THE ends of which were, that Louis XIV should give Charles 200,000 l. a year, in order to enable him to re-establish the popish religion in England, and render his power independent of parliament;* and should send forces to his assistance, in case insurrections should arise in his kingdom; and that, after the interests of religion were secured, the two monarchs should join their forces by sea and land for the destruction of the Dutch commonwealth,* and divide its dominions between them and Charles’s nephew, the young Prince of Orange.*
The scheme was immediately laid before Charles, who adopted it: And Lord Arundel was dispatched to Paris with the proposal. Louis XIV consented to the terms asked, but with an intention to prevail afterwards upon Charles to reverse the order of the project, and begin with the attack upon Holland. The treaty was however drawn up upon the original plan, by Sir Richard Bealing,* and agreed to in the beginning of the year 1670 by both Princes. But a secret, the objects of which were so dangerous to the rest of Europe, was kept concealed from all, both in France and England.
* According to the Measuring Worth website, £200,000 in 1670 is equivalent to about £32,780,000 today. Charles not only wanted to be free from Parliamentary scrutiny and control; he passionately believed in ‘the divine right of kings’, i.e. that Catholic Kings were anointed to bear sole responsibility for their realms and hence democratic constitutional monarchy was contrary to God’s will.
* Relations between England and Holland were stupidly fractious: the two Protestant countries emerged as significant maritime trading and colonial powers more or less together, but instead of trading freely with each other they faced off as rivals. The Dutch were horrified by the execution of Charles I, and Cromwell’s republican government then introduced the protectionist Navigation Acts that restricted access to English ports and subjected foreign vessels to searches. There were three outbreaks of hostilities, the Dutch Wars of 1652-4, 1665-7 and 1672-4.
* This was William III (1650-1702), Prince of Orange, who later became King William III of Scotland and England. His mother Mary, Princess of Orange, was Charles II’s sister; young William had inherited his title at birth, owing to the death of his father William II just a week before. Young William was a committed Protestant but, as with the people of England, in the matter of his forthcoming conversion to Romanism he was not consulted.
* Sir Richard Bellings (1622-1716) or Bealings, or Bealing as Dalrymple has it, was principal secretary to Queen Catherine of Braganza, Charles II’s consort. He was a Roman Catholic, whom Charles had sent to Rome in 1662 to try to broker reunion with the Pope. The Treaty of Dover was concluded in May 1670, but never bore fruit because Charles lost his battle of wills with Parliament; he finally converted to the Roman Church on his deathbed in 1685.