Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A29975
|
The history and life and reigne of Richard the Third composed in five bookes by Geo. Buck.
|
Buck, George, Sir, d. 1623.
|
1647
(1647)
|
Wing B5307; ESTC R23817
|
143,692
|
159
|
words the names Shire-motts Eolmotts and Halymotts that is the meeting or assembling of the men of a Shire of a Town and of the Tenants of a Hall or Mannor had their beginning also Now as Sinoth is more used in the Parliaments themselves so Gemott is more familiar to the Historians And this Parliament of Anno 1 Rich. 3. could be of no lesse power and vertue witnesse the many and good Laws made in it albeit the second Marriage of King Edward was adjudged unlawful and the Acts of that Parliament for the most part repealed and abrogated afterward yet the evidence is clear enough that the Judges and Law-makers of that Parliament were wise and religious men and their Laws upright and just Therefore whatsoever was adjudged by them was to be received and held as authentick and inviolable how roughly soever it was afterward handled And in this case of the disabling of King Edwards sons there is least reason to suspect them the cause being so new so plain and notoriously known that no man could be ignorant therein Therefore to have given any other Judgement but according to the truth of evidence and certainty of knowledge it might justly have been censured an act of errour and ignorance or partiality and injustice For it was not the opinion of a few nor raised out of a weak judgement and perverted knowledge but a strong and general evidence by the ablest and best knowing If it be objected The case was obscure and doubtful That cannot be for the Estates had all substantial and ready means to inform themselves of the truth and every circumstance whereby they might be fully satisfied and cleared in all the niceties and doubts for all the witnesses and dealers in that cause and such persons as were acquainted with it were then living and they must and would have truely and certainly informed the Court of Parliament For the special and reverend care of this Court is The advancing of Justice and Right Therefore all Subjects by nature or grace are bound in their Allegeance to give pious and religious credit to Parliaments and to believe in their Authority and Power as the former times did in Oracles We must also confidently hold the high and transcendent quality and vertue of that Court to have all power and authority And no question to repeal a good and just Law made in Parliament is a wrong and scandal to that General Councel and to the universal wisedom providence justice and piety of the Kingdom In the Parliament 1 H. 7. there is an Act attainting the King R. 3. of high Treason for bearing Arms against the Earl of Richmond intituled The Soveraign Lord this was at his proceeding from Milford-haven into Leicester But when he came to fight the Battel he was then no King nor Soveraign but a Chief of such as made head against their Soveraign In which Paragraph there appears three grosse faults First Certain it is Richard during his Raign was a Soveraign therefore no Subject Next there was no enemy in the field who was then a Soveraign but all liege Subjects to the Crown And Richard being the King and Soveraign could not be adjudged a Traitor nor lawfully attainted of High Treason Then let it be considered whether a person of sacred Majestie that is an Anointed Soveraign may commit the Crime of Treason Also in this Parliament all the Barons Knights and Gentlemen that bore Arms in the field for the King were attainted of Treason their goods and lands confiscate and one Thomas Nan dickâ— a Necromancer and Sorcerer who with others had been condemned to die for using that hellish Art was in this Parliament pardoned the horrible things he had committed And it seemed he had not then left his black trade for he hath in that Act of Parliament still the style of Conjurer viz. Thomas Nandick of Cambridge Conjurer which had been a fitter style for his Gibbet then his Pardon although he had not by his Sorcery or Inchantment hurt or destroyed any humane yet for his renouncing and abjuration of Almighty God for it is the opinion of a learned and religious Doctor Magos Incantores saith he hominum genus indignum quod vel ob solam Dei O. M. abjurationem capitali suplicio afficiatur Other such things there be in that Parliament which detract it in the opinion of some those of the best and wisest repute Now let us come to examine that Treaty the King had about marrying the Lady Plantagenet which is censured to be a thing not onely detestable but much more cruel and abominable to be put in agitation Item That all men and the Maid her self most of all detested this unlawful Copulation Item That he made away the Queen his wife to make way for this Marriage and that he propounded not the Treaty of Marriage until the Queen his wife was dead That there was such a motion for the marriage of this Lady to the King is true and which is more and most certain it was entertained and well liked by the King and his friends a good while also by the Lady Elizabeth and by the Queen her mother who received it with so much content and liking that presently she sent into France for her son the Marquesse of Dorset that was there with the Earl of Richmond earnestly solliciting him to renounce the Faction and return home to the Kings favour and advancement which she assured him and sends the Lady Elizabeth to attend the Queen at Court or to place her more in the eye so in the heart of the King The Christmas following which was kept in Westminster-Hall for the better colour of sending her eldest daughter she sends her other four thither who were received with all honourable courtesie by the King and Queen Regent especially the Lady Elizabeth was ranked most familiarly in the Queens favour and with as little distinction as Sisters But society nor all the Pomp and Festivity of those times could cure that sad wound and languor in the Queens brest which the death of her onely son had left The addresse of those Ladies to Court albeit the feigned wooing of the King was in a politick and close way gave cause of suspition to the Earl of Richmonds intelligencing friends that the King had a purpose to marry the Lady Elizabeth which must prevent the Earl both of his hope to her and to the Crown by her Title a clause that made them mutter very broadly against it for indeed what more concern'd them therefore the King treats it more privately and coldly but the Queen-widow and the Lady stood constant in their desires and expectation onely the Objection was The King had a wife as though he could not marry another whilst she lived not remembring how usual it was not onely for Kings but private men to put away one wife and marry another for venial crimes as well as Adultery and Treason The Romanes might repudiate their
Goods Chattells and Debts These be the words of the Act and if jus then jus summum in all extremity Those of note that were taken lost their heads at Leicester two dayes after being Saint Bartholmews day and had a glimpse like that Bartholmew in France in our time all such slaughters from thence call'd Bartelmies and Bartelemies simply in a perpetuall Stigma of that Butchery It is suggested the Duke of Norfolke was slaine in the Battaile by the Earle of Oxford and the Story of Croyland seemeth to say as much Comes Oxoniae valentissimus miles in eam alam ubi Dux Norfolciae constitutus erat in agro de Redmore tum Gallicorum tum Anglicorum militum Comitatu stipatus tetendit c. Amongst those that escaped the sad destiny of that day was the Earle of Surrey Sir Thomas Howard Viscount Lovel Sir Thomas Stafford and his Brother N. Stafford with many other Nobles and Gentlemen that got into Forraigne Countries and Sanctuaries obscuring themselves till the storme and smart of that dayes memory were past But some would maintain Thomas Earl of Surrey to be one of them that submitted to the new King at Bosworth immediately after the overthrow which must not be believed if wee understand the composition of those times affairs for certaine it is the Earl Richmond had peremptorily proscribed all those he had cause to feare or hate whose names are partly in the Rowles kept in the Chappell of the Convertites in Chancery-Lane and partly omitted by the Scribes Now the Earle of Surrey of all the rest was so terrible and distastefull to him there could be no excuse left for his life And therefore let no man thinke he was taken or submitted but tooke aâ— happier season some moneths after The Relation and truth is by the warrant of one that well knew him and the inter-passage of his Fortune the Earle opportunely left the Field but so wounded that faintnesse and night constrain'd him to the house of a Gentleman not farre from Nottingham and one that bare a faithfull respect to the Earle and his Family untill he was well recovered In the meane time that terrible Parliament held in the next November was concluded and the Kings desires reasonably well appeased in seeing the execution of his new Lawes past upon some of them After which some small distance of time followed a gracious pardon to all the offenders in that Cause which proffered mercy this Earle layd hold on hoping to restore himselfe by his submission his offence considered being but an Act of Loyaltie to his Master But this confidence sent him to the Tower for though the violence of the storme appear'd well calm'd yet the King retain'd some heavings of it in his thoughts And this Imprisonment continued from his first yeare of raigne unto the fourth and towards the beginning of that being in the Tower with the Queene Elizabeth to whom he was shortly after to be married he tooke occasion to call for the Earle bearing still a gust of the same tempest in his brow and challenged him upon the old quarrell his service to the late Usurper Tyrant as he usually termed King Richard the Earle humbly moved his pardon and more favourable consideration to the nature of his offence which thousands more conceived to be but a due effect of their Liege duties and Allegiance to a Prince so lawfully and with all generall sufferance Crowned whose Title he held himselfe bound to defend by the law of God and Nations and would dye in defence of him and that Crowne though he should find it upon a Stake The King left him with a sterne and ruffling reply but in cold blood better acknowledged his integritie and thought he would come of no lesse value to him having the advantage to merit him by his pardon which soone after he granted him nor did the Earle loose ought of that opinion Shortly after being made of the Privie Councell then Lieutenant or Governour of the North and Generall against the Scots whom he overthrew as fatall was he to them at Flodden field where he tooke their King in the time of Henry the eight who made him High Marshall and Treasurer of England and restor'd him to his Fathers Dukedome the Inheritance of his Grand mother Mowbray being a man of such a happy direction in his carriage and wisedome that all his Actions came home with prosperous successe and accumulated what was sometime spoken of his great Ancestour Hewardus of whom it was questioned Vtrum faelioior an fortior esset so Fortunate and Honourable hath that house beene in the Service to this State and in the infinite Alliance and Cognation it holds with the most Ancient Families the Extractions and propagations from Mowbray Warren Bruce Dalbery Marshall Segrave Plantagenet Brotherton Bigot Fitz-Alan Matraver Buckingham Oxford and Dacres The Father of which Haward was Leofrick Lord of Burne and the adjacent Countrey in Lincolneshire his Mother was the Lady Edina descended from the great Ostac a Duke amongst the Easterlings in King Edgars time In whose Family I also find a Noble Kins-man of his called Haward to note obiter This Haward was of a Noble and Magnificent note a goodly Personage answer'd with an equall Strength and Valour Et nimium Bellicosus much or too much devoted to Mars He served in the Warres of Northumberland Cornewall and Ireland and after in the lower Germany where he made up much of his Fame and married a faire Lady called Turfrida the Daughter of a Noble man in Flanders where he continued untill the death of his Father called him home About which time William Duke of Normandy made his Conquest of this Kingdome and had gratified Iohannes Talbois the French Counte now Earle of Holland with Leoffricks Countrey of Holland in the Marshand and the Counte very rudely had expuls'd the Lady his Mother out of her Possessions and Dower Hawardus set upon him with such forces as he could speedily rayse tooke and held him prisoner in despight of the Conquerour untill he redeem'd himselfe and accompted for what he had done with a large summe of money This drew those of the Nobility to the protection of his sword which the Conquerour had chased out of their Countrey who had fortified themselves in the Isle of Ely and made Hawardus their Generall where he built a Castle that a long time after had his name But the Normans tooke that advantage to infest his Countrey and put him againe to the recovery of it which he so fortunately setled that the Conquerour was contented to make him his and hold him in good favour whilst he lived He was buried in the Abbey of Croyland Concerning his Issue by the the Lady Turfrida there is mention onely of a Daughter named Tarfrida married to Hugo Enermâ—a Lord of Deeping But circumstance will perswade us he had other Issue if wee consider him in the likelyhood of his strength and abilitie and