Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	death_n	king_n	treason_n	2,352	5	9.2422	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81469	The royall apologie: or, An ansvver to the declaration of the House of Commons, the 11. of February, 1647. In which they expresse the reasons for their resolutions for making no more addresses, nor receiving any from His Majesty.	Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665.; Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 1609-1674, attributed name.	1648 (1648)	Wing D1447; Thomason E522_21; ESTC R206215	46,522	48

Elizabeth inprisoned a Member of the House of commons for presuming to speak in that House concerning Her marriage And the Articles of the marriage with France were likewise agreed by King James before His death but howsoever it is a great audacity in the House of Commons singly after more then 20. yeers and many intervenient Parliaments that would never presume to meddle with the Kings marriage nor the treaty thereupon now to draw arguments from thence whereby to dis-affect the people to the King but that they wil leave no corner unswept nor action unstrained whereby they may render the King lesse beloved And as for keeping a continued correspondency with Rome or having an Agent of His there as is alleaged in this Declaration it is most false The Queen perhaps may have had and maintained some person there for such things as she held necessary for Her in point of Her devotion it is well-known that concerning the affairs of the Princes of Christendome from no place so perfect knowledge and intelligence could be got as from Rome Q. Elizabeth and King James that were wise Princes no Papists were of that minde and were at no small charge to hold correspondency from time to time with every eminent person of that Court without the leave of the House of Commons being a body not well modell'd for secrecy consisting of near five hundred persons But the hatred to the Pope Rome is such that it was thought the very naming of them would reflect with some hatred upon the King which was that which was only aimed at Then they come to plant their maine piece of battery or indeed rather to worke in their Mine whereby they would blow up the Honour of His Majesty in order to the making of Him a glorious King by calling to minde and reviving the pastages in the Parliament the second year of His Reign concerning the death of his Royall Father as they terme it whereas in all their impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham they did never so much as accuse him or lay to his charge the death of King James but only called that which he had done an audacious Action voted that he should be accused only of a misdemeanor of so high a nature as might justly be called so was deemed by the said Commons to be an Act of a transcendent presumption dangerous consequence for such transmitted it to the Lords But now conceiving it would be much for their turn to have it insinuated let into the people that amongst the Articles of their Declaration against the King one was touching the death of His Father for so they stile it viz. The proceeding and passages of Parliament concerning the death of His Royall Father the passages whereof shall be truly related in the subsequent Narration King James fell sick in the spring 1625. and His sicknesse began with an ordinary tertian intermittant Ague which is not held mortall especially in the Spring but the King having a full body hard to be ruled or governed by his Physitians in His sicknesse His tertian turned into a continuall feaver whereof he dyed In the time of His sicknesse certain plaisters and posset-drinks were applyed given to Him such as are ordinarily used to be given by women in the country for that men seldome apply themselves to Physitians in ordinary Agues but to such received and known medicins as are commonly used and these were said to be given by the Duke of Buckinghams procurement and prepared in his lodgings without the direction or knowledge of the Physitians untill after they had been administred unto the King After almost two years there having been in the interim a Parliament and nothing stirred in the businesse the Duke of Bukingham having much distasted the Houses and they being highly incensed against him a ready ear was given to all complaints that might afford any probability of questioning of him and his actions And there were severall Articles by way of impeachment exhibited against him to the House of Peers and among them one was touching the Dukes administring of drinks and plaisters without the consent or knowledge of the Physitians many Physitians and others were examined and it was with great vehemency pressed that there might have been an accusation of Treason drawn up against him thereupon But when the said Article came to be Voted in the House of Commons and the case and evidence had been truly stated before them by Sir Dudley Diggs who with Master Wansford and others had the managing of that Article of their charge the House did hold it fit that he should not be impeached of Treason the evidence indeed not bearing it but only of a transcendent presumption as is truly set down in their Declaration but if there had been any the least ground or evidence of any wicked intention in the Duke to destroy the King or any Symptoms that the Kings death had been caused or hastned by those things that were given or that the said drinkes and plaisters had beene of any noxious or hurtfull quality it is well known that the detestation against the Duke at that time was such that He would not have been forborn if the evidence would have born an impeachment of Treason many pressed it far alledging that without an accusation of Treason they could neither remove the Duke from about the Kings Person nor from sitting in the Houses of Peers without which it was thought they would hardly prevail against the Duke but the evidence falling short it was carryed in the House for an impeachment only of Misdemeanor a transcendent Presumption not of Treason And of these particulars some now sitting among them if they had had so much ingenuity or had not been restrained with fear might have informed them And they might have been likewise pleased to remember that it was proved before them that the King was embowel'd and embaumed publiquely no Symptomes appeared but that He dyed naturally of His Sicknesse And this their Declaration although it be set out with some strains and aggravations conteineth little more then is here declared concluding in these words That it is an offence and misdemeanor of so high a nature as may be justly called and is by the said Commons deemed to be an Act of transcendent presumption of dangerous consequence So that by their own charge nothing is laid down against the Duke but a misdemeanor an adventurous Act unto which they confesse in this Declaration that he put in His Answer the 8. of Iune and the said Answer doth yet remain upon record in the Journall book of the House of Peers And certainly it had been much more fair and ingenious to have likewise set down the Answer and not to have published only the Accusation and concealed from the world the Dukes Answer since they doe acknowledge that they knew of the Answer but it should seeme

was used like a man that had had his horse moneys sword cloak and cloak-bagge violently taken from him and the men that had rob'd him so that he would promise not afterward to prosecute them were content to treat with him about restoring him some part of his goods but he should first give his consent that they might keep his horse his money his sword and his cloak but for his cloak-bagge his nightcap his slippers and his shirts they would treat with him And because he would not yeild to those conditions they stript him of his cloaths bound him and cast him into a ditch For the matter of the Bils they say nothing not so much as to insinuate what they were and of them there will be a Tract apart only two or three words shall be said to let the world see that there were never so shamefull proposals made by any Subjects to their King especially upon His refusall to yeild unto them to lay the ground for His deposing and imprisoning 1. If the King should have condescended to the setling of the Militia according to the Bill offered by them He should have devested himself and the Crown for ever of the means of protecting his Subjects the Law or the Church and thereby have been absolutely perjured by breaking His Oath of Coronation he should have left his Subjects meer Slaves to their absolute power by giving way that they might levy what men they pleased without distinction of Persons Quality or limitation of Numbers and under the pretext of paying the men so levyed might raise what moneys they pleased without restraint either in the manner or proportion And having already as they pretend the Legistative power in their hands without the King it is much wonderd that they should presse for any more Bils then this for hereby alone they should be the most absolute Princes in Christendom their Wils being the only Laws and a setled Power to uphold their Will 2. But it should seem being hereby become Princes they would not want that noble Power of Soveraignty of conferring of Honours They had once this Parliament nominated a list of Persons whom they intended to have made Dukes Earls and Barons and now they would hook in that Power by a Bill It may be said they intend it not without the King That is but an illusion for if they shal by Bil make such Persons Peers as they wil pretend have by their fidelity and courage preserved the State they have already declared that the King ought to give His Consent to such Bils as the two Houses offer unto him and in this rewarding of such Heroes as have been the preservers of their Country they will not take a Denyall And for their supplying their new Lords with Estates and Revenues for their new callings that is but giving the Estates of some of the loyall Lords whom they call Delinquents to those their new Lords which is done in a morning by an Ordinance as firmly as if it were by Act of Parliament 3. In their third Bil of having all Declarations Proclamations of their Treason and Rebellion to be revoked they do not pretend a generall Pardon or Act of Oblivion but they wil have a Justification of all their Actions and proceedings and all the blame and bloud of the War to rest upon the Kings head and his Adherents and that they as Traytors and Rebels have forfeited their Lives and Estates wherewith they will enrich themselves So that the King must not only pardon but justifie them whom He hath so often declared to have been Traytors and in his conscience believeth them to be so although he be willing to forgive and forget all that is by past but must leave in the hands of their mercilesse Enemies those that His conscience telleth Him have been and are innocent loyall Subjects and can be charged with no Crime but that they have served Him faithfully according to their Obligations by the Law of God the Law of the Land their Oathes and naturall Allegeance Insomuch that they are not content that the King should be poor and without any Power or Authority but as they labour in this Declaration to render Him odious to His people so they would make Him infamous to all Posterity by delivering His faithfull true servants and Friends that have suffered so much for Him to totall ruine and destruction 4. Their fourth Bill is for the further Declaration of the Act for the continuance of this Parliament as is pretended but in effect it is a further settling and confirming of it And certainly if there did any shame remain they would blush to move the King in any thing concerning this Bill considering upon what grounds the King was induced or rather constrained to grant it how they have solemnly protested by their Declaration of the 19. of May 1642. That they would do nothing by vertue of that gracious Act which otherwise had not been fit to have been done But what use have been made and still is of the said Act beyond the Intention in the preamble of the said Bill expressed to the disservice of the King and destruction of the Kingdome let the world judge Now since the Kings not condescending to these four Bils is that which they themselves set down in this Declaration to be the formall and reall Cause of their making these Votes and consequently of deposing and imprisoning the King For all the other particulars are but Aggravations and Accumulations of faults which they say they have hitherto borne but this the Kings present denyall of their Bils is that which without Scorn and Contempt to themselves and ruine to the Kingdome they may not suffer and therefore have taken their present resolutions to have no more to do with the King but to settle the Kingdomes without Him The case lyeth then plainly before the indifferent Reader whether the refusing of four such Bils so destructive in the matter to Monarchy so enthrawling of the People to all sorts of Slavery and in the manner so compulsory so irrationall and so impossible be a justifiable Cause for Subjects to depose their King to imprison His Person to defame Him to the World and to deny Him all means of Vindicating His Innocency and Honour But now they say having made this last so just and honourable application they cannot but conclude that by not assenting unto it He hath forgotten not only His duty to the Kingdome but also the care and respect which He owes to Himself and His own Family How just and honourable the said Application hath been hath been formerly shewed of which it may be with truth averred that leaving aside the wickednesse in the matter no story ancient or modern can parallel it for the undutifulnesse and impudence of it in Subjects towards their King To conclude they say that for these few of many reasons they cannot repose any more trust in Him but have made those former resolutions

Certainly they have done ill to passe by their many reasons for these few have been much too weak to support so great a weight as the wickedness of their deposing their King and the using of Him as they do and it is to be beleived that they would make use of the best of those reasons having so great store out of which to make their choice In the next place they say They will notwithstanding indeavour to settle the present Government as may best stand with the Peace of the Kingdome It is likely indeed to be a righteous Government and to last long that a prevalent party in the House of Commons shall settle without the King and against all Law WHAT hath been hitherto said hath been to shew how free the King is from the Aspersions endeavoured to be cast upon him by this Declaration together with the great malice and falshood of it First many things in matter of fact are most untrue as that the King should have a hand in the Irish Rebellion That there was a Designe of a generall Massacre of all the Protestants in England That the Spanish fleet that came into the Downes 1629. was to enslave the Subjects c. with many more such ridiculous falshoods Other things are perverted by false application of the facts as that the Horse that were spoken to be raised in Germany were for the enslaving of England whereas the truth is that if that designe had gone forward as it did not it had been to recover the Palatinate In other things were the facts untrue by concealing part of the truth and the circumstances which do clearly justifie the said fact The Malice and Fraud of the Declaration is made most apparent as when they speak of slitting of noses branding of faces cutting off eares the facts were true But they conceal that all these things were done by course of Justice against notorious Malefactors And so that which they should have called Justice they now bring for an instance of Cruelty Fourthly it is remarkable that all the greivances complained of throughout the Kings whole Reigne though wholy redressed according to their own desires yet they are recharged and the redresses not spoken of So likewise are all the Objections which they have formerly made either of the passages of the War or concerning the Treaties although they have by the King been formerly fully answered yet they obtrude upon the people all the said objections and conceale from them the Kings satisfactory Answers and all this in so venomous and spitefull a language that it is plainly to be seen that their end is to make differences irreconcileable and the King odious that they may have the more colour to destroy Him It will now be necessary to speak a few words of their other Proposition viz. that a King that should be culpable of those Crimes suggested in this their Declaration may be proceeded against as they do now proceed with the King for to that end they have written this Declaration as conteining the reason of their Resolutions and Proceedings This position is worse and more dangerous then their present Rebellion for that by Gods goodnesse may soon have an end but this Position is a source a seed-plot and nurcery of perpetuall Rebellions So much hath been written by all sorts of Christians against this damned Maxime that here it shall be very briefly spoken of and onely shewed that it is full of Impiety Perjury and Treason Impiety towards God who hath in his holy word so often commanded obedience to the Powers by him ordained over us and hath prohibited Resistance upon pain of Damnation and that to Heathens Tyrants and Persecutors of his Church even to that monster of mankind Nero Perjury by breaking so many Oathes Protestations and Covenants of bearing unto the King true faith and allegeance of defending His Person and Honour with all His just Rights and Dignities Treason the levying War against the King the adhering to His enemies the indeavouring to alienate the hearts of the Subject from the King to remove the King from the Government or to imprison His Person to subvert the Lawes to indeavour to change the government either Ecclesiasticall or Civill to reforme the King by force and many other things are by the Lawes and Acts of Parliament and not by Ordinances declared to be Treason and most of them so confessed by themselves this Parliament to be so and for the pretence of some of them the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Earle of Strafford lost their lives And here I shall leave that damned Position that Subjects may depose their lawfull hereditary King for so the King is in effect upon suggestions of His failings or any other cause whatsoever It remains yet to speak something of the Scope of their so bitter railing and reviling of the King with so foul a pen as Tyranny Cruelty betraying breach of Oaths c. which is to make Him odious for answer whereunto there shal be only offered unto the world and them such truths of the King and his Deportments as the fiercest of His enemies shall not deny He is known to be a Prince of a most pious life which He daily sheweth by His constant practice of all Acts of devotion as Prayers Sermons and frequent receiving of the holy Sacrament No blood hath been drawn by his Anger or Revenge no noble Family dishonoured by His Lust no Debauchery or Excesse hath received encouragement by His Example no Oathes or Profanesse have been heard to come out of His mouth His prudence ability invincible courage and industry are not unknown to themselves nor His patience and composedness of minde in the highest afflictions and wrongs that have ever almost befallen any King and lastly his goodnesse and clemency in desiring to put all by-past Injuries into perpetuall oblivion Let these His known and undenyable vertues besides His Royal De●●●● and undoubted Title for six hundred years in England and of 108 Kings in Scotland be put into the ballance against all those malicious and 〈◊〉 Aspersions that have been raked together against Him and then let it be judged whether it will not be an ill change for the people to leave the subjection and Government of such a Prince to put themselves under the Tyrannie and Arbitrary Power of such a Parliament and such an Army One thing more shall onely be offered to the consideration of the People whether if the Houses should condescend to a Peace upon no more then what the King offereth besides all the Concessions He hath granted this Parliament and what He hath offered from Holdenby from Hampton Court and Carisbrook Castle before cited the English Nation should not be the freest and happiest Subjects in Europe And whether if they continue under the present usurped Power of the House of Commons and the Army for the Lords serve now onely to be subservient unto them they shall not be the most miserable of all people by having their Religion Lives Liberties and Lawes changed and to be disposed of by the Wils and Arbitrary Power of their fellow-Subjects It is againe desired as it hath been in the beginning of this Answer that what is herein set down may onely stay mens judgements and put them into a deliberation untill the King who hath perfect knowledge and information of all the particulars which in many things are wanting to the Writer hereof shall Himselfe set forth His full Answer which is not likely to be long for that those who have the worst opinion of the Proceedings of the House of Commons cannot suppose them to be so irrationall and barbarous as not to let the King have a sight of this their Declaration and to afford Him all necessary means of making and publishing His Answer FINIS