Proceedings of Mather and his Associates at Court Commerce of Boston in 1688 Overture of Andros to the Eastern Indians Military Expedition of Andros into Maine Current Suspicions as to his Designs His Plan to hold New England for King James The Governor's Return to Boston from the Eastern Country Arrival of Sir William Phipps at Boston Application of Phipps and Mather to King William Meeting of the General Court of Massachusetts Impeachment of Randolph and his Retainers HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. BOOK III. FINAL RELATIONS WITH THE STUART KINGS. CHAPTER I. A BRIEF recital of events which took place in the parent country in the years that immediately followed the fall of Lord Clarendon from power, and the discomfiture of his agents in Massachusetts, will throw some light on the history of New England during that time. It will show how it was that the court had no leisure to renew its attempt against the Colonies. It will exhibit some subjects of anxiety which must have divided with matters of merely local interest the attention of patriots in New England. And in particular, in what it discloses of the King's adoption of the ambitious designs of his father, of the character of religious parties and policy in England, of the critical contest which was going on there between the national Church and the Church of Rome, and of the relations to both in which Protestant dissenters were involved, it will explain what strong reason the Colonists had to congratulate them. selves on a breathing-time from English interference. Information of many of the events now to be related was brought over as they successively took place, and the sensations which it produced made an important feature of the life of the Colonists. The earliest course of transactions abroad after Lord Clarendon's retirement was such as might be observed by them with satisfaction. Deprived of the steady counsels of that faithful minister, the King found himself at the same time more at liberty than he had been to consult his personal inclinations, and more subject to influence from the popular will.1 To this influence is to be traced a measure which at the time took Europe by surprise. When peace had been made with the United Provinces, the resentments and apprehensions of Englishmen received a new direction. The recent war had discovered the ambition Louis XIV. France under and the resources of the king of France. Louis the Fourteenth, now in the thirtieth year of his age, was the most powerful sovereign of Europe. A brilliant circle of statesmen and commanders stood by his throne. The great administrative ability of counsellors like Colbert and Louvois conducted the interior affairs of his wide, populous, and affluent realm, while captains like Luxembourg, Condé, and Turenne led to his wars a stronger military force than Europe had seen controlled by one man's will since the fall of the Roman empire. 1665. Louis, in the right of his wife, who was a daughter of Philip the Fourth, king of Spain, claimed after Sept. 17. her father's death certain provinces in the Spanish Netherlands. No longer embarrassed by the war with England, he now poured forty thousand men of Flanders. into Flanders, and one Spanish stronghold after another fell into his hands, till he approached July-August. close to the border of the United Provinces. All Europe was alarmed by this display of his pre His invasion 1667. 1 Lister, Life and Administration of Edward, First Earl of Clarendon, II. 491. 2 See Vol. II. p. 441. 3 Basnage, Annales des Provinces Unies, I. 734 et seq. Voltaire, Euvres Complètes, XX. 325 et seq. |