Conclusion from so bad a Beginning by making way for some Protestant Lady of that Country that might advance the Reformation begun by him there he vext the Question a long while and finding that the Pope over-aw'd by the Emperour durst not consent to a Divorce he to scandalize him the more set forth by many learned Arguments the unlawfulness of the Marriage and so nettled King Henry that the Pope doubting the effects of his Impatience propos'd by way of Expedient though but faintly to Gregory Cassalis the English Resident then at Rome that he would permit him ut aliam duceret Uxorem which in plain English was That if the King pleased he would allow him to have two Wives at once Now whether it were that the King doubted his power and thought he could not make good what he promised for that he could not make that Marriage out which he had already to be either lawful or unlawful so as to relieve him or dismiss it Or whether he had as is more probable a clear Sentiment of the Popes slight Opinion of him in making so unusual not to say unlawful a Proposal to him is not certain but certain it is he never forgave the Affront till by vertue of his own proper power he had divorced himself from his Authority which the Cardinal labouring to uphold by his Legatine power out of hope of being himself Pope nor only lost himself in the attempt but drew all he Clergy who took part with him into a Premunire Of whose Error his wise Servant Cromwel took the advantage making his Masters fall the occasion of his own rising by whom the thoroughly humbled Convocation weâ—e perswaded to petition the King for their pardon under the Title and Stile of Ecclesiae Cleri Anglicani Protector supremum Caput which rais'd a greater dispute upon the Supremacy not long after then was before upon the point of Divorce For the Bishop of Rochester who by reason of his great learning and sanctity of Life was a leading man refusing to subscribe the aforesaid Petition unless some words might be added by way of explanation of the Kings Supremacy Cromwel took the Defence thereof upon himself and by advice with Bishop Cranmer there were many Arguments brought to justifie the same both from the Authority of Kingship in general de Communi Jure by vertue of that Divine Law that has given the stile of a Royal Priesthood to all anointed Kings and to which by a parallel Case the Pope himself did not long after give more then a seeming allowance For Clement the Seventh at the interview of Marselles when he was urged by some that desired Reformation and prest for the liberty of receiving the Sacrament in both kinds by an Argument taken from the custome of the Kings of France who alwayes received both Elements he answered That it was a peculiar priviledge by which Kings were differenced from other men as being anointed with the Unction of Priesthood as likewise from the particular Prerogative of the Kings of this Isle de proprio Jure or by the Common Law of this Land which was of ancienter date then any Prescription made by the Pope having been ratified by the Sanction of several Acts of Parliament that had declar'd all Spiritual Jurisdiction to be inherent in the Crown This Doctrine of his wanted not its Use for the King had this immediate benefit of the Dispute to be restored to the Annates and First-fruits of the Bishopricks and now the Bond of his Holiness 's Authority being thus loosed one priviledge dropt out after another till at length they not only divested him of the profit but of the honour of his Fatherhood forbidding any to call him any more * Anciently written Pa. Pa. i. e. Pater Patriarcharum Papa or Pater for that there could be but one Lord and Father but only Bishop of Rome These Annates as they were some of the principal Flowers of the Triple Crown and could not well be pluck'd off without defacing the Sacred Tyara so the whole Conclave took such an alarm at the loss of them that apprehending no less then a total defection to follow they most peremptorily cited the King himself to appear at Rome under pain of Excommunication This was thought to be so unreasonable an Indignity offered to his Majesty in respect it was neither convenient for him to abandon his Kingdom by going so far in Person nor any way decent to trust the Secrets of his Conscience to a pragmatical Proctor that the Parliament who were conven'd to consider of the matter thought it but necessary to put a stop to all Appeals to be made out of the Realm under the penalty of Premunire and pray'd his Majesty without more ado to appoint a Court of Delegates here at home to determine the Cause Upon which the Marriage being not long after declared void Cromwell hastned on the Match with the Lady Anne Bulloigne but the Court of Rome judging the first Marriage good and the last void anathematiz'd all that were assistant in the Divorce and to shew how much they were incens'd by the precipitation of their Sentence they concluded it in one only which by the usual Form could not be finish'd in less then three Consistories This began that Fiery tryal which followed not long after wherein we may say his Holiness himself prov'd to be the very first Martyr dying immediately after the pronunciation of that great Curse as one blasted by the Lightning of his own Thunder whereby the Church Universal being without a Head The Reformists here took that opportunity to provide for their own by declaring the King Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England for the support of which Dignity they vested in the Crown the First-fruits of all Benefices as they had before of all Bishopricks Dignities and Offices whatever spiritual Setting forth in what manner Bishops Suffragans should be nominated and appointed and what their Priviledges and Authorities should be In defence of which their proceedings the King himself wrote an excellent Book or at least it pass'd for his De Potestate Christianorum Regum in suis Ecclesiis contra Pontificis Tyrannidem c. But there were many however and those of no small note who continued so obstinate in their Popish Principles that they could neither be moved by his Pen nor his Penalties to submit chusing rather to part with their Blood then their Blessing And whether they were real or mistaken Martyrs or not rather Sufferers then Martyrs I will not take upon me to say it being as hard for others to judge them as for themselves to judge the thing they died for Truth and Treason being in those dayes Qualities so like one another that they were scarcely to be discern'd as appears by the nice Cases of those two I think the most eminent persons of all that were so unhappy as to suffer for setting up the Papal above the Regal Authority the
of action takes the measure of his hopes from that of their fears and whilst they judg'd it hard to repress them because they were thus divided he took that advantage to break them like single sticks as he found them lye scatter'd one from the other who had they been united under one Bond could not have been so easily confounded After which he heal'd the wounds he gave them by gentle Lenitives relaxing their Tributes remitting their Priviledges and indulging them to that degree as never any King before him did by which means he prevail'd with the very same men to carry the War into Normandy whereby wounding his Brother Robert with the very Arrows taken out of his own Quiver and the same which he had directed against him it appears how much he had the better of him in point of Understanding as well as of Power This breach with the elder gave him the first occasion of breaking with his younger Brother for having a strong Army on foot Duke Robert after his having concluded a dishonourable Peace with him desir'd his aid in reducing the Castle of Mount St. Michael detain'd from him by Prince Henry who being not paid the money he had lent him to carry on the War against King William for Robert had pawn'd to him the Country of Constantine but afterwards took it away again seiz'd upon this Castle in hope by the help of some Britains he had hired to serve him for his Money to have done himself right but Robert made this advantage of the dis-advantage King William had brought upon him to ingage him in reducing t'other unhappy Prince that doing a kindness to one lost both his Brothers the one taking offence at his demand t'other at the Occasion whereby both set upon him at once and besieging him forty dayes brought him to the point of yeilding but the same evil Spirit that first divided them to do more mischief did this good to unite them again working upon the good Nature of Duke Robert and the ill Nature of King William the same effect for upon his Submission William to be revenged on Robert for having entertain'd his Competitor Atheling judg'd Henry to be satisfied his Debt by a day certain out of those very Lands which the other had assign'd to Atheling for a Pension upon which Robert's pity turn'd immediately into spight and when Henry came for his Money he clap'd him up in Prison and kept him in Duress till he releas'd the Debt Henry complaining of this Injustice to the King of France his Brother William being then return'd into England was by him put into Arms again and by the surprizing the Castle of Damfront recover'd back most of his Security with all the Country of Passais besides Robert hereupon pleads that King William had fail'd of paying him in certain Sums of Money due by promise to satisfie Henry and that by reason of this failure he could not perform with him and to satisfie himself for the Damages done him by this pretended breach of Williams he fell upon King William's Castles This drew him over the second time whether to right Prince Henry or himself was not declar'd who putting on a Vizard of Indignation to afright Duke Robert as if he had intended nothing less then the Conquest of all Normandy sends back into England for an Army of 30000 to joyn with those Forces he had there by the fame whereof having done more then perhaps any body could with the men themselves if they had arriv'd he sent private Orders to his General being then at the Water-side to dismiss every man that would lay down ten shillings by which queint trick of State never practised before he rais'd so great a Sum as not only serv'd to pay the King of France his Bribe for not assisting his Brother Robert and to defray his own present charge but in effect to purchase all Normandy which thereupon was Mortgaged to him by Robert to furnish himself for that great Expedition of recovering the Holy Land from the Infidels An Undertaking politickly recommended by Urban the Second to all such Princes as he fear'd or had a mind to fool as so meritorious a work that it was indeed as he represented the matter a kind of taking Heaven by Violence whereby he so wrought upon the easie Faith of that Active and Ignorant Age that without any great difficulty he prevail'd with them to cast themselves under a voluntary Ostracisme whilst himself and those that were Parties in that holy Cheat imbarazed in a Contest with the Emperor about Superiority were deliver'd from the men of Power and Credit they most suspected to take part with him and by the purchase of their Estates and Seigniories greatly inriched the Church af erward King William thus happily rid of his elder Brother who as I said before had pawn'd his own Land to recover that for the Church was at leisure to return home to make even all reckonings with his elder Enemy the King of Scots by whose death and his Sons both kill'd in the act of Invasion he made himself so far Master of their Country as to compel them to accept a King from him who having serv'd him in his Wars and being for that Service prefer'd by him they durst not yet refuse though they might reasonably expect he would be alwayes at his Devotion This made the King of France so jealous of his growing Greatness that to prevent his coming over Sea again he tamper'd with the discontented Norman Nobility to set up Stephen E. of Albemarle his Fathers Sisters Son upon what pretence of Right appears not but he whose manner 't was to meet danger and not tarry till it found him out prevented the Conspiracy by seizing on the chief Conspirators Mowbray d'Ou and d'Alveric who being the first Examples of his Severity were so cruelly treated that if any men could be said to be murther'd by the Sword of Justice they were but the Ill of this Severity had that good effect that this first Instance of his Cruelty made it the last occasion to him to shew it so that from that time all War ceasing he betook himself to the pleasures of Peace And now deeming himself most secure he met with an unavoidable I cannot say unexpected Fate for like Caesar his Parallel he had sufficient warning of it both by his own and his Friends Dreams the night before the Nature whereof was such as he could not but contemn it because he could not understand it and having never been daunted by his Enemies he was asham'd to seem now afraid of himself however the perplexity of his thoughts disorder'd him so far that in despight of his natural Courage which was perhaps as great as ever any mans was he could not find in his heart to go out all the morning of that day he was kill'd and at Dinner which argued some failure of his Spirits he drank more freely then his usual custome was that accelerated his Fate
by taking off his Caution so that after Dinner he would needs go hunt in the New Forrest and taking his Bow to shoot a Deer in that ominous place where before a * His Brother Richard Brother and a †The Son of Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Broth r. Brothers Son of his had both met with violent Deaths Tyrel his Bow-bearer being plac'd right against him as the best Marks-man let fly an Arrow that glancing against a Bough miss'd the Deer and found out him Pectus dum perforat ingens Ille rapit calidum frustrâ de Vulnere Telum Unâ eademque viâ Sanguisque Animusque sequuntur Being thus quietly stated he sweetned his Government by taking off all Taxes to shew his Beneficence and some of the principal Taxers to shew his Justice By the first he pleas'd the Multitude in point of Relief by the other the better sort in point of Envy and Revenge gratifying their Spleen by sacrificing the griping Bishop of Durham a man who being rais'd from a base Condition by baser means had attained to the honour of being Chief Minister to his Brother King William and was grown learn'd in the Science of selling Justice by the distribution of whose Bribes he brib'd those whom he thought fit to make his own Ministers neither thought it he enough to be an English man himself without assuring the State that he intended all his Posterity should be so too and therefore to the end to make sure the wise men that were as apt to be jealous as the weaker sort to be querulous he married Maud Sister to the Scotch King and Daughter to Margaret Sister to Edgar Atheling the right Heir of the English Blood a Lady that brought him an Inheritance of Goodness from her Mother and a good Title of Inheritance from her Uncle Thus firmly did he intrench himself before his Brother whom he had made a King in fame only that he might the easier make himself a real one return'd home who arriving unlook'd for was welcom'd by the Nobility of Normandy with more then ordinary Joy by whom being inform'd of what was done in England he made it the business of the first year to provide an Army and in the second landed it at Portsmouth in order to the recovery of his lost Right whereof he was the more assur'd in respect of those of the Norman Nobility here as he thought inclin'd to him who mov'd with revenge or discontent would be glad of any Occasion to Revolt This as it was a storm King Henry saw at a distance so he provided so well for it by cutting off all Assistances that Duke Robert and those with him doubting the success and seeing themselves certainly lost if they prevail'd not it being in his power to fight them where he pleas'd and when upon his desire to save the effusion of Christian Blood yielded to Articles of Peace the Substance whereof was this That Henry being born after his Father was rightfully King and being now invested in the Crown by act of the Kingdom should enjoy the same during life and pay Robert 3000 Marks per Annum as an Earnest of the Reversion after his Death in case Robert out-liv'd him With these Conditions Robert rather blinded then satisfied returns back again into his own Country and it had been well if he had never been blinded otherwise But such is the frenzie of Ambition that it suffers not unhappy Princes to consider either what they ought to do or what to suffer whilst like the Superior Orbs they are hurried with restless Motion without understanding by what Intelligences they are actuated Finding himself fallen from the height of his Expectation into some degree of Contempt with his own Subjects he assai'd by Profusion which some call Liberality to raise his Reputation at least to disguise his Impotency spending so freely that the Nobility fearing the Revenues of the Dutchy would not suffice to support his vanity complain'd thereof to King Henry who to shew his own power and t'others weakness sent for him over to chide him and indeed reprehended him so sharply as if he had been his Father and not his Brother and as if he would have him to know he rather expected the Reversion of the Dukedome after his death then to be accomptable to him for the Kingdom after his own and whether it were that he threatned him with a Detention of his Pension or drew him being of a yielding Nature as most indigent men are to give him a release for some inconsiderable Sum of ready Mony is not certain but so it was that upon his return he could no longer conceal the indignation he had conceived at it but took the very first Occasion to shew it by joyning himself with some mutinous Lords who having before begun an unsuccessful Combustion in England had fled over thither to commit what Outrages they could there King Henry for a while pretended himself touch'd in Conscience with the foulness of a Fraternal War but was indeed apprehensive that such trivial Injuries as the taking a few Castles was not worthy the trouble of drawing him over in Person at least not worth the charge of entring into such a War as might justifie the requiring his Dukedom for a satisfaction but having let them alone till he believ'd his sufferance had elevated them beyond the temper of hearkning to any conditions he then took his time to chastise their folly and by one single Battle upon the very same day and in the very same manner as 't is reported that his Father just forty years before won England he won Normandy and having made his brother prisoner depriv'd him first of his liberty after of his country and lastly of that which was dearer than either the light of his Eyes requiting his attempt which was but natural to escape out of prison with a punishment that was of all other most unnatural and as much beyond death as it was short of it which inhumanity to his brother though it was perhaps but a just judgment from Heaven upon him for his inhumanity to his Father whose life he had twice attempted being wilfully blinded by the King of France yet 't was such as was altogether undeserv'd as from him for t'other had him fast enough within his power circumscrib'd by all the rules of Hostility besieged within a Fort and half starv'd he was so far from pressing upon him that he pittied him and broke with his brother Friend to save his brother Enemy Poor Prince Robert how was he betraied by the goodness of his own Nature and tempted like a Child to save the bird which was to pick out his Eyes How did he live to see himself buried before he was dead invelop'd in dark and dismal thoughts whilst he contemplated his Sons loss with more affliction than his own a forward Prince born to two Crowns but now reduc'd to that necessity to borrow one to buy him bread So long
Troyes she should be there to be espoused to him and with her he should have the Assurance of the Crown of France after the Decease of her Father and to gain the more Credit the Bishop secretly deliver'd him a Letter from the Princess her own hand which contained in it so much sweetness as had been enough to have made any other man but himself have surfeited with Joy his happiness being now so full and compleat that he had nothing beyond what he enjoyed to hope for Upon his Marriage with her he was published Regent of the Kingdom and Heir apparent to the Crown the Articles being published in both Realms and the two Kings and all their Nobility Sworn to the observance of them only the Daulphin stood out in utter Defiance both of his Right and Power Against him therefore the two Kings his Father and Brother together with the King of Scots who was newly arrived the young Duke of Burgundy and the Prince of Orange the Dukes of Clarence Gloucester and Bedford and twenty one Earls forty five Barons and Knights and Esquires sans nombre advanc'd with an Army of French English Scotch and Irish to the number of six hundred thousand if the Historians of that time may be credited and having taken in all the Towns and Places that denied to yield they return'd to Paris where King Henry the Articles being ratified the second time and a Counterpart sent into England began to exercise his Regency by Coyning of Money with the Arms of England and France on it placing and displacing of Officers making new Laws and Edicts and lastly awarding Process against the Daulphin to appear at the Marble Table to answer for the Murther of the Duke of Burgundy But being willing to shew his Queen how great a King he was before she brought him that Kingdom he left his Brother Clarence his Lieutenant General there and brought her over into England where he spent some time in the Administration of Justice and performing such Acts of Peace as spoke him no less expert in the knowledge of governing then in that of getting a Kingdom But he had not been long here before he received the sad News of the death of his Brother Clarence who betrayed by the Duke of Alansons Contrivance into an Ambuscade was slain together with the Earls of Tankervile Somerset Suffolk and Perch and about two thousand Common Souldiers whereupon he deputed the Earl of Mortaine in his room and not long after went back again himself with his Brother Bedford to reinforce the War taking in all the Fortresses in the Isle of France in Lovaine Bry and Champagne during which time the Daulphin was not idle but industrious to regain Fortunes savour if it were possible made many bold Attempts upon several places in possession of the English But finding the Genius of our Nation to have the Predominancy over that of his own he diverted his Fury upon the Duke of Burgundy betwixt whom and King Henry he put this difference That as he dreaded the one so he hated the other Accordingly he laid Seige to Cosney a Place not very considerable in it self but as it was a Town of the Duke of Burgundy's King Henry was so concern'd to relieve it beyond any of his own that he marched Night and Day to get up to the Enemy and making over-hasty Journeys over-heat himself with unusual Travel and fell so sick that he was fain to rest himself at Senlis and trust to the Care of his Brother the Duke of Bedford to prosecute the Design who relieved the Town and forced the Daulphin to retreat as he thought a great Looser by the Seige but it prov'd quite otherwise For the loss of the Town was nothing in comparison of the loss of King Henry who died not long after and which made his Death the more deplorable was That he no sooner left the World but Fortune left the English whereof having some Prophetick Revelation 't is thought the knowledge thereof might not be the least reason of shortning his Dayes by adding to the violence of his Distemper For 't is credibly reported that at the News of the Birth of his Son Henry born at Windsor himself being then in France even wearied with continual Victories he cryed out in a Prophetick Rapture Good Lord Henry of Monmouth shall small time Reign and get much and Henry of Windsor shall long time Reign and lose all but Gods will be done Which saying has given occasion to some to magnifie his Memory above all the Kings that were before him not to say all that came after him in that he was in some sense both King Priest and Prophet HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE A Prince of excellent Parts in their kind though not of kindly Parts for a Prince being such as were neither sit for the Warlike Age he was born in nor agreeable to the Glory he was born to but such rather as better became a Priest then a Prince So that the Title which was sometimes given to his Father with relation to his Piety might better have been applyed to the Son with reference to his that he was the Prince of Priests Herein only was the difference betwixt them That the Religion of the one made him bold as a Lion that of the other made him as meek as a Lamb. A temper neither happy for the times nor himself for had he had less Phlegme and more Cholar less of the Dove-like Innocence and more of the Serpentine subtilty 't is probable he had not only been happier whilst he liv'd but more respected after he was dead whereas now notwithstanding all his Indulgence to the Church and Church-men there was none of them so grateful as to give him after he was murther'd Christian Burial but left him to be interr'd without Priest or Prayer without Torch or Taper Mass or Mourner indeed so without any regard to his Person and Pre-eminence that if his Obsequies were any whit better then that which holy Writ calls the Burial of an Ass yet were they such that his very Competitor Edward the Fourth who denied him the Rights of Majesty living thought him too much wronged being dead that to him some kind of satisfaction he was himself at the charge of building him a Monument The beginning of his Reign which every Body expected to have been the worst and like to prove the most unsuccessful part in respect of his Minority being but Nine Months old when he was crown'd happen'd to be the best and most prosperous there being a plentiful stock of brave men left to spend upon who behaved themselves so uprightly and carefully that it appear'd the Trust repos'd in them by the Father had made a strong Impression of Love and Loyalty to the Son The Duke of Bedford had the Regency of France the Duke of Gloucester the Government of England the Duke of Exeter and the Cardinal Beauford had the Charge of his
better Neither was he less fortunate then forward in Peace as well as in War So that as upon the one side he look'd like Caesar or Augustus rather both of whom as they were armed with Lightning so their Pardons went ever before and after their Swords so on the other side he was not unlike those two famous Legislators Solon and Licurgus who principally regarding the People were yet so wise for themselves as with the publick safety to secure their own Authority for he was an excellent Judge of times and seasons and knew when to strain up the Laws to his Prerogative and when to let down his Prerogative to the Test of the Law And though 't was observ'd never any man lov'd his own way nor his own will better then he nor perhaps ever had so much Reason to do it being as another Solomon wiser then his Counsellors and yet they perhaps as well chose as ever any Kings Counsellors were yet we find he was sometimes content to part with both for the more orderly administration of Justice leaving the disposition of his Mint his Wars and his Martial Justice things of absolute power not to say the Concerns of his unsetled Title which was yet of higher and tenderer consideration to the wisdom of his Parliaments And least the thing called Propriety which is the same to the Subject as the Prerogative to Majesty should be thought to suffer in the least he gave himself the trouble of hearing many Causes at his Councel-board where sitting at the Fountain of Justice assisted by the most learn'd as well as the most reverend Professors of Law and Conscience it was not to be suppos'd that any Cause could lose any thing of its due weight and allowance yet it seems the Common Lawyers unwilling the determination of Meum and Tuum should go besides their own Courts traduc'd him with distrusting his Judges in matters of Common Right as the Souldiers complain'd of his not trusting his Generals in point of common Security And some there were who would have aggravated it to a Grievance however 't was apparent to be rather their own then the Peoples who are apter to complain of the chargeableness then the due Administration of the Laws But these Causes being for the most part heard in the Vacation time 't is possible he had in his Thoughts something beyond their reach with respect to the splendor of his Court and the profit of the City to which as he was alwayes a Friend so by this dispatch of Justice while there was no other Courts sitting he drew such a concourse of Clyents to Town as kept up a kind of Term all the Year round and so quickned Trade that by adding to theirs it increas'd his own Wealth to that degree that amongst other Reasons given of his neglecting the benefit of the Discovery of the Indies first offer'd to him by Columbus 't was not the least that he had no want of Money and having made himself a Member of the City that by the benefit of that Community he might find his account as well in their Chamber as his own Exchequer and prove as after he did the only Dragon that kept their Golden Fleece sharing with Solomon himself in those two great points of Glory to be reputed the wisest and richest King of his time 't is no wonder he should by Works Immortal as he did make his way to Immortality leaving his Son Henry nothing to do but to inherit his envied Felicity HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE Now as he began his Reign at the time when every thing begins to grow and blossom it being in the Spring of the Year as well as of his Age so the Season complying with his Constitution made it hard for him to resist the heat of his blood yet we do not find that he ingaged in any War abroad till he had secured Peace at home making his Justice as renown'd amongst his People by revenging their wrongs as he made his power afterward when he came to revenge his own executing Empson and Dudley as a terrour to all Promoters to shew he did not esteem them faithful Servants to his Father that had so betraid their Country Which Act of Justice being clos'd with another of Universal Grace in restraining his Prerogative to inlarge the Subjects Confidence and Affection made him so clear a Conquest over all Discontents arising by the Oppression of his Predecessor that having nothing more to do at home he bethought himself of what was to be done abroad Providence offering him a Projection suitable to the greatness of his mind to render the esteem of his Piety no less famous then that of his Justice by undertaking to rescue the Pope out of the hands of the King of France as a Dove deliver'd out of the Talons of a Vulture who having already drove him to Covert as we say that is besieged him in his City of Bononia and having his Confederates the Emperour and King of Spain ready at hand to make a retreive doubted not but to devour him in a very short time This as it was a Design of Super-errogating Merit so it carried in it no less of Advantage then Glory giving him a fit occasion to shew at once his Zeal and Power and in serving him to serve himself upon him in the promotion of his Title to France it being no small addition of Credit to his Claim that his Hoâ—iness as an Earnest of his Spiritual Benediction had bestowed upon his Majesty the forfeited Stile of Christianissimus However before he would move himself in Person out of England he thought it necessary to prevent any Motion of the King of Scots into England who he knew would be ready to bruise his Heel as soon as he advanced to break the Serpents Head and accordingly he got not only a confirmation of that Excommunication which Julius the Second had formerly granted against the said Scotch King in case he broke his League with him the Curse whereof followed him to his Grave for violating his Faith he died in the attempt but obtain'd a plenary Indulgence for all that should assist him Thus arm'd as it were with the Sword of God and Gideon he entred that goodly Kingdom and long it was not ere he got the Maiden-head of that Virgin City Tournay who having repuls'd Caesar had the Testimony of her Pucillage written upon its Gates as the only Town had kept her self unconquer'd from that time but now was forced to yield to him by the Name and Title of Roy tres Christien as appears by the Original Contract yet extaâ—t The same day he receiv'd the News of the †James the Fourth slain in Flodden-field Scotch Kings death who attempting as I said before to divert the War lost his Life and 't was happy he lost not his Kingdom too a Victory so seasonable and super-successful that Fortune as enamor'd of him seem'd to prostitute her self
to him and rais'd the Expectations of his future Successes to that height that the Emperour Maximilian who had before submitted though Lord of no less then eight Kingdoms to serve him in the condition of a private Souldier for the wages of One hundred Crowns a day now as some report profer'd to surrender his Empire and Dutchy of Milan to him and the King of France resolving to purchase his Friendship at any rate condition'd to pay yearly to him and his Successors Kings of England for ever Forty six thousand Crowns de Soleile and twenty four Sols Turnois with One thousand five hundred Crowns more as a Tribute out of the Salt of Brovage as may appear by the Agreement Anno 1527. the confirmation of which Treaty cost his Son Charles after the death of his Father who did not long survive the Composition a Million of Crowns more Now if his Enemies had such dread of him what esteem must we imagine the Pope had who owed his Deliverance to him Silver and Gold he had none to tender but such as he had Glorious and Grateful Titles he was very prodigal of For besides that of Liberator Urbis Orbis the Stile of his Ancestor Constantine the Great and therefore though only fit for Henry the Great it being occasional and temporary the Conclave had under consideration such as might be perpetuated to all Ages Some mov'd to have him call'd Defensor Romanae Ecclesiae others propos'd Protector Sedis Apostolicae others again lik'd better to have him stil'd Rex Apostolicus as some Rex Orthodoxus but at last all agreed in that of Defensor Fidei After this he was made Head of the Holy League out of belief That there could no Authority Superior to his be interpos'd either for the Conservation of good men in Peace or repressing those that are ill by War for so are the words of the Fourteenth Article of the League This shews that he was so much greater then any of the Kings were before him by how much they only gave Laws at home but he throughout all Christendom disposing War and Peace as made most to the advantage of his own People who were thereupon so well satisfied with the Conduct of his Government that his Will seems to have been the Supream Law For as he needed to have said no more to his Parliaments then as one of the Roman Emperors cited by Suetonius was used to say to the Senate Scitis quid velim quibus Opus habeo So they could say no more to him nor indeed any Parliament to any King then was declar'd by their giving up themselves and their Liberties wholly to him in that Act of highest Trust and Confidence that ever Subjects pass'd when they consented that he should in case he had no Issue of his own dispose the Imperial Diadem of this Realm as his Highness pleas'd by Will or Patent Thus great was this King whiles he continued to be himself keeping the Rains of Government in his own hands but after he suffer'd himself to be govern'd by others who took advantage of his to serve their own Lusts like one drawn from his Center his motions were so irregular and the intreagues of State so perplext that we cannot wonder at those Disorders which followed to the great interruption of his Peoples peace and prosperity but much more of his own whilst that which private men esteem their greatest happiness fell out to be his greatest curse the enjoyment of a most vertuous discreet and loving Wise who being a Lady of that quick-sight that she look'd thorough all his great Ministers Ambitions and occasionally detected their Designs was undone by the same way she hoped to preserve her self and him For the jealous Cardinal Wolsey his great Minister doubting that she might interpose her self betwixt the King and him as the Moon betwixt the Sun and the Earth and thereby deprive him of those warm influences of Grace from whence his power took life he design'd to blast her as it were by Lightning from Heaven or rather by a Spark from Hell casting a Scruple into the Kings Conscience which quickly set it on fire upon the apprehension of being guilty of the incestuous Sin of knowing his Brothers Wife This was so craftily managed that it was not known for a while out of what Quiver the Arrow came but a Treaty being had about a Marriage of the King of France with the Lady Mary the Kings Daughter by her it was so order'd that the Bishop of Tarbe the principal Commissioner on that side should make some doubt of the Legitimacy of the Princess thereby to bring on the Question of Incest This though it was urged with somewhat more then usual vehemency yet his Authority not being such as to move the King much at that time The Cardinal secretly ingaged the Bishop of Lincoln his Majesties Confessor to press him farther upon it knowing well as he acknowledged afterward that whatever was once put into the Kings head would hardly ever be got out again nothing doubting withal but that it was in his power at any time to conjure the Devil down again as soon as he had done his Service and after be had tumbled the Queen down or at least brought her into a necessity of making use of his Friendship wherein he had two great ends First to flatter his great Patron the French King with the hopes in case of a Divorce of marrying his fair Sister the Dutchess of Alanson to the King whose Alâ—yance was then of great Importance to that Crown Secondly to perform a very real Service to his distressed Chief the Pope who beâ—ng now more persecuted by the Emperour then before by the King of France and at that pâ—esent in Duress might possibly be releas'd by the very menace of such a Divorce as this the Emperor both as Uncle to the Queen and as Competitor with the French King for the Universal Monarchy being moved by Affection and Interest to prevent so violent a breach in his Allyance But as a Mine when it is sprung doth oftentimes other kind of Execution then they who fire it intended it should so happen'd it in this Case For instead of making a small breach upon the Kings Peace that might amount to no more but the causing a temporary abstinence from the Queens Bed de praesenti only to which 't was hop'd she her self might give occasion by a voluntary Retirement into some Cloyster where she might remain civilly dead till his Excellency the Cardinal made up the breach again it begat such a rupture in his Thoughts that he could have no rest and as one sick at heart thought himself not safe in the hands of any one Physician neither indeed of all those that he had at home till he had the Opinions of those in all the Universities abroad which made the business so publick that Luther who had a little before set up for himself finding there might be a good
Learned Bishop of Rochester and the Judicious Chancellor Sir Thomas Moore whose Contradiction could no way determine the Point though it was the occasion of determining their Lives their Cases being made worse by the same way they thought to have made their Causes better The first being found Guilty of saying too much for himself t'other of saying too little The Bishop desiring to add to his Oath those words by way of Explanation Quantum per Christi Legem liceret had this interpretation by the Lawyers upon his Interpretation that the addition amounted to a flat denial and depriving the King of his Title and Dignity within the Statute of 26. being in effect that per Christi Legem non liceret The wise Chancellor admonish'd as he thought sufficiently by the Bishops error to avoid the danger of any Interpretation ran into a worse for answering nothing when the Kings Councel ask'd his Opinion of the Supremacy his Silence was interpreted Misprision of Treason within the Statute aforesaid for that as the Indictment run Malitiosè Silebat Paul the third being in the Chair at the time when these two eminent men suffered hearing the King had seal'd his new Title in Blood thought it in vain to expect longer his Return to the Apostolick Obedience as he call'd it and therefore peremptorily summon'd him by a terrible Bull to appear within Ninety dayes and make his submission otherwise he and all that assisted him should be given up to utter Damnation as judged Hereticks The King depriv'd of his Realm the Realm depriv'd of his Benediction all the Issue by the last Match declar'd Illegitimate all Ties of Allegiance discharged all Commerce with other States forbidden the Leagues made by other Princes with him nullified the Nobility commanded to take up Arms against him and the Clergy to depart the Kingdom Now because this last seem'd to be the greatest Menace at least the Pope would have it thought so both in respect of his power over them and theirs over the Conscience the King took the first advantage of it and sent away many of them against their wills dissolving no less then Six hundred forty five of their Societies which much forwarded his Designs with the Confederate Princes of Germany whose Friendship now he seem'd to have some need of they believing by this he would wholly renounce all Papistry to which his late Queen was highly disaffected and against which his great Minister Cromwell was deeply ingaged and from which himself was sufficiently discharged by the Popes declaring him as he did a Heretick for now could he be no further bound to Paul the Third then his Ancestor Henry the Second was to Alexander the Third the first Pope that was ever acknowledged here to whom he made only a Conditional Oath Quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis ejus Successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint Gern Dowbern Col. 1422. 18. then thereupon dispatch'd an Ambassador to him to desire him to accept the Title of Patron and Defender of their League But the News of Queen Anne's Execution which for the suddenness and severity of it not to say any thing of the Injustice because some were of Opinion that the least Cause of Jealousie in Queens is equivalent to guilt in private Women begat such an abhorrence of his dire Inconstancy for she was flourishing accused condemned beheaded and another placed in her room at Bed and Board and all within a Months space that they fell off again from the Treaty they had entertain'd almost as soon as they began it believing it a Scandal to their Cause as some of them said to need the protection of the Devil However the great Ministers here gave it out that the Discrepancy of Interest was the only cause of the Breach they requiring Money of him without being able to answer the Reciproc on their part But the true State-Reason was that some of the wiser sort conceiv'd they could not safely admit his Supremacy for fear they should be oblig'd by the same rule to set up a Title for their own Soveraign the Emperor in his Dominions which would be more inconvenient then to leave it where it was in the Pope who being at further distance could not so easily reach them But long it was not ere the unexpected cause of that Innocent Queens sufferings was made manifest by the unexpected Labour of Queen Jane her Successor who made so good speed to bring the King a Son and Heir which was the thing he desired above all things in the World that being married on the Twentieth of May she fell in Labour the Twelfth of October following But Providence that had decreed she should only Conceive but not bring forth to signalize the Revenge of Queen Anne's Death by that of hers put it into the Kings heart to turn himself Man-Midwife rather then lose the hopes of a Kingdom who accordingly commanded the Child to be rip'd untimely out of her Womb an act of great horrour and so much more unwillingly perform'd for that he was unprovided of another Wife for the present In this Condition Bishop Gardner found him at his Return out of Germany who putting him out of all hopes of any Closure with the Protestant Princes unless he would come under the Standard of their Faith and allow of the Augustan Confession easily perswaded him to purge himself of the scandal of Heresie by shewing the World he had only shook off the Pope but not the Religion Here the Scene chang'd again and the first thing appear'd was that bloody Statute containing the Six Articles which being discharg'd as a Murthering Piece amongst the new Reformists cut off most of those who stood in its way the Report whereof was so loud and terrible that the two great Prelates Latimer Bishop of Worcester and Shaxston Bishop of Salisbury were frightned out of their Bishopricks who not being willing to have any hand in the approbation or execution of them suffer'd as patiently under his Title of Defender of the Faith as the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moore had before under that of his Supremacy And now Conscience being revolted from its ancient way of resolving Doubts to an abrupt Decision of the Common Law that did not instruct but force the Offender◠'t is not so much a wonder how so many came to suffer death under his Reign as how so many surviv'd it all Papists being in danger to be hang'd and all Anti-papists to be burn'd Yet in this great Storm Cromwell behav'd himself like a wise Pilot who finding he could not prevent the running of the Vessel in a contrary Course to his mind thought it enough that he kept it from being quite over-set and accordingly with great dexterity he brought on the Treaty once more with the Confederate Princes who were it seems alarum'd by the Counter-League which the Roman Catholicks set up under the Title of The Holy League the
to the Dutchess Dowager of Suffolk before the Lady Jane her Daughter in case the right of Inheritance was set up The other was that of the two next Heirs Females in case the right of Immediate Succession should take place There was a third also but he thought it not worth the consideration being so far off to wit the Title of the Queen of Scots from the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh which being in the French seem'd to be of less weight then if it had been in the Scots to neither of whom he believ'd the English would ever be brought to submit but all these Difficulties were quickly digested in his ambitious Thoughts The first which was the pretention of the Lady Jane's Mother he hop'd to set aside by introducing her as the next Successor and not as the next Heir by right of Descent and because the Kings Sisters were before her in the Succession so that nothing could be available to set aside their Right but a plain Disseisure he made use of the Interest of the one as a Wedge to drive out the other And finding that the King their Brother by the Equity of a Law made in his Fathers time had the power to nominate who he thought fit to come after him he made it his great business to work upon his weakness and to perswade him to set both aside and admit the Lady Jane taking his first Argument from his Piety and Care of the Church under the present establishment made by himself shewing him what danger 't was like to be in if so obstinate a Papist as his Sister Mary succeeded who having been convict before all the Lords of the Councel had most passionately justified her Popish Principles saying She would never change her Faith much less dissemble it Urging thereupon that Gods Glory ought to be dearer to him then his own Flesh and Blood that this was his last and greatest Act of which he knew not how soon he might be call'd to give an Accompt to the King of Kings and therefore desired him for Gods sake as well as for the Kingdoms and his own sake not to let her take place Then for the Lady Elizabeth whom he could not deny to be a Protestant he said if she should be prefer'd before her elder Sister it might possibly give an occasion to unconceivable Troubles and revive the Disputes about their Legitimacy which had cost too much blood already besides the hazard that would be of the Churches no less then their own Peace and the possibility of bringing the whole Nation under the Yoke of some stranger Prince to whose Tyranny the People would never submit concluding that as the three Daughters of the Duke of Suffolk were nearest in Blood and being married took off all fears of introducing Forreigners so having with their Natural suck'd in the Sincere Milk of the Word they could not but maintain the Truth of the Reformed Religion as well as the Dignity of the Succession with universal good liking And whereas the eldest of them to wit the Lady Jane before mention'd was his own Sons Wife he could be content they should both be bound by Oath to perform whatever his Majesty should Decree for that he had no such regard to his own as to the general good Which plausible pretences so prevaiâ—'d over the weak King whose Zeal had eaten up his Understanding that he made his Will and accordingly excluded both his own Sisters to let in the other After doing of which weak act having nothing more to do but to dye 't is thought the Duke was so grateful as to contribute much to the delivering him out of his pains as soon as might be and with as much ease for he slept away with that meekness that those that could not find in their hearts to pray for him living perform'd that Charity to him when he was dead However some there were who sower'd with a Religious Leaven took occasion to raise as great a scandal on the untimeliness of his death as others had before upon that of his Birth putting this remark upon it to make it look like a Judgment that it was in the same Moneth and in the very same day of the same Moneth that Sir Tho Moor was put to death by his Father Wherein whilst they maliciously reflected upon the Evil that was past they consider'd not how like another Josiah he was taken from the Evil to come departing with this Justification before Men and Angels That he had done as much as could be reasonably expected from the tenderness of his Years or his Power HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE And now it appear'd how ominous it was for the Innocent Lady Jane to have been brought as she was in state to the Tower But as she offer'd Violence to her own Inclinations out of Obedience to those of her Father and Mother so the assumption of that temporary was in order to the intituling her to a more lasting Glory being taught the vanity of all humane Greatness by the brevity of that of her own which lasted not so long as 't is reported a Dream of one did but a little before for there is a Story of one Foxley a Pot-maker to the Mint in Henry the Eight's time that slept fourteen dayes together and no body could wake him no not with pinching or burning whereas she came to her self in less then ten dayes and then poor Lady found herself where he was too in the Tower ready to be translated as after she was from a Kingdom to a Scaffold and from the Scaffold to a Kingdom again Happy had it been for her if it had prov'd a Dream only suffering not so much for any Crime of her own Ambition as for not resisting that of others having this aggravation of her affliction to see her Husband and the Duke his Father executed before her who both died for the same Fault but not with the same Faith that she did The Duke that had therefore importun'd King Edward to give her this fatal honour to the intent Popery might be utterly abolish'd declaring when he came to suffer that he himself was a Roman Catholick which most think he had not done had not some Promises of Life upon condition of turning deceiv'd him at the very instant time of his Death whereby Queen Mary was quit with him at the last though she could not deal with him in the first place For as he was reputed to have had no Faith whilst he lived so by this abrupt Apostacy he was judg'd to have no Religion when he dyed There is this further Remark upon him That as he suffer'd under the same Fate and upon the very same Block the late Duke of Somerset did so 't was his hap to be laid under the same Stone in the same Grave where they now lye side by side as good Friends that living were unreconcilable Enemies Two headless Dukes betwixt two
to both yet neither was so tortur'd between the Consideration of what was safe and what was Just that it appear'd in bringing the Earl they had brought him to Tryal and put him into such an Agony as shook the very Foundations of the Government And this Hesitation of his prov'd to be the Groundwork of three the most Important Jealousies that ever troubled any State the Parliament thereupon declaring themselves dissatisfied in the Security of their Religion Proprieties and Priviledges to the clearing whereof they made not long after three as strange Proposals 1. For the Extirpation of Bishops 2. The Establishment of a Triennial Parliament 3. The Delivery of the Militia into their Disposal This Contumacy of theirs taking its rise from the Confidence they had in their Brethren the Scots who all this while continued in Arms upon the Borders for want of money to disband them eating like a Fistula Insensibly into the Bowels of the Kingdom he made it his first care to cure that Malady wherein he proceeded with that great judgment and skill that in paying them off the Parliament gave the Money but he the Satisfaction having thereby so far recover'd the good Opinion of those People however they came to be perverted afterward that as soon as he arriv'd in their Country whither he went in Person presently after the Peace was concluded they gave him two notable Instances of their Duty and Submission The first Publick in reviving that good old Law there which made it Treason for any to Leavy Arms without the Kings Leave and Commission The second Private in the discovery of the five Members here that had been the principal Engineers to draw them into England But whilst he was busie in quenching the Incendiations of Scotland behold a more dreadful Fire breaks out in Ireland the Matter whereof was so prepaâ—'d that there appear'd very little or no smoak of Suspition till it was all in a Flame and which made it more terrible was That the Rebels pretended to take their Rule from the English as their President from the Scots in defending their Religion Proprieties and Liberties by Arms all which being as they said undermined not knowing how soon the Blow might be given they thought it justifiable enough to prevent what they could not withstand Now to prove that their Religion was in danger they urg'd the Preparatory Votes and Menaces of the House of Commons in England and for the proof of the Impairing their Liberty and Proprieties they referr'd to the Remonstrances of those in Scotland who made it the first motive of their rising that they were like to be reduced to the slavish Condition of Ireland in being brought under the Form of a Province and subjected to the insupportable Tyranny of a * The placing a President ov r the Councel of State being the Ground of that Fear Lord Lieutenant And now to add a Varnish to this Colour they declar'd for Preservation of the Kings Rights as well as their own swearing to oppose with Life Power and Estate all such as should directly or indirectly indeavour to Suppress the Royal Prerogative of the King his Heirs and Successors or do any †Referring to the Proceedings of the Parliament in England who had but a little before taken away the Tonnage Poundage the Sâ—ipmoney Court of Wards High Commission-Court and were earnestly contesting for the Militia c. Act or Acts contrary to the Royal Government This Declaration of theirs was written with a Pen of Iron in Letters of Blood as believing that no Rebels in the World had more to say for themselves then they at least that they had much more matter of Justification then either the Scots or English could pretend to who justified themselves by seigning only to suspect what t'other really suffer'd under Neither perhaps had the World so condemned them all Circumstances considered had there not appear'd a Self-condemnation within themseâ—ves by counterfeiting a * Whiâ—h that it might be the more authent câ— they take off an old Seal from an Absolâ—te Patent to Farâ—ham-Abby which they annex'd to it Commission from the King to justifie this their Arming falsly bragging that the Queen was with them and that the King would very shortly come to them Which as it was a base and abject piece of Policy that lost them more Credit when it was detected then it got them Repute while it was believ'd so it was malitious towards the King to that degree with respect to the Condition he was then in that it cannot otherwise be thought but that having murther'd so many of his Protestant Subjects they had a mind to murther him too The Consequences of that great Suspition it brought upon him being such as he could never recover the disadvantages it fastned on him till he fell finally under the power of those Sons of Belial who destroyed him for no other Reason but to destroy Monarchy it self So that he was not much mistaken who confidently averred It was the Papists brought him to the block the Presbyterians that tuck'd up his hair and the Fanatick that cut off his head Whereof he himself was so sensible that the very last words he us'd as if to shew he alike abhorr'd either of them was to profess He dyed a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as he found it left him by his Father foreseeing that he should suffer more by Reproach then by the Axe After which he resigned himself to the fatal stroke with that cheerfulness as shew'd he believ'd by removing that Scandal only he should get a greater Victory over his Enemies when he was dead then ever they got over him whilst he was alive The ill news of Ireland drew him with all imaginable haste out of Scotland But before he could come to the Consideration of that great Affair he was prevented by the Parliaments renewing their old Complaints who found a slight occasion of quarrel to introduce other matters that they knew would widen the Difference beyond all reconciliation for his Majesty having taken publick notice of a Bill that was depending in the House whereby he thought his Prerogative pinch'd to which therefore he offer'd a Provisional Clause with a Salvo Jure to himself and the people to prevent all Disputes at the passing of it they interpreted this to be so high a violation of their Priviledge that they pray'd to have the Informers brought in to condign punishment Seconding that Petition with a Remonstrance against all those whose Affection or Interest they thought might be serviceable to him under a new coyn'd name of Malignants which they ranged into three Classes 1. Jesuited Papists 2. Corrupted Clergy-men and Bishops 3. Interested Counsellors and Courtiers concluding thereupon 1. That no Bishops should have any Votes in Parliament 2. That no People should be imploy'd about him but such as they could confide in 3. That none of the Lands forfeited by the Irish Rebels should be