free Trumpet sending into England with the Prince Don Mendosa de Alcorcana to our King to congratulate the Princes happy Voyage into Spain and his safe return into England And from thence he had instructions to go into Flanders Germany and Italy to make known to all Princes and Potentates Allies to the King of Spain how neer the Treaty of Marriage betwixt the Prince of England and the Infanta of Spain was to be consummated And the Polonian Ambassadour at Madrid that solicited to have the Infanta for the Prince of Poland when he saw such preparations for the Match with England fainted in his Hopes and returned home For as soon as the Dispensation came from the new Pope which was in the Beginning of December Bonefires were made throughout all Spain for joy and the great Ordnance every where thundred out the noise of it The ninth of the month was prefixt for the Mariage day a Tarras being erected betwixt the Court and the next Church almost a quarter of a mile in length covered with Tapestry for the more magnificence and all things appointed in the highest State for so great a Solemnity Presents were providing in the Court of Spain for Our King and Prince the Infantas family to take into England was setled and established She had used her best skill among the Sweets of Spain as one of the Principal of them to cloth her Lord and Husband with some suits of perfumed Amber leather some imbroidered with Pearl and some with gold she had practiced long the English tongue to make it natural by the help of her two Iesuit Tutors Wadsworth and Boniface and began to draw the letters which she intended to have written the day of her Espousals to the Prince her Husband and the King her Father-in-law Her journeyinto England being resolved on about the Beginning of March In this State and perfection were the affairs of Spain when Our King's commands like a Cloud overshadowed the Brightness of them For Bristol had now Order to declare positively to the King of Spain that without the Restitution of the Palatinate and the Electoral Dignity the Treaty should proceed no further Four Messengers viz. Mr. Killigrew Gresly Wood and Davies followed each other at the heels which raised such a dust of Discontentment among the people at Madrid that as some report they wished they had broken their necks by the way so highly were the Commonalty of Spain affected with the Match And if they felt the Influence of this cloudy Message what did the Lady Infanta and the King do The one to lose her Lover the other to lose his Honour She whose Heart was affected and He who found himself affronted But his answer to Bristol was The Palatinate was none of his to give and the Electorate was in the Power of another but if the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria would not yield to reason he would Arm himself on our King's part against them But this would not satisfie fair Promises having now lost their Virtue and the King of Spain discerning a Breach towards by this Various Motion sent to the Earl of Bristol to demand no more Audience of him to deliver no more Letters to the Infanta and gave command that none should call her hereafter Princess of England This was the end of seven years Treaty Wherein the King of England a King of Peace in spight of all the Spanish Armadoes got the Victory and Spain for many years did not receive so great an overthrow Yet they were paid in their own Coin For at the first and in the highest Progress of the Treaty when Our King was so eager for the Match in all likelyhood they never intended it But the Prince's Presence gaining much with both Sexes his Journey into Spain being esteemed among them so glorious an action and the hopes they had now by this Marriage to propagate the Catholick Cause finding the Prince as they thought something inclined that way better digested their first intentions and brought it to the state from whence it declined The Duke of Buckingham by the insinuation of a long converse having brought the Prince up to his own Humor taught him to look back to the Beauty he had seen in France which was neerer to him that he might remember the Spanish no more now esloigned from him But the Treaty with Spain must be first dissolved to give a tincture of Honor to a proceeding with the other and nothing but a Parliament shall do that which thâ—y had fore-determined For a Parliament taking away the cause which was a Treaty of Peace were best able to make good the effect which would be a War that must follow it Therefore a Parliament was summoned to meet the 12 th of February but a sad accident intervened which made it to be deferred for some few daies That morning the Parliament was to begin the King missed the Duke of Richmond's attendance who being a constant observer of him at all times the King as it were wanted one of his Limbs to support the Grandure of Majesty at the first solemn meeting of a Parliament and calling for him with earnestness a Messenger was dispatched to his Lodgings in Hast where the King's Commands and the Messenger Importunity made the Dutchess his wife somewhat unwillingly go to the Duke's Bed-side to awake him who drawing the Curtain found him dead in his Bed The suddenness of the affright struck her with so much Consternation that she was scarce sensible of the Horror of it and it was carried with that violence to the King that he would not adorn himself that day to ride in his Glories to the Parliament but put it off to the nineteenth of February following dedicating some part of that time to the Memory of his dead Servant who might serve as a fore-runner to the King and an Emblem to all his People That in the dark caverns of Man's Body Death often lurkes which no Humane Prudence or Providence is able to discover For the Dutchess to some of her intimates confessed afterwards that She found the effects of his full Veines that night that he was found dead the next Morning The portraiture of the illustreous Princesse Frances Duchess of Richmond and Lenox daughter of Thomas LD. Howard of Bindon sonne of Thomas Duke of Norfok. whose mother was Elisabeth daughter of Edward Duke of Buckingham Anno 1623. When She was Countess of Hertford and found admirers about her She would often discourse of her two Grand-Fathers the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham recounting the time since one of her Grand-Fathers did this the other did that But if the Earl her Husband came in presence she would quickly desist for when he found her in those Exaltations to take her down he would say Frank Frank How long is it since thou wert Married to Prannel which would damp the Wings of her Spirit and make her look after her feet as well as gawdy Plumes One
for at my hands Thus the Beams of Majesty had an influence upon every branch and leaf of the Kingdom by reflecting upon the Root their Representative Body every particular expecting what fruit this Sun-shine would produce striving as much to insinuate into him as he did into the general so that there was a Reciprocal Harmony between the King and the People because they courted one another But when the Kings Bounty contracted it self into private Favourites as it did afterwards bestowing the affection he promised the whole people upon one man when the golden showers they gaped for dropt into some few chanels their passions flew higher than their hopes The Kings aims were to unite the two Kingdoms so that the one might corroborate the other to make good that part of his Speech by this intermixtion wherein he divides England and Scotland into halves But the English stumbled at that partition thinking it an unequal division and fearing that the Scots creeping into English Lordships and English Ladies Beds in both which already they began to be active might quickly make their least half the predominant part But he was Proclaimed King of Great Britain England must be no more a Name the Scotish Coyns are made currant and our Ships must have Saint Georges and Saint Andrews Crosses quartered together in their Flags all outward Ensigns of Amity But those English that had suckt in none of the sweets of this pleasant Stream of Bounty repined to see the Scots advanced from blew Bonnets to costly Beavers wearing instead of Wadmeal Velvet and Satin as divers Pasquils written in that Age Satyrically taunted at Which is not set down here to vilifie the Scots being most of them Gentlemen that had deserved well of their Master but to shew how cross to the publick Appetite the Hony-comb is that another man eats But the King like a wise Pilot guided the Helm with so even an hand that these small gusts were not felt It behoved him to play his Master-prize in the Beginning which he did to the life for he had divers opinions humours and affections to grapple with as well as Nations and 't is a very calm Sea when no billow rises The Romanists bogled that he said in his Speech They were unsufferable in the Kingdom as long as they maintained the Pope to be their Spiritual Head and He to have power to dethrone Princes The Separatists as the King called them were offended at that Expression wherein he professed willingly if the Papists would lay down King-killing and some other gross errors he would be content to meet them half way So that every one grounded his hopes or his fears upon the shallows of his own fancy not knowng yet what course the King would steer But these sores being tenderly dealt with did not suddenly fester but were skinned over The King desirous of the Title Pacificus did not only close with his own Subjects but healed up also that old wound that had bled long in the sides of England and Spain both being weary of the pain both willing to be cured The King of Spain sent the Constable of Castile with a mighty Train of smooth-handed Spaniards to close up the wound on this side where the old Enmity being well mortified they were received with singular Respect and Civility The King of England sent his High Admiral the Earl of Notingham with as splendid a Retinue of English to close it on that Who being Personages of Quality accoutred with all Ornaments suitable were the more admired by the Spaniards for beauty and excellency by how much the Iesuits had made impressions in the vulgar opinion That since the English left the Roman Religion they were transformed into strange horrid shapes with Heads and Tails like Beasts and Monsters So easie it is for those Iuglers when they have once bound up the Conscience to tye up the Vnderstanding also EARL OF NOTTINGHAM GEORGE CAREW EARL OF TOTNES And to satisfie the Kings desires about an Vnion betwixt England and Scotland the Parliament made an Act to authorise certain Commissioners viz. Thomas Lord Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord Treasurer of England Charles Earl of Notingham Lord High Admiral of England Henry Earl of Southampton William Earl of Pembroke Henry Earl of Northampton Richard Bishop of London Tobie Bishop of Duresme Anthony Bishop of Saint Davids Robert Lord Cecil Principal Secretary Edward Lord Zouch Lord President of Wales William Lord Mounteagle Ralph Lord Eure Edmund Lord Sheffeild Lord President of the Council in the North Lords of the Higher House of Parliament And Thomas Lord Clinton Robert Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Hastings Knight Sir Iohn Stanhope Knight Vice-Chamberlain to his Majesty Sir Iohn Herbert Knight second Secretary to his Majesty Sir George Carew Knight Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen Sir Thomas Strickland Knight Sir Edward Stafford Knight Sir Henry Nevill of Berk-shire Knight Sir Richard Bukley Knight Sir Henry Billingsley Knight Sir Daniel Dun Knight Dean of the Arches Sir Edward Hobby Knight Sir Iohn Savile Knight Sir Robert Wroth Knight Sir Thomas Chaloner Knight Sir Robert Maunsel Knight Sir Thomas Ridgeway Knight Sir Thomas Holcroft Knight Sir Thomas Hesketh Knight Atturney of the Court of Wards Sir Francis Bacon Knight Sir Lawrence Tanfield Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Henry Hubberd Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Iohn Bennet Doctor of the Laws Sir Henry Withrington Sir Ralph Grey and Sir Thomas Lake Knights Robert Askwith Thomas Iames and Henry Chapman Merchants Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons or any eight of the said Lords and twenty of the said Commons Which Commissioners shall have power to assemble meet treat and consult with certain select Commissioners to be nominated and authorised by Authority of the Parliament of Scotland concerning such Matters Causes and things as they in their Wisdoms shall think and deem convenient and necessary for the honour of the King and common good of both Kingdoms Yet the good intentions of this Vnion took no effect as will follow in the sequel of this History But there were a great many good Laws made which are too voluminous for this place having a proper Sphere of their own to move in Thus the King sate triumphing as it were upon a Throne of his Peoples Affections and his beginnings had some settlement for being loth to be troubled he sought Peace every-where But our inbred distempers lay upon the Lee intermixt with other gross dregs that the Princes lenity and the Peoples luxury produced For the King minding his sports many riotous demeanours crept into the Kingdom the Sun-shine of Peace being apt for such a production upon the slime of the late War The Sword and Buckler trade being now out of date one corruption producing another the City of London being always a fit Receptacle for such whose prodigalities and wastes made them Instruments of Debaucheries divers Sects of vitious Persons going under the
but dallie with him left a Proxie with Bristol to conclude the Match when the Dispensation came which the Prince forbad him to deliver Bristol nevertheless proceeds and if Gresley had not brought a Revocation of the Proxie from the King over night Bristol had made the Espousalls the next day And alwaies at the end of every point he would look upon the Prince for his approbation and allowance who still as the Duke went on confirmed the same And so Buckingham concluded that if the drawing of us out of Darkness into Light did deserve thanks we all owed it to the Prince who by the Hazard of his Person and by his great care and industry had done this for Us. The Parliament that looked upon the Duke with a Sour Eye for tempting the Prince to so dangerous a journey when they found what excellent effects it had produced forgot the Old Murmurs buzzed against him and with elevated Voices could scarce be contained from acknowledging him The Preserver of the Nation This his discovery is Cryed up every where and who but the Duke is become the Darling of the Multitude So dear then was the Prince unto the People that they tendred his safety as their own and so easily might he have retained his Love if by grasping after Shadows he had not lost the Substance For those people are the soonest deceived that love most to admire The Parliament were but men and could at present see no more than the Duke was pleased to shew them through the flattering glass of this Relation But when Bristol came over and as afterwards he did discover that the Duke carried the Prince purposely into Spain to be the better instructed in Popery That he gave hope to the Spanish Ministers of State of the Prince's Conversion which made them propound far worse Conditions for Religion than had been formerly agreed on That he professed himself a Papist there going to Mass kneeling to and adoring their Sacraments which the Pope being informed of sent the Duke a Bull to perswade and incourage him to pervert the King and Prince with other pernicious Crimes laid to his Charge in the next King's reign as may appear in due time None can blame the People for Mutable affections for when false-hood is so impudent as to hoodwink such an Assembly with the vail that Truth her self is wont to put on who can at an instant discover it But it was a hard Condition for the banished Palatine to have such Mediators as Buckingham Bristol and Weston to make intercession for him the Temper of whose Spirits was well known and which way their affections tended But now the load is all laid upon Bristol though he were at the distance of not being sensible of it yet it was so heavy that most Men thought he would never come to have it taken off But all things were passed over by the Parliament that reflected upon particulars having in their eye the general good of the Kingdom which they strove to manage with advantage And the Treaty of the Marriage with Spain being put into their hands they crushed the brood in the nest advising the King to break the Treaty and proclaim open War with that King Which they did not do suddainly as if they had been eager upon a War but with good advice and deliberate consideration as the most immediate means for the establishment of Religion and setled Peace protesting to assist the King for the regaining of the Palatinate with their lives and fortunes Upon which Declaration and Resolution the King determined to send instantly post into Spain to his Ambassadors to signifie to that King that the Parliament advised him to break off the Treaties and to recover the Palatinate by War and the Post had his Dispatch to that purpose when the King repented him of what he had done and like the Husband how jealous of his Wife writes to Secretary Conway this Letter to impede and delay the Business I doubt not but you have heard what a stinging Petition against the Papists the Lower House have sent to the Higher House this day that they might joyntly present it to me you know my firm Resolution not to make this a War of Religion And seeing I would be loth to be Conny-catcht by my People I pray you stay the Post that is going into Spain till I meet with my Son who will be here to morrow morning Do it upon pretext of some more Letters ye are to send by him and if he should be gone hasten after him to stay him upon some such pretext and let none living know of this as ye love me and before two in the afternoon to morrow you shall without fail hear from me Farewell Apr. 3 1624. By this Letter it appears that the King thought the Petition against Recusants of such high consequence that if he should not give the Parliament a good answer it might make a Rupture with them and therefore he will see further in the Nature of this Petition before he will break with the King of Spain and know more of the Prince his Son's mind happily whether he would yet accept of his Old Mistris or expect a new one Or whether the King feared that the Parliament would not make good their Promises to stand with their lives and fortunes in the Gap when this great Breach was made and so cousen him may be Mystical Conjectures from Mystical Expressions grounded upon the Words of a King Or whether any or all of these like the King's Heart inscrutable are meant in the Letter is not here determined But the King hastens to the House and finding no such terrible things in the Petition the Lords being not so quick in the Resolution of it as the King was in the apprehension of it he stirs not those Waters but sounds the depth of the Parliaments Intentions by propounding his Doubts and requiring a solution to them in order to a War with prudence and caution My Lords and Gentlemen all I have cause first to thank God with my heart and all the faculties of my mind that my speech which I delivered in Parliament hath taken so good effect among you as that with an Unamine consent you have freely and speedily given me your advice in this great Business for which I also thank you all as heartily as I can I also give my particular thanks to the Gentlemen of the lower House for that I hear when some among them would have cast jealousies and doubts between me and my people you presently quelled those Motions which might have hindred the happy agreement I hope to find in this Parliament You give me your advice to break off both the Treaties as well concerning the Match as the Palatinate And now give me leave as an old King to propound my Doubts and hereafter give me your answer First it is true that I who have been all the dayes of my life
were of transcendent parts yet was he tainted with the same infection and not many years after perished in his own corruption which shews That neither Example nor Precept he having seen so many and been made capable of so much can be a Pilot sufficient to any Port of Happiness though Reason be never so able to direct if Grace doth not give the gate But the King more to exalt Iustice and to shew the people his high abilities came in Iune this year to the Star-Chamber where in a long and well-weighed Discourse he turns over the volume of his mind that the World might read his excellent parts in lively characters He told the Lords he came thither in imitation of Henry the seventh his great Predecessor and the reason he came no sooner was that he resolved with Pythagoras for seven years to keep silence and learn the Laws of the Kingdom before he would teach others and the other seven years he was studying to find an occasion to come that might not be with prejudice For in his own cause he could not come in a great cause betwixt man and man it might be thought some particular favour brought him thither and in a small Cause it was not fit for him to come but now he had so much to say in relation to good Government that he could no longer forbear First He charges himself Secondly The judges Thirdly The Auditory in general In his own Charge he lays a foundation for raising a most excellent structure in Government wherein he was a Master-workman and had a most admirable Theory and full abilities to put it in practice and happily the bent of his intentions tended that way though it had for the most part a loose strong And to that which concerned the Judges he not only reckons up their Duties in their publick Relation but shews them the Iurisdiction and power of their several Courts how far every one did extend to which he would have them limited that they might not clash and contest one against another to shake the Basis on which they were built but that there might be a harmony and sweet concordance among them Expressing himself with such Elegance and Prudence that the most studious Lawyer whose design had been to imbellish a Discourse fitting for the ears of his Prince could not have gone beyond what he exprest to his People so strong and retentive was his judgment and memory so natural and genuine that which came from them that it did emanare flow from him to the admiration of the hearers To the people in general and under-Officers he gave an admonition to submit to the Law and Justice of the Land and not to go upon new Puritan strains such was his expression to make all things popular but to keep themselves within the antient limits of Obedience For he feared Innovation as a Monster got loose which should be always kept in such a Labyrinth as none should come at but by the Clew of Reason Then he commands the Judges in their Circuits to take notice of those Justices of the Peace that were most active for the good of the Country that they might have incouragement from him For to use his own words I value them that serve me faithfully there equally with those that attend my person Therefore let none be ashamed of this Office or be discouraged in being a Justice of the Peace if he serve worthily in it The Chancellor under me makes Justices and puts them out but neither I nor he can tell what they are therefore we must be informed by you Judges who can only tell who do well and who do ill without which how can the good be cherished and the rest put out the good Justices are careful to attend the service of the King and Country the bad are idle slow-bellies that abide always at home given to a life of ease and delight liker Ladies than Men and think it is enough to contemplate Justice when as Virtusin actione consistet contemplative Justice is no Justice and contemplative Justices are fit to be put out Another sort of Justices are Busie-bodies and will have all men dance after their Pipe and follow their Greatness or else will not be content A sort of men Qui se primos omnium esse putant nec sunt tamen These proud spirits must know that the Country is ordained to follow God and the King and not them Another sort are they that go seldom to the Kings service but when it is to help some of their Kindred or Alliance so they come to help ther Friends or hurt their Enemies making Jugice serve for a shadow to Faction and tumultuating the Country Another sort are Gentlemen of great worth in their own conceit and cannot be content with the present form of Government but must have a kind of liberty in the people and must be gracious Lords and Redeemers of their Liberty and in every cause that concerns Prerogative give a snatch against Monarchy through their Puritanical itching after Popularity some of them have shewed themselves too bold of late in the lower House of Parliament And when all is done if there were not a King they would be less cared for than other men So wise the Kings fears made him and so wary to prevent the popular violence And even in these Infant-times the contention doth appear which afterward got more strength when by his power he had gained in every County such as he made subservient to his will For as the King strove to loosen the Piles and Banks of the peoples liberties so the people strove to bound and keep off the Inundation of his Prerogative Then he takes notice of the swarms of Gentry that through the instigation of their Wives or to new model and fashion their Daughters who if they were unmarried mar'd their Marriages if married lost their Reputations and rob their husbands purses did neglect their Country Hospitality and cumber the City a general Nuisance to the Kingdom being as the spleen to the Body which as in measure it over-grows the Body wasts and seeing a Proclamation will not keep them at home he requires that the power of the Star-chamber may not only regulate them but the exorbitancy of the new buildings about the City which he still much repined at being a shelter for them where they spent their Estates in Coaches Lacquies and fine Cloaths like French-men living miserably in their houses like Italians becoming Apes to other Nations Whereas it was the honour of the English Nobility and Gentry above all Countries in the World to be hospitable among their Tenants Which they may the better do by the fertility and abundance of all things Thus the King pried into every miscarriage being willing to reform these then growing abuses But among all the heights of Reason that the spirit of man doth actuate and give life to the highest and most transcendent is that of Religion which
that sphere could have contained him but the vulgar and universal error of satiety with present injoyments made him too big for a rustical condition and when he came at Court he was too little for that So that some Novelty must be taken up to set him if he knew his own mind in Aequilibrio to the place he was in no matter what it was let it be never so pestilent and mischievous to others he cared not so he found benefit by it To him Michel is made Compartner a poor sneaking Justice that lived among the Brothels near Clerken-well whose Clark and he pickt a livelyhood out of those corners giving Warrants for what they did besides anniversary â—â—ipends the frequent Revenue of some Justices of those times for connivency I know how necessary and how splendent it is for men of publick minds to flourish in the execution of Iustice for weeding out and extirpating vitious habits radicated in every corner but this thing was a poisonous Plant in its own nature and the fitter to be an Ingredient to such a Composition Therefore he is brought to Court Knighted and corroborated by these Letters Patents whereby he took liberty to be more ravenous upon poor people to the grating of the bones and sucking out the very marrow of their substance These oppressions were throughly ripped up and laid open by the House of Commons But together with these proceedings they took notice of the King's wants and thought fit something to sweeten his temper that they might not take from him the little profit he had by those Patents but they would mâ—ke it up some other way therefore they gave him two intire Subsidles which were very acceptable unto him For those Contributions that flow from the peoples love come freely like a Spring-tide But illegal Taxes racked from their bowels coming through so many Promoters and Catchpoles hands run very low and the King hath the least share The King hearing these Patents were anatomized in the House of Commons and willing to comply with his people whom he found so bountiful unto him he comes to the House of Lords to close gently with them and excuse the granting of those Patents shewing some reasons why he did them and the instructions he gave for the execution of them by which he hoped to take off that sharp reflexion that might light upon him But the modesty of Parliaments seldom impute any of these miscarriages to the Prince but the Actors under him must bear the burthen of it And the time drawing near that the Lords assigned for judging the Malefactors the King comes again to the House upon the 26 of March and thus passed his sentence upon the Patents before the Lords should pass theirs upon the executioners of them My Lords Thomas Earle of Arundell Surrey Earle Marshall Lord high Steward of Englaud etc. Two reasons move me to be earnest in the execution of what ye are to sentence at this time First That duty I owe to God who hath made me a King and tied me to the care of Government by that politick Marriage betwixt me and my people For I do assure you in the Heart of an honest man and by the Faith of a Christian King which both ye and all the World know me to be had these things been complained of to me before the Parliament I would have done the office of a just King and out of Parliament have punished them as severely and peradventure more than ye now intend to do But now that they are discovered to me in Parliament I shall be as ready in this way as I should have been in the other For I confess I am ashamed these things proving so as they are generally reported to be that it was not my good fortune to be the only Author of the Reformation and punishment of them by some ordinary Courts of Justice Nevertheless since these things are now discovered by Parliament which before I knew not of nor could so well have discovered otherwise in regard of that Representative Body of the Kingdom which comes from all parts of the Country I will be never a-whit the slower to do my part for the execution For as many of you that are here have heard me often say and so I will still say So precious unto me is the publick good that no private person whatsoever were he never so dear unto me shall be respected by me by many degrees as the publick good not only of the whole Common-wealth but even of a particular Corporation that is a Member of it And I hope that ye my Lords will do me that right to publish to my people this my heart and purpose The second Reason is That I intend not to derogate or infringe any of the Liberties or Privileges of this House but rather to fortifie and strengthen them For never any King hath done so much for the Nobility of England as I have done and will ever be ready to do And whatsoever I shall say and deliver unto you as my thought yet when I have said what I think I will afterwards freely leave the Judgment wholly to your House I know you will do nothing but what the like hath been done before and I pray you be not jealous that I will abridge you of any thing that hath been used For whatsoever the Precedents in times of good Government can warrant I will allow For I acknowledge this to be the supreme Court of Iustice wherein I am ever present by Representation And in this ye may be the better satisfied by my own presence coming divers times among you Neither can I give you any greater assurance or better pledge of this my purpose than that I have done you the honor to set my only Son among you and hope that ye with him shall have the means to make this the happiest Parliament that ever was in England This I profess and take comfort in that the House of Commons at this time have shewed greater love and used me with more respect in all their proceedings than ever any House of Commons have heretofore done to me or I think to any of my Predecessors As for this House of yours I have always found it respective to me and accordingly do I and ever did favour you as you well deserved And I hope it will be accounted a happiness for you that my Son doth now sit among you who when it shall please God to set him in my place will then remember that he was once a Member of your House and so be bound to maintain all your Lawful Privileges and like the better of you all the days of his life But because the World at this time talks so much of Bribes I have just cause to fear the whole Body of this House hath bribed him to be a good Instrument for you upon all occasions He doth so good Offices in all his Reports to me both for the House in general and every
The strange Confederacy of the Princes of the Popish Religion aiming mainly at the advancement of theirs and subverting Ours and taking the advantages conducing to that End upon all Occasions 6. The great and many Armies raised and maintained at the charge of the King of Spain the chief of that League 7. The expectation of the Popish Recusants of the Match with Spain and feeding themselves with great hopes of the consequences thereof 8. The interposing of Foreign Princes and their Agents in the behalf of Popish Recusants for connivence and favour unto them 9. Their open and usual Resort to the Houses and which is worse to the Chappels of Foreign Ambassadors 10. Their more than usual concourse to the City and their frequent Conventicles and Conferences there 11. The education of their Children in many several Seminaries and Houses of their Religion in Foreign parts appropriated only to the English Fugitives 12. The Grants of their just forfeitures intended by your Majesty as a reward of service to the Grantees but beyond your Majesties intention transferred or compounded for at such mean rates as will amount to little less than a Toleration 13. The licentious printing and dispersing of Popish and seditious Books even in the time of Parliament 14. The Swarms of Priests and Jesuits the common Incendiaries of all Christendom dispersed in all parts of your Kingdom And from these Causes as bitter Roots we humbly offer to your Majesty that we foresee and fear there will necessarily follow very dangerous effects both to Church and State For 1. The Popish Religion is incompatible with Ours in respect of their Positions 2. It draweth with it an unavoidable Dependency on foreign Princes 3. It openeth too wide a Gap for Popularity to any who shall draw too great a Party 4. It hath a restless Spirit and will strive by these Gradations if it once get but a Connivence it will press for a Toleration if that should be obtained they must have an equality from thence they will aspire to Superiority And will never rest till they get a Subversion of the true Religion The Remedies against these growing Evils which in all humbleness we offer to your most excellent Majesty are these 1. That seeing this inevitable Necessity is faln upon your Majesty which no wisdom or providence of a peaceable and pious King can avoid your Majesty would not omit this just occasion speedily and effectually to take your Sword into your hand 2. That once undertaken upon so Honourable and just grounds your Majesty would resolve to persue and more publickly avow the aiding of those of our Religion in foreign parts which doubtless would reunite the Princes and States of the Union by these disasters disheartned and disbanded 3. That your Majesty would propose to your self to manage this War with the best advantage by a Diversion or otherwise as in your deep judgment shall be found fittest and not to rest upon a War in these parts only which will consume your Treasure and discourage your people 4. That the bent of this War and point of your Sword may be against that Prince whatsoever Opinion of Potency he hath whose Armies and Treasures have first diverted and since maintained the War in the Palatinate 5. That for securing of our peace at home your Majesty will be pleased to review the parts of our Petition formerly delivered unto your Majesty and hereunto annexed and to put it in execution by the care of choice Commissioners to be there unto especially appointed the Laws already and hereafter to be made for preventing of Dangers by Popish Recusants and their wonted evasions 6. That to frustrate their hopes for a future Age our most Noble Prince may be timely and happily married to one of our own Religion 7. That the Children of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom and of others ill affected and suspected in their Religion now beyond the Seas may be forthwith called home by your means and at the charge of their Parents or Governours 8. That the Children of Popish Recusants or such whose wives are Popish Recusants be brought up during their minority with Protestant Schoolmasters and Teachers who may sow in their tender years the seeds of true Religion 9. That your Majesty will be pleased speedily to revoke all former Licences for such Children and youth to travel beyond the Seas and not grant any such licence hereafter 10. That your Majesties learned Councel may receive commandment from your Highness carefully to look into former Grants of Recusants lands and to avoid them if by Law they can and that your Majesty will stay your hand from passing any such Grants hereafter This is the sum and effect of our Humble Declaration which we no ways intending to press upon your Majesties undoubted and Regal Prerogative do with the fulness of our Duty and Obedience humbly submit to your most Princely consideration the Glory of God whose Cause it is the Zeal of our true Religion in which we have been born and wherein by God's grace we are resolved to die the safety of your Majesties person who is the very life of your people the happiness of your Children and Posterity the Honour and good of the Church and State dearer unto us then our own lives having kindled these Affections truly devoted to your Majesty And seeing out of our Duty to your Majesty we have already resolved to give at the end of this Session one entire Subsidy for the present relief of the Palatinate only to be paid in the end of February next which cannot well be effected but by passing a Bill in a Parliamentary course before Christmas We most humbly beseech your Majesty as our assured hope is that you will then also vouchsafe to give life by your Royal assent to such Bills as before that time shall be prepared for your Majesties Honour and the general good of your People And that such Bills may be also accompanied as hath been accustomed with your Majestie 's gracious Pardon which proceeding from your own meer Grace may by your Highness direction be drawn to that latitude and extent as may best sort with your Majesties Bounty and Goodness And that not only Fellons and criminal offenders may take benefit thereof but that your good Subjects may receive ease thereby And if it shall so stand with your good pleasure that it may extend to the relief of the old Debts and Duties to the Crown before the first year of your Majesties raign to the discharge of Alienations without licence and misusing of Liveries and Oustre le main before the first summons of this Parliament and of concealed Wardships and not suing of Liveries and Oustre le mains before the twelfth year of your Majesties Reign Which gracious favour would much comfort your good Subjects and ease them from Vexation with little loss or prejudice to your own profit And we by our daily and devout prayers to the Almighty the great King of
money from the people or for what other intention is unknown But the very next day he sends this further Direction by Endimion Porter RIght Trusty c. We have given you certain Instructions signed with Our hand to direct you how to express unto the King of Spain the feeling We have of the Dishonour put upon Us by the Emperour through Our Trust and Confidence in that King's Promises wherein you have Order to come away without further delay in case you receive not Satisfaction to your Demands in such sort as We have Commanded you to propound them Nevertheless We are to put you in remembrance of that which We have heretofore told you in case a Rupture happen between the King of Spain and Us that We would be glad to manage it at Our best advantage And therefore however you do not find the Satisfaction which We in those Instructions crave from the King of Spain and have Reason to expect yet would We not have your instantly come away upon it but advertise Us first letting Us know privately if you find such cause that there is no good to be done nor no Satisfaction as you judge intended Us though Publikely and Outwardly you give out the contrary that We may make use thereof with Our People in Parliament as We shall hold best for Our Service And this seâ— you do notwithstanding any thing in your other Instructions to the contrary Dated 4. Octob. 1622. The right Honorable John Digby Earle of Bristol Baron of Shirborne Vice Chamberlaine to his Mar. and one of the Lords of his Maiesties most Honorable privy Counsell and Embassador extraordinary to the high and Mightie Philip the fourth king of Spaine Are to be Souto by William Peake IOANNES THERCLAES Comes de Tilli While they were thus Wire-drawing time spun out Manheim the chief Strength and Fortress in the Palatinate was taken by Tilly the Emperour's General whereof Sir Horatio Vere was Commander surrendred upon honourable Conditions having neither strength of Men or means to resist an Enemy Heidelberg before it as the King expressed was taken by Assault Sir Gerard Herbert the Commander of the Castle slain after he had repulsed the Enemy from the Assault breaking six Pikes upon them with his own hand And now Tilly Winter comeing on greedy to finish his work sits down before Frankendale whereof Major Barrowes had the Command a man of as much valour and experience as Time the Director and Spirit the Actor could make a man capable of But all this and the Strength of the Town to boot could not have protected them their Wants being stronger than their Enemy if Tilly had not been drowned up in his Trenches which forced his remove And though Our King said in his last Answer to the Parliament's Petition That the Enemy would have swallowed up his Forces in the Palatinate in eight daies if my Lord Digby had not succoured it yet the weakest of the three Places which is Heidelberg was not taken in a moment for Tilly in Iune last set down before it and was constrained to raise his Siege being not strong enough and coming again with a greater Power in the end of Iuly following he was there above two moneths before he took so much as any of their Out-Works And Manheim and Frankendale are two such strong Holds that if they had been well furnished with Men and Provisions they might have stood out against Tilly nay the great Turk as well if not better than Vienna the Imperial City As soon as the King had notice of the taking of Manheim he gives Bristol intimation of it and was very well satisfied of the King of Spain's good intentions for the Relief of it though Order sent to the Infanta arrived not there till the Town was surrendred Which was the old Spanish plot of Philip the Second to get Portugal into his hand wherein he cheated the Pope himself delaying his solicitations by his Legate Cardinal Riario for Don Antonio Bastard of Portugal with specious and pleasing entertainments till he had gotten the Castle of St. Iulians the greatest strength of the Kingdom then besieged by him into his power And yet our King looked upon this Apparition as Real and thanked the King of Spain for the good he never intended And now the Articles of Marriage that had been long hatching flew up and down from hand to hand The French Historians mention them so doth Mr. Pryn in his hidden Works of darkness as they were found among the Lord Cottington's Papers These came to me from the Nest and I have kept them till this time and comparing them with other Copies there is scarce a feather amiss Nor should they have pestered this paper but to shew what great pains was taken to little purpose what Huge pretences shouldred in to make way for the Spanish Designs which at last dwindled to nothing The Articles are these 1. THat the Marriage be made by Dispensation of the Pope but that to be procured by the endeavour of the King of Spain 2. That the Marriage be once celebrated in Spain and Ratified in England in form following In the morning after the most gracious Infanta hath ended her Devotions in the Chappel She and the most excellent Prince Charles shall meet in the King's Chappel or in some other Room of the Palace where it shall seem most expedient and there shall be read all the Procurations by Virtue whereof the Marriage was celebrated in Spain And as well the most excellent Prince as the most excellent Infanta shall ratifie the said Marriage celebrated in Spain with all Solemnity necessary to such an Act so as no Ceremony or other thing intervene which shall be contrary to the Roman-Catholik-Apostolik-Religion 3. That the Gracious Infanta shall take with Her such Servants and Family as are convenient for her service which Family and all Persons to her belonging shall be chosen and nominated by the Catholik King so as he nominate no Servant which is Vassail to the King of Great Britain without his will and consent 4. That as well the most gracious Lady Infanta as all her Servants and Family shall have free use and publique exercise of the Roman Catholike Religion in manner and form as is beneath Capitulated 5. That she shall have an Oratory and decent Chappel in her Palace where at the pleasure of the most Gracious Infanta Masses may be celebrated which Oratory or Chappel shall be adorned with such decencie as shall seem convenient for the most gracious Infanta with a publike Church in London c. 6. That the Men-servants and Maid-servants of the most Gracious Infanta and their Servants Children and Descendents and all their Families of what sort soever serving her Highness may be freely Catholiks 7. That the most gracious Infanta her Servants and Family may be freely Catholiks in form following 8. That the most gracious Infanta may have in her Palace her Oratory and Chappel
Canterbury knowing that a Toleration was to be admitted though he stood tottering in the King's Favour and had the Badg of a Puritan clapt upon him thought it better to discharge his Conscience though he hazarded all rather than be silent in such a Cause where the Glory of God and the Good of the Kingdom were so higly concerned Therefore he writes this letter to the King May it please your Majesty I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it hath pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in And now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty And therefore I beseech your Majesty give me leave freely to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do with me what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you Sir take into your consideration what the Act is next what the consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up that most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How Hateful will it be to God and grievous unto your good Subjects the true Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath often disputed and learnedly written against those wicked Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those Doctrines which your Pen hath told the World and your Conscience tels your Self are Superstitious Idolatrous and Detestable Add hereunto what you have done in sending the Prince into Spain without the consent of your Council the Privity and Approbation of your People And though Sir you have a large Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet hath the people a greater as the Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty their Eyes are fixed and Welfare depends And so tenderly is his going apprehended as believe it Sir however his return may be safe yet the drawers of him to that Action so dangerous to himself to desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestioned and unpunished Besides this Toleration which you endeavour to set up by Proclamation cannot be done without a Parliament unless your Majesty would let your Subjects see That you will take unto your self a liberty to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dreadful Consequence these things may draw after them I beseech your Majesty to consider And above all lest by this Toleration and discontinuance of the true profession of the Gospel whereby God hath blessed us and under which this Kingdom hath for many years flourished your Majesty do not draw upon the Kingdom in general and your Self in particular God's heavy Wrath and Indignation Thus in discharge of my Duty towards God to your Majesty and the place of my Calling I have taken humble Boldness to deliver my Conscience And now Sir do with me what you please Thus did our Solomon in his latter time though he had fought with the Beasts at Ephesus as one saith of him incline a little too much to the Beast Yet he made his tale so good to the Archbishop of Canterbury what reservations soever he had that he wrought upon the good old man afterwards in the Conclusion of the work to set his Hand as a Witness to the Articles And his desires were so heightned to the Heats of Spain which boyl'd him to such a Distemper that he would listen to nothing and almost yield to any thing rather than not to enjoy his own Humour Divers of his intimate Council affecting Popery were not slack to urge him to a Toleration and many Arguments were used inciting to it As that Catholicks were the King 's best and most peaceable Subjects the Puritans being the only Sticklers and the greatest Disturbers of the Royal peace trenching too boldly upon the Prerogative and striving to lessen the Kingly power But if the King had occasion to make use of the Catholicks he should find them more faithful to him than those that are ever contesting with him And why should not Catholicks with as much safety be permitted in England as the Protestants are in France That their Religion was full of Love and Charity where they could enjoy it with freedom and where Charity layes the Foundation the upper Building must needs be spiritual But these Arguments were answered and many reasons alledged against them proving the Nature of the Protestant Religion to be Compatible with the Nature of the Politick Laws of any State of what Religion soever Because it teacheth that the Government of any State whether Monarchial or Aristocratical is Supream within it self and not subordinate to any power without so that the Knot of Allegiance thereunto is so firmly tied that no Humane power can unloose or dissolve it Whereas on the contrary the Roman Religion acknowledging a Supremacy in another above that power which swayeth the State whereof they are Members must consequently hold that one stroke of that Supreme power is able to unsinew and cut in sunder all the Bonds which ty them to the Subordinate and Dependent Authority And therefore can ill accord with the Allegiance which Subjects owe to a Prince of their own Religion which makes Papists intolerable in a Protestant Common-wealth For what Faith can a Prince or People expect from them whose Tenet is That no Faith is to be held with Hereticks That the Protestants in France had merited better there than the Papists had done in England the one by their Loyalties to their lawful King having ransomed that Kingdom with their Bloods in the Pangs of her desperate Agonies from the Yoak of an Usurper within and the Tyranny of a Forain Scepter without The other seeking to write their Disloyalties in the Heart-Blood of the Princes and best Subjects of this Kingdom That the Number and Quality of the Professors of these different Religions in either Kingdom is to be observed For in France the Number of the Protestants were so great that a Toleration did not make them but found them a Considerable Party so strong as they could not have been suppressed without endangering the Kingdom But a Toleration in England would not find but form the Papists to be a considerable party witness their encrease by this late Connivency a thing which ought mainly to be avoided For the distraction of a State into several powerfull parties is alwaies weakning and often proveth the utter ruine thereof These thing were laid open to the King but all were waved by the King of Spain's Offering His engagement to the Pope by oath That he and the Prince his son should observe and keep the Articles stipulated betwixt them did exceedingly affect him And the Articles now coming to close up all they were ingrossed with a long preamble Declaring to all the World the much desired Union betwixt him and the King of Spain by the marriage of his son to
time than at others the mischief that fell to them in this Height of their pride and greatness is very remarkable For at at a Sermon in Black-Friers where Father Drurie a Iesuit vented his pestilent Doctrine to an Auditory of near three Hundred people the Floor of the Chamber being an upper room fell down and killed the Preacher and almost if not a full Hundred of his Auditory outright maiming and bruising most of the rest many of them lying a long time under the Rubbish crying for Help and with much difficulty recovered their broken Limbs Thus many times we might immediately see the hand of God who is the Lord of Life and Death though through wilful stupidity because we must judge modestly we look upon these accidents by mediate and second causes thinking an old house can destroy so many lives without the permission of that supreme Authority that orders all things both in Heaven and in Earth The Duke of Brunswick this Spring being healed of his wounds received in the last Battle with Mansfeldt and having gotten an artificial Arm to manage his Horse which he could do with a great deal of dexterity what by his own interest and power and the assistance of his friends being but a younger Brother and having nothing but the Bishoprick of Haverstat for his portion he raised a great Army in the lower parts of Germany about Brunswick and Munster consisting of about sixteen thousand foot and five thousand horse every way compleatly armed and accomplished with a gallant Train of Artillery The Horses Wagons and Carriages in such trim and suitable Equipage as shewed by their suitableness in furniture they had not been patched up nor hastily hurried together His Design being invited thereto was to joyn with the Prince of Orange to be revenged of the Spaniard for the loss of his Arm the last year But the chief motive as he alwaies pretended was his respects to the Queen of Bohemia who in those dayes whether out of pity for her suffering so much or out of fear that Religion would yet suffer much more carried a great stream of affection towards her ILLVSTRISSIMVS PRINCEPS CHRISTIANVS DVX BRVNSVICENSIS ADMINISTRATOR HALBERSTADENSIS Tali Brunonis claro de stemmate Princeps Vultu Barbaricos acer consurgit in hortes Nec Patriae tristes fert mens generosa ruinas That having in their March the Enemie at their Backs if the Rear-guard made a Halt the Battail should do the same and consequently the Van-guard according to the best Discipline attending with firm foot the cause of the Halt that they may be ready to put themselves in order for service if occasion were presented The Army thus coming to pass any Passage while the Van-guard did advance the Battail and Rear-guard should make a stand with the front towards the Enemy The Van-guard being past should face the Passage and stay for the Battail which being past also should do the same for the Rear-guard that they might be ready upon the approach of an Enemy to assist one another With this Order and Direction they began to march into Westfalia Brunswick trusting to Stirem Kniphuisen and Frenck who being Natives of the Country gave him assurance of the safe Conduct of his Army by wayes short and commodious And he commanded especially the General of the Horse to send out parties of Horse every way that he might have intelligence of the Enemie's Motions who gave him assurance that the Enemies Army was not within thirty English Miles when by other hand at the same time he had certain notice that the Enemy was within three English Miles with his whole Power This miscarriage made Brunswick hast away to Newburgh the next Town where resting a little he took a Resolution to march all night to recover time and ground again that Stirum's negligence had made him lazily lose And to that end he commanded Kniphuisen and Count Isenburg to make the Baggage march at eleven a clock at Night the Cannon at Midnight and the Army two hours after But Brunswick getting up at three a clock in the Morning hoping to find his Commands obeyed and the Army in a good forwardness of advance found nothing done and these great Officers in their Beds This disobedience of his Officers troubled Brunswick much but he was constrained to Diligence as well as Patience And hastning them away they pretended forwardness but made it eight of the Clock in the morning before the Rear-guard stirred out of their Quarters From Newburgh to Statloo Bridge a place of Security was but fourteen English Miles and there were in that way seven passages or Straits where a few men might oppose an Army The Baggage Cannon and Munition except six pieces with Munition that marched with the Rere-guard had past them all and the Foot three of them without disturbance but Count Stirum with the Horse loitered still behind at Newburgh which caused Brunswick to make the whole Army face about and stay for the Horse sending a strict Command to Stirum with all speed to come up and joyn with the Foot and not to skirmish with the Enemy at any rate But he stayed so long that the Enemy began to charge him in the Rere before he advanced to the third Passage So that he sent to Brunswick for five hundred Musqueteers to amuse the Enemy till he had passed the third Passage with his Horse The Duke sent these Musqueteers according to Sirum's desire and advancing his Army forward he passed the fourth Passage and there made the Rere of his foot face about the better to favour and receive his Horse Which having done he speeds back towards Stirum to see how the Business went with him and incountring Kniphuisen he asked him what the Enemy had done Who answered Nothing all is well But Brunswick going forward found the contrary for the Enemy had made a great slaughter laying almost a thousand Horse upon the Ground This perplexed Brunswick exceedingly so that with some Passion he sent a Command to Stirum to advance his Horse towards the Body of the Army who had stayed three hours for them at the fourth Passage whither the Duke returned to secure the same planting two Peeces of Demi-cannon at the Mouth of the Passage and leaving two thousand Musqueteers to guard it for the assistance of the Horse if the Enemy should come to charge them at the Entrance and so he marched forward with the rest of the Army But Stirum drew the Horse into a Body under the side of a Wood which was in the middle of a spacious plain betwixt the two Passages and that brought the Enemy to a stand for they suspected the whole Army stood in Battalia behind that Wood and therefore did not advance which shewed they watched only for advantages And Stirum seeing the Enemie at a stand drew his Horse towards the fourth Passage which the Enemy observing made all the haste after that could be to pelt them in