as often as any advantage was offer'd to him during the Barons War playing fast and loose sometimes as an Enemy otherwhile as a Friend as it made for his turn and having it alwayes in his Power by being in Conjunction with Scotland without which he had been inconsiderable to disturb the Peace of England at his pleasure never neglected any occasion where he might gain Repute to himself or booty for his People Upon him therefore he fastened the first Domestick War he had entring his Country like Jove in a storm with Lightning and Thunder the Terrour whereof was so resistless that that poor Prince was forc'd to accept whatsoever terms he would put upon him to obtain a temporary Peace without any other hope or comfort then what he deriv'd from the mental reservation he had of breaking it again as soon as he return'd whereunto he was not long after tempted by the delusion of a mistaken Prophesie of that false Prophet Merlin who having foretold that he should be crown'd with the Diadem of Brute fatally heightened his Ambition to the utter destruction both of himself and Country with whom his innocent Brother the last of that Race partaking in life and death concluded the Glory of the ancient British Empire which by a kind of Miracle had held out so many hundred years without the help of Shipping Allyance or Confederation with any Forreign Princes by the side of so many potent Kings their next Neighbours who from the time of the first entrance of the English suffer'd them not to enjoy any quiet though they vouchsafed them sometimes Peace Wales being thus totally reduced by the irrecoverable fall of Llewellen and David the last of their Princes that were ever able to make resistance and those ignorant People made thereby happier then they wish'd themselves to be by being partakers of the same Law and Liberty with those that conquer'd them he setled that Title on his eldest Son and so passed over into France to spend as many years abroad in Peace as he had done before in War in which time he renew'd his League with that Crown accommodated the Differences betwixt the Crowns of Scicily and Arragon and shew'd himself so excellent an Arbitrator that when the right of the Crown of Scotland upon his return home came to be disputed with Six some say Ten Competitors after the death of Alexander the Third the Umpirage was given to him who ordered the matter so wisely that he kept off the final Decision of the main Question as many years as there were Rivals put in for it deferring Judgment till all but two only were disputed out of their Pretensions These were Baliol and Bruce the first descended from the elder Daughter of the right Heir the last from the Son of the younger who having as 't was thought the weaker Title but the most Friends King Edward privately offered him the Crown upon Condition of doing Homage and Fealty to him for it the greatness of his Mind which bespoke him to be a King before he was one suffer'd him not to accept the terms whereupon King Edward makes the same Proposition to Baliol who better content it seems with the outside of Majesty accepted the Condition But see the Curse of ill-got Glory shewing himself satisfied with so little he was thought unworthy of any being so abhor'd of his People for it that upon the first occasion they had to quarrel with his Justice as who should say they would wound him with his own Weapon they appeal'd to King Edward who thereupon summon'd him to appear in England and was so rigid to him upon his appearance he would permit none else to plead his Cause but compell'd him in open Parliament to answer for himself as well as he could This being an Indignity so much beneath the sufferance of any private Person much more a King sunk so deep into his Breast that meditating nothing after but Revenge as soon as he return'd home securing himself first by a League and Allyance with the King of France to whose Brothers Daughter he married his Son he renounced his Allegiance and defied King Edward's Power no less then he did his Justice This begat a War betwixt the two Nations that continued much longer then themselves being held up by alternate Successes near three hundred years a longer dated difference perhaps then is to be found in any other Story of the World that Rancor which the Sword bred increasing continually by the desire of Revenge till the one side was almost wholly wasted t'other wholly wearied Baliol the same time King Edward required him to do Homage for Scotland here prevailed with the French King to require the like from him for his Territories there this began the Quarrel that the Division by which King Edward which may seem strange parting his Greatness made it appear much greater whilst himself advanc'd against Baliol and sent his Brother the Earl of Lancaster to answer the King of France Baliol finding himself overmatch'd as well as over-reach'd renew'd his Homage in hopes to preserve his Honour But King Edward resolving to bind him with stronger Fetters then Oaths sent him Prisoner into England whereby those of that Country wanting not only a Head but a Heart to make any further resistance he turn'd his Fury upon the King of France hastning over what Forces he could to continue that War till himself could follow after But Fortune being preingaged on the other side disposed that whole Affair to so many mistakes that nothing answered Expectation and which was worse the Fame of his Male-Adventures spirited a private person worthy a greater * Wallis Name then he had to rise in Scotland who rallying together as many as durst by scorning Misery adventure upon it defied all the Forces of England so fortunately that he was once very near the redeeming his despairing Country-men and had he had less Vertue might possibly have had more success For scorning to take the Crown when he had won it a Modesty not less fatal to the whole Nation then himself by leaving room for Ambition he made way for King Edward to Re-enter the second time who by one single Battel but fought with redoubled Courage made himself once more Lord of that miserable Kingdom all the principal Opposers Wallis only excepted crowding in upon Summons to swear Fealty the third time to him This had been an easie Pennance had they not together with their Faith resigned up their Laws and Liberties and that so servilely that King Edward himself judging them unworthy to be continued any longer a Nation was perswaded to take from them all the Records and Monuments whereby their Ancestors had recommended any of Glory to their Imitation Amongst other of the Regalia's then lost was that famous Marble Stone now lodg'd in Westminster-Abby wherein their Kings were crown'd in which as the Vulgar were perswaded the Fate of their Country lay for that there was an ancient Prophesie
Bowl once put besides its Byass goes the further from its Mark the more 't is inforced THE FIFTH DYNASTY OF NORMANS OF NORMANS THE Normans so call'd by the French in respect of the Northern Clime from whence they came heretofore call'd * Dionis Patav l. 8. c. 4. Scandia since Norwey were another Branch of the antient Cimbri seated near the frozen Sea whose Country being too barren to nourish so fruitful a People they disonerated their Multitudes wheresoever force could make way for them Some stragling as far as the Mediterranian others farther Southward some few lost in the Frozen Sea attempting the Desert Isles far Northward but most following the Sun infested their Southern Neighbours About the time of Charles the Great they began to grow very troublesome by their frequent Pyracies making several Inroads into England but especially into France pressing so hard upon Lewis the Holy that he was fain to empty all his frontier Garrisons and quitting the Maritime draw them into the interior and more considerable parts of his Empire as the Spirits are drawn to the heart upon all Commotions to preserve life Their Successes in Germany England Scotland and Holland having made them so bold that they doubted not to advance as far as Paris where after divers disputes with Charles the Bald Charles le Grosse and Charles the Simple which concluded with an honourable Composition they six'd their two Chiefs Hastang and Rollo in the most fertile and best parts of that goodly Country the first being made Earl of Charters the last Duke of Neustria from him call'd afterwards Normandy the seventh in descent from whom was Duke William better known to us here by the Name of The Conquerour who with like confidence and not unlike Injustice invaded England as his Ancestors did France pretending a Donation of the Soveraignty from his near Kinsman King Edward the Confessor confirm'd as he alledged by his last Will and Testament in the presence of most of the English Nobility a pretence that could have been of no validity had it not been back'd by more then humane Power to disinherit Edgar Atheling who as being of the whole English Blood was rather Heir to the Kingdom then to the King and so by no Law could have his Right collated to a Stranger but the use he made of it was to convince the World that he had more Reason not to say Right to demand than Harold to detain the Crown who having put Prince Edgar besides the Succession desied the Justice of all Mankind as he was an Usurper and so it was a design worthy his Sword who had so fortunately vanquish'd even before he wrote Man those great difficulties at home given by the Opposition of Domestick Rivals no less puissant and populous then Harold to put him at least out of Possession But that which seems strange and was questionless a great surprize upon Harold was the conjunction of the Peers of France in an Action that was so apparently hazardous to the greatness of their own State every addition to so near and dangerous a Neighbour grown long before too powerful being a kind of diminution unto them whereof there can be no probable Cause assign'd beyond their natural affectation of Glory and wantonness of Courage but that Influence which the Conquerors Father in Law Baldwin Earl of Flanders had by being then Governour of the King and Kingdom of France who not only ingaged most of the grtatest Persons there as the Duke of Orleance the Earls of Champaigne Blois Brittain Ponthieue Maine Nevers Poictiers Aumale and Anjou but drew in the * Henry IV. Emperour himself and many of the German Princes to side with him This Preparation being such as it was it cannot be thought that the English lost any honour by mingling blood with men of that Quality and Condition the sound of whose Names was perhaps little less terrible then that of their Arms much less takes it from the reputation of their Courage to have heâ—d up the dispute but for one day only having fought it out as they did till the number of the slain so far exceeded that of the living as made the Conqueror doubt there would not be enough left to be conquer'd Who knows not that Fate made way for the Normans where their Swords could not guiding them by a Series of Successes near about the same time to the expectation of an universal Empire having but a little before made themselves Lords of Apulia Calabria Scicily and Greece and inlarged their Conquests as far as Palestine But what we allow to the Courage we must take from the Wisdom of the English that being subdued they continued Nescia vinci vexing the Conqueror after they had submitted to him by such continual Revolts as suffered him not to sheath his Sword all his Reign or if he did urged him to continue still so suspicious of their Loyalty that he was sorc'd alway to keep his hand upon the hilt ready to draw it forth having not leisure to intend what was before established much less to establish what he before intended So that they put upon him a kind of necessity of being a Tyrant to make good his being a King Yet such was the moderation of his mind that he chose rather to bind them stricter to him by the old Laws then to gall them with any new guarding his Prerogative within that Cittadel of the Burrough Law as they call'd it from whence as often as they began to mutiny he batter'd them with their own Ordnance and so made them Parties to their own wrong and however some that design'd to pre-occupate the grace of Servitude gave him the ungrateful Title of Conqueror which he esteem'd the greatest misfortune his good Fortune had brought upon him thereby to proclaim his Power to be as boundless as his Will which they took to be above all Limitation or Contradiction yet we find he suffered himself to be so far conquer'd by them that instead of giving to he took the Law from them and contentedly bound himself up by those which they call'd St. Edward's Laws which being an Abbreviation of the great triple Code of Danique Merke and West-Sexe Laws was such a form of Combination as he himself could not desire to introduce a better and if any thing look'd like absolute 't was his disarming them when he found them thus Law-bound hand and foot After which he erected divers Fortresses where he thought fit dispos'd all Offices of Command and Judicature to such as he could best confide in and by that Law of Cover feu obliging them to the observation of better hours of Repose then they had formerly been us'd to gave himself more rest as well as them As for his putting the Law into a Language they understood not whereby they were made more learn'd or less litigious then they were before it was that the Lawyers only had cause to complain of whose practise at the first perhaps was a
burning Ruins Thus ended this great Conqueror and with him all his Greatness being left by all the World almost as soon as he left it not only by those to whom he had given a livelyhood but by those to whom he had given life every one of them forsaking him to scramble for what he left his eldest Son hastned away to take possession of his Dutchy of Normandy his second Son to Invest himself in his Kingdom of England only he to whom providentially he had left no home was the man stayed to bring him to his long home which yet could not be done without much disaster and interruption for as 't was three dayes before his Body was mov'd from the place where he dyed so 't was twice three before his Son Henry could get any to undertake the conveying it to Cane where 't was to be buried after it came there 't was left the second time alone in the street by those that carried it who took occasion it seems to run all away to quench a Fire that broke out of a House by which they were to pass and being with all this ado brought afterward to his Grave one stept forth and forbid the Interment till they compounded for the Ground he was to be buried in Thus like that great Conqueror who thought the World too little to contain him whilst he liv'd but being dead could scarce obtain so much Earth as to cover his naked Corps it was accounted no small part of his as of the others happiness that he met with a Grave at last Sufficit magno parva Domus Domino A little Dormitory it seems sufficed and well had it been if it had not proved too little for being streightned so much that they were fain to compress his Body in letting it in they thereby let out such a stanch as made every Body leave him again the third time so that it was not known who covered the Corps with Earth at least it was better known who uncovered it the frowardness of his Destiny being such that it would not permit this to be the last indignity offer'd to him but as if it had been decreed in Heaven that he who disturb'd so many living should himself have no rest in death his Bones 100 years after he was buried were taken up and cast into the Streets by certain dissolute Souldiers that in the year 1562. rifled his Tomb in hopes of finding Treasure with like Avarice as he before had rifled all his Neighbours Countries in hopes of finding Glory These three brave Sons standing thus as it were in a Triangle at the death of their Father equidistant one from the other without any visible disproportion in Power Parts or Reputation the first representing him as he was a King the other as Duke and the third as Conqueror which made them alike Obstinate Ambitious and Emulous of each others Glory 't is no marvel that the Feuds betwixt themselves only took up all the action of their time and left no room for any other Competitors to come in betwixt them But that which seems more rare is the vicissitude of their love and hate each of them as his squint-eyed interest mov'd him to change his ground retaining still the affections of a Brother even whilst he acted as an Enemy For first the younger assisted the elder against the middle Brother then the middle compounded with the elder to be reveng'd on the younger Brother after this again the younger reconciles himself to his middle Brother in order to obtaining satisfaction from the elder who after this agreed with the middle as he before with him to fall both upon the younger Brother in the last place they all united and agreed but upon such terms that their Union set them worse at variance then before so that every one of them stood off and acted singly for himself each against other and each against two In conclusion the elder was dispossess'd by the middle Brother and he forc'd by death to yield up all to the younger and so they inherited their Fathers Lands he only his Fortune but all were alike Inheritors of his Troubles who has this Remark upon him That he never had rest living or dead his Bones being divided as well as his Children each part of his Dominions claiming a share of them as each of his Sons of these Having viewed them thus together let us look upon this King single who however he is drawn but with an half face like one of the Caesar's appears to have been the most like his Father of all the Brothers there being no other difference betwixt them but this that the one was alwayes a Conqueror t'other never conquer'd For as he had his Fathers Courage to incounter Dangers so he had his wisdom and readiness of mind to extricate himself out of them and ever fell like a Cube upon his bottom let Fortune hurl him whither she would making his Enemies glad to be his Friends when all the Friends he had almost were become his Enemies standing so firmly even whiles he was forced to take in the points of as many Swords as had been before drawn upon his Father that nothing could move him The first that set upon him was his Brother Robert who as if afraid to look him in the face tamper'd with those nearest in Trust about him to wound him in the back before he came to close grapple with him or rather tried if possible to spring a Mine under his Throne whilst he began his Battery at farther distance Principal Engineer in this Plot was his discontented Uncle Odo Bishop of Bayeulx who designing to oblige both Normans and English to conspire with him took in the first by declaring to set up their beloved Duke Robert for life and deceived the last by promising to settle the Reversion of the Soveraignty on their Darling Prince Edgar whom therefore he put into the hands of Duke Robert for the Security as he pretended of both Robert receiving him as his Homager and Edgar looking on him as his Protector whilst Odo pleas'd himself with having both within his own reach whenever he saw cause to declare for himself This Storm spread it self very wide for Odo fortify'd in Kent where he might be assisted by the King of France if need were William Bishop of Durham ingaged all the Northern Countries where they might expect help from the King of Scots others secur'd Herefordshire Shropshire and Worcestershire where they might readily have aid from the Welch whilst Roger Mountgomery rais'd up Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and Hugh de Grandmenill led up those of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire to face him This as it was the best formed so it was the most formidable Rebellion we meet with in all our Story founded on such sure grounds and managed by such sure men that King Williams Councel could not tell where to begin nor whither to turn them but he himself being as quick of apprehension as
universal darkness (t) Tertullian Tertullian that liv'd not long after taking thence occasion to upbraid the unbelieving Jews by telling them that the Britains whom the Romans could not conquer were yet subject unto Christ and to say truth their obedience to the Cross was the chief cause of humbling themselves under the Fasces Lucius being the first King that stipulated for the enjoyment of his own Laws at the price of a Tribute which if it were some diminution of his Majesty was made up with advantage by his Successour Constantine the Great whom therefore the (u) In M. Ant. In Arc. Cott. Panegyrist not unfitly stiles Divus Orbis Britanniae Liberator 7. However in respect the Romans had some hold-fast here for near a hundred years after Constantine's death it may be by some perhaps thought more reasonable to begin our Computation from Vortigern who having neither Competitor nor Compartner in the Government there being not one Roman left in the whole Isle to controul or contend with him was without doubt the first that as Tacitus speaks of Augustus Nomine Principis sub Imperium accepit circa An. Chr. 440. At what time all the Neighbour Princes round about him were under the common yoak of Servitude The French themselves who stand so much upon the Antiquity of their Monarchy falling short of this Account near four hundred years who being govern'd by Dukes till the year 420 had not in almost thirty years after any more of France in their Intire possession then that Canton which the Romans call'd Belgicum which was the more inconsiderable by being parcel'd out into many Petty (w) As were Burgundy Lorrain Guien Aquitain Normandy Champagne Fâ—ix Orange c. Royalties that could not unite till the time of Charlemaine who liv'd about the latter end of our Heptarchy after whose death the whole fell into five pieces again four whereof ceas'd to be French which gave so great disturbance to all their Kings of the Second and third Race that they were so far from being Masters of that little that they had that they were scarce (x) Vide Du Serres in Proem Hist Lords of themselves being forc'd to pawn the best part of their Inheritance to enable them to keep the rest none of their Successors being in condition to redeem any considerable part till Lewis the Eleventh who happily having recovered the Earldom of Provence and Dutchy of Burgundy made his boast that he had brought his Kingdom Hors de Page Much more distorted was the Empire of the Spaniards if so be we may allow them to have any thing like absolute Soveraignty till this very last Age when Ferdinand the Second worthily reputed their first Monarch happily united Castile and Aragon with their Appendixes their Predecessors till then being so inconsiderable that the Kings of Scotland took place of them In how obscure a condition all the Northern Kings were for by that common appellation those of Muscovy Sweadland Denmark and Norway past undistinguish'd till about the year 800 I need not say Since by being thought not worth the conquering there was not much more notice taken of them than of the rest of the barbarous Nations their Neighbours who may be rather said to be antient then honourable the Germans only excepted of whom to speak slightly were to defile our own nest since by them we derive our selves from Kings as great before the Flood as since The Precedence of the Kings of This Isle 8. Now as the Monarchy of this Isle is as Lanquet the Chronologer expresses it antienter then the Records of any time so the Kings thereof having held out a Succession of an hundred thirty nine Kings where as France reckons but sixty four taking in First Second and third Race have by the right of Custom as our particular Law expresses it Du temps dont memorie ne cúrt a le contrarie and by the consent of all Nations which is the Law universal to Ratifie and Regulate all respects taken and been allow'd the (y) As appears by the old Roman provincial second place inter Super Illustres for by that term Civilians make a great distinction and difference in point of Majesty even amongst Kings themselves A term which who so understands not may see the difference plainly in that old Formular printed at Strasburgh Anno 1519 where there is set down a Quadrupartite Division of Supream Principality the first place allow'd by them as reasonably they ought to their own Soveraign Kesar i. e. the German Emperour the Second to Romischin Koning i. e. the King of the Romans his Successor and their Countryman too The third place they gave to the Vier Gesalbt Koning i. e. the four anointed Kings In the last place came the Mein Koning or Ordinary Kings The difference betwixt these last and the Quatuor Vncti which were the (z) Javin Theatramundi Kings of France England Jerusalem and Sicily was this that with the holy oyl they receiv'd the Title and Adjunct of (a) Rhivallus ap Tooke in Carism Sanct. Cap. 6. Sacred being therefore anointed In Capite to signifie their glory above the other Princes of the same Rank In Pectore to denote their Sanctity In Brachiis to Emblematize their power this appears by the Styles of the Literae Formatae the antient forms of Addresses and the Frontispicians to the antient Councels where we find the various Styles of Sanctio Sacrietas and Divinitas apply'd to these to those were given only that of Dominatio and sometimes Celsitudo Regia conformable to this were all the phrases of the antient Laws of this Realm which Style the Crown-Lands (b) Cook sur Littleton Sect. 4. Sacra Patrimonia the Prerogative Royal Sacra Sacrorum the Laws themselves in respect they take their life and being from the King (c) Fortescu Leg. Aug. fol. 8. Sanctae Sanctiones The Kings presence was held so Sacred that if a (d) Plowd Com. 322. Villain heretofore cast himself ad Sacra Vestigia as they phras'd it his Lord could no more seize him than if he had been in the Sanctuary before the Altar it being upon the same Ground as great a crime to strike in the Court as in the Church and as if this were not enough they ascribe unto the King as unto God Infallibility (e) Edw. 4. 25. 24. Rex non potest errare Immortality (f) Crompton Jurisaic fol. 134. Plowd 177. B. 1 Ed. 5. Rex non potest mori for in all Pleadings they never mention the death of the King but call it the Demise Justice in perfection Rex non quam injuriam fecit Omnipresence in so much that he cannot be non-suited in any of his Courts because he is suppos'd to be always present and for the same reason all Persons are sorbid to be cover'd in his Chambers of presence though he be not there Lastly they give to him as to God the Issues of Life and
Neither is it so in the Case of a particular Person only but if the whole Body of the people of this Nation should take upon them to do the like absque assensu Regis The Judges holding that where a War shall be so declared against any in League with the King without his consent and allowance the League is not thereby broken The like holds in all cases of Confederacies and Combinations which forced the late Rebels in the time of Charles the First to declare this Kingdom a Common-wealth before they could prevail with any Forrain Princes to treat with them and very few did it then Wherefore it is recorded as a wise answer of that Parliament in the Seventeenth of Richard the Second who when that King out of a necessitous compliance with the People offer'd them leave to take into their consideration some concerns of War and Peace Replied It did not become their Duty neither in Truth durst they presume ever to Treat of matters of so Transcendent Concernment No doubt then can there be of that Jus Foecialis 5. Jus Foecialis or right of Legation in directing sending and receiving all Embassies which Curtius calls Jus Regium a Power so Singular and Absolute that as (b) Bod. de Repub. Bodin and (c) In State Christ printed Anno 1657. H. Wotton both men of sufficient Authority affirm divers of our Neighbour Princes who yet call themselves absolute as the Kings of Hungary Poland Denmark Bohemia c. have nothing like it being bound up to consult with their People about all publick concerns before they can make any Conclusion of Peace or War Whereas all Addresses of State are made to Our Kings as I shewed in part before without any Obligation of their parts to communicate any thing to any of the Members of their great Council Privy Council or Common Council much less to either of the Ministers of State whether Secretaries or others however sworn to Secrecy and Trust Nor needs there a more pregnant Instance of the Kings inherent and determinate Prerogative in this point than that verbal Order of King Henry the Eight to the Lord Gray Governour of Bullen who upon a dispute about demolishing a Fort the French were then erecting by the name of Chastilons Garden contrary to the Sence of all the Lords of his Council expressed in Scriptis and which was more the formality of his own Letters confirming their Order did by a verbal Commission only privately whisper'd to him Justifie him in flinging down that Work which was a manifest breach of the Peace with the French and consequently a Capital crime in the Governour had not the same breath that made him forfeit it given him his life again which President as it was very remarkable so it proves that which follows 6. Jus Vitae Necis 26. Jus Vitae Necis that highest power of Life and Death to be only in the King being signaliz'd by the Ceremony of carrying the Sword before him in all publick Processions and is in truth so antient and undoubted a Right of the Crown that upon this Account only we find all the Pleas touching life and member to be call'd by the Lawyers Placita Coronae and all Capital Offences of high treason are termed Crimina Laesae Majestatis in proceeding whereon no Original Writ is necessary as in civil Causes but every Constable as the Kings Deputy may Ex Ossicio without any Process seize on any Murtherer Traytor or Felon and till the Statute of Magna Charta 17 of King John it is manifest that every mans Person was so subjected to the King by his Oath of Allegiance from those words De vita de membro that the (d) Vita Membrasunt in Potestate Regis Bracton l. 1. fol. 6. Cap. 5. Sect. 18. King at his pleasure might Imprison any man without process of Law or giving any cause for it and however the King has been pleas'd to circumscribe himself by Law since for the greater assurance of his Grace to his People yet the Judges have still so far respect to the Kings honour in this particular that upon the Commitment of any person by the Kings Command or by Order of the Lords of his Council they do not take upon them as perhaps by strictness of Law they might to deliver the Person till the Cause be first shewn and then expecting a Declaration of the Kings further pleasure bind him to answer what may be objected in the Kings behalf 7. Jus Rerum Sacrarum 27. The last and highest Prerogative as being purely Spiritual is that Jus Rerum Sacrarum to which no Princes in the World had a fairer Pretence than those here if considered as the only Christian Kings foster'd with the milk of a distinct National Church The Kings of great Britain the only Kings of a distinct national Church that may as properly be called the Sister as those of France Germany and Italy are call'd the Daughters of Rome and therefore the Pope when he naturaliz'd as I may say all the Christian Nations within the bosom of the Church he declared the Emperour to be Filius Major the French King Filius Minor but our King Filius Adoptivus neither matters it much though they prove our Church to be the younger Sister that disparagement if any it be being abundantly recompensed by being as indeed she is the most innocent the most beautiful and perhaps the most fruitful Parent of the two having Matriculated no less than eight Nations now as great almost as her self in the first Ages of Christianity and been the Foster-Mother to as many more in this last and most knowing age The Protestant Religion more properly called the Catholiâ—k Religion than that of Rome whereby the Reformed Religion as it is now vulgarly called to difference it from that of Rome is become as universal as that they call with so much Ostentation Catholick which if confined within the Range of the Church of Rome is not above a (c) Purchas Pilgrim cap. 13. lib. 1. fourth part of Christendom if so be the Computation of our modern Geographers be not mistaken who put Sweden in the Scale against both the Iberia's Italy and Spain and England Denmark and the Hans Towns against France which yet we know is Checquer'd in their Religion having divers Towns of the Reformed Judgment besides those Lesser Congregations in Poictou Gascony Languedoc and Normandy and take out of Germany suppos'd to be the third part of Europe two intire parts the whole being divided into three that at this day are integrally Protestant that is to say in the East Poland Lithuania Livonia Podolia Russia minor with divers Parts of Hungary and Transilvania even to the Euxine Sea in the West the Cantons of Swizzerland the United Provinces with the Grisons and the Republick of Geneva the South and North parts being yet more intirely Protestant and the heart of it every
Insolence of the one and the Cowardliness of the other But Severus to render himself more grateful to the Britains and to shew them that he had more of the Julius in his Nature then the Severus brought over with him this Coel the Princeps Juventutis whom he knew they long'd to see being the next of blood to the last King some say his Son whom the Romans call'd Calius who under the colour of being sent for Breeding to Rome had been kept there as an Hostage from the time of Marius his first entring upon the Government Long it was not before he had beaten back the Picts but before he could make ready the Laurel to present to the Old Emperour his Master he impatient of the Glory was arriv'd in Person who finding the Picts retir'd into their Fastnesses very wisely depopulated all the Country round about and so leaving out that which was not worth the trouble of keeping he secur'd the rest by that wonderful Work call'd the Picts Wall After this he establish'd Coell in the Government over the Britains and appointed the Propraetor Licinius Prisons whom he had purposely call'd from the Jewish Wars to be assistant to him by whose advice Coel set up a Municipal form of Government in all the Cities and great Towns something like that of the Romans and sent abroad Judges into the Country with Commission of Oyer and Terminer in all matters Criminal and Civil Now because the People were of different Nations and bred under different Laws part Britains and part Romans they observ'd this Rule to punish all Romans by Roman Magistrates all Britains by British only herein they gave respect to the Romans to submit that all Process should be in Latin which at first the Vulgar sort of Britains could not wel digest because they understood nothing of it but sympathy of Manners and continuation of Commerce introduc'd at last such an affection to the Language that they became not only knowing in the Tongue but very Critical in that knowledge arriving at a degree of Eloquence and that led them to a perfection in the (g) Of which they were wholy Ignorant before Liberal Sciences and in a very little time they were effeminated with all the Arts of that wanton Nation but as bad causes many times produce good effects so out of this Dunghill sprung that Flower the Luce which garnish'd the Temples of the succeeding King who meeting with an Age that affected new Notions suffer'd himself to be carry'd away in the Croud till happily and perhaps unexpectedly he arriv'd at last at the Doctrine of Christianity CYMBELIN date of accession 156 THE time ascrib'd by the British Historians to the 3 last Kings if there be no mistake in the Computation could take up no less then the Reigns of Six Emperours Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Adrian and Antonius the two first of which were perhaps more unkind to the Britains then to any other of their Subjects but the two next permitted them the benefit of their own Kings the two last the priviledge of their own Laws but more beholding were they yet to the Emperor Aurelius who if he were not a real Christian as some (h) Hâ—linshed lib. 5. cap. 9. Historians believe him to be was yet as 't is reported of King Agrippa almost perswaded to be so in that he frankly priviledged all those of that perswasion and permitted this King to be the first profess'd Believer of any Prince in the World whereupon his Country-men chang'd his name of Cymbelin into that of Levermawr i. e. the Great Light upon which the Romans call'd him Lucius a Name that seems to have been written with the Beams of the Sun to the Intent it might be legible throughout all the Ages of the World in honour of which Emperor the said King entituled the first Canons that ere he made Leges Romanas Casaris Now however this was the first Christian King that ever was not excepting with reverence to the Writers of their Legend be it spoken either (i) Abdia Hist Apost lib. 9. Euseb lib. 1. cap. 13. Gundafer K. of India converted by St. Thomas or (k) Nicet Choniat in Andron Com. l. 2. Abagar K. of Edessa converted by Letters as they say from our Saviour himself Yet we must not take the Aera of Christianity within this Isle from the date of his Conversion Since Gildas whose Authority is not to be question'd deduces it tempore summo Tiberii which falls out not to be above five years after Christs Passion who by the Dionysian Accompt suffered in the eighteenth year of the Reign of that l) Whom Tertullian would have be thought a Christian himself distinct 80. c. in illis Clem. Prop. Tyrant However those that think not fit to look so far back do yet admit presidenti Arvirago and to this even the Roman Historians that liv'd near about the same time give some probable Testimony for what else can be understood by that strange (m) Lipsius interprets it Christianity Superstition of the Jews wherewith (n) Sueton. vit Ner. Suetonius complains that Pomponia the Wife of A. Plantius Lieutenant to Claudius here was infected Judaism being thought by the Romans to differ from Christianity in Specie only and most of our (o) Oildas Simon Metaphrastes Suriuâ— Cambden c. Antiquaries of the best Credit do affirm St. Peter to have been preaching here near about the same time So that the Conversion of Lucius may be esteemed rather happy then early who meeting with such a calm season as did not nip the Bud of his Devotion before it was fully blown it was no marvel having taken root so long before it sprung up so suddenly if so be we may call that growth sudden which yet rose by visible degrees to that perfection it attained to in his time for it is worthy the noting how the Britains by Conversation with the Romans became knowing first in the use of Arms after in the practise of Arts and Sciences natural civil moral and metaphisical In Cunobelin's time they refin'd their Money In the time of Marius they learn'd the Art of Fortifications The last King before this Instructed them in the Rules of Philosophy This in the Rudiments of Religion reducing it after into practise as divers of our Ecclesiastical Writers inform us by establishing with his Royal Authority A. B. and Bishops in the Church instead of those Flamins and Arch-Flamins which were before in the Paganish Temples wherein the British Church had the start of all other Christian Churches in the World in point of honour as well as Order There being no Constat of so high a Title as that of (p) Vsher primord Malmesbury Arch-Bish in any of the Eastern Churches at that time from whom those of Rome and all the Western Churches had theirs many years after which shews that his pious purpose was not to suffer Religion to loose any part of that State and
such a silent Resolution as look'd like a belief of conquering them without a stroke for he fought only one Battle with the Danes and no more wherein he press'd upon them with that inconsideration as shew'd that the apprehensions of future danger had made him altogether contemn the present the slaughter on their side being so great that he thinking it not worth the trouble to bury their Carcasses in several Graves caus'd them to be gather'd into congested heaps and by those dismal Monuments of their unhappy Courage left to Posterity so many Land-marks of a second Conquest That which made this Victory of his appear more serene like the Air after a Thunder storm was the sudden Calm which followed after it all those fierce Infidels being so wholly dispers'd and defeated that having nothing more to do relating to War he bethought himself of performing some notable Act of Peace And accordingly made a Pilgrimage to Rome where it appears how welcom he was by the magnificent Reception he had of Pope Leo the Fourth who not only entertain'd him a whole year upon his own Charge but anointed his darling Son Elfrid who accompanied him thither to the expectation of his Kingdom after him wherein whether his Holiness intended an Obligation to the Father in honouring the Son that was thought most like him and certainly most belov'd of him or whether it were that being his God-son he could not bestow upon him any cheaper Blessing then an Airy Title which yet seem'd to be a Prophetical Designation to the Crown or what other Cause mov'd him to prop up the old with setting up a young King is not known But in the Consequence it prov'd a fatal Complement to them both For Ethelbald the elder Brother apprehending that he was rejected being a Prince of a furious and vindictive Spirit attempted to do himself right by such an unnatural Wrong as never any Son offer'd to a Father before taking his exception from the most unreasonable and one would have thought the most frivolous Ground that could be imaginable For the Father having given the Complement of Majesty to his young Queen the fair Daughter of the Emperour Charles the Bald whom he had married in his return through France contrary as his Son urg'd to a Law made by the West-Sexe who after Bithrick was poyson'd by his Queen ordain'd that no English Queen ever after should be allow'd the Title place or Priviledge of Majesty he took that Occasion from the respect shew'd to his Mother in Law to justifie himself so far in his disrespect to his Father that without more ado he seiz'd the Crown and kept out both Father and Brother the People who are apt to adore the rising Sun declaring their readiness to stand by him as he by the Laws The shame and horror of whâ—ch unexpected Repulse broke the heart of the good old King who dying seem'd to bemoan more the loss of his Subjects duty then that of his own Honour But that blessing which Providence deny'd to himself it gave to his four Sons each of which was King after him and all of them this Ethelbald only excepted so eminently virtuous that however we cannot rank Ethelwolph amongst the Fortunate we may yet number him amongst the happy Princes of this Isle ETHELBALD date of accession 857 AS we may presume that the Impudence and Impiety of this graceless Usurper did sufficiently amaze the present so it remain'd as a Riddle to those of future Times who were left to seek how it could come to pass that so bad a Son could so easily supplant so good a Father And which was yet more the Father of his Country as well as his own For however it is evident that he took the first advantage of his weakness by the rigour of that petulant Law before mention'd which was no less unreasonable for the matter of it then himself appear'd to be by the Execution making the People believe that his Father who had broken a Fundamental Law intended also to violate their Fundamental Priviledges whereof no Nation in the World is more jealous then the English Yet had not this single Ingratitude of his been double edg'd it could never have pierc'd to the heart of so wise a Prince but the hatred to the Father being bottom'd upon a love to the Mother whose Beauty Pride and Lust had prepared the first temptation for his Youth and Power The good old King could not resist that double Injury there being so good an Understanding betwixt the two Serpents that they engendred whilst they were hissing at one another And which is yet more strange the Incestuous Parricide after he had possess'd the Bed as well as the Throne so blind is Passion out-did his Father as much in that very point of respect to her for which he undid him as he out-did aâ—l other men in point of Inhumanity allowing her not only the stile of Queen but designing to make her by the formal pomp of a solemn Coronation alike Partner with him in his Royalty as she was in his Luxury had not Death and the Danes happily parted them After which she was forc'd to return home and by the way fell it seems into the hands of Baldwyn the Forrester of Arden by whom being taken Prisoner he entred at the Breach he found already made and took the Pleasure of her Beauty as lawful Prize ETHELBERT date of accession 858 SO monstrously rebellious was Ethelbald against his Father that Providence vouchsafed him not the honour of being a Father himself So that dying Childless his second Brother Ethelbert became his Heir and Successor a Prince fitted by the Government of part for the Soveraignty of the whole who having happily rul'd the Kentish South and East-Saxons for five years together was admitted by common Consent as well as by particular Right to the honour of being Fourth absolute Monarch of England However his Government was much disturb'd before he could settle upon the Lees of his Power by the increasing rage of the Danes who landing at Southampton sack'd all the Country to the Walls of Winchester and having afterwards buried that Loyal old Town in its own Ashes came on as far as Berkshire with intent to visit London it self but being stopt by the united Forces of that Country they were compell'd to repay the price of their Cruelties to those they had before harassed falling under the Fury of Osrick Earl of Southampton whose People provok'd with the sense of their Sufferings forc'd in upon them and slew Osbeeck and Crans their Chief Leaders exposing the rest to all the miseries that usually befall a routed Enemy in a strange Country and so great was the slaughter of them that the very Fame of it incourag'd the Kentish men to turn head upon another Party that had bridled and was about to saddle them Some have doubted the Courage of this King for that they find him not personally ingag'd all this while not considering
of Baptism and new promises given at the taking their new Names to be true to the old League of their Predecessors they obtain'd a Truce so like a Peace that it wanted only age to make it so and therewithal an opportunity of recovering fresh strength as well as malice after which like Snakes that had felt the heat of the Sun they began to hiss and shew that the Water pour'd out upon their heads had not power to quench the Fire in their hearts which breach of Faith urg'd the young King to take a voyage into the North where finding that they had fortifi'd themselves with the Alliance of the Prince of Cumberland he prepar'd to give them Pattle upon the Forder of Northumberland in which dispute having got the better of them he pursu'd his Victory till he overtook the two treacherous Sons of Dunmale their Confederate to whom he cruelly gave their lives but on such a condition as was worse than death it self for at the same time he took from them both their Eyes and their Inheritance the first never to be recover'd the last almost as desperate for he bestow'd it on Milcolmb King of Scots to be held of him in grand Serjeanty by the service of bearing the Sword before him as oft as he came into those parts the two Renegado's Anlaff and Reignold made their escape into the Isles and thence into Ireland thinking themselves scarce secure at that distance Thus satiated with Victory and Triumph the fruits of vigilance and fortitude he return'd back to fortifie himself by the most noble actions of Peace binding his Subjects to him by the Ponds of so good Laws that the memory of some of them are continued to this day savouring of a wisdom rarely to be found in so green years which as it made him revear'd in his life-time so much more pity'd in his death when he fell by the hands of an Out-Law who thrust him through the Body as he was endeavouring to part two of his domestick Servants that were so insolent to begin a Fray in his own house and presence which fatal Accident was not more unlucky to himself than to his Children the eldest whereof being but four the youngest scarcely two years old at his death were without any great difficulty put besides the Succession by their Uncle Eadred EADRED date of accession 946 THE Activity of the Danes after they came to get Footing enforc'd the English to make many Ruptures out of course in the Succession of their Kings breaking off their Lines where at any time it seem'd weak and uniting it together again in the strongest place doubting lest the Imbecility of one that had been either a Fool or a Child might be an occasion of letting the common Enemy in upon them Upon which account this King was preferr'd before his Nephews the right Heirs he being of age and they not his Title of Election out-weighing theirs of Succession as being more agreeable to the necessity of those rough and boysterous Times however there were always some found that durst oppose the common Choice mov'd by particular Interests giving their Kings so continued Alarums that they were not seldom forc'd to lay aside their Royal Robes and cloath themselves in Steel And this I take to be the Case of this particular King who was put to a greater expence of Treasure than Blood by the frequent Revolts for they were not worthy the name of Rebellions of such who upon the account of discontent and faction gave him more trouble than danger baffling his Courage by long Marches to reduce them when indeed they were subdued by their own fears before he could reach them Now as that which yields deads the force of violent motions and causes them to lose their execution so he by not being resisted return'd still a Conquerour without a Conquest till involv'd in the common Fate of all Victors who weakned by often overcoming are at last overcome by themselves his Fury spent it self like Thunder after much Lightning without any great harm done all his Glory being by this means turn'd into a kind of Mockery the Danes as well as the Rebels playing fast and loose with him at that rate that betwixt War and Peace he was neither safe nor quiet finding continual matter of Indignation or Scorn till Fortune by bringing him so often on to fight with Air made him secure and by that means left the Enemy an opportunity to steal a Victory that they durst not try to force from him After which death stole behind him and broke the Glass of his Soveraignty before it had run out full ten years too short a space to secure the Liberties of his People much less to allay their Fears who terrifi'd with the various Ensigns of an Implacable Enemy basely declin'd all noble Occasions of Revenge and shamefully lost all that they possess'd by the same way they first got it EDWIN date of accession 955 IT hath been observ'd that the self-same Weapons Time uses to overcome the Body are by the Understanding us'd to subdue Time And by this means it prevails with Fame to allow that Glory to Patience which Fortune not seldome denies to Fortitude but this seems to be a secret which this young King either did not know or not regard by which Animadversion his Memory became obnoxious to much Obloquy and Scandal which his Youth might otherwise have excus'd or the Age he liv'd in pardon'd For not caring to humour those that then would be esteem'd the best of men I mean the Clergy for that Cause only he fell under the Reproach of being himself one of the worst of Kings The truth is he was very severe toward the Priesthood upon account of their Laziness which provok'd them by way of Recrimination to declaim as much against him for his Lasciviousness their Revenge appearing to be like themselves truly Spiritual in that it surviv'd the Occasion and proved so immortal a Defamation as is like to continue as long as there is any mention made of him in any Story his Vices being represented in such a Magnifying Glass as dilated them to a degree of Deformity more suitable to a Monster then a Man For they accus'd him to have ravish'd a Young Lady the same hour that he was anointed King and to make it yet more horrid avow'd that he did it in the sight of all the People and particularly of her own Husband whom after he had tortur'd with the shame of so unparallel'd an indignity he afterward murther'd But how improbable this is each Reader may judge And those that consider how Venial a sin Venery was in those times will conclude his greatest Crime to be the taking of Abbot Dunstan by the Nose in like manner as it is said he did the Devil who having cheated his Predecessor of a vast Treasure deliver'd to him under secret Trust to which he had most meritoâ—iously entituled the Church he not only compell'd him to vomit
little disordered by it but those since who have found the benefit of having the Laws mysterious and less intelligible have little cause to decry him for it unless for this cause that they are never pleas'd with any fighting King In fine he strain'd not the Prerogative so high but his Son Henry the First let it down again as low when he restored to the People their ancient freedom of General Assemblies or rather permitted them a kind of share with himself in the Government by instituting a form of Convention so much nobler then any thing they had been acquainted with in elder timety in that the Peerage sate as so many Kings parting stakes with Soveraigns if what * Who was Lord Chief Justice to his Grandson Hen. 3. Bracton tells us be true who saith there were many things which by law the King could not do without them and some things which legally they might do without him which those that have read upon the Statute of Magna Charta can best explain This was not therefore improperly call'd the Parliament in respect of the Freedom of parlying after another fashion then had been permitted to their Ancestors in former Meetings which being Ex more or as they were wont to phrase it of Custome Grace during all the time of the Saxon Kings we cannot imagine their Debates to be much less restrained then themselves who attending in the Kings Palace like the Lords of the Councel at this day having had the honour to give their Opinions in any point of State submitted the final Judgment and determination to the Kings will and pleasure And whereas then the Commoners were wholly left out of all Consultations unless with the Learned Lambert we may think them included in the word Barones which seems to have been as equivocal a term heretofore in England as that of Laird yet in Scotland they now were made partakers of the like priviledge of voting as the Lords so that in Henry the Third his time to look no further backward we find them call'd by the yet continued stile of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to consult together with the Lords pro Pace asseverandâ firmandâ c. as the †lib. St. Alban f. 207. 4 H. 3. Record expresses it neither sate they when they met as Cyphers to those great Figures For when Pope Alexander the Fourth would have revoked the Sentence of Banishment past upon his proud Legate Adomare Bishop of Winchester for that he was not as he alledged subject to lay Censure they took upon them to give their Answer by themselves and it was a bold one That though the King and Lords should be willing to revoke it ‖ Vt pat Chart. orâ—g sub sigil de Mountford Vic. tot Communitat Rot. Parl. 42 Hen. 3. Communitas tamen ipsius ingressum in Angliam nullatenus sustineret How far their Priviledges were afterward confirmed and enlarged by several Kings successively but more particularly by that most excellent Prince Henry the Fifth who first allowed * 2 Hen. 5. The Petition of Right and permitted it to be entred in their Journals as the Great Standard of Liberty is not unknown from which time it hath been esteemed the second Great Charter of England whereby we were manumitted into that degree of Freedom as no Subjects in the world enjoy the like with like security from the fear of future bondage For as no man can be made lyable to the payment of any more or other Taxes then what himself layes upon himself by his representatives in that great Pan-Anglio call'd the Parliament so all the Kings of England since that time have been pleas'd to accept the Aids given by them even for the necessary support of the Government as so many Freewill-Offerings And well it is that they esteem them free since they are not obtained without a kind of Composition I might say obligation to give good Laws for good mony wherein the performance on the Princes part alwaies precedes that on the Peoples But there is yet something further then all this that renders the Norman Conquest so much more considerable then either that of the Romans Saxons or Danes by how much it spread its wings over the Seas into those goodly Provinces of the South never known to the English before thereby not only giving them Title to keep their Swords from rusting as long as they had any Arms to draw them forth but the Advantage therewithal of a mutual Conversation with a civiliz'd People who introduced so happy a Change in Laws and Language in Habits and Humours in Manners and Temperature that not only their rough I might say rude Natures no way inclin'd before to any kind of Gaiety admitted of smoother Fashions and quicker Motions but their dull Phlegmatick Complexions pale and wan by the continued use of dozing dreggy Liquor Ale became as ruddy as the Wine they drank which having more of Spirit and Fire then that other heavy composition sublimated their Courage and Wit and render'd them more lofty and eloquent both in Action and Language the last being before so asperous harsh and gutteral that an hours discourse together would have indanger'd the skin of their throats but being softned by the French and Latine Accents it became so gentle and smooth that as a Modern Master of Elocution hath observ'd 't is now so soft and pleasing that Lord Faulkland Prefat to Sands his Translation of the Psalms those From whom the unknown Tongue conceals the Sence Ev'n in the sound must find an Eloquence From the Normans likewise we had that honourable distinction of Sirnames which however they borrowed in the first place from the French who as Du Tillet tells us were about the year 1000 much delighted with the humour of Soubriquets * Vid Buck. Vit. Rich. 3. or giving one another Nic-names as we commonly call them insomuch that two of the very chiefest Houses amongst them the Capets and the Plantaginets had no other rise for their Names were continued no where with that certainty and order as amongst us here to the great renown and honour of our Families whose Nobility if it exceed not the date of the Norman Conquest may yet without any disparagement compare with any of those who call themselves the unconquer'd Nations of the World It being space long enough considering the vicissitude of time and power of Chance to antiquate the glory of great States much more of private Families and few there are that have attain'd to that Age. For however Honour like old Age magnifies its reverence by multiplying its years yet it is to be considered that there are visible decayes attend Veneration and it may so fall out that Names as well as Men may out-live themselves while the glory of a Family by over-length of time being less known may be the more suspected to have been but imaginary as some who exceeding the common bounds of certainty do pretend to justifie
much better success than he that the victorious Empress was forc'd to give place to the more victorious Queen and so hardly escaped that to save her life she was content to be reckon'd amongst the dead being carried off in a Coffin as if she had been kill'd and so forc'd to leave him a prisoner behind that was indeed the life of her Cause the Earl of Gloucester her Brother and her General whose liberty being set against that of the Kings both sides became even again in the list of their fatal Contention And now the Kings Party labours to recover what they had lost those of the Empress her Faction strove only to keep what they had gain'd till both having tired out and almost baffled the Courage of their partakers at home sought for recruits abroad Maud sends into Normandy the King into Flanders each side seems to fright from this time forward not so much for Victory as Revenge But whilst they fright the people with a noise of their great preparations the bubble of expectation swollen to its full height broak and the hopes of either side sunk so low by the death of Prince Eustace Son and Heir to the King and that of the Earl of Gloucester the only pillar which supported the Empress this the party by whom that the party for whom the War was first begun not to say miantain'd that they concluded a Peace for want of strength rather than of stomach all things ending as they began by determination of the free vote of the people who in an open Parliament at Winchester parted the Stakes as evenly as they could giving to King Stephen the Crown during life to Henry Son of Maud and as some think by him the reversion expectant after his death who if he were not his Natural was thereupon made his adopted Son and so ended the troubles of this King which seem to have been so agreeable to his nature that as soon as they ceased he ceased to live surviving the War no longer than just to take leave of his Friends being evicted by an Ejectione firmâ brought against him by Fate to let in the Son of his Enemy after he had held the possession notwitstanding the continual Interruption given him nineteen years with great prosperity though little or no peace witness those many works of Piety done by himsel or others in his time there being more Instances of that Nature during his short Raign than had been in many years before He was the first King of the Plantaginets and began his Raign as the Great Solomon who was near about his Age did his with the choice of wise Councellors to take off all objections against his youth with the expulsion of all Strangers to take off all objections against his being a forrainer with the resumption of all aliened Crown Lands to take of the fear as well as the necessity of Taxes which as it increas'd his reputation no less than his revenue so he pleas'd many with disgusting but a few After this he pluck'd down all those Castles which being erected by King Stephen's permission had proved the nurseries of the late rebellion and he did it with the less clamour in respect the people thought it contributed as much to their quiet as to his own Lastly by expelling those false Lords that contrary to their oath given to his Mother took part with the Usurper Stephen he at once satisfi'd his Revenge and confirm'd the opinion conceiv'd of his Justice and Piety Thus having got the start in point of honour as well as of Riches of all the neighbour Princes his Contemporaries one would have thought so prosperous a beginning must have concluded with as prosperous an ending but it sell out quite otherwise for to the rest of his Greatness was added that of having great troubles and troubles of that durance as ended not but with his life Nor could it well be otherwise for he was of a restless spirit seldome without an Army seldomer without an Enemy but never without an Occasion to provoke one for he was a great ingrosser of glory whereby being necessitated to set himself against every one every one set themselves against him and the confederations against him were so well timed that in one day they invaded him in England Normandy Acquitain and Britain but that which made his unhappiness seem singular was that the greatest part of his Enemies were those of his greatest Friends I mean not such as were of remoter relations as subjects servants confederates or allies c. but those of nearest propinquity his brother his wife his own children such as were flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone so that he could not possibly sight for himself without fighting against himself like those who to preserve life are constrain'd to dismember themselves wherein the malice of his Fate seem'd to exceed that of his Foes whiles it drew more cross lines over his Actions than Nature had drawn over his Face rendring all his undertakings so disasterous that even when he had the best on 't he seem'd yet to have the worst on it and lost his honour though he got his enterprize Thus when he recover'd the Earldome of Northumberland from David King of Scots and the Dukedom of Anjou from his brother Geoffry the first by the power of his Wisdom the last by the wise management of his power both which contests ended not without giving to each of them full satisfaction for their pretentions yet one brought upon him the clamor of injustice t'other the scandal of Avarice two vices ill beseeming any man worse a King So in the dispute he had with the Earl of St. Giles about the County of Tholosse which was his Right though t'others Possession he was fain to ask peace of one that he knew was unable to carry on the War and after he brought him to his own terms was himself so hamper'd with the same Fetters he put upon him that in conclusion he suffer'd no less in the opinion of his wisdom than he had before in that of his power So when he married his Son Henry to the daughter of his great Enemy the King of France with a prudent design of being reconcil'd to him in a nearer combination he found that instead of keeping him out of his Territories which was all he had to care for before the Match he had now let him into his House to do him more mischief with less difficulty there being more danger by his undermining than battering whiles himself permitted the pit to be made in which the foundation of his Sons greatness was to be laid to whom having given too early an expectation of his Kingdom by allowing him the title of King without being able to give him the Grace to tarry for his death he found when 't was too late that a Crown was no estate to be made over in Trust yet this he did not by chance neither as one transported by any Fatherly
his Friends charging all his misfortunes upon disloyalty of the Earls and Barons that refus'd him aid whom therefore he fin'd first the seventh part of their Goods after that the thirteenth part of all their Moveables and not content with the aid of their Purses forced them at last with the hazard of their Persons to attend him in the prosecution of a no less chargeable then disadvantageous War where the recovery of part of his own indangered the total loss of their own Estates This as it was grievous to the Subject in general so more particularly to the Nobility being most of them descended out of Normandy and by his ill management shut out of their ancient Inheritances there had no other satisfaction for their Losses but by improving what was left here who finding themselves thus doubly damnified were inraged to that degree that using a Martial freedom sutable to the necessity of that stimulation by which they were urg'd they began to recollect all the wrongs done them by his Grandfather Father and Brother and to shew they were in earnest insisted upon renewing the great Charter of their Liberties neither were they unprovided of Arguments or Arms this contumacy of theirs being countenanced by the sullen Retirement of his own Brother Jeoffry the Archbishop who chose rather to cast himself into voluntary Exilement then submit any longer to his Tyranny In vain now demands he Pledges of their Faith whilst they believed him himself to have none Sending to the Lord Bruce for his Son to be deliver'd as an Hostage to him he receiv'd an answer from the Mother which it seems exprest the affections if not the sense of the Father That they would not commit their Son to his keeping who was so ill a keeper of his own Brothers Son which rash return cost him afterward his Estate her her life with the loss of two for the saving one only Child a Revenge so fully executed that it could meet with no counterbuff but what must come from Heaven Here began the breach that disjoynted the whole frame of his Government the King resolving to keep what by advantage of time and sâ—fferance he had got the Barons continuing as obstinately bent to recover what their Predecessors had so tamely lost Both sides prepare for War and whilst they face and parle like men loath to ingage yet scorning to quit their Cause either alike confident to hope the best and not unlike active to prevent the worst a new accident parted them by presenting a new Enemy which made the War give place as it were to a single Combat The Pope not allowing the King the Priviledge of Nominating a Successor to the deceased Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he makes a Truce I cannot call it a Peace with his Domestick Adversaries to try his Fortune with his Forreign Foe The Contest was not like that of Jacob and Esau who should be born first but like that of Caesar and Pompey who should be uppermost Now as desire of Rule brought these two great Champions into the List so the confidence each other had in his strength and skill to handle his Weapon made them unreconcileable The Pope made the first Pass who threatning to interdict the Kingdom was answer'd with a Menace of confiscating all the Lands of the Clergy and banishing their Persons The second Thrust given by his Holiness was a Threat of Excommunication of the Kings Person To this he returned that he would utterly disavow his Authority Thus far they were upon the even Terms and as it were hit for hit upon the next Pass they closed and as men desperately bent either maked good his Charge The Pope shuts up the Church doors the King those of the Cloysters the first took away all the Sacraments leaving the dead to bury the dead without Priest Prayer or Procession The last seized on all the Ecclesiastical Revenues and disposed them into Lay-hands Whilst they were thus in close grapple the King of France appeared as second to the Triple Crown Had the Barons then stept in as second to their King they had not only made good their own Honour as well as his but probably had secur'd the Liberties they contended for without any force there being more to be hoped for from this Kings Generosity then his Justice but which was most degenerous and leaves a stain upon their memory never to be washed off they finding him thus overlaid turn'd all their points upon his back poyson'd with the venome of the most opprobrious Calumnies that ever Majesty suffer'd under the Infamy of being not only a Tyrant but an Infidel all which he was fain to bear with more Constancy of Mind then Fortune But as we see a wild Boar when beaten out of breath chuses rather to dye upon the Spears of the Hunters then to be wearied by the Dogs so his Rancor turning into disdain he yielded to his Nobler Enemies and chose rather then not have his Revenge upon them whom he thought God and Nature had put under his dispose to humble himself to the Church hoping as 't is thought by their Keys to unlock the Rebels Power but over-acting his Revenge he stoop'd so low that the Crown fell from his Head which the Popes Legate taking up kept three dayes before he thought fit to restore it verifying thereby the Prediction of a poor innocent Hermite who foretold that there should be no King of England which however it was true yet being in some sense untrue too 't was in the Prerogative of him who never spar'd where he could shed Blood to make his own Interpretation which cost the poor Prophet his Life The Barons finding him thus incens'd and seeing how to make good his Revenge he had quit his Soveraignty they resolv'd to quit their Allegiance to make good their Security intending to call in the Dolphin of France and swear Fealty to him whilst the Common People were left to their Election whether to take the wrong King that promis'd to do them Right or the right King that persisted to do them so much wrong who as little understanding the Principles of Religion as the dictates of Reason the Bonds of Command and Obedience that should hold them together seem'd so wholly slackned that there was upon the Matter no other Tye on them then that of their Interest which sway'd them variously according to the divers Measures they took of it But as there are many Ligaments in a State that bind it so fast together that 't is a hard thing to dissolve them altogether unless by an universal concurrence of Causes that produce a general alteration thereof it being seldom seen of what temper soever Kings are but that they find under the greatest desertion imaginable a very considerable Party to stand by them upon the accompt of Affection or Ambition Honour or Conscience so this King the first of England we find put to this streight had yet many Members of Note and Power besides his chief
maintenance of their Authority the King himself was compell'd by Oath as he was a Man a Christian a Knight a King Crown'd and anointed to uphold them and acquit them of their Legal Obedience whensoever he went about to infringe the great Charter by which they held this Prerogative Here they had him bound up hand and foot with that Curse upon him which his Father of all others most dreaded and with which his Flatterers most terrified him whenever the Dispute of Liberty came in question of being a King without a Kingdom a Lord without a Dominion a Subject to his Subjects for they had invaded his Majesty usurp'd his Authority and made themselves so far Masters of his Person that they might seize it whenever they pleas'd to declare for a Common-wealth And now to make the Affront more notable as if they had forgotten what was the Fundamental Grievance on which their Usurpation was grounded the Entertainment of Strangers they take a Stranger to head them making Monford who was a French man by Birth and Descent their Chief who having designs of his own different from theirs as the Earl of Gloucester his Compeer found when 't was too late indeavour'd so to widen all Differences betwixt King and People that if possible there might never be a right Understanding betwixt them The King therefore well knowing his Malice and not being ignorant of his Ambition fell first upon him causing the Lord Mortimer to break in amongst his Tenants who quickly righted himself upon those of Mortimer's with whom the Prince thereupon took part as Llewellin Prince of Wales with t'other The Prince takes Brecknock-Castle Monford that of Gloucester and after that those of Worcester and Shrewsbury from whence he marched directly to the Isle of Ely without Resistance The King fearing his approach to London like those who to save their Lives in a Storm are content to sling their Goods overboard demanded a Peace and willingly yielded up all his Castles into the hands of the Barons to the intent they might be as a publick Security for the inviolable Observation of the Provisions of Oxford conceding to the banishment of all the Strangers that were left This Condescention of his however occasion'd rather a Truce then a Peace of which he had this benefit to gain time till he could be better provided A Parliament being hereupon call'd at London the freedom of Debate there renew'd the Quarrel and each side confident of the Justice of their Arms at Northampton they came to Battel which however it was well fought yet the worst Cause had the worst Success The Barons were beaten and amongst other Prisoners of note that were then taken was the young Monford the Heir and Hope of his Father Leicester and Fortune thus uniting with Authority made the Barons stoop though they could not submit to beg the Peace they had before refus'd wherein being rejected with scorn they became desperate who were before but doubtful which Leicester perceiving and being a man skilful in such advantages took that opportunity to bring them to a second Battel in which he supply'd his want of Hands with a Stratagem that shew'd he had no want of Wit placing certain Ensigns without Men on the side of a Hill not far from the place where he gave the onset whereby he so fortunately amuz'd the Enemy that he easily obtain'd a Victory and such an one as seem'd to turn the Scale beyond all possibility of Recovery For in it were taken the King himself his Brother the late King of the Romans the Prince and most of the principal Lords and by killing Five thousand of the common People on the place he so terrified all the rest of the Royal Party that for a year and an half afterwards no body durst look him in the Face all which time he spent in reducing the Kingdom under his own dispose putting in and out whom he pleas'd and filling up all places Military and Civil with Creatures of his own carrying the King about with him as a skilful Rebel to countenance the Surrender of Towns and Castles to him continuing thus the insolence of his Triumph till it swell'd to that disproportionate Greatness that his Confederate Gloucester began to be jealous if not afraid of it and out of that Distrust quarrel'd with him upon pretence of not having made equal distribution of the Spoil nor Prisoners charging him to have releas'd whom he pleas'd and at what rate without the consent of the rest of the Confederacy urging further that he did not suffer a Parliament to be conven'd as was agreed betwixt them to the end himself might be Arbitrary Lastly objected that his Sons were grown Insolent by his Example and had affronted several of the adhering Barons who would have satisfaction of him During this Dispute the Prince by connivance of some of the discontented Faction broke Prison to whom Gloucester joyn'd himself and rallying together the scatter'd Parties that had long attended the advantage of such a turn they made themselves so considerable that in short time they were able to bring the business to a poise Leicester put it to the Decision of another Battel but not without apparent dispondency as appears by what he said when they were going to give the first Charge for he told those Lords that were nearest him That they would do well to commit their Souls to God for that their Bodies were the Enemies However he omitted nothing that might speak him as he was a brave and valiant General till his Son first and after himself were slain at the instant of whose fall there happen'd such a Clap of Thunder as if Heaven it self had fought against him and that none could have given him his death but that power to which he owed his life And so the King was rid of him whom he once declar'd to have been more affraid of then of Lightning and Thunder a Person too great for a Subject and something too little to be a King But had he as he was descended from the stock of * His Father was Simon youngest Son of Simon Earl of Fureux descended from Almerick base Son of Robert sirnam'd the Holy King of France Kings master'd the Fate of this day he had undoubtedly made himself one and broke off the Norman Line to begin a new Race not less noble This happy Victory gave the King some ease but 't was not in the power of any Force to give him perfect rest whilst the distemperature of the Time was such that the Wound which seem'd perfectly heal'd broke out afresh Gloucester himself though he had deserted his old Competitor Leicester would not yet quit the good old Cause but imbracing the very first Occasion of Discontent he met with retired three years after from Court and having got new Forces sinds out new Evil Counsellors to remove Mortimer the great Man of merit with the King is now become the Object of his Envy and rather then not have
his Head he resolves once more to venture his own In the mean time those of the Isle of Ely the remainder of Leicester's Party that had held out from the time of his death with incredible courage and patience taking new life and hope from this Revolt make many excursions and spoils to the great charge and vexation of the King and the Publick Neither could the Pope 's Legate prevail with him to come in though upon tearms safe and honourable tendering the Publick Faith of the Kingdom and which was then thought greater that of the Church to them So much were they transported with the Opinion of their Cause or by the falshood of their hopes till this stubbornness of theirs provok'd the King to raise a new Army the Command whereof was given to his Son Edward that prosperous Prince whose Fortune then being not able to resist he had the honour to conclude that War and consequently to put a Period to all his Fathers turmoâ—ls who being shaken at the Root did not long survive the happiness of that tranquillity the end of whose Troubles were the beginning of his own ingaging upon the conclusion of that in a War so much more dangerous by how much more distant the benefit whereof was to be expected only in the other World this was that Undertaking in the Holy Land which separating him from his Father beyond all hope of ever seeing him again gave some occasion to question the old Kings Understanding others his good Nature But as the great concerns of Religion are as much above Reason as that is beyond Sense so we must impute that to the resolute Zeal of the Son which we cannot allow for Devotion in the Father who had he had any thoughts of going into the other World as his great Age might have prompted him to would rather have taken care for a Grave for himself then for so hopeful a Successor who only by seeking Death escap'd it Now whether the ingratitude of the Clergy or the Ambition of the temporal Lords were a greater tryal of his wisdom or Power I know not but the course he took to reduce either to terms of modesty and submission shows the world he had no want of understanding however he was forc't to put up the front of his Lay-peers in order to the facillitating his Revenge upon the other whom he mortified by a strain of State which none of his Ancestors durst venture upon Whilst he not only put them out of his Protection but all men out of theirs denying them not only his favour but his Justice not only the benefit of his ordinary Courts but the priviledg of sitting in that higher Court of Parliament A severity not to give any worse name to it of so acrimonious a nature that it not only expos'd them to all the injuries and affronts triumphant malice and scorn could put upon them but was made more intollerable and grievous by his docking their Revenues as after he did by several * Stat. 3 Edw. 1. cap. 19.33 Stat. cont formum collation Statute Laws amongst which I cannot but take notice though by the By of the particular contempt express'd in that odd Statute aginst †Stat. de Asportatis Religiosorum c. An. 3 cap. 34. ravishment where it is declared Felony to use force to any Lay-Woman and only a trespass to ravish a Nun. Neither was it thought enough to make what abscission he thought fit without their greatness were rendred incapable of any further growth to which intent he cauteriz'd if I may so say the wounds he had given them by that Statute of ‖ An. 3. C. 32. Mort-main which as it was the most fatal of all others to them so it might have prov'd so to himself had he not at the same time he thus disoblig'd them oblig'd the Laity by another suppos'd to be the wisest Law that ever was made to wit that of Westminster the second entituled De Donis Conditionalibus which tending so much to the preservation of particular Families and adding to their greatness no less then their continuance is by some Historians call'd Gentilitium Municipale and had this good effect that it brought the temporal Nobility firmly to adhere to him against the Pope when amongst many others that intituled themselves to the Soveraignty of Scotland a Kingdom too near to be lost for want of putting a claim his Holiness became his Rival and thought to carry it as part of St. Peter's Patrimony This Victory at home which brought the proud Prelates to purchase his Justice at a dearer rate then probably they might have paid for his mercy had their submission been as early as it was afterwards earnest I take to be much greater then all those he had got abroad by how much fortune had no share in it and fame was the least part of his gains extending to give him not long after as great an advantage over the Lay Nobility whom having first discern'd of their Patronage wholly and of their other priviledges in a very great part he did as it were cudgel them into Submission by the authority of his * vid. lib. Assis fol. 141.57 Trail Baston a commission which however it were directed to the Majors Sheriffs Bayliffs Escheators c. and so seem'd to have been aim'd at those of the lower rank onely which were guilty of those Enormities of Champorty Extortion Bribery and intrusion crimes much in fashion in those days yet by a back blow it knockt down several of the great Men who either countenanc'd or comply'd with the offenders and which was more terrible this writ was kept as a Weapon in the Kings hands to use as he saw occasion And to say truth he was so expert at it and indeed at all other points of skill that brought him in any profit that he was too hard at last for the Lawyers themselves those great masters of defence Canvasing his Judges as well as his Bishops when he found both alike rich both alike corrupt Beyond these he could not descend to the consideration of any Criminal save the Jews only for whom perhaps it had been no great Injustice to have taken their Estates if at least he could have been prevail'd with to have spar'd their Lives but as so great Courage as he had would not be without some mixture of Cruelty so 't is the less wonder to see that Cruelty heightened by Covetousness as that Avarice by Ambition the adding to his Treasure by these Exactions being in order to the adding to his Dominions which were not yet so entire as consistent with his safety much less the Glory he aim'd at Wales being then as a Canton of the same Piece divided by a small seam which yet had a Prince of their own blood descended from the antient Stock of the Unconquer'd Britains who it seems had so little sense of the inequality of Power betwixt them that he had given this King great provocations
being to advise at the price of his own Head the Arch bishop of York like a man of great Faith was of Opinion to sight them with such present Strength as the King had trusting to the Justice of the Cause the Dukes of Ireland and Suffolk men of Action but wanting the means were for delivering up Calais to the French King to purchase his Assistance But the Majority of Voices coming from such men whose Fears made them rather wise then honest were for appeasing the Enemy with fair promises till there were a fit opportunity to suppress them the first Proposal was thought very hazardous the second much more besides there was such a bitterness in the Pill that no preparation could make the King to swallow it who not knowing what effect it might have when it was done utterly rejected it upon which they secretly withdrew that gave the Counsel and left him to himself Whereupon the Lords Regent found an opportunity to be admitted to a Parley with him who producing to him Letters from the King of France which they had intercepted pursuant to the Design of bringing in a Forreign Enemy they mov'd him no less by shame then dread of the Consequence to consent to the calling another Parliament Upon the day of the Convention the King came not to the House being infinitely troubled in his mind at News he had just then received of the Earl of Derby's Intercepting the Duke of Ireland who being gone as far as Chester in order to his passing into that Kingdom was set upon by the said Earl and totally defeated who hardly escaping fled into the Low-countries where not long after he dyed The Lords heightened with this Success sent a very harsh Message to him letting him know that they attended him there and if he would not come to the House according to promise they would chuse another King that should hearken to their faithful advice This though it were in effect no other but to tell him they would depose him without his consent if he would not come and consent to be depos'd yet having no Retreat from it but down a steep Precipice he chose rather to compâ—y and put himself under the mercy of Providence then under the uncertainty of their Mercy Upon his first appearance they presented him with a black Roll of those whom he call'd his Friends they his Enemies some to be prescrib'd some to be imprison'd and others banish'd and in this last List there were not only Lords but Ladies found Delinquents Some were accus'd of imbeziling his Treasure others of purloyning his Affection all for robbing him of his Honour whereupon some were to be try'd for their Lives others for their Fortunes and all for their Liberties but in respect of their other great Affairs which were in order to what followed they referred it to the succeeding Parliament not unfitly call'd the Parliament that wrought wonders which contrary to all other Parliaments that used to swear Obedience to the King requir'd an Oath of him himself to observe such Rules and Orders as they should prescribe to him Here now we have this unfortunate Prince brought to the last year of his Rule though not of his Reign beginning then to enter into his Wardship as he call'd it when he thought he was just got out of it All power was put into the hands of the Dukes of Lancaster and Gloucester who managed all Treaties abroad concluded War and Peace as they thought fit and were indeed absolute in every point but the Command of their own Passions and uncontroulable by any but themselves The Duke of Lancaster having now digested the Kingdom in his thoughts procures the Dutchy of Acquitaine to be setled on him as an earnest of what was to follow being the Inheritance of the Crown and descended on the King from Prince Edward his Father and having married up the King to a Child of eight years old by whom 't was impossible he could have Issue with a Portion that scarce defraid the Charge of the Solemnity he secur'd his own Pretensions by Legitimating three of his Bastard Sons in case his lawful Issue should fail The Duke of Gloucester had the same Ambition in his heart as well as the same Blood in his Veins but Nature having put a disadvantage upon him by placing him so far behind being the sixth Son of King Edward the Third he was forc'd to gratifie his Envy instead of his Ambition and rest content with the hopes of doing his Brother a Mischief when time serv'd without any great probability of doing himself good Accordingly he made a Faction who conspir'd with him to seize the King his two Brothers Lancaster and York and to put them all up in Prison and after to execute divers Lords whom he thought to be more his Enemies then their Friends but the end of his Treason being to be himself betray'd by those he made use of Lancaster came thereby to stand single like a great Tree which being at its full height spread his Limbs the wider and grew to be so conspicuous that the succeeding Parliament desired to shelter themselves under the shadow of his power hereupon he reduced the number of the thirteen Regents to seven only which being all his Confidents he with them concluded aforehand all Affairs of moment and directed how they should pass in Parliament An Example not less mischievous to the Kingdom then the King so that now there wanted no more to make him the Soveraign but the putting on the Crown But see the uncertainty of humane Glory Having just finished the great work of his Usurpation an unexpected blow from that invisible hand that turns about the great Wheel of Causes broke the frame of his projection in pieces His Son Henry Duke of Hereford accused by the Duke of Norfolk of Treason was forc'd to purge himself by the Tryal of Combat a Law that might condemn but never acquit him since it was only possible to discharge himself of the danger but never of the suspition of the Crime This being urg'd so far that they were both brought into the List there was no way left to avoid the uncertainty of the Fight but banishment of both wherein though the Duke of Lancaster got the favour to make the Exile of his Son but temporary when the others was perpetual yet the affront that Fortune seem'd to give him by this accidental Disgrace came so near his heart that his Son had no sooner taken leave of his Country but he bid adieu to the World and so left the King once more Hors de page Thus Time and Fortune seem to have conspir'd in vindicating the wrongs of this abused Prince ridding him at once of those two great Corrivals in Power whose Authority had so far outweighed his that they kept him in the condition of a Minor till they had made the People believe him insufficient for Government the one being remov'd beyond all possibility the other beyond all
probability of Return whereby he became so much at ease in his own thoughts that being upon the wing again he thought himself not only Master of himself but of every body else and now despising all after-claps he seized upon all the Dukes Estate to his own use which as it look'd like a Revenge now he was dead that might have past for a piece of Justice if he had been living so it gave many cause to pity the Duke his Son who otherwise could have been well enough content never to have seen him more Neither was this the worst on 't but apprehending from what the King did to him what possibly he might do to any of them they made his particular suffering the ground of their Publick Resentment which Hereford took upon the first bound and made that good use of it that when he came after to claim the Crown that it appear'd the best colour of Right he had was from this wrong whereof yet the King was no way sensible who as I said before despising all dangers at home directed all his Caution to those abroad only taking with him young Henry of Monmouth the Duke of Hereford's and since his Fathers Death Duke of Lancaster's Son and Heir into Ireland whither he went to suppress some Rebels This however it seem'd to be an occasion of Glory which the Bravery of his Youth could not suffer him to pretermit whilst those petty Kings who were eye witnesses of his disproportionate Power taught their undisciplin'd People Obedience by the Example of their own Submission yet it prov'd an empty Affectation and so much more fatal in the Consequence by how much it was scarce possible to conceal much less recover his Error till the Exil'd Duke of Lancaster took his advantage of it who finding him out of his Circle return'd into England with that speed as if he had been afraid lest Fortune should change her mind before he could change his condition Great was the concourse of People that congratulated his Arrival neither was their confluence less considerable for Quality then Number the Archbishop of Canterbury banish'd for being one of the Confederates with the Duke of Gloucester the Earls of Northumberland Westmoreland Darby and Warwick the Lords Willoughby Ross Darcy Beaumont and divers others besides Knights and Esquires of great Repute in their Countries who offer'd to serve him with their Lives and Fortunes and as they mov'd they increas'd so fast that the Duke of York left Regent during the Kings absence thought it convenient to attend him at Berclay Castle and from thence to Bristow where the first Tragedy began for there finding the Earl of Wiltshire the Lord High Treasurer with Sir Henry Ewin Sir Henry Bussy both men of great note of the Kings party they arraign'd them there for misgoverning of the King and having smote off their Heads proceeded to imprison the Bishop of Norwich Sir William Elmeham Sir Walter Burleigh and divers others upon the same account setting up a direct Tyranny which continued six Weeks before the King by reason of contrary winds heard any thing of it Upon the first notice given him he made a shew of being so little concern'd at it that he declar'd he would not stir out of Dublin till all things fitting for his Royal Equipage were made ready but understanding afterward that they had seiz'd several of his Castles he sent over the Earl of Salisbury to make ready an Army against his landing promising to follow him in six dayes after but the Wind or rather his Mind changing the Earls Forces believing he might be dead disbanded again and left their unfortunate General to himself Eighteen dayes after this the King arriv'd who finding how things stood for they had taken off the Heads of several of his chief Councellors imprison'd the principallest of his Friends and gotten the possession of many of his strong Forts and Castles his Heart so fail'd him on the sudden that he immediately gave Command to the Army that was with him to Disband and so degenerate were his Fears that when he could not prevail with them to quit him for they all resolv'd to dye in his Defence and being mov'd with no less Pity then Duty to see him so dejected solemnly vow'd never to leave him he most wretchedly gave them the Temptation to break their Faith by leaving them first withdrawing himself by night unknown to Conway Castle where he understood the Earl of Salisbury was But as a King can no more hide himself then the Sun which however eclipsed cannot be lost so it was not long ere the Duke of Hereford found him out and drawing his Forces to Chester sent from thence the Earl of Northumberland to assure him of his Faith and Homage upon Condition he would call a free Parliament and there permit Justice to be done to him Here Fortune seems to have made one stand more to give him time if possible to recover himself but he instead of giving an Answer worthy the Dignity of a King did what was indeed unworthy a Private man begging of the Earl to interpose with the Duke for him that he might only have an honorable Allowance to lead a private life deposing himself unexpectedly before t'other could have the time and opportunity however he might have the thought to do it solemnly The notice hereof did not a little surprize the Duke when he heard of it who doubting least there was something more in it then he perceiv'd wisely kept himself within the bounds of seeming Obedience and treated his Majesty with all imaginable respect till they arrived at London then under pretence of securing him he lodg'd him in the Tower where he made him the Instrument of his own destruction by calling a Parliament that had no other business but to arraign his Government and impeach him and accordingly Articles were drawn up against him which shew how small a matter turns the Scale when Power is put into the Ballance against Justice The chief of them were as followeth 1. That he had been very profuse a very grievous Crime in a King so young 2. That he had put some to death that conspired to depose him 3. That he had borrowed more money then he was well able to pay the first King that ever lost his Crown for being in Debt and yet was not to be said he was altogether a Bankrupt that had in his Coffers when he dyed the value of Seven hundred thousand pounds 4. That he said the Law was in his Breast and Head and perhaps the Lawyers would have made it good if they durst who have given it for an Axiome of the Law that the King is Caput Principium Finis Justitiae 5. That he chang'd Knights and Burgesses of Parliament at his pleasure by making those Peers of the Realm whom he thought worthy the honour 6. That he said the Lives and Goods of his Subjects were under his power which shews what confidence he had in their
Providence The Duke of Albemarle in his way to Oxford gave a needless visit to his Father the Duke of York who sitting at the Table chanced to spy something like a Scrole or Parchment in his Sons Breast whereupon he demanded what it was and being not satisfied suddenly he snatched it out with some passion and upon view finding it to be a Counterpart of the Indenture of Confederacy he ordered his Horses to be immediately made ready with intention to go to the King then at Windsor to discover the Plot to him but Youth being more active then Age the Son got before him and being himself the first Accuser of himself obtain'd his Pardon before his Father could come to prove him Guilty The rest of the Lords suspecting by his not keeping time with them that all was discover'd fly to Arms and setting up a Counterfeit Richard who they pretended was escaped out of Prison they advanced to Windsor where not finding the King for he distrusting his Cause no less then his Power had posted before to London they sell upon desperate Counsels Some were of Opinion to march to Leeds in Kent where King Richard till then was and rescue him out of Prison before their Property was found out Others thought it best to march directly up to London and set upon the Usurper before he were ready for his Defence Some again advised to make a defensive War till they might have Aid from the King of France which last Proposal took place as being most agreeable to that Irresolution which their Guilt had brought upon them and accordingly they retreated to Reading and from thence marched down to Leicester led by the hand of Destiny to receive there their fatal Doom accelerated by an Accident not less unexpected then the former For it so happen'd that the Grand Conspirators coming out of their Camp to repose themselves in the Town the Duke of Surrey and Earl of Salisbury lying in one Inne the Duke of Exeter and the Earl of Gloucester in another the Bayliff of the Town by what occasion provoked or by what Spirit directed is not known with a Party of his Fellow Townes-men set upon the two first and stormed them in their Quarters and without consideration that their Army was so near press'd so hard upon them as to kill divers of their Retinue that defended the place and indanger'd their Persons so far that the other two Lords to divert their Fury fired the Town in several places but this not prevailing to give any Relief they retired to bring their Army to rescue them but when they came there they found the same means by which they design'd to save them was the occasion of their loss for those in the Camp hearing the Noise of the Onset and seeing the Town in Flames believing it could be nothing less then the Kings Forces that had done it fled every one their several wayes and so left the distressed Duke and Earl to mercy who like two Lions in a Toil baited with Dogs dyed fighting being rather wearied then vanquished And so King Henry that never could get their Hearts living had the good Fortune to recover their Heads being dead and not long after found a way to reduce the other two under the same Fate the Abbot suddenly dying upon the apprehension of their being dissipated This last Insurrection cost so much of the best English Blood that those of the Welch Blood thought the State so much weakned by it that they might venture to wrastle a Fall with them and accordingly they put in for the recovery of their antient Liberties being incouraged by one Owen Glendour a private Gentleman of more then ordinary Reputation amongst them who mov'd with the sense of a particular Grudge of his own incited them to a general Defiance of the English And first setting upon the Lord Gray of Ruthin who had recover'd certain Lands from him at Law took him Prisoner and repossess'd himself of them after this storming the Castle of Wigmore he took the great Earl of Maâ—ch Prisoner the true Heir of the Crown after the death of King Richard and prevail'd so far that had he been as skilful in keeping as he was in getting of Victories he might have made himself Master of that Greatness as would have been as much above his Enemies Prevention as his own Ambition King Henry hearing that Mortimer was taken caus'd it to be bruted abroad that it was done with his own Consent and thereupon refus'd to redeem him which so incens'd Henry sirnamed Hotspur Son of the first Earl of Northumberland of the Family of the Peircy's who had married his Daughter that he together with his Uncle the Earl of Worcester went over to Glendour and entring into a Tripartite League with him agreed to Depose the Deposer and divide the whole Kingdom betwixt them Wales that is all the Land beyond Severn Westward was to be the Principality of Glendour The Countries from Trent Northward was the Lot of the Peircy's in memory whereof the same being in the Geographical Form of a half Moon they have since given the Crescent for the Cognizance All the rest betwixt Severn and Trent Eastward and Southward was consign'd to Mortimer as his Portion Thus the Dragon the Lion and the Wolf conspired against the Antelope as he before against the Hart his Soveraign and taught by himself they assaulted him with Arms and Articles the last perhaps more dangerous then the first by how much they fought him at his own Weapons The first Article was That he had by his Letters procured Burgesses and Knights of Parliament to be chosen unduly which being one of the Arrows out of his own Quiver with which he had wounded King Richard before troubled him not a little to see it return'd back upon himself The second Article was That he had falsified the Oath made at his first landing when he swore he came over for no other end but to recover his Inheritance The third was That he had not only taken Arms against his Soveraign but having imprison'd him took first his Crown away and after his Life And lastly That ever since his death he had detain'd the Crown from the true Heir Edmund Earl of March their Allie for which Causes they defied him and vowed his Destruction This was the second Earth-quake in this Kings Reign and so much more terrible then the former in that it shuck the very Foundation of all his Greatness by the noise of their Calumniations wherewith as they batter'd him several wayes so they left him the prospect of nothing but dismal Confusion to ensue The Welch goaded him on the one side the Scots on the other those English of Mortimer's party allarm'd him every way But he that wanted not Confidence whilst he wanted a Title to aspire to the Crown when it was uncertain whether he should ever get it or no having got it could not want Courage to keep it and if he were able being
it or had she kept the Second Son which she had in her own hands after she saw what was like to become of the eldest that was in his 't is possible the one might have been a security for the other since without taking both the Treason had not been worth the hazard much less the guilt of destroying t'other and 't is more than probable she might have stop'd him upon the very last step to the Throne But yet it is hard to call that the Mothers fault which might be the Sons fate design'd by Destiny for ought we know to a Death as private as his Birth who was born whilst she was in a Cloyster and his Father in Banishment Fain she would have recover'd her Error when it was too late craving Protection for her self and the younger Children in a Sanctuary but in vain seek they Refuge from The Treachery of others who have been of the Plot to betray themselves the Protector resolved to have them all into his hands to effect which he makes the Effect become a Cause for finding the young King more than usually melancholly with the Apprehensions he had of the danger of his present condition he made that Melancholly an important reason for his brother to be brought to keep him company and because this could not be done without the Queens consent but by offering some Violation to the rights of Sanctuary it being reasonably to be supposed that she would never let the Child go without apparent force upon her he singled out a Clergy-man to be the Picklock of Priviledge a grave State-drudge and by his degree no worse a man then an Arch bishop who having only so much Divinity as to know that Obedience was better then Sacrifice so far perswaded or rather terrified the disconsolate Queen into a Complyance that she consulting with her Fears only gave up the innocent Infant to his Grace who thereby had the honour to be the third great Instrument in that great Treason that followed The Monster having thus got his desired Prey within his own Denn did not yet think fit to devour them immediately but before he entred upon so solemn an act of horrour as the plunging himself into that fathomless Gulf of Cruelty he thought fit to wade in blood by degrees that sounding the depth of the danger as well as of the guilt he was to enter into he might at the same time harden and secure himself First then he cut off all their Friends beheading the Lord Rivers Sir Anthony Woodvill and the principal persons of the Queens Relations upon pretence of treachery against his Person and Government which being in some sense true for doubtless they meant to oppose his intended Usurpation he thought it a reasonable Justification for taking their Lives In the next place he charged the Queen her self with Sorcery making the poor Innocent Jane Shore to be her Hand-mate in the Inchantation with whom the Lord Hastings having had a known Familiarity from the time of the death of King Edward he most maliciously design'd him to be their Accuser who scorning to assist him in such dark purposes was himself made a Conspirator with them being deservedly executed as a Traytor because he refused to be one his Execution following so close upon his Sentence and the Proclamation of his Treason so close upon that that at the reading of it in the Street a stander by observing how fairly they had drawn the foul Charge against him being ingrossed at large in Parchment he cried out aloud That it was written by Prophecy Thus having clear'd the Foundation and sufficiently tamper'd his Mortar with blood to make it more strong and binding he laid the Ground-work of his Usurpation upon the Illegitimacy of the two young Princes pretending that the King their Father was never lawfully married to the Queen their Mother but was before God Husband to the Lady Elizabeth Lucy This as it had something of Truth in point of Fact for 't is said he was betrothed to her so being matter of Divinity in point of Right it was agreed that a Chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham who was his great Confident and bound to him by the stipulation of a Match betwixt their Children and a promise of equal partition of the Treasure of the Kingdom should open the Case at large in a Sermon at Paul's Cross who taking his Text from that place where 't is said that Bastard Plants shall not Inherit so over-acted his part that he not only made King Edward's Children but he himself a Bastard too and all the Children of his Father the Duke of York the Protector only excepted who he said was the express Image of his Father and pre-ordained by God to the great Charge of the Kingly Office But all this was delivered with so apparent flattery and dissimulation that not believing himself 't is no wonder the People gave so little credit to him who instead of crying out thereupon as 't was expected they should God save King Richard cryed out the Devil take the shameless Preacher This scorn put upon the Priest or rather upon him did not yet so deter him but that two dayes after he sent the Duke himself into the City to see whether his Authority might move any thing more then the Doctors Eloquence who confidently affirm'd to the Citizens at Guild-hall That all the Nobility judging the Issue of King Edward spurious had chosen him to succeed and only expected a Declaration of their Consents But as it was not likely that they who but two dayes before could not be moved when they were told the Lord from Heaven had made choice of him should now concur in the Election with any Lords on Earth so neither could the Rhetorick of his Greatness prevail for any other confirmation then what was couched sub alto silentio This gave little satisfaction to his Lordship for that he knew it would give none to his Master and therefore rather then depart without something like a Vote he secretly ordered some few of his own Servants at the lower end of the Hall to cast up their Caps and cry King Richard King Richard which impudence of theirs though it apparently abasht the greatest part of the Company there yet his graceless Grace taking it up at the first bound for an unanimous consent said it was a goodly Cry and such as shew'd their universal approbation requiring thereupon the Mayor and his Fraternity to meet him the next day at the Protectors Court in Baynard's Castle in order to Petition him to accept their freely offer'd Subjection And here I cannot but think it worth the notice although we that have lived in these latter times have seen perhaps more exquisite Scenes of Hypocrisie to observe the instability and levity of the common Peoples Faith who like the Sea to which they are compared have their fluxes and refluxes of Loyalty It was not two dayes since they shew'd as great Affections to the Son as
Learned Bishop of Rochester and the Judicious Chancellor Sir Thomas Moore whose Contradiction could no way determine the Point though it was the occasion of determining their Lives their Cases being made worse by the same way they thought to have made their Causes better The first being found Guilty of saying too much for himself t'other of saying too little The Bishop desiring to add to his Oath those words by way of Explanation Quantum per Christi Legem liceret had this interpretation by the Lawyers upon his Interpretation that the addition amounted to a flat denial and depriving the King of his Title and Dignity within the Statute of 26. being in effect that per Christi Legem non liceret The wise Chancellor admonish'd as he thought sufficiently by the Bishops error to avoid the danger of any Interpretation ran into a worse for answering nothing when the Kings Councel ask'd his Opinion of the Supremacy his Silence was interpreted Misprision of Treason within the Statute aforesaid for that as the Indictment run Malitiosè Silebat Paul the third being in the Chair at the time when these two eminent men suffered hearing the King had seal'd his new Title in Blood thought it in vain to expect longer his Return to the Apostolick Obedience as he call'd it and therefore peremptorily summon'd him by a terrible Bull to appear within Ninety dayes and make his submission otherwise he and all that assisted him should be given up to utter Damnation as judged Hereticks The King depriv'd of his Realm the Realm depriv'd of his Benediction all the Issue by the last Match declar'd Illegitimate all Ties of Allegiance discharged all Commerce with other States forbidden the Leagues made by other Princes with him nullified the Nobility commanded to take up Arms against him and the Clergy to depart the Kingdom Now because this last seem'd to be the greatest Menace at least the Pope would have it thought so both in respect of his power over them and theirs over the Conscience the King took the first advantage of it and sent away many of them against their wills dissolving no less then Six hundred forty five of their Societies which much forwarded his Designs with the Confederate Princes of Germany whose Friendship now he seem'd to have some need of they believing by this he would wholly renounce all Papistry to which his late Queen was highly disaffected and against which his great Minister Cromwell was deeply ingaged and from which himself was sufficiently discharged by the Popes declaring him as he did a Heretick for now could he be no further bound to Paul the Third then his Ancestor Henry the Second was to Alexander the Third the first Pope that was ever acknowledged here to whom he made only a Conditional Oath Quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis ejus Successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint Gern Dowbern Col. 1422. 18. then thereupon dispatch'd an Ambassador to him to desire him to accept the Title of Patron and Defender of their League But the News of Queen Anne's Execution which for the suddenness and severity of it not to say any thing of the Injustice because some were of Opinion that the least Cause of Jealousie in Queens is equivalent to guilt in private Women begat such an abhorrence of his dire Inconstancy for she was flourishing accused condemned beheaded and another placed in her room at Bed and Board and all within a Months space that they fell off again from the Treaty they had entertain'd almost as soon as they began it believing it a Scandal to their Cause as some of them said to need the protection of the Devil However the great Ministers here gave it out that the Discrepancy of Interest was the only cause of the Breach they requiring Money of him without being able to answer the Reciproc on their part But the true State-Reason was that some of the wiser sort conceiv'd they could not safely admit his Supremacy for fear they should be oblig'd by the same rule to set up a Title for their own Soveraign the Emperor in his Dominions which would be more inconvenient then to leave it where it was in the Pope who being at further distance could not so easily reach them But long it was not ere the unexpected cause of that Innocent Queens sufferings was made manifest by the unexpected Labour of Queen Jane her Successor who made so good speed to bring the King a Son and Heir which was the thing he desired above all things in the World that being married on the Twentieth of May she fell in Labour the Twelfth of October following But Providence that had decreed she should only Conceive but not bring forth to signalize the Revenge of Queen Anne's Death by that of hers put it into the Kings heart to turn himself Man-Midwife rather then lose the hopes of a Kingdom who accordingly commanded the Child to be rip'd untimely out of her Womb an act of great horrour and so much more unwillingly perform'd for that he was unprovided of another Wife for the present In this Condition Bishop Gardner found him at his Return out of Germany who putting him out of all hopes of any Closure with the Protestant Princes unless he would come under the Standard of their Faith and allow of the Augustan Confession easily perswaded him to purge himself of the scandal of Heresie by shewing the World he had only shook off the Pope but not the Religion Here the Scene chang'd again and the first thing appear'd was that bloody Statute containing the Six Articles which being discharg'd as a Murthering Piece amongst the new Reformists cut off most of those who stood in its way the Report whereof was so loud and terrible that the two great Prelates Latimer Bishop of Worcester and Shaxston Bishop of Salisbury were frightned out of their Bishopricks who not being willing to have any hand in the approbation or execution of them suffer'd as patiently under his Title of Defender of the Faith as the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moore had before under that of his Supremacy And now Conscience being revolted from its ancient way of resolving Doubts to an abrupt Decision of the Common Law that did not instruct but force the Offender◠'t is not so much a wonder how so many came to suffer death under his Reign as how so many surviv'd it all Papists being in danger to be hang'd and all Anti-papists to be burn'd Yet in this great Storm Cromwell behav'd himself like a wise Pilot who finding he could not prevent the running of the Vessel in a contrary Course to his mind thought it enough that he kept it from being quite over-set and accordingly with great dexterity he brought on the Treaty once more with the Confederate Princes who were it seems alarum'd by the Counter-League which the Roman Catholicks set up under the Title of The Holy League the
should be but short were easily drawn into many desperate Conspiracies which ending with the Forfeiture of their own brought her Life and Government into continual Jeopardy The next great thing that feâ—l under her Consideration was the point of Marriage and Singularity For it being doubtful in what state the Kingdom would be left if the Queen of Scots Title should ever take place who besides that she was an avow'd Papist had married the French Kings Son who in her Right bore the Arms and Title of England as well as of Scotland it was told her she would not shew her self a true Mother of her Country without she consented to make her self a Mother of Children Whereunto King Philip of Spain as soon as he heard of Queen Mary his Wives death gave her a fair Invitation by his Ambassador the Conde Feria whom he sent over publickly â—o Congratulate her as a Queen but privately to Court her as a Mistress assuring her that he much rather desired to have her to be his Wife then his Sister and as the Report of her being Successor to his Queen had much allay'd the grief he conceiv'd for her death so he said 't was his desire she should take place in his Bed as well as in his Throne that so by giving her self to him she might requite the kindness shew'd by him when he gave her to her self after her Sister left her exposed to the malice and power of her Enemies In fine he omitted no Arguments to gain his end that might be rais'd from the Consideration of her Gratitude or his own Greatness But she being naturally Inflexible not to say as some have said Impenetrable lest it to her Councel to return this grave Answer for her That she could not consent to have him of all men for a Husband without as great reflection on her Mother as her self since it could not be more lawful for two Sisters to marry the same Husband then for two Brothers to marry the same Wife Secondly That she could not consent to a Match that was like to prove so unfortunate as this would be if without Issue and yet so much more unfortunate with it in respect her Kingdom of England must by the same Obligation become subject to Spain as she to him Thirdly That nothing could more conduce to the Establishing that Authority which had been so industriously abolish'd by her Father and Brother of blessed Memory and conscientiously rejected by her self Fourthly That it could neither be satisfactory to her self or Subjects to have such a King to her Husband whose greatest Concerns being necessarily abroad could neither regard her nor them as he ought much less as they desired This Denial though it seem'd reasonable enough yet King Philip inferring that she dislik'd his Person rather then his Proposal very temperately recommended his Suit to his more youthful Kinsman Charles Duke of Austria second Son to the Emperour Ferdinand who was Rival'd by Eric eldest Son of Gustavus King of Sweden as he by Adolph Duke of Holst Uncle to Frederick III. King of Denmark But neither of these being more successful then his most Catholick Majesty the whole Parliament became Suiters to her to think of Posterity and to eternize her Memory not so much by a Successor like her self as by one descended from her self Which serious address she answer'd with a Jest telling them she was married already And shewing them a Ring on her Finger the same she had received at her Coronation told them it was the Pledge of Love and Faith given her by her dear Spouse the Kingdom of England which words she delivered with such an odd kind of Pleasantness that all the Wise men amongst them thought she made Fools of them and the Fools thought themselves made so much wiser by it as to understand her meaning to be that she would not look abroad for a Husband but take one of her own Subjects Amongst the rest thus mistaken was Leicester himself who having the vanity to believe he might be the man obstructed his own preferment when he was propos'd as a fitting Husband for the Queen of Scots The Catholick King however he had been rejected hoping that the Catholick Religion might find better acceptation continued his Frâ—endship a long time after his Courtship was ended being so respectful to the Nation not to say to the Queen her self that he would make no accord with the French at the Treaty of Cambray without the restoration of Calais to the English But when he understood how far the Queen had proceeded in point of Reformation how she had as resolutely refus'd to be the Popes Daughter as to be his Wife how she had disallow'd the Councel of Trent and set up a Synod of her own at London he not only left her as slightly as she left him but made such a Conclusion with the French as gave her more cause of Jealousie being not his Wife then she could possibly have had if he had been her Husband For marrying the Lady Isabella eldest Daughter to that King it was suspected that the two Crowns might thereupon unite against England upon the account of the Queen of Scots her Claim who being the Daulphins Wife and the next in Succession after Queen Elizabeth or as some will have it in Right before her as being the undoubted Heir of the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh was therefore the only Person in the World to whom she could never be reconciled holding her self oblig'd by the Impulse of Nature Honour and Religion to oppose her as after she did to the death wherein perhaps there was no less of Envy then Reason of State being as much offended with her Perfections as her Pretensions For that t'other was a Lady that equall'd her in all surmounted her in some and was inferiour to her in no respects but Fortune only This as it prov'd a Feud that puzled that Age to unriddle the meaning of it charging all the Misunderstanding betwixt them upon the despite of Fate only which to speak Impartially was never more unkind not to say unjust all Circumstances of the Story considered to any Soveraign Princess in the World then to that poor Queen so it was the wonder of this till we saw by the no less fatal Example of that Queens Grandson our late Soveraign how the best of Princes may fall under the power of the worst of men For it was Flattery and Feminine Disdain questionless that first divided them beyond what the difference of Nation Interest or Religion could have done which heightning their mutual Jealousies insensibly ingag'd them before they were aware in such a Game of Wit and Faction as brought all that either had at last to stake and made them so wary in their Play on both sides that the Set ended not as long as the one liv'd or the other reign'd The Queen of Scots had the advantage of Queen Elizabeth by the Kings in her Stock the Kings of