William, Prince of Orange Was Born
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WILLIAM OF ORANGE “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project William of Orange HDT WHAT? INDEX WILLIAM OF ORANGE WILLIAM OF ORANGE 1650 November 4, Monday (Old Style): William, Prince of Orange was born. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT William of Orange “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX WILLIAM OF ORANGE WILLIAM OF ORANGE 1672 King Louis made war upon Holland and came close to overpowering it. The Dutch, under William, Prince of Orange, would put up a heroic resistance, and become the ruler of the Netherlands. Charles II of England was Louis’s pensioner, and England would until 1674 help the French in such attacks upon Holland. John Evelyn was involved in the commission for sick and wounded mariners and for prisoners of war, exposing himself to plague and incurring personal expenses for reimbursement of which he would still be petitioning in 1702. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project William of Orange HDT WHAT? INDEX WILLIAM OF ORANGE WILLIAM OF ORANGE 1677 September 27, Thursday (Old Style): In 1672, King Louis XIV had sent a French army of 120,000 to invade the Netherlands. Resistance to France is what brought William, Prince of Orange (who would become King William III of England) to power in the Netherlands. Prince King The Dutch had been able to force the French army to withdraw in 1674, and later campaigns had been indecisive, so by this point King Louis had become weary of the affair. Friend Robert Barclay’s “Epistle to the Ambassadors met at Nimeguen” (along with Friend Georgius Fox’s exhortatory “An epistle of love and friendly advice, to the ambassadors,” translated into Latin as Epistola hortatoria legatim magnatum Christianismi in praesentiarum pacis componendae gratiá Neomagi congressis, which he would write in “Schotland ... den 22 dag van de maand die men noemt November 1677,” and which would be printed) would be presented to the ambassadors of the King of France and those of the United Netherlands, with several other potentates. The belligerents in the Dutch War (1672-1678) were to meet at Nimeguen (now “Nijmegen”) on the Waal River in the Netherlands province of Gelderland to sign a peace treaty. After this Friend Fox would HDT WHAT? INDEX WILLIAM OF ORANGE WILLIAM OF ORANGE travel into Germany: From him who is a lover of Truth, righteousness, and peace, who desires your temporal and eternal good; and that in the wisdom of God that is from above, pure, gentle, and peaceable, you may be ordered, and order all things, that God hath committed to you, to His glory; and stop those things among Christians, so far as you have power, which dishonour God, Christ, and Christianity! G.F. [Here is an incident from the trip into Germany.] Being clear of Hamburg, we took leave of Friends there, whom we left well; and taking John Hill with us, passed by boat to a city in the Duke of Luneburg’s country; where, after we were examined by the guards, we were taken to the main- guard, and there examined more strictly; but after they found we were not soldiers, they were civil, and let us pass. In the afternoon we travelled by wagon, and the waters being much out, by reason of heavy rains, when it drew towards night we hired a boy on the way to guide us through a great water we had to pass. When we came to it, the water was so deep, before we could come at the bridge, that the wagoner had to wade, and I drove the wagon. When we were come on the bridge, the horses broke part of it down, and one of them fell into the water, the wagon standing upon that part of the bridge which remained unbroken; and it was the Lord’s mercy to us that the wagon did not run into the brook. When they had got the horse out, he lay a while as if dead; but at length they got him up, put him to the wagon again, and laid the planks right; and then, through the goodness of the Lord to us, we got safe over. After this we came to another water. Finding it to be very deep, and it being in the night, we hired two men to help us through, who put cords to the wagon to hold it by, that the force of the water might not drive it from the way. But when we came into it, the stream was so strong that it took one of the horses off his legs, and was carrying him down the stream. I called to the wagoner to pluck him to him by his reins, which he did, and the horse recovered his legs; and with much difficulty we got over the bridge, and went to Bremerhaven, the town where the wagoner lived. It was the last day of the Sixth month that we escaped these dangers; and it being about eleven at night when we came in here, we got some fresh straw, and lay upon it until about four in the morning. Then, getting up, we set forward again towards Bremen, by wagon and boat. JOURNAL HDT WHAT? INDEX WILLIAM OF ORANGE WILLIAM OF ORANGE On the way I had good opportunities to publish Truth among the people, especially at a market-town, where we stayed to change our passage. Here I declared the Truth to the people, warning them of the day of the Lord, that was coming upon all flesh; and exhorting them to righteousness, telling them that God was come to teach His people Himself, and that they should turn to the Lord, and hearken to the teachings of His Spirit in their own hearts. Next day, feeling a concern upon my mind with relation to those seducing spirits that made division among Friends, and being sensible that they endeavoured to insinuate themselves into the affectionate part, I was moved to write a few lines to Friends concerning them, as follows: All these that set up themselves in the affections of the people, set up themselves, and the affections of the people, and not Christ. But Friends, your peaceable habitation in the Truth, which is everlasting, and changes not, will outlast all the habitations of those that are out of the Truth, be they ever so full of words. So they that are so keen for John Story and John Wilkinson, let them take them, and the separation; and you that have given your testimony against that spirit, stand in your testimony, till they answer by condemnation. Do not strive, nor make bargains with that which is out of the Truth; nor save that alive to be a sacrifice for God, which should be slain, lest you lose your kingdom. G.F. Amsterdam, the 14th of the Seventh month, 1677. After some time George Keith and William Penn came back from Germany to Amsterdam, and had a dispute with one Galenus Abrahams (one of the most noted Baptists in Holland), at which many professors were present; but not having time to finish the dispute then, they met again, two days after, and the Baptist was much confounded, and Truth gained ground. JOURNAL Sewell in his HISTORY OF FRIENDS writes that during the 5-hour discussion Galenus Abrahams, a prominent Mennonite, was insisting that “nobody nowadays could be accepted as a messenger of God unless he confirmed the same by miracle.” HDT WHAT? INDEX WILLIAM OF ORANGE WILLIAM OF ORANGE THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT November 17, Saturday (Old Style): Roger Williams told a court of commissioners that he was especially suited to negotiate with the natives over land ownership because “God was pleased to give me a painful patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy smoky holes ... to gain their tongue.” RHODE ISLAND READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT John Evelyn’s diary entry for this day was in part as follows: I din’d with Mr. Godolphin & his Wife, at which time he sealed the Deedes of settlement on his Lady, in which I was a Trustee: &c: “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project William of Orange HDT WHAT? INDEX WILLIAM OF ORANGE WILLIAM OF ORANGE 1683 John Locke followed his patron Shaftesbury to Holland, and would return to England only after the accession of William, Prince of Orange as King William III of England in 1688. Winter: The Thames froze over throughout London and Frost Fairs were held on the ice.1 Evelyn would report on this hard London winter, in his diary: January 1, Tuesday (1683, Old Style): ... My Daughter Susan had some few small pox come forth on her, so as I sent her out of the Family; The Weather continuing intollerably severe, so as streets of Boothes were set up upon the Thames &c: and the aire so very cold & thick, as of many yeares there had not ben the like: The small pox being very mortal, many feared a worse Contagion to come &c: January 2, Wednesday (1683, Old Style): I dined at Sir St: Foxes, after dinner came a fellow that eate live charcoale glowingly ignited, quenching them in his mouth, & then champing & swallowing them downe: There was a dog also that seemed to do many rational actions. January 6, Sunday (1683, Old Style): I went home to Says-Court to see my Grandson, it being extreame hard weather, and return’d the next day by Coach the river being quite frozen up: January 8, Tuesday (1683, Old Style): Came Sir Geo: Wheler and Mr.