not more honourable and more safe for the King that the Subject pay by perswasion then to have them constrained If they be contented to whip themselves for the King were it not better to give them the Rod into their hands then to commit them to the Executioner Certainly it is farre more happy for a Soveraigne Prince that a Subject open his purse willingly then that the same be opened by violence Besides that when impositions are laid by Parliament they are gathered by the authority of the Law which as aforesaid rejecteth all complaints and stoppeth every mutinous mouth It shall ever be my prayer that the King embrace the Councel of Honour and safety and let other Princes imbrace that of force COUNS. But good Sir it is his Prerogative which the King stands upon it is the Prerogative of the Kings that the Parliaments do all diminish IUST If your Lordship would pardon me I would say then that your Lordships objection against Parliaments is ridiculous In former Parliaments three things have been supposed dishonour of the King The first that the Subjects have conditioned with the King when the King hath needed them to have the great Charter confirmed The second that the Estates have made Treasurers for the necessary and profitable disbursing of those sums by them given to the end that the Kings to whom they were given should expend them for their own defence for the defence of the Common-wealth The third that these have prest the King to discharge some great Officers of the Crown and to elect others As touching the first my Lord I would fain learn what disadvantage the Kings of this Land have had by confirming the great Charter the breach of which have served onely men of your Lordships rank to assist their own passions and to punish and imprison at their own discretion the Kings poor Subjects Concerning their private hatred with the colour of the Kings service for the Kings Majestie take no mans inheritance as I have said before nor any mans life but the Law of the Land according to the Charter Neither doth his Majesty imprison any man matter of practice which concerns the preservation of his estate excepted but by the law of the land And yet he useth his prerogative as all the Kings of England have ever used to for the supream reason cause to practise many things without the advice of the law As insurrections and rebellions it useth the marshall and not the common law without any breach of the Charter the intent of the Charter considered truely Neither hath any Subject made complaint or been grieved in that the Kings of this land for their own safeties and preservation of their estates have used their Prerogatives the great Ensigne on which there is written soli Deo And my good Lord was not Buckingham in England and Byron in France condemned their Peers uncalled And withall was not Byron utterly contrary to the custome priviledges of the French denyed an advocate to assist his defence For where lawes forecast cannot provide remedies for future dangers Princes are forced to assist themselves by their Prerogatives But that which hath been ever grievous and the cause of many troubles very dangerous is that your Lordships abusing the reasons of state do punish and imprison the K. Subjects at your pleasure It is you my Lords that when Subjects have sometimes need of the Kings prerogative do then use the strength of the Law and when they require the law you afflict them with the prerogative and tread the great Charter which hath been confirmed by 16 Acts of Parliament under your feet as a torn parchment or waste paper COUNS. Good Sir which of us do in this sort break the great Charter perchance you mean that we have advised the King to lay the new impositious IUST No my Lord there is nothing in the great Charter against impositions and besides that necessity doth perswade them And if necessity do in somewhat excuse a private man à fortiori it may then excuse a Prince Again the Kings Majesty hath profit and increase of revenue by the impositions But there are of your Lordships contrarie to the direct Letter of the Charter that imprison the Kings Subjects and deny them the benefit of the Law to the Kings disprofit And what do you otherwise thereby if the impositions be in any sort grievous but Renovare dolores And with all digg out of the dust the long buried memorie of the Subjects former intentions with their Kings COUNS. What mean you by that IUST I will tell your Lordship when I dare in the mean time it is enough for me to put your Lordship in mind that all the Estates in the World in the offence of the people have either had profit or necessity to perswade them to adventure it of which if neither be urgent and yet the Subject exceedingly grieved your Lordship may conjecture that the House will be humble suitors for a redresse And if it be a Maxime in policy to please the people in all things indifferent and never suffer them to be beaten but for the Kings benefit for there are no blows forgotten with the smart but those then I say to make them Vassals to Vassals is but to batter down those mastering buildings erected by K Henry the 7. fortified by his Son by which the people the Gentry of England were brought to depend upon the King alone Yea my good Lord our late dear Soveraign Q. Eliz. kept them up to their advantage as wel repaired as ever Prince did Defend me spend me faith the Irish Churle COUNS. Then you think that this violent breach of the Charter will be the cause of seeking the conformation of it in the next Parliament which otherwise could never have bin moved IUST I know not my good Lord perchance not for if the House presse the King to graunt unto them all that is theirs by the Law they cannot in Iustice refuse the King all that is his by the Law And where will be the issue of such a contention I dare not divine but sure I am that it will tend to the prejudice both of the King and Subject COUNS. If they dispute not their own liberties why should they then the Kings liberties which we call his Prerogative IUST Among so many and so divers Spirits no man can foretell what may be propounded but howsoever if the matter be not slightly handled on the Kings behalf these disputes will soon dissolve for the King hath so little need of his Prerogative so great advantage by the Lawes as the fear of imparing the one to wit the Prerogative is so impossible and the burthen of the other to wit the Law so weighty as but by a branch of the Kings Prerogative namely of his remission and pardon the Subject is no way able to undergo it This my Lord is no matter of flourish that I have said but it is the truth
condition that for one whole year no subsedies should be demanded but this promise was as suddenly forgotten as made for in the end of that year the great subsedy of Poll mony was granted in the Parliament at Northampton COUNS. Yea but there followed the terrible Rebellion of Baker Straw and others Leister Wrais and others IUST That was not the fault of the Parliament my Lord it is manifest that the subsedy given was not the cause for it is plain that the bondmen of England began it because the were girevously prest by their Lords in their tenure of Villenage as also for the hatred they bate to the Lawyers and Atturneyes for the story of those times say that they destroyed the houses and Mannors of men of Law such Lawyers as they caught slew them and beheaded the Lord chief Iustice which commotion being once begun the head mony was by other Rebels pretended A fire is often kindled with a little straw which oftentimes takes hold of greater timber consumes the whole building And that this Rebellion was begun by the discontented slaves whereof there have been many in Elder times the like is manifest by the Charter of Manumission which the King granted in hec verba Rich. Dei gratid c. Sciatis quod de gratiâ nostrâ spirituali manumissimus c. to which seeing the King was constrained by force of armes he revoked the letters Pattents and made them voide the same revocation being strengthened by the Parliament ensuing in which the King had given him a subsedy upon Woolls called a Maletot In the same fourth year was the Lord Treasurer discharged of his Office and Hales Lord of St. Iohns chosen in his place in his fift year was the Treasurer again changed and the Staffe given to Segrave and the Lord Chancellour was also changed and the staffe given to the Lord Scroope Which Lord Scroope was again in the beginning of his sixt year turned off and the King after that he had for a while kept the Seal in his own hand gave it to the Bishop of London from whom it was soon after taken and bestowed on the Earle of Suffolke who they say had abused the King and converted the Kings Treasure to his own use To this the King condiscended and though saith Walsingham he deserved to loose his life and goods yet he had the favour to go at liberty upon good sureties and because the King was but young that the reliefe granted was committed to the trust of the Earle of Arundell for the furnishing of the Kings Navy against the French COUNS. Yet you see it was a dishonour to the King to have his beloved Chancellour removed IUST Truly no for the King had both his fine 1000l lands and asubsedy to boot And though for the present it pleased the King to fancy a man all the world hated the Kings passion overcomming his judgement yet it cannot be call'd a dishonour for the King is to believe the generall counsell of the Kingdome and to preser it before his affection especially when Suffolke was proved to be false even to the King for were it otherwise love and affection might be called a frenzie and a madnesse for it is the nature of humane passions that the love bred by fidelity doth change it self into hatred when the fidelity is first changed into falshood COUNS. But you see there were thirteen Lords chosen in the Parliament to have the oversight of the government under the King IUST No my Lord it was to have the oversight of those Officers which saith the story had imbezeled lewdly wasted and prodigally spent the Kings Treasure for to the Commission to those Lords or to any six of them joyn'd with the Kings Counsell was one of the most royall and most profitable that ever he did if he had bin constant to himself But my good Lord man is the cause of his own misery for I will repeat the substance of the commission granted by the King and confirmed by Parliament which whether it had bin profitable for the King to have prosecured your Lordship may judge The preamble hath these words Whereas our Sovereigne Lord the King perceiveth by the grievous complaints of the Lords and Commons of this Realme that the rents profits and revenues of this Realme by the singular and insufficient Councell and evill government as well of some his late great Officers and others c. are so much withdrawen wasted given granted alienated destroyed and evill dispended that he is so much impoverished and void of treasure and goods and the substance of the Crown so much diminished and destroyed that his estate may not honorably be sustained as appertaineth The King of his free will at the request of the Lords and Commons hath ordained William Archbishop of Canterbury and others with his Chancellour Treasurer keeper of his privy seal to survey and examine as well the estate and governance of his house c. as of all the rents and profits and revenues that to him appertaineth and to be due or ought to appertain and be due c. And all manner of gifts grants alienations and confirmations made by him of lands tenements rents c. bargained and sold to the prejudice of him and his Crown c. And of his jewels goods which were his Grandfathers at the time of his death c. and where they be become This is in effect the substance of the commission which your Lordship may read at large in the book of Statutes this commission being enacted in the tenth year of the Kings reigne Now if such a commission were in these dayes granted to the faithfull men that have no interest in the sales gifts nor purchases nor in the keeping of the jewells at the Queens death nor in the obtaining grants of the Kings best lands I cannot say what may be recovered and justly recovered and what say your Lordship was not this a noble act for the King if it had been followed to effect COUNS. I cannot tell whether it were or no for it gave power to the Commissiouers to examine all the grants IUST Why my Lord doth the King grant any thing that shames at the examination are not the Kings grants on record COUNS. But by your leave it is some dishonour to a King to have his judgement called in question IUST That is true my Lord but in this or whensoever the like shall be granted in the future the Kings judgement is not examined but their knavery that abused the King Nay by your favour the contrary is true that when a King will suffer himself to be eaten up by a company of petty fellows by himself raised therein both the judgement and courage is disputed And if your Lordship will disdain it at your own servants hands much more ought the great heart of a King to disdain it And surely my Lord it is a greater treason though it undercreep the law to tear from the
the North the fift penny In the two and thirtyeth year he had a subsedy freely granted In the three and thirtyeth year he confirmed the great Charter of his own Royall disposition and the states to shew their thankfulnesse gave the King for one year the fift part of all the revenues of the land and of the Citizens the sixt part of their goods And in the same year the King used the inquisition called Trai le Baston By which all Justices and other Magistrates were grievously fined that had used extortion or bribery or had otherwise misdemeaned themselves to the great contentation of the people This Commission likewise did enquire of entruders barators and all other the like vermine whereby the King gathered a great masse of treasure with a great deal of love Now for the whole raigne of this King who governed England 35 years there was not any Parliament to his prejudice COUNS. But there was taking of armes by Marshall and Hereford JUST That 's true but why was that because the King notwithstanding all that was given him by Parliament did lay the greatest taxes that ever King did without their consent But what lost the King by those Lords one of them gave the King all his lands the other dyed in disgrace COUNS. But what say you to the Parliament in Edward the Seconds time his successor did not the house of Parliament banish Peirce Gaveston whom the King favoured JUST But what was this Gaveston but an Esquier of Gascoine formerly banisht the Realme by King Edward the first for corrupting the Prince Edward now raigning And the whole Kingdome fearing and detesting his venemous disposition they besought his Majestie to cast him off which the King performed by an act of his own and not by act of Parliament yea Gavestones own father in Law the Earle of Glocester was one of the chiefest of the Lords that procured it And yet finding the Kings affection to folow him so strongly they all consented to have him recalled After which when his credit so encreased that he dispised and set at naught all the ancient Nobility and not onely perswaded the King to all manner of outrages and riots but withall transported what he lifted of the Kings Treasure and Iewels the Lords urged his banishment the second time but neither was the first nor second banishment forced by Act of Parliament but by the forceable Lords his Enemies Lastly he being recalled by the King the Earle of Lancaster caused his head to be stricken off when those of his party had taken him prisoner By which presumptuous Act the Earle and the rest of his company committed Treason and murder Treason by raising an Army without warrant murder by taking away the life of the Kings Subject After which Gaveston being dead the Spencers got possession of the Kings favour though the younger of them was placed about the King by the Lords themselves COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament held at London about the sixt year of that King JUST I say that King was not bound to performe the acts of this Parliament because the Lords being too strong for the King inforced his consent for these be the words of our own History They wrested to much beyond the bounds of reason COUNS. What say you to the Parliaments of the White wands in the 13th of the King JUST I say the Lords that were so moved came with an Army and by strong hand surprized the King they constrained saith the story the rest of the Lords and compelled many of the Bishops to consent unto them yea it saith further that the King durst not but grant to all that they required to wit for the banishment of the Spencers Yea they were so insolent that they refused to lodge the Queen comming through Kent in the Castle of Leedes and sent her to provide her lodging where she could get it so late in the night for which notwithstanding some that kept her out were soon after taken and hang'd and therefore your Lordship cannot call this a Parliament for the reasons before alleadged But my Lord what became of these Lawgivers to the King even when they were greatest a Knight of the North called Andrew Herkeley assembled the Forces of the Countrey overthrew them and their Army slew the Earle of Hereford and other Barons took their generall Thomas Earle of Lancaster the Kings cozen germane at that time possessed of five Earledomes the Lords Clifford Talbort Moubray Maudiut Willington Warren Lord Darcy Withers Knevill Leybourne Bekes Lovell Fitz williams Watervild and divers other Barons Knights and Esquiers and soon after the Lord Percy and the Lord Warren took the Lords Baldsemere and the Lord Audley the Lord Teis Gifford Tucoet and many others that fled from the battaile the most of which past under the hands of the hangman for constraining the King under colour and name of a Parliament But this your good Lordship may judge to whom those tumultuous assemblies which our Histories falsely call Parliaments have been dangerous the King in the end ever prevailed and the Lords lost their lives and estates After which the Spencers in their banishment at York in the 15th of the King were restored to the honors and estates and therein the King had a subsedy given him the sixt penny of goods throughout England Ireland and Wales COUNS. Yet you see the Spencers were soon after dissolved IUST It is true my Lord but that is nothing to our subject of Parliament they may thank their own insolencie for they branded and dispised the Queen whom they ought to have honored as the Kings wife they were also exceeding greedy and built themselves upon other mens ruines they were ambitious and exceeding malicious whereupon that came that when Chamberlain Spencer was hang'd in Hereford a part of the 24th Psalm was written over his head Quid gloriaris in malitia potens COUNS. Well Sir you have all this while excused your self upon the strength and rebellions of the Lords but what say you now to King Edward the third in whose time and during the time of this victorious King no man durst take Armes or rebell the three estates did him the greatest affront that ever King received or endured therefore I conclude where I began that these Parliaments are dangerous for a King JUST To answer your Lordship in order may it please you first to call to mind what was given this great King by his subjects before the dispute betwixt him and the house happened which was in his latter dayes from his first year to his fift year there was nothing given the king by his Subjects in his eight year at the Parliament at London a tenth and a fifteenth was granted in his tenth year he ceased upon the Italians goods here in England to his own use with all the goods of the Monkes Cluniackes and others of the order of the Cistertians In the eleaventh year he had given him by Parliament a notable
Hold you contented Sir the King needs no great disswasion IUST My Lord learn of me that â—here is none of you all than can â—erce the King It is an essentiall property of a man truely wise not to oâ—en all the boxes of his bosome even â—o those that are near'st dear'st unto him for when a man is discovered to the very bottome he is after the lesse esteemed I dare undertake that when your Lordship hath served the King twice twelve years more you will find that his Majesty hath reserved somewhat beyond all your capacities his Majesty hath great reason to put off the Parliament at his last refuge and in the mean time to make tryall of all your loves to serve him for his Majesty hath had good experience how well you can serve your selves But when the King finds that the building of your own fortunes and factions hath been the diligent studies and the service of his Majesty but the exercises of your leasures He may then perchance cast himself upon the generall love of his people of which I trust he shall never be deceived and leave as many of your Lordships as have pilfered from the Crown to their examination COUNS. Well Sir I take no great pleasure in this dispute goe on pray IUST In that Kings 5th year he had also a subsedy which is got by holding the house together from Easter to Christmas and would not suffer them to depart He had also a subsedy in his ninth year In his eleventh year the commons did again presse the King to take all the temporalities of the Church men into his hands which they proved sufficient to maintain 150. Earls 1500. Knights and 6400. Esquiers with a hundred hospitals but they not prevailing gave the king a subsedy As for the notorious Prince Henry the fift I find that he had given him in his second year 300000. markes and after that two other subsedies one in his fifth year another in his ninth without any disputes In the time of his successor Henry the sixt there were not many subsedies In this third year he had a subsedy of a Tunnage and poundage And here saith Iohn Stow began those payements which we call customes because the payement was continued whereas before that time it was granted but for a year two or three according to the Kings occasions He had also an ayde gathering of money in his fourth year and the like in his tenth year and in his thirteenth year a 15th He had also a fifteenth for the conveying of the Queen out of France into England In the twenty eight year of that King was the act of Resumption of all honours towns castles Signeuries villages Manors lands tenements rents reversions fees c. But because the wages of the Kings servants were by the strictness of the act also restrained this act of Resumption was expounded in the Parliament at Reading the 31th year of the Kings reigne COUNS. I perceive that those 〈◊〉 of Resumption were ordinary in former times for King Stephen resumed the lands which in former times he had given to make friends during the Civill wars And Henry the second resumed all without exception which King Stephen had not resumed for although King Stephen took back a great deal yet he suffered his trustiest servants to enjoy his gift IUST Yes my Lord and in after times also for this was not the last nor shall be the last I hope And judge you my Lord whether the Parliaments doe not only serve the King whatsoever is said to the contrary for as all King Henry the 6. gifts graunts were made void by the Duke of York when he was in possession of the Kingdome by Parliament So in the time of K. H. when K. Edw. was beaten out again the Parliament of Westminster made all his acts voyd made him and all his followers traytors and gave the King many of their heads lands The Parliaments of England do alwayes serve the King in possession It served Rich. the second to condemne the popular Lords It served Bollingbrooke to depose Rich. When Edw. the 4. had the Scepter it made them all beggars that had followed H. the 6. And it did the like for H. when Edw. was driven out The Parliaments are as the friendship of this world is which alwayes followeth prosperity For King Edw. the 4. after that he was possessed of the Crown he had in his 13. year a subsedy freely given him and in the year following he took a benevolence through England which arbitrary taking from the people served that ambitious traytor the Duke of Bucks After the Kings death was a plausible argument to perswade the multitude that they should not permit saith Sir Thomas Moore his line to raigne any longer upon them COUNS. Well Sir what say you to the Parliament of Richard the third his time IUST I find but one and therein he made diverse good Laws For King Henry the seventh in the beginning of his third year he had by Parliament an ayde granted unto him towards the relief of the Duke of Brittain then assailed by the French King And although the King did not enter into the warre but by the advice of the three estates who did willingly contribute Yet those Northern men which loved Richard the third raised rebellion under colour of the money impos'd and murthered the Earle of Northumberland whom the King employed in that Collection By which your Lordship sees that it hath not been for taxes and impositions alone that the ill disposed have taken Armes but even for those payments which have been appointed by Parliament COUNS. And what became of these Rebels IUST They were fairly hang'd the money levied notwithstanding in the Kings first year he gathered a marvailous great masse of money by a benevolence taking pattern by this kind of levie from Edw. 4th But the King caused it first to be moved in Parliament where it was allowed because the poorer sort were therein spared Yet it is true that the King used some art for in his Letters he declared that he would measure every mans affections by his gifts In the thirteenth year he had also a subsedy whereupon the Cornish men took Armes as the Northern men of the Bishoprick had done in the third year of the King COUNS. It is without example that ever the people have rebelled for any thing granted by Parliament save in this Kings dayes IUST Your Lordship must consider that he was not over much beloved for he took many advantages upon the people and the Nobility both COUNS. And I pray you what say they now of the new impositions lately laid by the Kings Majesty do they say that they are justly or unjustly laid IUST To Impose upon all things brought into the Kingdome is very ancient which imposing when it hath been continued a certain time is then called Customes because the subjects are accustomed to pay it and yet the great taxe upon wine is
Commissioners which because one of the Aldermen refused to pay he was sent for a souldier into Scotland He had also another great subsedy of six shillings the pound of the Clergy and two shillings eight pence of the goods of the Laity and four shillings the pound upon Lands In the second yeare of Edward the sixt the Parliament gave the King an aid of twelve pence the pound of goods of his Naturall subjects and two shillings the pound of strangers and this to continue for three yeares and by the statute of the second and third of Edward the sixt it may appear the same Parliament did also give a second aid as followeth to wit of every Ewe kept in severall pastures 3d of every weather kept as aforesaid 2d of every sheep kept in the Common 1d ob The House gave the King also 8d the pound of every woollen cloath made for the sale throughout England for three years In the third and fourt of the King by reason of the troublesome gathering of the poly money upon sheep and the tax upon cloath this act of subsedy was repeal'd and other relief given the King and in the seventh yeare he had a subsedy and two fifteens In the first yeare of Queen Mary tunnage and poundage were granted In the second yeare a subsedy was given to King Philip and to the Queen she had also a third subsedy in Annis 4. 5. Eliz. Reg Now my Lord for the Parliaments of the late Queens time in which there was nothing new neither head money nor sheep money nor escuage nor any of these kinds of payments was required but onely the ordinary subsedies and those as easily graunted as demanded I shall not need to trouble your Lordship with any of them neither can I inform your Lordship of all the passages and acts which have passed for they are not extant nor printed COUNS. No it were but time lost to speak of the latter and by those that are already remembred we may judge of the rest for those of the greatest importance are publick But I pray you deal freely with me what you think would be done for his Majesty If he should call a Parliament at this time or what would be required at his Majesties hands IUST The first thing that would be required would be the same that was required by the Commons in the thirteenth yeare of Hen. the eight to wit that if any man of the commons house should speak more largely then of duty he ought to do all such offences to be pardoned and that to be of record COUNS. So might every Companion speak of the King what they list IUST No my Lord the reverence which a Vassall oweth to his Soveraigne is alwaies intended for every speech howsoever it must import the good of the King and his estate and so long it may be easily pardoned otherwise not for in Queen Elizabeths time who gave freedome of speech in all Parliaments when Wentworth made those motions that were but supposed dangerous to the Queens estate he was imprisoned in the Tower notwithstanding the priviledge of the house and there died COUNS. What say you to the Scicilian vespers remembred in the last Parliament IUST I say he repented him heartily that used that speech and indeed besides that it was seditious this example held not The French in Scicily usurped that Kingdome they neither kept law nor faith they took away the inheritance of the Inhabitants they took from them their wives and ravished their daughters committing all other insolencies that could be imagined The Kings Majesty is the Naturall Lord of England his Vassals of Scotland obey the English Laws if they break them they are punished without respect Yea his Majesty put one of his Barons to a shamefull death for being consenting onely to the death of a Common Fencer And which of these ever did or durst commit any outrage in England but to say the truth the opinion of packing the last was the cause of the contention and disorder that happened COUNS. Why sir do you not think it best to compound a Parliament of the Kings servants and others that shall in all obey the Kings desires IUST Certainly no for it hath never succeeded well neither on the kings part nor on the subjects as by the Parliament before-remembred your Lordship may gather for from such a composition do arise all jealousies and all contentions It was practized in elder times to the great trouble of the kingdome and to the losse and ruine of many It was of latter time used by King Henry the eight but every way to his disadvantage When the King leaves himself to his people they assure themselves that they are trusted and beloved of their king and there was never any assembly so barborus as not to answer the love and trust of their King Henry the sixt when his estate was in effect utterly overthrown and utterly impoverished at the humble request of his Treasurer made the same known to the House Or other wise using the Treasurers own words He humbly desired the King to take his Staffe that he might save his wardship COUNS. But you know they will presently be in hand with those impositions which the King hath laid by his own Royall Prerogative IUST Perchance not my Lord but rather with those impositions that have been by some of your Lordships laid upon the King which did not some of your Lordships fear more then you do the impositions laid upon the Subjects you would never disswade his Majesty from a Parliament For no man doubted but that his Majesty was advised to lay those impositions by his Councell and for particular things on which they were laid the advice came from petty fellows though now great ones belonging to the Custome-House Now my Lord what prejudice hath his Majesty his Revenue being kept up if the impositions that were laid by the generall Councell of the Kingdome which takes off all grudging and complaint COUNS. Yea Sir but that which is done by the King with the advice of his private or privy Councell is done by the Kings absolute power IUST And by whose power it is done in parliament but by the Kings absolute power Mistake it not my Lord The three Estates do but advise as the privy Councell doth which advice if the King imbrace it becomes the Kings own Act in the one and the Kings Law in the other for without the Kings acceptation both the publick and private advices be but as empty Egg shels and what doth his Majesty lose if some of those things which concerns the poorer sort to be made free again and the Revenue kept up upon that which is superfluous Is it a losse to the King to be beloved of the Commons If it be revenue which the King seeks is it not better to take it of those that laugh then of those that cry Yea if all be conten to pay upon moderation change of the Species Is it
Crown the ornaments thereof And it is an infalliable maxime that he that loves not his Majesties estate loves not his person COUNS. How came it then that the act was not executed IUST Because these against whom it was granted perswaded the King to the contrary as the Duke of Ireland Suffolk the chief Iustice Tresilian and others yea that which was lawfully done by the King and the great Councell of the kingdome was by the mastery which Ireland Suffolk and Tresilian had over the Kings affections broken and disavowed Those that devised to relieve the King not by any private invention but by generall Councell were by a private and partiall assembly adjudged traitors and the most honest Iudges of the land enforced to subscribe to that judgement In so much that Iudge Belknap plainly told the Duke of Ireland and the Earl of Suffolk when he was constrained to set his hand plainly told these Lords that he wanted but a rope that he might therewith receive a reward for his subscription And in this Councell of Nottingham was hatched the ruine of those which governed the King of the Iudges by them constrained of the Lords that loved the King and sought a reformation and of the King himself for though the King found by all the Shrieves of the shires that the people would not fight against the Lords whom they thought to bee most faithfull unto the King when the Citizens of London made the same answer being at that time able to arme 50000. men and told the Major that they would never fight against the Kings friends and defenders of the Realme when the Lord Ralph Passet who was near the King told the King boldly that he would not adventure to have his head broken for the Duke of Irelands pleasure when the Lord of London told the Earle of Suffolk in the Kings presence that he was not worthy to live c. yet would the King in the defence of the destroyers of his estate lay ambushes to intrap the Lords when they came upon his faith yea when all was pacified and that the King by his Proclamation had clear'd the Lords and promised to produce Ireland Suffolk and the Archbishop of Yorke Tresiltan and Bramber to answer at the next Parliament these men confest that they durst not appear and when Suffolk fled to Callice and the Duke of Ireland to Chester the King caused an army to be leavied in Lancashire for the safe conduct of the Duke of Ireland to his presence when as the Duke being encountered by the Lords ranne like a coward from his company and fled into Holland After this was holden a Parliament which was called that wrought wonders In the Eleventh year of this King wherein the fornamed Lords the Duke of Ireland and the rest were condemned and confiscate the Chief Iustice hanged with many others the rest of the Iudges condemned and banisht and a 10. and a 15. given to the King COUNS. But good Sir the King was first besieged in the Tower of London and the Lords came to the Parliament and no man durst contradict them IUST Certainly in raising an army they committed treason and though it appear that they all loved the King for they did him no harm having him in their power yet our law doth construe all leavying of war without the Kings commission and all force raised to be intended for the death and destruction of the King not attending the sequell And it is so judged upon good reason for every unlawfull and ill action is supposed to be accompanied with an ill intent And besides those Lords used too great cruelty in procuring the sentence of death against divers of the Kings servants who were bound to follow and obey their Master and Soveraigne Lord in that he commanded COUNS. It is true and they were also greatly to blame to cause then so many seconds to be put to death seeing the principalls Ireland Suffolk and York had escaped them And what reason had they to seek to enform the State by strong hand was not the Kings estate as dear to himself as to them He that maketh a King know his errour mannerly and private and gives him the best advice he is discharged before God and his own conscience The Lords might have â—â—tired themselves when they saw they could not prevail and have left the King to his own wayes who had more to lose then they had IUST My Lord the taking of Arms cannot be excused in respect of the law but this might be said for the Lords that the King being under yeares and being wholly governed by their enemies and the enemies of the kingdome and because by those evil mens perswasions it was advised how the Lords should have been murthered at a feast in London they were excusable during the kings minority to stand upon their guard against their particular enemies But we will passe it over go on with our parliaments that followed whereof that of Cambridge in the Kings 12th year was the next therein the King had given him a 10th and a 15th after which being 20. yeares of age rechanged saith H. Kinghton his Treasurer his Chancellour the Iustices of either bench the Clerk of the privy seal and others and took the government into his own hands He also took the Admirals place from the Earl of Arundell and in his room he placed the Earl of Huntingdon in the yeare following which was the 13th year of the K. in the Parliament at Westminster there was given to the King upon every sack of wooll 14s and 6d in the gound upon other Merchandise COUNS. But by your leave the King was restrained this parliament that he might not dispose of but a third part of the money gathered IUST No my Lord by your favour But true it is that part of this mony was by the Kings consent assigned towards the wars but yet left in the Lord Treasurers hands and my Lord it would be a great ease and a great saving to his Majesty our Lord and Master if it pleased him to make his assignations upon some part of his revenewes by which he might have 1000l upon every 10000l and save himself a great deale of clamour For seeing of necessity the Navy must be maintained and that those poor men as well Carpenters as ship-keepers must be paid it were better for his Majesty to give an assignation to the Treasurer of his Navy for the receiving of so much as is called ordinary then to discontent those poor men who being made desperate beggars may perchance be corrupted by them that lye in wait to destroy the Kings estate And if his Majesty did the like in all other payements especially where the necessity of such as are to receive cannot possible give dayes his Majesty might then in a little rowle behold his receipts and expences he might quiet his heart when all necessaries were provided for and then dispose the rest at his pleasure And my good Lord