RIPPERDA John William, Baron (1680-1737), a political adventurer, was born of noble parents in the province of Groningen in the Netherlands, in 1680, and was educated in the college of the Jesuits at Cologne. Shortly after leaving the college he married a Protestant, and assumed the Protestant creed. In 1715 he was sent by the states on an embassy to Spain. Having gained the favour of Philip V., he resigned the office of Dutch ambassador, became a penitent convert to the Catholic faith, and took up his permanent residence in Madrid. He made use of every influence to advance himself to the first position at court, and if possible to supplant Alberoni, who, provoked by his intrigues, deprived him of his pension and estate. After the fall of Alberoni he succeeded in ingratiating himself with the queen, Elizabeth of Parma. Returning from an embassy to Vienna in 1725, he pretended to the queen that he had effected her favourite scheme of betrothing her son Don Carlos to the eldest archduchess. His immediate elevation to a dukedom and to the office of prime minister compelled him to persist in this imposture. Lie was backed up by lie; the nation was impoverished to furnish him with hush-money; and he continued to try every bungling shift until, in May 1726, he was deprived of his offices, and sent a prisoner to Segovia. Making his escape after two years’ imprisonment, he went to England. His hopes of influence there having been overthrown by the treaty of Seville in 1729, he finally collected his property and set sail for Holland, arriving at The Hague in November 1731. Thence he sailed to Morocco, where he was welcomed by the emperor Muley Abdallah, and, becoming a Mohammedan, was placed at the head of the administration of the country. But his royal patron was soon driven ...