DISGRACE OF THE DUKE DE RIPPERDA.
The dukes of Ormond and Wharton,* and the earl Marischal, were certainly at Madrid; and the duke de Ripperda, now prime-minister of Spain, dropped some expressions to the English envoy that implied some such design, which however the court of Madrid positively denied.
* The duke of Wharton having consumed his fortune in riot and extravagance, repaired to the court of Vienna, from whence he proceeded to Rome, and offered his service to the pretender. There he received the order of the garter, and the title of duke of Northumberland. He was sent by the chevalier de St. George with credentials to the court of Madrid, where he abjured the protestant religion, married a lady of the queen of Spain’s bed-chamber, and obtained the rank and appointment of a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish service.
Ripperda, as a foreigner, fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of the Spanish ministers. He was suddenly dismissed from his employments, with a pension of three thousand pistoles. He forthwith took refuge in the house of Vandermeer the Dutch ambassador, who was unwilling to be troubled with such a guest. He therefore conveyed the duke in his coach to the house of colonel Stanhope, the British minister, whose protection he craved and obtained. Nevertheless, he was dragged from thence by force, and committed prisoner to the castle of Segovia. He afterwards made his escape, and sheltered himself in England from the resentment of his catholic majesty. Colonel Stanhope complained of this violation of the law of nations, which the Spanish ministers endeavoured to excuse. Memorials and letters passed between the two courts, and every thing tended to a rupture. The king of Spain purchased ships of war; began to make preparations for some important undertaking; and assembled an army of twenty thousand men at St. Roch, on pretence of rebuilding the old castle of Gibraltar. Meanwhile the states-general and the king of Sweden acceded to the treaty of Hanover: but the king of Prussia, though his majesty’s son-in-law, was detached from the alliance by the emperor, with whom he contracted new engagements.