people knew that it was her ambition and spirit that had placed and sustained her husband at the head of the revolution. The want of a good general procured her some reverses and disappointments in the national war, which was continued.
In the Peace of the Pyrenees, Spain saw an opportunity for recovering Portugal with one great effort; it being understood that Louis XIV., who notoriously sympathized with independent Portugal, had bound himself by treaty to send no succours to the Portuguese army.
The Queen Regent of Portugal, having heard of Schomberg as an able general, desired her agent in France, Joaom d’Acosta, Count of Soura, to treat with him. Her proposal was that he should have the real command of her armies, although a Portuguese officer would have the name of generalissimo. Portugal was divided into provinces, in each of which there was a military governor in command of an army. The seat of war was the province of Alentejo, where, according to the rules of the Portuguese service, the regular military governor could not be superseded. Schomberg’s appointment would therefore be Camp-Master-General of the army of Alentejo, with a salary of 12,000 crowns, and a prospect of promotion to the military governor-ship in the event of a vacancy.[1]
When Louis XIV. heard of this overture, he at once relieved Schomberg of his connection with the French army, giving him a handsome retiring pension. He charged him to select his followers secretly (who should be clandestinely paid by France), and to proceed to London, where he might openly negotiate with the Portuguese ambassador at the court of Charles II., who had by this time been restored to the British throne. This enabled Louis to reply to the Spanish king’s inevitable remonstrance by saying, that Count Schomberg was not a Frenchman, but a German; and the King of France could not prevent his enlistment in the Portuguese army, when the peace establishment of the French army did not require his services.
Schomberg, who had been admitted to renewed friendship with the titular Charles II. in Paris, had thus the opportunity of saluting him as a real king in his recovered dominions. He was still allowed to speak freely, and to give advice. But he afterwards told Burnet, when narrating his recollections of this period, “I found the king’s mind was so turned to mirth and pleasure that he seemed scarcely capable of laying anything to heart.” One of his neglected advices was that Charles should declare himself to be the chief defender of European Protestantism; “though religion is not what your Majesty professes to have much heart for, yet such a course would be for your interest; it would keep the princes of Germany in willing subservience, and would make your Majesty the umpire in all their affairs; it would also procure for the restored King of England great credit with the Huguenots of France, and would keep the French government in perpetual fear of him.” This advice was unpalatable to Charles, because he was ready to sacrifice all public and serious interests on receiving pocket-money from the French monarch. “I advised the king,” said Schomberg to Burnet, “to employ the military men who had served under Cromwell, who were the best officers I ever saw. I was grieved to see that they were dismissed, and that a company of wild young men were those on whom the king relied.”
The memory of Cromwell was what Charles detested. As it was to the late Protector and to his admired European policy that England owed Dunkirk, he had no pride in possessing it The French offered to buy it at a tempting price; so he had an opportunity to gratify both his malicious envy and his love of money. Schomberg strongly advised him not to give up such an important post to a foreign power. “But,” said some of the weaklings in the dress of soldiers, “the place is not tenable; in time of war it will not pay the cost of defending it, and even in time of peace it will be a source of expense.” Lord Clarendon then asked Monk to give his opinion, and that General said, “By all means let it go for the sum offered by France.” Schomberg exclaimed, “The King should keep it. Considering the naval power of England, I declare it cannot be taken. France may talk big, as if they will break with England unless it is given up; but I know that any such rupture is far from their thoughts. I have been at Dunkirk and have studied its defences, and I am sure that it can never be taken from England as long as she is mistress of the sea. The holding of it will be an effectual check upon both France and Spain”. But no courtier supported Schomberg, and Dunkirk was sold, amidst the contempt of all Europe.
Schomberg’s ostensible errand was to the Portuguese Ambassador at the English court. When all needful business had been transacted, he set sail, under the convoy
- ↑ Memoirs of the Sieur d’Ablancourt— translated from the French copy printed at Paris in 1701. London, 1703.
