, declaring that Spain had incurred great loss by
the depreciation in the value of the current coin of the realm. This book
aroused the indignation of the King, who ordered Mariana to be cast into
prison. The Spanish historian certainly deserved this fate, not on account
of the book which brought this punishment upon him, but on account of
another work, entitled _De Rege ac Regis institutione Libri iii. ad
Philippum III., Hispaniae regem catholicum_. Toleti, apud Petrum
Rodericum, 1599, in-4. In this book Mariana propounded the hateful
doctrine, generally ascribed to the Jesuits, that a king who was a tyrant
and a heretic ought to be slain either by open violence or by secret
plots. It is said that the reading of this book caused Ravaillac to commit
his crime of assassinating Henry IV. of France, and that in consequence of
this the book was burned at Paris in 1610 by order of the Parliament.
The historian of the Dutch war of 1672 endured much distress by reason of
his truthfulness. This was John Baptist Primi, Count of Saint-Majole. His
book was first published in Italian, and entitled _Historia della guerra
d'Olanda nell' anno 1672_ (_In Parigi, 1682_), and in the same year a
French translation was issued. The author alludes to the discreditable
Treaty of Dover, whereby Charles II., the Sovereign of England, became a
pensioner of France, and basely agreed to desert his Dutch allies, whom he
had promised to aid with all his resources.
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