more liberty. Madame de Schomberg sends you her compliments. She has borne her journey by sea better than one could have expected. But here one is equally unserviceable to oneself and to friends. It is my part to commit myself to divine Providence, hoping that one day He will guide us to a place where we can worship Him with more liberty. The Ambassador labours here with great officiousness to oblige five or six Protestant merchants to become Romanists. He has found a disposition in the King of Portugal to withdraw from them his protection, pretending that it is due to himself that he should be even more zealous than the King of France. There are some recantations. I beg you, Sir, to believe me ever and entirely yours,
“Schonberg.”
The Marshal left the ungrateful Pedro, and set out for Holland; Professor Weiss informs us that “on his way from Portugal, Schomberg coasted England to observe the ports and places most favourable for the landing of an army; he also opened communications with the chiefs of the English aristocracy, who were weary of James II.’s government, and desired a revolution.” Burnet says that he “took England in his way;” and Luttrell notes concerning him that he paid a visit to King James in the beginning of 1687, and was kindly received. A correspondent of John Ellis wrote from London, January 1686-7, “Arrived last night from Holland, Marshal Schomberg with his weather-beaten spouse, from Portsmouth by land, the wind being cross by sea.”[1]
On his arrival in Holland, he waited on the most renowned Prince of Orange, and was at once treated as a friend and counsellor. It would not have accorded with the secrecy of William’s projects to engage the services of the great Marshal at that time. He was, therefore, encouraged to accept from the Elector of Brandenburg a commission to be his commander-in-chief; and he removed to Berlin. About this time his wife died; she had for some time been afflicted with a fatal malady. Benoist panegyrised her as a lady of lofty courage and eminent piety. And Du Bosc mourned the loss of Madame la Maréchalle, as an illustrious lady, whose memory the Church would never let die, and who was a miracle of virtue of every kind.
Schomberg was thus left a widower again, at the age of seventy-two. He continued to reside in Prussia. Here his honours and employments were multifarious. He was governor-general, minister of State, a member of the Privy Council (whose other members were of grand ducal blood), and also a generalissimo of all the troops. A number of the mousquetaires or horse-guards of the King of France, being refugees in Brandenburg, and all of them gentlemen by birth, were formed into two companies of grands mousquetaires, each mousquetaire having the rank of a lieutenant in the army.[2] The Elector assumed the colonelcy of the first company, which was quartered at Prentzlau, and Schomberg was the colonel of the second, quartered at Furstenwald. It was for him that the Elector built the mansion in Berlin, which afterwards became the Palace of the Crown Prince.
But he was a cheerful giver as well a thankful recipient of bounty. The French officers in Brandenburg, on the suggestion of the Marquis de Villarnoul, agreed to subscribe five per cent, of their pay for the relief of poor French refugees. The other refugees, whom the Elector had provided for, offered to contribute at the same rate, one sou for every livre (a half-penny in each tenpence) of their annual pensions. And the Elector established an office for this charity, which was known as the Chambre du sol pour livre. “The Duke of Schomberg,” says Weiss, “subscribed the annual sum of 2000 livres, which was regularly paid until his departure for England.”
The storm which arose upon the interference of France with the affairs of Cologne brought Schomberg again into the front of events. He was appointed to command the imperial forces, sent in 1688 to defend that electorate and to garrison the city of Cologne. According to Luttrell, he garrisoned Cologne in September with 2600 foot and some horse. The French were thus blocked up on the German side; while the revolt of Amsterdam from French counsels obstructed the interference of Louis XIV. in an opposite direction.
France having her hands so full on the Continent — the Pope himself not escaping
- ↑ The Ellis Correspondence. Letters to John Ellis, Esq., Secretary at Dublin to the Commissioners for the Revenue of Ireland. Two volumes. Edited by Lord Dover.
- ↑ In Sawle’s “Transactions of last Summer’s Campaign in Flanders” (London, 1691 ), there is the following account of the Elector of Brandenburg and his escort:— “The Duke [also called the elector] of Brandenburgh, with his Duchess, and two brothers, with the great officers and ladies of his court, were with the army. He is very short and crooked as to his person; he is about the age of thirty; his face, indeed, is fine and comely. His brothers, prince Charles and prince Philip are both tall and well shap’d gentlemen. His court was exceeding splendid. Besides his guards, he hath an hundred French Gentlemen Refugees, all well mounted and clad in scarlet, with a broad gold lace on the seams, every one looking like a captain; they are called his Grand Musqueteers, and always attend his person.”
