his Covetousness and therefore their Lordships need not wonder if the Commons desire and that earnestly to be delivered from such a Grievance That this complaint and proceedings of theirs may appear to be suitable to the proceedings of their Predecessors in like Cases he alleaged three Presidents which he said were Presidents in kinde but not in proportion because there hath never been the like The first 10 Rich. 2. in the Complaint against Michael de la Pool Earl of Suffolk out of which he took Three Articles the first That being Chancellor and sworn to the Kings profit he had purchased divers Lands from the King more then he had deserved and at an under rate yet this was thought to be an offence against the State The second That he had bought of one Tydman an Annuity of Five hundred pound per annum which Grant was void by the Laws yet he being Chancellor procured the King to make it good by a new Grant upon Surrender of the old This was complained of in Parliament and there punished The third Whereas the Master of St. Anthonies being a Schismatick had forfeited his Possessions into the Kings hand this Earl took them in Farm at Twenty Marks a year converting the overplus which was One thousand Marks to his own profit which should have come to the King The next President II Rich. 2. in the Judgment against Robert de Vere of Oxford and others out of which he took two Articles the Fifth and the Seventh The Fifth was for taking Mannors and Lands annexed to the Crown whereby they themselves were inriched and the King made poor the Seventh was for intercepting the Subsidies granted for the defence of the Kingdom The third President is that of 28 Hen. 6. in the Parliament Roll out of the Complaint against William de la Pool Duke of Suffolk Article 29. That he being next and primest of Council to the King he had procured him to grant great Possessions to divers persons whereby the King was much impoverished the expence of his House unpaid Wages Wardrobe Castles Navy Debts unsatisfied and so by his subtile Council and unprofitable Labor the Revenues of the Crown and the Dutchy of Lancaster and other the Kings Inheritances so much diminished and the Commons of the Kingdom so extreamly charged that it was near to a final destruction The fourth was That the Kings Treasure was mischievously distributed to himself his friends and well-willers so that for lack of Money no Army nor Ordnance could be provided in time and because these great persons were not brought to judgment upon these Articles alone but for other misdemeanors he made this observation That ravening upon the Kings Estate is always accounted with other great faults that deserve judgment Then he said he had done with that which had been left to him and so he left the Duke to their Lordships Justice That as he had exceeded others in this Offence so he might not come behinde them in punishment And so he humbly desired their Lordships to be pleased to pardon his Delivery and to give a favorable censure of him Lastly The Thirteenth Article was read XIII Whereas especial care and order hath been taken by the Laws of the Realm to restrain and prevent the unskilful Administration of Physick whereby the health and life of men may be much endangered And whereas most especially the Royal Persons of the Kings of the Realm in whom we their Loyal Subjects humbly challenge a great interest are and always have been esteemed by us so sacred that nothing ought to be prepared for them or administred unto them in the way of Physick or Dyet in the times of their sickness without the consent and direction of some of their sworn Physitians Apothecaries or Surgeons And the boldness of such how near soever to them in place and favor who have forgotten their Duties so far as to presume to offer any thing unto them beyond their experience hath been always ranked in the number of high Offences and Misdemeanors And whereas the sworn Physitians of our late Soveraign Lord King Iames of Blessed memory attending on his Majesty in the moneth of March in the Two and twentieth year of his most glorious Raign in the times of his sickness being an Ague did in due and necessary care of and for the recovery of his health and preservation of his Person upon and after several mature Consultations in that behalf had and holden at several times in the same moneth resolve and give directions That nothing should be applied or given unto his Highness by way of Physick or Dyet during his said sickness but by and upon their general advice and consents and after good deliberation thereof first had more especially by their like care and upon like consultations did justly resolve and publickly give warning to and for all the Gentlemen and other Servants and Officers of his said late Majesties Bed-chamber That no Meat nor Drink whatsoever should be given unto him within two or three hours next before the usual time of and for the coming of his Fit in the said Ague nor during the continuance thereof nor afterwards until his cold Fit were past The said Duke of Buckingham being a sworn Servant of his said late Majesty of and in his Majesties said Bed-chamber contrary to his duty and the tender respect which he ought to have had of his Majesties most Sacred Person and after the Consultations Resolutions Directions and Warning aforesaid did nevertheless without any sufficient warrant in that behalf unduly cause and procure certain Plaisters and a certain Drink or Potion to be provided for the use of his said Majesty without the direction or privity of his said late Majesties Physitians not prepared by any of his Majesties sworn Apothecaries or Chirurgeons but compounded of several ingredients to them unknown Notwithstanding the same Plaisters or some Plaister like thereunto having been formerly administred unto his said Majesty did produce such ill effects as that some of the said sworn Physitians did altogether disallow thereof and utterly refused to meddle any further with his said Majesty until these Plaisters were removed as being hurtful and prejudicial to the health of his Majesty yet nevertheless the same Plaisters as also a Drink or Potion was provided by him the said Duke which he the said Duke by colour of some insufficient and slight pretences did upon Monday the One and twentieth day of March in the Two and twentieth year aforesaid when his Majesty by the judgment of his said Physitians was in the declination of his Disease cause and procure the said Plaisters to be applied to the Brest and Wrists of his said late Majesty And then also at and in his Majesties Fit of the said Ague the said Munday and at several times within two hours before the coming of the same Fit and before his Majesties then cold Fit was passed did deliver and cause to be delivered several quantities of the
as no Ceremony or other thing intervene which shall be contrary to the Roman Catholick Apostolick Religion III. That the most Gratious 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 Catholick King So as he nominate no Servant which is Vassal to the King of Great Britain without his will and consent IV. That as well the most Gratious Infanta as all her Servants and Family shall have free use and publick Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion in manner and form as is beneath capitulated V. That she shall have an Oratory and Decent Chappel in her Palace where at the pleasure of the most Gratious Infanta Masses may be celebrated and in like manner she shall have in London or wheresoever she shall make her abode a Publick and Capacious Church near her Palace wherein all Duties may be solemnly celebrated and all other things necessary for the Publick Preaching of Gods Word the Celebration and Administration of all the Sacraments of the Catholick Roman Church and for burial of the Dead and Baptizing of Children That the said Oratory Chappel and Church shall be adorned with such decency as shall seem convenient to the most Gratious Infanta VI. That the Men-servants and Maid-servants of the most Gratious Infanta and their Servants Children and Descendents and all their Families of what sort soever serving her Highness may be freely and publickly Catholicks VII That the most Gratious Infanta her Servants and Family may live as Catholicks in form following That the most Gratious Infanta shall have in her Palace her Oratory and Chappel so spatious that her said Servants and Family may enter and stay therein in which there shall be an ordinary and publick door for them and another inward door by which the Infanta may have a passage into the said Chappel where she and other as abovesaid may be present at Divine Offices VIII That the Chappel Church and Oratory may be beautified with decent Ornaments of Altars and other things necessary for Divine Service which is to be celebrated in them according to the custom of the Holy Roman Church and that it shall be lawful for the said Servants and others to go to the said Chappel and Church at all hours as to them shall seem expedient X. That the care and custody of the said Chappel and Church shall be committed to such as the Lady Infanta shall appoint to whom it shall be lawful to appoint Keepers that no body may enter into them to do any undecent thing XI That to the Administration of the Sacraments and to serve in Chappel and Church aforesaid there shall be Four and twenty Priests and Assistants who shall serve weekly or monethly as to the Infanta shall seem fit and the Election of them shall belong to the Lady Infanta and the Catholick King Provided That they be none of the Vassals of the King of Great Britain and if they be his will and consent is to be first obtained XII That there be one Superior Minister or Bishop with necessary Authority upon all occasions which shall happen belonging to Religion and for want of a Bishop that his Vicar may have his Authority and Jurisdiction XIII That this Bishop or Superior Minister may Correct and Chastise all Roman Catholicks who shall offend and shall exercise upon them all Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical And moreover also the Lady Infanta shall have power to put them out of her service whensoever it shall seem expedient to her XIV That it may be lawful for the Lady Infanta and her Servants to procure from Rome Dispensations Indulgences Jubilees and all Graces as shall seem fit to their Religion and Consciences and to get and make use of any manner of Catholick Books whatsoever XV. That the Servants and Family of the Lady Infanta who shall come into England shall take the Oath of Allegiance to the King of Great Britain Provided That there be no clause therein which shall be contrary to their Consciences and the Roman Catholick Religion and if they happen to be Vassals to the King of Great Britain they shall take the same Oath that the Spaniards do XVI That the Laws which are or shall be in England against Religion shall not take hold of the said Servants and onely the foresaid Superior Ecclesiastical Catholick may proceed against Ecclesiastical persons as hath been accustomed by Catholicks And if any Secular Judge shall apprehend any Ecclesiastical person for any offence he shall forthwith cause him to be delivered to the aforesaid Superior Ecclesiastick who shall proceed against him according to the Canon Law XVII That the Laws made against Catholicks in England or in any other Kingdom of the King of Great Britain shall not extend to the Children of this Marriage and though they be Catholicks they shall not lose the right of Succession to the Kingdom and Dominions of Great Britain XVIII That the Nurses which shall give suck to the Children of the Lady Infanta whither they be of the Kingdom of Great Britain or of any other Nation whatsoever shall be chosen by the Lady Infanta as she pleaseth and shall be accounted of her Family and enjoy the priviledges thereof XIX That the Bishop Ecclesiastical and Religious persons of the Family of the Lady Infanta shall wear the Vestment and Habit of their Dignity Profession and Religion after the Custom of Rome XX. For security that the said Matrimony be not dissolved for any cause whatsoever The King and Prince are equally to pass the Word and Honor of a King and moreover that they will perform whatsoever shall be propounded by the Catholick King for further confirmation if it may be done decently and fitly XXI That the Sons and Daughters which shall be born of this Marriage shall be brought up in the company of the most Excellent Infanta at the least until the age of Ten years and shall freely enjoy the right of Successions to the Kingdoms as aforesaid XXII That whensoever any place of either Man-servant or Maid-servant which the Lady Infanta shall bring with her nominated by the Catholick King her Brother shall happen to be void whether by death or by other cause or accident all the said Servants of her Family are to be supplied by the Catholick King as aforesaid XXIII For security that whatsoever is capitulated may be fulfilled The King of Great Britain and Prince Charls are to be bound by Oath and all the Kings Council shall confirm the said Treaty under their hands Moreover the said King and Prince are to give their Faiths in the Word of a King to endeavor if possible That whatsoever is capitulated may be established by Parliament XXIV That conformable to this Treaty all these things proposed are to be allowed and approved of by the Pope tâ—at he may give an Apostolical Benediction and a Dispensation necessary to effect the Marriage The Oath taken
MY Lords said he In this great business of Impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham I am commanded by the Commons in Parliament to bear a part of some importance The Articles allotted to my Charge are three the Sixth Seventh and Eighth which I shall open with as much brevity and perspicuity as I may The substance of several Cases concerning the same The Evidence to make them good together with such Observations as naturally arise out of the matter whereby your Lordships may the better discern wherein the Dukes faults do consist and what punishment may be answerable to such offences The Sixth Article is a distinct Charge different from the other two wherefore I will handle it with the Incidents thereof by it self The Seventh and Eighth Articles being of one nature and subject are indeed several parts of one Charge rather then several Charges and have such a connexion in themselves that with your Lordships leaves I will handle them both together without dividing them which I hold will be the shortest and fittest way to do right to the Cause and to your Lordships The Sixth Article giveth me occasion my Lords thus to enlarge my self In a Treaty the 18. of August 1604. between our late Soveraign King Iames of glorious memory and Philip the Third King of Spain It was agreed That there should be perfect Amity and Peace to endure for ever by Land Sea and Fresh-waters between these Kings their Heirs and Successors their Dominions Liege-men and Subjects then being or which should be And that either party should then after abstain from all depradations offences and spoils by Sea Land and Fresh-waters in what Dominions or Government soever of the other and should cause restitution to be made of all depradations which then after should be comitted and the damages growing by means thereof And that the said Kings shall take care that their Subjects should from thenceforth abstain from all force and wrong-doing and that they likewise should revoke all Commissions and Letters-Patents of Reprisal or Mart or otherwise containing Licence to take Prizes All which are declared by the said Treaty it self to be void and that whosoever should do any thing contrary should be punished not only criminally according to the merit of his offence but should also be compelled to make restitution and satisfaction for the losses to the parties damnified requiring the same Lastly it was concluded That between them and every of their Subjects might be free Commerce in all the Dominions by Sea Land and Fresh-waters in which before the Wars there hath been Commerce and according to the use and observance of the antient Leagues and Treaties before the Wars the Customs as they were at that present rated according to the Ordinance of the Places being paid This Treaty being setled and continuing his late Majesty King Iames by his Highness Letters-Patents bearing date the 14. of September An. 13. of his Reign did grant unto the Governors of the Merchants of London trading into the East-Indies and to their Successors in case they be justly provoked or driven thereunto in defence of their persons goods or ships by any disturbance or hinderance in their quiet Course of Trade or for recompence or recovery of the persons ships or goods of any of his Majesties Subjects that had been formerly in or neer the East-Indies or for any other just cause of their defence or recompence of losses sustained That then the Captains or principal Commanders of the said Company or any other under their government should or might attempt surprise or take the persons ships and goods of any Prince or State by whose Subjects they should sustain any wrong or loss in manner as aforesaid as by the said Letters-Patents appeareth Some years after the granting of these Letters-Patents under pretext that the said Treaty was broken there was some interruption and violence offered by the King of Spain's Subjects in the Ports of East-India to the Merchants of the East-India Company trading into those parts whereby they were much damnified and thereupon suspecting that it might be in vain to complain for redress in an ordinary course of Justice in the East-India or in default thereof to return into Spain to make complaint to that purpose where nothing was likely to be done till they had sent from thence again into the East-Indies and received an answer And after all this upon denial of Justice in Spain to come into this Kingdom for Letters of Request without which in ordinary course they should not use Reprisal and many years would be spent before they could come to have an end of these suits It is true that thereupon partly in their defence and partly for amends and partly for revenge they did by pretext of the said Letters-Patents take some goods of the Portugals in the East-Indies Subjects to the King of Spain and afterwards being commanded by the King of Persia to transport certain Forces of his in Ormus an Island situate in the Country of Persia some goods of Portugals subjects to the King of Spain were there taken by Captain Blith and Captain Wedel and others of their Company being servants and in pay under the East-India Company In Iuly 1623. Two ships called the Lyon and the Ionas being part of a Fleet belonging to the said Company returned from Ormus aforesaid out of an East-Indian Voyage and arrived in the Downs richly laden with goods and merchandise lawfully belonging to the said Company and estimated to the value of One hundred thousand pounds The Duke of Buckingham in or about October 1623. being advertised thereof well knowing the Company to be rich and apprehending in himself a probable ground how he might exact and extort some great sum of money from the said Company out of the profit of these ships and their lading by colour of his Office of Lord Admiral of England and out of his power and greatness his Office being used for a groundwork of his design therein did thereupon pretend that the lading of the said ships was for the most part with goods Pyratically taken at Sea in the parts about Ormus aforesaid and that a Tenth part or some other great share thereof did belong to him in the right of his said Office of Lord Great Admiral of England and by vertue of his Letters-Patents and Grant from his late Majesty in that behalf alleadging withall howsoever the said Company might peradventure answer the matter yet there would and might be strong opposition against them These words were used to possess them with fear and to make them stand in awe of his power when he should come afterwards particularly to press them to yield to his unjust demands Having once resolved of his ends which was to get money he thus proceeded to effect the same In the moneths of November December January and February then next following he had divers times Treaties by himself and his Agents with the the then Governor and others of the
said Drink or Potion to his said late Majesty who thereupon at the same times within the seasons in that behalf prohibited by his Majesties Physitians as aforesaid did by the means and procurement of the said Duke drink and take divers quantities of the said Drink or Potion After which said Plaisters and Drink or Potion applied and given unto and taken and received by his said Majesty as aforesaid great distempers and divers ill symptoms appeared upon his said Majesty insomuch That the said Physitians finding his Majesty the next morning much worse in the estate of his health and holding a Consultation thereabout did by joynt consent send to the said Duke praying him not to adventure to minister to his Majesty any more Physick without their allowance and approbation And his said Majesty himself finding himself much diseased and affected with pain and sickness after his then fit when by the course of his Disease he expected intermission and ease did attribute the cause of such his trouble unto the said Plaister and Drink which the said Duke had so given and caused to be administred unto him Which said adventrous act by a person obliged in duty and thankfulness done to the Person of so great a King after so ill success of the like formerly administred contrary to such Directions as aforesaid and accompanied with so unhappy event to the great grief and discomfort of all his Majesties Subjects in general is an Offence and Misdemeanor of so high a nature as may justly be called and is by the said Commons deemed to be an act of transcendent presumption and of dangerous consequence Mr. Wandesford deputed to enlarge and aggravate upon the Thirteenth Article commended the charity and providence of that Law which makes it penal for unskilful Empyricks and all others to exercise and practice Physick upon common persons without a lawful Calling and Approbation branding them that thus transgress as Improbos Ambitiosos Temerarios Audaces homines But he that without skill and calling shall direct a Medicine which upon the same person had wrought bad effects enough to have disswaded a second adventure and then when Physitians were present Physitians selected for Learning and Art prepared by their Office and Oaths without their consent nay even contrary to their Direction and in a time unseasonable He must needs said he be guilty albeit towards a common person of a precipitate and unadvised rashness much more towards his own Soveraign And so pious are our selves to put the Subjects in minde of their duty towards their Princes Persons so Sacred that in the attempt of a Madman upon the King his want of Reason which towards any of his fellow Subjects might have quit him of Felony shall not excuse him of Treason And how wary and advised our Ancestors have been not to apply things in this kinde to the Person of a King may appear by a President 32 Hen 6. where Iohn Arundel and others the Kings Physitians and Chirurgeons thought it not safe for them to administer any thing to the Kings Person without the assent of the Privy Council first obtained and express Licence under the Great Seal of England This Medicine found his Majesty in the declination of his desease and we all wish it had left him so but his better days were shortly turned into worse and instead of health and recovery we hear by good testimony that which troubles the poor and loyal Commons of England of great distempers as Droughts Raving Fainting an intermitting Pulse strange effects to follow upon the applying of a Treacle Plaister But the truth is Testimony tells us That this Plaister had a strange smell and an invective quality striking the malignity of the disease inward which Nature otherwise might have expelled outward Adde to this the Drink twice given to his Majesty by the Duke his own hands and a third time refused and the following Complaint of that blessed Prince the Physitians telling him to please him for the time That his second impairment was from cold taken or some other ordinary cause No no said his Majesty it is that which I had from Buckingham And though there be no President said he of an act offered to the Person of a King so insolent as this yet is it true that divers persons as great as this have been questioned and condemned for less offences against the Person of their Soveraign It was an Article amongst others laid against the Duke of Somerset for carrying Edward the Sixth away in the night time out of his own head but from Hampton Court to Windsor and yet he was trusted with the Protection of his person Presidents failing us in this point the Common Law will supply us The Law judgeth a deed done in the execution of an unlawful act Man-slaughter which otherwise would but have been Chance-medley and that this act was unlawful the House of Commons do believe as belonging to the Duty and Vocation of a sworn and experimented Physitian and not the unskilfulness of a yong Lord. And so pretious are the lives of men in the Eye of the Law that though Mr. Stanford saith If a Physitian take one into his Cure and he die under his hands it is not Felony because he did it not Feloniously Yet it is Mr. Bractons opinion That if one that is no Physitian or Chirurgeon undertake a Cure and the party die under his hands this is Felony And the Law goeth further making Physitians and Chirurgeons themselves accomptable for the Death of their Patients if it appear they have transgressed the Rules of their own Art that is by undertaking a thing wherein they have no experience or having yet failed in the care and diligence Lastly He said he was commanded by the House of Commons to desire their Lordships That seeing the Duke hath made himself a President in committing that which former Ages knew not their Lordships will out of their Wisdom and Justice make him an example for the time to come The several Articles being thus enlarged and aggravated by the said respective Members Sir Iohn Elliot was appointed to make the Epilogue to the Impeachment who spake thus My Lords YOur Lordships have heard in the Labors of these two days spent in this Service a Representation from the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament of their Apprehension of the present Evils and dangers of this Kingdom of the Causes of the same and of the Application of them to the Duke of Buckingham so clearly and fully as I presume your Lordships expect I should rather conclude then adde any thing to his charge Your Lordships have heard how his Ambition was expressed in procuring and getting into his hands the greatest Offices of strength and power of this Kingdom by what means he had attained them and how Money stood for Merit There needs no Argument to prove this but the common sense of the Miseries and Misfortunes which we suffer
for Posterity to strike at the propriety of their Goods contrary to the piety and intention of your Majesty so graciously exprest And these being the true Grounds and Motives of his forbearance to the said Loan shewing such inconveniences in Reason and representing it an Act contradicting so many of your Laws and most of them by the most prudent and happiest of our Princes granted which could not without presumption beyond pardon in your Suppliant in taking to himself the Dispensation of those Laws so piously Enacted by him be violated or impeached In the fulness of all Submission and Obedience as the Apology of his Loyalty and Duty he lowly offers to your most Sacred Wisdom for the satisfaction of your Majesty most humbly praying your Majesty will be graciously pleased to take them into your Princely consideration where when it shall appear as he doubts not but from hence it will to your déep judgment that no factious humor nor disaffection led on by stubbornness and will hath herein stirred or moved him but the just Obligation of his Conscience which binds him to the service of your Majesty in the observânce of your Laws he is hopeful presuming upon the Piety and Iustice of your Majesty that your Majesty according to your innate Clemency and Goodness will be pleased to bestow him to your Favor and his Liberty and to afford him the benefit of those Laws which in all humility he craves Notwithstanding the said Petition he still continued a prisoner in the Gate-house till the general Order of Discharge came Sir Peter Hayman refusing to part with Loan-money was called before the Lords of the Council who charged him with refractoriness and with an unwillingness to serve the King and told him if he did not pay he should be put upon service Accordingly they commanded him to go upon his Majesties service into the Palatinate and having first setled his estate he undertook and performed the journey and afterwards returned into England Archbishop Abbot having been long slighted at Court now fell under the Kings high displeasure for refusing to Licence Doctor Sibthorps Sermon as he was commanded intituled Apostolical Obedience and not long after he was sequestred from his Office and a Commission was granted to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and Doctor Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells to execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction The Commission as followeth CHARLS by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To the Right Reverend Father in God George Bishop of London and to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Trusty and Welbeloved Counsellor Richard Lord Bishop of Durham and to the Right Reverend Father in God Iohn Lord Bishop of Rochester and Iohn Lord Bishop of Oxford to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Counsellor William Lord Bishop of Bathe and Wells Greeting WHereas George now Archbishop of Canterbury in the right of the Archbishoprick hath several and distinct Archiepiscopal Episcopal and other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Powers and Iurisdictions to be exercised in the Government and Discipline of the Church within the Province of Canterbury and in the Administration of Iustice in Causes Ecclesiastical within that Province which are partly executed by himself in his own person and partly and more generally by several persons nominated and authorised by him being learned in the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm in those several places whereunto they are deputed and appointed by the said Archbishop Which several places as We are informed they severally hold by several Grants for their several lives as namely Sir Henry Martin Knight hath and holdeth by the Grants of the said Archbishop the Offices and places of the Dean of the Arches and Iudge or Master of the Prerogative Court for the Natural life of the said Sir Henry Martin Sir Charls Caesar Knight hath and holdeth by Grants of the said Archbishop the places or Offices of the Iudge of the Audience and Master of the Faculties for the term of the Natural life of the said Sir Charls Caesar. Sir Thomas Ridley Knight hath and holdeth by the Grant of the said Archbishop the place or Office of Uicar-General to the said Archbishop And Nathaniel Brent Doctor of the Laws hath and holdeth by Grant of the said Archbishop the Office or place of Commissary to the said Archbishop as of his proper and peculiar Diocess of Canterbury And likewise the several Registers of the Arches Prerogative Audience Faculties and of the Uicar-General and Commissary of Canterbury hold their places by Grants from the said Archbishop respectively Whereas the said Archbishop in some or all of these several places and Iurisdictions doth or may sometimes assume unto his personal and proper Iudicature Order or Direction some particular Causes Actions or Cases at his pleasure And forasmuch as the said Archbishop cannot at this present in his own person attend these Services which are otherwise proper for his Cognisance and Iurisdiction and which as Archbishop of Canterbury he might and ought in his own person to have performed and executed in Causes and Matters Ecclesiastical in the proper Function of Archbishop of that Province We therefore of Our Regal Power and of Our Princely Care and Providence that nothing shall be defective in the Order Discipline Government or Right of the Church have thought fit by the Service of some other Learned and Reverend Bishops to be named by Us to supply those things which the said Archbishop ought or might in the Cases aforesaid to have done but for this present cannot perform the same Know ye therefore That We reposing special Trust and Confidence in your approved Wisdoms Learning and Integrity have nominated authorised and appointed and do by these presents nominate authorise and appoint you the said George Lord Bishop of London Richard Lord Bishop of Durham John Lord Bishop of Rochester John Lord Bishop of Oxford and William Lord Bishop of Bathe and Wells or any four thrée or two of you to do execute and perform all and every those Acts Matters and things any way touching or concerning the Power Iurisdiction or Authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Causes or Matters Ecclesiastical as amply fully and effectually to all intents and purposes as the said Archbishop himself might have done And We do hereby Command you and every of you to attend perform and execute this Our Royal Pleasure in and touching the premisses until We shall declare Our Will and Pleasure to the contrary And We do further hereby Will and Command the said Archbishop of Canterbury quietly and without interruption to permit and suffer you the said George Bishop of London Richard Bishop of Durham John Bishop of Rochester John Bishop of Oxford and William Bishop of Bathe and Wells any four thrée or two of you to execute and perform this Our Commission according to Our Royal Pleasure thereby signified And We do further Will
his person that the body of a man was not liable to be arrested or imprisoned for any other Cause at the Common-Law but for force and things done against the Peace For the Common-Law being the preserver of the Land so abhorreth force that those that commit it she accounteth her capital Enemies and therefore did subject their bodies to imprisonment But by the Statute of Marlebridge cap. 24. which was made 35 H. 3. who was the eighth King from the Conquest because Bailiffs would not render accompts to their Lords it was enacted that their bodies should be attatched And after by the Stat 23 E. 3.17 who was the eleventh King after the Conquest because men made no conscience to pay their Debts it was enacted that their bodies should likewise be attached But before those Statutes no mans body was subject to be taken or imprisoned otherwise then as aforesaid whereby it is evident how much the Common-Law favored the Liberty of the Subject and protected his body from imprisonment Here he enforced the Reason by a Rule in Law and mentioned some Cases in Law upon that rule and so proceeded to a second Reason drawn by an Argument à majore ad minus I frame it thus said he If the King have no absolute power over our Lands or Goods then à fortiori not over our Persons to imprison them without declaring the cause for our persons are much more worth then either Lands or Goods which is proved by what I have said already And Christ himself makes it clear where he saith An non est corpus supra vestimentum Is not the Body of more worth then the Raiment Nay I may well say that almost every leaf and page of all the Volumes of our Common-Law prove this right of Propriety this distinction of meum and tuum as well between King and Subject as one Subject and another And therefore my conclusion follows that if the Prerogative extend not neither to Lands nor to Goods then à fortiori not to the Person which is more worth then either Lands or Goods as I said And yet I agree that by the very Law of Nature service of the Person of the Subject is due to his Soveraign but this must be in such things which â—re not against the Law of Nature but to have the body imprisoned without any cause declared and so to become in bondage I am sure is contrary unto and against the Law of Nature and therefore not to be inforced by the Soveraign upon his Subjects 3. My next Reason is drawn ab inutili incommodo for the Statute de frangentibus prisonám made 1 E. 2. is Quod nullus qui prisonam fregerit subeat judicium vitae vel membrorum pro fractione prisonae tantum nisi causa pro qua captus imprisonetur tale judicium requirat whence this conclusion is clearly gathered that if a man be committed to prison without declaring what cause and then if either Malefactor do break the Prison or the Gaoler suffer him to escape albeit the Prisoner so escaping had committed crimen laesae Majestatis yet neither the Gaoler nor any other that procured his escape by the Law suffer any corporal punishment for setting him at large which if admitted might prove in consequence a matter of great danger to the Commonwealth 4. My next Reason is drawn ab regis honore from that great Honor the Law doth attribute unto Soveraign Majesty and therefore the rule of Law is that Solum Rex hoc non potest facere quod non potest justè agere And Hussey chief Justice 1 H. 7. saith that Sir Iohn Markham told King E. 4. he could not arrest a man either for Treason or Felony as a Subject might because that if the King did wrong the party could not have an Action against him and if the Kings Writ under his Great-Seal cannot imprison the Subject unless it contains the cause shall then the Kings Warrant otherwise do it without containing the cause that his Judge upon the return thereof may likewise judge of the same But I will conclude with that which I finde reported of Sir Iohn Davis who was the Kings Serjeant and so by the duty of his place would no doubt maintain to his uttermost the Prerogatives of the King his Royal Master And yet it was by him thus said in those Reports of his upon the Case of Tavistry-Customs That the Kings of England alwayes have had a Monarchy Royal and not a Monarchy Seignoral where under the first saith he The Subjects are Freemen and have Propriety in their Goods and Free-hold and Inheritance in their Lands But under the later they are as Villains and Slaves and have propriety in nothing And therefore said he When a Royal Monarch makes a new conquest yet if he receives any of the Nations ancient Inhabitants into his Protection they and their heirs after them shall enjoy their Lands and Liberties according to the Law And there he vouched this President and Judgment following given before William the Conqueror viz. That one Sherborn a Saxon at the time of the Conquest being owner of a Castle and Lands in Norfolk the Conqueror gave the same to one Warren a Norman and Sherborn dying the heir claiming the same by discent according to the Law it was before the Conqueror himself adjudged for the heir and that the gift thereof by the Conqueror was void Upon this and other Arguments made in this Case of the Habeas Corpus the House referred the whole Business to a Committee to examine all the Proceeding Concerning which Mr Selden afterward made report to the House that Mr Waterhouse a Clerk in the Crown Office being examined before the Committee did confess that by direction from Sir Robert Heath the Kings Attorney-General he did write the draught of a Judgement in the Case before mentioned which was delivered to Mr Attorney And Mr Keeling being examined before the Committee did confess that after Mich Tâ—â—m last the Attorney General wished him to make a special Entry of 〈◊〉 Habeas Corpus To which he answered he knew no special Entry in those Cases but onely a remittitur But said to Mr Attorney that if he pleased to draw one and the Court afterwards assent to it he would then enter it The Attorney did accordingly make a draught and the Copy thereof Mr Keeling produced to the Committee And further said that he carried this draught to the Judges but they would not assent to a special Entry Nevertheless the At. General divers times sent to him and told him there was no remedy but he must enter it Yet a week before the Parliament the Att. General called for the draught again which accordingly he gave unto him and never heard of it more Sir Robert Philips upon this Report gave his opinion That this intended Judgement in the Habeas Corpus was a draught made by some man that desired to strike us all from our Liberties but
unto the said Information the benefit whereof was by order of the Court reserved unto the Defendant to be debated and considered of at the hearing of this cause and of divers other matters now urged for the Defendant both to have justified his the said Defendants attendance in Parliament and his not residence in person in the County whereof he was then Sheriff and amongst other things that it properly belonged to the house of Parliament to judge of the justness or unjustness of the said Election and upon grave and mature consideration thereof had and taken by the Court their Lordships did not onely conceive the said Demurrer and Plea and other the Arguments and Reasons used by the Defendant and his Council to be of no weight or strength but also to be in opposition and derogation of the Jurisdiction of the Court the reasons moved and urged for the Defendants excuse or justification being clearly answered and the charges of the Information made good by Mr. Atturney General and others of his Majesties Counsel learned And therefore the whole Court were clear of opinion and did so declare That the said Defendant who at that time as high Sheriff had the custody and charge of the County of Wilts committed unto him by his Majesty and had taken his Oath according to the Law to abide in his proper person within his Bayliffwick during all the time of his Sheriffwick as aforesaid and whose trust and imployment did require his personal attendance in the said Countie had not onely committed a great offence in violating the said Oath so by him taken but also a great misdemeanor in breach of the trust committed unto him by his Majesty and in contempt of his Majesties pleasure signified unto him by and under his Highness great Seal when he granted unto him the said Office of Sheriffwick aforesaid For which said several great Offences in breach of his said Oath neglect of the trust and duty of his Office and the great and high contempt of his Majesty their Lordships did hold the said Defendant worthy the sentence of the Court the rather to the end that by this example the Sheriffs of all other Counties may be deterred from committing the like offences hereafter and may take notice that their personal residence and attendance is required within their Bayliffwicks during the time of their Sheriffwick The Court therefore thought fit ordered adjudged and decreed That the said Defendant should stand and be committed to the prison of the Tower there to remain during his Majesties pleasure and also pay a Fine of two thousand Marks to his Majesties use and further make his humble submission and acknowledgement of his offence both in the Court of Star-Chamber and to his Majesty before his thence enlargment The same Term Mr. Mason argued in the kings Bench for Sir Iohn Elliot against the Information preferred against him amongst others by Sir Robert Heath the kings Atturney General and the same day the Atturney General argued in maintenance of the said Information the Judges also the same day spake briefly to the Case and agreed with one Voyce That the Court as this Case is shall have Jurisdiction although that these offences were committed in Parliament and that the imprisoned Members ought to answer Iones began and said That though this Question be now newly moved yet it is an ancient Question with him for it had been in his thoughts these eighteen yeers For this Information there are three Questions in it 1. Whether the matters informed be true or false and this ought to be determined by Iury or Demurrer 2. When the matters of the Information are found or confessed to be true if the Information be good in substance 3. Admit that the offences are truly charged if this Court hath power to punish them and that is the sole Question of this day And it seems to me that of these offences although committed in Parliament this Court shall have jurisdiction to punish them The Plea of the Defendents here to the jurisdiction being concluded with a Demurrer is not peremptory unto them although it be adjudged against them but if the Plea be pleaded to the jurisdiction which is found against the Defendant by verdict this is peremptory In the discussion of this point I decline these Questions 1. If the matter be voted in Parliament when it is finished it can be punished and examined in another Court 2. If the matter be commenced in Parliament and that ended if afterward it may be Questioned in another Court I question not these Matters but I hold That an Offence committed criminally in Parliament may be questioned elsewhere as in this Court and that for these Reasons First Quia interest Reipublicae ut malesicia non maneant impunita and there ought to be a fresh punishment of them Parliaments are called at the Kings pleasure and the King is not compellible to call his Parliament and if before the next Parliament the party offending or the witnesses die then there will be a â—ayler of Justice Secondly The Parliament is no constant Court every Parliament mostly consists of several men and by consequence they cannot take notice of matters done in the foregoing Parliament and there they do not examine by oath unless it be in Chancery as it is used of late time Thirdly The Parliament cannot send Process to make the offenders to appear at the next Parliament and being at large if they hear a noise of a Parliament they will fugam facere and so prevent their punishment Fourthly Put the case that one of the Defendants be made a Baron of Parliament now he cannot be punished in the House of Commons and so he shall be unpunished It hath been objected That the Parliament is the Superior Court to this therefore this Court cannot examine their proceedings To this I say That this Court of the Kings Bench is a higher Court then the Justices of Oyer and Terminer or the Justices of Assize But if an offence be done where the Kings Bench is after it is removed this offence may be examined by the Justices of Oyer and Terminer or by the Justices of Assize We cannot Question the Judgments of Parliaments but their particular offences 2. Obj. It is a Priviledge of Parliament whereof we are not competent Iudges To this I say That Privilegium est privata lex privat legem And this ought to be by grant prescription in Parliament and then it ought to be pleaded for the manner as is 33 Hen. 8 Dy. as it is not here pleaded Also we are Judges of all Acts of Parliament as 4 Hen. 7. Ordinance made by the King and Commons is not good and we are Judges what shall be said a Session of Parliament as it is in Plowden in Patridges Case We are Judges of their lives and lands therefore of their Liberties And 8 Eliz. which was cited by Mr. Atturney it was the opinion of Dyer Oatlyn Welsh Brown
real from things fictitious or imaginary Whereof I shall not at all repent if I may but prove an ordinary Instrument to undeceive those that come after us If you demand why my Collections commence so early and start at such a distance of time so remote I must answer That it was at first in my purpose to begin with the Parliament which met Nov. 3. 1640. But after I had perused ordered and compared my Printed and Manuscript-Relations of the First Year of that Parliament I found they pointed at and were bottomed upon some Actions of the late King in dissolving four preceding Parliaments And thereupon the zeal I had to clear the truth of the Differences between the King and Parliament forced me to a longer Adventure especially seeing the Essay had been very imperfect and but a meer fragment if I had only writ the Death and not the Life of a Prince who in the first Speech that ever he made in his first Parliament did reflect upon some passages in a former Parliament that advised his Father to break off the two Treaties with Spain touching a Marriage and Restitution of the Palatinate and so engaged the Father in a War which the Son was by him left to prosecute And this Consideration put me upon a further enquiry concerning the aforesaid Treaties the causes and grounds of the War in the Palatinate and how far the same concerned England and the oppressed Protestants in Germany And finding those proceedings to have their rise in the Year 1618. in which Year the Blazing-Star appeared I resolved that very Instant should be the Ne plus ultra of my Retrospect I allow and accept it as a good Memento which I meet with in a late Author That most Writers now adays appear in Publique not crook-backed as it is reported of the Iews but crook-sided warped and bowed to the right or to the left For I have heartily studied to declare my self unbiassed and to give an instance That it is possible for an Ingenuous man to be of a Party and yet not partial If any one engaged on the King's side come forth in Print with the like moderation fairness and indifferencie without heat and personal reflections our Posterity may be confident of a full discovery of Truth which is every honest mans desire and expectation And besides the Vertues and Reasons of men concerned may shine and give satisfaction even to those who are not of the same Judgment I pretend onely in this Work to a bare Narrative of matter of Fact digested in order of time not interposing my own Opinion or interpretation of Actions I infuse neither vinegar nor gall into my Ink If I mention a Charge or Impeachment it relates also to the Defence that was made by the Accused And though in these latter times Titles Names and Dignities are altered yet I use the Language of that Time of which I write speaking as the then Parliaments spake and not robbing any man of the Honor or Epithite which they then pleased to give him If I speak of any transactions which I my self did not see or hear I do so with all the caution imaginable having first consulted Records conferred with Persons of unquestionable esteem interessed in the very actions or perused their known hand-writings of those times and where I make mention of any Letters or Passages scattered in print I first well weighed the same and out of whose Closets they came and found many of them concredited before I inserted them And lastly where I doubted I perfected my Intelligence by Forein correspondencies fetching my satisfaction in divers particulars out of Germany Spain and Italy Here you will have an intermixture of Secrets of State useful for States-men and of matters of Law which may be of some use not only to the Professors of it but to every Englishman for though few profess the Law yet all live by it for it hedges in and upholds the Rights Liberties and Properties The matters of Law are not all bound up in one bundle but you will finde them dispersed in interlocutory Speeches and Discourses some of them in Historical Narrations and lastly in Polemical Debates and Arguments taken by a Gentleman then a young Student of the Law which you will finde in an Appendix placed at the end of the Book and I hope the Reader will not think his minutes ill bestowed in reading of them though out of place A great part of the Work is filled up with remarkable Transactions in Parliament and the Course and Proceedings thereof wherein you will finde not onely great wit and wisdom but choice Eloquence and excellent Orators Diggs Wentworth Phillips Elliot Glanvile and others not much inferior to the Roman Demagogue I durst not presume to contract them to an Epitomie or Abridgement lest by essaying that I might trespass too much upon the Soil of other mens Inventions and Judgements or prejudice Truth or the Persons whose natural Off-springs they are Here you have Debates Siftings and Consultations of each House apart and also by Conferences each with other Alterius sic Altera poscit opem Domus consultat amicè and Resolutions of Parliaments and some Laws which were the ultimate productions of these Councels and Debates I have but a word to say to my good and worthy Friends of the Army and it must be by way of Apology that this Treatise contains not what may be expected by them from me the Relation of the Motions Actions and Atchievements of the Army which I acknowledge was the first thing in my thoughts and intentions But upon further consideration I thought it necessary to look somewhat backwards that we may the better understand the Causes and Grounds which brought the late War upon us before we set forth the Actions of the War In the former we may see the vigilancy and care of our Ancestors to secure and uphold our Liberties and Properties and to transmit the same in as much purity as might be to their Posterity in the latter which are the Actions of the War you shall see their Courage and Magnanimity setting a higher value upon the Rights and Liberties of the Nation then upon their own Lives Whom therefore when I come in order of time to mention and shall also have occasion to magnifie for their perseverance in maintaining and defending those Laws and Liberties so redeemed with the price of their blood against Arbitrary wayes and courses how joyfull shall I be to employ my Pen to Chronicle such of their Names to Posterity who justly merit that Character as worthy of Double Honor. In the second Part of my Collections which is to follow according to the entertainment which this findes abroad I shall write with the more confidence because I did personally attend and observe all Occurrences of moment during the Eleven years Interval of Parliament in the Star-Chamber Court of Honor and Exchequer-Chamber when all the Judges of England met there upon extraordinary
the Council That both the English and Dutch Ships designed to block up Dunkirk whilst our Fleet was gone to Spain were dispersed by a sudden storm and that Two and twenty Ships of Dunkirk Men of War having Four thousand Land-soldiers were at liberty to rove up and down and do mischief at Sea Hereupon the Council by their Letters to the Lords Lieutenants of the Counties upon the Seacoasts required that the Trained-Bands be in readiness with compleat Armor and other Furniture to march upon all Alarms to what place soever the necessary defence thereof shall require Also upon intelligence that these Two and Twenty Dunkirkers intended to land their Four thousand men in Ireland in case their design failed as to England Letters were expedited to the Lord Deputy of Ireland to guard those Sea-coasts for that it were alike mischievous if they should land in either Kingdom In the beginning of October the Fleet consisting of Eighty Ships great and small the Anne-Royal a Ship of Twelve hundred Tun being Admiral put forth from Plimouth for the Coasts of Spain with these Regiments aboard the Fleet according as we find it mentioned in an old List viz. The Duke of Buckingham's The Lord Wimbleton's Sir William St. Leger's Serjeant-Major-General and Colonel Burrough's Regiments were shipped in the Admirals Squadron which carried 2093 Seamen and 4032 Land-soldiers The Lord Valentia's Regiment The Earl of Essex's and Colonel Harwood's were shipped in the Vice-Admirals Squadron carrying 1765 Seamen and 3008 Land-soldiers The Earl of Essex was Vice-Admiral and commanded this Squadron Sir Charls Rich his Regiment Sir Edward Conway's and Colonel Regiments were shipped in the Rear-Admirals Squadron carrying 1833 Mariners 2998 Soldiers The Fleet after four days sail was encountred with a furious storm which so dissipated the Ships that of Fourscore no less then Fifty were missing for seven days Afterwards they all came together upon the Coasts of Spain where they found a Conquest ready the Spanish Shipping in the Bay of Cadez the taking whereof was granted feasible and easie and would have satisfied the Voyage both in point of honor and profit This was either neglected or attempted preposterously Then the Army landed and Sir Iohn Burroughs took a Fort from the Spaniard but the Soldiers finding good store of Spanish Wines abused themselves and hazarded the ruine of all had the Enemy known in what condition they were notwithstanding all Commands to the contrary So they were presently shipp'd again and the General putting to Sea intended to wait about Twenty days for the Plate-Fleet which was daily expected from the West-Indies But the evil condition of his Men by reason of a general Contagion enforced him to abandon the hopes of this great Prize So the English having effected nothing returned home with dishonor in November following It gave no small occasion of clamor That a Fleet so well provided and manned should land their men in an Enemies Country and return without some honorable Action But where the fault lay hath not been yet adjudged neither was any ever punished for failing in that duty The General for some time was not admitted into the Kings presence and some of the Colonels of his Army accused him and some Seamen aggravated the Accusation The General was examined before the Council and laid the fault on others in the Fleet who let the King of Spain's Ships pass without fighting them according to Order They on the other hand said they had no Order from their General to fight Thus was there fending and proving which contributed little to salve the dishonor which the Nation sustained by this unprofitable and ill-managed Design Upon the Fleets return to Plimouth in December and Consideration of the present use of the Soldiers therein imployed a Proclamation issued forth to command that no Soldiers of the Fleet should depart from their Colours or be discharged of their Service till the King shall signifie his pleasure how and when he will use their further Service So the Forces that returned from Cades were kept on foot and dispersed into several parts of the Kingdom There was also a strict Commandment That no Subject of this Realm of England shall have intercourse of Trade with any of the Dominions of the King of Spain or the Arch-Dutches of Flanders upon pain of Confiscation both of Ships and Goods that shall be found upon Voyage of Trade into any of the said Dominions Moreover in regard of the Subjects apparent danger and the encouragement of the Enemies of this State by putting Ships to Sea being weakly manned and ill furnished the King ordained that none should set forth any Ship or Pinnace of the burthen of Threescore Tuns or upwards unless they furnish the same with serviceable Muskets and Bandaliers sufficient for the arming of half the number of persons that sail therein together with a quantity of Ammunition answerable to the length of their intended Voyage Furthermore for the instructing and exercising of the Trained-Bands as well Officers as Soldiers by men experienced in Military Exercises The King gave Commandment that divers Low-Countrey Soldiers should be assigned to the several Counties and that the Trained-Bands should be ready at the times appointed for their Direction in their Postures and use of Arms. The Plague still continuing in London and Westminster and the places near adjoyning the King to prevent a general infection had adjourned a part of Michaelmas Term from the Utas thereof to the Fourth Return and afterwards to the Fifth and then the residue of the Term from the City of Westminster as also the Receipt of the Revenue from Richmond to the Town of Reading in Berkshire In which Term a Commission issued forth under the Great Seal for executing the Laws against Recusants according to the Petition of the late Parliament which was read in all the Courts of Judicature at Reading Which Commission together with Pricking of Sir Edward Cook and certain other Gentlemen Sheriffs who had appeared the last Parliament against the Duke and being Sheriffs could not be chosen Parliament-men gave occasion of discourse and hopes of a new Parliament At Hampton Court in December following this ensuing Order was made WHereas Four Articles concerning the Oath used to be taken by the High Sheriffs of Counties were this day presented unto the Board unto which Articles Sir Edward Cook Knight at this present High Sheriff of the County of Bucks Did upon tender of the Oath unto him take Exceptions and sent his Exceptions and the Reasons thereof in writing to Mr. Attorny General who by direction of the Board did attend all the Iudges of England to receive their Advice thereupon and the said Iudges having advised thereof did with one unanimous consent Resolve and so Report to the Lord Keeper That they found no cause to alter the said Oath but onely in one of the said Articles hereafter mentioned It is thereupon this day Ordered by their
of imprisoning of him by Warrants only under his own hand for which he cannot as the Earl conceiveth produce any sufficient Warrant IV. That by the space of Twelve moneths last past the said Lord Conway hath been the Cause of the Earls restraint only by misinforming his Majesty and procuring a Letter of restraint upon undue grounds And when it was made apparent unto him that the said Earl was restored to his liberty freely to follow his own affairs by his late Majesty of blessed memory he replied That that liberty given him by his Majesty expired with the Kings death V. That the Earl of Bristols Mother lying sick upon her death-bed desired for her comfort to see her Son and to give him her last blessing Whereupon the Earl wrote to the Lord Conway to desire him to move the King for his leave which he putting off from day to day told the person imployed That by reason of the Dukes sickness he could not find opportunity to get the Dukes leave to move the King And having spoken with the Duke he made a Negative answer in the Kings name Wherewith the Earl acquainting the King by some of his Bedchamber his Majesty was in a very great anger swearing the Secretary had never moved him and that to deny the said Earl leave was a barbarous part and thereupon sent him presently free leave which the Secretary hearing of sent likewise afterwards a Letter of leave but with divers clauses and limitations differing from the leave sent him from the Kings own mouth VI. That having the businesses of the Earl of Bristols in his hands and the Earl being commanded by the King to address himself in his occasions unto his Lordship He would never deliver any Message from the said Earl without acquainting the said Duke and receiving his directions and in a noble manner of freeness stuck not to send him word VII That the Earl of Bristol having received from the Lord Conway Twenty Interrogatories in his late Majesties name drawn up by a Commission of the Lords appointed to search into the Proceedings and Imploiments of the said Earl in which search there was more then two moneths spent divers of the said Interrogatories involving Felony and Teason And his Majesty having been pleased to assure the said Earl both by Message and Letters that upon satisfaction given to himself and the Commissioners by his Answers he would presently put an end to the Earl of Bristol's Businesse The Earl of Bristol having so fully answered as would admit of no reply and that many of the Commissioners declared themseves to be fully satisfied The said Lord Conway being the Secretary in the Commission to whom it properly belonged to call the Lords to assemble perceiving the Earl of Bristol was like to be cleared never moved for any further meeting neither have they ever been permitted to meet until this day whereby the troubles of the Earl of Bristol have been kept on foot till this present and the said Earls Imprisonment hath been enlarged Twenty moneths And by the Artifices of the said Duke of Buckingham and the said Lord Conway as shall be made appear the said Earl hath been insensibly involved and stauked into the troubles he is now in which he doubteth not but your Lordships will judge to be a very considerable Case VIII That for a colour of keeping the Earl from his late Majesties presence it being pretended after the Answer to the twenty Interrogatories that there were some few Questions more to be added whereunto when he should have answered his Majesty swore solemnly that without any delay he should be admitted to his presence and that within two or three dayes he should have the said Questions sent unto him the Lord Conway notwithstanding he acknowledged under his hand that he had received his Majesties directions for the sending of the said Articles and was often thereunto sollicited on the behalf of the said Earl would never send the said Questions and at last answered That he had no more to do with the Earls businesses IX That the Earl of Bristol being set free by his late Majesty to come to London to follow his own Affairs as he pleased and thereupon having his Writ of Parliament sent unto him without any Letter of Prohibition but the Earl of Bristol out of his great desire to conform all his actions to that which he should understand would best please his Majesty sent to know whether his going or stay would be most agreeable unto his Majesty who was pleased to answer by a Letter from my Lord Duke of Buckingham That he took in veâ—â— good part the said Earls respect unto him but wished him to make some excuse for the present The which accordingly he did and moved That he might have a Letter under the Kings hand to warrant his absence but under colour of this Letter of leave upon the Earl of Bristol's own motion and desire the Lord Conway sent a Letter from his Majesty absolutely forbidding his coming to Parliament and therein likewise was inserted a Clause That the Earl should remain restrained as he was in the time of his late Majesty and so thereby a colour of restraint under his Majesties hand was gotten which could never be procured in his late Majesties time whereby the Earl of Bristol hath been unduly restrained ever since without being able to procure any redress or to make the Lord Conway willing to understand his Case although he sent him all the Papers whereby he might clearly see that the Earl was not under restraint in his late Majesties time but never other Answer could be procured from him but That he judged the said Earl to be under restraint and that his Liberty was expired by the late Kings death as is aforesaid X. That the Lord Conway knowing that the Match for the marrying of the King of Bohemia's eldest Son with the Emperors Daughter and being bred in the Emperors Court was allowed and propounded by his late Majesty And that his Majesty by his Letters unto his Son-in-law declareth That he thinketh it the fairest and clearest way for the accommodation of his Affairs and that he will take sufficient care for his breeding in true Religion And notwithstanding that the said Earl received a Copy of the said Letter by the late Kings order with other Papers setting down all that had been done in the said business and his Majesties assent thereunto from the Lord Conway himself yet hath he suffered all to be charged as a crime against the Earl of Bristol both in the twentieth Interrogatory and in his Majesties last Letter that he should consent to the breeding of the young Prince in the Emperors Court And further in the Interogatory he alledgeth it as an aggravation against the said Earl That the breeding of the said Prince in the Emperors Court inferred to the perversion of his Religion when he knew that his said breeding was never thought nor spoken of by the
King nor any other but with that express Clause and Condition That he should be bred in his own Religion and have such Tutors and Servants as his Father should appoint XI That the Lord Conway hath been the cause of all the Earl of Bristol's Troubles by his dubious and intrapping Dispatches and inâ—erring That the said Earl hath failed in his Directions when it shall be made appear that his Dispatches contained no such Directions as he hath alledged were given The House not being satisfied to commit the Earl to the Tower let him remain where he was before with the Gentleman Usher and further ordered That the Kings Charge against the Earl of Bristol be first heard and then the Charge of the said Earl against the Duke yet so that the Earls Testimony against the Duke be not prevented prejudiced or impeached The day following the Lord Keeper delivered a Message from the King to the House of Lords THat his Majesty taketh notice of the Articles exhibited against the Duke of Buckingham by the Earl of Bristol and he observeth that many of them are such as himself is able to say more of his own knowledge then any man for the Dukes sincere carriage in them That one of them touching the Narrative made in Parliament in the One and twentieth of King Iames trencheth as far upon himself as the Duke for that his Majesty went as far as the Duke in that Declaration and that all of them have been closed in the Earls own breast now for these two years contrary to his Duty if he had known any crime of that nature by the Duke and now he vents it by way of recrimination against the Duke whom he knows to be a principal Witness to prove his Majesties Charge And therefore That his Majesty gave them thanks that they gave no way to the Earl of Bristol's unreasonable motion of putting the Duke under the same restraint that they had put the Earl thereby eschewing what the Earl aimeth at to alter their dutifull Procedings toward his Majesty That thereby they had made his Majesty confident that as they have so they will put a difference between his Majesties Charge against one that appeareth as a Delinquent and the recrimination of the Earl of Bristol against his Majesties Witness and they will not equal them by a proceeding Pari Passu At this time there was an endeavor to take the Earls Cause out of the House and to proceed by way of Indictment in the Kings-Bench To which manner of proceeding why the Lords should not give way these ensuing Reasons were offered to consideration I. IT was ordered That in all Causes of moment the Defendants shall have Copies of all Depositions both pro and contra after publication in convenient time before hearing to prepare themselves and if the Defendants will demand that of the House in due time they shall have their learned Council to assist them in their defence And their Lordships declared That they did give their assents thereto because in all Cases as well Civil as Criminal and Capital they hold That all lawfull help could not before just Judges make one that is guilty avoid Justice and on the other side God defend that an Innocent should be condemned II. The Earl of Bristol by his Petition to the House complained of his restraint desiring to be heard here as well in points of his wrongs as in his accusations against the Duke whereof his Majesty taking consideration signified his pleasure by the Lord Keeper April the 20 That his Majesty was resolved to put his Cause upon the honor and justice of this House and that his pleasure was that the said Earl should be sent for as a Delinquent to answer the offences he committed in his Negotiation before his Majesties going into Spain whilest his Majesty was there and since his coming thence and that his Majesty would cause these things to be charged against him in this House so as the House is fully possessed of the Cause as well by the Earls Petition as by the Kings assent and the Earl brought up to the House as a Delinquent to answer his offences there and Mr. Attorney hath accordingly delivered the Charge against him in the House and the Earl also his Charge against the Duke And now if he be proceeded withal by way of Indictment in the Kings-Bench these dangerous inconveniences will follow viz. 1. He can have no Counsel 2. He can use no Witness against the King 3. He cannot know what the Evidences against him will be in a convenient time to prepare for his Defence and so the Innocent may be condemned which may be the Case of any Peer 4. The Liberties of the House will be thereby infrigned the Honor and Justice thereof declined contrary to the Kings pleasure expresly signified by the Lord Keeper All these things are expresly against the Order 5. The Earl being indicted it will not be in the power of the House to keep him from Arraignment and so he may be disabled to make good his Charge against the Duke Therefore the way to proceed according to the Directions and true meaning of the Order and the Kings pleasure already signified and preserve the Liberties of the House and protect one from injury will be First To have the Charge delivered into the House in writing and the Earl to set down his Answer to it in writing and that the Witnesses may be examined and Evidences on both sides heard by such course and manner of proceedings as shall be thought fit by the House and if upon full hearing the House shall finde it to be Treason then to proceed by way of Indictment if doubtfull in point of Law to have the opinion of the Judges to clear it if doutfull in matter of Fact then to refer it to a regal Fait And the rather for that 1. It appears that the Earl in the space of two years till now he complained hath not been so much as questioned for matter of Treason 2. He hath been examined upon twenty Interrogatories and the Commissioners satisfie that his Answer would admit of no Reply 3. The Lord Conway by several Letters hath intimated That there was nothing against him but what was pardoned by the Parliament Pardon of 21 Iac. And signified his Majesties pleasure That he might rest in that security he was and sit still His Majesty hath often declared both to the Countess of Bristol and others That there was neither Fellony nor Treason against him nor ought else but what a small acknowledgment would expiate Some Cases happened in Parliament 1 2 Caroli wherein the Judges opinions were had viz. THis Question was put to all the Justices Whether a Peer impeached for Treason shall be tried in Parliament And the chief Justice in the name of all the Justices delivered his opinion that the course by Law was Indictment and this to be signified in Parliament before the Lord Steward vide 10
his gracious acceptance of his service as in his Letters of November 24. 1622. written as followeth Viz. Your Dispatches are in all points so full and in them we receive so good satisfaction as in this we shall not need to inlarge any further but onely tell you we are well pleased with this diligent and discreet imployment of your endeavors and all that concerneth our service so are we likewise with the whole proceedings of our Ambassador Sir Walter Aston Thus we bid you heartily farewel Newmarkeâ— Novemb. 24 1622. And afterwards his Majesty was likewise pleased in his Letters of 8 Ianuary 1622. a little before our gracious Soveraign Lord the King then Prince his coming into Spain Viz. as followeth Concerning that knotty and unfortunate Affair of the Palatinate to say the truth as things stand I know not what you could have done more then you have done already And whereas it is objected the Palatinate should be lost by the hopes he the said Earl gave by his Letters out of Spain it is an Objection of impossibility for there was nothing left but Mainheim and Frankendale when his first Letters out of Spain could possibly come to his late Majesties hands for he did not begin to Negotiate that business until August 1622. and about that time Heidelberg and all but Mainheim and Frankendale was lost and Mainheim he had saved by his industry had it not been so suddenly delivered as is by his Majesty acknowledged by Letters of 24 November 1622. written thus Viz. And howsoever the Order given to the Infanta for the relief of Mainheim arrived too late and after the Town was yielded to Tilly yet must we acknowledge it to be a good effect of your Negotiation and an Argument of that Kings sincere and sound intention And Frankendale being by the said Earls means once saved was again the second time saved meerly by the said Earls industry and procuring a Letter from the King of Spain dated the second of February 1623. whereupon followed the Treaty of Sequestration which hath since continued And he the said Earl was so far from hindring Succors by any Letter or Counsel of his that he was the Sollicitor and in great part the procurer of most of the Succors that had been sent thither as is formerly set down And when his Royal Majesty that now is and the Duke of Buckingham arrived at the Court of Spain they found the Business of the Palatinate in so fair a way that the Spanish Ministers told them the King should give his late Majesty a Blank in which we might frame our own Conditions and the same he confirmeth unto us now and the like touching this Blank was likewise acknowledged by the Duke of Buckingham in his Speech in Parliament after the return of his Majesty out of Spain And it will appear by the Testimony of Sir Walter Aston and by his and the said Earls Dispatches that the said Earl wanted not industry and zeal in the business insomuch as the last Answer the said Earl procured herein from the King of Spain was fuller then he the said Earl was ordered by his late Majesties latest Letters to insist upon So as by that which hath been alledged the said Earl hopeth your Lordships will be satisfied not onely that he wanted neither will nor industry but that he hath with all true zeal and affection and with his own means faithfully served their Majesties and the Prince Palatine in this Cause And for assurance in that Affair he had all that could be between Christian Princes and if in the said Assurances there hath been any deceit as by the said Article is intimated which he never knew nor believed he referred it to God to punish their wickedness For betwixt Princes there can be no greater Tye then their Words their Hands and Seals all which he procured in that behalf and both the said Earl and Sir Walter Aston were so confident that the business would be ended to his late Majesties satisfaction that in a joynt Dispatch to his late Majesty of 24 November 1623. after his now Majesties return into England they wrote as followeth Viz. We hope that your Majesty may according to your desire signified to me the Earl of Bristol by the Letters of October 8 give to your Majesties Royal Daughter this Christmas the comfortable news of the near expiring of her great troubles and sufferings as unto the Prince your Son the congratulation of being arrived to a most excellent Princess And having thus given your Lordships an Accompt of his Proceedings touching the Palatinate he will by your Lordships good favors proceed to the other part of that Charge concerning the Marriage And first touching his hopes and assurances that he is charged to have given to his late Majesty and Ministers of State here in England of the Spaniards real proceedings in the said Match when he said he knew they never meant it He saith he never gave any hopes of their proceedings but such and the very same that were first given to him without adding or diminishing neither could he have done otherwise either with honesty or safety And he further saith That the hopes he gave were not upon any Intelligence but as well in that of the Match as the other of the Palatinate his Advertisements were grounded upon all the Assurances both of Words and Writing that could possibly pass between Christians as will be made evidently appear by his Dispatch of 9 September 1623 which he humbly desires may be read if the length of it may not displease The substance being to shew all the Engagements and Promises of the King of Spain that he really intended the Match And the causes why the Conde Olivares pretended to the Duke of Buckingham that the Match was not formerly meant was onely thereby to free himself from Treating any longer with the said Earl to the end that he might treat for larger Conditions in point of Religion with the said Duke The said Conde Olivares taking advantage of having the Person of his Majesty then Prince in his hands And with this Dispatch the said Earl acquainted his Majesty that now is in Spain before he sent it And by this Dispatch the Earl doubteth not but that it will appear to this Honorable Court that whilest the Treating of this business was in hand he proceeded in that not onely with care and industry but with some measure of vigilancy And for clearing an Objection that hath been alleadged that the Match was never meant before the Dukes coming into Spain nor after the Earl craveth leave to set down some few Reasons of many which caused him to believe that the said Match was and had been really meant and that it was so conceived by both their Majesties and the King of Spain and their Ministers on both sides For first The Duke of Buckingham certified his late Majesty that the business of the Marriage was brought to a happy Conclusion whereupon
his late Majesty was pleased to give order to the Duke and Earl to proceed in the Business which his said Majesty would not have Treated till the said Marriage was concluded as will appear by a Letter of his said late Majesty joyntly to the Duke of Buckingham and the said Earl of the 23 Iuly 1623. Secondly It will appear by Letters of the said Lord Conway to the Duke of Buckingham bearing date September 4. 1623. That the said Duke had good assurance of the Conclusion of the said Match and upon this confidence were all things put in due execution in England as had been Capitulated And the Lord Conway and others faithfully agreed and setled all the Points of Immunity and Liberty for the Roman Catholicks for the use of their Religion as was set down in the Declaration August 9. 1623. hereafter mentioned in the Answers to the Fifth Article of this Charge Thirdly the very day his now Majesty and the Duke of Buckingham departed from the Escurial in Spain towards England the said Duke solemnly swore the Treaty of the said Marriage and the furtherance of it all that should be in his power upon the holy Evangelists in the presence of the said Earl and Sir Walter Aston Fourthly The Treaty of the said Marriage had been formerly signed sealed and solemnly sworne by the King of Spain And when his Majesty and that King took their leaves he did solemnly in the words of a King faithfully and punctually protest to perform all that had been capitulated in the Treaty of Marriage and thereupon imbraced his Majesty at his departure and sent the very next day a Letter written all with his own hand to his Majesty vowing and protesting to make all good that he had capitulated or promised unto his Majesty at his departure the day before So that if there were no true meaning on the part of Spain to make the Marriage as by Mr. Attorney is pretended yet certainly the Earl hath not been sleightly deceived neither can it be as he conceiveth any fault in him since not only his late Majesty but also his Majesty that now is and the Duke of Buckingham being then both upon the place did confidently believe and that upon other grounds then misinformations suggestions and perswasions of the said Earl that the Marriage was really intended And to that effect both his late Majesty of blessed memory and his most Excellent Majesty that now is after his return into England wrote unto him the said Earl several Letters assuring him that their intents and pleasures were to have the said Match proceeded in and thereupon the Proxies of his Majesty then Prince were again inrolled and sent unto the said Earl So that the said Earl having so many and so great causes to be assured that the Match was really intended on both sides he conceiveth it will be hard for Mr. Attorney to make good that part of his Charge wherein he affirmeth that the Earl should know the contrary or the Assurance to be upon false grounds as in the said Article is alleadged II. To the Second Article He directly denieth all the supposed Offences wherewith he stands charged by the said Article And for a clear declaration and manifestation of the truth and manner of his proceedings He saith First as to the continuing the Treaties upon Generalities That the Temporal Articles were by Agreements on both sides not to be treated or setled until such time as the Articles of Religion were fully agreed on For that it was held most proper and honorable for both sides first to see if the Difficulty of Religion might be removed before they passed to any further Engagements And the said Articles of Religion by reason of the Popes new Demands sent into England by Mr. Gage were not signed nor condescended unto by his late Majesty nor his Majesty that now is then Prince until Ian. 5. 1622. and were then sent away in Post out of England to the said Earl by Mr. Simon Digby who arrived with them at Madrid in Spain about the 25. of the same moneth But the Earls care was such to have no time spent in the setling of the Temporal Articles that before he would condescend so much as de bene esse unto the Articles of Religion that they should be sent back to Rome he procured the King of Spain to promise That within the time limited for procuring the Desponsories which was by March or April following the furthest all the Temporal Articles should be setled and agreed to the end that the Infanta might be delivered at the Spring as by the King of Spain his Answer in writing was declared to be the Kings intention And accordingly Sir Walter Aston and the said Earl did not deal in general but did most industriously labor to settle all in particular viz. That the Portion should be Two Millions it appearing that it was so agreed by the late King of Spain That the Dispensation coming the Desponsories should be within Forty days after And that Don Duarte de Portugal should be the man that should attend the Infanta in the Journey And all other Particulars necessary for the Conclusion of the said Treaties were by Sir Walter Aston and the said Earl and the Spanish Commissioners drawn up into heads in writing and after many Debates they were consulted with that King and 2 Martii 1623. stilo vet the Conde Gondomar and the Secretary Don Andreas de Prada were appointed to come home to the house of the said Earl to signifie unto Sir Walter Aston and himself as they did That the King of Spain had declared his resolution in all the Particulars and given them order to come to a speedy Conclusion with them in all things And that Kings Answer to that Conclusion the Earl saw and read all written with the King of Spain's own hand On the seventh day of the said moneth of March 1623. the Kings Majesty then Prince and the Duke of Buckingham arrived at Madrid And then the Spaniards took new laws and the Negotiation was put into a new form So that whereas it is objected against the Earl that he entertained and continued the Treaties so long upon Generalities He conceives it is not meant upon the Spiritual Articles for they were such as were sent from Rome into England and from thence they came to the Earl And for the Temporal Articles they were not to be setled and treated till the Articles of Religion were concluded He conceiveth it cannot be alleadged with any colour that his Majesty was entertained with Generalities since the time that the said Articles of Religion were brought unto the said Earl by Mr. Simon Digby being about the 25. of Ianuary There were but six weeks until March 7. following when his Majesty then Prince arrived in Madrid and in the interim all the above-mentioned Particulars were setled And the time that hath been spent in this Treaty hath not been through his the said Earls
but other Motives that were the original cause of his Majesties said journey as shall be sufficiently made apparent in due time And the said Earl having got an inkling of it by something that was let fall from the Conde Gondomar to that purpose instantly dispatched away Mr. Grisley to his late Majesty to have this journey prevented who upon the Confines of France met with his Majesty and the Duke of Buckingham on his journey towards Spain and told them as much So that although he confesseth what is laid in the Charge to be true viz. That by the said journey the person of the Prince the peace and safety of the Kingdom did undergo further danger at the remembrance thereof the hearts of all good Subjects do tremble yet the blame is due to the Authors and Advisers of the same journey and not to the said Earl And although it pleased God to the exceeding great joy and comfort of the said Earl and of all good men to send his gratious Majesty home with safety yet never was the person of any Prince upon such grounds exposed to so great an hazard and in such Cases not the Success but the Counsellors are considerable VII To the Seventh Article the said Earl saith That he did not move or perswade his Majesty then Prince to change his Religion neither in the manner in the said Article mentioned nor in any other manner whatsoever Neither doth he conceive that the charge in it self as it is laid will in any reasonable construction bear any such inference as is made therein so as he conceiveth he needeth not make any further or other Answer thereunto Yet that it may appear that the manner he used to the said Prince was not traiterously falsly or cunningly nor without ground or to any such intent as in the said Article is supposed And to manifest unto this most high and honorable Court how far he was from all such intention he saith That he doth acknowledge that within few days after his Majesties coming into Spain whilst he had that great honor to have his Majesty lodged in his House and to have so Royal a Guest finding by the Spanish Ministers That there was a general opinion that his Majesties coming thither was with an intention to become a Roman Catholick and the Conde Gondomar having that very morning pressed the Earl not to hinder so pious a work as he termed it of his Majesties Conversion and seeming to be assured of the Duke of Buckinghams assistance therein his Majesty being all alone in a withdrawing Room in the said Earl his House the said Earl kneeled unto him and told him That he had a business to impart unto him which highly imported his Majesty to know so that he might be assured his boldness therein might be pardoned which his Majesty gratiously promised And thereupon the said Earl told his Majesty That the general opinion of that Court was that his Majesties coming into Spain was with an intention to be a Roman Catholick and there to declare it And he confesseth That at the same time in regard of those things he had heard he humbly besought his Majesty to deal freely with him as a Servant of whose fidelity he might be confident or words to that effect But he was so far from perswading his Majesty to be a Roman Catholick that without respecting his Majesties Answer he declared himself to be a Protestant and so should always continue yet he said he should always serve his Majesty and labor to advance his and the King his Fathers affairs with as much fidelity and honesty as any Catholick whatsoever And his Majesty was pleased then to make unto the said Earl a full and clear Declaration of his Religion and of his constant resolution therein and seemed to be much displeased that any should have so unworthy an opinion of him as to think he would for a Wife or any other Earthly respect whatsoever so much as waver in his Religion Whereupon the said Earl besought his Majesty to pardon his boldness and then intreated him not to suffer his business to be overthrown by permitting that conceit of his Conversion any longer to remain in the Spaniards nor do any thing that might give them hope therein alleaging That it was impossible the Marriage could be without a Dispensation and so long as the Spaniards who were to procure the Dispensation should have hope of his Majesties Conversion they would never content themselves with a part to which they were tied by the Articles agreed upon with the said Earl and Sir Walter Aston At which time his Majesty was pleased to approve of his opinion and said he would expect the Dispensation and did thereupon afterwards send Mr. Andrews to Rome to hasten it and the next day the said Earl dealt very roundly with the Conde Olivares and Gondomar telling them it was a discourteous manner of proceeding to press his Majesty to further Conditions then were formerly agreed upon in point of Religion and to make his Conditions the worse for the great Obligation he had put upon them by putting himself into their hands whereat they took such great offence that they estranged themselves from him for a long time after And that the said Earl did thus proceed with the said Condes and that it was not a new framed Answer to satisfie present Objections but that which really and indeed passed will really appear by his Dispatches unto his late Majesty of Blessed Memory and before his Majesty that now is came out of Spain they were there shewed unto his Majesty bearing date the Nineth of September 1623. So that although it be true That he the said Earl did not disswade his Majesty for that there was no cause for it yet without expecting his Majesties Answer he first made a clear and true Profession of his own Religion And when his Majesty had declared to him his zeal and constancy he humbly besought him That the Spaniards might not for any respect be longer held in hopes of that point And because point of Religion is that which all men of honor and honesty should cheifly desire to clear especially having an imputation of that nature laid upon them as the said Earl hath in the said Article He humbly beseecheth your Lordships that he may not seem to digress from his Charge intending your Lordships satisfaction in that particular not by the aforesaid verbal discourse onely which he professeth was in much zeal to Religion and dutiful care to the Prince in that kinde but by some written Testimony of his former Opinion both of the Match and Religion When he was first employed into Spain for the Treaty of this Marriage 1617. his late Majesty having commanded him to give an accompt thereof unto his Majesty that now is he at his departure towards Spain presumed to give unto his Majesty that now is his opinion in Writing signed with his own hand to be kept as a testimony
King so straitned in time as by the said Article is pretended will appear by the said Earls Dispatch of September 28. 1623. In which upon scruple that was then made of the Infanta's entring into Religion he wrote to the same effect Viz. That if the Dispensation should come he knew no means how to detain the Proxies above twenty or twenty four dayes So that although difficulty happened until the middest of November 1623. yet it was foreseen that it must of necessity happen whensoever the Dispensation should come and then was warning of two moneths given thereof viz. from September 24. until November 29. which was the time appointed for the Desponsories So as he most humbly submits himself unto your Lordships which of the two wayes was the safer or dutifuller for him to take whether upon inferences and conjectures to have overthrown so great a business or on the otherside first to have presented unto his Majesty the truth and sincerity as he did the true estate of his Affairs with his humble opinion therein with an intimation that if his Majesty should resolve to break the Match that for the said Earl his honest discharge of the publick Trust reposed in him when the Proxies were deposited in his hands and for his sufficient warrant in so great a cause his Majesty would be graciously pleased to give him clear and express order which he had not and in the interim whilest his Majesty might take into consideration the great inconveniences that might ensue the said inconveniences might be suspended and the business kept upon fair terms that his Majesty might have his way and choice clear and unsoiled before him And as to the evil Consequences which are pretended would have followed if the said Earl had proceeded to the consummation of the Match before he had express order and warrant to the contrary he supposeth his Majesty should speedily have seen the Marriage which he so long sought to have effected that the Prince should have had a worthy Lady whom he loved that the Portion was much greater then ever was given in money in Christendom that the King of Spain had engaged himself for restitution of the Palatinate for which the said Earl conceived a daughter of Spain and Two Millions had been no ill pawn besides many other additions of advantage to the Crown of England Whereas on the contrary side he foresaw that the Prince would be kept a year longer unmarried a thing that so highly concerneth these Kingdoms he doubteth that the recovery of the Palatinate from the Emperor and Duke of Bavaria by force would prove a great difficulty and that Christendom was like to fall into a general Combustion So that desiring that his Majesty should have obtained his ends and have had the honor and happiness not onely to have given peace plenty and increase unto his own Subjects and Crowns but to have compounded the greatest differences that had been these many years in Christendom And by his Piety and Wisdom to have prevented the shedding of so much Christian Blood as he feared would ensue if these businesses were disordered These Reasons he confesseth and the zeal unto his Majesties service made him so earnestly desire the effecting of this business and cannot but think himself an unfortunate man his Majesties affairs being so near setling to his Majesties content as he conceived they were and hoping to have been unto his Majesty not onely a faithful Servant but a successful Servant to see the whole estate of his affairs turned up-side down without any the least fault of his and yet he the onely Minister on the English and Spanish side that remained under disgrace XI To the Eleventh Article the said Earl saith That the Article is grounded upon a Petition by him preferred to this Honorable House supposed to be scandalous which your Lordships as he conceiveth according to the Customs and Priviledges of the House of Peers would have been pleased first to have adjudged so to have been either for matter appearing in it self or upon hearing the said Earl for if the matter appearing in the Petition it self be not to be excepted unto it cannot as he conceiveth by Collateral accidents be taken for a Scandal till it be examined and found false For a plain and direct Answer thereunto he saith That the said Petition is such as will not warrant any such inference as by the said Article is inforced And that he hopeth to justifie the Contents of the said Petition in such sort as shall not displease his Majesty nor deserve that expression which is used in the Charge but contrarily what he hath said or shall say therein in his defence shall in all things tend to the Honor and Service of his Majesty by reducing into his Memory divers Circumstances and laying before him the passages of divers particulars which by undue practices have been either concealed from his Majesty or mis-related to him Having thus offered to this High and Honorable Court such Proofs and Reasons as he hopeth shall in your Lordships Wâ—sdom and Justice clearly acquit him of any capital Crime or wilful Offence if it shall appear that out of Errors of Judgment too much ferventness of zeal to his Majesties service or the ignorance of the Laws of this Realm wherewith he hath not been able to be so well acquainted as he ought by reason of Foreign Employments by the space of many years or by any other ways or means he hath faln into the danger of the Laws for any thing pardoned in the General Pardon made in the Parliament holden at Westminster Anno Vicesimo primo Regni Imp. Iacobi Angliae c. of Blessed Memory he humbly prayeth allowance of the Pardons and the benefit thereof with this Clause That he doth and will aver that he is none of the persons excepted out of the same although he is very confident he shall not need the help of any pardon having received many significations as well from his Majesties own mouth that he had never offended his Majesty as lately by several Letters from the Lord Conway that he might rest in the security he was in and sit still and should be no further questioned But he hopes your Lordships will not onely finde him so far from blame but that he hath served his late Majesty of Blessed memory and his most gratious Son the Kings Majesty that now is with that fidelity care and industry that your Lordships will take such course as you in your wisdoms shall think fit not onely for the upholding the Honor and Reputation of a Peer of this Realm after so many employments but likewise become humble and earnest Suitors to his Majesty on his behalf which he humbly prayeth That he may be restored to his Majesties most gratious Favor which above all worldly things he most desireth The Eighth of May the Commons brought up their Charge against the Duke which was delivered at a Conference of both Houses
in the chief Court of Admiralty in the name of the said late King and of the Lord Admiral against them for Fifteen thousand pound taken Piratically by some Captains of the said Merchants ships and pretended to be in the hands of the East India Company and thereupon the Kings Advocate in the name of Advocate for the then King and the said Lord Admiral moved and obtained one Attachment which by the Serjeant of the said Court of Admiralty was served on the said Merchants in their Court the sixteenth day of March following whereupon the said Merchants though there was no cause for their molestation by the Lord Admiral yet the next day they were urged in the said Court of Admiralty to bring in the Fifteen thousand pounds or go to prison wherefore immediately the Company of the said Merchants did again send the Deputy aforesaid and some others to make new suit unto the said Duke for the release of the said Ships and Pinaces who unjustly endeavoring to extort money from the said Merchants protested that the Ships should not go except they compounded with him and when they urged many more reasons for the release of the said Ships and Pinaces the Answer of the said Duke was That the then Parliament must first be moved The said Merchants therefore being in this perplexity and in their consultation the three and twentieth of that moneth even ready to give over that Trade yet considering that they should lose more then was demanded by unlading their ships besides their voyage they resolved to give the said Duke Ten thousand pounds for his unjust demands And he the said Duke by the undue means aforesaid and under colour of his Office and upon false pretence of Rights unjustly did exact and extort from the said Merchants the said Ten thousand pounds and received the same about the 28. of April following the discharge of those Ships which were not released by him till they the said Merchants had yielded to give him the said Duke the said Ten thousand pounds for the said Release and for the false pretence of Rights made by the said Duke as aforesaid VII Whereas the Ships of our Soveraign Lord the King and of his Kingdoms aforesaid are the principal strength and defence of the said Kingdoms and ought therefore to be always preserved and safely kept under the command and for the service of our Soveraign Lord the King no less then any the Fortresses and Castles of the said Kingdoms And whereas no Subject of this Realm ought to be dispossessed of any his Goods or Chattels without order of Justice or his own consent first duly had and obtained The said Duke being Great Admiral of England Governor-General and Keeper of the said Ships and Seas and thereof ought to have and take a special and continual care and diligence how to preserve the same The said Duke in or about the end of Iuly last in the first year of our Soveraign Lord the King did under the colour of the said Office of Great Admiral of England and by indirect and subtile means and practices procure one of the principal Ships of his Majesties Navy-Royal called the Vantguard then under the Command of Captain Iohn Pennington and six other Merchants Ships of great burden and value belonging to several Persons inhabiting in London the Natural Subjects of his Majesty to be conveyed over with all their Ordnance Munition Tackle and Apparel into the parts of the Kingdom of France to the end that being there they might the more easily be put into the hands of the French King his Ministers and Subjects and taken into their possession command and power And accordingly the said Duke by his Ministers and Agents with menaces and other ill means and practices did there without order of Justice and without the consent of the said Masters and Owners unduly compel and inforce the said Masters and Owners of the said six Merchants Ships to deliver their said Ships into the said possession command and power of the said French King his Ministers and Subjects and by reason of his compulsion and under the pretext of his power as aforesaid and by his indirect practices as aforesaid the said Ships aforesaid as well the said Ship Royal of his Majesty as the others belonging to the said Merchants were there delivered into the hands and command of the said French King his Ministers and Subjects without either sufficient security or assurance for redelivery or other necessary caution in that behalf taken or provided either by the said Duke himself or otherwise by his direction contrary to the duty of the said Offices of Great Admiral Governor-General and Keeper of the said Ships and Seas and to the faith and trust in that behalf reposed and contrary to the duty which he oweth to our Soveraign Lord the King in his place of Privy-Counsellor to the apparent weakening of the Naval strength of this Kingdom to the great loss and prejudice of the said Merchants and against the liberty of those Subjects of our Soveraign Lord the King that are under the Jurisdiction of the Admiralty VIII The said Duke contrary to the purpose of our Soveraign Lord the King and his Majesties known zeal for the maintenance and advancement of the true Religion established in the Church of England knowing that the said Ships were intended to be imployed by the said French King against those of the same Religion at Rochel and elswhere in the Kingdom of France did procure the said Ship Royal and compel as aforesaid the said six other Ships to be delivered unto the said French King his Ministers and Subjects as aforesaid to the end the said Ships might be used and imployed by the said French King in his intended War against those of the said Religion in the said Town of Rochel and elswhere within the Kingdom of France And the said Ships were and have been since so used and imployed by the said French King his Ministers and Subjects against them And this the said Duke did as aforesaid in great and most apparent prejudice of the said Religion contrary to the purpose and intention of our Soveraign Lord the King and against his duty in that behalf being a sworne Counsellor to his Majesty and to the great scandal and dishonor of this Nation And notwithstanding the delivery of the said Ships by his procurement and compulsion as aforesaid to be imployed as aforesaid the said Duke in cunning and cautelous manner to mask his ill intentions did at the Parliament held at Oxford in August last before the Committee of both Houses of Parliament intimate and declare that the said Ships were not nor should they be so used and imployed against those of the said Religion as aforesaid in contempt of our Soveraign Lord the King and in abuse of the said Houses of Parliament and in violation of that Truth which every man should profess These three Articles were aggravated by Mr. Glanvile
said Company for the effecting of his said designs wherein he still unlawfully pretended that a Tenth part or some other great share out of the Lading of the said ships belonged unto him albeit the said Company upon right information of their Cause to their Council both Civilians and Common-Lawyers were advised that there did no Tenths or other such shares belong to the said Duke as he pretended And whereas the said Duke by this time finding that he could not prevail to get his Ends by any fair course continued yet resolute to make his gain upon the Company by right or wrong as he might and to that purpose made use of the following opportunities and advantages in such cunning and abusive manner as I shall further open to your Lordships The said Duke well knowing thâ—t the said Company had then four Ships called the Great James the Ionas the Star and the Eagle and two Pinaces called the Spy and the Scout the said Ships and Pinaces with their Victuals Store and Ordnances were of the value of Fifty four thousand pounds and more laden with Lead Cloth and other Merchandise in them to the value of Twenty thousand pounds and more and having in them also about Thirty thousand pounds in Royals of Spanish money in all One hundred thousand pounds and more These Ships and Pinnaces were well near ready to set sail for a Voyage into the East-Indies by the first day of March in the One and twentieth year of his said late Majesties reign and he well-knowing how great a hinderance it would be to the said Company if the said Ships and Pinnaces should be stayed for any long time the rather in regard if they did not set sail about that time of the year or within Twenty days after they had utterly lost their voyage for that year the reason thereof dependeth upon a Secret of Winds called the Man-sounds which are constantly six moneths Easterly and six moneths Westerly every year at their set times in those parts of Africa about the Cape of Bona Speranza for of those Winds all Ships going from hence into the East-Indies are to make their use in the usual and due time which yet cannot be done if men take not their opportunity by coming to the Cape in their proper and due season and in so long and dangerous a voyage wherein the Equinoctial Line is twice to be passed it is no good discretion to stay the utmost time in going from hence in confidence of fair Winds but rather to take time enough before-hand for fear of the contrary Nor can the Lord Admiral of England who is Custos marium domini Regis and hath jurisdiction of all Foreign parts super altum mare be admitted to pretend himself ignorant of this Secret or of any other particulars belonging to the Seas and Voyages The Duke therefore apprehending and well weighing how great a hinderance or rather what an absolute loss it would be to the company if these their Ships and Pinnaces of so great value and bound forth in so instant and difficult a voyage should be stayed for any long time now they were ready to set sail and the season of going upon point to expire The said Duke upon the said First day of March 1623. to effect his designs upon the said Company and to get that by circumvention and surprisal which in a legal and due course of Justice he had not hopes to obtain Not thinking it sufficient that the sense of his displeasure lying over the Company as an ominous cloud threatning a storm if they did not appease him by some great sacrifice and to cast them yet further into a farther streight not sparing to abuse your Lordships in Parliament by making you unwilling Instruments to give colour and advantage to his secret and unlawful practises Upon the said First day of March he put your Lordships sitting in Parliament in minde touching the great business likely to ensue upon dissolution of the then Treaties with Spain and that a speedy resolution thereof was necessarily required for that the Enemy would pretermit no time and if we should lose the benefit of that Spring he said it would be irrevokable and thereupon he took occasion to move that House Whether he should make stay of any shipping that were then in the Ports as being High Admiral he might and namely the said Ships prepared for the East-Indian Voyage which were of great burthen well furnished and fit to guard our own Coasts Which motion was generally approved of the whole House knowing nothing of the Dukes secret designs and private intentions And the same day a Motion was made amongst the Commons in Parliament to the same effect by Sir Edward Seymour Knight the Vice-Admiral to the Duke of the County of Devon which in respect of the time when and person by whom it was propounded is very suspitious that it issued all from one Spirit and that he was set on by the Duke or some of his Agents the truth whereof your Lordships may be pleased to search out and examine as you shall see cause By colour of this Order of the Lords House of Parliament the Duke caused Iohn Pexal Marshal of the Admiralty to make stay to be made of the said Ships and Pinnaces howbeit notwithstanding all the occasion pretended for the defence of the Realm there were not any other Ships staid at this time The Company perceiving by the course of things from whence their Evils moved upon the Fifth of March 1623. became earnest Suitors to the said Duke for a Releasement of their said Ships and Pinnaces whereunto the said Duke replied That he had not been the cause of their stay but having heard the Motion in the Lords House he could do no less then order as they had done Yet to incline his ends and put them in some hope of favor by his means he told them withal That he had something in his Pocket that might do them good and willed them to set down what Reasons they would for their Suit and he would acquaint the House therewith Nevertheless about this time he presumed of himself at Theobalds to give leave for the Ships and Pinnaces to fall down as far as Tilbury there to attend such further Directions as should be given unto them with leave so to signifie by word of mouth to the Serjeant of the Admiralty for that the Duke had then no Secretary with him Thus some while by threatning of strong oppositions and terrors and other while by intimating hopes of favor and good assistance the Duke sought to accomplish his purpose yet prevailed not and so the Tenth of March 1623. the Kings Advocate Mr. Dr. Reeves as Advocate for the King and Lord Admiral made Allegation in the Admiralty on the Dukes behalf and by his procurements that it appeared by Examinations there taken that 150000 l. and more Pyrattically taken by the said Captain Blith and Wedel and their Complices upon the Sea
see them earthed before me My Answer to the several points in Charge I shall crave leave to deliver in brief and in form of Law but as naked as truth loves to be and so I leave my self and my cause to your Lordships Justice The humble Answer and Plea of George Duke of Buckingham to the Declaration and Impeachment made against him before your Lordships by the Commons House of Parliament THe said Duke of Buckingham being accused and sought to be impeached before your Lordships of the many Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes wherewith he is charged by the Commons House of Parliament and which are comprised in the Articles preferred against him and were aggravated by those whose service was used by that House in the delivery of them Doth finde in himself an unexpressible pressure of deep and hearty sorrow that so great and so worthy a Body should have him suspected of those things which are objected against him whereas had that Honorable House first known the very truth of those particulars whereof they had not there the means to be rightly informed he is well assured in their own true judgments they would have forborn to have charged him therewith The Charge touching Plurity of Offices To the first which concerneth Plurality of Offices which he holdeth he answereth thus That it is true that he holdeth those several Places and Offices which are enumerated in the preamble of his Charge whereof onely three are worthy the name of Offices viz. The Admiralty the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports and Mastership of the Horse the other are rather titulary and additions of Honor. For these Offices he humbly and freely acknowledgeth the bounty and goodness of his most Gratious Master who is with God who when he had cast an Eye of Favor upon him and had taken him into a more near place of service about his Royal Person was more willing to multiply his Graces and Favors upon him then the Duke was forward to ask them and for the most part as many honorable persons and his now most Excellent Majesty above all others can best testifie did prevent the very desires of the Duke in asking And all these particular places he can and doth truly affirm his late Majesty did bestow them of his own Royal motion except the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports onely and thereto also he gave his approbation and encouragement And the Duke denieth that he obtained these places either to satisfie his exorbitant ambition or his own profit or advantage as is objected against him And he hopeth he shall give good satisfaction to the contrary in his particular Answers ensuing touching the manner of his obtaining the places of the Admiralty and the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports whereunto he humbly desireth to refer himself And for the Mastership of the Horse to his Majesty he saith it is a meer domestick office of attendance upon the Kings person whereby he receiveth some profit yet but as a conveniency to render him more sit for his continual attendance and in that place the times compared he hath retrenched the Kings annual charge to a considerable value as shall be made apparent And for the number of places he holdeth he saith That if the Commonwealth doth not suffer thereby he hopeth he may without blame receive and retain that which the liberal and bountiful hand of his Master hath freely conferred upon him And it is not without many Presidents both in Antient and Modern times That one man eminent in the esteem of his Soveraign hath at one time held as great and as many Offices But when it shall be discerned That he shall falsly or corruptly execute those places or any of them or that the Publick shall suffer thereby he is so thankful for what he hath freely received that whensoever his Gratious Master shall require it without disputing with his Soveraign he will readily lay down at his Royal Feet not onely his Places and Offices but his whole Fortunes and his life to do him service But the integrity of his own Heart and Conscience being the most able and most impartial witnesses not accusing him of the least thought of disloyalty to his Soveraign or to his Country doth raise his spirits again to make his just defence before your Lordships of whose Wisdom Justice and Honor he is so well assured That he doth with confidence and yet with all humbleness submit himself and his cause to your Examinations and Judgments before whom he shall with all sincerity and clearness unfold and lay open the secrets of his own actions and of his heart and in his Answer shall not affirm the least Substantial and as near as he can the least Circumstantial point which he doth not believe he shall clearly prove before your Lordships The Charge consisteth of Thirteen several Articles whereunto the Duke saving to himself the usual benefit of not being prejudiced by any words or want of form in his Answer but that he may be admitted to make further explanation and proof as there shall be occasion and saving to him all Priviledges and Rights belonging to him as one of the Peers of the Realm doth make these several and distinct Answers following in the same order they are laid down unto him For his buying of the Admirals place the said Duke maketh this clear and true Answer That it is true that in Ianuary in the Sixteenth year of his late Majesties Raign his late Majesty did by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England grant unto the Duke the Office of Admiralty for his life which Grant as he well knoweth it was made freely and without any Contract or Bargain with the late Lord Admiral or any other and upon the voluntary Surrender of that Noble and wel-deserving Lord so he is advised it will appear to be free from any defect in Law by reason of the Statute of 5 Edw. 6. mentioned in this Article of his Charge or for any other cause whatsoever For he saith the true manner of his obtaining this Office and of all the passages thereof which he is ready to make good by Proof was thus That Honorable Lord the late Earl of Nottingham the Lord Admiral being grown much in years and finding that he was not then so able to perform that which appertained to his place as in former times he had done to his great Honor and fearing lest his Majesties service and the Commonwealth might suffer by his defect became an humble and earnest Petitioner to his late Majesty to admit him to surrender his Office His late Majesty was at the first unwilling unto it out of his Royal Affection to his Person and true Judgment of his worth But the Earl renewed his Petitions and in some of them nominated the Duke to be his Successor without the Dukes privity or fore-thought of it And about that time a Gentleman of good place about the Navy and of long experience
charissimo Consanguineo nostro Edwardo Comiti Dorset nec non charissimo Consiliar nostro Philippo Comiti Mountgomery charissimóque Consanguineo nostro Willielmo Comiti Northampton Presidenti Consilii nostri infra Principalitatem Marchias Walliâ—e ac chariss Consanguineo Consiliar nostro Iacobo Comiti Carlol Nec non charissimis Consanguineis nostris Iohanni Comiti de Clare Thomae Comiti Cleveland Edmundo Comiti de Mulgrave Nec non charissimo Consanguineo Consiliar nostro Georgio Comiti de Totnes charissimóque Consanguineo nostro Henrico Vicecomiti Rochford Ac etiam Reverendis in Christo Patribus Georgio Episcopo London Richardo Episc. Dunclm Reverendóque in Christo Patri sideli Consiliar nostro Lanceloto Episc. Winton Nec non Reverendis in Christo Patribus Samueli Episc. Norwicen Willielmo Episc. Meneven Ac perdilecto fideli Consiliario nostro Edwardo Dom. Conway uni primorum Secretarium nostrum Ac etiam perdilecto fideli nostro Samueli Dom. Scroop Presidenti Consilii nostri in partibus Borealibus perdilectóque fideli Consiliar nostro Fulconi Dom. Brook Salutem Cùm nuper pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis Nos statum defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus praesens hoc Parliamentum nostrum apud Civitatem nostram Westmonasterii sexto die Februar Anno Regni nostri primo inchoari teneri ordinaverimus à quo die idem Parliamentum nostrum usque ad instantem decimum quintum diem Iunii continuatum fuerat Sciatis quòd nos pro certis urgentibus causis considerationibus nos specialiter moventibus idem Parliamentum nostrum hoc instanti decimo quinto die Iunii duximus dissolvendum De fidelitate igitur prudentia circumspectione vestris plurimum confidentes de avisamento assensu Consilii nostri assignavimus vos Commissionarios nostros dantes vobis aliquibus tribus vel pluribus vestrum tenore praesentium plenam potestatem authoritatem hoc instanti decimo quinto die Iunii ad dictum Parlamentum nostrum nomine nostro plenariè dissolvendum ideo vobis mandamus quòd vos vel aliqui tres vel plures vestrum idem Parliamentum nostrum hoc instante decimo quinto die Iunii virtute harum Literarum nostrum patent plenariè dissolvatis determinetis Et ideo vobis mandamus quòd praemissa diligenter intendatis ac â—a in forma praedicta effectualiter expleatis exequamini Damus autem universis singulis Archiepiscopis Ducibus Marchionibus Comitibus Vicecomitibus Episcopis Baronibus Militibus Civibus Burgensibus ac omnibus aliis quorum interest ad dictum Parliamentum nostrum conventurum tenore praesentium firmiter in mandat quod vobis in praemissis faciend agend exiquend pariant obediant intendant in omnibus prout decet In cujus rei testimonium has literas nostras â—ieri fecimus patentes Teste meipso apud Westm. decimo quinto die Iunii Anno Regni nostri secundo EDMONDS This Commission being read and the Commons present the Parliament was dissolved on the Fifteenth day of Iune 1626. The intended Remonstrance was as followeth Most Gracious Soveraign WE your loyal and faithful Subjects the Commons assembled by your Majesties most Royal authority in this present Parliament having with all dutiful affection from the time of our first méeting earnestly endeavored to procéed spéedily in those affairs that might best and soonest conduce to our dispatch of the intended supply of your Majesties great designs to the enlargement of your support and to the enabling of our selves and them whom we represent to the full and timely performance of the same have notwithstanding by reason of divers informations interruptions and other preventions béen hitherto so retarded in the prosecution of these affairs that we now thought it a necessary part of our most humble duties thus to declare both those interruptions and preventions with the true original and continual cause of them as also our most earnest devotion of the Parliamentary service of your most excellent Majesty and of the careful safety and defence of your Dominions Crown and Dignity And we most humbly therefore beséech your most excellent Majesty to be graciously pleased here to cast your eye on some particulars that have relation as well to your first Parliament as to this out of which we cannot doubt but that your great Goodness may receive an ample satisfaction touching our most loyal and faithful intentions In the first Parliament of the first Year of your Majesties most happy Reign over us the Commons then assembled after they had cheerfully presented to your Majesty as the first-fruits of their affections Two entire Subsidies were excéedingly pressed by the means of the Duke of Buckingham and for his own ends as we conceive to enlarge that Supply which when he conceived would not be there effected he procured for the same ends from your Majesty an Adjournment of the Parliament to the City of Oxford where the Commons then taking into just consideration the greatest mischiefs which this Kingdom variously hath suffered and that chiefly by reason of the exorbitant power and frequent misdoings of the said Duke were entring into a Parliamentary course of examination of those mischiefs power and misdoings But no sooner was there any mention made of his Name to this purpose but that he fearing lest his Actions might so have béen too much laid open to the view of your most excellent Majesty and to the just Censure that might then have followed presently through his misinformations to your Majesty of the intentions of your said Commons as we have just cause to believe procured a dissolution of the said Parliament And afterwards also in the same year through divers misreports made to your Majesty in his behalf touching some Members of the said Commons who had more particularly drawn his Name into just question and justly professed themselves averse to his ends there procured as we cannot but conceive the said Members to be made the Sheriffs of several Counties for this year that followed to the end that they might have all béen precluded from being chosen Members of the present Parliament lest they should again have therein questioned him and by the like practice also as we are perswaded he procured soon after the said dissolution another Member of the said House because he had justly professed himself against his Ends to be sent as Secretary of your Majesties last Fleet hereby indeed to punish him by such drawing him from his practice of the Law which was his Profession under colour of an honorable Imployment It pleased your Majesty afterwards in February last to call this present Parliament wherein though none of those whom the said Duke had so procured to be made high Shiriffs have sit as Members yet we finding in our selves the like affection first to the Service of your Majesty and next to the good of the Commonwealth
for the continuance of that service and safety Which we cannot hope for and we beséech your most excellent Majesty graciously to receive this our humble and frée protestation That we cannot hope for it so long as we thus suffer under the pressures of the power and ambition of the said Duke and the divers and false Informations so given to your Majesty on his behalf and for his advantage especially when we observe also that in such his greatness he preventeth the giving of true Information to your Majesty in all things that may any ways reflect on his own misdoings to shew unto your Majesty the true state of your Subjects and Kingdoms otherwise then as it may be represented for his own ends And to that purpose also hath he procured so many persons depending on him either by alliance or advancement to places of eminencie near your Sacred person Through his misinformations of that kind also and power we have séen to our great grief both in the time of your Majesties Royal Father of blessed memory and of your Majesty divers Officers of the Kingdom so often by him displaced and altered that within these few years past since the beginning of his greatness more such displacings and alterations have by his means happened then in many years before them Neither was there in the time of your Royal Father of blessed memory any such Course held before it was by the practice of the said Duke thus induced And since that time divers Officers of the Crown not only in this your Kingdom of England but also in Ireland as they have béen made friends or adverse to the said Duke have béen either so commended or mispresented by him to his Soveraign and by his procurement so placed or displaced that he hath always herein as much as in him lay made his own ends and advantage the measure of the good or ill of your Majesties Kingdoms But now at length may it please your most excellent Majesty we have received from the Lords a Copy of the said Dukes Answer to our Charge transmitted against him whereunto we shall presently in such sort reply according to the Laws of Parliament that unless his power and practice again undermine our procéedings we do not doubt but we shall upon the same have Iudgment against him In the times also most gracious Soveraign of these Interruptions which came amongst us by reason of the procurement of two of our Members committed A gracious Message was formerly received from your Majesty wherein you had been pleased to let us know That if you had not a timely Supply your Majesty would betake your self to New Counsels which we cannot doubt were intended by your most excellent Majesty to be such as stood with Iustice and the Laws of this Realm But these words New Counsels were remembred in a Speech made amongst us by one of your Majesties Privy-Council and lately a Member of us who in the same Speech told us He had often thought of those words New Counsels That in his consideration of them he remembred that there were such kinds of Parliaments antiently among other Nations as are now in England That in England he saw the Country-people live in happiness and plenty but in these other Nations he saw them poor both in persons and habit or to that effect Which state and condition happened as he said to them where such New Counsels were taken as that the use of their Parliaments ended This intimation may it please your Majesty was such as also gave us just cause to fear there were some ill Ministers near your Majesty that in behalf of the said Duke and together with him who is so strangely powerful were so much against the Parliamentary Course of this Kingdom as they might perhaps advise your most excellent Majesty such New Counsels as these that fell under the memory and consideration of that Privy-Counsellor And one especial reason among others hath increased that fear amongst us For that whereas the Subsidies of Tonnage and Poundage which determined upon the death of your most Royal Father our late Soveraign and were never payable to any of your Majesties Ancestors but only by a special Act of Parliament and ought not to be levied without such an Act yet ever since the beginning of your Majesties happy Reign over us the said Subsidies have béen levied by some of your Majesties ministers as if they were still due although also one Parliament hath béen since then begun and dissolved by procurement of the said Duke as is before shewed wherein no Act passed for the same Subsidies Which example is so much against the constant use of former times and the known Right and Liberty of your Subjects that it is an apparent effect of some new Counsels given against the antient setled Course of Government of this your Majesties Kingdom and chiefly against the Right of your Commons as if there might be any Subsidy Tax or Aid levied upon them without their consent in Parliament or contrary to the setled Laws of this Kingdom But if any such do so ill an office as by the misrepresentation of the state and right of your Majesties loyal Subjects advise any such new Counsels as the levying of any Aid Tax or Subsidy among your people contrary to the setled Laws of your Kingdom We cannot most gracious Soveraign but esteem them that so shall advise not only as Uipers but Pests to their King and Commonwealth as all such were to both Houses of Parliament expresly stiled by your most Royal Father but also Capital Enemies as well to your Crown and Dignity as to the Commonwealth And we shall for our parts in Parliament shew as occasion shall require and be ready to declare their offences of this kind such as that may be rewarded with the highest punishment as your Laws inflict on any Offenders These and some of these things amongst many other Most gracious Soveraign are those which have so much prevented a right understanding betwéen your Majesty and us and which have possessed the hearts of your people and loyal Commons with unspeakable sorrow and grief finding apparently all humble and hearty endeavors misinterpreted hindred and now at last almost frustrated utterly by the interposition of the excessive and abusive power of one man Against whom we have just cause to protest not only in regard of the particulars wherewith he hath béen charged which in Parliamentary way we are enforced to insist upon as matters which lie in our notice and proof but also because we apprehend him of so unbridled Ambition and so averse to the good and tranquillity of the Church and State that we verily believe him to be an Enemy to both And therefore unless we would betray our own duties to your Majesty and those for whom we are trusted We cannot but express our infinite grief that he should have so great power and interest in your Princely affections and under your Majesty wholly in
propriety in my own house and not liberty in my person Perspicuè vera non sunt probanda The King hath distributed his Judicial power to Courts of Justice and to Ministers of Justice it is too low for so great a Monarch as the King is to commit men to Prison and it is against Law that men should be committed and no cause shewed I would not speak this but that I hope my Gracious King will hear of it yet it is not I Edw. Cook that speaks it but the Records that speak it we have a National appropriate Law to this Nation diversis ab orbe Brittannis I will conclude with the Acts of the Apostles chap. 25. It is against reason to send a man to Prison and not to shew the cause It is now time to go to the Question Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente I. That no Freeman ought to be detained or kept in Prison or otherwise restrained by the command of the King or the Privy-Council or any other unless some cause of the commitment detainer or restraint be expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed detained or restrained II. That the Writ of Habeas Corpus may not be denied but ought to be granted to every man that is committed or detained in Prison or otherwise restrained though it be by the command of the King the Privy-Council or any other he praying the same III. That if a Freeman be committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by the Command of the King the Privy-Council or any other no cause of such Commitment Detainer or Restraint being expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed detained or restrained and the same be returned upon a Habeas Corpus granted for the said Party then he ought to be delivered or bailed And then taking into consideration the Property of the Subject in his Goods they came to this Resolution to which there was not a Negative viz. That it is the antient and undubitable right of every Freeman That he hath a full and absolute Property in his Goods and Estate that no Tax Tallage Loan benevolence or other like charge ought to be commanded or levied by the King or any of his Ministers without common consent by Act of Parliament Wednesday March 26. The Propositions tendred the day before by Secretary Cook from his Majesty were now received and read but the Debate thereof was referred to another day The Propositions were these viz. 1. To furnish with men and Victuals 30 ships to guard the narrow Seas and along the Coasts 2. To set out ten other ships for the relief of the Town of Rochel 3. To set out ten other ships for the preservation of the Elbe the Sound and Baltick-Sea 4. To leavy Arms Cloth Victual pay and transport an Army of 1000. Horse and 10000. Foot for Forein Service 5. To pay and supply 6000 l. more for the service of Denmark 6. To supply the Forts of the Office of Ordnance 7. To supply the Stores of the Navy 8. To build 20 ships yearly for the increase of the Navy 9. To repair the Forts within the Land 10. To pay the arrears of the Office of Ordnance 11. To pay the arrears of the Victuallers Office 12. To pay the Arrear of the Treasure of the Navy 13. To pay the Arrears due for the freight of divers Merchants ships imployed in his Majesties Service 14. To provide a Magazine for Victuals for Land and Sea-service And the Commons having a Conference with the Lords about the Petition against Recusants Secretary Cook was appointed to manage the said Conference In the first place he said we acknowledge all due honor both unto the reverend Fathers of the Church and to our Noble Lords in that ye have shined before us as worthy Lights in the encouragement and maintenance of true Religion being the true support of all Dignities and Honors And this forwardness of you is the more remarkable when that viperous Generation as your Lordships justly stiled them do at ease with tooth and nail essay to rend the Bowels of their Mother Give me leave to tell you what I know that these now both vaunt at home and write to their friends abroad They hope all will be well and doubt not to prevail and to win ground upon us And a little to awake the Zeal and Care of our learned and grave Fathers it is fit that they take notice of that Hierarchy which is already established in competition with their Lordships for they have a Bishop consecrated by the Pope This Bishop hath his Subalternate Officers of all kindes as Vicars-General Arch-Deacons Rural-Deans Apparators and such like neither are these nominal or titular Officers alone but they all execute their Jurisdictions and make their ordinary Visitations through the Kingdom keep Courts and determine Ecclesiastical Causes And which is an Argument of more consequence they keep ordinary intelligence by their Agents in Rome and hold correspondence with the Nuntio's and Cardinals both at Bruxels and in France Neither are the Seculars alone grown to this height but the Regulars are more active and dangerous and have taken deep root they have already planted their Societies and Colledges of both Sexes they have setled Revenues Houses Libraries Vestments and all other necessary provisions to travel or stay at home nay even at this time they intend to hold a concurrent Assembly with this Parliament But now since his Sacred Majesty hath extended his Royal arm and since the Lords of his Council have by their Authority caused this nest of Wasps to be digged out of the Earth and their Convocations to be scattered And since your Lordships joyn in courage and resolution at least to reduce this people to their lawfull restraint that they may do no more hurt we conceive great hope and comfort that the Almighty God will from henceforth prosper our endeavors both at home and aboad But now my Lords to come to the chief Errand of this our meeting which is to make known to you the Approbation of our House of that Petition to his Majesty wherein you are pleased to request our concurrence The House hath taken it into serious consideration and from the beginning to the end approve of every word and much commend your happy pen onely we are required to present unto you a few Additions whereby we conceive the Petition may be made more agreeable to the Statutes which are desired to be put in execution and to a former * Petition granted by his Majesty Recorded in both Houses confirmed under the Broad-Seal of England and published in all our Courts of ordinary Justice But these things we propound not as our Resolutions or as matters to raise debate or dispute but commend them onely as our advice and desire being ready notwithstanding to joyn with your Lordships in the Petition as now it is if your Lordships shall not finde this Reason to be of weight This
it is declared and enacted That no man shall be forejudged of life or limb against the form of the great Charter and the Law of the Land And by the said great Charter and other the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm no man ought to be adjudged to death but by the Laws established in this your Realm either by the Customs of the same Realm or by Acts of Parliament And whereas no offender of what kinde soever is exempted from the proceedings to be used and punishments to be inflicted by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm Nevertheless of late divers Commissions under your Majesties great Seal have issued forth by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners with Power and Authority to proceed within the Land according to the Iustice of Martial Law against such Soldiers and Mariners or other dissolute persons joyning with them as should commit any Murther Robbery Felony Mutiny or other Outrage or Misdemeanor whatsoever and by such summary Course and Order as is agreeable to Martial Law and is used in Armies in time of War to proceed to the tryal and condemnation of such offenders and them to cause to be executed and put to death according to the Law Martial By pretext whereof some of your Majesties Subjects have been by some of the said Commissioners put to death when and where if by the Laws and Statutes of the Land they had deserved death by the same Laws and Statutes also they might and by no other ought to have been adjudged and executed And also sundry grievous offenders by colour thereof claiming an exemption have escaped the punishments due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm by reason that divers of your Officers and Ministers of Iustice have unjustly refused or forborn to proceed against such offenders according to the same Laws and Statutes upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable onely by Martial Law and by Authority of such Commissions as aforesaid which Commissions and all other of like nature are wholly and directly contrary to the said Laws and Statutes of this your Realm They do therefore humbly pray your most Excellent Majesty That no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any Gift Loan Benevolence Tax or such like Charge without common consent by Act of Parliament and that none be called to make answer or take such Oath or to give attendance or he confined or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same or for refusal thereof And that no Freeman in any such maner as is before mentioned be imprisoned or detained And that your Majesty will be pleased to remove the said Soldiers and Mariners and that your People may not be so burthened in time to come And that the foresaid Commissions for proceeding by Martial Law may be revoked and annulled and that hereafter no Commissions of like nature may issue forth to any person or persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid lest by colour of them any of your Majesties Subjects be destroyed or put to death contrary to the Laws and Franchise of the Land All which they most humbly pray of your most Excellent Majesty as their Rights and Liberties according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare That the awards doings and proceedings to the prejudice of your People in any of the Premises shall not be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example And that your Majesty would be also graciously pleased for the further comfort and safety of your People to declare your royal Will and Pleasure That in the things aforesaid all your Officers and Ministers shall serve you according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as they tender the Honor of your Majesty and the prosperity of this Kingdom Which Petition being read the 2 of June 2628. The Kings Answer was thus delivered unto it The King willeth that Right be done according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm And that the Statutes be put in due execution that his Subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties to the preservation whereof he holds himself in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative On Tuesday June 3. the King's Answer was read in the House of Commons and seemed too scant in regard of so much expence of time and labour as had been imployed in contriving the petition Whereupon Sir Iohn Elliot stood up and made a long Speech wherein he gave forth so full and lively representation of all Grievances both general and particular as if they had never before been mentioned HE reduced the Cause of all our evils to Five heads Our insincerity and doubling in Religion which he exemplified by the freedome and increase of Papists by the composition with them in the North the slightness of those payments and the easiness in them by the hopes presumptions and reports of all the Papists generally by the disposition of Commanders the trust of Officers the confidence of secrecies of employments in this Kingdom in Ireland and elsewhere 2. Our want of Councel which sacrificed our honour and our men sent to the Palatinate stopping those greater supplies appointed for that Service by which it might have been made defensible this gave direction to that late expedition to Ree whose wounds are yet bleeding by means whereof the Protestants of France and their King by a necessary consequence are divided and that Countrey so prepared against us that we have nothing to promise our neighbours hardly for our selves insomuch as by the issue and success it may rather be thought a conception of Spain then begotten here by us 3. The insufficiency and unfaithfulness of our Generals Witness first the expedition to Cales where we arrived and found a Conquest ready viz. the Spanish ships fit for the satisfaction of a voyageâ— either in point of honour or in point of profit why was it neglected why was it not atchieved it being granted on all hands feasible when the whole Army landed why was there nothing attempted if nothing were intended wherefore did they land if there were a service why were they shipt again Witness secondly that to Ree where the whole action was carried against the judgement and opinion of the Officers viz. those that were of the Councel was not the first was not the last was not all at land in the intrenching in the continuance there in the assault in the retreat without their assent to say nothing of leaving the Wines and the Salt which were in our possession and of a value as they say to answer much of our expence nor of that wonder which no Alexander or Caesar ever did know the enriching of an enemy by curtesies when the Souldiers want help nor of the private entercourses and parlies with the Fort which continually were held what they intended may be
Bill shew and declare against Roger Manwaring Clerk Dr. in Divinity That whereas by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm the free Subiects of England do undoubtedly inherit this Right and Liberty not to be compelled to contribute any Tax Tollage Aid or to make any Loans not set or imposed by common consent by Act of Parliament And divers of his Majesties loving Subjects relying upon the said Laws and Customes did in all humility refuse to lend such sums of Moneys without Authority of Parliament as were lately required of them Nevertheless he the said Roger Manwaring in contempt and contrarâ— to the Laws of this Realm hath lately preached in his Majesties presence two several Sermons That is to say the fourth day of July last one of the said Sermons and upon the 29. day of the same Moneth the other of the said Sermons both which Sermons he hath since published in print in a Book intituled Religion and Allegiance and with a wicked and malitious intention to seduce and misguide the Conscience of the Kings most excellent Majesty touching the observation of the Laws and Customes of this Kingdom and of the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects to incense his Royal displeasure against his good Subjects so refusing to scandalize subvert and impeach the good Laws and Government of this Realm and the Authority of the High Court of Parliament to alienate his Royal heart from his People and to cause jealousies sedition and division in the Kingdom He the said Roger Manwaring doth in the said Sermons and Book perswade the Kings most excellent Majesty First that his Majesty is not bound to keep and observe the good Laws and Customes of this Realm concerning the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects aforementioned And that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans Taxes and other Aids upon his people without common consent in Parliament doth so far binde the Consciences of the Subjects of this Kingdom that they cannot refuse the same without peril of eternal damnation Secondly that those of his Majesties loving Subjects which refused the Loan aforementioned in such manner as is before recited did therein offend against the Law of God against his Majesties Supreme Authority and by so doing became guilty of Impiety Dissoialty Rebellion and Disobedience and liable to many other Taxes and Censures which he in the several parts of his Book doth most falsly and malitiously lay upon them Thirdly that authority of Parliaments is not necessary for the raising of Aids and Subsidies that the slow proceedings of such Assemblies are not fit for the supply of the urgent necessities of the State but rather apt to produce sundry impediments to the just designs of Princes and to give them occasion of displeasure and discontent All which the Commons are ready to prove not only by the general scope of the same Sermons and Book but likewise by several Clauses Assertions and Sentences therein contained and that he the said Roger Manwaring by preaching and publishing the Sermons and Book aforementioned did most unlawfully abuse his holy function instituted by God in his Church for the guiding of the Consciences of all his Servants and chiefly of Soveraign Princes and Magistrates and for the maintenance of the peace and concord betwixt all men especially betwixt the King and his People and hath thereby most grievously offended against the Crown and Dignity of his Majesty and against the Prosperity and good Government of this State and Common-wealth And the said Commons by protestation saving to themselves the Liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other occasion or impeachment against the said Roger Manwaring and also of replying to the answers which he the said Roger shall make unto any of the matters contained in this present Bill of Complaint and of offering further proof of the premises or of any of them as the Cause according to the Course of Parliament shall require do pray that the said Roger Manwaring may be put to answer to all and every the premises and that such proceeding examination trial judgement and exemplary punishment may be thereupon had and executed as is agreeable to Law and Iustice. This Declaration ingrossed in Parliament being read Mr. Pym addressed himself to the Lords in this manner THat he should speak to this Cause with more confidence because he saw nothing out of himself that might discourage him If he considered the matter the Offences were of an high nature of easie proof if he considered their Lordships who were the Judges of their own interest their own honour the example of their Ancestors the care of their Posterity would all be Advocates with him in this Cause on the behalf of the Commonwealth if he considered the King our Soveraign the pretence of whose Service and Prerogative might perchance be sought unto as a Defence and Shelter for this Delinquent he could not but remember that part of his Majesties Answer to the Petition of Right of both Houses that he held himself bound in conscience to preserve those Liberties which this man would perswade him to impeach He said further that he could not but remember his Majesties love to Piety and Justice manifested upon all occasions and he knew love to be the root and spring of all other passions and affections A man therefore hates because he sees somewhat in that which he hates contrary to that which he loves a man therefore is angry because he sees somewhat in that wherewith 〈◊〉 â—ngry that gives impediment and interruption to the accomplishment of that which he loves If this be so by the same act of his Apprehension by which he believes his Majesties love to Piety and Justice he must needs believe his hate and detestation of this man who went about to withdraw him from the exercise of both Then he proceeded to that which he said was the Task enjoyned him to make good every Clause of that which had been read unto them which that he might the more clearly perform he prepounded to observe that order of parts unto which the said Declaration was naturally dissolved 1. Of the Preamble 2. The Body of the Charge 3. The Conclusion or Prayer of the Commons The preamble consisted altogether of recital first of the Inducements upon which the Commons undertook this complaint The second of those Laws and Liberties against which the offence was committed The third of the violation of those Laws which have relation to that offence From the connexion of all those recitals he said there did result three Positions which he was to maintain as the ground-work and foundation of the whole Cause The first that the form of Government in any State could not be altered without apparent danger of ruine to that State The second the Law of England whereby the Subjects was exempted from Taxes and Loans not granted by common consent of Parliament was not introduced by any Statute or by any Charter or Sanction of Princes but was
well performed would require the time and industry of the ablest men both of Counsel and Action that your whole Kingdome will affoard especially in these times of common danger And our humble desire is further that your most excellent Majesty will be pleased to take into your Princely consideration whether in respect the said Duke hath so abused his power it be safe for your Majesty and your Kingdom to continue him either in his great Offices or in his place of nearness and Councel about your sacred Person And thus in all humility aiming at nothing but the honour of Almighty God and the maintenance of his true Religion the safety and happiness of your most excellent Majesty and the preservation and prosperity of this Church and Common-wealth We have endeavoured with faithfull hearts and intentions and in discharge of the duty we owe to your Majesty and our Countrey to give your Majesty a true Representation of our present danger and pressing calamities which we humbly beseech your Majesty graciously to accept and take the same to heart accounting the safety and prosperity of your people your greatest happiness and their love your Richest Treasure A rufull and lamentable spectacle we confess it must needs be to behold those Ruines in so fair an House So many diseases and almost every one of them deadly in so strong and well tempered a body as this kingdom lately was But yet we will not doubt but that God hath reserved this Honor for your Majesty to restore the safety and happiness thereof as a work worthy so excellent a Prince for whose long life and true felicity we daily pray and that your fame and never dying Glory may be continued to all succeeding Generations HEreupon a Message was sent to his Majesty desiring access to his Person with the Remonstrance and the Speaker was appointed to deliver it who much desired to be excused but the House would not give way thereunto The House also sent up the Bill of Subsidy unto the Lords Soon after the King sends a Message by Sir Humphrey May that he means to end this Session on the 26. of Iune whereupon the Commons fall upon the Bill of Tunnage and Poundage In the mean time this ensuing Order concerning the Duke was made in the Starchamber upon the signification of his Majesties pleasure In Interiori Camera Stellatâ 16. Junii Anno quarto Caroli Reg. FOrasmuch as his Majesty hath been graciously pleased to signifie unto his Highness Atturney General that his Royal pleasure is that the Bill or information Exhibited into this Court against the Right Honourable George Duke of Buck. for divers great offences and misdemeanours objected against him for that his Majesty is fully satisfied of the innocency of that Duke in all those things mentioned in the said information as well by his own certain knowledge as by the proofs in the Cause shall therefore together with the said Dukes Answer thereunto and all other proceedings thereupon be taken off the File that no memory thereof remain of Record against him which may tend to his disgrace It is therefore Ordered that the said Information or Bill the Answer thereunto and all other Proceedings thereupon be forthwith taken from the File by his Majesties said Atturney General according to his Majesties pleasure therein to him signified under his hand and now remaining in the custody of the Register of this Court Dated this present 16. day of Iune 4. Caroli Exam. per Jo. Arthur 16. Iunii 1628. ON this very day the Duke signified unto the House that he is informed that one Mr. Christopher Eukener of the House of Commons hath affirmed that his Grace did speak these words at his own Table Viz. Tush it makes no matter what the Commons or Parliament doth for without my leave and authority they shall not be able to touch the hair of a Dogg And his Grace desired leave of their Lordships that he might make his Protestation in the House of Commons concerning that Speech And to move them that he which spake it of him being a Member of that House might be commanded to justifie it and his Grace heard to clear himself Their Lordships considering thereof ordered that the Duke shall be left to himself to do herein what he thinks best in the House of Commons Whereupon the Duke gave their Lordships thanks and protested upon his Honour that he never had those words so much as in his thoughts Tho which Protestation the Lords Commanded to be entred that the Duke may make use thereof as need shall be The Duke also charged one Mr. Melvin for speaking words against him Viz. First That Melvin said That the Dukes plot was that the Parliament should be dissolved and that the Duke and the King with a great Army of Horse and Foot would war against the Commonalty and that Scotland should assist him so that when war was amongst our selves the Enemy should come in for this Kingdom is already sold to the Enemy by the Duke 2. That the Duke had a stronger Councel then the King of which were certain Jesuites Scotishmen and that they did sit in Councel every night from one of the clock till three 3. That when the King had a purpose to do any thing of what consequence soever the Duke could alter it 4. That when the Ordnance were shipt at St. Martins the Duke caused the Souldiers to go on that they might be destroyed 5. That the Duke said he had an Army of 16000. Foot and 1200. Horse 6. That King Iames his blood and Marquess Hamiltons with others cries out for vengeance to heaven 7. That he could not expect any thing but ruine of this Kingdom 8. That Prince Henry was poisoned by Sir Thomas Overbury and he himself served with the same sauce and that the Earl of Somerset and others could say much to this 9. That he himself had a Cardinal to his Uncle or near Kinsman whereby he had great intelligence About the same time the Lord Keeper reported to the House of Lords what his Majesty said touching the Commission of Excise Viz. That their Lordships had reason to be satisfied with what was truly and rightly told them by the Lords of the Councel that this Commission was no more but a warrant of advice which his Majesty knew to be agreeable to the time and the manifold occasions then in hand but now having a supply from the loves of his people he esteems the Commission useless and therefore though he knows no cause why any jealousie should have risen thereby yet at their desires he is content it be cancelled and he hath commanded me to bring both the Commission and Warrant to him and it shall be cancelled in his own presence The day following the Lord Keeper reported that his Majesty had cancelled the Commission and the Warrant for putting the Seal thereunto and did there openly shew it and a Message was sent to the Commons to
called to the Councel-board at Hampton Court about some things which were complained of in reference to the Customs did then and there in an insolent manner in the presence or hearing of the Lords and others of his Majesties Privy Council then sitting in Counsel utter these undutiful seditious and false words That the Merchants are in no part of the World so skrewed and wrung as in England That in Turky they have more incouragement By which words he the said Richard Chambers as the Information setteth forth did endeavor to alienate the good affection of his Majesties Subjects from his Majesty and to bring a slander upon his just Government and therefore the Kings Attorney prayed process against him To this Mr. Chambers made answer That having a Case of silk Grogerams brought from Bristol by a Carrier to London of the value of 400. l. the same were by some inferior Officers attending on the Custome-house seized without this Defendants consent notwithstanding he offered to give security to pay such Customs as should be due by Law and that he hath been otherwise grieved and damnified by the injurious dealing of the under-Officers of the Custome-house and mentioned the particulars wherein and that being called before the Lords of the Council he confesseth that out of the great sence which he had of the injuries done him by the said inferior Officers he did utter these words That the Merchants in England were more wrung and screwed then in forreign Parts Which words were onely spoken in the presence of the Privy-Council and not spoken abroad to stir up any discord among the people and not spoken with any disloyal thought at that time of his Majesties Government but onely intending by these words to introduce his just Complaint against the wrongs and injuries he had sustained by the inferiour Officers and that as soon as he heard a hard construction was given of his words he endeavoured by petition to the Lords of the Council humbly to explain his meaning that he had not the least evil thought as to his Majesties Government yet was not permitted to be heard but presently sent away prisoner to the Marshalsea and when he was there a prisoner he did again endeavour by petition to give satisfaction to the Lords of the Council but they would not be pleased to accept of his faithful explanation which he now makes unto this honourable Court upon his Oath and doth profess from the bottom of his heart That his speeches onely aimed at the abuses of the inferiour Officers who in many things dealt most cruelly with him and other Merchants There were two of the Clerks of the Privy-Council examined as Witnesses to prove the words notwithstanding the Defendant confessed the words in his Answer as aforesaid who proved the words as laid in the Information And on the sixth of May 1629. the Cause came to be heard in the Star-Chamber and the Court were of opinion that the words spoken were a comparing of his Majesties Government with the Government of the Turks intending thereby to make the people believe that his Majesties happy Government may be tearmed Turkish Tyranny and therefore the Court fined the said Mr. Chambers in the sum of 2000 l. to his Majesties use and to stand committed to the prison of the Fleet and to make submission for his great offence both at the Council-board in Court of Star-Chamber and at the Royal Exchange There was a great difference of opinion in the Court about the Fine and because it is a remarkable Case here followeth the names of each several person who gave sentence and the Fine they concluded upon viz. Sir Francis Cottington Chancellour of the Exchequer his opinion was for 500 l. Fine to the King and to acknowledge his offence at the Council-board the Star-Chamber-Bar and Exchange Sir Tho. Richardson Lord chief Justice of the common pleas 500 l. Fine to the King and to desire the Kings favour Sir Nicholas Hide Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench 500 l. and to desire the Kings favour Sir Iohn Cook Secretary of State 1000 l. Sir Humphry May Chancellour 1500 l. Sir Thomas Edmons 2000 l. Sir Edward Barret 2000 l. Doctor Neal Bishop of Winchester 3000 l. Doctor Laud Bishop of London 3000 l. Lord Carlton principal Secretary of State 3000 l. Lord Chancellour of Scotland 2000 l. Earl of Holland 1500 l. Earl of Doncaster 1500 l. Earl of Salisbury 1500 l. Earl of Dorset 3000 l. Earl of Suffolk 3000 l. Earl of Mountgomery Lord Chamberlain 1500 l. Earl of Arundel Lord High Marshal 3000 l. Lord Montague Lord Privy Seal 3000 l. Lord Connoway 2000 l. Lord Weston Lord Treasurer 3000 l. Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 1500 l. So the fine was setled to 2000 l. And all except the two Chief Justices concurred for a submission also to be made And accordingly the copy of the submission was sent to the Warden of the Fleet from Mr. Atturny General to shew the said Richard Chambers to perform and acknowledg it and was as followeth I Richard Chambers of London Merchant do humby acknowledge that whereas upon an Information exhibited against me by the Kings Atturney General I was in Easter Term last sentenced by the Honourable Court of Star-Chamber for that in September last 1628. being convented before the Lords and others of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council Board upon some speeches then used concerning the Merchants of this Kingdom and his Majesties well and gracious usage of them did then and there in insolent contemptuous and seditious manner falsly and maliciously say and affirm That they meaning the Merchants are in no parts of the world so skrewed and wrung as in England and that in Turky they have more incouragement And whereas by the sentence of that Honorable Court I was adjudged among other punishments justly imposed upon me to make my humble acknowledgment and submission of this great offence at this Honorable Board before I should be delivered out of the Prison of the Fleet whereto I was then committed as by the said Decree and Sentence of that Court among other things it doth and may appear Now I the said Richard Chambers in obedience to the Sentence of the said Honorable Court do humbly confess and acknowledg the speaking of these words aforesaid for the which I was so charged and am heartily sorry for the same and do humbly beseech your Lordships all to be Honorable intercessors for me to his Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to pardon that graet error and fault so committed by me When Mr. Chambers read this draught of submission he thus subscribed the same All the abovesaid Contents and Submission I Richard Chambers do utterly abhor and detest as most unjust and false and never to death will acknowledge any part thereof Rich. Chambers Also he under-writ these Texts of Scripture to the said Submission before he returned it That make a man an offender
for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate and turn aside the just for a thing of nought Blame not before thou have examined the truth understand first and then rebuke answer not before thou hast heard the cause neither interrupt men in the midst of their talk Doth our Law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth King Agrippa said unto Paul Thou art permitted to speak for thy self Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor in his cause thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the eyes of the righteous Woe to them that devise iniquity because it is in the power of their hand and they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage Thus saith the Lord God Let it suffice you O Princes of Israel remove violence and spoyl and execute judgment and justice take away your exactions from my people saith the Lord God If thou seest the oppression of the Poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher then they Per me Richard Chambers Afterwards in the Term of Trinity the 5 yeer of King Charls it is found in the great Roll of this year that there is demanded there of Richard Chambers of London Merchant 2000 l. for a certain fine imposed on him hither sent by vertue of a writ of our said Lord the King under the foot of the great Seal of England directed to the Treasurer and Barons of this Exchequer for making execution thereof to the use of the said Lord the King as is there contained and now that is to say in the Utas of the Blessed Trinity this Term comes the said Richard Chambers in his own proper person and demands Oyer of the demand aforesaid and it is read unto him and he demands Oyer also of the Writ aforesaid under the foot of the Great Seal of England hither sent and it is read unto him in these words CHarls by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To his Treasurer and Barons of his Exchequer health The extret of certain fines taxed and adjudged by Us and our said Council in our said Council in Our Court of Star-Chamber in the Term of St Michael the Term of St. Hillary and the Term of Easter last past upon Thomas Barns of the Parish of St. Clements Danes in the County of Middlesex Carpenter and others severally and dividedly as they be there severally assessed We send unto you included in these presents commanding that looking into them you do that which by Law you ought to do against them for the levying of those fines Witness our Self at Westminster the 21 of May in the yeer of Our Reign the 5 Mutas And the tenor of the Schedule to the said Writ annexed as to the said Richard Chambers followeth in these words IN the Term of Easter the fifth year of King Charles of Richard Chambers of London Merchant 2000 l. which being read heard and by him understood he complains that he is grievously vexed and inquieted by colour of the Premises and that not justly for that protesting that the said great Roll and the matter therein contained is not in Law sufficient to which he hath no need nor is bound by Law to answer yet for Plea the said Richard Chambers saith That he of the demand aforesaid in the great Roll aforesaid mentioned and every parcel thereof ought to be discharged against the said Lord the King for that he said That he from the time of the Taxation oâ— the aforesaid Fine and long before was a Freeman and a Merchant of this Kingdom that is to say In the Parish of the blessed Mary of the Arches in the Ward of Cheap London And that by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the Third held in the ninth year of his reign it was provided by Authority of the said Parliament That a Freeman shall not be amerced for a little offence but according to the manner of the said offence and for a great offence according to the greatness of the offence saving to him his Contenement or Freehold and a Merchant in the same manner saving unto him his Merchandize and a Villain of any other then the King after the same manner to be amerced saving his Wainage and none of the said Amercements to be imposed but by the Oaths of good and lawful men of the Neighbourhood And by a certain other Act in the Parliament of the Lord Edward late King of England the first held in the Third year of his reign it was and is provided That no City Burrough or Town nor any man should be amerced without reasonable cause and according to his Trespass that is to say A Freeman saving to him his Contenement A Merchant saving to him his Merchandize and A Villan saving to him his Wainage and this by their Peers And by the same Act in the Parliament of the said Lord Henry late King of England the Third held in the ninth year of his reign aforesaid it was and is provided by Authority of the said Parliament That no Freemen should be taken or imprisoned or disseized of his Freehold or Liberties or free Customs or outlaw'd or banish'd or any way destroyed And that the Lord the King should not go upon him nor deal with him but by a lawful judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Edward late King of England the Third held in the fifth year of his reign it was and is provided by the Authority of the said Parliament That no man henceforward should be attached by reason of any Accusation nor pre-judged of Life or Member nor that his Lands Tenements Goods or Chattels should be seized into the hands of the Lord the King against the form of the great Charter and the Law of the Land And by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the seventh held in the third year of his reign reciting that by unlawful Maintenances given of liveries signes and tokens and retainders by Indentures Promises Oaths Writings and other Imbraceries of the Subjects of the said Lord the King false Demeanors of Sheriffs in making of Pannels and other false returns by taking of money by Jurors by great ryots and unlawful assemblies the policie and good Government of this Kingdom was almost subdued and by not punishing of the said inconveniences and by occasion of the Premises little or nothing was found by Inquisition by reason thereof the Laws of
ticklish point Therefore he was committed to the custody of the Marshal and all the other Prisoners were remanded to the Tower because they would not find sureties for the good behaviour Accordingly the same Term an Information was exhibited by the Atturney General against Sir Iohn Elliot Denzil Holles Sir Benjamin Valentine reciting That a Parliament was summoned to be held at Westminster 17 Martii tertio Caroli Regis ibid. inchoat and that Sir Iohn Elliot was duly elected and returned Knight for the County of Cornwal and the other two Burgesses of Parliament for other places and Sir Iohn Finch chosen Speaker That Sir John Elliot machinans intendens omnibus viis modis seminare excitare discord evil will murmurings and seditions as well versus Regem Magnates Praelatos Proceres Justiciarios suos quam inter Magnates Proceres Justiciarios reliquos Subditos Regis totaliter deprivare avertere regimen gubernationem Regni Angliae tam in Domino Rege quam in Conciliariis Ministris suis cujuscunque generis introducere tumultum confusionem in all Estates and parts ad intentionem That all the Kings Subjects should withdraw their affections from the King The 23 of February Ann. 4 Carol. in the Parliament and hearing of the Commons falso malitiose seditiose used these words The Kings Privy Council his Judges and his Counsel learned have conspired together to trample under their feet the Liberties of the Subjects of this Realm and the Liberties of this House And afterwards upon the 2 of March Ann. 4. aforesaid the King appointed the Parliament to be adjourned until the 10 of March next following and so signified his pleasure to the House of Commons and that the three Defendants the said 2 day of March 4 Car. malitiose agreed and amongst themselves conspired to disturb and distract the Commons that they should not adjourn themselves according to the Kings pleasure before signified And that the said Sir Iohn Elliot according to the agreement and conspiracy aforesaid had maliciously in propositum intentionem praedict in the House of Commons aforesaid spoken these false malicious pernitious and seditious words precedent c. And that the said Denzil Holles according to the agreement and conspiracy aforesaid between him and the other Defendants then and there falso malitiose seditiose uttered haec falsa malitiosa scandalosa verba precedentia c. And that the said Denzil Holles Benjamin Valentine secundum agreamentum conspirationem praedict ad intentionem propositum praedict uttered the said words upon the said 2 of March after the signifying the Kings pleasure to adjourn and the said Sir John Finch the Speaker endeavoring to get out of the chair according to the Kings command They vi armis manu forti illicito assaulted evil entreated and forcibly detayned him in the chair and afterwards he being out of the chair they assaulted him in the House and evil entreated him violenter manu forti illicito drew him to the chair and thrust him into it whereupon there was great tumult and commotion in the House to the great terror of the Commons there assembled against their Allegeance in maximum contemptum and to the disherison of the King his Crown and Dignity for which c. To this Information the Defendants put in a Plea to the jurisdiction of the Court Forasmuch as these offences are supposed to have been done in Parliament they ought not to be punished in this Court or any other except in Parliament And the Atturney General moved the Court to over-rule the Plea as to the jurisdiction of the Court and this he said the Court might do although he did not demur upon the Plea But the Court would not over-rule the Plea but gave a day to joyn in demurr that Term. And on the first day of the next Term the Record to be read and within a day after argued at the Bar. In Hilary Term following the Case of Walter Longe Esquire one of the imprisoned Gentlemen came to hearing in the Star-Chamber which was as followeth An Information was exhibited into the Star-Chamber by SIR Robert Heath Knight his Majesties Atturney General Plaintiff against the said Walter Longe Defendant for a great and presumptuous Contempt against his Majesty for breach of duty and trust of his Office and for manifest and wilful breach of his Oath taken as high Sheriff of the County of Wilts and not residing and dwelling in his own person in the said County according to the said Oath but being chosen one of the Citizens for the City of Bath in the County of Somerset to serve for the said City in the last Parliament by colour thereof he remained at London or Westminster during the time of that Parliament by the space of three months and above in neglect of his Duty and in manifest contempt of the Laws of this kingdom which cause was now by his Majesties said Atturney General brought to hearing upon the Defendents own confession And upon opening the answer and reading the examination of the said Defendant it appeared to this Court That the said Defendant Long was by his now Majesty made high Sheriff of the County of Wilts in or about November in the third year of his Majesties reign and received his Patent of Sheriffwick for the said County about ten days after and that he took an Oath before one of the Masters of the Chancery for the due execution of the said Office of Sheriff of the said County In which Oath as appear'd by the same there read in Court he did swear that he would in his own person remain within his Bayliffwick during all the time of his Sheriffwick unless he had the King license to the contrary and that at an Election of Citizens for the said City of Bath the said Defendant Longe was chosen one of the Citizens to serve for the said City of Bath in the Parliament then summoned to be holden and commence upon the seventeenth day of March in the said third year of his Majesties reign and being so chosen and returned by the Sheriff of the Countie of Somerset notwithstanding his said Oath taken to remain in his proper person within his Bayliffwick unless he were licensed by his Majestie he the said Defendant did make his personal appearance in the Commons house of Parliament at the City of Westminster in the County of Middlesex and did during the most part of the said Parliament continue in and about the City of London and Westminster and did attend in the Parliament as a Citizen for the said City of Bath during all which time he likewise was and continued high Sheriff for the said County of Wilts and had no particular license from his Majesty to the contrary Upon consideration whereof as also of the the particular causes and reasons of the Defendants Demurrer and Plea formerly exhibited
per Annum by raising a certain value upon their Lands and some other impositions which requiring a long Discourse by it self I will omit it here setting it down in my Instructions it will save your Majesty at least One hundred thousand pounds per Annum to make it pain of death and confiscation of goods and lands for any of the Officers to cousen You which now is much to be feared they do or else they could not be so rich and herein to allow a fourth part benefit to them that shall find out the cousenage Here is not meant Officers of State as the Lord Treasurer c. being Officers of the Crown The summe of all this account amounteth unto two Millions or Twenty hundred thousand pounds per Annum Suppose it be but one Million and a Half as assuredly your Majesty may make by these courses set down yet it is much more then I promised in my Letter for your Majesties service Besides some sums of mony in present by the courses following Imprimis By the Prince's Marriage to make all the Earls in England Grandees of Spain and Principi with such like priviledges and to pay twenty thousand pounds apiece for it 2. As also if you make them Foeditaries of the Towns belonging to their Earldoms if they will pay for it besides as they do to the King of Spain in the Kingdom of Naples And so likewise Barons to be made Earls and Peers to pay ninteen thousand pounds a piece I think might yield five hundred thousand pounds and oblige them more sure to his Majesty 3. To make choice of two hundred of the richest men of England in estate that be not Noble-men and make them Titulate as is used in Naples and paying for it that is a Duke thirty thousand pounds a Marquis fifteen thousand pounds an Earl ten thousand pounds and a Baron or Viscount five thousand pounds It is to be understood that the antient Nobility of Barons made Earls are to precede these as Peers though these be made Marquesses or Dukes this may raise a Million of pounds and more unto your Majesty To make Gentlemen of low quality and Francklines and rich Farmers Esquires to precede them would yield your Majesty also a great sum of mony in present I know another course to yield your Majesty at least three hundred thousand pounds in mony which as yet the time serveth not to discover untill your Majesty be resolved to proceed in some of the former courses which till then I omit Other courses also that may make present mony I shall study for your Majestie 's service and as I find them out acquaint you withall Lastly to conclude all these discourses by the application of this course used for your profit That it is not onely the means to make you the richest King that ever England had but also the safety augmented thereby to be most secure besides what shewed in the first part of this Discourse I mean by the occasion of this Taxation and raising of monies your Majesty shall have cause and means to imploy in all places of the Land so many Officers and Ministers to be obliged to you for their own good and interest as nothing can be attempted against your Person or Royall State over land but some of them shall in all probability have means to find it out and hinder it Besides this course will detect many disorders and abuses in the publick Government which were hard to be discovered by men indifferent To prohibite gorgeous and costly apparell to be worn but by persons of good quality shall save the Gentry of the Kingdom much more mony then they shall be taxed to pay unto your Majesty Thus withall I take my leave and kiss your gratious hands desiring pardon for my error I may commit herein Pasc. 5. Caroli Regis B. R. The Reports of the following Arguments were taken by Mr. Widdrington of Gray's-Inn UPon the Habeas Corpus out of this Court to bring here the body of one William Stroud Esq with the cause of his imprisonment to the Marshall of the Kings Bench it was returned in this manner That William Stroud Esq was committed under my custody by vertue of a certain Warrant under the hands of twelve Lords of the Privy Councill of the Lord the King the tenour of which Warrant followeth in these words You are to take knowledge that it is his Majesties expresse pleasure and commandment that you take into your custody the body of William Stroud Esq and keep him close-prisoner untill you shall receive other order either from his Majesty or this Board for so doing this shall be your Warrant Dated the 2 d of April 1629. And the Direction thereof was To the Marshall of the King's Bench or his Deputy He is likewise held in prison by vertue of a certain Warrant under the hand of the King himself the tenour of which Warrant followeth in these words Carolus Rex Whereas you have in your custody the body of William Stroud Esq committed by the Lords of Our Privy Councill by Our speciall command you are to take notice that his commitment was for notable contempts by him committed against Our Self and Our Government and for stirring up of Sedition against Us For which you are to detain him in your custody and keep him close-prisoner untill Our pleasure be further known concerning his deliverance Given at Greenwich the 7 th of May 1629. in the 5 th year of Our Reigne And the direction was To Our Marshall for Our Bench for the time being And these are the causes of the taking and detaining of the foresaid William Stroud c. And upon another Habeas Corpus to the Marshall of the Houshold to have the body of Walter Long Esq he made the same Return as above Ask of the Inner Temple of Counsell with Mr. Stroud moved That the Return was insufficient The Return consists upon two Warrants bearing severall Dates which are the causes of the taking and detaining of the Prisoner For the first Warrant which is of the Lords of the Councill that is insufficient because no cause is shewn of his commitment which is expresly against the resolution of the Parliament and their Petition of Right in the time of this King which now is to which he had likewise given his assent so his taking by vertue of the said Warrant is wrongfull And for the second Warrant it is insufficient also and that notwithstanding that it be the Kings own for the King himself cannot imprison any man as our Books are to wit 16 H. 6. F. Monstrance de faits 1 H. 7.4 Hussey reports it to be the opinion of Markham in the time of Edw. 4. and Forrescue in his Book de laudibus Legum Angliae cap. 18. And the reason given is because no action of false imprisonment lies against the King if the Imprisonment be wrongfull and the King cannot be a wrong doer The Statute
d. interfecit I. S. upon prepensed malice is good for the nature of the thing is expressed although the formall word be wanting but out of the Return the substance of the offence ought alwaies to appear which appears not here But it hath been said by the other side That let the cause in the Return be as it will yet is it not traversable 9 H. 6.54 and I confesse it But as C. 11. James Baggs case is the Return ought to have certainty so much in it that if it be false the party grieved may have his action upon the case And the grievance complained of in the Petition of Right is that upon such Return no cause was certified that is no such cause upon which any Indictment might be drawn up for we never understand that the party shall be tryed upon the Habeas Corpus but that upon the matter contained within it and Indictment shall be made and he shall have his tryall upon it And yet it is clear and it hath been agreed of all hands in the Argument of the grand Habeas corpus Mich. 3. Car. in this Court that if the cause be certified upon the Return of the Habeas corpus that the Court may judge of the legality of that cause 2. Consider the parts of this Return as they are coupled together for notable contempts by him committed against Our Self and Our Government and for stirring of sedition against Us Upon the entire Return the King joynes sedition with notable contempts so that it is as much as if he had said that Sedition is one of the notable contempts mentioned in the first part of the Return so that he makes it but a contempt For the generality and incertainty of the Return I refer my self to the cases put by Mr. Ask and I will not waive any of them True it is if the Return had been that it was for Treason he had not been bailable but by the discretion of the Court and such Return would have been good but it is not so of sedition Gard. 157. Treason is applyed to a petty offence to the breach of trust by a Guardian in Socage but it is not treason And so sedition is of far lesse nature then treason and is oftentimes taken of a trespasse it is not treason of it self nor seditiosè was never used in an Indictment of treason It was not treason before the 25 of Edw. 3. nor can it be treason for 25 E. 3. is a flat Barre as I have said before to all other offences to be treason which are not contained within the said Act or declared by any Statute afterwards And there are offences which are more heinous in their nature then sedition is which are not treason as Insurrections c. which see in the Statute 11 H. 7. cap. 7. 2 H. 5. cap. 9. 8 H. 6. cap. 14. 5 R. 2. cap. 6. 17 R. 2. cap. 8. and by 3 and 4 E. 6. cap. 5. the assembly of twelve persons to attempt the alteration of any Law and the continuance together by the space of an hour being commanded to return is made treason which Act was continued by the Statute of 1 Mar. cap. 12. and 1 Eliz. cap. 16. but now is expired by her death and is not now in force although the contrary be conceived by some which I pray may be well observed By the Statute of 14 Eliz. cap. 1. rebellious taking of the Castles of the King is made treason if they be not delivered c. which shewes clearly that such taking of Castles in its nature was not treason But the said Statute is now expired and also all Statutes creating new treasons are now repealed But for a conclusion of this part of my Argument I will cite a case which I think expresse in the point or more strong then the case in question And it was M. 9. E. 3. roll 39. B. R. Peter Russells case he was committed to prison by the Deputy-Iustice of North-Wales because he was accused by one William Solyman of sedition and other things touching the King And hereupon a Commission issued out of the Chancery to enquire if the said Peter Russell behaved himselfe well or seditiously against the King and by the Inquisition it was found that he behaved himself well And upon an Habeas Corpus out of this Court his body was returned but no cause But the said Inquisition was brought hither out of Chancery and for that no cause of his caption was returned he prayed Delivery but the Court would not deliver him till it knew the cause of his Commitment Therefore taking no regard of the said Inquisition they now send a Writ to the now Iustice of Wales to certifie the cause of his commitment And thereupon he made this Return That the foresaid Peter Russell was taken because one William Solyman charged him that he had committed divers seditions against the Lord the King and for that cause he was detained and for no other And because the Return mentions not what sedition in speciall he was bayled but not discharged And I desire the baylment of the prisoner onely and not his deliverance I desire that the case be well observed In the said case there was an actuall sedition against the King here is onely a stirring up of sedition The words of the said Award are Videtur curiae which are the solemn words of a Iudgment given upon great deliberation There it was for other things concerning Us This is all one as if it had said for other things against Us Concerning the King and Against the King are all one as appears by 25 E. 3. c. 4. de Clero Stamf. 124. Westm. 1. c. 15. Bracton f. 119. 14 Eliz. c. 2. And the words of the Iudgment in the said case were not dimittitur but ideò dimittendus which imply the right of the party to be bayled The said case in some things was more particular then our case and more strong for there was an Accuser to boot which wants in our case There true it is that he was committed by the Iustice of Wales and here by the King himself but this makes no difference as to this Court for be the commitment by the King himself or by any other if it be not upon just cause the party may be bayled in this Court. And for the Inquisition which is mentioned it was no Tryall in the case nor did the Court give any regard thereto To detain the prisoner by the command of the King singly is against the Petition of Right but it being coupled with the cause the cause is to be considered and the truth of the cause is to be intended as well where it is mentioned to be by an inferiour Iudge as where by the King himself for it is traversable neither in the one nor other And 22 H. 8. roll 37. B. R. and 1 H. 8 roll 8. Harrisons case resolv'd that a man committed by the command of the King is