easily committed and concealed It is an offence that is Tanquam sagitta nocte volans it is the Arrow that flies by night it discerns not whom it hits for many times the poyson is laid for one and another takes it As in Sanders case where the poysoned Apple was laid for the Mother and the Child eat it And so in that notorious Case whereupon the Statute of 22 Hen. 8. cap. 9. was made where the intent being but to poyson one or two poyson was put in a little Vessel of Barm that stood in the Kitchen at the Bishop of Rochesters house of which Barm Pottage or Grewel was made wherewith seventeen of the Bishops Family were poysoned nay divers of the poor that came to the Bishops-gate and had the Pottage in Alms were likewise poysoned Here is great talk of Impoysonment I hope I am safe I have no enemies nor any thing men can long for that is all one for he may sit at the Table by one for whom poyson is prepared and have a drench of his Cup or of his Pottage and so as the Poet saith Concidit infelix alieno vulnere he may die another mans death and therefore it was most gravely judiciously and properly provided by that Statute that Impoysonment should be High-Treason because whatsoever offence tendeth to the utter subversion and dissolution of Human Society is in the nature of High-Treason But it is an offence that I may truly say of it Non est nostri generis nec sanguinis It is thanks be to God rare in the Isle of Britain It is neither of our Country nor of our Church You may find it in Rome and Italy there is a Religion for it if it should come among us it were better living in a Wilderness than in a Court. For the particular fact upon Overbury I knew the Gentleman it is true his mind was great but it moved not in any great good order yet certainly it did commonly fly at good things and the greatest fault that ever I heard by him was That he made his Friend his Idol But take him as he was the Kings Prisoner in the Tower and then see how the Case stands In that place the State is as it were a Respondent to make good the Body of the Prisoner and if any thing happen to him there it may though not in this Case yet in some others make an aspersion and reflexion upon the State it self For the person is utterly void of his own defence his own care and providence can serve him to nothing He is in the custody and preservation of Law and we have a Maxim in our Law that when a State is in preservation of Law nothing can destroy it or hurt it and God forbid but the like should be in Persons and therefore this was a circumstance of great aggravation Lastly To have a man chased to death in a manner as it appears now by matter of Record for other privacy of Cause I know not by poyson after poyson First Rosaker then Arsnick then Mercury sublimate then sublimate again it is a thing would astonish mans nature to hear it The Poets feign that the Furies had Whips and that they were corded with poysoned Snakes and a man would think that this subject were the very Case To have a man tied to a post and to scourge him to death with Serpents for so truly may diversity of poysons be termed It pleased my Lord Chief Justice to let me know that which I heard with great comfort which was the charge that his Majesty gave to himself and the rest of the Commissioners in this Case worthy to be written in Letters of Gold That the business should be carried without touch to any that was innocent not only without impeachment but without aspersion which was a most Noble and Princely caution for mens Reputations are tender things and ought to be like Christs Coat without seam And it was more to be respected in this Case because it met with two great Persons A Nobleman that his Majesty had favoured and advanced and his Lady being of a great and Honourable House though I think it be true that the Writers say that there is no Pomegranate so fair or so sound but may have a perished Kernel Nay I see plainly in those excellent Papers of his Majesties own hand-writing as so many beams of Iustice issuing from that Vertue which so much doth shine in him the business so evenly carried without prejudice whether it were a true Accusation on the one part or a practice or false Accusation on the other as shewed plainly that his Majesties judgment was Tanquam tabula rasa as a clean pair of Tables and his ears Tanquam janua aperta as a gate not side open but wide open to the Truth as it should be discovered And I may truly affirm that there was never in this Kingdom nor in any other the blood of a private Gentleman vindicated Cum tanto motu Regni or to say better Cum tanto plausu Regni If it had concerned the King or Prince there could not have been greater or better Commissioners The term hath been almost turned into a Iustium or Vacancy the people being more willing to be lookers on in this business than proceeders in their own There hath been no care of discovery omitted no moment of time lost and therefore I will conclude with the saying of Solomon this part of my Speech Gloria Deicelare rem and gloria Regis scrutari rem It is the glory of God to conceal a thing and it is the glory of the King to find it out And his Majesties honor is the greater for that he shewed to the World this business as it hath relation to my Lord of Somerset whose Case in no sort I do fore-judg being ignorant of the secrets of the cause but take him as the Law takes him hitherto for a suspect I say the King hath to his great honor shewed That were any man in such a case of blood as the Signet of his right-hand as the Scripture saith he would put him off Now will I come to the particular Charge of these Gentlemen And first I will by way of Narrative relate the Fact with the occasion of it This wretched man Weston who was the Actor or Mechanical party in this Impoysonment the first day being indicted by a very substantial Iury of selected Citizens to the number of nineteen who found Billa vera yet nevertheless at the first stood mute But after some days intermission it pleased God to cast out the Dumb Devil and he put himself upon his Trial and was by a Iury of great value upon his own Confessions and other testimonies found guilty So as thirty and one sufficient Iurors have past upon him and he had also his Judgment and Execution awarded After this being in preparation for another World he sent for Sir Overbury's Father and falling down upon his knees with great remorse
so spacious that her said Servants and Family may enter and stay therein In which there shall be an ordinary and publique door for them and another inward door by which the Infanta may have a passage into the said Chappel where she and others as above said may be present at Divine Offices 9. That the Chappel Church and Oratory may be beautified with decent Ornaments of Altar and other things necessary for Divine Service which is to be celebrated in them according to the custom of the Ho. Ro. 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 10. 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 11. That to the administration of the Sacraments and to serve in Chappel and Church aforesaid there shall be so many Priests and Assistants as to the Infanta shall seem fit and the election of them shall belong to the Lady Infanta and the Catholike King her Brother 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 12. That there be one Superiour 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 13. That this Bishop or Superiour Minister may correct amend or chastize all Roman Catholiks 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 when soever it shall seem expedient to her 13. 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 Catholike Books whatsoever 15. That the Servants of the 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 Catholike Religion and if they happen to be Vassals to the King of Great Britain they shall take the same Oath that the Spaniard doth 16. That the Laws which are or shall be in England against Religion shall not take hold of the said Servants And onely the foresaid Superiour Ecclesiastical Catholike may proceed against Ecclesiastical persons as hath been accustomed by Catholikes And if any Secular Judge shall apprehend any Ecclesiastical Person for any offence he shall forthwith cause him to be delivered to the aforesaid Superiour Ecclesiastick who shall proceed against him according to the Canon-Law 17. That the Lawes made against Catholikes 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 Catholikes they shall not lose the Right of Succession to the Kingdom and Dominions of Great Britain 18. That the Nurses which shall give suck to the Children of the Lady Infanta whether 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 19. That the Bishop Ecclesiastical Persons and Religious of the Family of the Lady Infanta shall wear the Vestment and Habit of his dignity profession and Religion after the custom of Rome 20. For security that the said Matrimony be not dissolved for any cause whatsoever The King of Great Britain and Prince Charles are equally to pass the Word and Honour of a King and moreover that they will perform whatsoever shall be propounded by the Catholike King for further confirmation if it may be done decently and fitly 21. 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 least until the Age of Ten years and shall freely enjoy the Right of Succession to the Kingdoms as aforesaid 22. That whensoever any place of either Man-servant or Maid-servant which the Lady Infanta shall bring with her nominated by the Catholike 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 Catholike King as aforesaid 23. For security that whatsoever is Capitulated may be fulfilled The King of Great Britain and Prince Charles are to be bound by Oath and all the King's 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 endeavour if possible that whatsoever is Capitulated may be established by Parliament 24. That conformable to this Treaty all these things proposed are to be allowed and approved of by the Pope that he may give an Apostolical Benediction and a Dispensation necessary to effect the Marriage But though our King and Prince subscribed these Articles as they were sent to them by the Earl of Bristol in this manner Hos supra memoratos Articulos omnes ac singulos approbamus et quicquid in iis ex nostra parte seu nostro nomine conventum est ratum atque gratum habemus approving and expressing them to be very acceptable unto them And after they had wrought the King to sign these large immunities to the Papists viz. Quod Regnorum suorum Romano Catholici persecutionem nullam patientur molestiáve officientur Religionis suae causa vel ob exercitium illorum ejusdem sacramentorum modò iis utantur absque scandalo quod intelligi debet inter privatos parietes nec juramentis aut sub alio praetextu qualicunque ordinem Religionis spectante vexabuntur That the Roman Catholikes should not be interrupted in the exercise of their Religion doing it privately without Scandal nor be vext with any oaths in order to the same What rested but a closing of both Parties Yet all would not do for the Spaniard never intended the Match at all as is evident by a Letter of the King of Spain's written to his Favourite the Conde of Olivares dated the Fifth of November 1622. found among the Lord Cottington's Papers THe King my Father declared at his Death That his intent never was to marry my Sister the Infanta Donna Maria with the Prince of Wales which your Unkle Don Baltazer understood and so treated this Match ever with intention to delay it notwithstanding it is now so far advanced that considering all the aversness of the Infanta to it it is time to seek some means to divert the Treaty
for at my hands Thus the Beams of Majesty had an influence upon every branch and leaf of the Kingdom by reflecting upon the Root their Representative Body every particular expecting what fruit this Sun-shine would produce striving as much to insinuate into him as he did into the general so that there was a Reciprocal Harmony between the King and the People because they courted one another But when the Kings Bounty contracted it self into private Favourites as it did afterwards bestowing the affection he promised the whole people upon one man when the golden showers they gaped for dropt into some few chanels their passions flew higher than their hopes The Kings aims were to unite the two Kingdoms so that the one might corroborate the other to make good that part of his Speech by this intermixtion wherein he divides England and Scotland into halves But the English stumbled at that partition thinking it an unequal division and fearing that the Scots creeping into English Lordships and English Ladies Beds in both which already they began to be active might quickly make their least half the predominant part But he was Proclaimed King of Great Britain England must be no more a Name the Scotish Coyns are made currant and our Ships must have Saint Georges and Saint Andrews Crosses quartered together in their Flags all outward Ensigns of Amity But those English that had suckt in none of the sweets of this pleasant Stream of Bounty repined to see the Scots advanced from blew Bonnets to costly Beavers wearing instead of Wadmeal Velvet and Satin as divers Pasquils written in that Age Satyrically taunted at Which is not set down here to vilifie the Scots being most of them Gentlemen that had deserved well of their Master but to shew how cross to the publick Appetite the Hony-comb is that another man eats But the King like a wise Pilot guided the Helm with so even an hand that these small gusts were not felt It behoved him to play his Master-prize in the Beginning which he did to the life for he had divers opinions humours and affections to grapple with as well as Nations and 't is a very calm Sea when no billow rises The Romanists bogled that he said in his Speech They were unsufferable in the Kingdom as long as they maintained the Pope to be their Spiritual Head and He to have power to dethrone Princes The Separatists as the King called them were offended at that Expression wherein he professed willingly if the Papists would lay down King-killing and some other gross errors he would be content to meet them half way So that every one grounded his hopes or his fears upon the shallows of his own fancy not knowng yet what course the King would steer But these sores being tenderly dealt with did not suddenly fester but were skinned over The King desirous of the Title Pacificus did not only close with his own Subjects but healed up also that old wound that had bled long in the sides of England and Spain both being weary of the pain both willing to be cured The King of Spain sent the Constable of Castile with a mighty Train of smooth-handed Spaniards to close up the wound on this side where the old Enmity being well mortified they were received with singular Respect and Civility The King of England sent his High Admiral the Earl of Notingham with as splendid a Retinue of English to close it on that Who being Personages of Quality accoutred with all Ornaments suitable were the more admired by the Spaniards for beauty and excellency by how much the Iesuits had made impressions in the vulgar opinion That since the English left the Roman Religion they were transformed into strange horrid shapes with Heads and Tails like Beasts and Monsters So easie it is for those Iuglers when they have once bound up the Conscience to tye up the Vnderstanding also EARL OF NOTTINGHAM GEORGE CAREW EARL OF TOTNES And to satisfie the Kings desires about an Vnion betwixt England and Scotland the Parliament made an Act to authorise certain Commissioners viz. Thomas Lord Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord Treasurer of England Charles Earl of Notingham Lord High Admiral of England Henry Earl of Southampton William Earl of Pembroke Henry Earl of Northampton Richard Bishop of London Tobie Bishop of Duresme Anthony Bishop of Saint Davids Robert Lord Cecil Principal Secretary Edward Lord Zouch Lord President of Wales William Lord Mounteagle Ralph Lord Eure Edmund Lord Sheffeild Lord President of the Council in the North Lords of the Higher House of Parliament And Thomas Lord Clinton Robert Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Hastings Knight Sir Iohn Stanhope Knight Vice-Chamberlain to his Majesty Sir Iohn Herbert Knight second Secretary to his Majesty Sir George Carew Knight Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen Sir Thomas Strickland Knight Sir Edward Stafford Knight Sir Henry Nevill of Berk-shire Knight Sir Richard Bukley Knight Sir Henry Billingsley Knight Sir Daniel Dun Knight Dean of the Arches Sir Edward Hobby Knight Sir Iohn Savile Knight Sir Robert Wroth Knight Sir Thomas Chaloner Knight Sir Robert Maunsel Knight Sir Thomas Ridgeway Knight Sir Thomas Holcroft Knight Sir Thomas Hesketh Knight Atturney of the Court of Wards Sir Francis Bacon Knight Sir Lawrence Tanfield Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Henry Hubberd Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Iohn Bennet Doctor of the Laws Sir Henry Withrington Sir Ralph Grey and Sir Thomas Lake Knights Robert Askwith Thomas Iames and Henry Chapman Merchants Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons or any eight of the said Lords and twenty of the said Commons Which Commissioners shall have power to assemble meet treat and consult with certain select Commissioners to be nominated and authorised by Authority of the Parliament of Scotland concerning such Matters Causes and things as they in their Wisdoms shall think and deem convenient and necessary for the honour of the King and common good of both Kingdoms Yet the good intentions of this Vnion took no effect as will follow in the sequel of this History But there were a great many good Laws made which are too voluminous for this place having a proper Sphere of their own to move in Thus the King sate triumphing as it were upon a Throne of his Peoples Affections and his beginnings had some settlement for being loth to be troubled he sought Peace every-where But our inbred distempers lay upon the Lee intermixt with other gross dregs that the Princes lenity and the Peoples luxury produced For the King minding his sports many riotous demeanours crept into the Kingdom the Sun-shine of Peace being apt for such a production upon the slime of the late War The Sword and Buckler trade being now out of date one corruption producing another the City of London being always a fit Receptacle for such whose prodigalities and wastes made them Instruments of Debaucheries divers Sects of vitious Persons going under the
this blow reached presently into England and came somewhat near our Kings Heart therefore he took the best way to prevent his Fears by striving to prevent his Dangers having no other end but his own For when he considered the horridness of the Powder Plot and by it the irreconcileable malice of that Party he thought it the safest policy not to stir those Ashes where so much Fire was covered which gave way to a flux of that Iesuitical humour to infest the Body of the Kingdom But now being startled with this poysoned knife he ventures upon a Proclamation strictly commanding all Iesuits and Priests out of the Kingdom and all Recusants to their own Houses not to come within ten miles of the Court and secures all the rest of his Subjects to him by an universal taking of the Oath of Allegiance which the Parliament both Lords and Commons then sitting began and the rest of the People followed to the Kings great contentment For the last Session the Parliament was prorogued till the sixteenth of October this year and meeting now they were willing to secure their Allegiance to the King out of Piety yet they were so stout even in those youthful days which he term'd Obstinacy that they would not obey him in his incroachments upon the Publick Liberty which he began then to practise For being now season'd with seven years knowledg in his profession here he thought he might set up for himself and not be still journy-man to the lavish tongue of men that pryed too narrowly into the secrets of his Prerogative which are mysteries too high for them being Arcana imperii fitter to be admired than questioned But the Parliament were apprehensive enough that those hidden mysteries made many dark steps into the Peoples Liberties and they were willing by the light of Law and Reason to discover what was the Kings what theirs Which the King unwilling to have searched into after five Sessions in six years time dissolved the Parliament by Proclamation HENRICUS Princeps Walliae etc a. Reverendissimus in Christo Pater D.D. RICHARDUS BANCROFT Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis About this time Richard Bancroft Arch-Bishop of Canterbury died a person severe enough whose roughness gained little upon those that deserted the Ceremonies One work of his shewed his spirit better than the ruggedest Pen can depaint it For it was he that first brought the King to begin a new Colledg by Chelsey wherein the choice and abiest Scholars of the Kingdom and the most pregnant Wits in matters of Controversies were to be associated under a Provost with a fair and ample allowance not exceeding three thousand pounds a year whose design was to answer all Popish Books or others that vented their malignant spirits against the Protestant Religion either the Heresies of the Papists or the Errors of those that strook at Hierarchy so that they should be two-edged Fellows that would make old cutting and flashing and this he forwarded with all industry during his time and there is yet a formal Act of Parliament in being for the establishment of it But after his death the King wisely considered that nothing begets more contention than opposition and such Fuellers would be apt to inslame rather than quench the heat that would arise from those embors For Controversies are often or for the most part the exuberancies of Passion and the Philosopher saith men are drunk with disputes and in that inordinateness take the next thing that comes to hand to throw at one anothers faces so that the design fell to the ground with him and there is only so much Building standing by the Thames-side as to shew that what he intended to Plant he meant should be well Watered and yet it withered in the bud I can lay nothing to the charge of this great man but from common fame yet this I may truly say That for his Predecessor Whitgift and his Successor Abbot I never heard nor read any thing tending to their disparagement But on him some unhappy Wit vented this Pasquin Here lies his Grace in cold Earth slad Who died with want of what he had The Queen was Mistress of Somerset-house as well as the Prince was Master of St. Iames and she would fain have given it the name of Denmark-house which name continued her time among her people but it was afterwards left out of the common Calender like the dead Emperors new named Month. She was not without some Grandees to attend her for outward glory The Court being a continued Maskarado where she and her Ladies like so many Sea-Nymphs or Nereides appeared often in various dresses to the ravishment of the beholders The King himself being not a little delighted with such fluent Elegancies as made the nights more glorious than the days But the latitude that these high-flying fancies and more speaking Actions gave to the lower World to judg and censure even the greatest with reproaches shall not provoke me so much as to stain the innocent Paper I shall only say in general That Princes by how much they are greater than others are looked upon with a more severe eye if their Vertues be not suitable to their Greatness they lose much of their value For it is too great an allay to such resinedness to fall under the common cognizance Philip Earle of Pemb Mong Lord Chamberlaine to the King etc. Now all addresses are made to Sir Robert Car he is the Favourit in Ordinary no sute nor no reward but comes by him his hand distributes and his hand restrains our Supreme Power works by second Causes the Lords themselves can scarce have a smile without him And to give the greater lustre to his power about this time the Earl of Dunbar the Kings old trusty Servant the Cabinet of his secret Counsels died so that he solely now took the most intimate of them into his charge and the Officer of Lord high Treasurer of Scotland which staff the other left behind him and though it could be no great Supporter yet the credit of it carried some reputation in his own Country where it was his happiness to be magnified as well as in England for he had Treasure enough here where the Fountain was And to ingrandize all the King created him Baron of Brandspech and Viscount Rochester and soon after Knight of the Garter Thus was he drawn up by the Beams of Majesty to shine in the highest Glory grapling often with the Prince himself in his own Sphear in divers Conteslations For the Prince being a high born Spirit and meeting a young Competitor in his Fathers Affections that was a Mushrom of yesterday thought the venom would grow too near him and therefore he gave no countenance but opposition to it which was aggravated by some little scintils of Love as well as Hatred Rivals in passion being both amorous and in youthful blood fixing by accident upon one object who was a third mans in which the Viscount
into a Coffin and bury him privately on Tower-Hill Concluding That God is gracious in cutting off evil Instruments before their time Which Sentence while he was writing it reflected the judgment on himself For Northampton having a great influence in the Kingdom being a prime Counsellor to the King and intimate with Somerset they two grasping all Power and Northampton having the better head to manage it the miscarriages were not without cause imputed to him For being a Papist he did not only work upon Somerset to pervert him by letting him see there was a greater latitude for the Conscience in that Religion but got him to procure many immunities for the Papists as the Kings best affected Subjects And being Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports he gave free access to Priests and Iesuits that abundantly flockt again into the Kingdom the operation of the last Proclamation having now lost the vertue And a Letter being discovered which he had written to Cardinal Bellarmine wherein he expresses the condition of the Times and the Kings importunity compelled him to be a Protestant in shew yet nevertheless his heart stood firm with the Papists and if there were cause he would express it with much more to this purpose These things first muttered then urged against him touched him to the heart so that he retired disposed of his Estate and dyed He had a great mind tending towards eminent things which he was the better able to effect by living a Batchelor to an old Age being always attended and he loved it with Gentlemen of Quality to whom he was very bountiful His affections were also much raised to Charity as by the Almshouse he erected appears and his Works shew him to be a great getter But leaving no Issue to propagate his name he built a fair House by Charing-cross to continue it which it lost soon after his death being called Suffolk-house for a time and now is Northumberland-house Such changes there are in the Worlds measures His Body was carried to be buried at Dover because he was Warden of the Cinque-Ports as was reported by some of his Followers but it was vulgarly rumored to be transported to Rome But these actions of his about Overbury lying dormant made no great noise at this time against him but when they broke out they laid upon his name as great a stench as Infamy or Oaium could produce SUFFOLK HOUSE CHARING CROSS The Spaniards the first discoverers being more covetous to grasp than well able to plant took possession of the most precious places so that the English French and Dutch caught but what they left Sir Walter Rawleigh and others after Sir Francis Drake found out that Country now called Virginia which was long since planted with a Colony And in that tract of Land more Northerly within the degrees of 40 and 48 of latitude lies New-England a Climate temperate and healthful but not so much as the Old It is rather a low than a high Land full of Rocky-Capes or Promontories The Inmost parts of the Country are Mountainous intermixt with fruitful Vallies and large Lakes which want not store of good Fish The Hills are no where Barren though in some places Stony but fruitful in Trees and Grass There are many Rivers fresh Brooks and Springs that run into the Sea The Rivers are good Harbors and abound with plenty of excellent Fish yet are they full of Falls which makes them not Navigable far into the Land The Seas bordering the Shores are studded with Islands about which great Shoals of Fishes Cod Haddock and such like do wantonly sport themselves The main Land doth nourish abundance of Deers Bears Wolves and a beast called Moose peculiar to those Regions and the Rivers and Ponds are stored with some Beavers Otters and Musquashes There are also divers kinds of small Beasts but the most offensive are Foxes Fowls there are store in their several seasons as Turkies Geese and Ducks and the soyl naturally produces wild Vines with very large Bunches of Grapes but the extremity of heat and cold hinder their just temper There are many other Fruits which are very good with Plants whose Rinds or Barks transcends our Hemp or Flax both Air and Earth concurring to bring forth most things that Industry and Art can provide for the use of man The first that sent a Colony into this Country was the Lord Chief Justice Popham in the year 1606. A man highly renowned in his time for persecuting such as transgressed the Laws among Christians living like Beasts of prey to the prejudice of Travellers And in this he had a special aim and hope also to establish Christian Laws among Infidels and by domestical to chace away those ferous and indomitable Creatures that infested the Land Brave and gallant spirits having ever such publick ends But Planters are like Alchymists they have something in projection that many times fails in production It is conceived the Romans were not well advised to settle one of their first Colonies at Maldon in Essex whose soyl about is neither yet sound nor Air salubrious And the first opening of ground in a Climate not Natural hath an extraordinary operation upon the Bodies of Men whose Senses must comply to give entertainment to a Stranger that often spoils the place where it finds Hospitality For the first Planters of New-England having seated themselves low few of them were left to direct those that succeeded in a better way Yet People by dear experience overcame it by degrees being yearly supplied by men whose industry and affections taught them there was more hope to find safety in New-England than in the Old Though these found some stop yet our great Favourite the Earl of Somerset and his business runs smoothly without rub since Overburies death But he must alter his Bias and go less or find some new ways to bring in Monies the Revenues of the Crown are not competent to maintain such vast Expences accumulated by his Riot though he had all the Earl of Westmorelands Lands at his Marriage and Creation added to his Earldom There must be therefore a new Order of Baronets made in number two hundred that must be next Degree to Barons and these must pay a thousand pound a piece for their Honour having it by Patent under the great Seal and continued to Posterity with the Title of Knights Some of these new Honourable men whose Wives pride and their own Prodigalities had pumpt up to it were so drained that they had not moisture to maintain the radical humour but wither'd no nothing This money thus raised is pretended for planting the North of Ireland but it found many other Chanels before it came to that Sea And though at our Kings first access to the Crown there was a glut of Knights made yet after some time he held his hand left the Kingdom should be cloyed with them And the World thriv'd so well with some that the price was afterwards brought
their houses and where company meet the discourse is commonly of the times for every man will vent his passion these Ladies he sweetned with Presents that they might allay such as were two sower in their expression to stop them in the course if they ran on too fast and bring them to a gentler pace He lived at Ely-House in Holborn his passage to the Court was ordinarily through Drury-lane the Covent-Garden being then an inclosed field and that Lane and the Strand were the places where most of the Gentry lived and the Ladies as he went knowing his times would not be wanting to appear in their Balconies or Windows to present him their Civilities and he would watch for it and as he was carried in his Litter or bottomless Chair the easiest seat for his Fistula he would strain himself as much as an old man could to the humblest posture of Respect One day passing by the Lady Iacob's house in Drury-lane she exposing her self for a Salutation he was not wanting to her but she moved nothing but her mouth gaping wide open upon him He wondred at the Ladie 's incivility but thought that it might be happily a yawning fit took her at that time for trial whereof the next day he finds her in the same place and his Courtesies were again accosted with no better expressions than an extended mouth Whereupon he sent a Gentleman to her to let her know that the Ladies of England were more gracious to him than to incounter his Respects with such Affronts She answered it was true that he had purchased some of their favours at a dear rate And she had a mouth to be stopt as well as others Gondemar finding the cause of the emotion of her mouth sent her a Present as an Antidote which cured her of that distemper ELY HOUSE Engrav'd from an original Drawing The Earl of Buckingham as great in Title as in Favour was now grown a Marquess and lying all this while in the King's bosom every man paid tribute to his smiles As the King bought off Worcester to make him Master of the Horse so he bought off Nottingham to make him Admiral What may not he have that is not only Master of his Horse and Ships but his Heart also His Mother is created a Countess by Patent and her second Husband Sir Thomas Compton had no other Title but an unworthy one which the People either out of their anger or her misdemeanour imposed upon him Her eldest Son first made Sir Iohn Villiers after Viscount Purbeck married to the Daughter and Heir of the Lady Elizabeth Hatton by Sir Edward Cook a Lady of transcending beauty but accused for wantonness Purbeck not well able to look down from these great heights got a giddiness in his head which confined him to a dark room Her other Son first made Sir Christopher Villiers was after created Earl of Anglesey whose honour mixt with a weak brain could not buoy him up from sinking into that distemper that drowns the best Wits Her Daughter presently after also shined in the same Sphere with her her Husband being from a private Gentleman made Earl of Denbigh Happy is he can get a Kinswoman it is the next way to a thriving Office or some new swelling Title The King that never much cared for Women had his Court swarming with the Marquesses kindred so that little ones would dance up and down the privy Lodgings like Pharies and it was no small sap would maintain all those suckers And now we have named Sir Thomas Compton there will follow a Story of his youthful Actions which though done long since will not be uncomly to croud in here He had the remark of a slow-spirited man when he was young and truly his Wife made him retain it to the last But such as found him so in those vigorous days of Duelling would trample on his easiness and there could not a worse Character be imprinted on any man than to be termed a Coward Among the rest one Bird a roaring Captain was the more bold and inâ—olent against him because he found him slow and backward which is a baseness of an over-daring nature and his provocations were so great that some of Compton's Friends taking notice of it told him It were better to die nobly â—nce than to live infamously ever and wrought so upon his cold temper that the next alfront that this bold Bird put upon him he was heartned into the Courage to send him a Challenge Bird a massy great Fellow confident of his own strength disdaining Compton being leâ—s both in Stature and Courage told the Second that brought the Challenge in a vapouring manner That he would not stir a foot to incounter Compton unless he would meet him in a Saw-pit where he might be sure Compton could not run away from him The Second that looked upon this as a Rodomontado fancy told him That if he would appoint the Place Compton should not fail to meet him Bird making choice bâ—th of the Place and Weapon which in the vain formality of Fighters was in the election of the Challenged he chose a Saw-pit and a single Sword where according to the time appointed they met Being both together in the Pit with swords drawn and stript ready for the encounter Now Compton said Bird thou shalt not escape from me aand hovering his sword over his head in a disdainful manner said Come Compton let 's see what you can do now Compton attending his business with a watchful eye seeing Bird's Sword hovering over him ran under it in upon him and in a moment run him through the body so that his pride fell to the ground and there did spraul out its last vanity Which should teach us that strong presumption is the greatest weakness and it is far from wisdom in the most arrogant Strength to slight and disdain the meanest Adversary There is yet in bleeding memory even in these Times of just severity against this impious Duelling one of the same Family of the Compton's in some part guilty of Bird's Crime for the Provoker to such horrid Encounters seldom escapes the Divine Iustice permitting such violent madness to tend to its own destruction But to return to our Story Prenobilis Henrici Comi Manchester DnuÌ„ Custodio Privati Sigil Anâ—â—ete But though the Marquess of Buckingham in appearance acted all these Removes and Advancements yet his Mother the Countess wrought them in effect for her hand was in all Transactions both in Church and State and she must needs know the disposition of all things when she had a feeling of every man's pulse for most Addresses were made to her first and by her conveyed to her Son for he looked after his pleasure more than his profit which made Gondemar who was well skilled in Court Holy-Water among other his witty pranks write merrily in his Dispatches into Spain That there was never more hope of England's Conversion to Rome than now for there are
put by her Government to say nothing of Prince Henry but the violence of it did not work because the Operation was somewhat mitigated by the Duke's Protestation of his Innocency For the King at the next Interview saying to him Ah Stenny Stenny which was the Familiar name he alwayes used to him Wilt thou kill me The Duke struck into an Astonishment with the Expression after some little Pause collected himself and with many asseverations strove to justify his Integrity which the good King was willing enough to Believe and Buckingham finding by some discourse that Padre Macestria the Spanish Iesuit had been with the King he had then a large Theme for his Vindication turning all upon the Spanish Iesuitical Malice which proceeded from the ruins of their quashed Hopes And the King knowing Inoiosa and all that Party very bitter against Buckingham and though he did not directly accuse the Prince to be in the Conspiracy with Buckingham yet he reflected upon him for such an attempt could never have been effected without his Privity therefore out of the Bowels of good Nature he did unbelieve it and after Examinations of some Persons the Duke's Intimates and their constant denyal upon oath which they had no good Cause to confess the King was content being loth to think such an Enterprize could be fostred so neer his own Bosom to have the Brat strangled in the Womb. And he presently sent into Spain to desire Iustice of that King against the Ambassadours false Accusation which he said wounded his Son's Honour through Buckingham's side which Sir Walter Aston represented to the King of Spain for Bristol was coming over to justifie his Actions to the Parliament But the Duke of Buckinghams reputation there procured no other Satisfaction than some little check of formality for when Inoiosa was recalled home he was not lessen'd in esteem Thus was this Information waved though there might be some cause to suspect that the great intimacy and Dearness betwixt the Prince and Duke like the conjunction of two dreadful planets could not but portend the production of some very dangerous effect to the old King But the Duke's Reputation though it failed in Spain held firm footing in England for Bristol no sooner appeared but he is clapt up in the Tower Their jugling practices whereof they were Both guilty enough must not yet come to light to disturb the Proceedings in Parliament Bristol had too much of the King's Commission for what he did though he might overshoot himself in what he said which was not now to be discovered Yet the Rigor of that imprisonment would have sounded too loud if he had not had a suddain Release who finding the Duke high mounted yet in power and himself in no Degree to grapple with him was content with Submission to gain his liberty and retire himself to a Country privacy The Lords being now at leisure began to consider of that stinging petition as the King called it against Papists how necessary it was to joyn with the Commons to supplicate the King to take down the pride of their high-flying Hopes that had been long upon the Wing watching for their prey and now they are made to stoop without it And after some Conferences betwixt both Houses about it the Petition was reduced to these two Propositions and presented to the King as two Petitions We your Majestie 's most humble and loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament do in all humbleness offer unto your Sacred Majesty these two Petitions following 1. That for the more safety of your Realms and better keeping your Subjects in Obedience and other important Reasons of State your Majesty would be pleased by some such course as you shall think fit to give present Order that all the Laws be put in due execution which have been made and do stand in force against Jesuits Seminary Priests and others having taken Orders by authority derived from the See of Rome and generally against all Popish Recusants And as for disarming that it may be according to the Laws and according to former Acts and Directions of State in that Case And yet that it may appear to all the World the Favour and Clemency your Majesty useth towards all your Subjects of what Condition soever And to the intent the Jesuits and Priests now in the Realm may not pretend to be surprized that a speedy and certain may be prefixed by your Majesties Proclamation before which day they shall depart out of this Kingdom and all other your Highness Dominions and neither they nor any other to return or come hither again upon peril of the severest Penalties of the Laws now in force against them And that all your Majesties Subjects may thereby also be admonished not to receive entertain or conceal any of them upon the Penalties and Forfeitures which by the Laws may be imposed on them 2. Seeing We are thus happily delivered from that danger which those Treaties now dissolved and that use which your ill-affected Subjects made thereof would certainly have drawn upon us and yet cannot but foresee and fear lest the like may hereafter happen which would inevitably bring much peril upon your Majesties Kingdoms We are most humble Suters unto your Gracious Majesty to secure the Hearts of your good Subjects by the ingagement of your Royal Word unto them that upon no occasion of Marriage or Treaty or other request in that behalf from any forein Prince or State whatsoever you will take away or slacken the Execution of your Laws against Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants To which Our humble Petitions proceeding from Our most Loyal and Dutiful affections towards your Majesty Our Care of Our Countries good and our own confident persuasion that these will much advance the Glory of Almighty God the everlasting Honour of your Majesty the Safety of your Kingdoms and the incouragement of all your good Subjects We do most humbly beseech your Majesty to vouchsafe a gracious Answer The King was prepared for the Petition having given his own Resolution the Check at present that whatsoever he might do hereafter yet now he would comply and therefore he sends for both Houses to Whitehall to sweeten them with a gentle answer to this Petition that might take off those sour aspersions that this miscarriage in Government might happily cast upon him And we will not say but his intentions might rove towards the End though he gave too much liberty through a Natural easiness in himself to those that He trusted with Management of the great affairs by evil means to pervert that end which made him guilty of their Actions For where true Piety is not the Director Carelesness as often as Wilfulness carries men out of the way But he had this Principle and made often use of it like ill Tenants when they let things run to ruin to daub all up again when forced to it and find no other Remedy This was the effect of
That Place is no Place for you to utter your Affections in you must not there hate your foe nor love your friend fear the offending of the greater party or pity the misery of the meaner ye must be blind and not see distinctions of Persons handless not to receive Bribes but keep that just Temper and Medium in all your Proceedings that like a just Ballance ye may neither sway to the right hand nor to the left Three principal Qualities are required in you Knowledg Courage and Sincerity that you may discern with Knowledg execute with Courage and do both in upright Sincerity And for my part I do vow and protest here in the presence of God and of this Honourable Audience I never shall be weary nor omit occasion wherein I may shew my carefulness of the Execution of good Laws And as I wish you that are Iudges not to be weary in your Office in doing of it so shall I never be weary with Gods grace to take account of you which is properly my calling And thus having told you the three causes of my Convening of this Parliament all three tending only to utter my thankfulness but in divers forms the first by word the other two by action I do confess that when I have done and performed all that in this Speech I have promised Inutilis servus sum When I have done all that I can for you I do nothing but that which I am bound to do and am accountable to God for the contrary For the difference betwixt a Rightful King and an Usurping Tyrant is this That the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are ordained for satisfaction of his desires and unreasonable appetite The righteous and just King doth by the contrary acknowledg himself to be ordained for procuring the wealth and prosperity of his People and that his greatest and principal worldly felicity must consist in their prosperity If you be rich I cannot be poor if you be happy I cannot but be fortunate and I protest that your welfare shall ever be my greatest care and contentment And that I am a Servant is most true that as I am a Head and Governour of all the People in my Dominions who are my Natural Vassals and Subjects considering them in numbers and distinct ranks So if we will take the People as one Body and Mass then as the Head is ordained for the Body and not the Body for the Head so must a righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for Him For although a King and his People be Relata yet can he be no King if he want People and Subjects But there be many People in the World that lack a Head wherefore I will never be ashamed to confess it my Principal Honour to be the great Servant of the Common-wealth and ever think the Prosperity thereof to be my greatest felicity as I have already said But as it was the whole Body of this Kingdom with an uniform assent and harmony which did so far oblige me so is my thankfulness due to the whole State For even as in Matter of faults Quod à multis peccatur impunè peccatur even so in the Matter of virtuous and good deeds which are done by the willing Consent and Harmony of the whole Body no particular Person can justly claim thanks as proper to him for the same And therefore I must here make a little Apologie for my self in that I could not satisfie the particular humours of every Person that looked for some Advancement or Reward at my hand since my entry into this Kingdom Three kinds of things were craved of me Advancement to honour Preferment to place of Credit about my Person and Reward in Matters of Land or Profit If I had bestowed Honour upon all no man could have been advanced to Honour for the Degrees of Honour do consist in preferring some above their Fellows If every man had the like access to my Person then no man could have it and if I had bestowed Lands and Rewards upon every man the Fountain of my Liberality would have been so exhausted as I should want Means to be liberal to any man Yet was I not so sparing but I may without Vaunting affirm that I have enlarged my favour in all the three Degrees towards as many and more than ever King of England did in so short a space No I rather crave your pardon that I have been so bountiful For if the means of the Crown be wasted whither should I have recourse but to you my Subjects and be burthensome to you which I should be lothest to do of any King alive Two special Causes moved me to be so open-handed whereof the one was reasonable and honourable but the other I will not be ashamed to confess unto you proceeded of my own infirmity That which was Just and Honourable was that being so far beholden to the Body of the whole State I thought I could not refuse to let some small Brooks run out of the Fountain of my Thankfulness to the whole for refreshing of particular Persons that were Members of that Multitude The other which proceeded out of mine own Infirmity was the Multitude and importunity of Suters But although Reason come by infusion in a manner yet Experience groweth with time and labour And therefore do I not doubt but Experience will teach the particular Subjects of this Kingdom not to be so importune and undiscreet in craving and Me not to be so easily and lightly moved in granting that which may be harmful to my Estate and consequently to the whole Kingdom And thus at length having declared unto you my mind My Conclusion shall only now be to excuse my Self in case you have not found such Eloquence in my Speech as peradventure you might have looked for at my hands I might alledg the great weight of my Affairs and my continual business and distraction that I could never have leisure to think upon what I was to speak And I might also alledg that my first sight of this so Famous and Honourable an Assembly might likewise breed some impediment But leaving these excuses I will plainly and freely in my manner tell you the true Cause of it which is That it becometh a King in my opinion to use no other Eloquence than plainness and sincerity By plainness I mean that his Speeches should be so clear and void of all ambiguity that they may not be thrown nor rent in sunder in contrary senses like the old Oracles of the Pagan gods And by Sincerity I understand that uprightness and honesty which ought to be in a Kings whole Speeches and Actions that as far as a King is in Honour erected above any of his Subjects so far should he strive in Sincerity to be above them all and that his tongue should be ever the true Messenger of his heart And this sort of Eloquence you may ever assuredly look
Title of Roaring Boys Bravadoes Roysters c. commit many insolencies the Streets swarm night and day with bloody quarrels private Duels fomented especially betwixt the English and Scots many Discontents nourished in the Countries betwixt the Gentry and Commonalty about Inclosure the meanest gaping after new hopes growing in some places to a petty Rebellion Daily discords incident to peace and plenty betwixt private Families Papist against Protestant one Friend against another the Papists being a strong and dangerous Faction missing their hopes strove to make the Scots more odious than they could make themselves though some of them went so high as to counterfeit the Kings Privy-Seal and make Addresses thereby to Foreign Princes for which one Thomas Dowglas taken in the fact was executed in Smithfield Others were so insolent as to quip and jear the English Nobility and other misdemeanours which caused secret heart-burnings and jealousies betwixt the Nations But then comes a Proclamation like a strong Pill and carries away the grossest of these humours Something yet stuck especially in the Consciences of the Popish Party that could not be purged away without a Toleration which they Petition for but not being granted they contrived one of the most Horrid and Stupendious Mischiefs that ever entred into the Hearts of Men For their heat of malice would not be quenched with the Blood Royal but the Nobility and Gentry the Representative Body of the whole Kingdom United at Westminster must be shattered in pieces and dis-membred by the blast of six and thirty Barrels of Gun-powder which those dark Contrivers had hid in a Cellar under the Parliament House being discovered by a light from Heaven and a Letter from one of the Conspirators when the fire was already in their hands as well as rage in their hearts to put to the Train The principal of these Contrivers was Robert Catesbie a Gentleman of a good plentiful Estate who first hatched and brooded the Plot and promised to himself the glory of an Eternal Name by the Propagation of it making choyce of Thomas GUY FAWKES Executed in the Year 1606. for the GUNPOWDER PLOT Percy Robert Winter Thomas Winter Iohn Grant Ambrose Rookwood Iohn Wright Francis Tresham Sir Everard Digby and others Gentlemen of good Estates for the most part and spirits as implacable and furious as his own who like combustible matter took fire at the first motion their zeal to the Roman cause burning within them which nothing but the blood of Innocents can quench The design thus set afoot they bind themselves to secresie by those Sacraments which are the greatest ties upon the Soul and Saint Garnet the Iesuit was their Confessor The foundation being laid every man betakes himself to his work some to provide money some materials Percy was to hire the Cellars under the Parliament House to lay Wood and Coal in for his Winter-provision Guido Faux a desperate Ruffian who was to give fire to the Train was appointed to be his man to bring in the Wood and Coal The Gunpowder provided in Flanders is brought from Lambeth in the night and covertly laid under the Wood. Thus they prepare all things ready for a Burnt-offering against the day the Parliament should meet which was to be upon the seventh of February But the King for some Reasons of State which at that time the dictates of Providence did much approve of prorogued the Parliament of the fifth of November following which scattered the Contrivers at present and they were at their wits end and some of them went beyond Seas because they would not beat too much about the Covert their materials being fitted others that staid here persisted with Patience made a Vice by them and met often to consult how they should manage their great business if it took effect They looked upon the King and Prince as already sacrificed to their Cruelty And Percy undertook to dispatch the Duke of York But because they must have one of the Blood Royal that must serve as a center to adhere to to keep all from Confusion they meant to preserve the Lady Elizabeth and make her Queen that under her minority and innocency they might the better establish their bloody Principles of Piety and Policy They had designed the fatal day to be upon the fifth of November when the King and both Houses were to meet and that day they appointed a great Hunting-match at Dunsmore-beach in Warwick-shire to be nearer the Lord Harington's House where the Lady Elizabeth was And they had by their horrid Art and Experience so fitted their Matches that were to convey the fire to the Powder that they could know a hundred Miles off to a minute when that Monstrous Fiery Exhalation would break out Solacing themselves in this bloody expectation and thinking their Conveyances under ground were not seen above by the Divine Discoverer they stood like Vultures gaping for their Prey when behold one tender-hearted Murderer among the Pack willing to save the Lord Monteagle writ this Letter to him MY Lord out of the love I bear to some of your friends I have a care of your Preservation therefore I would wish you as you tender your Life to forbear your attendance at this Parliament for God and Man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this Time And think not sleightly of this advertisement for though there be no appearance of any stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament and yet they shall not see who hurt them This Counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you Good and can do you no Harm for the danger is past as soon as you have burnt this Letter I hope God will give you grace to make use of it to whose Holy Protection I commend you THOMAS PERSI NOBILIS ANGLVS MAGNIBRITANNIAE REGIS STIPENDIARIVS ANNO 1605 Haec est vera prima originalis editio ThoÌ„ae Perci Os vultumq vides Thomae cognomine Percy Inter Britannos nobileis noâ—…ssimi Queis rebus 〈◊〉 ambitione superstitioso Animo nefandam machinatur dum necem Regi Regina Ordinibus diprenditur ipsum Deo volente seclus in auctorem 〈◊〉 A Thomas Ichryâ— Capâ—â—â—runt B Tho IehrusÌ„ Regi adduxerit C Tho Persi in Arce fugit D Thomas Persi sagittatus mortuus Execution of the Conspirators In the Gunpowder Plot in the Year 1606. This Prodigious Contrivance did not only stupifie the whole Kingdom with amazement but Foreign Princes made their Wonderment also And though for the Propagation of the Catholick Cause they might have Conscience enough to with it had taken Effect yet they had Policy enough to Congratulate the Discovery and some of them to take off the asperity of the Suspect sweetned their Expressions with many rich Gifts and Presents to the King and Queen But this bloody Design found in the hand of the Malefactors grasping the Mischief and confirmed by their own Confessions being such Spirits as were fit
pounds subsidies due to the late Queen besides what the Parliament had given him And fearing that Proclamations who were indeed very active Ministers would now become Laws ushering in the Kings will with large strides upon the peoples Liberties who lay down while they stept over them The ingenious sort sensible of this incroaching Monarchy brake out into private murmur which by degrees being of a light nature carried a Cloud with it by which the wise Pilots of the State foreseeing a Storm gathering strive to dissipate it the next Session of Parliament which was held the nineteenth of February in the seventh year of our Kings Reign Thomas Sackville Earl of Dorset Not long after this the Earl of Dorset Lord High Treasurer died suddenly as he sate at the Council Table which gave occasion to some persons disaffected to him as what eminent Officer that hath the managing of Moneys can please all to speak many things to his Dishonour But they considered not that besides the Black worm and the White day and night as the Riddle is that are gnawing constantly at the root of this tree of Life there are many insensible Diseases as Apoplexies whose Vapors suddenly extinguish the Animal Spirits and Apostems both in the upper and middle Region of Man that often drown and suffocate both Animal and Vital who are like imbodyed Twins the one cannot live without the other if the Animal Spirits fail the Vital cannot subsist if the Vitals perish the Animal give over their operations And He that judges ill of such an Act of Providence may have the same hand at the same time writing within the Palace walls of his own Body the same Period to his Lives earthly Empire The Earl of Salisbury succeeded him a man nourished with the milk of Policy under his father the Lord Burley famous for Wisdom in his Generation a Courtier from his infancy Batteld by Art and Industry under the late Queen mother of her Country Though Nature was not propitious to his Outside being Crooked backt She supplied that want with admirable indowments within This man the King found Secretary and Master of the Wards and to these he added the Treasurers staff knowing him to be the staff of his Treasury For he had knowledg enough to pry into other Mens Offices aswell as his own and knew the ways of disbursing the Kings moneys The Earl of Northhampton he made Lord Privy Seal and these were the two prime wheels of his triumphant Chariot The Earl of Suffolk was made Lord Chamberlain before but he came far behind in the management of the Kings affairs being a Spirit of a more Grosser Temper fitter to part a fray and Compose the differences of a disordered Court than a Kingdom Upon the Shoulders of the two first the King laid the Burthen of his business For though he had many Lords his Creatures some by Creation and some by insinuation for Kings will never want supple-hand Courtiers and the Bishops being his Dependents the most of them tending by direct Lines towards him as the Center of their advancement so that He like the Supreme Power moved this upper Region for the most part and that had an influence upon the lower in inferior Orbs yet these two noble Men were the two great Lights that were to discover the Kings mind to the Parliament and by whose Heat and Vigor the blessed fruits of Peace and Plenty should be produced The Lord Treasurer by a Command from the King instructs both Houses in their business and what they shall do well to insist upon this Session First To supply his Majesties wants Secondly To ease the people of their Grievances They go commonly yoakt together for the peoples Grievances are the Kings Wants and the Kings Wants are the peoples Grievances How can they be separated If the King will always want the people will always suffer For Kings when they do want lay commonly lawless impositions on the people which they must take off again with a sum of money and then they want again to a continued vicissitude These two Propositions are sweetned by him with a third Which is to make the Parliament witnesses of those great favours and honours that his Majesty intended his Royal Son Prince Henry in creating him Prince of Wales Which though the King might do without a Parliament and that divers Kings his Predecessors had done so as by many precedents was manifested yet being desirous to have a happy Vnion betwixt him and his People he would have nothing resound ill in their ears from so eminent an instrument to the Kingdoms good as his Son Then they excuse the Kings necessities proceeding from his great disbursements For the three hundred and fifty thousand pounds Subsidies due in the late Queens time he received with one hand and paid her Debts with another redeeming the Crown Lands which she had morgaged to the City He kept an Army of nineteen thousand men in Ireland for some time a foot wherein a great many of the Nobility were Commanders and other deserving Soldiers that would have been exposed to want and penury if not supplied And it was not safe for the King to trust the inveterate malice of a new reconciled Enemy without the Sword in his hand The late Queens Funeral Charges were reckon'd up which they hoped the Parliament would not repine at Nor was it fit the King should come in as a private Person bringing in one Crown on his head and finding another here or his Royal Consort with our future Hopes like so many precious Ienels exposed to Robbers without a Guard and Retinue How fit was the Magnificence at the King of Denmarks being here And how just that Ambassadors from Foreign Princes more than ever this Crown received should find those Entertainments and Gratuities the want whereof would put a dim lustre abroad upon the most sparkling Jewels of the Crown Besides the necessary Charge of sending Ambassadors to others being concurrent and mutual Civilities among Princes That these are the causes of the Kings wants and not his irregular Bounty though a magnificent mind is inseparable from the Majesty of a King If he did not give his subjects and servants would live in a miserable Climate And for his Bounty to those that were not born among us it must be remembred he was born among them and not to have them taste of the blessing he hath attained were to have him change his Vertue with his Fortune Therefore they desire the Kings wants may be supplied a thing easie to be granted and not to be valued by Wise-men nor spoken of without contempt Philosophy saith that all Riches are but food and rayment the rest is nugatorium quiddam And that it is but purior pars terrae and therefore but crassior pars aquae a thing unworthy the denial to such a King who is not only the wisest of Kings but the very Image of an Angel that hath brought good
this the passage to his entertainment The King strucken suddenly with such heaps asked the Treasurer what this money was for who told him he had received his Majesties Commands to give so much to the Viscount Rochester The King that either carelesly thought five thousand pound to be no more than the noise so much makes in Scotland which doth not amount to above five hundred pounds or cunningly if he knew the value knew also the Treasurers meaning said it was too much for one man and made him be contented with less than the half And now the King casts his thoughts towards Peterborough where his Mother lay whom he caused to be translated to a Magnificent Tomb at Westminster And somewhat suitable to her mind when she was living she had a translucent passage in the night through the City of London by multitudes of Torches The Tapers placed by the Tomb and the Altar in the Cathedral smoaking with them like an Offertory with all the Ceremonies and Voices their Quires and Copes could express attended by many Prelates and Nobles who payd this last Tribute to her memory This was accounted a Piaculous action of the Kings by many though some have not stuck to say That as Queen Elizabeth was willing to be rid of the Queen of Scots yet would not have it her action and being it could not be done without her command when it was done she renounced her own act So though the King was angry when he heard his Mother was taken away by a violent death recalling his Ambassador threatning War and making a great noise which was after calmed and closed up with a large Pension from the Queen yet he might well enough be pleased that such a spirit was layd as might have conjured up three Kingdoms against him For Patrick Grey that the King sent to disswade Queen Elizabeth from taking away his Mothers life was the greatest Instrument to perswade her to it Distilling always into her this Sentence Mortua non mordet When she is dead she cannot bite But the Love that tends to self-preservation is an adjunct of Nature more powerful than Filial duty and therefore there will be no great strife where there are not adequate operations This time was also presented unto us in a various dress and the event shewed though some years after there was more cause of Mourning than Rejoycing though the latter got the predominance For the Prince Elector Palatine came over into England to Marry the Kings only Daughter and Death deprived us of the Kings eldest Son A Prince as eminent in Nobleness as in Blood and having a spirit too full of life and splendour to be long shrouded in a cloud of flesh If that which gave life to his life had been less he might happily have lived longer Not that there was too much Oyl or that concurrent Natural Balsamum in this fair and well-composed Lamp to extinguish it self but the light that came from it might cast so radiant a lustre as by darkning others it came to lose the benefit of its own glory Iealousie is like fire that burns all before it and that fire is hot enough to dissolve all Bonds that tends to the diminution of a Crown The Prince of Spain his contemporary Son to Philip the second not long before this like a young Phaeton wished himself but one day in his Fathers Throne and he fell not long after into the hard hand of an immature fate before he could step into the Chariot So dangerous are the paths of Greatness that the tongue many times rouling aside makes men tread awry Strange Rumors are raised upon this sudden expiration of our Prince the disease being so violent that the combate with Nature in the strength of youth being almost nineteen years of age lasted not above five days Some say he was poysoned with a bunch of Grapes others attribute it to the venemous scent of a pair of Gloves presented to him the distemper lying for the most part in the head They that knew neither of these are strucken with fear and amazement as if they had tasted or felt the effects of those violences Private whisperings and suspicions of some new designs a foot broaching Prophetical terrors That a black CARLO D'AVSTRIA PRINCIPE DI SPAGNA Christmas would produce a bloody Lent For the Spaniard who opposed the marriage of the Prince Palatine and saw their ruin growing up in Prince Henries towardly Spirit were reputed vulgarly the Mint-masters of some horrid practices and that a Ship of Pocket Pistols was come out of Spain fit Instruments for a Massacre And these Trepidations were not only in the lower Region but wrought upwards so high that Proclamations were sent abroad to forbid the making or carrying of Pistols under a foot long in the Barrel And all Papists are not only dis-armed being ever esteemed Vassals to the Catholick King but their Actions with caution pried into In such dark clouds as these the whole Kingdom was at a loss all ordinary Transitions of Nature are imputed to prodigious Omens the greater the fears are the more blazing is the Meteor that arises from them Some that knew the bickerings betwixt the Prince and the Viscount muttered out dark Sentences that durst not look into the light especially Sir Iames Elphington who observing the Prince one day to be discontented with the Viscount offered to kill him but the Prince reproved him with a gallant Spirit saying If there were Cause he would do it himself Now whether these rumors begot a further scrutiny or whether it be the Court-trick to daub and slubber over things that may be perspicuous I know not But the Physicians about the Prince gave it under their hands which was spread abroad in several copies that he died of a strong malignant Feaver so are all violent dissolutions where Nature hath power of resistance that his Liver was pale and livid lead-like the Gall had no Gall but was full of wind the Spleen was unnaturally black and the Lungs in many places spotted with much corruption the Midriff or Diaphragma blackish and the Head in some places full of blood and in some places full of clear water Thus was he Anatomized to amuze the World and clear the suspicion of poyson as if no venoms could produce these effects He died the sixth of November and was carried on a Hearse Triumphing even in Death to Westminster the seventh of December following the pomp of the Funeral being fully compleated with the People tears and Lamentations But the King though he could not but be troubled to lose so near a part of himself looked over all these Mists and like the Sun dispelled all these Clouds and Vapours commanding no man should appear in the Court in mourning he would have nothing in his Eye to bring so sad a Message to his Heart The jollity feasting and magnificence of Christmas must not be laid down There were Princes and Nobles
was the third who suffered on Tower Hill a Man much pitied being drawn in by the allurements of Northampton to be a Spectator rather than an Actor in this bloody Tragedy but his Connivence cost him his life And being a man full of sorrow for his offence he left two Pillars behind him at his death for Watch-Towers to all that pass by in this Bark of frail Mortality to prevent Shipwrack One was Not to vow any thing to God but to perform it The other was Not to take a pride in any Parts though never so excellent For the first he said he was a great Gamester and loved it and having lost one time much money he seriously and advisedly between God and his own Soul clapping his hand on his breast spake thus as it were to God If ever I play again then let me be hanged and breaking my Vow said he now God hath paid my Imprecation home The second was He took a great delight in his Pen And that Pen to use his own words which I was so proud of hath struck me dead and like Absolons hair hath hanged me for there dropt a word or two from my Pen in a Letter to the Earl of Northampton which upon my salvation I am not able to answer At my Arraignment I pleaded hard for my life and protested mine innocency but when my own Pen came against me I was not able to speak for my self but stood as one amazed or that had no tongue Such damps doth guiltiness cast upon the Spirit The fourth that fell by the stroke of Iustice was Franklin a Fellow as sordid in his death as pernicious in his life whose name deserves not so much as memory JOHN HOLLES 1st EARL OF CLARE She died before him Her death was infamous his without fame the obscurity of the rest of his life darkning the splendor of it And though she died as it were in a corner in so private a condition the loathsomeness of her death made it as conspicuous as on the house top For that part of her Body which had been the receptacle of most of her sin grown rotten though she never had but one Child the ligaments failing it fell down and was cut away in flakes with a most nauseous and putrid savour which to augment she would roul her self in her own ordure in her bed took delight in it Thus her affections varied For nothing could be found sweet enough to augment her Beauties at first and nothing stinking enough to decipher her loathsomeness at last Pardon the sharpness of these expressions for they are for the Glory of God who often makes his punishments in the ballance of his Iustice of equal weight with our sins For his Person He was rather well compacted than tall his features and favour comely and handsome rather than beautiful the hair of his head flaxen that of his face tinctured with yellow of the Sycambrian colour In his own nature of a gentle mind and affable disposition having publick affections till they were all swallowed up in this gulf of beauty which did precipitate him into these dangerous Contrivances For that which made his friendship false diverted his publick affection to his private interest and when he found himself guilty of what he thought might ruin him he grew covetous to heap that together which he thought might preserve him So that at one breach that our Corruptions make many mischiefs follow in the crowd And if he had not met with such a Woman he might have been a good man but trials and strong temptations enhanceth the Price of Vertue the conflict is gallant but to be overcome debaseth a man the more by how much his fall is the greater I was loth to separate these Delinquents in their Trials being close woven by the length of Sir Francis Bacons Speech in the Star-Chamber against Hollis Wentworth and Lumsden But knowing what an Ornament his Oratory will give to this Story and how usual it was for ancient Historians to insert their Harangues of State as well as Military Orations I could not decline this though it comes almost in the Rere the rather because it will serve as a Seal and Confirmation of what is formerly written And thus it was THE Offence wherewith I shall charge the three Offenders at the Bar is a misdemeanour of a high Nature tending to the defacing and scandal of Iustice in a great Cause Capital The particular Charge is this the King among many of his Princely Vertues is known to excel in that proper Vertue of the Imperial Throne which is Iustice it is a Master Vertue unto which the other three are ministrant and do service Wisdom serveth to discover and discern of Innocencies and Guiltiness Fortitude is to persecute and execute and Temperance so to carry Iustice as it be not passionate in the pursuit nor confused in valuing Persons nor precipitate in Time For this his Majesties Vertue of Iustice God hath of late raised an Occasion and erected as it were a Stage or Theatre much for his Honour to shew and act it in the pursuit of the violent untimely death of Sir Thomas Overbury and therein cleansing the Land from blood For if blood doth cry to Heaven in Gods ears this is a stench I may say in the Nostrils of God and Man This work of Iustice the greater and more excellent it is you will soon conclude the greater is the offence of any that have sought to affront or traduce it And therefore before I descend unto the particular Charge of these Offenders I will say somewhat of the Crime of Impoysonment somewhat of the particular Circumstances of this Fact upon Overbury and thirdly of the Kings great and worthy care and carriage in this business The offence of Impoysonment is most truly figured in that Device and Description which was made of the nature of Caius Caligula That he was Lutum sanguine maceratum Mire cemented with blood For as it is one of the highest offences in guiltiness so it is the basest of all others in the minds of Offenders Treason Magnum aliquid spectant they aim at great things but this is vile and base I have found in the Book of God examples of all other offences but not any one of an Impoysonment or an Impoysoner I find mention of some fear of casual Impoysonments when the Waters were corrupted and bitter they came complaining in a fearful manner Master Mors in olla And I find mention of Poysons of Beasts and Serpents The Poysons of Asps is under their lips saith the Psalm but I find no mention in a Human Creature of a malicious and murtherous Impoysonment Let their table be made a snare is certainly most true of Impoysonment but that I think was meant of the Treachery of Friends that were participant of the same Table This is an offence that hath two spurs of offending Spes perficiendi spes celandi it is
were of transcendent parts yet was he tainted with the same infection and not many years after perished in his own corruption which shews That neither Example nor Precept he having seen so many and been made capable of so much can be a Pilot sufficient to any Port of Happiness though Reason be never so able to direct if Grace doth not give the gate But the King more to exalt Iustice and to shew the people his high abilities came in Iune this year to the Star-Chamber where in a long and well-weighed Discourse he turns over the volume of his mind that the World might read his excellent parts in lively characters He told the Lords he came thither in imitation of Henry the seventh his great Predecessor and the reason he came no sooner was that he resolved with Pythagoras for seven years to keep silence and learn the Laws of the Kingdom before he would teach others and the other seven years he was studying to find an occasion to come that might not be with prejudice For in his own cause he could not come in a great cause betwixt man and man it might be thought some particular favour brought him thither and in a small Cause it was not fit for him to come but now he had so much to say in relation to good Government that he could no longer forbear First He charges himself Secondly The judges Thirdly The Auditory in general In his own Charge he lays a foundation for raising a most excellent structure in Government wherein he was a Master-workman and had a most admirable Theory and full abilities to put it in practice and happily the bent of his intentions tended that way though it had for the most part a loose strong And to that which concerned the Judges he not only reckons up their Duties in their publick Relation but shews them the Iurisdiction and power of their several Courts how far every one did extend to which he would have them limited that they might not clash and contest one against another to shake the Basis on which they were built but that there might be a harmony and sweet concordance among them Expressing himself with such Elegance and Prudence that the most studious Lawyer whose design had been to imbellish a Discourse fitting for the ears of his Prince could not have gone beyond what he exprest to his People so strong and retentive was his judgment and memory so natural and genuine that which came from them that it did emanare flow from him to the admiration of the hearers To the people in general and under-Officers he gave an admonition to submit to the Law and Justice of the Land and not to go upon new Puritan strains such was his expression to make all things popular but to keep themselves within the antient limits of Obedience For he feared Innovation as a Monster got loose which should be always kept in such a Labyrinth as none should come at but by the Clew of Reason Then he commands the Judges in their Circuits to take notice of those Justices of the Peace that were most active for the good of the Country that they might have incouragement from him For to use his own words I value them that serve me faithfully there equally with those that attend my person Therefore let none be ashamed of this Office or be discouraged in being a Justice of the Peace if he serve worthily in it The Chancellor under me makes Justices and puts them out but neither I nor he can tell what they are therefore we must be informed by you Judges who can only tell who do well and who do ill without which how can the good be cherished and the rest put out the good Justices are careful to attend the service of the King and Country the bad are idle slow-bellies that abide always at home given to a life of ease and delight liker Ladies than Men and think it is enough to contemplate Justice when as Virtusin actione consistet contemplative Justice is no Justice and contemplative Justices are fit to be put out Another sort of Justices are Busie-bodies and will have all men dance after their Pipe and follow their Greatness or else will not be content A sort of men Qui se primos omnium esse putant nec sunt tamen These proud spirits must know that the Country is ordained to follow God and the King and not them Another sort are they that go seldom to the Kings service but when it is to help some of their Kindred or Alliance so they come to help ther Friends or hurt their Enemies making Jugice serve for a shadow to Faction and tumultuating the Country Another sort are Gentlemen of great worth in their own conceit and cannot be content with the present form of Government but must have a kind of liberty in the people and must be gracious Lords and Redeemers of their Liberty and in every cause that concerns Prerogative give a snatch against Monarchy through their Puritanical itching after Popularity some of them have shewed themselves too bold of late in the lower House of Parliament And when all is done if there were not a King they would be less cared for than other men So wise the Kings fears made him and so wary to prevent the popular violence And even in these Infant-times the contention doth appear which afterward got more strength when by his power he had gained in every County such as he made subservient to his will For as the King strove to loosen the Piles and Banks of the peoples liberties so the people strove to bound and keep off the Inundation of his Prerogative Then he takes notice of the swarms of Gentry that through the instigation of their Wives or to new model and fashion their Daughters who if they were unmarried mar'd their Marriages if married lost their Reputations and rob their husbands purses did neglect their Country Hospitality and cumber the City a general Nuisance to the Kingdom being as the spleen to the Body which as in measure it over-grows the Body wasts and seeing a Proclamation will not keep them at home he requires that the power of the Star-chamber may not only regulate them but the exorbitancy of the new buildings about the City which he still much repined at being a shelter for them where they spent their Estates in Coaches Lacquies and fine Cloaths like French-men living miserably in their houses like Italians becoming Apes to other Nations Whereas it was the honour of the English Nobility and Gentry above all Countries in the World to be hospitable among their Tenants Which they may the better do by the fertility and abundance of all things Thus the King pried into every miscarriage being willing to reform these then growing abuses But among all the heights of Reason that the spirit of man doth actuate and give life to the highest and most transcendent is that of Religion which
who both by the attestations of the Divinity-Colleges at Basil and Heydelberg as also by manifest evidence out of his own Writings is convinced of a number of manifest Heresies These Reasons therefore namely the many enormous and horrible Heresies maintained by him the Instance of his Majesty grounded upon the welfare and honour of this Country the Requests either of all or of the most part of your Provinces the Petitions of all the Ministers excepting those only which are of Arminius's Sect should methinks prevail so far with my Lords the States of Holland as they will at the last apply themselves to the performance of that which both the sincerity of Religion and the service of their Country requireth at their hands Furthermore I have Commandment from his Majesty to move you in his name to set down some certain Reglement in matters of Religion throughout your Provinces that this licentious Freedom of Disputation may be restrained which breeds factions and part-takings and that you would absolutely take away the Liberty of Prophesying which Vorstius doth so much recommend unto you in the Dedicatory Epistle of his Anti-Bellarmine the book whereof his Patrons do boast so much And his Majesty doth exhort you seeing you have heretofore taken Arms for the Liberty of your Consciences and have endured a violent and bloody War the space of forty years for the Profession of the Gospel that now having gotten the upper hand of your miseries you would not suffer the Followers of Arminius to make your actions an example for them to proclaim throughout the World that wicked Doctrine of the Apostacy of the Saints The account which his Majesty doth make of your amity appears sufficiently by the Treaties which he made with your Lordships by the succours which your Provinces have received from his Crowns by the deluge of blood which his Subjects have spent in your Wars Religion is the only solder of this Amity For his Majesty being by the grace of God Defender of the Faith doth hold himself obliged to defend all those who prosess the same Faith and Religion with him But if once your zeal begins to grow cold therein his Majesty will then straightways imagin that your friendship towards him and his Subjects will likewise freeze by little and little The Right Honourable Sr. RALPH WINWOOD Kn. t This was the effect of Sir Winwood's Remonstrance to which after six weeks delay he received this cold and ambiguous Answer THat the States General had deliberated upon his Majestie 's Proposition and Letter dated the 6 Oct. 1611. and do give him humble Thanks for the continuance of his Royal affection towards the welfare of their Country and preservation of Religion And that they had entred into Consultation concerning the Articles charged against Vorstius and the Curators of Leyden did thereupon make an Order provisional that Vorstius should not be admitted to the Exercise of his Place but remain in Leyden only as an Inhabitant and Citizen And in case Vorstius should not be able to clear himself from those Accusations which were laid to his Charge at or before the next Assembly which was to be holden in Feb. following that then they would decide the Matter with good contentment to his Majesty But this Answer still savouring of delays could not in effect be esteemed less than an absolute refusal to yield to the King's desires besides the specious Separation of Vortius as a Citizen was only to satisfie the King at present for he after notwithstanding exercised his Place of Professor Whereupon Sir Ralph Winwood knowing the King's mind made this Protestation in their Publick Assembly My Lords THere is not any one of you I suppose in this Assembly that will not acknowledge the brotherly love wherewith the King my Master hath always affected the good of your Provinces and the fatherly care which he hath ever had to procure the establishment of your State In which respect his Majesty having understood that Vorstius was elected Divinity-Professor of Leyden a Person attainted by many Witnesses Iuris facti of a number of Heresies is therewith exceedingly offended And for the timely prevention of an infinite of evils did give me in charge to exhort you which I did the 21 of September last to wash your hands from that Man and not suffer him to come within your Country To this Exhortation your Answer was That all due observance and regard should be had unto his Majesty But his Majesty hath received so little respect herein that instead of debarring Vorstius from coming into the Country which even by the Laws of Friendship his Majesty might have required the Proceedings have been clean contrary for he is permitted to come to Leyden hath been received there with all honour taken up his habitation treated and lodged in the quality of a publick Professor His Majesty perceiving his first motion had so little prevailed writ a Letter to you to the same purpose full of zeal and affection persuading you by many Reasons not to stain your own honor and the honor of the Reformed Churches by calling unto you that wretched and wicked Atheist These Letters were presented to this Assembly the fifth of November last at which time by his Majesties command I used some speech my self to the same effect Some six weeks after I received an answer but so confused ambiguous and impertinent that I have reason to conceive there is no meaning at all to send Vortius away who is at present in Leyden received acknowledged respected and treated as publick Professor whether it be to grace that University instead of the deceased Ioseph Scaliger or whether to give him means to do more mischief in secret which perhaps for shame he durst not in publick I cannot tell For these reasons according to that charge which I have received from the King my Master I do in his name and on his behalf protest in this Assembly against the wrong injury and scandal done unto the Reformed Religion by receiving and retaining Conradus Vorstius in the University of Leyden and against the violence offered unto that Alliance which is betwixt his Majesty and your Provinces which being founded upon the preservation and maintenance of the Reformed Religion you have not omitted to violate in the proceeding of this cause Of which enormous indignities committed against the Church of God and against his Majestie 's person in preferring the presence of Vorstius before his amity and alliance the King my Master holds himself bound to be sensible and if Reparation be not made and that speedily which cannot be by any other means than by sending Vorstius away his Majesty will make it appear unto the World by some Declaration which he will cause to be printed and published how much he detests the Atheisms and Heresies of Vorstius and all those that maintain favour and cherish them To this the States promised a better Answer at their next Assembly but that producing no good
more prayers and oblations offered here to the Mother than to the Son For the Marquess himself as he was a man of excellent symmetry and proportion of parts so he affected beauty where he found it but yet he looks upon the whole race of Women as inferior things and uses them as if the Sex were one best pleased with all And if his eye cull'd out a wanton beauty he had his Setters that could spread his Nets and point a meeting at some Ladies House where he should come as by accident and find Accesses while all his Train attended at the dore as if it were an honourable visit The Earl of Rutland of a Noble Family had but one Daughter to be the Mistris of his great Fortune and he tempts her carries her to his Lodgings in Whitehall keeps her there for some time and then returns her back again to her Father The stout old Earl sent him this threatning Message That he had too much of a Gentleman to suffer such an indignity and if he did not marry his Daughter to repair her honour no greatness should protect him from his justice Buckingham that perhaps made it his design to get the Father's good will this way being the greatest match in the Kingdom had no reason to mislike the Union therefore he quickly salved up the wound before it grew to a quarrel And if this Marriage stopt the Current of his sins he had the less to answer for This young Lady was bred a Papist by her Mother but after her Marriage to the Marquess she was converted by Doctor White as was pretended and grew a zealous Protestant but like a morning dew it quickly vanished For the old Countess of Buckingham never left working by her sweet Instruments the Iesuits till she had placed her on the first foundation So that the Marquess betwixt a Mother and a Wife began to be indifferent no Papist yet no Protestant but the Arminian Tenets taking root were nourished up by him and those that did not hold the same opinions were counted Puritans These new indifferences now grew so hot in England that the Protestant Cause grew very cold in Germany Which made the spirits of most men rise against the Spanish Faction at home and Spain's incroaching Monarchy abroad And though the King sped ill the last Parliament of Somerset's undertaking and thought to lay them by for ever as he often expressed looking upon them as incroachers into his Prerogative and diminishers of his Majesty and Glory making Kings less and Subjects more than they are Yet now finding the peoples desires high-mounted for regaining the Palatinate he thought they would look only up towards that and liberally open their Purses which he might make use of and this Unanimity and good agreement betwixt him and his people would induce his Brother of Spain to be more active in the Treaty in hand and so he should have supply from the one and dispatch from the other But Parliaments that are like Physicians to the bodies of Common-wealths when the humors are once stirred they find cause enough many times to administer sharp Medicines where there was little appearance of Diseases For in this Recess and Ease Time-servers and Flatterers had cried up the Prerogative And the King wanting Money for his vast expenses had furnished himself by unusual courses For Kings excessive in gifts will find followers excessive in demands and they that weaken themselves in giving lose more in gathering than they gain in the gift For Prodigality in a Soveraign ends in the Rapine and Spoil of the Subject To help himself therefore and those that drained from him he had granted several Patents to undertakers and Monopolizers whereby they preyed upon the people by suits and exactions milkt the Kingdom and kept it poor the King taking his ease and giving way to Informers the Gentry grown debauched and Fashion-mongers and the Commons sopt and besotted with quiet and restiness drunk in so much disability that it might well be said by Gondemar England had a great many people but few men And he would smile at their Musters for through disuse they were grown careless of Military Discipline ill provided of Arms effeminate Officers neglecting their charges and duties conniving for gain at their Neighbours miscarriages Some of the Officers in the Militia and Iustices of the Peace not a few being Church-Papists floating upon the smooth stream of the times overwhelming all others that opposed them stigmatizing them with the name of Puritans and that was mark enough to hinder the current of any proceeding or preferment aimed at or hoped for either in Church or State And the Iesuits ranging up and down like spirits let loose did not now as formerly creep into corners using close and cunning Artifices but practised them openly having admission to our Counsellors of State for when Secretaries and such as manage the intimate Counsels of Kings are Iesuitical and Clients to the Pope there can be no tendency of Affection to a contrary Religion or Policy Those were only most active in the Court of England that courted the King of Spain most and could carry the face of a Protestant and the heart of a Papist the rest were contented to go along with the cry For they hunted but a cold scent and could pick out and make nothing of it that drew off or crost or hunted counter Which raised the spirits of the people so high against them that were the chief Hunters in these times that they brought the King himself within the compass of their Libels and Pasquils charging him to love his hounds better than his people And if this bad blood had been heated to an itch of Innovation it would have broke out to a very fore and incurable Malady every man seeing the danger few men daring to prevent it The Pulpits were the most bold Opposers but if they toucht any thing upon the Spanish policy or the intended Treaties for the Restitution of the Palatinate was included in the Marriage before it was the Spaniards to give their mouths must be stopt by Gondemar without the Lady Iacob's Receipt and it may be confined or imprisoned for it So that there were noplain downright blows to be given but if they cunningly and subtily could glance at the misdemeanors of the Times and smooth it over metaphorically it would pass current though before the King himself For about this time one of his own Chaplains preaching before him at Greenwich took this Text 4 Mat. 8. And the Devil took Iesus to the top of a Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World saying All these will I give c. He shewed what power the Devil had in the World at that time when he spake these words and from thence he came down to the power of the Devil now And dividing the World into four parts he could not make the least of the four to be Christian and of
Common-wealth from ruin in so great a time of danger And thus they address themselves to their great Pilot. Most dread and gracious Soveraign WE your most humble and loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses assembled in the Commons House of Parliament full of grief and unspeakable sorrow through the true sence of your Majesties displeasure expressed by your Letter lately sent to Our Speaker and by him related and read unto Us Yet comforted again with the assurance of your Grace and Goodness and of the sincerity of our own intentions and proceedings whereon with confidence we can rely in all humbleness beseech your most excellent Majesty that the Loyalty and Dutifulness of as faithful and loving Subjects as ever served or lived under a gracious Soveraign may not undeservedly suffer by the mis-information of partial and uncertain Reports which are ever unfaithful Intelligencers but that your Majesty would in the clearness of your own Judgment first vouchsase to understand from Our selves and not from others what our humble Declaration and Petition resolved upon by the Universal Voice of the House and proposed with your Gracious favour to be presented unto your Sacred Majesty doth contain Upon what Occasion we entred into Consideration of those things which are therein contained with what dutiful respect to your Majesty and your Service we did consider thereof and what was our true intention thereby And that when your Majesty shall thereby truly discern our dutiful Affections you will in your Royal judgment free us from those heavy Charges wherewith some of our Members are burthened and wherein the whole House is involved And we humbly beseech your Majesty that you will not hereafter give Credit to private Reports against all or any of the Members of our House whom the whole have not censured until your Majesty have been truly informed thereof from our selves and that in the mean time and ever we may stand upright in your Majesties Grace and good Opinion than which no worldly consideration is or can be dearer unto us When your Majesty had reassembled us in Parliament by your Royal Commandment sooner than we expected and did vouchsafe by the mouths of three honourable Lords to impart unto us the weighty occasions moving your Majesty thereunto And from them we did understand these particulars That notwithstanding your Princely and Pious indeavours to procure Peace the time is now come that Janus Temple must be opened That the Voice of Bellona must be heard and not the Voice of the Turtle That there was no hope of Peace nor any Truce to be obtained no not for a few days That your Majesty must either abandon your own Children or ingage your self in a war wherein Consideration is to be had what foot what horse what money would be sufficient That the Lower Palatinate was seized upon by the Army of the King of Spain as Executor of the Ban there in quality of Duke of Burgundy as the Upper Palatinate was by the Duke of Bavaria That the King of Spain at his own Charge had now at least five several Armies on foot That the Princes of the Union were disbanded but the Catholick league remained firm whereby those Princes so dissevered were in danger one by one to be ruined That the Estate of those of the Religion in Foreign parts was miserable And That out of these Considerations we were called to a war and forthwith to advise for a Supply for keeping the forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to fore-see the means for raising and maintaining the body of an Army for the war against the Spring We therefore out of our Zeal to your Majesty and your Posterity with more alacrity and colerity than ever was precedented in Parliament did address our selves to the Service commended unto Us. And although we cannot conceive that the honor and safety of your Majesty and your posterity the patrimony of your Children invaded and possessed by their Enemies the welfare of Religion and State of your Kingdom are matters at any time unfit for our deepest consideration in time of Parliament And though before this time we were in some of these points silent yet being now invited thereunto and led on by so just an occasion we thought it Our Duties to provide for the present supply thereof and not only to turn our eyes on a war abroad but to take care for the securing of our peace at home which the dangerous increase and insolency of Popish Recusants apparently visibly and sensibly did lead us unto The consideration whereof did necessarily draw us truly to represent unto your Majesty what we conceive to be the Causes what we feared would be the effects and what we hoped might be the remedies of these growing Evils Among which as incident and unavoidable we fell upon some things which seem to touch upon the King of Spain as they have relation to Popish Recusants at home to the Wars by him maintained in the Palatinate against your Majestie 's Children and to his several Armies now on foot yet as we conceived without touch of dishonour to that King or any other Prince your Majestie 's Consederate In the discourse whereof we did not assume to our selves any power to determin of any part thereof nor intend to incroach or intrude upon the Sacred bounds of your Royal Authority to whom and to whom only we acknowledg it doth belong to resolve of Peace and War and of the Marriage of the most noble Prince your Son But as your most Loyal and humble Subjects and Servants representing the whole Commons of your Kingdom who have a large interest in the happy and prosperous estate of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity and of the flourishing Estate of our Church and Common-wealth did resolve out of our Cares and Fears truly and plainly to demonstrate these things to your Majesty which we were not assured could otherwise come so fully and clearly to your knowledg and that being done to lay the same down at your Majesties feet without expectation of any other answer of your Majesty touching these higher points than what at your good pleasure and in your own time should be held fit This being the effect of that we had formerly resolved upon and these the occasions and reasons inducing the same our humble suit to your Majesty and confidence is that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to receive at the hands of these our Messengers our former humble Declaration and Petition and to vouchsafe to read and favourably to interpret the same And that to so much thereof as containeth our humble Petition concerning Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants the passage of Bills and granting your Royal Pardon you will vouchsafe an answer unto us And whereas your Majesty by the general words of your Letter seemeth to restrain us from intermedling with matters of Government or particulars which have their motion in the Courts of Justice the generality of which words
press upon our most undoubted and Regal Prerogative as if the petitioning of Us in matters that your selves confess ye ought not to meddle with were not a medling with them And whereas ye pretend that ye were invited to this course by the Speeches of three honourable Lords ye thy so much as your selves repeat of the Speeches nothing can be concluded but that We were resolved by War to regain the Palatinate if otherwise We could not attain unto it And you were invited to advise forthwith upon a Supply for keeping the Forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to fore-see the means for the raising and maintaining of the Body of an Army for that War against the Spring Now what inference can be made upon this That therefore we must presently denounce War against the King of Spain break our dearest Son's Match and Match him to one of Our Religion Let the world judge The difference is no greater than if we would tell a Merchant that We had great need to borrow money from him for raising an Army that thereupon it should follow that We were bound to follow his advice in the Directions of the War and all things depending thereupon But yet not contenting your Selves with this excuse of yours which indeed cannot hold water ye come after to a direct contradiction to the conclusion of your former Petition saying that the Honor and Safety of Us and Our posterity and the patrimony of our Children invaded and possessed by their Enemies the welfare of Religion and State of Our Kingdom are matters at any time not unfit for your deepest considerations in Parliament To this generality We answer with the Logicians That where all things are contained nothing is omitted So as this plenipotency of yours invests you in all power upon Earth lacking nothing but the Popes to have the Keyes also both of Heaven ahd Purgatory And to this vast generality of yours we can give no other Answer for it will trouble all the best Lawyers in the House to make a good Commentary upon it For so did the Puritan Ministers in Scotland bring all kind of Causes within the compass of their Jurisdiction saying That it was the Churches Office to judge of Slander and there could no kind of crime or fault be committed but there was a slander in it either against God the King or their Neighbour and by this means they hooked into themselves the too fair a ground and opened them too Wide a Gate for Curbing and oppressing of many thousands of our Religion in divers parts of Christendom And whereas you excuse your touching upon the King of Spain upon occasion of the incidents by you repeated in that place and yet affirm that it is without any touch to his Honour We cannot wonder enough that ye are so forgetful both of your Words and Writs For in your former Petition ye plainly affirm that he affects the Temporal Monarchy of the whole Earth then which there can be no more malice uttered against any great King to make all other Princes and Potentates both envie and hate him But if ye list it may be easily tried whether that Speech touched him in Honour or not if we shall ask him the Question whether he means to assume to himself that Title or no For every King can best judge of his own Honour We omit the particular ejaculations of some foul mouthed Orators in your House against the Honour of his Crown and State And touching your excuse of not determining any thing concerning the Match of our dearest Son but only to tell your opinions and lay it down at Our feet First We desire to know how you could have presumed to determin in that point without Committing of high Treason And next you cannot deny but your talking of his Match after that manner was a direct breach of Our commandment and Declaration out of Our own mouth at the first sitting down of this Parliament where we plainly professed that we were in treaty of his Match with Spain and wished you to have that Confidence in our Religion and Wisdom that We would so manage it as Our Religion should receive no prejudice by it And the same We now repeat unto you professing that We are so far engaged in that March as we cannot in Honour go back except the King of Spain perform not such things as we expect at his hands And therefore We are sorry that ye should shew to have so great Distrust in Us or to conceive that We should be cold in our Religion otherwise We cannot imagine how Our former public Declaration should not have stopt your mouths in this point And as to your Request That We would now receive your former Petition We wonder what could make you presume that We would not receive it whereas in our former Letter We plainly declared the Contrary unto you and therefore we have justly rejected that suit of yours For what have you left un-attempted in the Highest points of Soveraignty in that Petition of yours except the striking of Coin For it contains the violation of Leagues the particular way how to govern a War and the Marriage of our dearest Son both Negative with Spain nay with any other Popish Princess And also Affirmatively as to the Matching with one of Our Religion which We confess is a strain beyond any Providence or Wisdom God hath given Us as things now stand These are unfit things to be handled in Parliament except your King should require it of you For who can have Wisdom to judge of things of that Nature but such as are daily acquainted with the particulars of Treaties and of the Variable or fixed Connexion of Affairs of State together with the knowledge of the secret ways ends and intentions of Princes in their several Negotiations otherwise a small mistaking in matters of this Nature may produce more effects than can be imagined And therefore Nesutor ultra crepidam And besides the intermedling in Parliament with matters of Peace or War and Marriage of Our dearest Son would be such a diminution to Us and to Our Crown in forraign Countries as would make any Prince neglect to treat with Us either in matters of Peace or Marriage except they might be assured by the assent of Parliament And so it proved long ago with a King of France who upon a trick procuring his States to dissent from some Treaty which before he had made was after refused treating with any other Princes to his great reproach unless he would first procure the Assent of his Estates to their Proposition And will you cast your eyes upon the late Times you shall find that the late Queen of Famous memory was humbly petitioned by a Parliament to be pleased to marry But her Answer was that she liked their petition well because it was simple not limiting her to place or person as not besitting her liking to their Fancies and if they had done otherwise she would
with Recriminations which was not her manner heretofore The sleight and frivolous answer given by the Marquess of Bedmar unto Our Ambassador when he acquainted him with the Siege of Heidelburg The quarrellous occasion taken by the Emperor for calling the Diet at Ratisbone contrary to his own promise which in his dispatch to Us he confesseth to have broken as you will see by the Copy All which and many more which your own judgment in the perusal of the Dispatches will suggest unto you do minister unto Us cause sufficient of jealousie on the Emperor's part as you shall plainly tell that King although We will not do him that wrong as to mistrust that He gives the least consent to it In this confidence with much earnestness We shall still solicit him that for the affection he bears us and the desire which We suppose he hath that there may continue for ever a perfect Amity betwixt Us and the whole House of Austria he will not cease to do all good Offices herein letting him know directly that in these terms We cannot stand with the Emperor but that if Heidelburg be won or the Siege continue or the Cessation be long unnecessarily delayed We must recall Our Ambassador from Bruxels and treat no more as We have already given order hoping that whatsoever unkindness We shall conceive against the Emperor upon these occasions it shall not be interpreted to reflect in any sort upon the entire affection that is at this present and as We hope shall always continue betwixt Us and the Crown of Spain And therefore as we have heretofore sundry times promised in testimony of the sincerity of Our proceedings and of Our great Desire to preserve the Amity inviolable between Us and the whole House of Austria That in case Our Son-in-law would not be governed by Us that then we would not only forsake him but take part and joyn Our forces with the Emperor against him so you may fairly represent unto that King that in like manner we have Reason to expect the same Measure from him that upon the Emperor's averseness to a Cessation and Accommodation he will likewise Actually assist Us for the Recovery of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity unto Our Son-in-law as it hath been often times intimated from Spain To conclude We shall not need to say any more unto you touching this Point but to let you see that Our meaning is to carry all things fair with that King and not to give him any cause of Distrust or jealousie if you perceive that they intend to go really and roundly on with the Match Wherein nevertheless we must tell you that we have no great Cause to be well pleased with the Diligences used on that part when we observe that after so long an expectance of the Dispensation upon which the whole business as they will have it depends there is nothing yet returned but Queries and Oâ—jections Yet because we will not give over Our Patience a while longer until we understand more certainly what the effect thereof is like to be wherein we require you to be very Wary and watchful considering how Our Honour is therein ingaged we have thought fit to let you know how far we are pleased to inlarge Our self concerning those points demanded by the Pope and set down by way of Postil unto the Articles agreed upon betwixt Spain and Us as you shall see by the Power which Gage brought Us from Rome whereof we have sent you a Copy and our Resolutions thereupon Signed with our own hand for your warrant and Instruction And further then that since we cannot go without much prejudice inconvenience and dishonour to our self and our Son we hope and expect the King of Spain will bring it instantly to an issue without further delay which you are to press with all Diligence and earnestness that you may presently know their final Resolution and what we may expect thereupon But if any Respit of time be earnestly demanded and that you perceive it not possible for them to resolve until an answer come from Rome we then think it fit that you give them two Months time after your Audience that we may understand that King 's final Resolution before Christmas next at the furthest Wansted 9. Sept. 1622. This Letter doth not only discover the shuffling and Fox-like contrivances of the House of Austria to Work and Earth themselves in the Palatinate but also the scorns and reproaches put upon Our King and if I may so call them his Terriers who with little Bayings only let them work till they had got into their Fastnesses and strong holds and then they may Bay at leisure and blame their lazy Belief But notwithstanding our King threatens in his Letter if Heidelberg be lost and the Cessation delayed he will Treat no more yet the Desire of the Match was so radicated in his Heart that neither the loss of Heidleberg or Manheim that succeeded it nor the blocking up of Frankendale the last strong hold of his Son-in-laws Inheritance could Mortifie his Hopes But as the Emperor besieged these Towns with his Armies so he beset the King of Spain with his Treaties And the Lord Digby though quickned by this Letter did not lay open the cunning carriage of these contrivers which tended to root out the reformed Religion in Germany nor press home these particulars as he was injoined but only let the King of Spain know That his late Father by the advice of his Ecclesiasticks in Spain had consented to the Articles of Marriage in matters of Religion five months since yet there were demurs upon those points notwithstanding that the King of Great Britain complied in all things then demanded particularly what he would do in favour of the Catholicks But now after two years time the Pope of his own Accord without any intimation to Spain had sent directly for England propounding to the King his Master not only many alterations in the Capitulations before a Dispensation could be granted but intruded something new which the King would by no means yield unto wherefore to expedite the Business the King having neglected all other Treaties of marriage for his Son these six years past only in respect of this Treaty he is commanded to declare plainly to the King of Spain how far the King his Master may condescend in matters of Religion and if that will give content to proceed to a conclusion of the Marriage without more Delays seeing he hath yielded to much more than was capitulated in the late King of Spain's time if this will not satisfie that then without loss of more time the King his Master may dispose of his Son and the King of Spain of the Infanta as they please These things were ruminated on by the slow paced Spanish gravity and fair and plausible answers presented that like fruits of Dissimulation gave but small Nourishment to hope yet it kept it alive though in a
drooping condition and it was only sustained till they could bring their ends about Which our King now suspecting as he had good cause from the constant intelligences given him of the diminution of his own Forces in the Palatinate and the Growing strength of the Enemy He dispatches this second Letter to the Baron Digby to let the King of Spain know how sensible he was of being abused and how loath he was to see it RIght Trusty c. There is none better knoweth than your self how we have laboured ever since the beginning of these unfortunate Troubles of the Empire notwithstanding all opposition to the contrary to merit well of our good Brother the King of Spain and the whole House of Austria by a long and lingering Patience grounded still upon his friendship and promises that Care should be had of our Honour and of our Childrens Patrimony and Inheritance We have acquainted you also from time to time since the beginning of the Treaty at Bruxels how crossly all things have there proceeded notwithstanding all the fair Professions made unto us both by the King of Spain and the Infanta and all his Ministers and the letters written by him unto the Emperor and them Effectually at least as they endeavoured to make us believe but what fruits have we of all these Whil'st we are Treating the Town and Castle of Heidelberg are taken by force our Garison put to the Sword Manheim besieged and all the Hostility used that is in the power of an Enemy as you may see by the Relation which we have commanded our Secretary to send you Our pleasure therefore is that you immediately as soon you can get Audience let that King understand how sensible we are of these Proceedings of the Emperor towards us and withall are not a little troubled to see that the Infanta having an absolute Commission to conclude a Cessation and suspension of Arms should now at last when all Objections were answered and the former solely pretended Obstacles removed not only delay the conclusion of the Treaty but refuse to lay her Command upon the Emperor's Generals to abstain from the Siege of our Garisons during the Treaty upon a Pretext of want of Authority so as for avoiding of further Dishonour we have been forced to recall both our Ambassadors as well the Chancellor of our Exchequer who is already returned to our Presence as also the Lord Chichester whom we intended to have sent unto the Emperor to the Diet at Ratisbone Seeing therefore that meerly out of Our extraordinary Respect to the King of Spain and the firm Confidence We ever put in the Hopes and promises which He did give Us desiring nothing more then for his Cause principally to avoid all occasions that might put Us in ill understanding with any of the House of Austria We have hitherto proceeded with a stedfast patience trusting to the Treaties and neglecting all other means which probably might have secured the Remainder of Our Childrens inheritance these Garisons which We maintained in the Palatinate being rather for Honour sake to keep a footing until the general accommodation then that we did rely so much upon their strength as upon his friendship and by this Confidence and Security of Ours are now exposed to Dishonour and Reproach You shall tell that King that seeing all those endeavours and good offices which he hath used towards the Emperor in this business on the behalf of Our Son-in-law upon confidence whereof that security of Ours depended which he continually by his Letters and Ministers here laboured to beget and confirm in Us have not sorted to any other issue than to a plain abuse both of his trust and Ours whereby We are both of Us highly injured in Our Honour though in a different Degree We hope and desire that out of a true sence of this Wrong offered unto Us he will as Our dear and loving Brother faithfully promise and undertake upon his Honour confirming the same also under his Hand and Seal either that the Town and Castle of Heidelberg shall within Threescore and ten dayes after your Audience and Demand made be rendred into Our hands with all things therein belonging to Our Son in law or Our Daughter as near as may be in the State they were when they were taken and the like for Manheim and Frankendale if both or either of them shall be taken by the Enemy while these things are in Treaty As also that there shall be within the said Term of seventy daies a Cessation and Suspension of Arms in the Palatinate for the future upon the several Articles and Conditions last propounded by Our Ambassadour Sir Richard Weston and that the general Treaty shall be set afoot again upon such Honourable Terms and Conditions as We propounded unto the Emperour in a Letter written unto him in November last and with which the King of Spain then as We understood seemed satisfied Or else in case all these Particulars be not yielded unto and performed by the Emperour as is here propounded but be refused or delayed beyond the time aforementioned That then the King of Spain do joyn his Forces with Ours for the Recovery of Our Childrens Honours and Patrimony which upon this Trust hath been thus lost Or if so be his Forces at this present be otherwise so imployed as that they cannot give Us that assistance which We here desire and as We think have deserved yet that at the least He will permit Us a free and friendly passage through his Territories and Dominions for such Forces as We shall send and imploy in Germany for his Service Of all which distinctively if you receive not from the King of Spain within ten daies at the furthest after your Audience a direct Assurance under his Hand and Seal without Delay or putting Us off to further Treaties and Conferences That is to say of such Restitution Cessation of Arms and proceeding to a General Treaty as is before mentioned or else of assistance and joyning his Forces with Ours against the Emperour or at the least permission of passage for Our Forces through his the said King's Dominions that then you take your leave and return to Our Presence without further stay Otherwise to proceed in the Negotiation for the Marriage of Our Son according to the Instructions We have given you This Letter was dated the Third of October And presently after it was sent away the King recollected himself and thought it good Policy to make some advantage of this Breach with Spain if there were One by letting his People see he would no longer wait the Spanish Delayes which they were impatient enough of therefore his Ambassadours to hinder the knowledge of it at home must conceal the Breach abroad stay still in the Spanish Court as if the Business were in full Motion and ripe for projection And he must break it to pieces here himself to make it the more acceptable either to get the more love or
which I would have you find out and I will make it good whatsoever it be But in all other things procure the satisfaction of the King of Great Britain who hath deserved much and it shall content me so it be not in the Match Thus was our King's plain heartedness deluded his Honour blemished his Love among his Subjects diminished the time for a positive answer for the Dispensation from Rome long expired and prolonged his Childrens Patrimony destroyed and he left so unsatisfied that the Prince himself and the Marquess of Buckingham must go into Spain to unfold this Riddle where they found it as full of Aenigma's as at first He that went to tye a knot there found it so intangled that he took some time there to clear it and when it was clear he thought it best Scindere nodum to cut that at last which he could not unloose at first The Marquess Spinola having long since left the Palatinate to the Imperials Generals with a great Army consisting of above Thirty thousand men the last Summer sits down before Berghen ap Zome a Town of very great Strength and Importance upon the Borders of Brabant and incloses himself with two strong Lines of Circumvallation notwithstanding all the Power the Town could oppose from within or Prince Maurice General of the States Army without And though he were well intrenched for his own Security yet the Works of the Town were so impregnable that he could find no way to gain it but by starving them and that could not be done but by commanding the River and those Batteries that he planted to hinder the access of Shipping with Relief into the Town were within reach of their Cannon so that he found there was little good to be done tending to the reducing of it This struck the Marquess to the Heart that he should bury his Honour as he had done a great part of his Army in those bloody Trenches and therefore he gave scope to his Resolution to make use of his time for he converted his intentions of Starving to Assaulting and his assaults were the more furious because he found they would not last long and Old Morgan that gallant Colonel with his English Brigade gave them their hands full the Scots did Gallant Service in the Town and their Colonel Hinderson was slain but many of the Enemy fell on every side for it is a great disadvantage for living Bodies to fight against dead Walls being so high and unassaultable A General that goes to besiege a City should have his access to it in his apprehension as plain as a Mathematician hath a Demonstration except it be upon some emergent cause otherwise there is an Error in his account and there cannot be two for the Honour dyes in the first which touched the Marquess near being his great trouble and made him and his enterprise both droop ERNESTUS D G COMES MANSFELDIAE MARCHIO CASTELINO VI ET BUTIGLIERAE NOB DNS IN HELD SUP DUX BELLIC ET HEROS FORT MARTE votens decus et dubijs siâ—sucia rebus ERNESTUS CAMPI VIR generosus nic est Qui genus illustri ducens à stirpe Parentum Auget honoratum per sua facta genus E. 〈◊〉 D.M.C.B. But with many Necessities in their March through Lorrain and Lutzenburgh they came to Fleury within eight miles of Namurs where Corduba with a Spanish Army strove to hinder their passage The Conflict was great betwixt them and many slain on both sides and both triumphed in the Victory For Corduba kept the Field and Mansfieldt kept his way But Mansfieldt's Victory was the compleatest because he attained to his End which was to break through Corduba But Corduba did not attain to his End which was to hinder Mansfieldt Yet the Spanish Bravery was highly exalted with Bonfires and rejoycings both at Madrid and Bruxels The Duke of Brunswicke lost his Bridle Arm in that service and many Gentlemen both English and Scots out of Love to the Queen of Bohemia behaved themselves gallantly and let the Spaniard know it was more than an ordinary shock they encountered with Among whom Sir Charles Rich brother to the E. of Warwick was a Principal person whose Voluntary Spirit not necessity made danger his Companion where Honour attended it Sir Iames Heyes Knevet Humes Heiborn and other Commanders striving for Corrivalship in Bravery Spinola hearing that Mansfieldt was broken through Corduba's Army and come into Brabant made the Court Splendor of Corduba's Conquest appear but Ignes fatui which also something extinguisht the glory of his own fame For he thought it good policy seeing he should be necessitated to leave the Siege of Berghen to do it at that time when there might be cause to think it occasioned by that Accident more than his default And therefore as soon as the Prince of Orange and Mansfieldt had joyned forces though Corduba came to him and reinforced his Army yet Winter drawing on and his Army almost wasted he trussed up his Baggage in haste set his Camp a-fire and departed leaving to his Hungry Enemies good store of Wine and other Provisions in his burning Quarters And thus stood the Ballance this year betwixt the King of Spain and the Netherlands But our King receiving so many delays and dissatisfactions from Spain and Rome they begot him so much trouble and Vexation that crowding into his thoughts prest upon his Natural Temper some fits of Melancholy which those about him with facetious Mirth would strive to Mitigate And having exhausted their inventions or not making use of such as were more pregnant the Marquess and his Mother instead of Mirth fell upon Prophaneness thinking with that to please him and perhaps they were only mistaken in the unseasonableness of the time being not then suitable to the Humor For they caus'd Mistris Aspernham a young Gentlewoman of the Kindred to dress a Pigg like a Child and the Old Countess like a Midwife brought it in to the King in a rich Mantle Turpin that married one of the Kindred whose name was renowned for a Bishop in the Romances of the Emperor Charlemain was drest like a Bishop in his Sattin Gown Lawn sleeves and other Pontifical Ornaments who with the Common Prayer book began the words of Baptism one attending with a silver Bason of Water for the Service the King hearing the Ceremonies of Baptism read and the squeeking noise of that Brute he most abhorred turned himself to see what Pageant it was and finding Turpin's face which he well knew drest like a Bishop and the Marquess whose face he most of all loved stand as a Godfather he cryed out away for shame what Blasphemy is this and turning aside with a frown he gave them cause to think that such ungodly Mirth would rather increase than cure his Melancholly Another time at Theobalds the King wanted some papers that had Relation to the Spanish Treaty so hot in Motion which raised him highly into the Passion of Anger
that he should not know what he had done with them being things so material and of such conoernment And calling his Memory to a strict account at last he discharged it upon Iohn Gib a Scotchman who was of his Bedchamber and had been an old Servant to him Gib is called for in haste and the King asks him for the Papers he gave him Gib collecting himself answered the King he received no papers from him The King broke into extream Rage as he would often when the Humor of Choler began to boil in him protesting he had them and reviling him exceedingly for denying them Gib threw himself at the King's feet protesting his innocency that he never received any and desired his life might make satisfaction for his fault if he were guilty This could not calm the King's Spirit tossed in this tempest of Passion and overcharged with it as he passed by Gib kneeling threw some of it upon him giving him a kick with his foot Which kick infected Gib and turned his humility into Anger for rising instantly he said Sir I have served you from my youth and you never found me unfaithful I have not deserved this from you nor can I live longer with you with this disgrace Fare ye well Sir I will never see your face more and away he goes from the King's presence took Horse and rode towards London Those about the King put on a sad countenance to see him displeased and every man was inquisitive to know the cause some said the King and Gib were faln out but about what some papers of the Spanish Treaty the King had given him cannot be found Endimion Porter hearing it said The King gave me those Papers went presently and brought them to the King who being becalmed and finding his Error called instantly for Gib Answer was made he was gone to London The King hearing it commanded with all expedition to send post after him to bring him back protesting never to Eat Drink or Sleep till he saw Gib's face The Messenger overtook him before he got to London and Gib hearing the Papers were found and that the King sent for him with much earnestness returned to the Court. And as he came into the King's Chamber the King kneeled down upon his Knees before Gib intreating his pardon with a sober and grave aspect protesting he would never rise till Gib had forgiven him and though Gibs modestly declined it with some humble excuses yet it would not satisfie the King till he heard the words of absolution pronounced So ingenious was he in this piece of Passion Which had its suddain variation from a stern and furious anger to a soft and melting affection which made Gib no loser by the bargain Thus the King 's Melancholy Cholerick and Sanguine constitution appeared But of all the Humors Flegm was now the most predominant which made him so tamely swallow those raw fruits of Spain that all his Exercise could not well digest In Ianuary this year the Diet which the Emperor had summoned contrary to his promise as our King intimates met at Ratisbone where the Electors and divers other Princes of Germany assembled either in their own persons or by their Deputies The Imperial design was to take off the edge of the Princes dissatisfaction for his harsh proceedings against the Prince Palatine wherein he makes him the ground work and cause of all the Wars and miseries that have hapned in the Empire And thinking no man as he said would take the boldness to mediate the Restitution of the proscribed Palatine into the Electoral College he could do no less than dispose of the Electorate now plenojure devolved unto him as Emperor which he had bestowed on the Duke of Bavaria for spending his Treasure and hazarding his Blood in his service against his own Nephew the expulsed Palatine Wherefore he requests the illustrious presence of Electors and Princes to give their opinions how the peace of the Empire may be established to prevent all commotions for the future The Princes took this Proposition of the Emperor into debate and the Protestant Princes desired Caesar to consider the importance of the Business That though his Imperial Majesty in his own judgment may have had Cause enough to publish the Ban against the Prince Palatine yet they are of Opinion that in his particular Cause which so neerly concerned the disposing of an Electorate of the Empire and so principal a Person of the Electoral College the suddain doing whereof might occasion long and tedious Wars dangerous to the Roman Empire that Caesar should not of himself have proceeded so rigorously nor without the advice and consent of all the rest of the Electors according as it was agreed upon in the Capitulation Royal which is holden for a fundamental Law of the Empire Which course of Caesar's even for the manner of proceeding in it was distasted by Divers because the Prince Palatinate had never been legally summoned but uncited and unheard without all knowledge of his Cause and contrary to all ordinary Course had been condemned and against all Equity oppressed by the Publication of that Imperial Ban. We purpose not to call the Power Imperial into question yet we cannot but remember your Majesty of that Promise made in your Capitulation unto the Electors and humbly We admonish Caesar to stand unto his own word and not to intermit the performance of it And as for the disposing of the Electorate we desire nothing more than that We could gratifie Caesar with Our Suffrages But perceiving so many and so great Difficulties in it We cannot but admonish your Majesty of the danger of it This being the Opinion of Our Electors that seeing your Majesty hath graciously called the Diet for restoring Peace in the Empire that it were altogether necessary first to remove the Obstacles of Peace And seeing that all the stirs began in Bohemia Caesar should do well to labour first for the quieting of that Kingdom and command a stay to be made of the severe Reformation and frequent Executions there That so the Hearts of your Subjects being overcome with Grace and Mercy might be sweetly joyned to you and all fear and distrust utterly taken away without which we see no hope either how your Majesty can sit sure upon your Imperial Throne or how the Electors and Princes can be freed of their fears being evident that the Bohemians and others made desperate by the Extremity of their sufferings will take any occasion to begin new troubles and to involve the Empire with new Dangers All the Lutheran States of the Empire likewise which follow the Augustan Confession have their Eyes upon this Bohemian Reformation which though it were given out to be for private Iustice yet it is so linkt with the publick cause that unless it be speedily ended and the two Churches at Prague granted by Rodolphus the second not in favour of some private men alone but of Christian Elector of
Canterbury knowing that a Toleration was to be admitted though he stood tottering in the King's Favour and had the Badg of a Puritan clapt upon him thought it better to discharge his Conscience though he hazarded all rather than be silent in such a Cause where the Glory of God and the Good of the Kingdom were so higly concerned Therefore he writes this letter to the King May it please your Majesty I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it hath pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in And now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty And therefore I beseech your Majesty give me leave freely to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do with me what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you Sir take into your consideration what the Act is next what the consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up that most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How Hateful will it be to God and grievous unto your good Subjects the true Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath often disputed and learnedly written against those wicked Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those Doctrines which your Pen hath told the World and your Conscience tels your Self are Superstitious Idolatrous and Detestable Add hereunto what you have done in sending the Prince into Spain without the consent of your Council the Privity and Approbation of your People And though Sir you have a large Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet hath the people a greater as the Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty their Eyes are fixed and Welfare depends And so tenderly is his going apprehended as believe it Sir however his return may be safe yet the drawers of him to that Action so dangerous to himself to desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestioned and unpunished Besides this Toleration which you endeavour to set up by Proclamation cannot be done without a Parliament unless your Majesty would let your Subjects see That you will take unto your self a liberty to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dreadful Consequence these things may draw after them I beseech your Majesty to consider And above all lest by this Toleration and discontinuance of the true profession of the Gospel whereby God hath blessed us and under which this Kingdom hath for many years flourished your Majesty do not draw upon the Kingdom in general and your Self in particular God's heavy Wrath and Indignation Thus in discharge of my Duty towards God to your Majesty and the place of my Calling I have taken humble Boldness to deliver my Conscience And now Sir do with me what you please Thus did our Solomon in his latter time though he had fought with the Beasts at Ephesus as one saith of him incline a little too much to the Beast Yet he made his tale so good to the Archbishop of Canterbury what reservations soever he had that he wrought upon the good old man afterwards in the Conclusion of the work to set his Hand as a Witness to the Articles And his desires were so heightned to the Heats of Spain which boyl'd him to such a Distemper that he would listen to nothing and almost yield to any thing rather than not to enjoy his own Humour Divers of his intimate Council affecting Popery were not slack to urge him to a Toleration and many Arguments were used inciting to it As that Catholicks were the King 's best and most peaceable Subjects the Puritans being the only Sticklers and the greatest Disturbers of the Royal peace trenching too boldly upon the Prerogative and striving to lessen the Kingly power But if the King had occasion to make use of the Catholicks he should find them more faithful to him than those that are ever contesting with him And why should not Catholicks with as much safety be permitted in England as the Protestants are in France That their Religion was full of Love and Charity where they could enjoy it with freedom and where Charity layes the Foundation the upper Building must needs be spiritual But these Arguments were answered and many reasons alledged against them proving the Nature of the Protestant Religion to be Compatible with the Nature of the Politick Laws of any State of what Religion soever Because it teacheth that the Government of any State whether Monarchial or Aristocratical is Supream within it self and not subordinate to any power without so that the Knot of Allegiance thereunto is so firmly tied that no Humane power can unloose or dissolve it Whereas on the contrary the Roman Religion acknowledging a Supremacy in another above that power which swayeth the State whereof they are Members must consequently hold that one stroke of that Supreme power is able to unsinew and cut in sunder all the Bonds which ty them to the Subordinate and Dependent Authority And therefore can ill accord with the Allegiance which Subjects owe to a Prince of their own Religion which makes Papists intolerable in a Protestant Common-wealth For what Faith can a Prince or People expect from them whose Tenet is That no Faith is to be held with Hereticks That the Protestants in France had merited better there than the Papists had done in England the one by their Loyalties to their lawful King having ransomed that Kingdom with their Bloods in the Pangs of her desperate Agonies from the Yoak of an Usurper within and the Tyranny of a Forain Scepter without The other seeking to write their Disloyalties in the Heart-Blood of the Princes and best Subjects of this Kingdom That the Number and Quality of the Professors of these different Religions in either Kingdom is to be observed For in France the Number of the Protestants were so great that a Toleration did not make them but found them a Considerable Party so strong as they could not have been suppressed without endangering the Kingdom But a Toleration in England would not find but form the Papists to be a considerable party witness their encrease by this late Connivency a thing which ought mainly to be avoided For the distraction of a State into several powerfull parties is alwaies weakning and often proveth the utter ruine thereof These thing were laid open to the King but all were waved by the King of Spain's Offering His engagement to the Pope by oath That he and the Prince his son should observe and keep the Articles stipulated betwixt them did exceedingly affect him And the Articles now coming to close up all they were ingrossed with a long preamble Declaring to all the World the much desired Union betwixt him and the King of Spain by the marriage of his son to
time than at others the mischief that fell to them in this Height of their pride and greatness is very remarkable For at at a Sermon in Black-Friers where Father Drurie a Iesuit vented his pestilent Doctrine to an Auditory of near three Hundred people the Floor of the Chamber being an upper room fell down and killed the Preacher and almost if not a full Hundred of his Auditory outright maiming and bruising most of the rest many of them lying a long time under the Rubbish crying for Help and with much difficulty recovered their broken Limbs Thus many times we might immediately see the hand of God who is the Lord of Life and Death though through wilful stupidity because we must judge modestly we look upon these accidents by mediate and second causes thinking an old house can destroy so many lives without the permission of that supreme Authority that orders all things both in Heaven and in Earth The Duke of Brunswick this Spring being healed of his wounds received in the last Battle with Mansfeldt and having gotten an artificial Arm to manage his Horse which he could do with a great deal of dexterity what by his own interest and power and the assistance of his friends being but a younger Brother and having nothing but the Bishoprick of Haverstat for his portion he raised a great Army in the lower parts of Germany about Brunswick and Munster consisting of about sixteen thousand foot and five thousand horse every way compleatly armed and accomplished with a gallant Train of Artillery The Horses Wagons and Carriages in such trim and suitable Equipage as shewed by their suitableness in furniture they had not been patched up nor hastily hurried together His Design being invited thereto was to joyn with the Prince of Orange to be revenged of the Spaniard for the loss of his Arm the last year But the chief motive as he alwaies pretended was his respects to the Queen of Bohemia who in those dayes whether out of pity for her suffering so much or out of fear that Religion would yet suffer much more carried a great stream of affection towards her ILLVSTRISSIMVS PRINCEPS CHRISTIANVS DVX BRVNSVICENSIS ADMINISTRATOR HALBERSTADENSIS Tali Brunonis claro de stemmate Princeps Vultu Barbaricos acer consurgit in hortes Nec Patriae tristes fert mens generosa ruinas That having in their March the Enemie at their Backs if the Rear-guard made a Halt the Battail should do the same and consequently the Van-guard according to the best Discipline attending with firm foot the cause of the Halt that they may be ready to put themselves in order for service if occasion were presented The Army thus coming to pass any Passage while the Van-guard did advance the Battail and Rear-guard should make a stand with the front towards the Enemy The Van-guard being past should face the Passage and stay for the Battail which being past also should do the same for the Rear-guard that they might be ready upon the approach of an Enemy to assist one another With this Order and Direction they began to march into Westfalia Brunswick trusting to Stirem Kniphuisen and Frenck who being Natives of the Country gave him assurance of the safe Conduct of his Army by wayes short and commodious And he commanded especially the General of the Horse to send out parties of Horse every way that he might have intelligence of the Enemie's Motions who gave him assurance that the Enemies Army was not within thirty English Miles when by other hand at the same time he had certain notice that the Enemy was within three English Miles with his whole Power This miscarriage made Brunswick hast away to Newburgh the next Town where resting a little he took a Resolution to march all night to recover time and ground again that Stirum's negligence had made him lazily lose And to that end he commanded Kniphuisen and Count Isenburg to make the Baggage march at eleven a clock at Night the Cannon at Midnight and the Army two hours after But Brunswick getting up at three a clock in the Morning hoping to find his Commands obeyed and the Army in a good forwardness of advance found nothing done and these great Officers in their Beds This disobedience of his Officers troubled Brunswick much but he was constrained to Diligence as well as Patience And hastning them away they pretended forwardness but made it eight of the Clock in the morning before the Rear-guard stirred out of their Quarters From Newburgh to Statloo Bridge a place of Security was but fourteen English Miles and there were in that way seven passages or Straits where a few men might oppose an Army The Baggage Cannon and Munition except six pieces with Munition that marched with the Rere-guard had past them all and the Foot three of them without disturbance but Count Stirum with the Horse loitered still behind at Newburgh which caused Brunswick to make the whole Army face about and stay for the Horse sending a strict Command to Stirum with all speed to come up and joyn with the Foot and not to skirmish with the Enemy at any rate But he stayed so long that the Enemy began to charge him in the Rere before he advanced to the third Passage So that he sent to Brunswick for five hundred Musqueteers to amuse the Enemy till he had passed the third Passage with his Horse The Duke sent these Musqueteers according to Sirum's desire and advancing his Army forward he passed the fourth Passage and there made the Rere of his foot face about the better to favour and receive his Horse Which having done he speeds back towards Stirum to see how the Business went with him and incountring Kniphuisen he asked him what the Enemy had done Who answered Nothing all is well But Brunswick going forward found the contrary for the Enemy had made a great slaughter laying almost a thousand Horse upon the Ground This perplexed Brunswick exceedingly so that with some Passion he sent a Command to Stirum to advance his Horse towards the Body of the Army who had stayed three hours for them at the fourth Passage whither the Duke returned to secure the same planting two Peeces of Demi-cannon at the Mouth of the Passage and leaving two thousand Musqueteers to guard it for the assistance of the Horse if the Enemy should come to charge them at the Entrance and so he marched forward with the rest of the Army But Stirum drew the Horse into a Body under the side of a Wood which was in the middle of a spacious plain betwixt the two Passages and that brought the Enemy to a stand for they suspected the whole Army stood in Battalia behind that Wood and therefore did not advance which shewed they watched only for advantages And Stirum seeing the Enemie at a stand drew his Horse towards the fourth Passage which the Enemy observing made all the haste after that could be to pelt them in
Philip Knevit Sir Iohn Tasborough Sir William Selbie Sir Richard Titchborn Sir Iohn Hall Sir George Perkins Sir Thomas Penrodduck Sir Nicholas Sanders Knights Besides divers Esquires Popishly addicted either in their own Persons or by means of their Wives too tedious to be expressed here And these were dispersed and seated in every County who were not only in Office and Commission but had Countenance from Court by which they grew up and flourished so that their exuberancie hindered the growth of any Goodness or Piety their Malice pleased to drop upon These men being now touched began to shrink in their Branches like the new-found Indian Plants but they quickly put out again for though this Disturbance or Movement came upon them by the Dissolution of one Treaty yet they presently got heart and spread again by the other which was in Agitation Carolus D. G. Rex Ang Sco Fran et Hib Henreta Maria D. G. Reg Ang Sco Fran et Hib But the Iesuitical Party both here and there were incessantly laborious for a greater Liberty and the King 's chief Agent in the Treaty Monsieur de Vieuxvill having pulled on him the Odium of the people through some miscarriages being committed Prisoner by the King to protect him from their Rage the Cardinal Richelieu entring then into his Infancy of Favour being preferred by the Queen-Mother to be a manager of the Treaty whose Intimate he was and more Stubborn for promoting the Catholique Cause yet all this could give no stop to the Career but that the Match would be made up upon very easie Terms But when the King of France understood by his Ministers and Agents in England how eager our King was for the Match for he desired it above all Earthly Blessings as one near him said of him for besides the Reproach he thought would fall upon him by another Breach he should lose the Glory of a Conjunction with Kings which he highly wound up his Opinion to to Sublime and as it were Deifie his Posterity in the esteem of the people so that he would almost submit to any thing rather than the Match should not go forward which the King of France finding he bated his Humour of earnestness for it and descended by the same Steps and Degrees that he found his Brother King advanced to it and got several great Immunities for the Papists by it notwithstanding all Our King 's fair Promises to the Parliament as may be seen by those Articles seal'd and sworn to by Our King some few Months before his Death But a little before this when the Hopes of the Match with France began to bud the Earl of Carlile was sent over to mature and Ripen the proceedings with the Earl of Holland to bring the Treaty to some perfection yet with private instructions That if they could find by their Spanish Correspondencies as the Earl of Carlile was a little Hispanioliz'd that the Match there had any Probability of taking effect with the new Propositions that then they should proceed no further in the French Treaty so earnest was the King for the one so Violent for the other The Sophisticate Drugs of the Spanish Restitution of the Palatinate having not yet lost their Operation Thus the Ambition of Princes that devolve all their Happiness upon glorious Extractions doth choak and smother those Considerations that Religion like a clear light discovers to be but gross and cloudy Policy which vanishes often and comes to nothing The Duke of Buckingham swoln with Grandure having two great Props to support him doubted not to Crush any thing that stood in his way so that he fell very heavily upon his Cousen the Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for he remembred how he repined at the Moneys that were spent in Spain and his Comportment to him since his coming over Middlesex being naturally of a Sullen and proud Humor was not such as he thought did become his Creature Therefore he Resolved to bring him down from that Height he had placed him in and quickly sound the means to do it For great Officers that dig deep in Worldly Treasures have many Underminers under them and those that are not just to themselves or others must make use of such as will not be so just to them so that a flaw may easily be found whereby a great Breach may be made And as Middlesex had not Innocency to Iustifie himself so he wanted Humility whereby others might Iustifie him which made him fall unpitied The Prince that was Buckingham's right hand took part against him in the House of Lords where he was Questioned which the King hearing of writes to the Prince from New-Market whither he often retired to be free and at ease from comber and noise of Business That he should not take part with any Faction in Parliament against the Earl of Middlesex but to reserve himself so that both sides might seek him for if he bandied to take away his Servants the time would come that others would do as much for him This wise Advice speaks Buckingham a little declining from the Meridian of the King's Favour or the King from his For if the King did know that Buckingham was his chief Persecutor it could not but relish ill with the Duke to have the King plead for him if the King did not 〈◊〉 know there was not then that intimacy betwixt them that used to be But the Treasurer's Actions being throughly canvased though he had not had such great Enemies he was found guilty of such misdemeanors as were not fit for a Man of Honour to commit so that the Parliament thought to Degrade him but that they looked on as an ill Precedent But though they took not away his Titles of Honour in Relation to his Posterity who had not offended yet they made him utterly uncapable of sitting in the House of Lords as a Peer And for his fine it was so great that the Duke by Report got Chelsie House out of him for his part of it There was an odd accident hapned in Northampton-shire while this Treasurer was in his Greatness One Harman a rich man that knew not well how to make use of his Riches having some bad Tenants and being informed that one of them which Owed him money had furnished himself to go to a Fair to buy some Provisions for his accommodation Harman walks as by accident to meet him in the way to the Market when he saw his Tenant he askt him for his Rent the man that was willing otherwise to dispose of his money denied he had any Yes I know thou hast money said Harman calling him by his Name I prithee let me have my Rent and with much importunity the man pulled out his money and gave all or the most part of it to his Landlord This coming to some Pragmatical knowledg the poor Man was advised to indict his Landlord for Robbing him and taking his Money from him in the High-way which he