Numb. 74.
[309]

WE have brought the Story of the Malecontents in Hungary, on, to the conclusion of the late War.

The Emperor Compleated the Conquest of them, by causing his Son, the new King of the Romans, to be Crown’d at Presburgh, and acknowledg’d by the States Assembled there, in a General Diet, as Hereditary King of Hungary.

The States made several Hesitations at, and Remonstrances against giving up their Native Right of Election; but the Emperor told them it was but reasonable, that he having, out of his own Hereditary Dominions, disburst more to reduce Hungary to his Obedience, and to clear it of the Turks, than the whole Kingdom was worth; he thought he had an undoubted Right to it, as he had purchas’d it with the Blood and Treasure of the German Nation, and therefore expected it.

These Arguments, together with an entire Possession, for his Imperial Majesty had the whole Kingdom now in his hands, oblig’d the Hungarian Nobility, to yield to the Dissolution of their Antient Liberties, and Crown the young King, Hereditary K. of Hungaria, to him and the Heirs of the Imperial Branch of the House of Austria, and the default of such Heirs, to the Heirs of the Spanish Branch of Austria. [Read more →]

Numb. 73.
[305]

I Cannot but break out here into another Extasie at the Madness, Folly, and most Impolitick Blindness of immoderate Councils, with respect to the Affairs of Hungaria.

Had the Imperial Generals and Commissioners, appointed to settle the Kingdom of Hungary, after it was reduc’d to the Obedience of the Emperor, proceeded with Prudent and Moderate Measures; had they consider’d their Master’s Interest, and the Nature, Temper, and Numbers of the Hungarian Nation; had they Threatned them with Moderation and Humanity, Prince Ragocksi had been to this hour a faithful Subject, and the Hungarians, who are now in Arms for the Recovery of their Liberty, had been a useful Body to Defend their own Country against the Turks; and to have assisted their Brethren Protestants of Europe, against the French and Bavarian Encroachment. The Emperor and Empire might have ow’d their Safety and Establishment to the Valour and Fidelity of his Protestant Hungarian Subjects as he has been oblig’d to do, to the Power of his remote Protestant Confederates, the English and Dutch. They might, like the Vaudois in Savoy, have Merited their Liberty in meer Gratitude for their Services, and the Emperor must have shewn himself an unnatural Father of his Country, if he had not treated them with all that Tenderness and Courtesy, that Faithful and Zealous Subjects could have deserv’d, or in reason desired.

But as Count Carassa, the Imperial General, was imploy’d to reduce the Cities of Upper Hungary, in which the Chief Body of the Protestants of that Kingdom were found, it shall suffice, without entring into the dreadful Particulars, to say, That after the Reduction of that Country, no Pen can describe the Extortions, Oppressions, the Murthers, the Rapine and Injurious Treatment, which the poor Protestants receiv’d from the Barbarous, Insulting Soldiers, and more Bloody, Merciless Clergy in Hungary.

The whole weight of the War, the Blame, the Scandal, and the Punishment lay upon them; the Soldiers liv’d upon them at Discretion, and the Church-Tyranny proceeded to seize on their Religious Perquisites, with a Rapine peculiar to themselves; and I have heard of some English Gentlemen, who serv’d in the German Troops, and who were Quarter’d upon these poor unhappy People, say, it has mov’d them to Remorse, and they had not Hearts to Execute the Cruelties their Orders have contain’d. [Read more →]

Numb. 72.
[301]

THe Character of Immoderate Principles, which our last gave an Imperfect Idea of, has some just Reference both to the Imperial and Hungarian Parties in Hungary, by which both sides pursuing Hot and Precipitant Measures, effectually Ruin’d the Country, and brought things to such Extremities, as might, with but a tolerable share of Prudence and Moderation, have been easily prevented.

’Tis very rare that a Publick Disaster happens between a Prince and his Subjects, without apparent Errors and Indiscretions on both sides; ’tis in vain to attempt the Particulars here; but the Emperor’s forward seizing Count Peter Serini, the severe Proceedings against that Prince, a Person of so great a Family, so highly Ally’d to the greatest Families in Hungary, so very Popular, and exceedingly belov’d by the People, Brother-in-Law to Count Frangipani, Uncle to Count Nadasti, Father-in-Law to Prince Ragotski, &c. the Sentence of having the Right-hand cut off, and afterwards the Head; the latter of which was Executed upon Serini and Frangipani, at Newstad, in the Year 1671. This immoderate and unseasonable Severity, so riveted the Aversion of the Hungarians, against the Germans, as was the great means to make the Defection so Universal as it was, in the Year 1680, and 81. as has been Noted already.

The Encroachments of the Germans upon the Civil Liberties of Hungary, having thus driven the People to Arms, had they made use of those Arms only to Redress their Grievances, only to fix their Just Rights upon lasting Foundations, and to prevent the Destruction and Ruin of their Country for the Future; These Papers should never had been found reflecting upon them; I should have been the last Man in the Nation that should have been found so much reproaching our own Revolution, and the Nations applying to the then Prince of Orange for Redress, as to blame the Hungarians for taking Arms to prevent the Invasion of their Native Rights, and to Defend their Inheritance and Possession, in Order to Convey Liberty and Property unbroken and entire, to their Posterity.

But so far as these People, blinded by Private ends of any sort, perverted the Native Genuine end of taking Arms, viz. Right and Liberty; so far as they sought their Private Interest, the Assuming Powers they had before no Claim to; so far as they design’d, Deposing their Sovereign the Emperor, meerly for the sake of setting themselves up in his Room; so far they were meer Traytors, Rebels and Monsters, and all the Legal Claim to their own Rights and Liberties, died of Course. [Read more →]

Numb. 71.
[297]

I am oblig’d so often to Digress, by those Gentlemen that pretend to blame me for Digression, that I think they ought indeed to be call’d the Authors of it.

The Grand Cavil, of what’s all this to the Affairs of France, has been so often thrown in my way, that I think my self under an Obligation to say something to it.

If the Gentlemen Objectors expected, That in Treating of the Affairs of France, I should have confin’d my self to the Limits of their country, and only wrote a History of the Kingdom, my Title out to have been A REVIEW OF THE AFFAIRS in FRANCE, not OF it: He that will write only of the Actions of the French, within their own country, will have his Memoirs, full of little else but Edicts for Taxes, Regulations, Creations and Dispositions of Old and New Offices; Orders for Te Deums for No-Victories; Promotion of Generals; Introduction of Ambassadors; Coining Vainglorious Medals, to the Honour of Immortal, Invincible Lewis XIV. These things interlac’d with Matters of Love, Intrigue, fine Balls, Entertainments, now and then a great Marriage, and not a little Whoring, must have been the Subject of my Worthy Undertaking.

Alas! How little of the active Part of the Affairs of France have been within their own Kingdom? The Glorious Duke of Marlborough has bid the fairest for bringing France to be the Scene of Action, of any Man in the World; and could his Grace, that has conquer’d like Joshua, done one thing more that Joshua did, viz. Cause the Sun to have stood still; could he have Commanded the Season to have gone back, and added three Months more to the Summer, that the French might not have had a Winter to Recruit their Cavalry, Regulate and Refresh their Old Troops, and raise New, I dare not Mention how far he might have push’d, this most advantageous Campaign. [Read more →]