The Embassy of Everaard van Weede 59 



man of their party, and the Whigs remembered him kindly as the 

 protaganist of Protestantism. 278 At the conferences with Dyk- 

 velt, Danby spoke for the Tories. 279 Surely, Dykvelt was able 

 to find no one who was more fit to listen to his message from the 

 Hague. 



Danby's letter is the most interesting of all those that Dykvelt 

 carried with him from England. 280 And it is the most enigmatic. 

 The Prince of Orange especially directed Dykvelt to negotiate with 

 the old minister of Charles II and the enemy of Louis XIV. 281 

 And Albeville may have given some suggestion too. 282 Danby 

 speaks very highly of Dykvelt in this famous letter: 



I am therefore, in the first place, obliged to return your Highnesse my humble 

 thanks for so great an honour, and next to do that justice to Mons. Dykvelt to 

 assure your Highnesse, that as you could have employed nobody here who could 

 have been more agreeable to your well-wishers in this country, so I am confident 

 that nobody could have discharged themselves better than he hath done, both in his 

 deportments to the King, and with all the satisfaction that could have been wished 

 to those with whom he conversed concerning your Highness's great firmness in 

 the Protestant religion. . . . By his prudent management of their discourses, 

 he has done your Highness great service. . . . 



Danby is sorry that Dykvelt cannot bring a better account of the 

 services of the leaders during his stay, "but you know that our 

 present stations do render most of us but little capable of doing 

 anything which can deserve to be thought considerable." But he 

 proposes a personal interview of the leaders with the Prince, and 



278 Grew, E. and M.S., The Court of William III, p. 80. 

 Macaulay, vol. ii, p. 894. 



279 Grew, E. and M. S., The Court of William III, p. 80. 



280 Dalrymple, Letter of the Lord of Danby to the Prince of Orange, May 30, 

 1687, from London, p. 194 ff. 



281 The motives of Danby during his political supremacy were fundamentally 

 at variance with the diplomatic policy of Louis XIV. The latter feared the Prince 

 of Orange and Parliamentary government. He opposed the spread of Protestant- 

 ism, and saw in Catholicism a possibility of cementing together the two countries. 

 Danby secured the marriage of the Prince of Orange to Princess Mary, and was 

 friendly to Holland. His constant defense of Protestantism won for him the 

 support of the Whigs. Moreover, Danby was strong in Parliamentary circles, 

 and naturally looked to many of the leaders for help during his long distress. 



282 Supra, p. 19 f. 



143 



