William III Prince of Orange, the Liberator of Catholic Europe? - Letter from the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I to King James II: 9 April 1689

Above: the Destruction of Heidelberg by the French under General Melac, 2 March 1689

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The primary sources for the 1688 Revolution shed so much light on the era. Here's a superb one, again from The life of James the Second, King of England, &c., collected out of memoirs writ of his own hand. Vol II, (1816) and is online here. The text is also online here.

The letter was written by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, in reply to one which had been written almost two months before from King James II, who was then in exile in France. With William III Prince of Orange having landed in England on 5 November 1688, heading a liberation army which the Holy Roman Empire openly supported, James was in full-on panic mode in trying to cling to his throne. James had fled from England to France to the court of his cousin and megalomaniacal mentor Louis XIV of France, and in this letter he tried desperately to repair relationships with former friends. But that ship had long sailed, and Leopold's reply to James's plea was patronising and brimming with sarcasm.

Leopold said that Louis XIV's army was burning palaces, destroying churches, carrying away people into slavery, and doing "horrible things to Catholics" - "our religion suffers no more from any people than the French themselves".

All of which means that William III Prince of Orange, as leader of the multi-national campaign to stop the French superpower, could be regarded as the liberator of Catholic Europe...

NB: The original text is a bit flowery and formal as well as dated, it took me a few goes to decipher it. So, experimenting with modern technology, I ran it through an AI tool to simplify and modernise the language. The dark orange part is unedited. Consider this the NIV – but do refer back to the original King James...

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Vienna, April 9, 1689.

We got your letter from February 6th, sent by your ambassador, the Earl of Carlingford*, who is with us.

You explained how, when the Prince of Orange arrived, not just your soldiers, but also people you trusted, left you. This made you seek safety in France, and now you’re asking for our help to get your kingdoms back.

We were really saddened to hear about your situation. It’s upsetting to see how quickly things can change, especially since we care about you.

If you had listened more to what our Ambassador, Count Kaunitz**, was telling you instead of believing France's lies, things could have been different. France was trying to create problems between you and your people to make it easier for them to disrespect Europe. If you had used your power as arbiter of the Peace of Nijmegen to put an end to their continual breaches of faith and agreements to fix these issues and agreed with us and those who understood the situation, we believe you could have improved how your people feel about our religion, leading to peace in your country and throughout the Roman Empire.

We are leaving it up to you to decide if we can help you. We are currently fighting a war with the Turks and also dealing with a harsh attack from the French, who feel safe because of their alliance with England, even though they promised to act differently.

We want to remind you that the French harm our religion just as much as anyone else. They believe it is okay to join forces with our enemies to hurt our efforts for God’s glory. They have also broken their promises and are unfairly demanding money from towns that surrendered to them.

They broke the agreement signed by the Dauphin*** and not content with that, have plundered them and reduced them at last to ashes or heaps of rubbish.

They have burnt the palaces of princes which the most cruel wars had spared until now, spoiled churches, and (like the most barbarous nations) carried away the people into slavery. They have made a jest of executing such horrible things to Catholics, as the very Turks would have been ashamed of, which has put a necessity upon us to exert our power in our own defence and that of the Roman Empire, no less against them than the Turks themselves.

Because of this, we must use our power to protect ourselves and the Roman Empire, just as much against them as we would against the Turks.We believe you will understand that we are not doing anything wrong by using our power to protect ourselves, especially since past agreements haven’t worked.

We want to join forces with others who share our goals for safety and defense. We pray that God guides us and brings you comfort during tough times, and we send you our warmest and brotherly support.

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* Nicholas Taffe, who was killed at the Battle of the Boyne

** Dominik Andreas I von Kaunitz

*** Louis the Grand Dauphin (son of Louis XIV)

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Below: an engraving of a church in today's Germany being desecrated by Louis XIV's army, entitled "Die Franzosen in der Pfalz" / "The French in the Palatinate", 1689.