Intimidated by this declaration, they agreed to open the general conferences at Utrecht on the first day of January.

They granted passports to the French ministers; while the queen appointed Robinson, bishop of Bristol, and the earl of Strafford, her plenipotentiaries at the congress.

Charles, the new emperor, being at Milan, when he received a copy of the preliminaries, wrote circular letters to the electors and the princes of the empire, exhorting them to persist in their engagements to the grand alliance.

He likewise desired the states-general to join councils with him in persuading the queen of England to reject the proposals of France, and prosecute the war; or at least to negotiate on the foundation of the first preliminaries, which had been signed by the marquis de Torcy.

He wrote a letter to the same purpose to the queen of Great Britain, who received it with the most mortifying indifference.
No wonder that he should zealously contend for the continuance of a war, the expense of which she and the Dutch had hitherto almost wholly defrayed.