good Lawes therefore it is but Gods justice to repay them with Talion Lawes to have their Priviledges broken seeing they first chalked out the way The King in requitall of this great love of theirs did instantly dissolve the Parliament which hath bred such ill blood in the veines of the Subjects to their Sovereign and in the Sovereign to the Subject that it is like to produce an epidemicall infection But the occasion taken to dissolve it was worst of all for Buckingham by his insolent behaviour had not onely lost that love his hatred to Spaine had procured him but was now growne into such an hatred that they fell on him for the death of his old Master which had been of a long time before but whispered but now the Examinations bred such confessions that it looked with an ugly deformed poysonous countenance and nothing but the dissolution of that Parliament could have saved his dissolution and that with a brand of shame and infamy as well as of ingratitude I remember I heard a noble Gentleman an old Parliament man of that Committee for Examinations say at first he derided the very thought of it but after the first dayes Examination it proved so foule as that he both hated and scorned the name and memory of Buckingham and though man would not punish it God would which proved an unhappy prediction This dissolving the Parliament was ill relished by the people and that which to them did seeme the cause worse and to make the case yet fouler and that it must needs be the evident cause Buckinghams Counsels were so stupid and himself so insolent that he did thinke it a glory to disgrace all those that followed that businesse in that Parliament or that seemed inquisitive thereafter and caused many old Servants of the Kings he formerly favoured very much to be banished from Court never to returne more nor did they ever as Clare Crofts Sir Fra. Stewart c. nay Dr. Cragg his Phisitian who from his very childhood had the generall repute of a very honest man for expressing himselfe like an honest man in the Kings presence was instantly dismissed never could recover his place or favour more Now also is Williams Lord Keeper turned out of his place and Coventry the Kings Atturney put in who had Buckingham lived had as soon followed in the same steps Then goes Buckingham into France on a stately Embassie for that Lady the King had seen and set an affection on in his passage to Spaine which was obtained with small intreaty Now doth Buckingham soare so high both in his Masters favours and in the pride of his own heart as he alters all great Officers makes war against Spaine and France the quarrel only his voiced to be on strange grounds the successe accordingly Navies Armies and nothing but war appeares as if we intended in shew to conquer all that opposed Lord Wimbleton the General from whom as little could be expected as he performed carrying a powerfull Army to Cales after an infinite expence and drinking much Spanish Wines and beating out the heads of what they could not drinke as if they intended to overthrow that yeares trade of Spanish Wine returned as like a valiant Commander as he ever was reputed whereas had he brought home those wasted Wines it may be they would have defrayed the charge of that expedition After the returne of that wise Pageantisme Denbigh is sent into France to aide Rochell who managed it better then his great Kinsman Buckingham who would afterwards needs goe to doe great exploits for he brought his ships and men safe againe the other left his men in powdering tubs as if he meant to have them kept sweet against his next comming thither In short this unhappy voyage lost all the honour our glorious ancestors had ever gotten over that Nation there being so many brave gentlemen wilfully lost as if that voyage had been on purpose plotted to disable our Nation by taking away so many gallant brave young spirits so many of our Colours lost as Trophies of their Victory and of our shame hung up in Nostredame Church that the brave Talbot and Salisbury with many other our valiant Ancestors will rise up in Judgement against him for that every way inglorious Act. Nay to how low an ebbe of honour was this our poore despicable Kingdome brought that even in Queene Elizabeths time the glory of the World a great Nobleman being taken prisoner was freely released with this farewell given with him that they desired but two English Mastieffes for his Ransome But the King by that unnecessary and dishonourable War was driven to that exigency for want of money that he was forced to pawn his rich Cupboard of Plate to Amsterdam and to send Cottington into Spain in a manner to beg a peace which having obtained it was thought so great a service of him that it raised him to all his Honor and Fortunes Yet all the while Rochell in sharpe distresse was left unrelieved although otherwise intended or but pretended rather For the Courting betwixt the Duke and the Governour of the Isle of Ree in sending complements and Presents to each other shewed rather an intimate dearnesse then any hostility to be meant between them And sure I am the successe made it apparent that their purpose was no better than to carry so many goodly Gentlemen to the Slaughter-house and Powdering-Tub as even now I instanced Yet was the King so content to be abused as publickly at his Dinner he delivered it for a miracle that having such ill successe there were so few men lost for that as many came home as went forth as appeared by the Chequer-Rol within five hundred At which a Gentleman whose faithfull Valour prompted him to speake a truth in season though theirs did not them to fight standing at the back of the Kings chair said yea Sir as you hear that hear very little of Truth But if you please to inquire of such as can and dare informe you truly you shall find many thousands fewer came home then went forth For which relation this honest Tell-troth was commanded presently from his Court-Attendance which doom he never could get reverst wherein you may behold the Power of Buckingham with the King whose Word stood for a Law Which Power of his grew now so exorbitant he aspires to get higher Titles both in Honour and Place as Prince of Tipperary a place so called in Ireland and Lord High Constable of England an Office aimed at by that Monster and Machivillian Leicester in Queen Elizabeths time but he therein was crossed and contradicted by the then Lord Chancellour Hatton now affected by Buckingham who herein wrote after Leicesters ambitious example but he crossed too by President with Coventry now Lord Keeper and no question but upon those just grounds his Predecessor did For you must understand this Office hath an Authority annexed unto it to call any Subject in question for his life by trying
face at the Dukes foot kissing it vowing never to rise till he had his pardon then was he againe reconciled and since that time so very a slave to the Duke and all that Family that he durst not deny the command of the meanest of the kindred nor oppose anything by this you see a base spirit is ever most concomitant with the proudest minde and surely never so many brave parts and so base and abject a spirit tenanted together in any one earthen Cottage as in this one man I shall not remember his basenesse being out of his place of pinning himselfe for very scraps on that Noble Gentleman Sir Julius Caesars Hospitality that at last he was forced to get the Kings Warrant to remove him out of his house yet in his prosperity the one being Chancellor and the other Master of the Rolls did so scorne and abuse him as he would alter any thing the other did And now Buckingham having the Chancellor Treasurer and all great Officers his very slaves swels in the height of pride summons up all his Country kindred the old Countesse providing a place for them to learne to carry themselves in a Court-like garbe but because they could not learne the French Dances so soon as to be suitable to their gay Clothes Country Dances for their sakes only must be the garbe of the Court and none else must be used Then must these women-kindred be married to Earles Earles eldest Sonnes Barons or chiefe Gentlemen of greatest estates insomuch that the very female kindred were so numerous as were sufficient to have peopled any Plantation nay very Kitchin-wenches were married to Knights eldest sonnes yet as if England had not matches enough in the Kingdome they married like the house of Austria in their own kindred witnesse the Earle of Anglesea married a cousen German to whom he had given earnest before so that King James that naturally in former times hated women had his Lodgings replenished with them and all of the Kindred The Brethren great Earls Little children did run up and downe the Kings Lodgings like little Rabbitstarters about their boroughs Here was a strange change that the King who formerly would not endure his Queen and children in his Lodgeings now you would have judged that none but women frequented them nay that was not all but the kindred had all the houses about White-Hall as if they had been Bulwarks and Flankers to that Cittadell But above all the Miracles of those times old Sir Anthony Ashley who never loved any but boyes yet he was snatcht up for a kinswoman as if there had been a concurrency thorow the Kingdom that those that naturally hated women yet should love his kindred as well as the King him And the very old Midwives of that kindred flockt up for preferment of which old Sir Christopher Perkins a woman-hater that never meant to marry nay it was said he had made a vow of Virginity yet was coupled to an old Midwife so that you see the greatnesse of this Favourite who could force by his power over the King though against Nature But I must tell you this got him much hatred to raise brothers and brother-in-laws to the highest rank of Nobility which were not capable of the place of scarce a Iustice of the Peace only his brother Purbeck had more wit and honesty then all the kindred beside and did keep him in some bounds of honesty and modesty whilst he lived about him and would speake plaine English to him for which plainnesse when they had no colour to put him from his brother they practised to make him mad and thought to bring that wicked stratagem to effect by countenancing a wicked Woman his Wife the Lord Cookes Daughter against him even in her base and lewd living And now is Purbeck mad indeed and put from Court Now none great with Buckingham but Bawds and Parasites and such as humoured him in his unchaste pleasures so that since his first being a pretty harmlesse affable Gentleman he grew insolent cruell and a monster not to be endured And now is Williams sometimes Chaplaine to the Lord Keeper Egerton brought into play made a privie-Councellor Deane of Westminster and of secret Councell with the King he was also made Bishop of Lincolne and was generally voyced at his first step to marry Buckinghams Mother who was in her husbands time created a Countesse he remaining still a C. silly drunken sot and this was the first president of this kinde ever known Williams held her long in hand and no doubt in nature of her Confessor was her secret friend yet would not marry at present which afterwards was cause of his downfall Then was there a Parliament summoned in which Bacon for his bribery and injustice was thrust out being closely prosecuted by one Morby a Woodmonger and one Wrenham formerly deeply censured in the Star-Chamber for accusing him of bribery and injustice Bacon was by Parliament justly put out of his place and but only for the Votes of the Bishops had been degraded the Bishops might have done better to have kept their voyces to have done themselves service at this time but surely that with some other injustice of theirs had so filled up their measure of iniquity that now Gods anger is kindled against them In Bacons place comes Williams a man on purpose brought in at first to serve turnes but in this place to doe that which none of the Layity could be found bad enough to undertake whereupon this observation was made that first no Lay-man could be found so dishonest as a Clergy man next as Bacon the Father of this Bacon did receive the seales from a Bishop so a Bishop againe received them from a Bacon and at this did the Lawyers fret to have such a flower pulled out of their Garland This Williams though he wanted much of his Predecessors abilities for the Law yet did he equall him for learning and pride and beyond him in the way of bribery this man answering by Petitions in which his servants had one part himselfe another and so was calculated to be worth to him his servants 3000. l. per annum by a new way never found out before And now being come to the height of his preferment he did estrange himselfe from the company of the old Countesse having much younger ware who had keyes to his chamber to come to him yet was there a necessity of keeping him in this place for a time the Spanish Match being yet in chase and if it succeeded this man was to clap the great Seale through his ignorance in the Lawes to such things that none that understood the danger by knowing the Lawes would venture upon and for this designe was he at first brought in no Prince living knowing how to make use of men better then King James Now was also Suffolke turned out of his place of Lord Treasurer and a fellow of the same Batch that Williams was brought into his place
condemning and executing him in despight of the King himselfe Nay some have made no bones on 't to affirme that for misgovernment the King himselfe is not exempted from that Officers Power Politickly therefore did the aforementioned Hatton who well understood the validity of such a Power when Leicesters Commission was in dispute to tel the Queen that his own hand should never strike off his own head which word was enough to her who was hereat so wise as also in all other matters of Stateconcernment wherein as she were hinted to a fore-sight of any prejudice she knew how to prevent it And thus that ended in his time But Buckinghams ambition would not be so bounded For upon the opposing it by Coventry he peremptorily thus accosted him saying who made you Coventry Lord Keeper he replyed the King Buckingham sur-replyed It s false 't was I did make you and you shall know that I who made you can and will unmake you Coventry thus answered him Did I conceive I held my Place by your Favour I would presently unmake my selfe by rendring the Seale to his Majesty Then Buckingham in a scorn and fury flung from him saying you shall not keep it long And surely had not Felton prevented him he had made good his Word And before that hapned Weston was by his power for his ends made Treasurer it should seem upon some assurance from him that he would find ways where-out to raise monys into the Treasury he judging him to be one that out of his own necessitous condition would adventure on any desperate projection to raise himself but yet withall to fill the Chequer Coffers who was no sooner warmed in his Office but hee began to shew his inbred base disposition to his Rayser Buckingham as formerly he had don to Cranfield who was indeed his preserver from perishing in a Prison whence he redeemed him making him a free partaker first of his bounteous Table then raising him shortly after to be Chancellour of the Exchequer who at length for requitall supplanted him But for all this Buckingham feared not his high spirit in himselfe and vast Power with the King were so predominant and unmoveable He now therefore used at his owne pleasure to come to the Counsell Table he being then honoured as the Oracle from whom they gaped for all Answers but ever made them wait his comming and were so tutored to their duteous observance of him that at his approach or returning thence they ever must rise as if he had been the King himselfe So that you may see to what a pretty passe those great men by their poor spirits had brought themselves But on a time there issued this amongst other passages of insolencies from Buckingham who comming into the Councell without any other Court-preface sayes to the Treasurer Weston My Lord the King must have 60000l provided against to morrow morning The Lords startled at the mention of such a sum the whole Exchequer not haing seen within its keeping scarce 1000l in many yeares and could not imagine how unlesse by the Philosophers stone such a sum was possible to be gotten but yet all looking on Weston to whom it was in this case proper to make answer who bethought himselfe what to say the rest every one the while gazing at each other another while againe all at Weston as a man of great wisdome for so was hee accounted of a Plebejan At length up he stands and thus he answers Buckingham My Lord The Exchequer is in a deep consumption Wherat Buckingham interrupts him saying How Sir You came in to cure that Consumption and to restore it to its usefull plenitude I remember you promised like a Mountebanke when you were to be invested by the King you would do so therefore Sir see you the money be provided otherwise you shall hear further of it With that high strain hee rose up and departed Now are all ways indeavoured to get mony from the Subjects which was not to be gotten by fair means the King having tryed all the shifts which any former Prince out of the Parliamentary way had ever don and had great sums brought in such as none of his Predecessors ever had of which one was the Royall Subsidy every man lending as much as the summe in the Subsidy towards which he was assessed as if for example assessed at 40. livre. besides so much payd he lent also 40. livre. and so from the least to the greatest proportions assessed Yet all this would not serve him but that quickly vanished then all other faire meanes proving as was thought for their profusenesse too sâ—ant and slow Force then must be the last remedy the King must keep standing Garrisons to awe his good Subjects and they consisting too of strangers not of Natives To that end one Dalbier that had been Generall of Count Mansfield Horse is dealt with for the raising of 1000 or 2000 German Horse the most whereof to bee quartered betwixt Gravesend and London For advancing of which service Sir William Balfore as great a Servant and Confident he is now of this Parliament was sent to Hamborough with 30000. l. to buy and to bring over those Horse with their impressed Riders and Furniture but many of them ready to bee imbarked it should seeme they were told by the way by some well affected to England that the King had not mony to continue them in Pay and Plunder they could not there for they should be so invironed with Sea that there was no flying but they must expect to have all their throats cut if they took any thing from any man Upon which those Rascals out of feare not conscience refused to come over However Balfore so wel lickt his fingers in that employment as that he therewith laid the foundation of his future fortunes yet if this Parliament consider well this action of his there is no reason he should be so deare unto them For of any thing yet toucht upon against any man by this Parliament I dare affirme this of his to be the greatest peece of villany and to be the nearest way to render us all slaves and to make us have neither propriety in our Estates Wives nor Children And yet was this Balfore a principall undetaker and actor in this pernicious designe and perhaps for that very cause the greatest creature of Buckinghams that ever was In this intervall their shifts not avayling them to see therefore if by this faire means their ends might be obtained another Parliament was summoned wherein after some expostulations on both sides there proved no better a good speed and successe then a meere frustration of all hopes on both hands which for the Kings part hee apprehended with so great aversnesse that as 't was said he made a vow never to call more Parliaments Forreigne Forces and fraudulent and faire devices home-spun failing all now must Projects in all their variegated inventions bee set on foot to which sage or rather rufull