The Virginia Gazette

LONDON, May 1.

On the Happy Nuptials of His Royal Highness the PRINCE of WALES.

We are called upon, by every Motive of Duty and Gratitude, to acknowledge His Majesty's Goodness and by every Consideration of Public Interest, to congratulate our own Felicity in the Nuptials of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with the Princess of Saxe-Gotha.

This happy Event must give the most sensible Joy, to a People who are tenderly concerned in every Circumstance of His Life and Fortune. The amiable Qualities which we have experienced in His Royal Highness, engage our Wishes, that the Consort of His High Dignity may equally partake of His Virtues; and the PROTESTANT SUCCESSION itself depending on this Alliance, our Religion, our Liberties, the present Age, and late Posterity, have the highest Advantage from the Personal Merits of the Illustrious Bride.

As our Happiness is thus bound up in the Welfare of the Royal Family; our Laws have interposed in Relation to their Marriages, with such an extraordinary Care, that, to marry a Papist, is a Forfeiture of the Succession, and discharges the Subjects of their Allegiance, even to the Prince on the Throne.

His Majesty ruling by the Laws, in all the Measures of His Reign, and adhering to the Principles of the Constitution, in the Marriages of His Royal Off-spring, hath given the highest Demonstrations of His Care for the Protestant Interest.

With this affectionate Zeal for the Interests of the Reformed Religion, we beheld Him, with the Acclamations of His Subjects, and the Applause of all Europe, bestow His Eldest Daughter on the PRINCE OF ORANGE, providing for the Public Security, in the Collateral Branches of the Succession.

Constant in His Royal Care for the Good of His People; and Uniform in the Measures of promoting it, His Majesty hath now completed our Security, by the Marriage of the PRINCE, the Heir Apparent of His Kingdoms.

This excellent Princess, whom His Royal Highness hath received to His Bed, and with whom, in the Course of Time, He is destined to share the Throne, comes recommended to this Nation by all the endearing Circumstances, which can warm the Hearts of Protestants and Englishmen, with Love to Her Family, and Wishes for Her Prosperity.

Her Royal Highness is descended from that ancient SAXON Race, whence the Nations of Britain and Germany were peopled, as from common Ancestors; and descended, as She is, from the Founders of the Liberties Of England, from Her Hall descend the Preservers of those Liberties to all succeeding Times.

Her Royal Highness hath the Honour to be of a Family whose ancient Extraction, whose august Fortunes, and whose Alliances, with every Royal House in Europe, are the least Illustrious Ornaments of Their Greatness.

She is Lineally sprung from the bravest Deliverers of Mankind. Her immortal Fore-fathers were the First Founders of the PROTESTANT NAME. The Liberties of Germany are owing to their Generous Struggles. The Reformed Religion was the Work of their Hands, and the Noble Cause for which they took up Arms. They gave this Invaluable Blessing to the World; and, for the Sake of it, lost all the Blessings which the World could afford them.

Her Royal Highness, in the Midst of that Happiness which a Wise and Indulgent Providence reserved for Her, contemplating the Hardships and Misfortunes of her Great Ancestor FREDERICK the Magnanimous of Saxony, and that invincible Virtue which supported him under them, may now see the Loss of his Dignity compensated to his Family, by the High Rank to which She is raised: and the Service that he performed to the Protestant Interest, rewarded by the Gratitude of a Protestant People.

She comes, in the Right of Her Fathers, to receive the Tribute of our Good Will, for Benefits done to Mankind, which can never be valued above their Worth, nor repaid beyond their Due.

As the History of Her Illustrious Family, is filled with Events the most important and affecting of any which the Modern Ages of the World can show: it will gratify the just Desires of my Countrymen to give some Account, in this Place, of the House of Saxe-Gotha.

Wittekindus, the last King of the Saxons, embraced the Christian Faith in the Time of Charlemagne, and his Family have, from that Time, been Dukes of Saxony, with an Interruption from 1180, to 1423.

After the Race of Wittekindus was restored, Frederick II. dying in 1464, left Two Sons; First, Ernest; from whom is derived the Ernestine Line; of which is the Duke of Saxe-Gotha: And, Secondly, Albert: from whom descends the Albertine Line, of which is the Elector of Saxony, now King of Poland.

FREDERICK III. Duke of Saxony, Son of Ernest, protected Luther in the Castle of Wartburg, after the Diet of Worms 1521.

His Son, John, Duke of Saxony, protested Solemnly with the other Princes of his Alliance, Anno 1529, against the Decree of the Diet of Spire, from whence the Protestant Name had its Original. He was Author of the Schmalkaldic League, in Defence of the Reformation.

FREDERICK the Magnanimous, his Son, succeeded in the Electorate of Saxony. In whose Time the Emperor Charles V. having projected the entire Subversion of the Liberties of Germany; this Duke of Saxony, together with the Landgrave of Hesse, took up Arms for the Preservation of their Religion and Country. By the Misfortune of War, after having performed all that could be expected from so great a Captain, the Elector of Saxony was taken Prisoner, April 24, 1547, and his Country possessed by Maurice, his Kinsman, Grandson of Albert, the Founder of the youngest Line. Him the Emperor invested with the Electoral Dignity, which his Descendants enjoy at this Day; and compelled Frederick to be present at the Solemnity. He bore his Misfortunes with a Greatness and Equality of Mind, which is scarcely to be paralleled in Story. Neither could the Insolence with which the Emperor treated him, nor the Apprehensions of Death to which he adjudged him, nor the Imprisonment which he so long suffered, ever shake or disorder his Temper; and tho' he was forced to submit to the hardest Conditions of renouncing his Dignity and Dominion, yet no Intreaties or Fears could ever bring him to yield the least Point in Religion. His Virtue seemed inimitable, and was celebrated as such by Sleidanus, and the most excellent Writers of that Age.

From the Great Grandson of this brave Prince, the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha are descended, in whom as the Line of Frederick, the Magnanimous is continued, so is that Protestant Religion for which he fought and suffered:

And tho' the Electorate of Saxony, that ancient Bulwark of the Reformation, is lost to the Protestant Interest, yet the Saxon Virtue is still unextinguished, and that ancient Family which gave so many Heroes to maintain the Liberties of Germany, hath blessed the World with a Princess to protect the Liberties of Britain.

Her Royal Highness is not only, by the Merits of Her August Family, recommended to the English Nation, as worthy of all their Affection; but from the Examples of Her brave Ancestors, must have formed Herself to every Virtue deserving of Esteem: She will consider Herself as interested in the Liberties of Nations, and bound to cherish the Rights of Mankind in the Worship of God, according to their Consciences: She will have the Story of Her Family to instruct Her, in constant Opposition to Bigotry and Unrighteous Ecclesiastical Power.

She will, in the Tenor of Her Actions, copy from the Great Authors of the Reformations; whose Blood flows in Her Veins, and whose Spirit breathes in Her Countenance. And, if to finish Humane Nature, She Shall have Occasion to learn Perfection, as well from the Living, as from those who have long since been lost; She will have that Royal Family before Her Eyes, of which She is now so amiable a Part; and will deserve a Seat in the Throne, when it comes in Her Turn to it therein; by forming Herself from the Model of that GREAT PRINCESS, whose Endowments add Dignity to Her Rank, and whose High Station, elevated as it is, is inferior to the Greatness of Her Mind, and to Her exalted Virtues.

Her Royal Highness, by the Sweetness of Her Aspect, hath given all who have had the Honour to approach Her, the most pleasing Assurances of those endearing Qualities which we hope to celebrate, on full Experience, with the warmest Eulogiums. If the Face is the Index of the Mind, and Loveliness of Aspect may assure us of a genteel, benevolent Disposition, How happy are the People of England, who behold that Beauty in Her Person, which may be esteemed an Ornament to the First Court of Europe, and may justly give us Reason to believe, that the Mind which is lodged within so fair a Form, must be a Blessing to a Nation!

She will, in this Character of Princess of WALES, have the Hearts of all His Majesty's Subjects engaged to Her by a double Tye: She will engage them by Her Personal Merit, and will receive them as the Duty of a grateful People, who, thankful for the Blessings of a good Government, are affectionate to every Branch of the Royal Family. With this Duty to the KING, the universal Affection for His Royal Highness (than whom no Prince in Succession to a Crown was ever more beloved, or ever more deserved the Love of Mankind) will be Her signal Advantage: And She will have the Concurrence of all Men's Wishes and Endeavours, to make this Country as agreeable to Her Royal Highness, as the People are Happy for Her Presence among them.