Here are two sources on 1688 that I came across in recent reading:
...........................
Hoffmann, Imperial Envoy to the English Court,
to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
October 8, 1688.
The King (James II) is labouring night and day to prepare for this invasion - he holds Council upon Council, in one of them he exposed the great danger which threatens the Crown, it being no question of a Duke of Monmouth coming without troops, money or experience, but of a valiant and prudent prince commanding a brave army, wanting for nothing ... He prayed his Council to give him their advice and co-operation …The sailors are flying and hiding themselves, so as not to be employed against their friends, as they call them, the Dutch …
– from Queen Mary of Modena, Her Life and Letters (1905) Online here
...........................
"His Majesty had been long before advertised, in the life of the late King, by one Monpoulan a companion of their drinking bouts, of the strict correspondence and friendship betwixt the Prince of Orange and that Duke, when he was first in Holland; upon which his late Majesty sayd, It seem'd strange to him how those two should appear so good friends, and agree so well together, that aim'd both to usurp the Crown, but his Majesty did not then see into the Prince of Orange's views in that matter, which apear'd so plainly afterwards; it behoved the King therefore when he heard how the Prince of Orange countenanc'd both the Duke of Monmouth and Argile's preparations at Amsterdam to increase his troops then on foot there being no time to raise new ones, and even that could not be done time enough ...
... the Earle of Sunderland and some others about him, whom he trusted most, used all imaginable arguments to persuade the King it was impossible the Prince of Orange could go through with such an undertaking; and particularly My Ld. Sunderland turn’d any one to ridicule, that did but seem to believe it, and had so great an influence over all those the King most confided in, that not one of them except My Lord Dartmouth seemed to give any credit to the report; and he indeed ever since the Duke of Monmouth's invasion always told the King, that sooner or later he was confident the Prince of Orange would attempt it.
But tho the King was thus lulled asleep by ye treacherous Councel of those that ow'd him better service, nevertheless he was not altogether negligent in preparations at home, and by his Agents abroad, to Sift as much as possible into the bottom of this armeing in Holland
– from The life of James the Second, King of England, &c., collected out of memoirs writ of his own hand. Vol II, p 177-8 (1816), online here
0 comments:
Post a Comment