[1]
6. These negotiations ended peaceably; those between the commonwealth and
the United Provinces, though commenced with friendly feelings, led to
hostilities. It might have been expected that the Dutch, mindful of the
glorious struggle for liberty maintained
[Footnote 1: Compare Clarendon, iii. 369, with the Papers in Thurloe, i.
148-153, 202, and Harleian Miscellany, iv. 280.]
by their fathers, and crowned with success by the treaty of Munster, would
have viewed with exultation the triumph of the English republicans. But
William the Second, prince of Orange, had married[a] a daughter of Charles
I.; his views and interests were espoused by the military and the people;
and his adherents possessed the ascendancy in the States General and in all
the provincial states, excepting those of West Friesland and Holland.
As long as he lived, no atonement could be obtained for the murder of
Dorislaus, no audience for Strickland, the resident ambassador, though that
favour was repeatedly granted to Boswell, the envoy of Charles.[1] However,
in November the prince died[b] of the small-pox in his twenty-fourth year;
and a few days later[c] his widow was delivered of a son, William III., the
same who subsequently ascended the throne of England.
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