Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/316

 Louis's ‘plans for a universal monarchy’ (see, Mémoires, p. 474). But his meeting with Monmouth at Tunbridge, and his acceptance of an invitation from the city, frustrated by a royal summons to Windsor, excited the jealous suspicions of the Duke of York (, Life of James II, i. 690), although the king seems to have treated him with easy confidence (, ii. 415). On his return to Holland early in August he assured the States-General that no secret understanding existed between the sovereigns of England and France ( ap., ii. 344). With the aid of Waldeck he assiduously carried on his schemes for a European alliance against France, a basis for which was furnished by the association formed in 1681 between the united provinces, Sweden, the empire, and Spain for the maintenance of existing treaties. His activity against Louis was intensified by the French occupation of the principality of Orange in 1682 and the encroachments upon the liberty of its inhabitants in the following year in connection with the first dragonnades (, i. 195; cf., i. 174; during the course of his life he only intermittently held possession of Orange, and never set foot there). In this year he chivalrously made known to D'Avaux a proposal which had been communicated to him for the assassination of the king of France (, Défense de la Nation Britannique, &c., 1693, p. 482). At no period of his stadholderate was he more grievously hampered by the opposition maintained against his policy by Amsterdam and by minorities in Zealand and other provinces, and fostered both by D'Avaux and the English envoy Chudleigh (, ii. 447; cf., i. 227, who refers to , vol. xv., in proof of the assertion that not even in 1650 were the provinces nearer to civil war). In 1684 Louis proceeded to add to his Alsatian ‘reunions’ the annexation of Luxemburg, so as to secure the broadest basis of possession for the proposed truce. The Amsterdam magistrates rejected the stadholder's supplication for a grant enabling him to raise sixteen thousand men; Luxemburg capitulated (‘la perte est irréparable,’ William to Waldeck, 10 June), and a truce for twenty years was concluded on the basis of existing conquests, to which the emperor acceded at Ratisbon (August). Thus, when the reign of Charles II came to a close, the European position of France was stronger than ever, and William's labours had to be recommenced.

The announcement to William by James II of his brother's death and of his own accession was cold (, ii. appendix, p. cxxxix); but nothing had as yet occurred to render friendly relations between them impossible, and James was by no means disposed to surrender the control of his foreign policy to France [see ]. William at once despatched Dykvelt to England on a special mission of congratulation, obtained from Monmouth a promise that he would depart from the provinces and ‘never stir’ against King James (Life of James II, ii. 32), and sent assurances that he would do all that the latter could expect from him, ‘sauf la religion’ (, Diary, &c., ii. 249). Although both Argyll's and Monmouth's expeditions were prepared at Amsterdam, every reasonable effort was made to prevent their sailing, and before Monmouth's departure the stadholder sent to England the three Scottish regiments in the service of the states. Barillon's scheme for transferring the succession to the Princess Anne, conditionally upon her conversion to Rome, was not taken up by James (, ii. 27, 37; and see ib. p. 166 as to its revival early in 1686); and Skelton at the Hague loudly proclaimed the reconciliation between the king and the prince.

In July James's victory over both insurrections was assured; and the loyalty of William, who had sent over the three English in the wake of the three Scottish regiments in the Dutch service, and had offered to command them in person, had not been without its effect. On 7 Aug. the old treaties between England and the Netherlands were renewed, conformably with James's inclination to maintain a position resembling independence as between France and the empire. As late as October William showed his anxiety for friendly relations, by clearing out with Mary's consent the whole of her household, in which reports had been set on foot that gave rise to distrust in England (, v. 501 n.) But, stimulated by French influence, the catholic zeal of James was beginning to work its way, and the revocation of the edict of Nantes (October) directly affected his relations with his son-in-law. While in Holland William sheltered the Huguenot refugees, and prevented a counter-persecution of the Dutch catholics; he failed, notwithstanding Mary's effort, to induce James to intervene on behalf of the inhabitants of Orange against the aggression of the dragonnades (, iii. 165). By the close of 1685 it was obvious both that the seeds of distrust had been sown afresh between James and William, and that Louis had recognised in him the determined adversary of his English as well as of his Euro-