Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1718) by Daniel Defoe
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page 12 of 78 (15%)
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the_ French _Line, as it was in the Beginning_. To this he added, _That
this invincible Monarch,_ Lewis XIV, _had made considerable Advances of late Years, especially in bringing over several Electors, and now the Chapter of_ Cologn _to chuse Cardinal_ Fustenberg _for their Archbishop, who though a Native of Germany, yet was a_ Frenchman _by Interest_, and _had given his Word to be very Industrious in settling the Imperial Dignity upon the House of_ Bourbon. _And this Election of Cardinal_ Fustenberg _being contested by the Emperor and Pope Innocent_ XI. _was the Motive of the present War; for they put up the Duke of_ Bavaria's _Brother in opposition against him_. This Account of the occasion of the present War, vary'd very much from the Idea we in _Scotland_ had of Affairs. We were made to believe, That the King of _France_ being a zealous Roman Catholick Monarch, had engag'd himself in a War against the Allies, meerly upon a Religious Motive, to re-establish King _James_, who was dethron'd upon no other Account but because he was a Roman Catholick. But I have since found by comparing Matters, that the Revolution in _England_ was not the Occasion, but the Consequence of the War between the _French_ and the Allies; for the Emperor, _&c._ understanding that King _James_ II. was drawn into a Scrape by the _French_ King, and that he made a Property of him to carry on his Ambitious Designs; 'tis not to be wonder'd at, if they prefer'd the general Good of _Europe_, and immediate Safety of their own People to the private Good of King _James_ II, who had been so indiscreet as to expose himself to Ruin by giving into a _French_ Project. However this unpolitick Management proved very lucky to _France_ upon a double Account; for tho' they had begun a War upon the disedifying bottom of Ambition, it was afterwards consecrated in mny Peoples Thoughts, under a Colour of justifying a dethron'd Roman Catholick Prince, besides the Advantage of causing a considerable |
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