovereign
will and pleasure. And such was his zeal for proselytism, that, whatever
he might at first have intended, he plainly stopped not at toleration
and equality: he confined all power, encouragement, and favor to the
Catholics: converts from interest would soon have multiplied upon him:
if not the greater, at least the better part of the people, he would
have flattered himself, was brought over to his religion: and he would
in a little time have thought it just, as well as pious to bestow on
them all the public establishments. Rigors and persecutions against
heretics would speedily have followed: and thus liberty and the
Protestant religion would in the issue have been totally subverted;
though we should not suppose that James, in the commencement of his
reign, had formally fixed a plan for that purpose. And on the whole,
allowing this king to have possessed good qualities and good intentions,
his conduct serves only, on that very account, as a stronger proof
how dangerous it is to allow any prince, infected with the Catholic
superstition, to wear the crown of these kingdoms.
After this manner, the courage and abilities of the prince of Orange,
seconded by surprising fortune, had effected the deliverance of this
island; and with very little effusion of blood (for only one officer
of the Dutch army and a few private soldiers fell in an accidental
skirmish) had dethroned a great prince supported by a formidable fleet
and a numerous army. Still the more difficult task remained, and what
perhaps the prince regarded as not the least important: the obtaining
for himself that crown which had fallen from the head of his
father-in-law. Some lawyers, entangled in the subtleties and forms
of their profession, could think of no expedient, but that the prince
should claim the crown by right of conquest; should immediately assume
the title of sovereign; and should call a parliament, which, being thus
legally summoned by a king in possession, could ratify whatever had been
transacted before they assembled. But this measure, being destructive
of the principles of liberty, the only principles on which his future
throne could be established, was prudently rejected by the prince; who,
finding himself possessed of the good will of the nation, resolved to
leave them entirely to their own guidance and direction. The peers and
bishops, to the number of near ninety, made an address, desiring him to
summon a convention by circular letters; to assume, in the mean time,
the management of public affairs; and to concert measures for the
security of Ireland. At the same time, they refused reading a letter
which the king had left, in order to apologize for his late desertion
by the violence which had been put upon him. This step was a sufficient
indication of their intentions with regard to that unhappy monarch.