12 James Muilenburg 



obtuse to the actual situation, and their opinions were 'quite 

 contrary' to the Prince's. 29 It was several days, therefore, before 

 the answer came. 



On the seventeenth of January, two days after Fagel gave his 

 address before the States, the ambassador of whom he spoke, 

 arrived from England. 30 No one could have been less suited to 

 the great task than was the English envoy, the Marquis d' Albeville. 

 His real name was White. An Irishman by birth, he had been a 

 Spanish spy and had been given his title "in lieu of money." 31 

 He had also been in the employ of France, and at the time of his 

 appointment to Holland he was in the pay of Louis XIV. 32 Burnet 

 calls him 'a most contemptible and ridiculous man, who had not 

 the common appearances of decency or truth,' and 'a contemptible 

 tool of the Jesuits.' 33 Avaux, with whom Albeville had agreed to 

 act, had no faith in him and in his letters to Louis XIV branded 

 him as untrustworthy, false, a traitor, and always open to bribery. 34 

 This was the man James II chose to act as a sort of missionary to 

 Mary in order to win her, if possible, to the Catholic faith. 35 



The three immediate purposes of the embassy of Albeville were 

 soon known. 36 Bishop Burnet was forced to leave the court 

 although he remained constantly in touch with Dykvelt and 

 Halewyn. 37 The Prince was assured that rumors to the effect that 

 James was attempting to change the succession were groundless. 

 And lastly, James demanded the return of the English officers 

 involved in the Peyton affair. 



29 Avaux, Negotiations, vol. vi, p. 26. 



30 Klopp, Der Fall des Houses Stuart, vol. iii, p. 280. 



31 Ellis, George Agar, The Ellis Correspondence, vol. i, p. 76, note. 

 Burnet, History of His Own Time, p. 450. 



32 Avaux, Negotiations, January 23, June 12, 1687. 

 Burnet, History of His Own Time, p. 450. 



Barillon's despatches to the King, September 2, 23, and March 3, 1687, to 

 be found in Lingard, vol. x, p. 137. 



33 Burnet, History of His Own Time, p. 450. 



34 Avaux, Negotiations, February 13, 1687, vol. vi, p. 41 f. 

 Ibid, p. 43 f. 



35 Mazure, Histoirc de la Revolution de 1688 en Anglelerre, vol. ii, p. 186. 

 3S Ibid, p. 187 ff. 



37 Burnet, History of His Own Time, p. 450. 



96 



