father and mother I can say no more Time and Death calleth me away The everlasting God powerfull infinite and inscrutable God Almightie who is goodnesse it self the true Light and Life keep you and yours and have mercy upon me and forgive my Persecutors and false accusers and send us to meet in his glorious kingdom My dear Wife farewell Blesse my Boy Pray for me and let my true God hold you both in his Arms. Yours that was but now not mine own Walter Raleigh Sir Raleigh's Letter to Prince Henry touching the model of a Ship Most excellent Prince IF the Ship your Highness intends to build be bigger than the Victorie then her beams which are laid overthwart from side to side will not serve again and many other of her timbers and other stuff will not serve whereas if she be a size less the timber of the old Ship will serve well to the building of a new If she be bigger she will be of less use go very deep to water and of mightie charge our Channels decaying every year less nimble less mannyable and seldom to be used Grande Navio grande satica saith the Spaniard A Ship of six hundred Tuns will carrie as good Ordinance as a Ship of twelve hundred Tuns and where the greater hath double her Ordinance the less will turn her broad side twice before the great Ship can wind once and so no advantage in that over-plus of Guns The lesser will go over clear where the greater shall stick and perish the lesser will come and go leave or take and is yare whereas the greater is slow unmanyable and ever full of encumber In a well conditioned Ship these things are chiefly required 1. That she be strong built 2. Swift in sail 3. Stout-sided 4. That her Ports be so laid as that she may carry out her Guns all weathers 5. That she hull and trie well 6. That she stay well when boarding or turning on a wind is required To make her strong consisteth in the care and truth of the work-man to make her swift is to give her a large Run or way forward and so afterward done by act and just proportion and that in laying out of her bowes before and quarters behind the Ship-wright be sure that she neither sink nor hang into the water but lie clear and aâ—ove it wherein Ship-wrights do often fail and then is the speed in sailing utterly spoiled That she be stout-sided the same is provided by a long bearing floar and by sharing off from above waters to the low â—â—edge of the Ports which done then will she carry out her Ordinance all weâ—thers To make her to hull and to trie well which iâ— called a good sea-Ship there are two things principally to be regarded the one that she have a good draught of water the other that she be not overcharged And this is seldom done in the Kings Ships and therefore we are forced to lye or trie in them with our main Course and mizen which with a deep keel and standing streak she would perform The extream length of a Ship makes her unapt to stay especially if she be floatie and want sharpnesse of way forward And it is most true that such over-long Ships are fitter for the narrow Seas in summer than for the Ocean or long voyages and therefore an hundred foot by the Keel and thirtie five foot broad is a good proportion for a great Ship It is to be noted that all Ships sharp before not having a long floar will fall rough into the sea from a billow and take in water over head and ears and the same quality have all narrow-quartered ships to sink after the tail The high Charging of ships is that that brings many ill qualities it makes them extream Lee-ward makes them sink deep into the seas makes them labour sore in foul weather and oft-times overset Safety is more to be respected than shews or nicenesse for ease in sea journeys both cannot well stand together and therefore the most necessary is to be chosen Two Decks and an half is enough and no building at all above that but a low Masters Cabbin Our Masters and Mariners will say that the ships will bear more well enough and true it is if none but ordinary Mariners served in them But men of better sort unused to such a life cannot so well endure the rowling and tumbling from side to side where the seas are never so little grown which comes by high Charging Besides those high Cabbin works aloft are very dangerous in sight to tear men with their splinters Above all other things have care that the great Guns be four foot clear above water when all lading is in or else these best pieces are idle sea for if the Ports lie lower and be open it is dangerous and by that default was a goodly Ship and many gallant Gentlemen lost in the days of Henry the Eigth before the Isle of Wight in a Ship called by the name of Mary-Rose Sir Walter Raleighs PILGRIMAGE GIve me my Scallop shell of Quiet My Staff of Faith to walk upon My Scrip of Joy immortall Diet My Bottle of Salvation My Gown of Glorie Hopes true gage And thus I le take my Pilgrimage Bloud must be my Bodies onely Balmer No other Balm will there be given Whil'st my Soul like a quiet Palmer Travelleth towards the Land of Heaven Over the silver Mountains Where springs the Nectar Fountains There I will kisse the Bowl of Blisse And drink mine everlasting fill Upon every Milken hill My Soul will be a drie before But after it will thirst no more I le take them first to quench my Thirst And tast of Nectars suckets At those clear Wells Where sweetnesse dwells Drawn up by Saints in Chrystal Buckets Then by that happy blestfull day More peacefull Pilgrims I shall see That have cast off their rags of clay And walk apparelled fresh like me And when our Boâ—les and all we Are fill'd with immortalitie Then the blessed Parts wee 'l travell Strow'd with Rubies thick as gravell Sealings of Diamonds Saphire flowers High walls of Coral and Pearly Bowers From thence to Heavens bribeless Hall Where no corrupted voices brawl No Conscience molten into Gold No forg'd Accuser bought or sold No cause deferr'd no vain-spent Iourny For there CHRIST is the Kings Attorney Who pleads for all without degrees And he hath Angels but no Fees And when the twelve Grand-million Iury Of our Sins with direfull furie 'Gainst our Souls black Verdicts give Christ pleads his Death then we Live Be thou my Speaker taintless Pleader Unblotted Lawyer true Proceeder Thou would'st Salvation even for Alms Not with a bribed Lawyers Palms And this is mine eternall Plea To him that made Heaven Earth Sea That since my Flesh must die so soon And want a Head to dine next noon Iust at the stroak when my Veins start spread Set on my Soul an everlasting Head Then am I ready like
Crown the ornaments thereof And it is an infalliable maxime that he that loves not his Majesties estate loves not his person COUNS. How came it then that the act was not executed IUST Because these against whom it was granted perswaded the King to the contrary as the Duke of Ireland Suffolk the chief Iustice Tresilian and others yea that which was lawfully done by the King and the great Councell of the kingdome was by the mastery which Ireland Suffolk and Tresilian had over the Kings affections broken and disavowed Those that devised to relieve the King not by any private invention but by generall Councell were by a private and partiall assembly adjudged traitors and the most honest Iudges of the land enforced to subscribe to that judgement In so much that Iudge Belknap plainly told the Duke of Ireland and the Earl of Suffolk when he was constrained to set his hand plainly told these Lords that he wanted but a rope that he might therewith receive a reward for his subscription And in this Councell of Nottingham was hatched the ruine of those which governed the King of the Iudges by them constrained of the Lords that loved the King and sought a reformation and of the King himself for though the King found by all the Shrieves of the shires that the people would not fight against the Lords whom they thought to bee most faithfull unto the King when the Citizens of London made the same answer being at that time able to arme 50000. men and told the Major that they would never fight against the Kings friends and defenders of the Realme when the Lord Ralph Passet who was near the King told the King boldly that he would not adventure to have his head broken for the Duke of Irelands pleasure when the Lord of London told the Earle of Suffolk in the Kings presence that he was not worthy to live c. yet would the King in the defence of the destroyers of his estate lay ambushes to intrap the Lords when they came upon his faith yea when all was pacified and that the King by his Proclamation had clear'd the Lords and promised to produce Ireland Suffolk and the Archbishop of Yorke Tresiltan and Bramber to answer at the next Parliament these men confest that they durst not appear and when Suffolk fled to Callice and the Duke of Ireland to Chester the King caused an army to be leavied in Lancashire for the safe conduct of the Duke of Ireland to his presence when as the Duke being encountered by the Lords ranne like a coward from his company and fled into Holland After this was holden a Parliament which was called that wrought wonders In the Eleventh year of this King wherein the fornamed Lords the Duke of Ireland and the rest were condemned and confiscate the Chief Iustice hanged with many others the rest of the Iudges condemned and banisht and a 10. and a 15. given to the King COUNS. But good Sir the King was first besieged in the Tower of London and the Lords came to the Parliament and no man durst contradict them IUST Certainly in raising an army they committed treason and though it appear that they all loved the King for they did him no harm having him in their power yet our law doth construe all leavying of war without the Kings commission and all force raised to be intended for the death and destruction of the King not attending the sequell And it is so judged upon good reason for every unlawfull and ill action is supposed to be accompanied with an ill intent And besides those Lords used too great cruelty in procuring the sentence of death against divers of the Kings servants who were bound to follow and obey their Master and Soveraigne Lord in that he commanded COUNS. It is true and they were also greatly to blame to cause then so many seconds to be put to death seeing the principalls Ireland Suffolk and York had escaped them And what reason had they to seek to enform the State by strong hand was not the Kings estate as dear to himself as to them He that maketh a King know his errour mannerly and private and gives him the best advice he is discharged before God and his own conscience The Lords might have â—â—tired themselves when they saw they could not prevail and have left the King to his own wayes who had more to lose then they had IUST My Lord the taking of Arms cannot be excused in respect of the law but this might be said for the Lords that the King being under yeares and being wholly governed by their enemies and the enemies of the kingdome and because by those evil mens perswasions it was advised how the Lords should have been murthered at a feast in London they were excusable during the kings minority to stand upon their guard against their particular enemies But we will passe it over go on with our parliaments that followed whereof that of Cambridge in the Kings 12th year was the next therein the King had given him a 10th and a 15th after which being 20. yeares of age rechanged saith H. Kinghton his Treasurer his Chancellour the Iustices of either bench the Clerk of the privy seal and others and took the government into his own hands He also took the Admirals place from the Earl of Arundell and in his room he placed the Earl of Huntingdon in the yeare following which was the 13th year of the K. in the Parliament at Westminster there was given to the King upon every sack of wooll 14s and 6d in the gound upon other Merchandise COUNS. But by your leave the King was restrained this parliament that he might not dispose of but a third part of the money gathered IUST No my Lord by your favour But true it is that part of this mony was by the Kings consent assigned towards the wars but yet left in the Lord Treasurers hands and my Lord it would be a great ease and a great saving to his Majesty our Lord and Master if it pleased him to make his assignations upon some part of his revenewes by which he might have 1000l upon every 10000l and save himself a great deale of clamour For seeing of necessity the Navy must be maintained and that those poor men as well Carpenters as ship-keepers must be paid it were better for his Majesty to give an assignation to the Treasurer of his Navy for the receiving of so much as is called ordinary then to discontent those poor men who being made desperate beggars may perchance be corrupted by them that lye in wait to destroy the Kings estate And if his Majesty did the like in all other payements especially where the necessity of such as are to receive cannot possible give dayes his Majesty might then in a little rowle behold his receipts and expences he might quiet his heart when all necessaries were provided for and then dispose the rest at his pleasure And my good Lord
Commissioners which because one of the Aldermen refused to pay he was sent for a souldier into Scotland He had also another great subsedy of six shillings the pound of the Clergy and two shillings eight pence of the goods of the Laity and four shillings the pound upon Lands In the second yeare of Edward the sixt the Parliament gave the King an aid of twelve pence the pound of goods of his Naturall subjects and two shillings the pound of strangers and this to continue for three yeares and by the statute of the second and third of Edward the sixt it may appear the same Parliament did also give a second aid as followeth to wit of every Ewe kept in severall pastures 3d of every weather kept as aforesaid 2d of every sheep kept in the Common 1d ob The House gave the King also 8d the pound of every woollen cloath made for the sale throughout England for three years In the third and fourt of the King by reason of the troublesome gathering of the poly money upon sheep and the tax upon cloath this act of subsedy was repeal'd and other relief given the King and in the seventh yeare he had a subsedy and two fifteens In the first yeare of Queen Mary tunnage and poundage were granted In the second yeare a subsedy was given to King Philip and to the Queen she had also a third subsedy in Annis 4. 5. Eliz. Reg Now my Lord for the Parliaments of the late Queens time in which there was nothing new neither head money nor sheep money nor escuage nor any of these kinds of payments was required but onely the ordinary subsedies and those as easily graunted as demanded I shall not need to trouble your Lordship with any of them neither can I inform your Lordship of all the passages and acts which have passed for they are not extant nor printed COUNS. No it were but time lost to speak of the latter and by those that are already remembred we may judge of the rest for those of the greatest importance are publick But I pray you deal freely with me what you think would be done for his Majesty If he should call a Parliament at this time or what would be required at his Majesties hands IUST The first thing that would be required would be the same that was required by the Commons in the thirteenth yeare of Hen. the eight to wit that if any man of the commons house should speak more largely then of duty he ought to do all such offences to be pardoned and that to be of record COUNS. So might every Companion speak of the King what they list IUST No my Lord the reverence which a Vassall oweth to his Soveraigne is alwaies intended for every speech howsoever it must import the good of the King and his estate and so long it may be easily pardoned otherwise not for in Queen Elizabeths time who gave freedome of speech in all Parliaments when Wentworth made those motions that were but supposed dangerous to the Queens estate he was imprisoned in the Tower notwithstanding the priviledge of the house and there died COUNS. What say you to the Scicilian vespers remembred in the last Parliament IUST I say he repented him heartily that used that speech and indeed besides that it was seditious this example held not The French in Scicily usurped that Kingdome they neither kept law nor faith they took away the inheritance of the Inhabitants they took from them their wives and ravished their daughters committing all other insolencies that could be imagined The Kings Majesty is the Naturall Lord of England his Vassals of Scotland obey the English Laws if they break them they are punished without respect Yea his Majesty put one of his Barons to a shamefull death for being consenting onely to the death of a Common Fencer And which of these ever did or durst commit any outrage in England but to say the truth the opinion of packing the last was the cause of the contention and disorder that happened COUNS. Why sir do you not think it best to compound a Parliament of the Kings servants and others that shall in all obey the Kings desires IUST Certainly no for it hath never succeeded well neither on the kings part nor on the subjects as by the Parliament before-remembred your Lordship may gather for from such a composition do arise all jealousies and all contentions It was practized in elder times to the great trouble of the kingdome and to the losse and ruine of many It was of latter time used by King Henry the eight but every way to his disadvantage When the King leaves himself to his people they assure themselves that they are trusted and beloved of their king and there was never any assembly so barborus as not to answer the love and trust of their King Henry the sixt when his estate was in effect utterly overthrown and utterly impoverished at the humble request of his Treasurer made the same known to the House Or other wise using the Treasurers own words He humbly desired the King to take his Staffe that he might save his wardship COUNS. But you know they will presently be in hand with those impositions which the King hath laid by his own Royall Prerogative IUST Perchance not my Lord but rather with those impositions that have been by some of your Lordships laid upon the King which did not some of your Lordships fear more then you do the impositions laid upon the Subjects you would never disswade his Majesty from a Parliament For no man doubted but that his Majesty was advised to lay those impositions by his Councell and for particular things on which they were laid the advice came from petty fellows though now great ones belonging to the Custome-House Now my Lord what prejudice hath his Majesty his Revenue being kept up if the impositions that were laid by the generall Councell of the Kingdome which takes off all grudging and complaint COUNS. Yea Sir but that which is done by the King with the advice of his private or privy Councell is done by the Kings absolute power IUST And by whose power it is done in parliament but by the Kings absolute power Mistake it not my Lord The three Estates do but advise as the privy Councell doth which advice if the King imbrace it becomes the Kings own Act in the one and the Kings Law in the other for without the Kings acceptation both the publick and private advices be but as empty Egg shels and what doth his Majesty lose if some of those things which concerns the poorer sort to be made free again and the Revenue kept up upon that which is superfluous Is it a losse to the King to be beloved of the Commons If it be revenue which the King seeks is it not better to take it of those that laugh then of those that cry Yea if all be conten to pay upon moderation change of the Species Is it