Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A35251
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The unfortunate court-favourites of England exemplified in some remarks upon the lives, actions, and fatal fall of divers great men, who have been favourites to several English kings and queens ... / by R.B.
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R. B., 1632?-1725?
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1695
(1695)
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Wing C7351; ESTC R21199
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132,309
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194
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view of these fine beauties and to offer our service to them The Cardinal replied they were welcome whereupon having saluted all the Ladies a great Cup of Gold filled with Crown Pieces was opened and they thrown on the Table to play withal After they had play'd some time the Gentlemen came and threw down their winnings before the Cardinal being about two hundred Crowns Have at all quoth he and throwing a Die he won it whereat the company seemed much pleased Then said the Cardinal My Lord Chamberlain Pray go and tell these Gentlemen that I am of opinoin there is a Nobleman among them who better deserves to sit in this place than I and to whom I would gladly surrender it according to my duty if I knew him The Lord Chamberlain spoke to them in French and they replied That they must confess there was such a Noble Personage among them whom if his Grace could distinguish from the rest he would then discover himself and accept of his Place The Cardinal taking a strict review of them said I believe the Gentleman with the black Beard is he and thereupon he role up and offered him his Chair with the Cup in his hand But it was Sir Edward Nevil who was very like King Henry and the King seeing the Cardinal's mistake could not forbear laughing and pulling off his Vizor and Sir Edward's likewise discovered himself to all his Guests and then withdrawing clothed himself in his Royal Robes In which short space the former Banquet was clear taken away and the Tables new covered again with perfumed Linnen and the King and his Masquers returning again in their rich Cloths a Royal Banquet of two hundred Dishes was brought in where they continued Feasting and Dancing till the next Morning As these Entertainments discover the extream Magnificence wherein the Cardinal lived so they also shew the familiar temper of King Henry whom one Historian says was so free from Pride that he was rather too humble at least he conversed with his Subjects in a more familiar manner than is usual with Princes VVhich is confirmed by a Passage in the eleventh year of his Reign when the Privy Council complaining that certain young Gentlemen in his Court â—…ith whom he was over-familiar were so Frenchified that forgetting the respect due to his Royalty they used many unfeemly actions and discourses with him they were thereupon with his consent banished the Court and several other antient grave Knights and Gentlemen placed in their Rooms about the King's Person Neither did the Cardinals grandeur consist only in the aforementioned instances but likewise in erecting costly and magnificent Houses and Palaces as York Place at Westminster so named by him from his Archbishoprick now Whitehall Hampton Court his stately buildings at Christ Church and Windsor He likewise designed to have built two new Colleges in Oxford and Ipswich the Town of his Birth and obtained a License of Pope Clement to suppress forty Monasteries and seize the Revenues thereof to perform the same And for the farther support of his Dignity he enjoyed at one time no less than seven rich Bishopricks that is York Winchester Lincoln Tournay Bath VVorcester and Hereford so that he seemed a Monster with seven Heads each of them honoured with a Miter He being thus imperiously Great more like a Prince than a Priest was continually inventing new ways for getting of Money For he required an account of the Captains Treasurers and other Officers that had been imployed in paying the Souldiers in the VVars some of whom he obliged to refund great sums of their ill gotten Estates who made themselves poor to inrich him Others compounded with him for half they were worth But those that had deceived the King and then prodigally spent what they had wrongfully gained were exposed to publick shame and punishment So that none suffered though deeply Criminal but only for the Mortal Sin of Poverty He likewise erected several Courts of Equity as he called them but the People named them Courts of Iniquity in which upon pretence of relieving the poor from the rigour of the Law he brought such a multitude of Causes into them that the other Courts of Justice were abandoned and he thereby gained vast Treasures to himself Till at length the People perceiving that he only grew Rich and themselves poor and that the Verdicts in these Courts would not stand in Common Law they utterly left them and returned to the former course of Proceeding He likewise erected another new Court which he called the Legantine Court whereby he visited all Bishopricks and Monasteries punishing such Clergymen as were unable to bribe him but inriching himself by those who were full of Money and full of Faults By the same Authority he supprest several Abbies and Priories seizing all their Goods and Lands leaving only a small Pension to the Abbots and Priors whereby he purchased great riches and and great hatred from the Clergy who in many places opposed his Visitor Dr. Allen who rid in a Velvet Gown with a great Train following him and for which they were openly cursed by Dr. Forrest at Paul's Cross so that the Cardinal prevailed against them all and caused the generality to murmur and complain that by his Visitations Probate of Wills granting of Faculties Licenses and other Tricks he made his constant revenue equal to the King 's besides great sums which he yearly conveyed out of the Realm to the Court of Rome In 1517. The Citizens of London were so highly provoked by the multitude of French and Walloons who setling here undersold their goods and thereby impoverisht them that they resolved to endeavour to rid themselves of this annoyance all at once Whereupon John Lincoln a Broker persuaded one Dr. Bell to represent this great grievance to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in a Sermon at the Spittle on Easter Tuesday The Doctor undertook the business and took these words for his Text The Heaven is the Lord's but the Earth he hath given to the Sons of men From hence he infer'd that this Land was given to Englishmen who were obliged to defend the same as Birds do their Nests and to fight for their Country by the Law of God against all Strangers and Foreigners who to the great trouble vexation and ruin of the People had now over-run the Land and for which there was no redress to be had but by the Commons uniting themselves together and extirpating them out of the City and Kingdom and thereby avenge themselves of the many affronts and abuses which they had lately publickly offered them This Sermon inflamed the Minds of the Citizens who were sufficiently inraged before so that they took all occasions to qâ—arrel with the Foreigners and a rumor was spread that the next May day would be very remarkable The Cardinal and Council hearing of it ordered the Lord Mayor to keep strong Watches throughout the City However on May Eve several hundreds of young Fellows got together and
and their Commission being read the Cryer called Henry King of England who answered Here Then he cried Katherine Queen of England come into the Court the Queen made no answer but rising out of her Chair came to the King and kneeling at his Feet she in broken English spake thus to him ' Sir I beseech you do me Justice and right and take some Pity upon me I am a Poor Woman and a stranger Born out of your Dominions having here no indifferent Council and less Assurance of Friendship Alas Sir how have I offended you that you thus intend to shorten my Days I take God to witness I have been to you a True and Loyal Wife ever conformable to your Will and never contradicting your desires but have always complied and submitted to your Pleasure in all things without the least grudging or discontent For your sake I have loved all Men whom you loved whether they were my Friends or Enemies I have been your Wife these twenty Years by whom you have had many Children and when I first came to your Bed God and your own Conscience knows that I was a Virgin If you can prove any dishonesty by me whereby you may lawfully put me from you I am willing to leave you with shame and rebuke but if I am guilty of none I beseech you set me have Justice at your hands The King your Father was a man of excellent VVisdom in his time and accounted a second Solomon and the King of Spain Ferdinand my Father was reckoned one of the wisest Princes that has reigned there for many years And doubtless they had both as wise Counsellors as any are at this day And who could never have imagined when you and I were Married that such new devises should have been invented as to compel me to submit to the decrees of this Court from whom I may expect to receive wrong and may be condemned for not answering but not to have Right administred to me since I can have no indifferent Council assigned me to plead my Cause but must make choice of your own Subjects who know your Mind and dare not contradict your VVill. Therefore I most humbly beseech you spare till I know how my Friends in Spain will advise me But if you will not you may do your pleasure Then making a low Curtesie to the King she departed out of the Court Upon which the King bid the Crier call her back which he did but she refused to return saying It is no indifferent Court to me I will not go back VVhen she was gone the King declared to the Court that she had been a loyal loving and obedient Wife to him and was endued with all the good qualities and virtues of a Woman either of her Dignity or of any meaner Estate After which Cardinal Woolsey said ' I humbly beseech your Highness to declare to this audience whether I have been the first and chief Mover of this matter to your Highness or not for I am much suspected of all men The King declared he was not but rather advised the contrary but that the special cause that moved him in this matter was a certain scruple of Conscience upon some words spoken by the Bishop of Bayon the French Ambassador upon a debate about a Marriage between the Lady Mary his only Daughter and the Duke of Orleans second Son to the French King and the Bishop desiring time to consult his Master whether the Lady Mary were Legitimate as being born of his Brother Arthur's Wife This discourse so affected him considering he had no Heirs Male they all dying as soon as born that he judged God Almighty was displeased at this match Hereupon considering the state of the Realm and dispairing to have any more Children by his Queen whereby the Kingdom might be endangered for want of a Prince to succeed him and to quiet his own mind which was tossed with the Waves of troublesome doubts he desired to have the opinion of the Learned Prelates and Pastors of the Realm whether by the Laws of God and the Land he might take another Wife if his first Marriage were not Legal by which he might have more Issue Affirming in the presence of God that he had no dislike to the Person nor Age of the Queen with whom he could be content to live if it were the Will of God Nor out of carnal Concupiscence or desire of change but only for the setling of his Conscience After this the Court sate daily where many subtile and learned Arguments and Disputations touching the lawfulness or insufficiency of the Marriage were handled but the Queen Appealing to the Court of Rome for deciding this Question from which she could not be dissuaded The King expected a final â—efinitive Sentence on his behalf the two Legates declined to give it which so iâ—raged the King who now perceived their dissimulation and that they purposely contrived delays that from this time he had a mortal hatred against his false Favourite Woolsey whom from a contemptible Birth and Estate he had prefer'd to be Abbot of St. Albans his Almoner a Counsellor of State Bishop of Winchester Durham Lincoln Bath Worcester Hereford Tournay Archbishop of York an Ambassador to Kings and Princes his Chancellor and a Cardinal who by contriving this business thereby to render himself Gracious with the King and to be revenged of his Enemies brought ruin and destruction at length upon himself For notwithstanding the King excused him from being the Author of this scruple of Conscience yet Woolsey seemed at first very forward in promoting it and to incline to have it determined according to the King's Mind but afterward perceiving the fatal consequences which might ensue thereupon so as at length to shake the Infallibility of the Papal Chair if the Case were decided according to the Scriptures he declined proceeding therein For if the Marriage was unlawful then the former dispensation of Pope Julius was null and void and if it was lawful then the Judgment of so many learned Universities as had given their Opinion to the contrary was false In this difficulty his Collegue Campeius went out of the Kingdom before the day of the final determination of the matter leaving Woolsey to bear all the weight of the King's Indignation Another cause of the Cardinal 's opposing the Divorce was that the King during the Ventilation of this Knotty Case had fallen in love with Mrs. Ann Bullen who he after Married one of the Maids of Honour to Queen Katherine and Daughter to Sir Tho. Bullen afterward Earl of Wiltshire a Lady no way favourable to his Pontifical Grandeur nor to the Superstitions of the Church of Rome So that when the King discovered his great affection for her the Cardinal upon his Knees used many arguments to dissuade him from it Which the Lady had notice of and therefore when the King once entertained him at a great Feast She being present among other discourses said ' Sir is