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3 To His EXCELLENCY, CHARLES Duke of Shrewsbury: His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State; Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter, &c. And one of the Lords Justices of England. SIR, I Should scarce have had the boldness to prefix your great Name to this Book: had I not been fully persuaded that the extraordinary worth of my Author would strongly plead for me to your Excellencies Generosity . For, since my intention was, that the Sieur Puffendorf ’s Introduction to the History of Europe should appear in no less Lustre in this Kingdom, than it has heretofore done in most parts of Europe; I could not, without injuring a Person so famous for his Learning, and the rank 2. Charles Talbot, duke and twelfth earl of Shrewsbury (1660–1718), was raised a Catholic but converted to Protestantism in 1679. He was one of seven English lords who invited William III of Orange to invade England in 1688. Made a duke in 1694, he served as William’s secretary of state during 1689–90 and 1694–99. He also worked for the recognition of Georg Ludwig (1660–1727) of Hannover as George I in 1714. 3. There had been editions in several other languages before Crull’s 1695 translation appeared. See Appendix 1, Publication History, and Appendix 2, List of Early Modern Editions and Translations. 4 dedicatory epistle he bears in one of the Northern Kingdoms, submit his Treatise to the Protection of any other Person, than your Excellency, whose judging Power is so universally acknowledged: If it endures this Test, it must pass current [be accepted] in this Nation. The high Station in which you are now plac’d by the choice of the wisest and bravest of Kings, having put your Merits above the Praises of a private Person; I shall rather admire than pretend to enumerate them, wishing, that as your Actions have hitherto been most effectual in preserving your Country ’s Liberty, so your Counsels may for the future prove as fatal to the French, as the Swords of your glorious Ancestor’s in former Ages. Thus recommending my self to your Excellencies Protection, I beg leave to subscribe my self, Your Excellencies, Most devoted Servant, J.C.M.D. 4. Apparently Crull did not know of Pufendorf’s move from Sweden to Brandenburg in 1688, nor of his death in 1694, when he wrote this Dedication. 5. See note 2, p. 3 above. 6. In 1694, England was at war against France in league with other European powers (Spain, the United Provinces, and the Holy Roman Empire) in what is alternately called the Nine Years’ War, the War of the Grand Alliance, or the War of the League of Augsburg (1689–97), which ended with the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). ...

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