Hamburg were wont to haue it in like sort for sixe yeeres and so by turnes they were wont to enioy it Lubecke of old had a Duke till it was subiected to the Empire by the Emperour Fredericke the first after whose death it became subiect to their Duke againe and after fiue yeeres became subiect to the Danes but by the helpe of Fredericke the second it freed it selfe from the Danes in the yeere 1226 and after by fauour of the Emperours obtained freedome and absolute power Both Lubecke and Hamburg are said of old to haue acknowledged the Kings of Denmarke but at last expelling the Kings Proctors they became free and submitted themselues to the defence of the Empire For which cause to this day they warily obserue the actions of the Kings of Denmarke and liue in feare and suspition of their attempts and howsoeuer they haue freedome and absolute power yet they are carefull to haue the fauour of the Kings of Denmarke because they haue power to hinder their trafficke in the Baltike Sea yet sometimes leagued with the neighbour cities which in the common cause of freedome are easily drawne to giue mutuall aide they haue made warres against the Kings of Denmarke with good successe Lubecke is commended for iust gouernment not to speake of their hospitality very faire and vniforme buildings and the very pleasant seate of the Towne It is gouerned by the ciuill Law and by statutes made by the Senate as also some made by the consent of the confederate cities No appeale to Vniuersities or to the Chamber of the Empire is admitted except the cause be aboue the value of fiue hundred dollers They lately made sumptuary Lawes restraining the number of guests and dishes in Feasts with penalties according to the excesse The Citizens yeerely chuse twenty new Senators and this 〈◊〉 chuseth of their number foure Consuls with a Iudge skilfull in the ciuill Lawes These Magistrates define all ciuill and criminal causes the whole Senate first examining them and iudgements are giuen by common consent with the doores shut but when any capitall iudgement is to be executed at the day appointed to the Malefactor and the very houre he is to die the hangman pronounceth the sentence in the market place The consuls take the highest place by turnes one in the morning the other in the afternoone at which times they also by turnes heare Ambassadours and receiue complaints Many Offices are deuided among the Senators two gather the rents others haue care of the wines which are sold in a publike house to publike vse no priuate man being allowed to make that gaine others ouersee the buildings that they be vniforme and strongly built and free from danger of fier and likewise the fortifications of the City Foure Serieants attired in red gownes attend the Senate and summon men to appeare besides twelue inferiour Serieants and they neither carry Sword nor any Mace before the Magistrates but follow them in the streetes like Seruants They doe not imprison any debtor or light offender but onely summon such to appeare before the Magistrate and declare to them the fines imposed for not appearing but they apprehend capitall offenders and preuent their escape by flight It is not lawfull for a creditor to put his debtor in prison but after a set time and with cautions prescribed in the Law of Saxony wherein notwithstanding they of Lubecke so fauour strangers as they onely haue right in this kind with expedition and haue a proper tribunall or seate of iudgement for themselues onely yet herein they seeme not fauourable to strangers in that they permit them not to dwell in the City otherwise they doe as the common vse is to keepe all commodities in the hands of Citizens not to be sold to strangers but by a Citizen especially since without the helpe of strangers they haue their owne ships to bring in and carry out all commodities Hamburg is in like sort gouerned but I cannot so much commend them for hospitality being rude to all strangers and malicious to Englishmen aboue others for no other cause then for that our Merchants leauing that City seated themselues at Stoade so as it was not safe for any stranger much lesse for an Englishman to walke abroade after dinner when the common people are generally heated with drinke And the very Iustice was herein commonly taxed not that they punished whoredom which no good man will disallow but that they permitted whores in great multitudes and yet fauoured the knauery of the Sergeants who combining with the whores intrapped men in their houses so as not onely the whores Sergeants made profit thereby but the very Magistrates were iustly suspected to approue this course for their owne gaine Brunswick an Imperiall City worthily to be numbred among the cheefe so called as the Village of Bruno is not farre distant from Hamburg and seated in the center of Saxony was of old as they say the Metropolitan City therof It consists of fiue Cities gathered into one wherof each hath his seuerall priuiledges and they are thus seated Alstatt is the part on the West side Newstatt on the North side Imsacke the part towards the East Imhagen Altweg built first of all the rest are the part towards the South And howsoeuer all these haue each their seueral Senators and priuiledges yet all of them iointly making the city of Brunswick liue vnder one common Law and gouernmēt the Senators of each by yerely courses gouerning the whole body of that common-wealth For howsoeuer tenn Consuls be yeerly chosen two of each City yet to the two Consuls of that City which by course is to gouern for the yeere the other eight as inferiour and much more all the Senators of the fiue Cities yeelde for the time great reuerence in the Senate and all meetings and great obedience in all things commanded One Senate house is common to all the fiue Cities yet each of them hath also a priuate Senate-house The forme of the publike gouernement is Democraticall or popular They liue in such feare of the Duke of Brunswick left he should take away their liberty as they haue not onely fortified the Towne very strongly against assaults or sieges but also willingly imploy their Citizens in forraigne warres as hired souldiers insomuch as no man is made free who hath not first serued one or two yeeres in the warres The Dukes of Brunswick of Luneburg deriue their pedegree from one root namely from the old family of the Dukes of Bauaria for Henrie called the Lion D. of Bauaria who was Duke and Elector of Saxony also commanding a most ample Territory being proscribed by the Emperour and for a time liuing as a banished man in England the Dukedome of Bauaria was by the Emperour giuen in Fee to the Palatines of the Rheine and so passed to a new Family This Henrie the Lion died in Brunswick about the yeere 1195. His eldest sonne Otho the fourth being
my selfe into any part of Ireland with my chiefe strength but I may happen to be as farre from their discent as I shall bee where now I am which maketh me the more loth to forgoe my hold in these parts and yet for all occasions you must not imagine me to be now in the head of a great Army but of some sixteene hundred fighting men of whom there are not halfe English and vpon the newes of Spanish succours I know few Irish that I can reckon ours With this Army I must make my retreat which I resolued to haue left most part in Garrisons all this winter in these quarters and in truth Sir I cannot at this present thinke of a better counsel then that we might goe on with the warre by these Garrisons against Tyrone as wee were determined whether the Spaniards come or no and to make head against them chiefely with meanes out of England By this course they shall giue each other little assistance and if we doe but ruine and waste the traytors this Winter it will bee impossible for the Spaniards to make this people liue by which course I presume it is in her Maiesties power to giue the King of Spaine a great blow and to quit this Country of them for euer If in the checkes the Queene doe not finde the weakenesse of her Army I disclaime from the fault for without a wise honest Muster-master of good reputation to be still present in the Army the Queene in that kinde wil neuer be well serued and vpon those Officers that are I doe continually call for their care in that matter If according to our desire you had sent vs one thousand supplies of shot to the Newrie it had aduanced the seruice more then I can expresse but some you must needs send vs to be able to leaue those garisons strong in winter Most part of these troops I haue here are they that haue stricken all the blowes for the recouerie of the Kingdome and been in continuall action and therefore you must not wonder if they be weake If Sir Henrie Dockwra do not plant Ballishannon I thinke it fit that Sir Arthur Chichester had a thousand men of his List whom I hope we would finde meanes to plant within foure or fiue miles of Dungannon and by boats victuall them commodiously I doe apprehend the consequence of that plantation to be great but till I heare from you againe I wil take no men from Loughfoyle because I am loth to meddle much with that Garrison without direction but I besecch you Sir by the next let me know your opinion I pray you Sir giue me leaue to take it vnkindly of my L President to informe you that Sir Hen. Dockwra hath had greater fauor in the nomination of Captaines thē he for he neuer placed but one whom I displaced after To haue some left to his nomination is more then I could obtaine when the last supply came to me But since it is the Queenes pleasure I must beare this and as I doe continually a great deale more with patience And though I am willing you should know I haue a iust feeling of these things yet I beseech you Sir to beleeue that my meaning is not to contest or to impute the fault vnto you for by God Sir where I professe my loue in the same kind I haue done to you they shall bee great matters that shall remoue me although they may and I desire that I may let you know when they do moue me I do only impute this to my misfortune that I perceiue arguments too many of her Maiesties displeasure but while for her owne sake she doth vse my seruice I will loue whatsoeuer I suffer for her and loue the sentence that I will force from the conscience of all and the mouth of the iust that I haue been and will be an honest and no vnprofitable seruant vnto her I dare vndertake we haue rid my Lord President of the most dangerous rebell of Mounster and the most likely man to haue renewed the rebellion for that night I receiued your letters the rogues did powre aboue three thousand shot into our Campe at which time it was our good fortune to kill Peirce Lacie and some other of their principall men Wee are now praying for a good wind for wee are at our last daies bread if victuals come in time we will not be idle Sir if I haue recommended any into England I am sure it was for no charge for I know none that haue gone from hence but there are many that continue here more worthy of preferment then they therefore I pray Sir let them not be reckoned mine that there challenge any thing for me but whatsoeuer shall please their Lordships I must be contented withall and it shall not much trouble mee for I meane not to make the warres my occupation and doe affect asmuch to haue a great many followers as to bee troubled with a kennel of hounds But for the Queenes sake I would gladly haue her serued by such as I know to be honest men and vnhappy is that Generall that must fight with weapons of other mens choosing And so Sir being ashamed that I haue troubled you so long I desire you to be assured that no man shall loue you more honestly and faithfully then my selfe From the Campe neere Mount Norreys this ninth of August 1601 Yours Sir most assured to doe you seruice Mountioy Touching the aboue mentioned distate betweene the Lord Deputy and the Lord President of Mounster his Lordship shortly after wrote a letter to him resenting himselfe in very high tearmes of the wrong he conceiued to be offered him as followeth in his Lordships letter MY Lord as I haue hitherto borne you as much affection and as truely as euer I did professe it vnto you and I protest reioyced in all your good successes as mine owne so must you giue me leaue since I presume I haue so iust cause to challenge you of vnkindnes wrong in writing into England that in preferring your followers Sir Henry Dockwra hath had more power from me then your selfe and consequently to solicite the Queene to haue the nomination of some Captaines in this Kingdome For the first I could haue wished you would haue beene better aduised because vpon my Honour he neuer without my speciall warrant did appoint but one whom I after displaced I do not remember that euer since our comming ouer I haue denied any thing which you haue recommended vnto me with the marke of your owne desire to obtaine it and in your Prouince I haue not giuen any place as I thinke but at your instance For the other I thinke it is the first example that euer any vnder another Generall desired or obtained the like sute And although I will not speake iniuriously of your deserts nor immodestly of mine owne yet this disgrace cannot make me beleeue that I haue deserued worse then any that haue beene
the causes are not determined after the ciuill but after the prouinciall law or according to that which seemes good and equall and by the statutes and customes of each Canton They haue no quirkes or obscurities to protract iudgement and they thinke it better sometimes to erre in a doubtfull cause then to follow the Lawyers iudging according to Law not equity and so making the suites perpetuall In the Gouernements all controuersies are determined by the Gouernours and Iudges of the place yet so as appeale is granted from them to the common Senate In priuate Cantons causes are iudged by the Senatours and Iudges of each Canton yet they haue some publike Iudgements namely when the Cantons haue any controuersie one with another or a priuate man with a Canton for which cases they haue many cautions in their Leagues and at this day they are determined after this manner Each part chuseth two Iudges of his owne Citizens who are absolued in that case from their oath giuen to their owne Canton and then they are sworne that they will consider of the controuersie according to that which seemes good and equall and that they will faithfully indeuour to compose it at least so as it shall bee decided by Law not by Armes And in the old leagues certaine places are appointed in which these Iudgements are handled The 7 Cantons commonly meete for them in the Monastery of the Heremites within their owne confines and so other leagues in other appointed places The Iudges and Burgesses of those Cantons with which those that haue controuersies haue more strict league determine these causes if the first arbiters cannot compose them and both parts are bound to rest in the iudgement of the greater part and if the Voices be equall on each part as many times it falleth out a new Iudge or Arbiter is chosen who doth not giue a new Iudgement of his owne but approueth one of the Iudgements giuen by the equall Voices of the said Burgesses And this Arbiter is chosen by those Burgesses and so he be a Citizen of any one Canton it is not required that he should be of either of the Cantons to whom the cause belongeth Thus if Bern be plaintiffe against the 3 Cantons 16 men are chosen by the Cantons out of which Bern chuseth one to be Arbiter but if the Cantons be plaintiffes against Bern they chuse an Arbiter out of the lesser Senate of Bern. Likewise in controuersies betweene Zurech and Bern the plaintiffe chuseth an Arbiter out of the Senate of the other Citie To conclude in all Iudgements publike and priuate they vse such integrity as this simplicitie of their Iudgements disallowed by subtill polititians happily succeeds in all occasions and so they retaine their old vertue is like euer so to succeede In most of the Cantons namely at Zurech Basil and Schafhusen no Bastard may beare publike office nor be a Senator or Iudge which Law is common to the Sweitzers with the Germans first instituted to restraine fornication and to preserue the dignity of marriage In some places he must haue been a Citizen ten yeres in other places twenty yeres who is chosen to be of the common Counsell and at Zurech no stranger is euer chosen to be a Senator or Iudge and by Common law no Homicide Adulterer or infamous person for any crime may be of the Senate In all the Cantons they are no lesse carefull to preuent domages by fier then to keepe out their enemies for which cause they hire watchmen to walke the streetes by night and Belmen to tell the howers and in some places as the Towne of Saint Gallus they haue nightly thirty two Watchmen and chuse Citizens to visit the chimnies and ouens that they be free from danger of fier In other Cantons they haue publike Officers who in any such chance see that all things be done in order and that no tumult be raised vpon such occasions to which end they appoint some to quench the fier and draw others in armes to defend the walles and the gates And at Zurech able young men are yeerely chosen to be ready for the quenching of any such casuall fier In Lucerna the Law of Retribution an arme for an arme a leg for a leg is in many cases obserued where he that killes a Citizen bee the cause neuer so iust as repelling force by force shal die if he be taken or be perpetually banished if he escape by flight yet when he hath satisfied the Kinsmen of him bee killed hee is permitted to returne from banishment And in all the Cantons where they dwell in Villages he that kills a man in his defence shal be banished and his owne Senate cannot permit his returne which can onely be obtained from the great and publike Senate And in the same Cantons no lands may be ingaged to any stranger neither may any stranger buy any possessions but onely a house and a Garden for herbes And if any man often offend in Drunkennes he is imprisoned and may drink no Wine for a yere till he haue procured pardon of the publike Senate which me thinks should easily be granted him by Iudges guilty of the same fault except they meane quarrels and like offences not simple drinking which I thinke probable because generally the Sweitzers drinke as stiffely as those of the vpper part of Germany In the same Cantons Matrimoniall causes are referred to the Consistory of the Bishop of Costnetz but all adulteries are punished by the Senate at home commonly with the losse of goods sometimes with a fine of ten pounds that is ten Dollers with them The publike Edicts are yeerely in these Cantons confirmed or abrogated by the Voices of the common people And in the Towne of Friburg and the Territory if a debter pay not his debt the Creditor sends certaine seruants and horses to the publike Inne the charge whereof is paid by the debter till he satisfie his Creditor Besides in any controuersie if sureties be thrise demanded of any man and he bring not in suerty or caution he is punished with banishment and the same punishment is inflicted on them who violate the command of keeping the peace and who without iust cause take part with either of them that are at variance In generall for the Gentry of the whole Prouince mention hath been and is after to be made that the same is extinguished so as it were in vaine to seeke for any Knightly order among these men who howsoeuer they be military men yet vniuersally are Cittizens or of common Plebean ranck They take to themselues coates of Armes deuised by themselues and tricked after their owne fancies yet not with open Helmets as Gentlemen beare them but with closed Helmets after the manner vsed by the Citizens in Germany And their Lawes of inheritance and the dowries of wiues doe come neerest to those of Germany the Ciuill law if I be not deceiued passing with them into Prouinciall lawes and customes by
came to Baltring subiect to a little free Citie called Bubery and here each man paied fiue Batzen for dinner and three for horse-meat Next morning after a miles riding we came to the City Bubery and rode two miles further to Waldshut through woody Mountaines and corne vallies which were so boggey as many times wee had almost stuck fast The Countrey belongs to the Arch-Duke of the family of Inspruck and heere wee paied each man nine Batzen for dinner and horsemeat After dinner wee rode two miles through a woody Country to Rauenspurg a free Citie seated betweene Mountaines whereof one hangeth ouer it and the Riuer Ach runneth by it in a narrow bed so as the waters falling from the Mountaines very swiftly doe many times ouerflow to the great damage of the Countrey and from the Mountaines many woodden pipes conuey water to the City In these parts bee many Almes houses for those that are infected with Leprosie who may not come neere the Passengers but doe beg of them a farre off with the sound of a woodden clapper Heere each man paid for his supper and horse-meat twelue Batzen and a halfe The first day of May we rode three miles one through a Wood the rest through a plaine of corne and inclosed pastures and Hils planted with Vines to the City Lindaw By the way vve saw the house of Count Montfort and passed the Riuer Arba by a Bridge which doth often ouerflow the plaine doing great hurt and there wee paid halfe a Creitzer tribute to the said Count for each man We were now come out of Sueuia and had rode two miles in Algoia and on the left hand towards the South we discouered the mouth of the Alpes which in this place is called Spliego Lindaw is a free City of the Empire which freedome it bought in the yeere 1166 and it is almost an I and seated in the lake called Acronius vulgarly Bodensea being ioyned to the continent by a Bridge of stone on the North-east side where it hath onely one gate called Burg-thore by which wee entred On this side the fields are very pleasant and planted with Vines and neere the Bridge there is a Rampier so old as they say it was erected by the Heathen before any Christians were Hence the City lies in length towards the South West partly on the West and altogether on the South side lies the lake Bodensea that is vpper sea close by the houses of the Citizens where they descend by staires to take water Beyond the lake are most high Mountaines which were then couered with snow and at the foot of the highest Mountaines there is a Tower which they report to be built by Hannibal neere which is the place famous by the defeat of Hasdrubal On this side the City they shew a stone whence they say the Saint called Aurelia passed the lake woe to them that beleeue at one step The Riuer Bregets falleth most violently from the said Mountaines whence also the Rheine discendeth in a narrow bed and may bee passed with horse and foot when it ouerfloweth not Both these runne into the Lake and the Rheine till it come out of the Lake againe loseth the name There is but one Church in the City besides a ruined Monastery The Citizens draw their water to seethe their meat and mingle it with wine not out of the Lake but from Wels. Three Consuls chosen for life and twenty Senators gouerne the City Beyond the Lake in the Territorie of the Arch Dukes of Austria is a bath of great vertue and a Monastery built by Otho the second with great priuiledges vpon a vow hee made being in great danger when he passed the Lake and there murtherers haue a sanctuary There is much salt made in the City and carried thence to other parts Heere I paied each meale six Batzen They drinke altogether wine whereof the measure of the old is giuen for eleuen Creitzers the new for nine of which measures twentie make some twenty two English beere quarts By ill fortune I was here forced to exhibite a Petition to the Consuls both in the Dutch and Latine tongues the euent whereof I will set downe after the Petition The forme whereof in English was this after the Dutch fashion euer tedious in their stiles or titles HOnourable prouident good wise Lords and Consuls I humbly desire you to respect my cause as of a stranger far from his friends and bereaued of his money by deceit Thus my case standeth Being at Nurnberg and purposing thence to goe to Bazell there to study I dealt with a Merchant that hee would exchange my money thither retaining onely so much as would plentifully serue mee for my expences thither There I met with M. B. a Citizen of Lindaw who told me that the gold Guldens of Rheine were not to be spent in these parts without losse So as I finding him acknowledged by the Carriers of this City then being there and by many Nurnbergers for the sonne of a Senator in this Towne was induced to deliuer him some gold Guldens to be paid mee heere in French Crownes and wee comming in company together to this Towne when I saw many principall Citizens gratalate his returne I was induced to deliuer him the rest of my gold Guldens which I had kept for the expence of my iourney vpon his promise to exchange them into French Crownes So as in all hee is to pay mee thirtie two French Crownes wanting six Creitzers for twenty seuen of which French Crownes and thirty six Creitzers I tooke his bill at Nurnberg but the rest I deliuered him here vpon his bare word Heere I expected his payment eight dayes and when I was instant with him to put off the payment no longer he is stoln out of the Towne and his brothers giue me no hope of payment being not so noble as to ponder the case rightly or to haue any due fecling of my state Being in this case not able without money to goe on my iourney or indure the delayes of a sute in Law against him heere all my hope is in your iust helpe which failing me I know not what course to take Therefore I desire earnestly of your worthinesse to assist mee and giue expedition to my cause that I may be deliuered by your goodnesse My debtor while he liued in the publike Inne with mee vsed mee with all curtesie but finding himselfe disinherited by his father lately dead and so dispairing of means to pay me he was now fled to the Monastery beyond the Lake being a sanctuary for wicked-persons and bankrupts He that knowes the honesty of the Dutch will not much maruell that I was thus deceiued by a Dutch-man whom I knew not to be tainted with forraine vices but it grieued me to be thus-scorned by fortune it afflicted me beyond measure that I should bee forced to spend the time dearer to mee then gold in following the Law at Lindaw which I hoped to imploy in
at midnight through a heath of huge woods of Oake and came to Oldenburge early in the morning before the gates were open The Citie is built of meere clay but the Counts Castle is built in a round forme of stone with deepe ditches of water ouer which they passe by a drawing bridge and both the Castle and the City are strongly fortified Heere we had English beere the goodnesse whereof made my companions speake much in honour of England and of the Queene with much wonder that shee being a Virgine was so victorious against the Spaniards till in this discourse they all fell fast asleepe After breakfast the next morning wee hauing hired a waggon for eighteene groates passed foure miles in the territory of the said Count and one mile to Stickhausen in the territory of the Count of Emden who had a Castle there Then because we could get no waggon in this place wee went one mile further on foot which being very long and my selfe hauing some gold Guldens in my shooes which I could not remoue without suspicion the way was very irkesome to mee and we came to a countrey house but wee found good cheere each man paying for his supper seuen groates My selfe sitting last at the table by reason of my poore habit paied as much as the best and fedde on the worst but I had more minde of my bed then of my meat And one of my companions after supper hauing streight boots when I had taught him to pull off one by the helpe of a staffe for recompence of my counsell desired mee to pull off the other which being disguised as I was I could not well refuse The next morning we hired a waggon for eleuen stiuers and passed along mile to Leere a towne subiect to the Count of Emden who dwelt not far off at Dunort a strong Castle Our way through a Fen was so deepe as the waggon wheeles being pulled off we went good part of the way on foot Here we vnderstood that the Spanish Free-booters called by the English Malecontents lay at Aurick another castle of the said Count and being loded with booty had taken a barke by force to passe ouer the Emsz. These cut-throates vsed at this time to raunge out of the Spanish Garrisons vpon the Low-countries to spoile all passengers in these parts which they did with more confidence because the Count of Oldenburg being offended with the Citizens of Breme permitted these theeues to rob them who were also very malicious against those of Breme because they had lately taken thirty foure Free-booters and beheading them altogether had set vp their heads vpon stakes Besides the Count of Emden hauing beene lately driuen out of Emden by the Citizens in a tumult about religion did permit these Free-booters to lie in his Country and spoyle the Merchants of that City The chiefe Captaine of the Free-boaters then lying at Aurick was Hans Iacob a notable roge and very malicious to the English whom he vsed to spoyle of their very apparell to handle them cruelly mocking them with these English words I cannot tell and swearing that he would make them tell both of themselues and of their countrey men passing that way Some few dayes before hee had taken foure English wollen clothes and many Flemmish linnen clothes which they diuided by the length of a ditch in stead of a better measure and we were glad to heare that in this diuision they fell at variance for when this Hans I acob would haue stopt a part for the chiefe Captaine of the Garrison the rest cryed out in Dutch wir wollen dein mawger kopff lieber in zwey kleiben Stelen wir sur andern vnd hangen far vns selbs That is wee will rather cleaue thy leane pate in two Shall we steale for others and hang for our selues And they vsed many reproches against him and their chiefe Captaine saying in Dutch Finstu was bringt mirs hangstu aber habt dirs Die Iudem pfaffen hauptleinte vnd in hund ver dienen ihr kost mit thr mund That is findest thou ought bring it me hangest thou take that to thee The lewes Priests Captaines and dogs earne their liuing with their mouth but these cut-throates howsoeuer they had passed the Emsz yet meant presently to returne and had their spics in euery towne and village I returne to my iourney While we lay at Leere for a night a Doctor of the Ciuill Law seeing mee walke in the garden and thinking my seruile habit not fit for contemplation commanded mee to draw water for his horse giuing mee no reward presently but onely a nod yet after when he had drunke with his friends going out he said to me Knecht dore hastu zu drincken That is Sirra drinke you what is left After supper hauing expected a bed almost till midnight the maide at last told mee I must lie vpon the bench but after while I was washing my feet which the gold in my shooes had gauled she espying my silke stokings which I wore vnder my linnen ran to her mistresse and procured me a very good bed This effect pleased me well but I was afraide of the cause by which lest I should bee discouered I hasted away early next morning I paied heere for my supper and breakfast fifteene Stiuers and giuing the seruant one for his paines hee would haue restored it to mee seeming by my habit to haue more need thereof then himselfe All this night and the next day great store of raine fell and the winde was so tempestuous as we could not passe by water neither would my companions hire a waggon besides that the way was at this time so dirty as no waggon could passe it Notwithstanding since now onely two miles remained of my dangerous iourney and I thought no thiefe would come out in such raine I resolued to goe on foot with my companions to Emden being two miles but of vnspeakeable length and difficulty to passe In the high way wee had three passages one vpon the top of the Banke lying vpon an arme of the Sea or rather vpon the Riuer Emsz running into the Sea and in this passage the tempestious winde was like to beare vs ouer and blinded vs with driuing salt water into our eyes besides that wee went ouer the shooes in dirt The second passage was on the side of the banke from the water somewhat fairer then the other but in that most troublesome that wee were forced continually to leane vpon a staffe which euery one had in his hand lest being not staied with the staffe we should fall into the lower way which was intolerably dirty The lower way or third passage in the bottome of the banke furthest from the water was for the passage of waggons but the fields round about being ouerflowed in winter this passage was now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this way we passed a very long mile from the little City Leere to the Village Aldernsea from seuen of the clocke
rest called New-graft and Altkirkhoffe and there is a pleasant walke well shaded with trees vpon the banke of the Riuer In the midst of the City is the Cathedrall Church hauing a faire Tower and a Bell which they report to be of eighteene thousand pounds weight Neere to the same is the Bishops Pallace wherein the Bishops dwelt before the vnion of the Prouinces but at this time there dwelled the Countesse of Meurs whose husband died in these warres In the same part lie the market place and the Senate house The houses of the City are of bricke and fairely built but lose much of their beautie by being couered on the outside with boords and they seeme to haue more antiquitic then the buildings of Holland There be thirty Churches but onely three are vsed for diuine seruice In Saint Maries Church which as I remember is the Cathedrall Church these verses are written vpon a piller Accipe posteritas quod per tua secula narres Taurinis culibus fundo solidata columna est Posterity heare this and to your children tell Bull hydes beare vp this piller from the lowest hell Vpon a second piller this is written in Latine A Frison killed the Bishop because hee had learned of him being drunke and betrayed by his sonne the Art to stop a gulfe in this place the yeere 1099. Vpon a third piller this is written in Latine The Emperour Henry the fourth built this Church to our Lady because hee had pulled downe another Church at Milane dedicated to her And to my vnderstanding they shewed me at this time manifest signes of the aforesaid gulfe which these inscriptions witnesse to haue beene in this place Heere I paied for my supper twenty stiuers and for my breakefast six stiuers From hence I went to Amsterdam fiue miles in three houres space and paied for my passage in the waggon ten stiuers For halfe the way on both sides wee had faire pastures and saw many strong Castles belonging to Gentlemen Neere Vtrecht at the passage of a riuer each man paid a Doight and before wee came to the halfe way we passed the confines of this Bishopricke and entred the County of Holland Then in the space of two houres and a halfe we came to Amsterdam hauing in our way on both sides faire pastures On Friday in the beginning of the Month of Iuly at fiue a clocke in the euening I tooke ship vpon the Mast whereof was a garland of Roses because the master of this ship then wooed his wife which ceremony the Hollanders vsed And the sea being calme wee passed eight miles to Enchusen where wee cast anchor By the way wee passed a shole where our sterne struck twise vpon the sand not without feare of greater mischiese On Saturday we'sayeld betweene West Freesland vpon our right hands towards the East and Holland vpon our left hands towards the West and after tenne miles sayling came to the Iland Fly which being of small compasse and consisting of sandy hils hath two villages in it From hence they reckon twenty eight miles by sea to Hamburg in Germany whether we purposed to goe Assoone as wee cast anchor here the Master of our ship went aboard the Admirall of certaine ships which vsed to lie here to guard this mouth of the sea with whom hee spake concerning our passage to Hamburg and deliuered him Letters commanding that our ship should haue a man of war to wast it This Admirall lay continually in this harbour to guard this passage into the sea and he commanded nine ships which were vpon all occasions to wast the Hollanders to Hamburg and defend them from the Dunkirkers and all Pirats But at this time there was not one of these men of warre in the harbour and the Admirall himselfe might not goe forth So as for this cause and for the tempestious weather wee staied here all Sunday But vpon Monday the winde being faire for vs and contrary for the men of warre that were to come in so that losing this winde we must haue expected not without great irkesomnesse a second winde to bring in some of these men of warre and a third winde to carry vs on our iourney the Master of our ship carrying sixe great Peeces and hauing some tenne Muskets did associate himselfe with seuen other little ships hauing only Pikes and swords and so more boldly then wisely resolued to passe to Hamburg without any man of warre This Monday morning we hoysed saile but being calmed at noone we cast anchor between the Fly on our left hand toward the West and another little Iland Shelling on our right hand towards the East and lying here wee might see two little barkes houering vp and downe which wee thought to be Fisher-men and nothing lesse then Pirats of Dunkirke Here till euening we were tossed by the waues which vse to bee more violent vpon the coast but a faire winde then arising all our shippes gladly weighed anchor At which time it happened that the anchor of our ship brake so as our consorts went on but our Master according to the nauall discipline not to put to sea with one anchor returned backe to the harbour of the Fly there to buy a new anchor all of vs foolishly cursing our fortune and the starres On Tuesday morning while wee sadly walked on the shoare vvee might see our consorts comming backe with torne sailes and dead men and quarters of men lying on the hatches We beholding this with great astonishment tooke boat to board them and demanding the newes they told vs that the little barks we saw the day before vvere Dunkirkers hauing in each of them eighty Souldiers and some few great Peeces and that they had taken them spoiled their ships of their chiefe lightest goods and had carried away prisoners to Dunkirk all the passengers chief Marriners after they had first wrung their foreheads with twined ropes with many horrible tortures forced them to confesse what money they had presently what they could procure for ransom Further with mourning voice they told vs that the Pirats inquired much after our ship saying that was it the bride with whom they meant to dance cursing it to be destroyed with a thousand tuns of diuels swearing that if they had foreseene our escape they would haue assailed vs by day while we rode at anchor They added that they had left no goods but those they could not carry for weight and had changed their ragged shirts and apparell with the poore Marriners And indeed they had iust cause to bewaile the escape of our shippe being laded with many chests of Spanish Ryalls whereof they were not ignorant vsing to haue their spies in such places who for a share in the booty would haue betrayed their very brothers As we had iust cause to praise almighty God who had thus deliuered vs out of the lawes of death so had wee much more cause to bewaile our rashnesse yea and our wickednesse that
in any other Citie or Cities as his occasions require But in respect of the foresaid difficulties to export coynes In specie that is in the kinde the Traueller shall doe better who takes the second and most vsuall course taking care to haue his moneys deliuered to the exchangers or Merchants by the hands of some trustie friend to be exchanged ouer according to the exchange variable in respect of the time and the place to which it is to bee made and sent to him in forraine parts for his expence by seuerall sums and at set times of the yeere This exchange is so variable vpon many vsuall accidents as a constant manner of so vnconstant a thing cannot be prescribed But the rate course therof may be inquired in the Burse or publike meeting place for the Merchants For the alteration thereof is weekely made knowne particularly to the Merchants that by letters they presently may certifie the same to their seuerall Facters beyond the Seas Now this daily alteration of the exchange commeth partly of the quantitie of moneys for the present to be exchanged to the Princes or Merchants vses and of the greater or lesser number of those that desire moneys in exchange For when small summes are to be exchanged either by the Prince for payment of his Army or by the Merchants for their traffick and when many desire moneys vpon exchange then the rate thereof is raised and the Traueller made a Motion that some of this House might be sent to their Lordships with request that the said M r Popham being a Member of this House might forthwith be remanded and restored to this House again which some thought not needful to be done before the Election and others again denying that he or any other could be Chosen Speaker except he were present himself The Clerk was Commanded to read the said Precedent again of chusing M r Onslow in the said eighth year of her Majesties Reign which said Precedent see on Monday the 16 th day of this instant foregoing and thereupon that course being agreed upon to be followed the said M r Treasurer and others were sent up to the Lords to demand the restitution of the said M r Popham and brought Answer again that their Lordships had resolved he should be sent down the rather because he was a Member of this House and this House possessed of him before he was Sollicitor or had any place of Attendance in the Upper House Upon relation whereof a Motion was presently made that it was not meet or convenient to chuse a Speaker by persons that were not of the House and withal it was thought of some that divers persons being newly returned in the places of others yet living were not or ought not to be accounted Members of this House Whereupon to avoid length of Argument and the impediment of the Election the said M r Treasurer by the Assent of the House pronounced an Admonition that all such as were newly returned in the places of others yet living should forbear to repair to the House till their case were further considered Then immediately M r Anderson the Queens Serjeant at Law and Sir Gilbert Gerard Knight her Highness Attorney General brought from the Lords the said M r Popham her Majesties Sollicitor General one of the Citizens for the City of Bristol and restored him to this House as a Member of the same and so departed And then was a Motion made by M r Lewkenor for Prayer to be used before the Election that it might please God both in that and in the residue of the Proceedings of this House to direct them with his Holy Spirit and a form of Prayer was then read to the House by the Clerk And then afterwards the House proceeding to the Election of a Speaker the said M r Treasurer first speaking did for his own part name and commend the said M r Popham alledging many good reasons and causes moving him thereunto but still leaving nevertheless liberty without prejudice to the residue of the House to name whom they would or thought good And thereupon the whole House with full consent of Voices agreed upon the chusing of the said M r Popham who standing up and much disabling himself in dutiful and reverend wise and alledging for himself many reasonable causes and excuses besought them humbly to proceed to a new Election whereof the House did not allow and so then was he forthwith by the said M r Treasurer and M r Comptroller brought up and placed in the Chair and order thereupon given that the House should the next day Assemble together both to understand her Majesties Pleasure for presenting of the Speaker and also to determine of the case of the said persons newly returned into this House in the places of others yet living On Thursday the 19 th day of January the House again Assembled the Speaker Elect sitting in the Chair The matter began to be debated touching the said Burgesses of whom question was made the day before and the Case was opened by M r Norton a Citizen of London to the effect following viz. That there be Members of this House absent in her Majesties Service as in Embassage or in her affairs in Ireland in whose place new be returned Item some persons be sick of durable Diseases as Agues c. and new be returned in their places Item one M r Flowerden was the last Session Burgess for Castle-Rising in Norfolk and in the Vacation was sick Upon suggestion of which sickness a Writ went to chuse a new Whereupon Sir William Drewry is Chosen and returned for Castle-Rising who now appeareth and M r Flowerden also In the same Vacation one Beamond a Citizen for Norwich is sick of the Gout upon suggestion whereof a Writ went out to chuse a new for Norwich M r Flowerden is chosen returned and newly sworn for Norwich Vide March 18 th Saturday postea The Questions are whether such as be returned in places of persons sick or of persons absent in the Queens Service be Burgesses and the old discharged M r Norton thought the old Burgesses remained and that the said causes of sickness and service are good excuses for their absence but no causes to remove them and to chuse new And for this he alledged divers Precedents as of Doctor Dale Embassador in France and of Sir Henry Sidney Deputy of Wales who having been formerly both of them Members of the House of Commons and absent by reason of both their said Imployments yet when their case was once made known unto the House and there questioned they were still retained as Members of the said House and no new chosen or admitted But however although such absent Members by reason of sickness or Foreign Imployment might be removed yet that ought not to be done upon a suggestion in the Chancery but by the Judgment of the House of Commons upon information thereof M r Serjeant Flowerden M r Robert Snagg M r
seuenteenth of April sent his reasons of not comming First iustifying his relaps into disloialty by the truce not obserued to him and because restitution was not made him of preyes taken from him which was promised Then excusing his not meeting because his pledges by the truce being from three moneths to three moneths to be changed were still detained yea his pledges the second time put in were kept together with the first And saying that he durst not come to the Lord Generall because many promises by him made being not kept he knew it was much against his honourable mind and so could not be perswaded but that the Lord Generall was ouerruled by the Lord Deputy so as he could not make good his promises without the Lord Deputies consent who shewed malice to him and was no doubt the cause of all the breaches of such promises as had beene made vnto him Againe in regard he heard that the Lord Bourgh was to come ouer Lord Deputy who was altogether vnknowne to him he protested to feare that the acts of the Lord Generall with him would not be made good wishing that rather the Lord Generall might be continued in his command for then he would be confident of a good conclusion Finally he desired a meeting neere Dundalke the sixe and twenty of Aprill but this appointment for the day being against the last finall resolution and for the place against her Maiesties directions there was no more speech of this treaty In the meane time Sir William Russell Lord Deputy by the managing of those and like affaires finding himselfe not duly countenanced out of England in the place he sustained had made earnest suit to be called home and accordingly about the end of May he was reuoked and the Lord Bourgh so he himselfe writes others write Burke and Camden writes Borough came ouer Lord Deputy The ill successe of the treaties and small progresse of the warres together with this vnexpected change of the Lord Deputy comming with supreme authority as well in martiall as ciuill causes brake the heart of Sir Iohn Norryes Lord Generall a leader as worthy and famous as England bred in our age Of late according to vulgar speech he had displeased the Earle of Essex then a great fauourite in Court and by his merites possessed of the superintendency in all martiall affaires For Sir Iohn Norryes had imbraced the action of Brest Fort in Britany and the warres in those parts when the Earle himself had purpose to entertaine them and preuailed against the Earle by vndertaking them with lesse forces then the Earle desired for the same And it was thought that the Earle had preferred the Lord Bourgh of purpose to discontent him in regard the said Lord Bourgh had had a priuate quarrell with the said Generall in England and that besides the superiour command of this Lord though otherwise most worthy yet of lesse experience in the warres then the Generall had could not but be vnsupportable to him esteemed one of the greatest Captaines of his time and yet hauing inferiour command of the Presidentship of Mounster in the same Kingdome Certainely vpon the arriuall of this new Lord Deputy presently Generall Norryes was commanded to his gouernement of Mounster and not to stirre thence without leaue When he came thither this griefe so wrought vpon his high spirit as it apparantly brake his braue and formerly vndaunted heart for without sickenes or any publike signe of griefe he suddenly died in the imbrace of his deere brother Sir Thomas Norreys his vicepresident within some two moneths of his comming into Mounster The Lord Bourgh at his entry into the place of Lord Deputy found all the North in Rebellion except seuen Castles with their Townes or Villages all but one lying towards the sea namely Newry Knockfergus Carlingford Greene-Castle Armagh Dondrom and Olderfleet And all Connaght was likewise in Rebellion together with the Earle of Ormonds nephewes the Butlers in Mounster In this moneth of May Ororke was sent into England by the King of Scots and there executed This Ororke seemes to haue beene expelled his Countrey when Sir Richard Bingham was Gouernour of Connaght but those of his name and the chiefe of them vsurping the Countrey of Letrym still continued Rebels Tyrone hitherto with all subtilty and a thousand sleights abusing the State when he saw any danger hanging ouer him by fained countenance and false words pretended humblest submission and hearty sorrow for his villanies but as soone as opportunity of pursuing him was omitted or the forces were of necessity to be drawne from his Countrey with the terror of them all his loyalty vanished yea he failed not to mingle secretly the greatest Counsels of mischiefe with his humblest submissions And these courses had beene nourished by the sloth of our Leaders the frugality of some of our counsellers and the Queenes inbred lenity yet of all other he had most abused the late Lord Generals loue to him and his credulity which specially grew out of his loue Now of this new Lord Deputy by letters hee requested a truce or cessation which it seemed good to the Lord Deputy to grant for a moneth in regard of the conueniency of her Maiesties present affaires not any way to gratifie the Rebell for he had no purpose to entertaine more speech of his submission or to slacke the pursuit of him and his confederates to which he was wholly bent He saw the lamentable effects which these cessations together with protections had hitherto produced and among other euils did specially resolue to auoid them Therefore assoone as the moneth of truce was expired the Lord Deputy aswell by his first actions to giue luster and ominous presage to his gouernement as because he iudged it best for the seruice to strike at the head presently drew the Forces towards Tyrone The Irish in a fastnes neere Armagh so they call straight passages in woods where to the natural strength of the place is added the art of interlacing the low bowes and casting the bodies of trees acrosse the way opposed the passage of the English who made their way with their swords and found that the Irish resolutely assaulted would easily giue ground Then the Lord Deputy assaulted the Fort of Blackewater formerly built by the English vpon the passage to Dungannon whence the Eurle at his first entering into rebellion had by force expelled the English as carefully as he would haue driuen poyson from his heart This Fort he soon wonne and repayring the same put a company of English souldiers into it to guard it But 〈◊〉 the Lord Deputy with the whole army were rendering thanks to God for this good succesle the 〈◊〉 shewed themselues out of the thicke woods neere adioyning on the North-side of the Fort so as the prayers were interrupted by calling to armes The English entered 〈◊〉 and preuayled against them driuing them to styeinto the thickest of their dens In this conflict were killed Francis Vaughan
Desmonds warre which possessed their Ancestors lands also the incouragement they receiued by the good successe of the Rebels and no lesse the hope of pardon vpon the worst euent And to speake truth Munster vndertakers aboue mentioned were in great part cause of this defection and of their owne fatall miseries For whereas they should haue built Castles and brought ouer Colonies of English and haue admitted no Irish Tenant but onely English these and like couenants were in no part performed by them Of whom the men of best qualitie neuer came ouer but made profit of the land others brought no more English then their owne Families and all entertained Irish seruants and tenants which were now the first to betray them If the couenants had been kept by them they of themselues might haue made two thousand able men whereas the Lord President could not find aboue two hundred of English birth among them when the Rebels first entred the Prouince Neither did these gentle Vndertakers make any resistance to the Rebels but left their dwellings and fled to walled Townes yea when there was such danger in flight as greater could not haue been in defending their owne whereof many of them had wofull experience being surprised with their wiues and children in flight Among the Mounster Rebels were the Vicount Mountgarret the Earle of Ormonds neere Kinsman and the Baron of Cahir a Butler and of the Earles Kindred Both these pretended their discontent and malice against the said Earle for cause of their reuolt But more dangerous causes were suspected and excepta Royall Force were quickly opposed to the Rebels bold attempts a generall reuolt was feared May you hold laughter or will you thinke that Carthage euer bred such a dissembling faedifragous wretch as Tyrone when you shall reade that euen in the middest of all these garboyles and whilest in his letters to the King of Spaine he magnified his victories beseeching him not to beleeue that he would seeke or take any conditions of Peace and vowing constantly to keepe his faith plighted to that King yet most impudently he ceased not to entertaine the Lord Lieutenant by letters and messages with offers of submission This hee did but not so submissiuely as before for now the Gentleman was growne higher in the instep as appeared by the insolent conditions he required Ireland being in this turbulent State many thought it could not bee restored but by the powerfull hand of Robert Earle of Essex This noble Lord had from his youth put himselfe into military actions of greatest moment so farre as the place he held in Court would permit and had of late yeeres wonne much honour in some seruices by Sea and Land so as he had full possession of a superintendencie ouer all martiall affaires and for his noble worth was generally loued and followed by the Nobility and Gentrie In which respects the Queene knew him fit for this seruice Hee had long been a deare fauourite to the Queene but had of late lien so open to his enemies as he had giuen them power to make his imbracing of militarie courses and his popular estimation so much suspected of his Soueraigne as his greatnesse was now indged to depend as much on her Maiesties feare of him as her loue to him And in this respect he might seeme to the Queene most vnfit for this seruice But surely the Earle was perswaded that his Houour could not stand without imbracing this Action and since he affected it no man durst be his riuall Besides that his enemies gladly put for ward this his designe that they might haue him at more aduantage by his absence from Court. Finally the vulgat gaue ominous acclamations to his enterprise but the wiser sort rather wished then hoped happy effects either to his priuate or the publike good in regard of the powerfull enemies hee left in Court whence all seconds were to come to him and of his owne distracted ends though enclined to the publike good yet perhaps in aiming at the speedy end of this warre and some other particulars not fully concurring with the same The Earle of Essex when he first purposed to intertaine the managing of the Irish warres aduised and obtained that two Regiments of old souldiers should be transported out of the Low-Countries into that Kingdome namely The first Regiment Sir Charles Pearcy Colonell 200 1050 Foote Captaine Richard Moryson Lieutenant Colonell 150 Sir Oliuer Lambart 150 Captaine Henrie Masterson 150 Captaine Randal Bret 150 Captaine William Turret 150 Captaine Turner 100 The second Regiment Sir Henry Dockwra Colonel and Conductor of all 200 950 Foote Captaine Iohn Chamberlin Lieutenant Colonel 150 Captaine Edmond Morgan 150 Captaine Edward Michelburne 150 Captaine Walter Floyd 150 Captaine Garret Haruy 150 These Regiments landed in Ireland before the Earles comming ouer and were then dispersed by the Earle into diuers Regiments of new men to season them and to replenish them with sufficient Officers The Earles Patent was granted with title of Lord Lieutenant and with more ample authoritie then many other Lord Deputies had formerly granted them for whereas others had power to pardon all Treasons Felonies and all offences except such treasons as touched her Maiesties person her heires c and the counterfeiting of money This exception was by the Earles importunitie left out which hee extorted with wise prouidence since the Lawyers held all Treasons to touch the Princes person And whereas other Lord Deputies had power to bestow all Offices excepting the chiefe reserued to the Queenes gift his Lordship had power to bestow some of the chiefest and to remoue all Officers not holding by Patent and to suspend such as held by Patent Besides his Lordship had power in many things which neuer had been formerly giuen to any as to make Martiall Lawes he being Lord Martiall of England and to punish the transgressors And to let the lands of Tyrone and other Rebels named to any persons whatsoeuer and to their heires Males reseruing due rents to her Maiestie To command the Ships already sent and to be sent into Ireland except the Lord Admirall were sent forth to Sea and commandement were giuen of ioyning the said ships to his Fleete And lastly to issue the Treasure according to the two establishments with liberty to alter that which was signed by the Lords in England with the aduise and consent of the Counsell of Ireland so as he exceeded not the summe of the Establishments He had an Army assigned him as great as himselfe required and such for number and strength as Ireland had neuer yet seene The establishment was signed by the Queene the foure and twenty of March being the last day after the English account of the yeere 1598. It contained first the pay of the chiefe Officers in the Army the Lord Lieutenant Generall ten pound a day The Lieutenant of the Army three pound a day The Generall of the Horse fortie shillings a day the Marshall of the Campe
Lord Deputies discretion But their Lordships aduised warily to obserue and know such as offered submission because it had alwaies been the Arch-traitors practise to let slip such as he could not defend that they might saue their goods and liue vpon her Maiestie without any intent to doe her seruice Lastly whereas the Lord of Dunkellin by his letters in regard of some restrictions whereby hee was disabled to serue her Maiestie as he desired had made offer to resigne the gouernement he had in the Prouince of Connaght And forasmuch as the Queene was alwaies vnwilling to imploy any great Lord in his owne Countrie yet finding him placed in that gouernement by the Earle of Essex had still continued him there only out of her speciall fauor to him And for that of late some insolencies had bin offered to Companies of the English by the old Earle of Clanrieards soldiers in her Maiesties pay Their Lordships signified that the Queenes pleasure was to accept the Lord of Dunkellins resignation in the fairest maner and withall carefull tendering of his honour aduising the Lord Deputie to inuite him to accompany his Lordship and serue in the Army vnder him And Sir Arthur Sauage then a Colonel of the Army and lying with his Company at Athlone was appointed prouisionall Gouernour of the Prouince of Connaght except the Lord Deputie knew some sufficient cause to the contrary The Lord Deputy hauing attained his end of drawing the Army into the North by the safe landing and setling of Loughfoyle Garrison in the farthest North of Ireland on Tyrones backe His Lordship the twentie eight of May hearing that Tyrone had drawne backe his men two miles further into the fastnesse and being informed that the Pace of the Moyrye by reason of much wet lately fallen and the Rebels breaking of the causey was hard to passe returned by Carlingford pace to Dundalke and so to Dublin where he vnderstood that the Rebels had in his absence burned the Pale though he left for defence of it 2000 foot and 175 horse in Lemster but the damage was not answerable to the clamour for many priuate men haue in England sustained greater losse by casuall fire in time of peace then the whole Pale had done by the enemies burning in warre and many priuate men in England haue in one yeere lost more cattel by a rot then the Pale lost by this spoyling of the rebels of which they lamentably complained Besides that indeede this burning and spoyling of the very Pale did further the greatest end of finishing the warres no way so likely to be brought to an end as by a generall famine Giue me leaue to digresse a little to one of the fatall periods of Robert the noble Earle of Essex his tragedy and the last but one which was his death whereof the following relation was sent into Ireland The fifth of Iune there assembled at Yorke-house in London about the hearing of my Lord of Essex his cause eighteene Commissioners viz. my Lord of Canterburie Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Lord Admi Lords of Worcester Shrewsbury Cumberland Huntington Darby Zouch Mast. Comptroller Master Secretarie Sir Ihon Fortescu Lord Popham Chiefe Iustice Lord Anderson Chiefe Iustice of the common Pleas Lord Perian Chiefe Baron of the Exchequer Iustices Gaudy and Walmesley They sate from eight of the clock in the morning till very neere nine at night all at a long table in chaires At the Earles comming in none of the Commissioners stirred cap or gaue any signe of curtesie He kneeled at the vpper end of the Table and a good while without a cushion At length my Lord of Canterbury moued my Lord Treasurer and they ioyntly my Lord Keeper and Lord Admirall that sat ouer against them then was he permitted a cushion yet still was suffered to kneele till the Queenes Sergeants speech was ended when by the consent of the Lords he was permitted to stand vp and after vpon my Lord of Canterburies motion to haue a stoole The manner of proceeding was this My Lord Keeper first deliuered the cause of the assembly and then willed the Queenes Counsaile at Law viz Sergeant Attorney Solicitor and Master Bacon to informe against him The Sergeant began and his speech was not long onely a preface as it were to the accusations The summe of it was to declare the Queenes Princely care and prouision for the warres of Ireland and also her gratious dealing with the Earle before he went in discharging ten thousand pound of his debts and giuing him almost so much more to buy him horses and prouide himself and especially in her proceedings in this cause when as after so great occasion of offence as the consumption of a royall Army fruitlesse wasting thirty hundred thousand 〈◊〉 treasure contempt and disobedience to her expresse commandement she notwithstanding was content to be so mercifull towards him as not to proceede against him in any of her Courts of Iustice but only in this priuate sort by way of mercy and fauour After him the Attorney began whose speech contained the body and substance of the accusation it was very sharp stinging for besides the man faults of contempt and disobedience where with hee charged him he did also shrewdly inferre a dangerous disposition and purpose which was by many rhetoricall amplifications agrauated to the full he diuided his speech into three parts Quomodo ingressus Quomodo progressus Quomodo regressus In the ingresse hee obserued how large a Commission he stood vpon such a one as neuer any man had the like before namely that he might haue authoritie to pardon all Traytors of himselfe yea to pardon treason committed against her Maiesties owne person and that he might mannage the warres by himself without being tied to the aduice of the Counsell of Ireland which clause hee said was granted that he might at first proceede in the Northerne iourny which the Counsell of Ireland whose lands and liuings lay in the South might perhaps hinder and labor to diuert him to the safeguard of themselues In the other two parts of his speech were contained fiue speciall crimes wherwith the Earle was charged viz. His making the Earle of Southampton Generall of the Horse 2. His going to Lemster and Mounster when he should haue gone to Vlster 3. His making so many Knights 4. His conference with Tyrone 5. His returne out of Ireland contrary to her Maiesties command These all sauing the fourth were recited by the Lords in their censures as the crimes for which he was censured by them The first was amplified for that he did it contrary to her Maiesties mind plainely signified vnto him in England that hee increased that offence by continuing him in that office stil when her Maiesty by letters had expressely commanded him to displace him and thirdly for that he wrote a very bold presumptuous letter to her Maiesty in excuse of that offence which letter was afterwards read The second point of his Southerne iourny was agrauated
and first notably cleering the Earle from all suspition of disloyalty which he protested he did from his conscience and afterwards often iterated the same and preserued it vnto him entire he spake singularly for the iustifying of her Maiesties speciall care and wisdome for the warres in Ireland in prouiding whatsoeuer could be demanded by the Earle for that seruice before his going out with supplying him afterwards with whatsoeuer hee could aske so it were possible to bee giuen him in prescribing that course which had it beene followed was the onely way to haue reduced that Realme and which being forsaken was the onely ruine and losse of that royall army And as for all those excuses which the Earle alleaged for himselfe hee cleerely cut them off shewing that his excuse of following the Counsell of Irelands aduice was nothing his commission being so large that he was not bound to follow them and if he had beene yet were they a Counsell at his command he might force them to say what he list his own letters which he alleaged might be prouisionary written of purpose then to excuse him now To be short he greatly iustified her Maiesties wisdome in managing that whole action as much as lay in her and laid the whole fault of the bad successe in Ireland vpon the Earles ominous iourney so he called it into Mounster And thus in the behalfe of her Maiesty he fully satisfied the Auditors Master Secretary gaue the Earle his right alwaies and shewed more curtesie then any yet saied he the Earle in all his iourney did nothing else but make as it were circles of errours which were all bound vp in the vnhappy knot of his disobedient returne Also he gaue the Earle free liberty to interrupt him at any time in his speech But the Earle being contented with the opinion of loyalty so cleerely reserued vnto him was most willing to beare the whole burthen of all the rest of the accusation and therefore neuer vsed any further reply onely by reason of a question or two that were moued by my Lord of Canterbury and my Lord Admirall some little speech there was to and fro My Lord of Canterburies question was concerning the conditions of yeelding vnto Tyrone in tolleration of religion the Earle heartily thanked him for mouing that doubt then protested that it was a thing mentioned in deed but neuer yeelded vnto by him nor yet stood vpon by the Traitor to whom the Earle had said plainely Hang thee vp thou carest for religion as much as my horse Master Secretary also cleered the Earle in that respect that he neuer yeelded to Tyrone in that foule condition though by reason of Tyrones vaunting afterwards it might haue some shew of probability By reason of my Lord Admirals question the Earle spake somewhat of his returne that he did it vpon a false ground of hope that her Maiesty might pardon him as shee did the Earle of Leicester in the like case who returned out of the Low-Countries contrary to her Maiesties expresse Letter This I thought with my selfe quoth the Earle if Leicester were pardoned whose end was onely to saue himselfe why might not Essex be pardoned whose end was to saue a Kingdome But Master Secretary replied that vpon his knowledge there neuer passed any letter from her Maiesty to forbid the Earle of Leicesters returne Iudge Walmesley his speech was more blunt then bitter Prisoners at our barres saith he are more gracelesse they will not confesse their faults Againe he compared my Lord his comming home and leauing the army there to a shepheard that left his flocke to the keeping of his dogge In conclusion the Earle protested that all he sought for was the opinion of a true and a loyall subiect which might appeare by the speech wherewith he hedged in all his answeres namely that he intended onely to shew those false guides which misled him whether they were his owne errours or the errours of his Counsellors whom he followed that he yeelded himselfe wholly to her Maiesties mercy and fauour and was ready to offer vp his poore carkasse vnto her he would not say to doe for alasse he had no faculties but to suffer whatsoeuer her Maiesty should inflict vpon him and so requested them all to make a iust honourable and fauourable report of his disordered speeches which had fallen from him in such sort as his aking head and body weakened with sickenesse would giue him leaue This done they proceeded to the censure My Lord Keeper beganne with a good powerfull and eloquent speech That by Iustice and Clemency the Throne is established as for mercy her Maiesty had reserued it to her selfe but for the satisfying of her Iustice shee had appointed them to enquire into the cause That they were to enquire onely of those faults of contempts and disobedience laid vnto the Earle and to censure him accordingly and for her mercy they had nothing to doe with it onely God was to worke it in her Princely breast In examining the Earles faults he laid these for his grounds that the two grounds and foundations of the Princes Scepter and Estate are the reputation of a diligent and carefull prouidence for the preseruation of her estate and Countries and the obedience of her Subiects and he that should take either of these from her should take from her the Crowne and Scepter For the first he notably shewed at large how her Matesty had deserued it in the whole course of the Irish warres for obedience he shewed the nature of it consisting in precisely following the streight line of the Princes commandement and vpon that straine he amplified to the vttermost all the Earles contempts and disobediences that her Maiesties great mercy might appeare the more cleerely Among the rest for he went through them all in order he answered thus to the pretence of Leicesters president for excuse of the Earles returne In good things the example is better then the imitation of another he that doth wel of his owne head doth best and he that doth well by imitation doth commendably in a lesse degree but in bad things the proportion is otherwise the example being naught the imitation is worse Therefore if my Lord of Leicester did euill in comming ouer contrary to the Queenes commandement my Lord of Essex did worse in imitating my Lord of Leicester and is so much the more to be punished for it In the end he came to the censure which was this If quoth he this cause had beene heard in the Starre-chamber my sentence must haue beene so great a sine as euer was set vpon any mans head in that Court and perpetuall imprisonment in that place which belongeth to a man of his quality that is the Tower but now that we are in another place and in a course of fauour my censure is that he is not to execute the office of a Counsellor nor to hold himselfe for a Counsellor of Estate nor to execute the office of Earle
and we carried hurdles and fagots to passe into the Iland but the water carrying them away and his Lordships Guard being not well seconded by the Irish wee came off with losse and Captaine Rotheram was shot Before I proceede I must digresse a little to other matters In this Iourney begun the twentie two of December his Lordship receiued commandement to pardon all such in Mounster as should require it and should be commended by the Lord President with assurance that Spaine was so intangled with the warre of Sauoy as the Irish Rebels could at this time haue small succour thence His Lordship writ to Master Secretary to procure him leaue to start ouer into England to kisse the Queenes hands and to conferre with him about the Irish seruice professing that hee reputed him his honourable friend and did much disdaine that humour in any subiect if any such were which would thinke him tyed by any respect from hauing his affection free to loue him In the beginning of Februarie the Lord President of Mounster excused himselfe to the Lord Deputy that hee had made stay of some forces his Lordship had directed to come from thence because hee had intelligence that some Northerne Rebels were sent to inuade Mounster But his Lordship knowing that he had stopped their passage and that they could not goe with any great numbers if perchance they escaped did againe require that these forces might be sent vnto him At this time there was a plot for Tyrones head the managing whereof was commended to Sir Richard Moryson Gouernour of Dundalke whether Sir William Godolphin was sent with his troope of horse to second this plot which tooke not the wished effect the vndertaker Henry Oge Oneale failing in his courage or in his faith Now I will returne to his Lordships actions while hee lay at Maghogans Castle The same two twentieth of February his Lord receiued a packetout of England by which he vnderstood that the Earle of Essex was committed to the Tower for treason which much dismaied him and his neerest friends and wrought strange alteration in him For whereas before he stood vpon termes of honour with the Secretary now he fell flat to the ground and insinuated himselfe into in ward loue and to an absolute dependancy with the Secretary so as for a time he estranged himselfe from two of his neerest friends for the open declaration they had made of dependancy on the Earle of Essex yet rather couering then extinguishing his good affection to them It is not credible that the influence of the Earles malignant star should worke vpon so poore a snake as my selfe being almost a stranger to him yet my neerenesse incloud to one of his Lordships aboue named friends made it perhaps seeme to his Lordship improper to vse my seruice in such neerenesse as his Lordship had promised and begun to doe So as the next day he tooke his most secret papers out of my hand yet giuing them to no other but keeping them in his owne cabinet and this blow I neuer fully recouered while I staied in Ireland In truth his Lordship had good cause to be wary in his words and actions since by some confessions in England himselfe was tainted with priuity to the Earles practises so that how soeuer he continued still to importune leaue to come ouer yet no doubt he meant nothing lesse but rather if he had been sent for was purposed with his said friends to saile into France they hauing prinately fitted themselues with money and necessaries thereunto For howsoeuer his Lordship were not dangerously ingaged therein yet hee was as hee priuately professed fully resolued not to put his necke vnder the fyle of the Queenes Atturnies tongue But his Lordships former seruice and the necessity of his future imployment together with his good successe so strengthened him as without great vnthankefulnesse and popular obloquy he could not haue beene questioned vpon this weake ground The same twenty two of February his Lordship in colmsell resolued to proclaime that all such as had any rebels goods should discouer them or be guiltie of Treason That none vpon paine of death should parley with the rebels that the Countrey should bring in victuals to the Campe which no man vpon paine of death should take from them without paying the price of the market And thus purposing to force the rebels out of the fortified Iland and then to plant a garrison at the Abbey neere adioyning and to charge the new submitted subiects to loyne with this garrison in the seruice as also to take order for the safe victualing of the same when he should be gone his Lordship resolued the next day to make another attempt against the Iland wherein Terril lay preparing all things to second the same and taking order to bring victualls to the Campe from all parts and especially from Athlone by boates The twenty three of February his Lordship drew forth to the Abbey where hee had lodged foure hundred souldiers there hee dined and proclaimed Terrils head at two thousand crownes and after dinner drawing to the Iland he diuided the forces sending part to put boates into the water and so to assaile the Iland and causing the rest to be led into the Woods to fetch out the rebels corne and to burne the houses and such things for their reliefe as they could not bring away The twenty foure of February being Shroue-tuesday there fell a great snow so that we were forced to lie still and the next night the Rebels did steale away leauing the Iland to his Lordship where the next day wee found much corne some Murrions and Peeces eight Cowes and some garrons The twenty six his Lordship drew the forces beyond the Iland into a pleasant valley wherein was a ruined house of Sir Edward Herberts and the ground was well plowed by the Rebels Our men burnt houses and corne and his Lordship gaue an Angell to a Souldier to swim ouer the water and burne the houses in another Iland Then we came to a riuer which diuideth West Meath and Orphaly into which countrey his Lordship sent diuers companies vnder Sir Christopher Saint Laurence to spoyle the same The twenty seuen his Lordship rode six miles to Sir Iohn Tirrels a strong Castle wee passed by the way Tirrels pace compassed with bogges and hilly woods This Knight was a subiect and here his Lordship rested the next day The first of March his Lordship rode to Klonegaue the house of Sir Terrence Odempsey in Ophalia being twelue miles in the first part whereof wee passed a dangerous part of Tirrels fastnesse Here his Lordship receiued a gracious Letter from her Maiesty whereby she made known vnto him the Earle of Essex his death to vse her own words professed that in regard of his approued fidelity and loue it was some alleuation of her griefe to eiaculate the same to him First her Maiesty required him to look wel in general vpon the dispositions of all
to follow their golden hopes of 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Townes and People are of so obstinate a contrariety in Religion 〈◊〉 without question they are grow 〈◊〉 malicious to the Gouernement and affect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the power of Spaine to declare themselues the Irish Lords 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same motiues as they against vs in their last necessitie to ioyne with 〈◊〉 And all these especially the Townes are more stirred on by this new coine 〈◊〉 though if the 〈◊〉 of Spaine doe not arriue may securely be established yet if 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 breede many dangerous inconueniences It may therefore please her 〈◊〉 to haue in a readinesse sixe thousand of the trained Bands of such Countries 〈◊〉 best for transporting into Ireland to be sent ouer into Mounster vpon the first 〈◊〉 of any 〈◊〉 power to be arriued there and some part of her Nauy in a readinesse 〈◊〉 a greater portion of munition and artillerie for vs then otherwise this warre 〈◊〉 require We doe hope to giue her Maiestie a very good account of her Kingdome and of our selues vntill wee shall haue cause to sue for more reliefe And if it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall out that Spaine will haue warre with England we shall be glad that the 〈◊〉 of England may be made in Ireland and that wee her poore seruants shall haue the happinesse to strike the first blowes for both her Royall Kingdoms the which the 〈◊〉 God preserue long vnto her and her vnto them and vs c. The same fourteenth day from the said Campe at the Fagher his Lordship wrote to Sir Henrie Dockwra Gouernour of Loughsoyle first touching his Lordships purposes That the generall hoasting being the last of Iune his Lordship presumed within 〈◊〉 dayes after to be prouided of all meanes to put at the forces in action according to their distribution the proiect whereof he sent to him inclosed and to bee himselfe as high as Armagh with such a power as Tyrone should haue good reason to thinke that he would doe somewhat more and in the meane time he would God willing keepe the field as neere Tyrone as his meanes would giue him leaue So as his Lordship hauing planted at Armagh and Blackwater hoped either by lying there to facilitate his planting of Ballishannon from Loughfoyle or to breake into Tyrone and meete him there And if Tyrones Army should breake as his Lordship expected he thought to find no great difficulty herein but otherwise held the passage to Dungannon not to be ventured that way But touching the planting at Ballishannon that Sir Henrie Dockwra should not build vpon any supplies from his Lordship of victuals munition or tooles for artillery that he might vse that he had at Loughfoyle and either bring it back by water or be after supplied thereof from Dublin For munition tooles and like necessaries that his Lordship could spare none if he could yet had no speedy meanes to send them For intelligence that he had sent him a Cipher which he might vse safely in writing to his Lordship not caring how the messengers sped so the letters were not vnderstood That he had sent the like Cipher to Sir Arthur Chichester at Knockfergus with whom he should haue often intelligence and might that way write most safely to his Lordship That when he knew his owne meanes and by his Lordships proiect should find him in readinesse to answere his attempts he should chuse his 〈◊〉 for planting Ballishannon and as neere as he could send his Lordship certaine notice of the time and vse all possible expedition But if he could not plant there 〈◊〉 want or difficulty that then hee should agree with Sir Arthur Chichester that they might both at one time breake into Tyrone where his Lordship vpon notice 〈◊〉 would meete them in which iourney besides all other effects of warre they should 〈◊〉 all the dwellings and destroy the corne on the ground 〈◊〉 might bee 〈◊〉 by incamping vpon it and cutting it downe with swords and other waies holding 〈◊〉 best they should spoile all the corne except that which he could gather wherein he should not regard the 〈◊〉 of the Irish Submitties in his Campe. The 〈◊〉 fourteenth day wee dislodged from the Fagher and leauing the Moyry 〈◊〉 with Warders to guard it and the workemen being to build a Tower 〈◊〉 keepe of 〈◊〉 we marched eight miles and incamped at Carickbane a little beyond the Newrie The fifteenth his Lordship rose and marching some fifteene miles incamped in Enagh the Countrie of Mac Gennis The late Rebels neere Dundalke being all submitted his Lordship had drawne Sir Richard Moryson with his Regiment from that Gouernement purposing to place him in Lecayle neerer to the enemie And intending to march thither with the Army the next day left the rebels should haue leasure to burne the Countrie and carry away the prey his Lordship sent Sir Richard Moryson this euening with sixe Companies of Foote and one of Horse to march all night into Lecayle who comming suddenly on the rebels tooke all the prey and intaking of Downe Patrick the Bishops seate one of the Bradyes was taken and his head cut off the rest yeelding to mercy there and in all adioyning places Here his Lordship was aduertised from the Secretarie of Ireland that the newes of the Spanish inuasion this Summer was seconded from diuers comming from Cales The sixteenth day his Lordship marched with the Army through high Mountaines and Woods and some dangerous paces seuen miles to the Blackstaffe tiuer neare a strong Castle called Dundrom lying on the North side of the Paces where the plaine Countrie opens into Lecayle being an Iland compassed on the West side with this Riuer and on the three other sides with the sea and two small armes thereof This night his Lordship with some horse passed the Blackstaffe bridge and rode three miles into Lecayle to view the Countrie In the way Phelim Mac Euer submitted himself and yeelded to the Queene his Castle of Dundrom Also Mac Carty submitted himselfe and drew his creaghts or cattle seruants and goods into Lecayle His Lordship returned to the Camp and the next day rode to Downe Patrick and thence by Saint Patricks Well to Arglasse being sixe miles in which Towne two Castles yeelded to the Queene and the Warders vp on their liues saued gaue vp their Armes A third Castle there had been held for the Queene all the time of the rebellion by one Iordane neuer comming out of the same for three yeeres past till now by his Lordships comming he was freed and to him was giuen a reward from the Queene by Concordatum besides his Lordships bounty of his priuate purse After dinner his Lordship rode two miles to Russels Towne and foure miles to the Campe at Blackstaffe The eighteenth day Mat Rory Captaine of Kilwarden adioyning was receiued to the Queenes mercy vpon his submission And Sir Arthur Chichester Gouernor of Knockfergus all this day expected came in the euening to whom his Lordship that night
disposed At Carickefergus Sir Arthur Chichester Gouernour 200. Sir Foalke Conway 150. Captaine Billings 150. Captaine Phillips 150. Captaine Norton 100. Captaine Egerton 100. Foot 850. Sir Arthur Chichester 25. Captaine Iohn Iephson 100. Horse 125. At Lecaile Sir Richard Moryson Gouernour 150. Captaine Toby Cawfield 150. Foot 300. These following forces when they should be drawne out for conuoy of victuals or otherwise were to be commanded in chiefe by Sir Francis Stafford and were thus disposed in seuerall garrisons At the Newry Sir Francis Stafford Gouernour 200. Captaine Iostas Bodley 150. Sir William Warren 100. Foot 450. Sir Francis Stafford 50 Horse At Mount Norreis Captaine Edward Blaney Gouernour 150. Captaine Atherton 150 Sir Samuell Bagnoll 150. Captaine Rotheram 150. Foot 600. Sir Samuell Bagnoll 50 Horse At Armagh Sir Henry Dauers Couernour 150. Sir H. Follyot 150. Capt. Guest 150. Capt. Thomas Roper 150. Captaine Francis Roe 100. Capt. Treuer 100. Foot 800. Sir Henry Dauers 100. Captaine Darcy 25. Horse 125. At Blackewater Captaine Williams Gouernour 150. Captaine Constable 100. Sir Garret Moore 100. Foot 350. The twenty foure of August his Lordship leauing the field rode backe to the Newry from whence he sent one W. an Englishman in bonds to the Lords in England for the reasons following Sir Henry Dauers after his elder brothers perishing in the late Earle of Essex his attempt was desirous by actiue prosecution of the Rebels to deserue her Maiesties good opinion And for this cause as for that hee was enabled to doe great seruices aswell by his noble vertues as by the command he formerly and now had both of horse and foot his Lordship in speciall loue to him being most willing to giue him all opportunity to attaine this his desire appointed him Gouernour of Armagh aduising him to be often stirring with the forces vnder his command and to practise what possibly he could deuise vpon the person of the Arch-traitor To him this Englishman made offer to kill Tyrone yet would not discouer his plot for greater secrecy as he pretended neither would he presse him further since he required no assistance and so in the night he was suffered to goe by the watches and passed to Tyrones Campe whence he was imploied to the Ilander Scots and comming to Sir Arthur Chithester hands was by him sent backe from Knockefergus to his Lordship at the Newry where being examined what he had done in Tyrones Campe he auowed that once he had drawne his sword to kill him though vnder pretence of bragging what he would doe for his seruice yet gaue he no good accompt of his actions or purposes but behaued himselfe in such sort as his Lordship iudged him franticke though not the lesse fit for such a purpose Now because hee had not performed that he vndertooke and gaue an ill accompt of himselfe in this action his Lordship aswell for the discharge of Sir H. Dauers who imploied him as of himselfe who consented therevnto and aduised Sir H. Dauers so to doe thought good to send him prisoner to the Lords that he might be there examined where by reason of his friends dwelling in London they might be sufficiently informed of the mans quality The fiue and twentieth his Lordship and the Counsel there present wrote from the Newry this following letter to the Lords in England IT may please your Lordships Since our last letters we haue for the most part imploied our selues in putting vp as great quantity of victuals as we could to Armagh and the Blackewater being loath to ingage our selues into any thing which wee had further purposed vntill we should see the issue of this assured expectation of the Spaniards inuasion or till we might by some meanes better strengthen this Army Of the first we haue reason to be iealous both by many arguments of assured confidence in this people of present succour and by the arriuall of a Spanish ship in which the Arch-traytors agent is returned with assurance that he left the Spanish forces ordained for his aide in a readinesse to set out For the strengthening of our Armie wee had good reason to bee prouident considering the weakenesse thereof and especially of the English and finding by experience the rebels strength now when he had none but the forces nourished in Tyrone to assist him Wherefore hearing that Sir Henrie Dockwra had planted a Garrison at Dunnagall and had left O Donnel possessed in a manner of nothing in Tirconnel and that vpon the late ariuall of his munition he intended to be actiue in those parts neere Loughfoyle and vnderstanding by Master Secretary that about the twelfth of August there were two thousand men to be supplied for Mounster we resolued to send for some of the Companies in Connaght of the Mounster Lyst and to put the rest into Galloway and thereabouts for the assurance of those parts and vpon the receiuing of that addition to our strength to haue drawne to Monaghan and spoiled the Corne of that Country being of exceeding quantitie or if we had seene reason to haue left a Garrison there and to haue inabled it to gather the most part of that Corne for their better prouision or otherwise to haue continued the prosecution in these parts vntil we should heare of the Spaniards landing or by any assurance of their not comming should be at liberty to proceede in our former purposes But receiuing answere from the Captaines of Mounster that they had direction not to stirre from Connaght vpon any other order whatsoeuer then from the President of Mounster in regard of the present expectation of Spaniards to land in those parts and we thereby being not so well able to wade any further in our determinations for the North receiuing some probable intelligence that the place designed for the Spaniards landing was Sligo wee resolued to leaue the Northerne Garrisons very strong in foote and horse and as well prouided with meanes as we can and to draw our selues with the rest of our force towards Connaght appointing the rest of the Couusel to meete vs in the way at Trym to aduise with vs of the best course to establish the heart of the Pale and to answere the present expectation of Spanish forces And although by our suddaine leauing the North we haue ommitted some things which wee conceiued to bee of great consequence to the seruice yet if it shall please your Lordships to supply the foundations we haue laid in those parts with one thousand shot according to our former sute and with store of victuals for the Garrisons in Winter we hope you shall finde no small effect of our Summers labour But seeing we are perswaded that if any Spanish forces arriue they wil land at Sligo where they haue a fit place to fortifie to be relieued by sea to vnite themselues with all the Rebels force and where they haue a faire Countrie to possesse with an casie way by the rebels assistance into Mounster or the hart of the
be comming with a great Armie of horse and foote selected out of all the rebels in Ireland and from all others that he can seduce to his partie At his comming these Prouincials will discouer themselues either against vs or neutrals as they are for better wee doe not expect from them Except out supplies doe come before his arriuall wee shall hardly bee Masters of the field but rather driuen wee feare to discontinue our siege yet if her Maiesties shipping prouisions and supplies doe arriue in any time we hope to giue her ere it bee long a good account of this place though wee desire your Lordships to consider the difficulties we haue to contend with in this Countrie and season of the yeere besides the force and opposition of the enemie I the President doe acknowledge the receit of such an intelligence concerning Captaine A. as it pleaseth your Lordships to remember and since that time kept very good spiall vpon him and haue had the sight of all his papers yet cannot find any thing giues me cause to suspect him and therefore we all thinke it fit seeing his Company is returned hither among other to make vse of his seruice here for which we find him very fit vntill there may be some apt occasion to dispose of him elsewhere without giuing him discontentment vnlesse we had more particular and certaine ground to charge him with which wee must receiue from thence yet in the meane time hee shall bee so narrowly looked vnto as if hee haue the will which wee doubt not hee shall not haue meanes to hurt much The same seuenth day his Lordship vnderstanding from Master Secretary by his letter dated the nineteenth of the last moneth and receiued the second of this moneth that he found her Maiesty inclined to make one Gouernour ouer all Vlster and especially to like of Sir Arthur Chichester for that great charge whereupon hee purposed to proceed therein if his Lordship would explane himselfe how hee would haue that matter carried His Lordship wrote his minde plainely therein aduising that Sir Arthur Chichester should bee made Gouernour of all Vlster by what name it should please her Maiesty to giue him whereby hee might direct all the parts of that Prouince and be resident where he should thinke fittest for the seruice commanding in chiese where he came The managing of the warre to be in generall left to himselfe except he receiued particular directions vpon speciall occasions from England or from the Lord Deputy adding that from him the Lords might be more speedily enformed of what is done or fit to be required for the making of that warre whom of all other Commanders he thought fittest for that charge praying that the Lords there would aduise him and Sir Henry Dockwra to hold a good correspondency for her Maiesties seruice since hee conceiued the warre was to bee chiefly made by their two ioining together For the Scots that any number not exceeding foure thousand might in his conceit fitly be entertained and left to the disposall of Sir Arthur Chichester whose iudgement vpon the state of things there was fittest to be followed for hee could best chuse apt places to lodge them till Sir Henry Dockwra and he might draw into the field when those Scots should ioyne with them and would be of very great vse to spoile which is the best seruice can be done vpon the Irish. Concluding that he had written to Sir Arthur Chichester that he should send into England to him the Secretary his opinion in this businesse which no doubt hee would presently doe But this proiect of appointing a Gouernour in Vlster tooke no effect by reason that Tyrone with most of his Forces were defeated shortly after in Mounster Master Secretary at the same time had sent his Lordship spanish newes which in this his answere he confessed were very likely yet thought it would bee very hard for them to make ready foure thousand men more before Christmas He signified that they here were all of opinion that the necessity of the Spanish forces already in Ireland being more then was expected both by losse at Sea and since their comming hither and by the failing of the Irish hitherto to ioine with them their supplies would be hastened sooner then was determined for so they were aduertised by all the Prisoners taken and by such as did come vnto vs from them His Lordship acknowledged himselfe very much bound vnto Master Secretary for the good dispatch he procured with this last passage and not the least that her Maiesty was pleased to allow of their entertainement of the Irish yet beseeched him to beleeue that by this course they had preuented Tyrone of a great many men that otherwise would and must haue serued him for entertainement hauing no other meanes to liue and yet hitherto all was done within the compasse of the lyst and the White Knight was one of them that before the comming of this approbation was prouided for so carefull was hee to giue him good contentment For their outcries in the Pale he answered that he did not maruel for by that which he had obserued he did iudge that the word Pale had cost the Queen a million yet so il were they disposed so backward euen in their own defence as they now suffred Tyrone with a few horse about the number of 60 to burne and prey them at his pleasure though they were able of themselues to haue beaten him and all his forces and besides had the assistance of Companies in the Queenes pay being three thousand or two thousand at least yet if he would consider that foure thousand Spaniards for so the prisoner that we tooke deliuered them to be vpon his saluation with whom all our prisoners relation and our intelligence did concurre are possessed of a Towneful of strong houses and walled about and helped with many aduantages of ground though commanded by some places hee might easily conceiue that it must bee no small army can force them since our approches this winter were so difficult that the very trenches we made were continually filled with water and the decay of our men was so great by continuall labour sicknesse sword and bullet And therefore we had no reason to keepe a great body of men in the Pale to guard it till this dangerous war were fiuished But to preuent this clamour of the Pale it was meerely vnpossible though it would please her Maiesty to keepe there ten thousand in her pay when they would not stirre nor raise the crie but suffer themselues to bee so vsed out of the malice of their owne hearts that they might haue some colour of complaint being the worst sort of people in all the Kingdome though he protested he had been as carefull of them as if they had been his Kindred or speciall friends knowing well their humor to be so clamerous For her Maiesties expence he besought him to beleeue that no man did looke vpon it
twentieth of December the eleuenth of Ianuary which were the first that wee receiued out of England since the arriuall of Sir Richard Leuison with our munition and supplies And although we haue vpon euery important reuolution of our businesse dispatched vnto your Lordships both our estate and desires yet we humbly desire your Lordships pardon for the omission of our dutie to enforme you more often of our present estate the chiefe cause thereof being the respect and feare wee haue to possesse you with such falsehoods as it seemeth they doe which vndertake more liberally to aduertise your Lordships of the estate of our affaires for in no place doe all intelligences come apparrelled euen to them that are neerest vnto them in more deceiueable mists vntill time and great obseruation discouereth the truth So that if we should write vnto your Lordships often according to our best informations wee should present to your Reuerent iudgements such ridiculous contrarieties as would giue you occasion to confound your determinations and to condemne vs. But in generall we beseech your Lordships to remember that as wee haue in all our dispaches declared our hopes to ouercome all difficulties out of the confidence of our good cause and alacritie to serue her Maiestie so we haue continually propounded how great and difficult a warre it was in which we were ingaged in that without Gods miraculous preseruation the Army in a winters siege would so decay as it must haue pleased your Lordships continually to supply it with men victuals and munition Also we propounded that we held it a matter of no small danger and great difficulty to force such and so many men in a place of the least aduantage That wee expected no lesse then a generall reuolt and a powerfull combination of the Rebels against vs. Lastly againe we humbly desire your Lordships to remember that we haue promised nothing but the vttermost of our faithfull Counsels and endeauours to accomplish in that seruice her Maiesties purpose And therefore we are most heartily sorry that by our faithfull and sincere Counsels and our extreame induring in the execution thereof howsoeuer the euent were not so speedily happy as we desired and laboured for yet it was not our happinesse that her Maiestie should receiue so much satisfacti by Sir Oliuer Saint Iohns as wee hoped to haue giuen her vpon the former probabilities Yet when it shall please your Lordships throughly to consider our difficulties by the true relation thereof with all materiall circumstances we presume it will appeare that we could haue done no more and we must only attribute it vnto God that we haue done so much By Sir Henrie Dauers your Lordships haue been acquainted at large with all our proceedings vntill that present Since which time the effects of that victory which it pleased God of his infinite goodnesse to giue vs against the traitors vpon Christmas Eue haue appeared by great and vnexpected good thereof insusuing for the Rebels are broken and dispersed O Donnel Redmond Bourke and Hugh Mostyon all Arch-rebels haue imbarked themselues with Sirriage for Spaine and that without Tyrones knowledge and contrary to his aduise and will they hauing only left behind them in Mounster with the Prouinciall Rebels Tyrrell and a small force with him being dispersed by smal companies in Carbery Beere Desmond Kerry and the County of Lymrick Tyrone in great feare and with a speedy march hasted out of the Prouince of Mounster loosing vpon euery Foard many of his Foote but especially in passing the Riuers of Broadwater of May in Connolagh and at the Abbey Owney in O Malryans Country At which Foards the waters being high as we are informed he lost aboue two hundred men and all the way as he went the wearied foote cast away their Armes which those of the Country gathered vp and with all tooke some of their heads but not so many as they might haue done if they had regarded their duties as they ought Their tired horses were slaine by their riders Their hurt men which escaped at the ouerthrow and were carried away vpon garrons died vpon the way and foure principall Gentlemen whereof wee vnderstand Tyrone himselfe was one and Mac Mahown another the rest are not knowne yet were caried in litters Since his departure from O mulryans Country we heare nothing of him but we assure your Lordships that the dismay in which they were and still are is incredible Vpon New-yeeres Eue Don Iean sent a letter vnto me the Deputy the copy whereof is here within sent vnto your Lordships The next day Sir William Godolphin was sent with instructions to receiue from Don Iean the points whereof hee desired to treate whose discreete carriage in so weighty a cause wherein hee performed as much as in discretion and iudgement could be required was such as without doing the Gentleman wrong we may not omit to recommend him to your honourable fauours he being as by experience we may truly report wise valiant and of many extraordinary good parts The copy of the articles agreed vpon betweene vs and Don Iean subscribed by either part your Lordships with these shall likewise receiue hoping that in the same we haue done nothing but that which shall be agreeable to your Lordships and which as we suppose our present estate duly considered vehemently vrged vs to imbrace Now our great care is to hasten these Spaniards away who are as Don Iean affirmes no lesse by pole then three thousand fiue hundred The defect of shipping is our chiafe want They and wee are in equall paine for they are no lesse desirous to bee gone then we are to send them away The contempt and scorne in which the Spaniards hold the Irish and the distaste which the Irish haue of them are not to bee beleeued by any but those who are present to see their behauiours and heare their speeches insomuch as we may probably opniecture that by such time as Don Iean with his sorces is arriued in Spaine it will be a difficult thing for the Irish hereafter to procure aides out of Spaine The copy of the contract for the rates which Don Iean must pay for tunnage and for victuals for his men in their returne your Lordships with these shall also receiue The ninth of this moneth wee dissolued the Campe and brought hither with vs Don Iean who remaines hostage for the performance of the Couenants betweene vs. The day following Capt. Roger Haruy and Capt. Flower were dispatched Westward to receiue from the Spaniards the Castles of Castle-hauen of Baltimore and of Beere-hauen The winning of which places in our iudgements although Kinsale had been taken by force would haue been more difficult vnto vs then that of Kinsale aswell in respect of the incommodities which wee should haue found in keeping a strong and furnished Army in so remote places as in respect of the naturall strength of those places and espetially of Baltimore which with a little Art would bee made of
entertainement cannot allow so much for his horse but by that meanes both the Horse will be starued and the Oates will perish before they be spent In time of plenty the ordinary rate of Oates in Ireland was but at twelue pence the barrell yet they are now well content to pay six shillings a barrell which is at the highest rate the Souldier can giue Of these particulars wee humbly pray redresse from your Lordships And so c. From Corke c. The first of March the Lord Deputy by letters from the Lords in England was required to send ouer a Lieftenant being one of the late cast Companies but still remaining in Ireland to the end he might answer before their Lordships certaine complaints made against him For whereas many Officers in the late leuies of men had receiued in the Country able and sufficient men as wel to serue vnder themselues as to be conducted ouer to be disposed by the Lord Deputy whereof they had for diuers sums of money dismissed many at the Sea side pretending that they were lame or sicke and that they had taken better men in their place neither of these pretences being true Their Lordships purposed to inflict some exemplary punishment for this great offence and therefore required this Lieftenant to be sent ouer who was accused among and aboue the rest The eight of March Sir Oliuer S. Iohns who was sent into England from Kinsale with newes of the good successe in the taking of Rincoran and Nyparke Castles and the happy repulse of the Spaniards sallying vpon our Cannon returned backe to Corke and brought from the Queene this following letter Elizabeth Regina RIght trusty and welbeloued we greet you well By the genlemans relation whom last you sent vnto vs and by your Letters we receiued with much contentment the newes of the rendition of Kinsale and other places held by the Spaniards in that Kingdome wherein although by comparing the same with those reports which were brought vs by diuers that they were not onely in misery for victuall but in penury of men as not being fiue hundred strong we conceiued that you might haue giuen them stricter lawes in their composition and so doe now perceiue how easie a matter it is for those that are neerer hand to the matters of warre then we are to be mistaken yet vpon those considerations which we haue obserued in your iournall last sent ouer containing many important circumstances which did leade you to that course amongst which no one hath so much moued vs as that assault would haue shed the blood of our subiects which is dearer to vs then any reuenge or glory we doe account it both in the successe one of the most acceptable accidents that hath befallen vs and in your carriage thereof discerne it to haue beene guided with as many parts of an able and prouident Minister as any we haue vsed in seruice of like nature And therefore hold it both iust and necessary for vs to yeeld you this testimony of our gracious acceptation of your endeauours which haue beene accompanied with so much paine and perill It remaineth now seeing the state of all things there and your owne desires doe require it that wee speake something of those things which are fit to be thought of for the time to come whereof seeing this euent hath both already begun and is very like to worke great alteration to our aduantage That which we could wish you to aime at is in sum next to the safety of the Kingdome to giue all possible ease to our State by diminishing that great consumption of treasure which of late yeeres wee haue sustained And yet how to direct precisely by what meanes and parcels in euery particular the same is to be done is very hard for vs at this present especially vntill we shall receiue from you and our Counsell there further light by the information of the state of all things now after these successes together with your owne opinion thereupon onely as it is apparant to vs already by your letter that in your own iudgement hauing due sence of the infinite inconueniencies which daily are multiplied vppon this Kingdome by that occasion you did immediatly after the rendition both cast some part of our Army there and stay the supplies comming from hence so in that course we doubt not but you doe and will continue as farre forth as things may beare it in taking care that our Army be not weakened by holding more small garrisons then are necessary And this we may with very good reason say out of obseruation of that which hath passed of latter yeeres and agreeable to your owne opinion That one charge there is very great to vs and yet without any manner of ground of safety if there were cause of aduenture and that is the entertainement of great numbers of Irish wherein we will note vnto you these two considerations First that when things there were at most hazard for vs your owne spirit was doubtfull of the seruice which might be reaped by them Secondly that heretofore when they haue beene vsed it hath not beene seene that either they were entertained at the same rate of pay with our owne Nation or so mixed in common with them in regiments but euer kept more apart both in companies seuerall and vsed in places and in seruices proper for them which course although this extraordinary danger of our Kingdome hath giuen occasion to dispence with yet doubt we not but in your owne conceit you will thinke it meet with all conuenient speed to reforme and giue beginning to it by such degrees of dimunition and in such measure as you shall find to be most for the good of our seruice For the matter which hath beene moued to you from the Arch-trairor we commend your handling of the offer in that you haue kept the dignity of the place you hold and therein ours and yet we doe not mislike that you did not so desperately reiect him as to conclude him thereby from opening the further scope of his desires And though till the next ouerture we haue little more to write vnto you yet we may say thus much in generality that the monstrousnesse of his fact stained with so many and deepe spots of offences of seuerall natures and degrees though none more odious then his ingratitude and the quicke sence we haue alwaies of the biemishing of our honour doth not permit vs to hold any other way with him then the plaine way of perdition And therefore doe aduise you to all courses that may winne vs glory vpon him and if our Armes must be accompanied with any part of mercy rather to imploy the same in receiuing the secondary members and Vriaghts from him by whom that life which is left him standeth then to make so much account of so vile an head as to thinke him worthy to be recouered but rather that abandoned of God and men he may be left to feele
the iust reward of his foule demerits Notwithstanding we will not mislike to heare from you againe what you haue further discouered and guide our further resolution according to occasions Hereupon we haue thought good to returne this gentleman Sir Oliuer S. Iohns to you with thus much of our mind vpon your late letters and with such other matters as from our Counsell he may haue in charge to impart vnto you being one of whose good discretion and affection to our seruice we are very well perswaded to the end that vpon his arriuall by which time much will be seene of the euent of your late happy successe you may enter into some solid consideration of the forme of gouernement hereafter to be held of the proportions of our army to be continued and of all things that may be likely to settle that State in safety from forraigne attempts and in a better obedience to vs then heretofore When you haue debated and resolued what seemeth good to you there vppon all such points we can be then contented that you send backe this gentleman hether againe instructed therewith And because it will be also needfull for the furtherance of our resolutions here to haue good vnderstanding of the ciuill parts of that gouernement as well as of the martiall and that sute hath beene made vnto vs for Sir Robert Gardener our chiefe Iustice there to be licensed to come hither we shall like well that you send them both to the end that vpon their report of your conceipts there we may enter into more particular consideration of all things incident which vpon their arriuall wee shall be better able to doe Giuen vnder our Signet at our Pallace of West minster the eight day of February 1601. in the foure and fortieth yeere of our raigne The same day Sir Oliuer S. Iohns brought from the Lords in England this following letter to the Lord Deputy AFter our hearty commendations to your good Lordship we haue had in most of our late dispatches so little cause to fill our papers with any thing but with commendations of your Lordships wise proceedings and congratulations for her Maiesties happy successe vnder you as at this time if any other we intended not to mixe this acknowledgement of our extraordinary contentment for your late victory against the Spaniards with any other particular directions especially seeing the change you haue made in that Countrey by freeing the same from forraigne power howsoeuer infested still with an intestine rebellion must in all mens knowledge that are acquainted with the affaires of State haue brought so many changes as we can hardly tell what aduice or direction to offer of new vntill we may receiue from thence some further light of the present State of that Kingdome from you whose owne eye and iudgement is neerest and ablest to performe the same In which consideration seeing it hath pleased her Maiesty by her owne letters not onely to giue you notice of her royall and gracious acceptation of your so noble endeuours but to direct your Lordship also to send ouer hether Sir Robert Gardener and this gentleman Sir Oliuer S. Iohns with relation of all particulars fit for her knowledge we will in expectation hereof forbeare to enlarge our letter any further then with our best wishes to your Lordship of all perfect health and happinesse as those that will euer be found c. The same eight day Don Iean and the remaine of the Spaniards at Kinsale were all embarked ready to be gone The next morning the Lord Deputy left Corke and taking his iourney towards Dublyn arriued that night at Yoghall And because the stormy weather and contrary winds kept the Spaniards still in the Port at Kinsale his Lordship was forced to stay in that Towne some few daies from whence he wrote to Master Secretary into England vpon the twelfth of March aduertising him thereof And further giuing him notice that the other Spaniards which were at Beere-Hauen Castle-Hauen and Baltimore now were gone for Spaine That Don Iean had sent to Corke the pledges promised in the eight article of the agreement That fiue English Companies were lately arriued at Waterford And lastly praying to be excused to the rest of the Lords of her Maiesties Counsell that hee forbare to write vnto them till he came to Waterford where within few daies he hoped to meete the Earle of Ormond and some other of the Counsell and vpon conference with them to bee better able to satisfie their Lordships in some things concerning the present State of this Kingdome according to her Maiesties pleasure lately signified to him by her letters The pledges aboue mentioned were to lie for the safe returne of our ships wherein the Spaniards were embarked These pledges were principall Commanders and among them was one Captaine Moryson of whose bold seruice mention is made in the sally vpon the second of December This gentleman was inuited by the Lord Deputy to accompany him to Dublin the rest of his fellowes still remaining at Corke whether hee was to returne vnto them and they together to be shipped for Spaine vpon the safe returne of our ships In which iourney to Dublyn and during this Gentlemans aboad there I had familiar conference with him for names sake and vnderstood from him that his Family in Spaine was discended of an English Gentleman who followed the Emperour Charles the fifth in his warres and after by his bounty was seated in Spaine where at this day the chiefe of his name had good reuenues The Lord Deputy being come to Waterford did write together with the rest of the Counsell vpon the eighteenth of March this following letter to the Lords in England IT may please your Lordships The eighth hereof wee receiued by Sir Oliuer S. Iohns at Corke the dispatch which it pleased your Lordships to make by him and may not omit with all humble thankefulnesse to acknowledge the great comfort and contentment we haue taken in that it appeareth both thereby and by the relation of Sir Oliuer that her Maiesty and your Lordships haue most graciously and fauourably accepted and allowed our poore endeauours We are most carefull as you haue directed to send Sir Robert Gardener and him vnto your Lordships so soone as I the Deputy can get to Dublyn where Sir Robert Gardener now is and shall haue considered and debated with the Counsell there the businesse wherein your Lordships looke to be thorowly informed In the meane space because that will aske some time wee haue thought fit to acquaint your Lordships how things stand here since our last dispatch The Spaniards for certaine are all gone from Beere-Hauen Castle-Hauen Baltimore and that day that Sir Oliuer S. Iohns did arriue at Corke we heard that all the Spaniards at Kinsale and last of all Don Iean himselfe were shipped and in readinesse to set saile but since we heare that vntill Saturday the thirteenth hereof they could not get forth the Harbour and were
that night beaten backe On Sunday they were ready to set out againe since which time we haue not heard from thence more then that they lay aboard in the mouth of the Harbour and our men were possessed of the Towne and we haue obserued the wind since that time to be good for them so as wee are in good hope they are all gone The pledges according to agreement were come to Corke being three Captaines of long continuance so as we haue cause to thinke Don Iean hath dealt sincerely with vs and are not out of hope to be no more troubled with any Spaniards yet to be prouided for the worst that may happen so long as the Spanish Cloud hangs ouer vs wee haue deuided both the victuals and great part of the munition into sundry Harbours along the Sea Coast of this Prouince the more ready to answere all occasions as may more fully appeare by the notes wee send herewithin If by this meanes her Maiesties charge grow great as wee cannot but acknowledge it will and the seruice North ward goe on slowlier then it would otherwise if we might apply our selues wholly that way we beseech your Lordships fauourably to consider the necessities that leade vs thereunto least leauing any place vnprouided for the facilitie should inuite a comming thither and in that regard wee haue giuen out an intention to fortifie in all the seuerall places of Beer-hauen Castle-hauen Baltimore and the Creekes passages along that Coast. Whereas these Spaniards being gone as now God be thanked they are we haue no meaning so to doe in regard we haue no answere from your Lordships touching that point and thereby conceiue that her Maiesty wil not vndergo so great a charge though we continue stil of this opinion that it were the safest course to fortifie in those places and if the Spaniards should come againe without strong Forts and Cittadels vpon the chiefe townes whom our late experience shewed vs apparantly to be wauering we can neither haue safetie for retreate if any diaster should befall vs nor commoditie for victuals and munition but that altogether would be in danger the whole hazarded or loste at an instant which point we hold our selues bound in dutie to prouide for and therefore if her Maiestie do not like to make Cittadels in these Townes and Cities which we noted to be fit in our former letters we hold it of very great necessitie that the harbors of Corke Kinsale be yet wel fortified which we haue already begun to do at Kinsale haue viewed the mouth of the Harbour of Corke where by raising one good Fort at the entry and another vpon an Iland in that Riuer the Harbour will very aptly be secured and all victuals and munition for our vse most commodiously defended against all enemies which we hold a matter of very great importance And if these workes shall be erected ten Culuerings and ten demy-culuerings of Iron mounted vpon vnshod wheeles for platformes to bee placed in the Forts to bee made in those two Harbours must forth with be sent with bullets for them either to Corke or to Kinsale Our whole store of victuals being diuided into sundry parts of this Prouince as by this note appeareth we are in doubt wee shall want when wee enter into a prosecution Northward vnlesse your Lordships be pleased to continue that course for our supplies that we confesse you haue most prouidently hitherto afforded vs for where some conceine and as it seemeth haue informed that we may be furnished here with victuals it is to vs most strange and past all beleefe and to make it more apparant vnto your Lordships it may please you to consider that it is impossible to make an end of this warre without wasting and spoiling of the Countrie This as we must doe still wee haue of long time very earnestly laboured and effected in as great a measure as we can possibly deuise and then how can it in reason be thought that wee can starue the Rebell and yet preserue victuals in the country for the souldier so as we must conclude that if we faile once of our victualing out of England vpon hope to haue it found in this Realme by any mans vnderstanding the Army will either be starued or driuen to breake vpon a sudden when it will not be in our power to helpe it and this wee beseech your Lordships to beleeue if we haue made any vse of our experience here Yet if there be any possibilitie thereof when wee haue conferred what may bee prouided out of the Pale and quietest parts of Mounster wee will further certifie your Lordships And besides we doe apparantly foresee now that the apparrelling of the souldier is left vnto the Captaine which yet best contents all parties that if the exchanging of the new coyne be not Royally kept vp the souldier will be in worse case then before For all things here are already growne so deare and scarse since the new coine went currant as clothes are both excessiuely deare here and in any quantity not to be had for money but must necessarily bee prouided in England and brought hither which cannot be if the exchange faile neuer so little for then will the souldier be vnclothed which rather then he will indure he will runne away though he be sure to be hanged and this we feare will be likewise a meane for the breaking of the Army The decaies by sicknesse and otherwise are already so great notwithstanding all that wee can doe and yet we haue not been wanting in our prouidency as wee most humbly craue to haue supplies sent from time to time till the rebellion be broken which if no forraigne forces arriue we hope will be in short time not vnder Captaines but Conductors for we find by experience that the Captaines that are sent hither with their Companies conceiuing that they shall not stand long either by negligence or corruption loose their men so that when they are turned ouer to supply others scarse ten of a hundred can be had of them where at the first comming ouer with the Conductors we can better call them to a strict account and finde the men to fill vp other Companies by disposing them to such as we know will best preserue them so as they neede not reinforce their Companies with the Irish as they will when they cannot come by English by which meanes the Companies wee confesse are full of Irish which till our supplies come cannot well be holpen And whereas I the Deputie haue euer bin as my dutie is most desirous to diminish her Maiesties Lyst and to that end not onely haue taken all occasions by the death of Captaines to extinguish their entertainement but also haue meerely discharged aboue fiue thousand since Nouember 1600. Now the Captaines and men thus discharged thinking their fortunes ouerthrowne by me had neuer consideration of the necessitie imposed vpō me to do it but onely looking vpon their owne
I hope your Lordships shall daily heare of more the whole forces being returned What course we haue thought on for this next Summer I will not trouble your Lordships with the repetition thereof being set downe and deliuered to Sir Oliuer S. Iohns Onely this I beseech your Lordships to giue me leaue to remember you of out of a publike durie how much soeuer it may seeme to taste of my priuate ends that you continually enioyne me and I as much endeuour to decrease the List yet you still send ouer new Captaines and command me to bestow Companies on such as giue them vp in England to others recommended by them vnto whome to deale plainely most of them doe sell them And euen of late I haue receiued your Lordships letters for the increase of some particular mens Companies When I cast the Captaines which your Lordships send ouer I procure their hate and many of your Lordships displeasures besides their owne friends that fauour them If I doe not increase such as you commend I doe incurre the like If I cast those Companies and Captaines that in so many trials I doe know to bee best able to doe her Maiestie seruice heere I shall dispaire or at least bee diffident hereafter of doing any good and yet haue they most reason to condemne me of iniustice and to importune your Lordships to be otherwise relieued that haue spent most of them their Mouds and all of them their continuall labours euen in mine aie for the recouerie and defending of this Kingdome I humbly desire your Lordships since heretofore it was my fortune to be hated of few that you will preserue mee from becomming odious by doing that which is fittest for the seruice For I haue alreadie tasted of their spleene whom God knoweth against my will I haue been forced to cashere though I haue delt more fauourably with some of them whom being loth to harme I haue rather commended when my onely fault was that I did not punish them And since I hope God will so blesse our worke that ere it bee long wee shall much diminish the number of our labourers if in that great cashering there be not meanes to preserue the best Captaines I would bee loth to bee the man that should vndertake the conclusion of the warre And now I doe humbly desire your Lordships to pardon mee if out of my great care to satisfie you in all things I haue troubled you with so long and I feare mee so vnworthy a letter of your Lordships reading c. Instructions being giuen to Sir Robert Gardiner and Sir Oliner Saint Iohns whereby they might satisfie her Maiestie in all points touching the present state of her affaires in this Kingdome The Lord Deputie with some Commanders diuers voluntarie Gentlemen and his seruants attending him rode to Dundalke And whilest hee there attended the comming vp of the forces and the arriuing of victuals with other necessaries that might enable him to take the field his Lordship on the thirtieth of May receiued from her Maiestie this letter following Elizabeth Regina RIght trusty and welbeloued Wee greet you well Whereas the paiment of our Army in that Kingdome hath been of late yeeres made partly in money by certaine weekely lendings and partly in apparrell which course of paiment was instituted vpon good considerations to preuent the fraud which diuers Captaines of euill disposition did exercise vpon their Companies Notwithstanding we haue 〈◊〉 by your letters and by the reports of some persons who haue had credence from you to deliuer the same to our Counsell here that such manner of paiment hath not wrought that effect which was expected in causing our Companies to bee kept fuller and yet is by reason of the late alteration of the standard of our monies there more chargeable to Vs then the paiment in readie moneys would bee We haue therefore thought good to cease that manner of payment from henceforth and to reuiue the old manner of payment in money after the rate of eight pence by the day of the new standard to each souldier which course Our pleasure is shall begin to take place from the first day of this moneth of Aprill and to be continued by your Warrants to Our Treasurer directed and shall be made from time to time by way of imprests to each Captaine for himselfe and his Companie at your disaretion according to the state of their Companies or to the necessitie of Our seruice vntill the dayes of full paies which Wee are pleased shall bee made twise in euerie yeere viz. at the Feasts of Saint Michael the Arch-Angell and the Annuntiation of the Virgin Marie At which times Our pleasure is that all our Armie shall be fully and clearely paid of their whole wages all defalcations due vpon them being formerly deducted And for that purpose Wee will prouide that against that time there shall bee in Our Treasurers hands money sufficient to make full paids And whereas by your latter letters written since our Conncell signified vnto you that Wee were pleased to restore this kinde of pay you doe require that for the establishing thereof with contentment of our Army two things may bee 〈◊〉 obserued The one that Our Treasurer may haue money in his hands sufficient from time to time for performance of this payment The other that the Exchange bee duely maintained on this side without which you alleadge that there will arise inconueniencies intollerable to the army we are pleased for your satisfaction herein to assure you that in both these I oints wee will take such order that neither our Treasurer there shall want monies of the new standard for payments necessary in that Realme nor the bankes here sterling monies to make good the exchange according as it is established by our Proclamations Although in this point we cannot omit to let you know that we see no cause or such vehemeni complaints as your letters doe import of default in the exchange for that vppon examination we doe find that of three or foure and fifty thousand pounds returned in this last yeere there is not vnpaied at this present aboue sixe thousand pounds which considering our excessiue charges in that yeere ought not to giue to any much cause of offence These two points like as we are pleased to obserue in such manner as we haue written to the end that thereby our Army and subiects may perceiue how great our care is that they should receiue contentment in things due vnto them So on the otherside for that a straight obseruation of the same on our part without a good correspondency of yours and theirs to remedy some inconueniencies which thereby may be cast vpon vs may proue very burthen some to vs wee are to admonish you of the obseruation of two other points necessary on your part and theirs to be obserued The first is that whereas heretofore when this manner of paiment in money onely which now is receiued was in vse through
still reiect him and published it that her Maiesty had commanded me not to hearken vnto him yet still he continued to vrge me to become a suter to the Queene for him It is true I haue been euer loth to negotiate with him any otherwise then with my sword because I find it dangerous for my selfe considering the Queenes resolution but vpon the receit of my Lord Presidents letter of a new Spanish inuasion I aduentured thus sarre to entertaine his motions that if he would sweare to submit himselfe absolutely to her Maiesties mercy if it should please her to receiue him whatsoeuer succour he should receiue in the meane time I would onely vndertake to become an humble sutor vnto her Maiestie for him so that notwithstanding till I knew her pleasure I would not desist in my prosecution This day he sent one to me agreeing to so much but with all propounding certaine Articles that he desired should bee granted whereupon misliking that he should in any wise capitulate I commanded his messenger presently to depart and forbad him to send any more to me and to cut off all hope to his party I haue directed all the Garrisons anew to proclame his head and the like to be done in the Creaghtes of such as are become subiects In the meane time N. N. out of his owne head and by that general authorie that is giuen to al Commanders to parley with Rebels hath spoken with Tyrone to the effect of his owne letter which euen now I receiued and such as it is I send it you I protest before the eternall God it was without my priuitie but I must beare with him for greater faults then this for he and all the Irish are very irregular though he be fit enough for the charge I haue giuen him which is onely of Irish Companies in a Garrison which of all other I can worst victuall and they will make best shift for themselues and greatest spoile vpon the enemy I haue commanded him to meddle no more with Tyrone for if I should thinke it fit I would imploy one better instructed for that purpose It is true Sir that for many respects I haue been fearefull to deliuer freely my opinion what course I thinke fit to be taken with Tyrone and so am I now but if it shall please her Maiestie to trust me with the authoritie to hearken vnto him I would neuer vse it but when I should bee sure to giue her a very good account of my proceedings therein for the lower he is brought the more it will be for the Queenes honour to shew him mercie and it is thought he might bee made an excellent instrument if Spaine continue their purposes for this Kingdome If the Queene bee resolued neuer to receiue him it is most necessary that Vlster should presently be made a Prouinciall Gouernement for this people seeme to thirst for iustice and by that meanes the dependancy vpon the Oneales will be soone extinguished If the Queene be loth to augment her charge I thinke it were much better that the institution of Connaght were discontinued and the like Officers to be transferred hither It is true that in all Ireland for the good of the generall seruice there is no place so fit for the Deputy to be resident as at Athlone and if he were there Connaght would little neede a Gouernour I haue here but little time and much 〈◊〉 and therefore I cannot write to you of all things so largely as I would the which I purpose to doe when I come to Dublyn onely of this I pray you Sir resolue me by your next We haue here the worst intelligence of any Instruments that any Prince in Christendome doth imploy in so waighty a businesse I doe know some that I doe thinke were fit to be imploied both in Spaine and about the Traitor here yet though I know my selfe to be honest they may proue knaues If the Queene be so confident of my faith that shee will be pleased to make the best interpretations of what I shall doe therein I should be able to doe her perchance some good seruice and giue my selfe greater light of all things then now I haue but if shee mislike it I will onely say about me with my Sword though it be in the darke It is not a Letter nor a reasonable Booke that can deliuer all such conceipts of mine as I thinke necessary to let you know of this Kingdome wherefore I dispaire to doe it till I may haue the happinesse to see you If I had any certainety that the feare of Spaine were past I would make a great diminution of the Lyst wherefore I pray you Sir if you haue in England any assurance thereof let me know it as soone as you can but here we looke for them euery hower and they say in the Pale it is held as sure as if they were already come If you shew the inclosed Letter I pray you put your finger on the latter part or blot it out and yet if I thought the Queene would not bee angry I would giue the Lady leaue to come to her Brother for I am loth to make warre with Weomen especially since shee is now great with child The same twelfth day of September his Lordship wrote from the Newry to Sir Oliuer Lambert Gouernour of Connaght this following letter SIr yesterday at my comming to this Towne your messenger deliuered mee your letters containing a relation of your proceedings since your going to the Abby of Boyle where and in your returne thence I perceiue you haue had some knocking on both sides and the Rebels being so many as you note I haue good cause to bee glad you sped so wel and parted with so good reputation to our side and so little losse withall which I doubt not proceeded chiefely from your good command and managing of that businesse for which I may not omit to yeeld you many thankes neither will I be sparing to testifie so much where it may most redound to your due and well deserued commendation Yet must I withall note that it somewhat grieues me to obserue so great an alteration in those that of late seemed desirous or at least not vnwilling to receiue her Maiesties mercy for that I haue some reason to bee doubtfull that this sudden change proceedeth not altogether out of a certaine expectation of Spanish succours but out of some opinion they haue conceiued of a purpose you haue to dispossesse the principall men of their lands and liuings and to get the same into her Maiesties hands by indictments and Offices to be found thereof and if they once entertaine such a conceit they will assuredly put vp all to any hazard and to their vttermost means shun to be reclamed which I must acknowledge to you I do the rather doubt in that Tybot ne long hath grieuously complained to me of the committall of his Cosen Dauye Bourke and some hard vsage towards himselfe for which he seemes
no other victuals thither then such as by contract they were tied to send And though they send often a greater proportion then will serue to furnish any contract yet that doth alwaies appeare vnto vs vpon the certificates of the Inuoyes and wee that vndergoe the principall care of those matters here haue inioined them to haue alwaies a good proportion in store to serue vppon all occasions whereof they send as they find conuenient shipping often times a large quantity before hand more then by contract they are bound vnto For if they should not make prouision before wee contract with them it would be hard for them to performe the same in so short a time and by such daies as we must of necessity limit vnto them vpon diuersity of accidents and demands from you and the ouerplus doth alwaies passe into the next contract But in that your Lordship doth find fault that you can neuer be informed vpon what contract the victuals are prouided which doe arriue there we must remember vnto you the order we haue alwaies obserued here which will easily reconcile the difficulties in this matter First therefore your Lordship is to call to minde that wee here for the most part in the making of our contracts both for the quantity of the victuals the time to haue it there and the places of vnlading the same are directed by such letters as wee receiue from your Lordship and you of the Counsell and by such certificats as are sent vs from the Surueyor of the victuals from thence which Surueyor ordinarily hath certified vnto vs the quantities that arriue there Then so soone as any contract is made with the vndertakers wee send an abstract thereof vnto your Lordship both of the seuerall kinds and for how many men and for what time the same is prouided and to what place the same is to bee transported By which your Lordship may know what you are to expect and for more assurance wee haue required of your Lordship by diuers letters to appoint certaine discreet persons at the Ports where the same is to bee landed and vnladen to see and visit those victuals and to take knowledge both of the quantities kinds and goodnes and that with good vsage the same is likely to continue the space of fiue moneths from the landing thereof which direction if it were duly obserued and performed your Lordship needed no other certificat to satsfie you in all respects And wee haue vsually receiued from Master Newcomen the Surueyor of the victuals very exact certificats of the quantities of victuals that arriue there as also of the goodnesse and vpon what contract they were sent For vntill the contract be full all the victuals sent thither are to satisfie the same and if there be any ouerplus it is reserued for the next contract For the vndertakers absolutely denie the sending of any victuals thither but such as is to serue the Souldier and to performe the Contracts so as all the victuals are to be accompted for her Maiesties prouision Therefore it were farre easier for your Lordship to haue the like certificat there Thus as wee haue remembred vnto you the directions we haue giuen vnto your Lordship So wee haue thought good to acquaint you with the rest of the course we hold here which you shal vnderstand to be in this manner Vpon euery Contract we make we giue the Victualers an imprest before hand to prouide those victuals they contract for but the whole summe that they are to haue by that agreement they neuer receiue vntill they doe produce true Certificates from the Officers of the Ports that the full proportions which they are tied to contract and prouide is laden on ship-board and ready to be transported of good and wel conditioned victuals according to the Contract And therefore if your Lordship will bee as strict to call for the certificates of the vnlading there as we doe cause the Inuoy to be perused there can be no abuse in that case considering all the victuals sent thither commeth to the Magnzines and how much soeuer it is all is for the vse of the Souldier For the other point your Lordship doth complaine of that the Ministers there doe sell the victuals and their peremptory vntrue and respectlesse answeres vnto you It is the desire of the victualers as this information is generall that your Lordship will not onely be informed of the particular abuses committed by any Officer or Commissary there but to take a seuere courses to see them exemplarily punished For we haue giuen no other licence for the selling of victuals then your Lordship hath beene acquainted with all in the contracts made with the Victualers in August was two yeeres which was in these words And because it is not possible in so great a masse of prouisions with all the care that may be vsed by reason of transporting and tossing them to and fro but some will perish and decay In this case their Lordships are pleased that the foresaid Commissaries deputed now by the Merchants shall be permitted to vtter and sell to the poore in the market Townes where they reside and neere vnto them such victuals as are decaiable and vnfit to be vttered to the souldier And by the instructions giuen to the Commissaries there is a clause whereby they are restrained That if there shall fall out any wast in the prouisions either by leake moisture or other casualty and accident by transportation by land or by Sea or by any vnfit or inconuenient roomes to place or house the same victuals then they are to acquaint the chiefe Commander Colonell or Counsell therewith and procure some sufficient testimony for the manifesting of the truth and of the quantity that is decaied surprized by any ambush of the Enemy or by fier or other ineuitable danger become vnfit to be vsed that it may appeare that happened not by their negligence and default the which being certified her Maiesty in that case to beare the losse and wast thereof Therefore we maruell your Lordship would indure so insolent an answere to be made by inferiour Officers knowing wee alwaies doe send your Lordship the Coppies of those agreements and Articles wee make with any victualer And in this Article this consideration onely did leade vs that if by long keeping often remouing or other casualty the victuals shall not be fit for the Souldier then your Lordship or the prouinciall Gouernour or such as you shall appoint being acquainted therewithall we thought it more fit and now doe so and not otherwise that the same may be sold to the poore in the next markets then that the losse should light on her Maiesty Neuerthelesse in those cases wee referre it to your Lordships iudgement and discretion whom her Maiesty doth trust with so great a gouernement to order them as you shall see cause To conclude therefore if that caution wee tooke for the good of the Souldier that no euill victuals should bee thrust
an expence we are not able to shew her any manner of account of her Army by any authenticall certificate more then euery Captaine or passenger can relate vnto vs no not for the expence of eight or ten moneths time In which point of the Musters we thinke it not amisse to say something to you what wee conceiue concerning the Checque vpon apparrell First the order set downe very carefully and at large for the manner of the deliuerie and the Checque to be raised vpon the apparrel is not obserued the due obseruation whereof would aduantage the checque of the apparrell very much For such souldiers as are sent from vs thorowly apparrelled oftentimes haue apparrell there againe at the time of their deliuery giuen them especially those that are dispersed into Bands to fill them vp whereby we see her Maiesties double charge though speciall warning hath been giuen thereof from hence And daily able men are suffered to come ouer hither as of late tenne of those that were set out of the County of Lincolne in the late leauy and by the examination taken here lately it is proued that money is giuen to procure them pasports and none of those souldiers of the late leauies doe stand her Maiestie and the Countrie before they arriue there in lesse then sixe pound a man The order is not obserued that hath been prescribed that no souldier should bee discharged but by Passe from the Lord Deputie Principall Gouernour or chiefe Commanders for daily diuers come ouer with Passes of their Captaines and diuers are sent away together in one passe sometimes to the number of thirtie and few of them maimed and those bring no other passes then from the Maior where they are set on land here In all which and other particular duties though the Muster Master Comptroller and such other officers may be thought to be onely responsable in such cases wherewith they are trusted yet the authority which your Lordship hath and the meanes you haue to distinguish how and when things of that nature may be in some good sort reformed and the persons offending therein being in your eie to behold both them and their doing and in your power to rule and punish them as you finde cause doth impose vpon you thus much either to call vpon them and to chastise them or else to deliuer your owne iudgement which when we shall receiue from you and thereof informe her Maiestie it would include your care and ours to haue it otherwise and would satisfie the expectation and discourse of this time when her Majesties subiects being bitten with accidentall charges of the warres begin now to thinke that much of that which her Maiestie imposeth here at home is not necessarie but rather voluntarie or for lacke of care and prouidence in the expence vnprofitably wasted especially now they heare of nothing but victories and improbabillity of forraigne power and yet finde no difference betweene the present state of her Maiesties charge and that which shee was at when there was a Spanish Army in that Kingdom We haue also thought good to let your Lordship know how great confusion it breedes in her Maiesties expence that those of her Counsell there while your Lordship hath beene wholly conuersant in millitarie causes haue not called to their answere nor according to their desert haue punished such Commissaries of victuals there as haue made priuate gaine to them selues by sale of the victual committed to their charge without warrant from vs or direction from the Purueors here their superiours whereof from you we haue receiued both aduertisement and mislike But especially for that you of the Counsell there haue neuer called vpon nor strictly charged the Commissaries to bring in their accounts in so much as there remaineth yet vnaccounted for for any thing wee know the whole charge of those victuals which wee haue carefully sent ouer and whereof wee haue receiued certificate of the safe arriuall for the space of almost two yeeres of which Masse if the same be reckoned your Lordship shall find it little lesse then the value of one hundred threescore thousand pound whereof your Lordship may thus conclude that either the summes defalked are great which remaine in the Treasurers hands or else the remaine in specie is so great with the Commissaries as her Maiestie might haue spared the prouisions lately sent ouer by which the Treasure hath been so mightily exhausted or else the wasts must bee such as are not onely to bee reiected in the accounts but the Authors thereof seuerely to bee punished A matter wherein wee write the more earnestly to your Lordship from whom wee would haue all exception taken that wee assure our selues you deserue not because we heare that a great part of the waste shall bee excused sometimes by the auowing that it hath been cast on their hands because the souldier hath not been inioyned to take it and that some other time they haue been commanded to remoue it and carrie it from place to place by which they pretend great losse and which of all things is most subiect to suspition in them that it is taken for a good warrant in Ireland to allow of any wastes for which a Commissarie can produce a certifficate from a poore Maior Soueraigne or Bailiffe of a Towne or Port which how casily it is obtained your Lordships owne wisedome can best iudge who are so well acquainted with the pouertie and condition of that place Further because no one thing is more heauy to the Queene and the Realme then the matter of victualling wherein it is no way possible for vs to doe more here and that wee perceiue by your letter of the two and twentieth of September amongst other things that your Lordship is not well satisfied in diuers things concerning the victuals wee thinke it not amisse to handle some particular points of that matter which wee wish all those of the Counsell and all other interested in the care of those things may well vnderstand because you may the better another time answere those arguments with which they seeke to satisfie you when in truth if they examine themselues whatsoeuer they lacke it proceedeth most from their owne default First whereas in the letter aforesaid you note how slowly such victuals doe arriue there as haue been prouided here vpon request made by your Lordship we answere that Newcomen whom you sent ouer is able to giue you satisfaction that presently vpon his comming ouer hither and perusall of your Lordships demaunds there was no delay vsed by vs to satisfie you in such sort as might be to your Lordships contentment and to serue the Army and Garrisons and because Newcomen was not only made priuie but did both thinke the prouision appointed to be sufficient to answere your Lordships desire and the vse of the Armie and Garisons is one of the vndertakers for those prouisions of victuals he is much to blame if he haue not particularly discharged that
the other third part of that allowance except he had other great Fees and place of commodity in this Kingdome his Lordship nominated as before Sir George Cary to be most fit for that place some other Counsellers being in this one point ioyned with him namely to signe all such warrants as should be signed for the disbursing of the Treasure The instructions giuen to Master Cooke were these To procure a new Pattent to the Lord Mountioy with title of Lord Lieutenant and with authority to leaue Sir George Carey Treasurer at Warres to be Lord Deputy and so his Lordship to come presently ouer 2. To procure new Pattents for Wards letting of the Kings lands compounding the Kings debts c. as before 3. To solicite for victuall munition and mony 4. To moue the change of the base coine now currant 5. To aduertise the newes from Spaine 6. To solicite the sending of new Seales namely the great Seale Signets Counsell seales for the State Mounster and Connaght for the Kings Bench Common pleas and Exchequer 7. To procure authoritie to passe estates to the Irish Lords After King Iames his Proclamation at Dublin the Lord Deputy sent like Proclamations to all Gouernours Magistrates and Officers of Prouinces Cities and Countries to be in like sort published and with all made knowne to them seuerally his Maiesties pleasure signified in his letters directed to the Lords in England to continue all Gouernours Magistrates and Officers and all his Maiesties Ministers as well Martiall as Ciuill of both the Kingdomes of England and Ireland in as absolute authorities and iurisdictions of their places as before the decease of the late Queene Elizabeth of famous memory they enioyed and exercised the same as also to continue and establish all the Lawes and Statutes of both Kingdomes in their former force and validity till such time as his Maiesty should please to take fuller knowledge and resolue for the publik good of any alteration not intended but vpon some speciall and waighty causes and should please to giue notice of his pleasure Further his Lordship aduised them to concurre with him in the vigilant care to present all things in the best estate might be to the first view of so worthy and mighty a Soueraigne The twelfth of Aprill the Lord Deputy receiued letters from Sir Charles Wilmott and Sir George Thorneton appointed Commissioners with ioynt authority for gouerning the Prouince of Mounster in the absence of Sir George Carew Lord President late gone for England aduertising that they had blocked vp Mac Morrish in the Castle of Billingarry belonging to the Lord Fitz-morrice and hoped by the taking thereof to cleere the Prouince of all open Rebels The fifteenth of Aprill his Lordship receiued a letter from Ororke humbly imploring the Queenes mercy and the same day after his hearing of the Queenes death another in like humblenesse crauing the Kings mercy The sixteenth day his Lordship receiued letters from the Mayor of Corke aduertising that hee had receiued the Kings Proclamation the eleuenth of Aprill and had deferred the publishing thereof to this day onely to the end it might be doue with more solemnity humbly praying that in regard the Fort built for defence of the Harbour of Corke from forraigne inuasion was not kept by a Commander sufficient to secure the same for the Crowne his Lordship would accept the offer of him the Mayor and therest of the corporation of the said City to keepe the same for his Maiesty at their owne perill Lastly complaining that the Souldiers now keeping the Fort did shoote at the Fishermen and at the Boates sent out of the Towne for prouisions vsing them at their pleasure The same sixteenth day his Lordship was aduertised by seuerall letters First that the Citizens of Waterford had broken vp the doores of the Hospitall and had admitted one Doctor White to preach at Saint Patrickes Church and had taken from the Sexton the keyes of the Cathedrall Church of themselues mutinously setting vp the publike celebration of the Masse and doing many insolencies in that kind Secondly that Edward Raghter a Dominican Frier of Kilkenny assisted by some of the Towne came to the Blacke-Fryers vsed for a Session-House and breaking the doores pulled downe the benches and seates of Iustice building an Altar in the place of them and commanded one Biship dwelling in part of the Abbey to deliuer him the keyes of his House who was to take possession of the whole Abbey in the name and right of the Friers his brethren The eighteenth day his Lordship was aduertised from the Commissioners of Mounster that the Citizens of Corke had not onely refused to ioine with them in publishing the Proclamation of King Iames but had drawne themselues all into Armes and kept strong guardes at their Ports and had absolutely forbidden the Commissioners to publish the same with such contemptuous words and actions as would haue raised a mutiny if they had not vsed greater temper That the Townesmen had made stay of boats loaded with the Kings victuals and munition for the Fort of Haleholin saying that the Fort was built within their Franchizes without their consent and was meetest to be in the custody of the City Whereupon they the said Commissioners accompanied with the Lord Roche and some 800 persons of the Countrey all expressing muchioy but none of the Citizens assisting or expressing any ioy did publish the Proclamation vpon an hill neere the Towne with as much solemnity as might be and had furnished the Fort with victuals and munition from Kinsale And they besought his Lordship speedily to reestablish by new Letters Pattents the Magistrates authority because the ceasing thereof by the Queenes death had especially emboldened these Citizens to be thus insolent The same day one Edward Gough a Merchant of Dublyn newly comming out of Spaine and examined vpon oath said that at Cales he saw the Ordinance shipped to S. Lucas for forty sayle as he heard there ready to goe for Lisbone where was a fleete of 140 ships prepared as some said for Ireland or as others said for Flaunders but hee heard no Generall named onely heard that Don Iean de l'Agula was againe receiued to the Kings fauour The 22 day his Lordship wrote to the Soneraigne of Kilkenny that howsoeuer he had no purpose violently to reforme Religion in this Kingdome but rather prayed for their better vnderstanding yet he could not permit yea must seuerely punish in that Towne and otherwhere the seditious mutinous setting vp of the publike exercise of Popish Religion without publike authority and likewise with preiudice done to those of the prosession established by God and by the Lawes of both the Realmes requiring that hee and they should desist from such mutinous disorders apprehending the chiefe authors and if they wanted power to suppresse the sedition of a few Priests Friers his L P offered to assist them with the Kings forces for he would not faile to giue life to the
Lawes and obedience due to his Maiesty The foure twentieth day his Lordship was aduertised that the Citizens of Lymrick had with their Priests entred into all the Churches of the City and there erecting Altars had vsed the Rites of the Romish Church The 25. day his Lordship wrote this letter to the Citizens of Waterford YOur letters of the three and twentieth of this instant came this day to my hands And hauing duely considered the contents of the same I find that they returne a double excuse of the courses you haue vsed first for your delay of time to proclaime the Kings most Excellent Maiesty according to such directions as was sent vnto you from the Earle of Ormond by a Counsellor of this State And the next for such disorders as were reported to bee committed by the publike breach of his Highnesse Lawes in matters of Religion To the which We returne you this answer following First albeit We would haue wished that you had had a more carefull regard to haue performed such directions as you receiued from to Noble a Peere of this Realme by so reuerent a messenger as you might assure your selues in such a matter durst not abuse you his Highnesse sole and vndoubted right concurring also with your owne knowledge and consciences yet We will not condemne you for that omission of the time seeing afterwards you did obey our directions in that behalfe and gaue so publike a testimony of your ioyful allowance and consent to his Maiesties Right and lawfull title proclaimed amongst you But as in this part you haue giuen vnto vs a kinde of contentment so in the last point Wee cannot forbeare to let you vnderstand the Iust mislike We doe conceiue that you being Citizens of wisdome and good experience and the Lawes of the Realme continuing in force would be drawne either by your Priests or any like practises to commit any publike breach of the Lawes and the rather because out of that vnspotted duty which you professe you haue euer carried to the Crowne you would not in reason conceiue that the example of your offence in such a cause and in so great and populous a City could not but in it selfe be very dangerous in these disordered times wherein examples doe carry men astray which in discharge of Our duty to the Kings Highnesse Wee may not suffer And therefore haue resolued to make Our speedy repaire vnto those parts for none other purpose but to establish his Maiesties Lawes that no publike nor contemptious breach be made of them wherein We wish you had bin more wary contenting your selues with the long and fauourable tolleration you enioyed during the late Queens raigne rather then in this sort to haue prescribed Lawes to your selues whereby in wisdome you may perceiue how much you haue preiudiced the very obtaining of your owne desire by the courses you haue taken as we are credibly informed And yet because it may be that the reports of your behauiour haue beene made more hainous then there is cause Wee are well pleased to suspend Our giuing credit to such particular informations vntill vpon due examination the truth may appeare wherein We hope and shall be glad that you can acquit your selues so of these imputations now laid vpon you or otherwise that you conforme your selues now at last in such sort to the obedience you owe to his Maiesty and his Lawes as We be not inforced to take seuere notice of your contrary actions The same day his Lordship was aduertised from the Mayor of Galloway that howsoeuer he found no seditious inclination in the Citizens yet to preuent disorders in these mutinous times the Gouernor of the Fort had giuen him some of his souldiers to assist his authority whom he to that purpose had placed in the strongest Castles of the City The same day his Lordship receiued letters from the Mayor of Corke signifying that the thirteenth day of this moneth he had published in the City the Proclamation of the King with the greatest solemnity he could and complaining that the Souldiers in the Kings Fort offered many abuses to the Towne with offer from the Corporation to vndertake the safe keeping of that Fort for his Maiesty The 26 day his Lordship wrote to the Soueraigne of Wexford that whereas they excused their erecting of popish rites by the report they heard of his Maiesties being a Roman Catholike he could not but maruell at their simplicity to be seduced by lying Priests to such an opinion since it was apparant to the World that his Maiesty professed the true religion of the Gospell and euer with carefull sincerity maintained it in his Kingdome of Scotland charging him and those of Wexford vpon their Wexford to his Maiesty to desist from the disordered course they had taken in celebrating publikely the idolatrous Masse least hee at his comming vp into those parts should haue cause seuerely to punish their contempt shewed to his Maiesty and the lawes of his Kingdome The same day his Lordship was aduertised from the Commissioners of Mounst r that the Citizens of Corke grew daily more and more insolent defacing places of scripture written on the wals of the Church to the end they might wash and paint ouer the old Pictures and that one tearmed a Legat from the Pope with many Priests had gone in solemne procession hallowing the Church and singing Masse therein publikely the Townes-men hauing placed guards of armed men set at the Church dore and at the Porch yea burying their dead with all Papisticall Ceremonies and taking the Sacrament in like sort to spend their liues and goods in desence of the Romish Religion and thereupon taking boldnes to offer wrong to the English and to practice the getting of the Kings Fort into their hands yea refusing to sell any thing to the English for the new mixed money and not suffering the Kings victuals to be issued out of the store till they had assurance that the Souldiers should be sent out of the liberties of Corke The 27 day his Lordship wrote to the Soueraigne of Clemmell commending him and the rest of that City that they had proclaimed the King with great ioy and gladnesse but charging them vpon their vttermost perill to cease from the publike exercise of the Romish Religion which they of themselues had mutinously established The same day his Lordship wrote this following letter to the Soueraigne of Kilkenny AFter my hearty commendations I haue receiued your Letters of the 25 and 26 of this moneth and am glad to vnderstand thereby that you are somewhat conformable to my directions being willing to haue cause to interpret your actions to the best but though I meane not to search into your consciences yet I must needs take knowledge of the publike breach of his Maiesties Lawes and whereas you let me vnderstand that the Inhabitants are willing to withdraw themselues for their spirituall exercise to priuacy contented onely with the vse of the ruinous Abbey
that being a publike place I cannot but take notice thereof and maruell how you dare presume to dispose at your pleasure of the Abbey or any thing belonging to his Maiesty and therefore againe charge you vpon your alleagiance to forbeare any publike exercise of that Religion prohibited by the Lawes of this Realme and fully to reforme these disorders according to my directions vpon your extreame perill The same day his Lordship wrote this following letter to the Mayor of Corke AFter my very hearty commendations I did first receiue some mutual complaints informations from the cōmissioners of Mounster you wherof so far as they concerne your particulars I will take notice be glad to heare you both or your Agents for you reforme what I shall find amisse in either but of publike offences or errours I must take publike knowledge And first for the Proclamation of the King wherein I am informed that you were not onely your selues slow and backward but made resistance to those who being Gouernours in that Prouince in our late Soueraignes time and hauing our directions were not like to abuse or deceiue you and offered with due forwardnes and obedience after your vnfitting and dangerous delaies to haue published the same whereof I cannot but maruell and thinke you much to be blamed in so vndoubtfull a right and with directions receiued from those in authority to make such needlesse consultations and much more to offer violent resistance to those who better vnderstood their duties and were euer ready in so much loyalty to performe it yet in regard of your solemne and ioyfull publication thereof I am willing to interpret your actions to the best and take your good performance for an excuse But I am further giuen to vnderstand that you haue suffered the publike celebration of the Masse to be set vp in your City of your owne fancies and without publike authority both against the lawes of this Realme and I assure you contrary to that Religion which his Maiesty zealously professeth Whereof I cannot but take publike notice as you haue publikely offended the King and his Lawes and as I haue done before so againe I charge you vpon your alleagiance to desist from such seditious insolencies and to apprehend the chiefe Authours thereof which if you doe not presently obey I shall be forced against my will to vse his Maiesties Sword and Power to suppresse the same Further you haue by your letters made suit vnto me to haue the Kings Fort Halebolin committed to your custody and I am informed that you haue proceeded in that insolency as to stay his Maiesties Munition and victuals and Artillery which vpon speciall trust of your loyalty was kept in your City from being transported from thence to the reliefe of the Kings Fort. It may be you haue rashly and vnaduisedly done this vpon some opinion of the ceasing of authority in the publike gouernement vpon the death of our late Soueraigne which is somewhat more though no way in true and seuere iudgement excusable and I thinke otherwise you would neuer haue beene so foolish to runne into so great danger but since as it hath pleased his Maiesty to renue and confirme vnto me by his royall letters and Letters Pattents vnder his Scale the place of his Deputy in this Kingdome and to signifie his gracious pleasure to continue all other his Officers and Magistrates aswell martiall as ciuill in their former authority and iurisdictions so by vertue thereof and power giuen me from his Maiesty I haue renewed the Lord Presidents Pattent and granted a new commission to Sir Charles Wilmott and Sir George Thornton with charge and authority to gouerne the Kings Forces Forts and places of strength and to defeud the Townes from forraigne inuasions and intestine mutinics or rebellions and further to gouerne that Prouince according to his Maiesties directions In which command of theirs there is no derogation from your ciuill gouernement and limited authority if you rightly vnderstand the one and the other Therefore as you should at first haue concurred with them put in so great place of trust ouer you by your late Queene and Mistresse especially in dangerous times of change for the peaceable gouernement of all vnder both your charges that you might haue deserued his Maiesties gracious acceptance of your seruice by presenting all things in the best state you could to his Highnesse first view so now I require you vpon your allegiannce to be assisting and obedient to them in all things touching his Maiesties seruice and not to presume to interrupt the conuayance of the Kings victusls munition or artillery vnto such places as shall be thought fit by them for the furnishing of his Maicstics Forts or Forces wheresoeuer they thinke conuenient This if you shall performe I shall be glad to interpret your past actions to the best finding your endeauours to redeeme what you haue done amisse and not bee forced against my will to take notice of the height of your offences or errours and vse his Maiesties power to redresse them I haue since the writing hereof seene a letter presented me by Master Meade in deniall and excuse of these informations and if I shall find you conformable and obedient to these my directions I will be glad to haue occasion to interpret all things past in the better part and take as little notice as I can thereof And so c. The same day the Lord Deputy wrote this following letter to the Mayor of Lymricke AFter my hearty commendations I haue not written vnto you that I remember since I sent you directions for the Proclamation of the King which because I vnderstand you published according to your duety with all due solemnity and signes of ioy and continued in duetifull sort not being seduced vnto disorders as some of the Townes of that Prouince were I thought rather to haue cause to commend you and giue you encouragement in your loyall proceedings then any way to blame you but I haue since beene enformed that you haue taken example of other Cities seduced by their Priests and against his Maiesties Lawes and I assure you contrary to the religion he zealously professeth vpon your owne fancies without authority set vp the publike celebration of the Masse whereof I cannot but take publike notice as you hane publikely offended the King and his lawes and therefore I charge you vpon your alleagiance to desist from such seditious insolencies and to apprehend the chiefe authours thereof which if you doe not presently obey I shall be forced against my will to take more seuere notice thereof then willingly I would And so hoping that in a matter of so great consequence you will be better aduised I expect to haue answere from you The eight and twentieth day his Lordship wrote this following letter to the Commissioners of Mounster AFter my hearty commendations I haue already sent you your Commission renewed for continuance of your authority and signed the
out through the dispersed clouds and shining so bright as our best Marrines easily discouered the Harbour of Yoghall and the tide seruing happily we passed the barre into the same And the next morning we might see the danger we had escaped most apparant for our ship was so farre vnable to indure the waues of the sea with her great leake and the foulenesse of the Pumpes if we had been forced to keepe a bord till the next daies light might make vs know the coast as the same night she had sunke in the quiet Harbour if the Marriners had not chosen rather to driue her on ground At this time I found the State of Ireland much changed for by the flight of the Earle of Tyrone and the Earle of Tirconnell with some Chiefes of Countries in the North and the suppression and death of Sir Cabier Odogherty their confederate in making new troubles all the North was possessed by new Colonies of English but especially of Scots The meere Irish in the North and ouerall Ireland continued still in absolute subiection being powerfull in no part of the Kingdome excepting onely Connaght where their chiefe strength was yet little to bee feared if the English-Irish there had sound hearts to the State But the English Irish in all parts and especially in the Pale either by our too much cherishing them since the last Rebellion in which we found many of them false hearted or by the Kings religious courses to reforme them in their obstinate adiction to Poperie euen in those points which oppugned his Maiesties temporall power or by the fulnesse of bread in time of peace whereof no Nation sooner surfets then the Irish were growne so wanton so incensed and so high in the instep as they had of late mutinously broken of a Parlament called for the publike good and reformation of the Kingdome and from that time continued to make many clamourous complaints against the English Gouernours especially those of the pale against the worthy Lord Deputy and his Ministers through their sides wounding the Roiall authoritie yea in all parts the Churle was growne rich and the Gentlemen and Swordmen needy and so apt to make a prey of other mens goods The Citizens of Mounster had long since obtained the renuing of their old Charters with all their exorbitant priuiledges and were now growne most refractory to all due obedience especially for matters of Religion In which parts the very numbers of the Priests swarming among them and being actiue men yea contrary to their profession bloudy in handling the sword far exceeded the number of the Kings souldiers reduced to very smal or no strength And many loose mē flocked into that Prouince out of the Low-Countries who being trained there in the Irish Regiment with the Arch-Duke daily sent ouer new men to bee in like sort trained there and themselues lay dispersed and hidden in all corners with hearts no doubt apt to imbrace mischieuous enterprises And howsoeuer the English Lawyers comming ouer after the last warre vaunted Ireland to be reduced to ful obedience by their Itinerary circuits scarce mentioning with honour the sword that made way to them yet they were therein deceiued that the Irish in their clamorous and litigious nature flying to them with many complaints did it onely to get countenance to their causes from them who were strangers to them perhaps against former iudgements of the Gouernours who better knew them and so to oppose one Magistrate against another not as they might perhaps thinke in sincere affection to be ruled by the Lawes Yea those Chiefes of Countries who vsed to waite on them to the limits of their Country did it rather to keepe the people by their awfull presence from exhibiting complaints against themselues then as the Iudges thought out of their dutifull respect to them or to the State For otherwise euen among the English-Irish in the inferiour persons from the Counstables to the Iustices of Peace and so vpward Iustice had not his due course which can neuer haue life but in the mouing of al the members with due correspondency and many outrages were by the English-Irish and meere Irish done against the English lately planted there So as now when Ireland should haue enioyed the fruites of the last warre in the due subiection of the meere Irish these times threatned the next combustions from our degenerate English Irish. Onely the louers of peace were erected to good hopes by a generall confidence that our Soueraigne would apply his Royall power seuere Iustice most auaileable in Ireland and other his heroick vertues to the timely preuention of any mischieuous issue as not long after his Maiestie happily began with bringing those his subiects to conformity of making wholesome Lawes for the publike good by common consent of that Kingdomes three Estates assembled in his Royall Court of Parliament at Dublyn in the yeere 1614 to which worke and all his Royall counsels God giue happy successe The Lyst of Officers Generall and Prouinciall Warders Horsemen and Footemen as they stood at this time of Peace Officers Generall The Lord Chichester Baron of Belfast Lord Deputy of Ireland hauing enioyed that place many yeeres beyond all example of former times Sir Thomas Ridgeway Treasurer at Warres Sir Richard Wingfeild Marshall of Ireland Sir Olyuer S. Iohns Master of the Ordinance Sir Iohn King Muster-master Sir Allen Apsley and Thomas Smith Commissaries of victuals Edward Lenton Prouost Marshall of the Army Sir Iosus Bodley Directer General and Ouerseer of the Fortifications Sir Thomas Dutton Scout-Master Captaine Iohn Pikeman and Captaine William Meeres Corporals of the field Officers Prouinciall The Lord Dauers Lord President of Mounster and Sir Richard Moryson his Vice-President besides the command in his owne right left him by the Lord Lieutenant Mountioy at his leauing the Kingdome Sir Richard Aldworth Prouost Marshall of Mounster The Earle of Clanrickard Lord President of Connaght Sir Oliuer S. Iohns his Vice-president besides his imployments in his owne right Captaine Charles Coote Prouost Marshall of Connaght Sir Henry Dockwra Gouernour of Loughfoyle Edmond Ellys Prouost Marshall there Sir Henry Follyot Gouernour of Ballishannon The Lord Chichester Gouernour of Carickfergus Sir Henry Power Gouernour of Leax Sir Edward Blaney Seneshal of Monaghan and commander of the Kings Forts there Robert Bowen Prouost Marshall of Lemster Moyses Hill Prouost Marshall of Vlster Captaine William Cole for Ballishannon and Captaine Hugh Clotworth for Loughchichester both Captaines of Boatmen Warders Dublin Castle Roger Dauies hath Warders 14. Maryborough Sir Adam Loftus warders 16. Phillipstowne Sir Garret Moore warders 12 Duncannon Sir Laurence Esmond warders 30. Dungaruan Sir George Carey warders 12. Castlemaigne Sir Thomas Roper warders 17. Limrick Castle Sir Francis Bartley warders 20. Castle Parke Captaine Skipwith warders 20. Halebolin Sir Francis Slingesby warders 20. Athlone Castle the Earle of Clanrickard warders 20. Ballenfad Captaine S. Barbe warders 10. Dromruske Captaine Griffoth warders 9. Carickfergus Castle
liue in the sight of their Countrey-men and may vse their accustomed diet and a little change of aire doth but little hurt which they may preuent or mitigate by the aduice of Physicians Neither are childrens vnripe yeeres fit for this course howsoeuer they are more to be excused who send them with discreet Tutors to guide them with whose eyes and iudgements they may see and obserue Thus the Romans as Snetonius writes permitted the visiting of forraigne Countries to the Sonnes of Senators vnder the gouernement of one who had borne Office in the City for the charge of such children is not to be credited to all of full age without choyce Children like Parrats soone learne forraigne languages and sooner forget the same yea and their mothers tongue also A familiar friend of mine lately sent his sonne to Paris who after two yeeres returning home refused to aske his father blessing after the manner of England saying Cen'est pas le mode de France It is not the French fashion Thus whilest like Apes they imitate strange fashions they forget their owne which is iust as if a man should seeke his perdition to gaine a cloake for ornament Likewise sickly men are vnfit for this course of life who in regard of their weak health want the meanes to make benefit thereof Lastly they shall do well to keep them selnes at home who haue a scrupulous conscience and thinke themselues so wise as they will not follow the aduice of experienced men But as in all actions they are happy that hold the meane so middle age is most fit to visit forraigne parts and to make vse thereof hauing first laid a good foundation of Arts and Sciences in generall and specially those which they meane to professe and being of soripe discretion as they can distinguish betweene good and euill And since we must not only respect their ages but most of all their dispositions I will adde that it must be diligently obserued in each man whether he naturally affect this course or no for it is most certaine that the nature of man cannot with good successe beforced to any course it liketh not according to the old saying of the Poet Naturam expellas furc a licet vsque recurrit Though Nature be repelled by force Yet still it turnes to haue his course I know that second causes can doe nothing without the first and it is no lesse true that the first doth in naturall things worke by the second which makes me of opinion that the position of the Starres in each mans natiuity is not altogether vaine This granted it is not iust that the Common-wealth Parents or Friends should wrest any mans nature to courses contrary thereunto not leauing each man liberty to shew and follow his owne inclination To conclude I thinke with Plato that before any man take this course he must obtaine leaue of the Magistrate as the custome is in England where none but Merchants may without leaue goe out of the Iland to the end that suspected persons may bee kept at home left being not well instructed in the true religion they should bee seduced by Papists And I take Parents consent for granted without which the sacred power giuen them by God should wickedly be violated My purpose was thus slightly to haue passed ouer the worthy prayses due to the knowledge of forraigne States wherewith I began lest with the vaiue Rhetoritian I should seeme to praise Hercules whom no man dispraised But when I consider that so many heads so many wits and remember that my selfe haue sometimes heard though a man shall be last to heare the detractions of his owne courses some pleasantly others wittily and some malitiously to scoffe at this kind of industry to gaine knowledge it will not be amisse so farre to take in hand againe the taske I had almost finished as according to the end of my discourse I may incourage the indifferent Reader by fully answering their idle obiections In the first front are the pleasant men who remember the Italians stale Prouerb Chi Asino va a Roma Asino se ne torna If an Asse at Rome doe soiourne An Asse he shall from thence returne The very Asses straying into barren pastures do after learne more willingly to stay at home with plentifull feeding And very dull spirited men at whom this bitter Prouerb allegorically aimeth howsoeuer by this industry they doe not suddenly become catces yet I will be bold to say they are by nothing more or with greater ease instructed according to their capacities so they trauel not alone as Socrates Laconically said For if by the way they find good companions they must needes in some measure be partners of their wits and obseruations Neither are the wise obseruers of humane Pilgrimage ignorant that graue Vniuersity men and as they say sharpe sighted in the Schooles are often reputed idiots in the practice of worldly affaires as on the contrary blockish men and to speake with the Italians very Asses by continuall practice in graue imployments gaine the wisdome of them whose affaires they manage and the more they seeke to know the World the more they conuerse with those who know more then themselues so much are they more inflamed with sweet emulation such as 〈◊〉 sleepe from Themistocles reading the Triumphs of Miltiades Secondly the wittie detracters obiect that Aglaus Psophidius was iudged wise by the Oracle of Apollo because he neuer went out of the Grange wherein he was born according to that of the Poet Claudian Foelix qui patrijs aeuum transegit in aruis Ipsa Domus puerum quem videt ipsa senem Happy in natiue soyle his life who spends Whom one house birth one house a gray head lends But what if passengers should come to a stately Pallace of a great King were hee more happy who is led onely into the kitchin and there hath a fat messe of brewis presented him or rather hee who not onely dines at the Kings Table but also with honour is conducted through all the Courts and Chambers to behold the stately building pretious furniture vessels of gold and heapes of treasure and Iewells Now such and no other is the Theater of this world in which the Almightie Maker hath manifested his vnspeakable glory He that sayles in the deepe sees the wonders of God and no lesse by land are these wonders daily presented to the eyes of the beholders and since the admirablevariety thereof represents to vs the incomprehensible Maiestie of God no doubt we are the more happy the more fully we contemplate the same Thou wilt say he hath liued well who hath spent his time retyred from the world Benè qui latuit benè vixit Who knowne is least hath liued best This may be true in women and thus among many Roman Gentlemen when one praised Fuluia another Claudia a third with good iudgement preferred a Senators vnknowne wife to both these and many other seuerally commended because she was no
Heidelberg and in France to Orleans c. where hauing learned the language at least as much as is necessary to vnderstand and to bee vnderstood he shall make his next iourny more profitable by discourse and in the same make his language more perfect Hearing much increaseth knowledge what canst thou learne if at least thou vnderstandest not those who should instruct thee howsoeuer thou beest hardly or not at all vnderstood by them except thou hast an interpreter with thee which a man of small meanes cannot maintaine and yet in that case doth the rich onely borrow his knowledge and take it at the second hand I confesse that rich men hauing such consorts and making good vse of them may with more case attaine knowledge while they haue the helpe of other mens Eyes Eares Feete and vnderstandings and may sucke from them the Quintessence of their obseruations But poore Cleanthes while in the day time he drew water to gaine his liuing did by night more earnestly thirst after knowledge and gaine it which all rich men doe not whose wits vse to be corrupted with their fortunes And I would think that euen for these rich men it were more honourable and safe to be able to vse their owne sences and vnderstandings then other mens since we see that Princes Ambassadours and Peeres of other Realmes are more welcome and esteemed and lesse subiect to contempt if they doe but only get the formes of saluting and calling for necessaries in the language of the Country as if they would not seeme strangers And first in the learning of a Language labour to know the grammer rules thereof that thy selfe mayst know whether thou speakest right or no. I meane not the curious search of those rules but at least so much as may make thee able to distinguish Numbers Cases and Moodes Merchants Women and Children neglecting these rules and rushing into the rash practice of Languages doe many times pronounce the tongue and speake common speeches more gracefully then others but they seldome write the tongue well and alwaies forget it in short time wanting the practice On the contrary they who learne the rules while they be attentiue to the congruity of speaking perhaps doe lesse gracefully pronounce the tongue but in the meane time they both speake and write pure language and neuer so forget it as they may not with small labour and practice recouer it againe In the next place I aduise him to gather the choice phrases that hee may speake and write more eloquently and let him vse himselfe not to the translated formes of speech but to the proper phrases of the tongue for euery language in this kinde hath certaine properties of speaking which would be most absurd being literally translated into another tongue To this end the stranger must reade those Bookes which are best for speeches in familiar conference in which kind as also for the instruction of his soule I would commend vnto him the Holy Scriptures but that among the Papists they are not to be had in the vulgar tongue neither is the reading of them permitted to Laymen and were not the phrases so known to those who vse to read them as they would be vnderstood by discretion without knowledge Therefore to this purpose hee shall seeke out the best familiar Epistles for his writing and I thinke no Booke better for his discourse then Amadis of Gaule for the Knights errant and the Ladies of Courts doe therein exchange Courtly speeches and these Bookes are in all Languages translated by the Masters of eloquence In the third place I aduise him to professe Pythagoricall silence and to the end he may learne true pronuntiation and the properties of each language not to be attained but by long obseruation and practice that he for a time listen to others before he aduenture to speake As in generall to all liuing in forraigne parts and desiring to search out the knowledge of them not to be had so well from any as from the Inhabitants so particularly to him that would learne the language my counsell is that hee shunne for the time the conuersation of his owne Countrey-men onely visiting them in their lodgings and that not often nor long but that he liue not in the house with any of them For the Dutch Trauellers conuersing drinking and lodging with their owne Countreymen hardly attaine any small skill and neuer the perfect vse of any forraigne Language be it neuer so easie So as my selfe remember one of them who being reprehended that hauing been thirty yeeres in Italy hee could not speake the Language he did merrily answere in Dutch Ah lieber was kan man doch in dreissig Iaher lehrnen Alas good Sir what can a man learne in thirty yeeres But the true cause of his not speaking the tongue was his perpetuall conuerling with his Countrey-men I professe freely that I neuer obserued any to liue lesse together in forraigne parts then the English nor any who made more profit of their trauell then they but I returne to the purpose When he that desires to learne any Language hath obserued the former rules then let him hier some skilfull man to teach him and to reproue his errours not passing by any his least omission And let him not take it ill that any man should laugh at him for that will more stirre him vp to endeuour to learne the tongue more perfectly to which end he must conuerse with Weomen Children and the most talkatiue people and he must cast of all clownish bashfulnesse for no Man is borne a Master in any Art I say not that he himselfe should rashly speake for in the beginning he shall easily take ill formes of speaking and hardly forget them once taken The very Artificers of 〈◊〉 can speake Latin but most rudely and falsly and I speake of experience that the Schollers of our Vniuersities conuersant in reading Creero howsoeuer they seldome speake Latin but onely in disputations yea and shunne the occasions of speaking it yet when they come abroad and are forced necessarily to make vse of the latin tongue they doe perhaps at first speake it lesse readily but in short practice they speake it more eloquently and more easily then the said Polakes or any other abroad who haue practised the tongue from their young yeeres and so they might speake readily neither cited for the quantity of sillables nor the purity of phrase nor the strict keeping of Grammer Rules Moreouer I speake by experience that it is commendable at home before setting forth to learne the reading and vnderstanding of a language and the writing thereof yet cannot then bee profitable to practice the speaking of the tongue 〈◊〉 hee can haue the foresaid commodities in that part where it is naturall And for this cause I prescribed Pythagoricall silence and to listen to others before the practice of speech and to take more care to speake well then much but at last the learner must beginne and hee that neuer
bee an vnwary stranger wanting friends and when they haue done a murther they flie without any impediment to the confines of neighbour Princes liuing there as banished men for a time vpon roberies till they can obtaine pardon which escape a stranger cannot so easily make But if they haue a quarrell with Italians vsing like practises it is a thing most ridiculous to see with what proud bragging they thus walke armed and guarded and with what warinesse and foolish tumult the contrary parts thus walke about the Citie keeping as farre the one from the other as is possible till by-the intercession of friends or authority of the Magistrate they be made friends which must be done with infinite cerimonies and cautions of honour no way blemished but by themselues Whereas a stranger in Italy may not without licence from the Magistrate weare a sword in their Cities no nor so much as a dagger either in the Cities or high-waies of the Popes State How much lesse will it bee permitted to any stranger thus to arme himselfe if hee would since wee are of opinion that it were better once to dye then alwaies to feare death euen in our priuate chambers and to be continually so loded with iron Armes as a man can hardly walke or breath Therefore a stranger must be very wary not to haue a quarrell and if any be thrust vpon him he must be no lesse wary to shun the danger by leauing the place or City in Italy Neither would I aduise a stranger to sight for his money if hee be assaulted by theeues called Banditi in Italy except the way from Rome to Naples where hee hath a guard of souldiers to ioyne with since they are men of desperate fortune and when they assaile the passenger haue not only their bodies armed as aforesaid but carry Muskets and haue ready meanes of escape euer lying vpon the confines of Princes But in my opinion he shall doe better to carry letters of credit for receiuing money in great Cities as hee passeth and willingly to yeeld them that which hee hath about him especially since they vse not to kill any not resisting being content with the spoile of them Yet in generall for Italy I remember not that euer I liued in any place where fewer wrongs and causes of quarrell are offered then there for they haue a Prouerb Portarispetto a tuttie no' hauer ' paur a dinessuno Giue good respect to all Feare neither great nor small So as the Italians offer mutuall honour more then is due and nothing is more easie then to abstaine from words of reproch which a ciuill man should hate aswell in respect of himselfe as others The chiefe cause of quarrels there is either making loue to other mens priuate concubines or the keeping of a priuate concubine to a mans selfe For it is prouerbially said Chi Asini caccia e donne mena Non è mai senzaguai pena Who driues an Asse and leades a Whore Hath toile and sorrow euermore And the stranger who will intangle himselfe in this mischiefe seemes worthy to beare the punishment since there is plenty of grasse in the open fields though a man neuer breake into inclosed pastures As in Italy so in Germany Bohemia the Low-Countries and Denmark the Magistrate neuer pardons any murther nor man-slaughter vpon hot bloud nor him that killes in single combat vpon those termes which some call honourable neither is there any way to scape punishment but by flight And this is common to all these Nations that onely the Officers of Iustice either stop or lay hands vpon a Murtherer or any offender against the Lawes And this makes great respect of persons for a poore man hauing killed one that hath rich friends shall bee pursued with light horses while either not at all or slowly they follow others and giue way to their escaping Let a stranger consider how difficult his flight will be in a strange Country and how hotly he is like to be pursued The Germans are apt to quarrell and sometimes they fight after their fashion which is a slash or two with the edge of the sword and if one of their fingers bee hurt they straight shake hands and go to the Tauerne to drinke but to stab or make a thrust is vulgarly called cin schelemstucke that is the act of a villaine and the very iudges esteeme it a most abominable act It is ridiculous that hee which is wounded neuer so flightly though it be at the first incounter straight shakes his aduersary by the hand and both returne againe to the Citie where he that is hurt payes the Wine to the other 〈◊〉 new or renewed league of friendship In Germany Bohemia and Denmarke no man wil part a quarrel nor put himself betweene them that are at variance Neither will they doe it in disputations that I may mingle iest with cusnest where the argument is seldome or neuer taken vp by the Moderator for in truth they are not so fierce in any of these kinds but that they can compose the matter themselues The little danger in their manner of fighting makes their quarrels very frequent In these places as euery where it belieues a Traueller with his best iudgement to shun quarrels and if he must needs aduenture his body yet to forecast meanes of escape after victory Besides the lye and such words as we account most disgracefull with many in Germany are made familiar speech and clounish rudenes esteemed for the neighbor vertue For the Cochmen when they are drunke will easily giue ill words especially to a stranger and they will not stay a minute for him either in the Inne if he be not ready to take Coach or by the way if he haue any necessary cause to light Herewith thou being incensed thinkest him worthy to be strucken but the Magistrate thinks not so and will rather beare with him his partakers if they tumultiously reuenge thy wrong Who would not with silence and fained deafenes slip his necke out of such base and dangerous brawles A stranger needes not feare theeues in Germany for they are most rare but if any such assault him let him defend himselfe the best hee can for they alwaies kill those whom they rob either out of their nature apt to insult vpon the conquered or because their punishments are most cruell by the Law neither is there any pardon for capitall crimes The Sweitzers for the most part Souldiers and stiffe drinkers yet seldome or neuer haue any quarrels because the Lawes impose great penalties vpon those that offer iniury and the seuere Magistrate neuer spareth them there being through all Cities and Villages with most wise and religious carefulnes officers appointed who particularly intend the execution of this iustice Theenes or murtherers are very seldome or neuer heard of among them aswell for the seueritie of the Law and the serious execution thereof as because they are industrious at home and to shun pouerty are more inclined
to serue in forraigne war then to liue by infamous courses at home In Poland the Gentlemen are most prone to quarrels cum bats and murthers especially if they be heated with drink as many times they are and that because of the vnfit priuiledges they haue aboue others and because they haue power of life and death in their owne Territories neither can be called in question for criminall matters but in the publike Parliament held once in three yeeres or there abouts where they are also tried by Gentlemen who for consanguinity friendship or the common cause are like to be fauourable to them And they care not greatly vpon what vnequall termes they offer violence nor how many they be that set vpon their aduersarie Some Gentlemen who haue been in forraine parts are much more ciuill then the rest but in generall there is no place where a stranger ought more to auoid quarrels especially if hee stand not vpon equall termes as not hauing one or more Gentlemen on his part In the meane time all that can here offer violence being Gentlemen to whom the rest are slaues either for feare of infamy or for the aboundance they haue of all things for life robbers by the highway are very rare in Poland and a passenger may safely carry ready money about him especially if he conceale it It were in vaine to giue any precepts for quarrels in Turkey where a Christian not onely may not quarrell but not so much as carry a sword no nor looke a Turke in the face without a Bastinado For the Turkes among themselues they seldome or neuer fight a combate The Citizens and men of inferiour degrees stand in as humble awe of their souldiers as the Christians doe of them neither dare lift vp the head or hand against a common Souldier though they were one hundred against one And the Souldiers howsoeuer they brawle among themselues like butter-wiues yet they neuer strike one another the Lawes being most seuere in the punishment thereof Theeues are lesse to be feared there because passengers neither goe nor ride alone but in Carauanes that is a multitude of men and loaded Cammels yet the Christians commended to the protection of those that leade the Carauans not onely by friends but by bribes and chancing to meet by the way any Ianizaries shal be forced to giue them such victuals as they carry especially wine except they haue a Ianizary to protect them whereof one will serue to defend them against the iniuries of a thousand chancing to meet them but they seldome doe the Christian passengers any other wrong then this consuming of their prouisions Howsoeuer in all euents I would aduise no Christian of the better sort hauing meanes for fit expences to goe any iourney without a Ianizarie to protect him especially since at Constantinople from one Christian Ambassadour or other he may easily obtaine a Ianizaric to attend him faithfully and at a very easie rate At which Citie it is most fit for a Christian to begin his iourney into other parts of Turkie Howsoeuer hee may likewise obtaine such a Ianizaric of some Christian Consull either at Halepo in spria or at Cayro called also Babilon in Egipt and at other frequented places vpon the Sea const And this Ianizaric for some eight Aspers a day wages will faithfully helpe the Christian of whom hee is hired not as a companion but rather as a free kinde of seruant Englishmen especially being young and vnexperienced are apt to take all things in snuffe Of olde when they were senced with Bucklers as with a Rampier nothing was more common with them then to fight about taking the right or left hand or the wall or vpon any vnpleasing countenance Clashing of swords was then daily musicke in euery streete and they did notionely fight combats but cared not to set vpon their Enemie vpon aduantages and vnequall termes But at this day when no nation labours more then the English as well by trauailing into fortaine Kingdomes as by the studie of good letters and by other meanes to enrich their mindes with all vertues I say in these dayes they scorne such men and esteeme them of an idle braine who for ridiculous or trifling causes runne the triall of single fight and howsoeuer they behaue themselues stoutly therein yet they repute them to haue lost as much opinion of wisedome as they haue gayned of daring Much more doe they despise them who quarrell and fight in the streetes publiquely and doe not rather make priuate triall of their difference as also those who make quarrels with men of base condition yea they thinke them in famous who with disparity of number doe many assaile one man and for this beastly quality comparing them to Hogges whereof when one grunts all the Heard comes to helpe him they thinke them worthie of any punishment besides that vpon killing any man mercie is seldome or neuer shewed them howsoeuer in other faire combats the Princes mercie hath many times giuen life to the man-slayer And the cause why single fights are more rare in England in these times is the dangerous fight at single Rapier together with the confiscation of man-slayers goods So as I am of opinion contrarie to the vulgar and think them worthie of praise who inuented dangerous weapons as Rapiets Pistols Gunnes and Gunpowder since the inuention whereof much smaller nomber of men hath perished by single fights or open warre then in former times and conquests and such inundations of barbarous people as were those of the Gothes Hunnes and Longobards are much lesse to bee feared Nothing did in olde time more animate strong Tyrants and Gyants to oppresse weaker men then the huge waight of their Clubs and of their armes where with Goliah had easily quelled Dauid if God had not put in his minde to fight against him with a new kinde of weapon more suteable to his strength I returne to the purpose and doe freely professe that in case of single fights in England the Magistrate doth fauour a wronged stranger more then one of the same Nation howsoeuer the Law fauours neither and that a stranger so fighting neede feare no treason by any disparitie or otherwise But in the meane time here in all places happy are the peaceable Let me adde one thing of corrupt custome in England that those who are not gowne men neuer haue the opinion of valour till in their youth they haue gayned it with some single fight which done they shall after liue more free from quarrels But it were to be wished that a better way were found to preserue reputation then this of single fights aswell contrary to the Law of God as a capitall crime by the Lawes of men Theeues in England are more common then in any other place so farre as I haue obserued or heard but hauing taken purses by the high way they seldome or neuer kill those they rob The true man hauing strength armes and courage may cheerefully resist
them hauing the Lawes Magistrates People and all passengers together with a good cause on his side but this is peculiar to the English that not onely the officers of Iustice but all priuate men present or meeting him by chance are bound to apprehend a murtherer or any theefe that the next Constables or vnder officers are bound to pursue them by hue and cry from Village to Village and City to City And howsoeuer the English are for a great part discended of the French and so partaking with them nature and manners haue also like customes more specially in quarrels and single fights yet in France they haue not this custome to pursue and apprehend malefactors Onely they haue Marshals in seuerall Prouinces to pursue malefactors with light horses but otherwise onely the officers of Iustice vse to apprehend them in Cities And of late to represse the malice of men after a long ciuill warre breaking out into single fights and murthers they haue made seuere Lawes and imposed great penalties vpon those that quarrell especially if any bloud be shed whereas in England onely man slaiers are called in capitall question and small or no punishment is inflicted vpon one that lightly wounds another For the rest the French and English haue the same aptnesse to quarrels and the same brauerie in these single fights Also the Scots are therein like the English saue that the Scots will take parts and assaile an enemie with disparitie of numbers and armes wherein also the Northerne English are not at this day fully reformed In this kind the Barbarous Irish doe offend in Ireland but the English and Irish-English there haue the customes of the English And in times of peace few or no theeues rob by the high waies of Ireland but the stealths of Cowes Horses and Sheepe are frequent All I haue said of this subiect is onely to this purpose that the Traueller being informed of the condition of Iustice Combats and Roberies in forraigne parts may better learne to apply himselfe to patience and to vse moderation according to the necessitie danger more proper to him then others in diuers places 24 Being to write of simulation I am at a stay and grope for passage as in a darke Labyrinth for the voyce of the Vulgar esteemes the vice of dissimulation proper to a Traueller and highly doth reproch him there with Shall we then say that hee who knowes so to liue with Italians Spaniards and very barbarous Pagans as he can gaine their well-wishing will be at home and among his friends subiect to the odious vice of dissimulation the very plague of true friendship Surely by trauell the good become better in all kinds of vertue and the ill more wicked in all vices But let the indifferent Iudge tell me if the greater part of Clownes vnder their rugged cotes and most Lawyers and Merchants vnder the shadow of faire words and sometimes wicked periuries haue not more skill to dissemble if that be to deceiue then any Traualer whatsoeuer not excepting Plato himselfe No doubt simulation in fit place and time is a vertue He that cannot dissemble cannot liue But hee that so dissembles as he is accounted a dissembler indeed hath not the skill to dissemble but is noted with that infamy so as another shall better bee belieued vpon his word then hee vpon his oath Cicero commends the saying of Epicharmus Remember to distrust and calles it the sinew of wisedome and the Italians haue a Prouerb Da chi mifido miguarda Dio Da chinon mifido miguarderò io From him I trust God helpe me at my neede Of him I trust not my selfe will take heede Antigonus prayes God to defend him from his friends Let me speake of mine owne experience My selfe was neuer deceiued by the Italians whom I suspected but by a German which Nation hath a cleare countenance and generall reputation of honesty I was at Lindaw stripped and cousoned for a time of al the gold I carried about me Therefore it is a point of art for a Traueller to know how to auoide deceit and how to dissemble honesty I meane to saue himselfe not to deceiue others Let him haue a cleare countenance to all men and an open brest to his friend but when there is question of his Countries good of his enemies lying in waite for him of his owne credit or life let him shut his bosome close from his inward friends That Counsell thou wouldest haue another keepe first keepe it thy selfe A Traueller must dissemble his long iourneys yet onely in dangerous places and among suspected persons My selfe haue obserued some too warie in this kinde who in most safe waies vsed grosse caution to hide from their neere friend the purpose of their iourney and sometimes in Cities would conceale where and what hower they dined and supped In like sort a traueller must sometimes hide his money change his habit dissemble his Country and fairely conceale his Religion but this hee must doe onely when necessity forceth Let mee insist vpon some examples which are most proper to manifest the truth in a darke argument My selfe in Italy many times passed for a German and then consorted my selfe with Germans faithfull companions as they bee all in generall haters of drunkennes as some of them be either drinking altogether water or vsing the French diet and of the same Religion with me as those are of the Palatinate of Rheme and in some other Prouinces Then I couenanted with these my consorts that when any man spake Dutch to me though I had some skill in that Language especially for vulgar speeches and most of all if wee were in any long discourse one of them should take the answere out of my mouth as being slow of speech though it were done somewhat vnmannerly Secondly that if I were discouered in any dangerous place not to be a German as I professed they should say that I was vnknowne to them and by the way fell into their company and so withdrawing themselues out of danger by leauing the place should leaue to me the care of my selfe And with these consorts I went to Naples and there confidently though lesse wisely in respect of the warre betweene England and Spaine I entered to view the strong Fort kept by the Spaniards and after went to Milan Another time vnder the name of a Polonian I went to the Duke of Loraine his Court at Nanzi where being curiously sifted by the guard at the City-gate and being asked many questions about the King and Queene and State of Poland I so satisfied them as they admitted me into the City but when at the very entrance they bad me hold vp my hand which ceremony the French vse in taking of othes I was much affraied least they should put me to my oath for my Country but when they had asked me if I came not from any place infected with the plague and I had answered no vpon my oth they let me passe into
his peace or to speake how little then doth it become him to be so talkatiue as he would hier one to heare him My selfe haue heard many who had scarce seene the Lyone of the Tower and the Beares of Parish-Garden as I may well say in comparison of their small iourneys and experience with other mens so ingrosse all the talke of the Table in relating their aduentures as if they had passed the pillars of Hercules nothing could be asked which they could not resolue of their owne knowledge hauing well learned the precept of Ouid to Louiers Et quae nescieris vt bene nota refer What thou know'st not boldly relate as if thou knew'st thereof the state And this they did with great applause of the ignorant and no lesse derision of experienced men who in their discourse had often found them lyers and well knew that as many hastning out at one gate passe more slowly so vessels full of good liquor sound not so much as the emptie and they who vnderstand much are not so free in imparting it And these be the men who haue branded Trauellers with the tytle of Lyers but a wise man ought to distinguish such sponges from praise-worthie Trauellers For in all arts professions and courses of life some take vpon them the skill and facultie of the best who are commonly most ignorant and impotent therein and it were great iniustice to ascribe the weaken effe of the one to any defect in the other or in the art and course it selfe Therefore Nauita de ventis de Taur is narret Arator Let Marriners of the winds force And Plowmen of their Buls discourse but I would haue a Traueller after his returne like an Orator or Poet so well instructed in all subiects of discourse as nothing should be altogether strange to him yet so discreete also as hee should not but vpon some faire occasion speake of those things whereof he could discourse most eloquently and iudicially And since stale Harlots by this art make their putrified wares saleable how much more shall Trauellers whose discourse more pleaseth in the stomack then in the mouth make the very stones and insensible creatures to daunce and hang vpon their mouthes as they are said to haue been moued by the eloquence and musick of Vlysses and Orpheus CHAP. III. Of the opinions of old Writers and some Prouerbs which I obserued in firraigne parts by reading or discourse to be vsed either of Trauellert themselues or of diuers Nations and Prouinces OLD Writers affirme that the Northerne men in respect of their heate kept in by the cold are generally greater eaters then Southerne men Thus they proue it Because all men haue a better stomacke in Winter then in Summer because Northerne men passing towards the South daily leese their appetite and because both men and beasts of the South are more leane then those of the North. This opinion is of it selfe true but the arguments for proofe admit some exceptions for the Turkes towards the South be fatter generally then our men of the North not that they eate more but that they are Eunuches and giuen to idlenesse I say therefore that the opinion is generally true but by many accidents proues false namely in places which suffer not the extremity of cold in the North or of heate in the South and comparing barren Pastures in the North with fertile pastures in the South and vpon like accidents hindting the true effects The fortitude of the minde and the strength of the body for the same reason they attribute to Northerne men and shew by Histories that hereupon they were euer Conquerours as the Medes against the Assirians the Assirians against the Chaldeans the Greekes against the Persians the Parthians against the Greekes the Romans against the Carthaginians the Gothes aginst the Romans the Turkes against the Arabians the Tartars against the Turkes the English against the French euen in France though the French called in by the English could neuer conquer them Lastly they conclude that the Scythians are most valiant and the best Souldiers of the World The truth is that the Romans were ouerrunne by barbarous people of the North yet not for their want of valour but by their dissention and the vastnesse of their Empire falling with his owne weight yet the same Romans subdued and long held in subiection many Nations of the North as France the Low-Countries and Britanny And no doubt the hope of spoile not valour or strength made the barbarous people ouerrunne the Romans who might haue beene quiet from them if they had been poore No man will fish with a golden hooke for a halfe penny fish Againe the riches of the Romans made them effeminate which likewise incouraged the barbarous people to assaile them But it were fitter to say that wisdome and wit rather then heate or cold make men to be valiant For no man contemnes death or hath due respect of honour but hee with whom reason preuailes more then nature Nature hath his force as the Eagle begets not a Doue but reason rather then nature is the cause that when common Souldiers runne away yet Gentlemen chuse rather to dye then escape by flight Not so much because they are borne of a Noble race as because they will not be a reproach to themselues and their race Not because Gentlemen dye with lesse paine then the common sort but because they better vnderstand that the soule is immortall that he dies in a good cause who fights for his Country and that an honorable death is to be preferred before a disgracefull life In all great Empires valour and learning flourished together and decayed together with the ruines of the Empires following their decay as in those of the Assirians Persians Medes and the Empires more knowne to vs by Histories of the Greekes and Romanes Therefore howsoeuer strength and an innated boldnesse are propagated and come by Nature yet true fortitude is not found in the North nor in the South nor proceedes from nature but where learning flourisheth and cowardise is reputed basenesse and where the word of God teaching the immortality of the soule and the vanities of mortall life most raigneth there men are most valiant Also they affirme that the Southerne men are more wittie and more wise then Northerne because the barbarous Gothes and Northerne people when they got great victories yet could not make true vse of them but lost Prouinces for want of wit and wisedome in as short a time as they got them by their valour and strength Surely variable fortune did exercise and tosse part of the Gothes and vandales yet other part of the Gothes and the Longobards subdued the plaine Country of Italy and these setled a long lasting Kingdome calling it Lombardie And though Hannibal were a Southerne man yet of him after the field woone by him at Canna it was first said Hannibal thou knowest how to ouercome but thou knowest not how to make
very deepe and couers all the ground for nine moneths of the yeere yet notwithstanding the vallyes and discents of them lying open to the South Sunne and taking life from the heate thereof are very fruitfull Lastly in generall through all Germany the aboundance of Lakes and Mountaines doth increase this cold of the aire in diuers places except they bee something defended from the same by Woods adioyning and in some places as namely at Heidelberg where the Cities are almost fully inclosed with Mountaines the cold windes in Winter doe more ragingly breake in on that side the Mountaines lve open the more they are restrained and resisted on the other sides As likewise by accident the Sunne beames in Summer reflecting against those Mountaines though in a cold Region are so violently hot as the Cities at that time are much annoyed with multitudes of flies which not onely vex men but so trouble the horses as they are forced to couer them with cloathes from this annoyance The foresaid intemperatenesse of cold pressing great part of Germany in stead of fier they vse hot stoues for remedie thereof which are certaine chambers or roomes hauing an earthen ouen cast into them which may be heated with a little quantity of wood so as it will make them hot who come out of the cold and incline them to swetting if they come neare the ouen And as well to keepe out cold as to retaine the heate they keepe the dores and windowes closely shut so as they vsing not only to receiue Gentlemen into these stoues but euen to permit rammish clownes to stand by the ouen till their wet clothes be dried and themselues sweat yea to indure their little children to sit vpon their close stooles and ease themselues within this close and hot stoue let the Reader pardon my rude speech as I bore with the bad smell it must needes be that these ill smelles neuer purged by the admitting of any fresh ayre should dull the braine and almost choke the spirits of those who frequent the stoues When my selfe first entred into one of them this vnwonted heate did so winde about my legges as if a Snake had twined about them and made my head dull and heauy but after I had vsed them custome became another nature for I neuer inioyed my health in any place better then there This intemperatenesse of cold is the cause that a Lawrell tree is hardly to be found in Germany and that in the lower parts towards Lubeck they keepe Rosemary within the house in eartherne pitchers filled with earth as other where men preserue the choice fruits of the South yet can they not keep this Rosemary when it prospers best aboue three yeeres from withering For this cause also they haue no Italian fruits in Germany onely at Prage I did see some few Orange trees preserued in pitchers full of earth by setting them fourth in the heate of the Summer dayes and after drawing them into houses where they were cherished by artificiall heate And the like fruits I did see at Heidelberg in the Pallatine Electors Garden growing open in Summer but in winter a house being built ouer them with an ouen like a stoue and yet these trees yeelded not any ripe fruit when as at London and many parts of England more Northerly then those parts of Germany we haue Muske Mellons and plenty of Abricots growing in Gardens which for quantitie and goodnesse are not much inferiour to the fruits in Italy Also this cold is the cause that in Misen where they plant vines and in the highest parts of Germany on this side the Alpes where they make wine thereof the Grapes and the wine are exceeding sower Onely the wines vpon Neccar and those vpon the West side of the Rheine are in their kinds good but harsh and of little heate in the stomacke The cherries called Zawerkersen are reasonable great but sower And the other kind called Wildkersen is little and sweete but hath a blacke iuyce vnpleasing to the taste They haue little store of peares or apples and those they haue are little and of small pleasantnesse onely the Muskadel peare is very delicate especially when it is dried And the Germans make good vse of those fruits they haue not so much for pleasure when they are greene as for furnishing the table in Winter For their Peares and Apples they pare them and drie them vnder the Ouen of the stoue and then dresse them very fauorly with Cynamon and Butter In like sort they long preserue their cheries drie without sugar and the greater part of their cheries they boyle in a brasse cauldron full of holes in the bottome out of which the iuce falles into another vessell which being kept growes like marmalade and makes a delicate sauce for all roasted meates and will last very long as they vse it The Italians haue a Prouerb Dio da i panni secondo i freddi that is God giues cloathes according to the colds as to the cold Muscouites hee hath giuen futtes to the English wooll for cloth to the French diuers light stuffes and to Southerlie people stoore of silkes that all Nations abounding in some things and wanting others might be taught that they haue neede of one anothers helpe and so be stirred vp to mutuall loue which God hath thus planted betweene mankind by mutuall trafficke For this must be vnderstood not onely of clother but also of all other things necessary for human life Germany doth abound with many things necessary for life and many commodities to be transported For great Cities and Cities within land of which Germany hath store those argue plenty of commodities to bee transported and these plenty of foode to nourish much people And since that paradox of Cicero is most true that small causes of expence rather then great reuenues make men rich surely by this reason the Germans should bee most rich They neuer play at Dice seldome at Cardes and that for small wagers They seldome feast and sparingly needing no sumptuary Law es to restraine the number or costlinesse of dishes or sawces They are apparrelled with homely stuffes and weare their clothes to the vttermost of their lasting their houshold stuffe is poore in gifts they are most sparing and onely are prodigall in expences for drinking with which a man may sooner burst then spend his patrimony They haue Corne sufficient for their vse and the Merchants in the Cities vpon the sea coast export Corne into Spaine aswell of their owne as especially of that they buy at Dantzke They want not Cattle of all kinds but they are commonlie leane and little so are their horses many in number and little in stature onely in Bohemia they haue goodly horses or at least great and heauy like those in Freeseland but I remember not to haue seene much cattle or great heards thereof in the fields of any Towne the reason whereof may be gathered out of the following discourse of the Germans
diet Their sheepe are very little bearing a course wooll and commonly blacke which they export not but make course cloath thereof for the poorer sort the Gentlemen and for the most part the Citizens wearing English cloath The libertie of hunting commonly reserued to Princes and absolute Lords and they haue great store of red Deare feeding in open Woods which the Princes kill by hundreds at a time and send them to their Castlas to be salted vsing them in stead of beefe for the feeding of their families They haue no fallow Deare except some wild kinds vpon the Alpes They haue great store of fresh fish in Lakes Ponds and Riuers among which the Lakes of Sweitzerland are most commended At Hamburg they catch such plentie of Sallmons as it is a common report that the seruants made couenant with their Masters not to bee fed therewith more then two meales in the weeke and from thence great plentie of Sturgeon is exported Either the cold driues away birds or else they labour not to take them for I did seldome see them ferued at the table but onely Sparrowes and some few little birds In all their Riuers I did neuer see any Swannes yet they say that at Lubeck and about priuate Castles of Gentlemen they haue some few They say that they haue some mines of Gold but surely they abound with mines of Siluer aboue all Europe and all mettals where so euer found are by a Law of the Golden Bull appropriated to the Emperour and to the Electors in their seuerall dominions Also they abound with copper and brasse where with they couer many Churches but within forty yeeres past the English haue brought them Leade which they vse to that and other purposes Also they haue great plenty of Iron and they haue Fountaines yeelding most white Salt in Cities farre within the land which Cities are commonly called Halla Austria beyond the Danow yeelds excellent Saffron and at Iudiburg in Styria growes store of Spica Celtica as the Latin Herbalists call it In the season of the yeere yellow Amber is plentifully gathered vpon the Sea coast of Prusfia and Pomerania The Germans export into forraigne parts and there sell many curious and well prised workes of manuall Art And it is worth the consideration that the Citizens of Nurnberg dwelling in a sandy and baeren soile by their industrie and more specially by their skill in these manuall Arts liue plentifully and attaine great riches while on the contrary the inhabitants of Alsatia the most fruitfull Prouince of all Germany neglecting these Arts and content to enioy the fatnesse of their soyle in slothfull rest are the poorest of all other Germans Moreouer the vpper part of Germany abounds with Woods of Firre which tree as the Lawrell is greene all Winter and it hath many Okes also vpon the Alpes and not else where and lower Germany especially towards the Baltick Sea aboundeth with Woods of Oke They conuey great store of wood from the Alpes into the lower parts by the Riuer Rheine cutting downe whole trees and when they are marked casting them one by one into the Riuer to be carried downe with the violent streame thereof or otherwise binding many together to floate downe with men standing vpon them to guide them And at many Cities and Villages they haue seruants which know the trees by the markes and gather them vp in places where they may best be sold. The Cities that are one the Sea-coast on the North side of Germany haue very great ships but more fit for taking in great burthen then for sayling or fighting which the Netherlanders more commonly fraught with their commodities then the Germans themselues neither are the German Marriners much to bee commended The German Sea in good part and the Baltick Sea altogether are free from Pyrats which is the cause that their ships are little or not at all armed onely some few that trade into Spaine carry great Ordinance but are generally made large in the ribs rather fit for burthen then fight at Sea I neuer obserued them to haue any common prayers morning or euening as our English ships haue while they bee at Sea but the Marriners of their owne accord vse continually to sing Psalmes and they are punished by the purse who sweare or so much as once name the diuell from which they abhorre And herein they deserue to be praysed aboue the Holanders in whose ships a man shall heare no mention of God or his worship The said free Cities of Germany lying on the Sea-coast are called Hansen-stetten that is free Cities because they had of old in all neighbour Kingdoms great priuiledges of buying any wares as wel of strangers as Citizens and of selling or exchanging their own wares to either sort at pleasure and to bring in or carry out all commodities by their owne shippes with like immunities equall to Citizens in all the said Dominions and no lesse preiudiciall to them then aduantageous to themselues In England they were wont to dwell together at London in the house called the Stilyard and there to enioy these liberties which long since haue laine dead the Germans seldome bringing ought in their ships into England and the English hauing now long time found it more commodious to vse their owne shipping and iustly complaining that the English had not the like priuiledges in the said free Cities for which cause the priuiledges of the Germans were laid dead in England though not fully taken away Caesar witnesseth that the Schwaben inhabiting Suenia then containing great part of Germany admitted Merchants not to buy any thing themselues but onely to sell the spoyles they got in warre But Munster a German writes that these Sueuians or schwaben are now the onely forestallers of all things sold in faires or Markets and that for this cause they are excluded from buying any thing through Germany except it bee sold in their owne Townes of trafficke In generall the Germans doe applie themselues industriously to all trafficke by land which onely the free Cities on the Sea-coast exercise somewhat coldly by sea At home the Germans among themselues spend and export an vnspeakeable quantity of Beere with great gaine which yeelds great profit to priuate Citizens and to the Princes or publike Senate in free Cities there being no Merchandize of the World that more easily findes a buyer in Germany then this For the Germans trafficke with strangers I will omit small commodities which are often sold though in lesse quantitie yet with more gaine then greater and in this place I will onely speake of the commodities of greater moment aswell those that the Country affords as those that buy in forraigne parts to be transported in their owne ships The Germans export into Italy linnen clothes corne wax fetcht from Dantzk and those parts and coyned filuer of their owne which they also exchange vncoined with some quantity of gold Into England they export boards iron course linnen clothes and of that
Land witnessing that their wealth consists in natiue commodities more then trading by Sea may easily guesse that they are not much addicted to Nauigation The French haue many commodities by which they draw forraigne Coynes to them but foure especially Wine Salt Linnen course cloth and Corne which in that respect some call the loadestones of France Neither is it a matter of small moment that they haue many Riners giuing commodity to the mutuall trafficke of their Cities They haue plenty of Flaxe and Hempe whereof they make canuas sayles ropes and cables Neither want they wooll whereof they make cloth little inferiour to the English cloth but not in quantity to be exported Bourdeaux is a famous City for exportation of Wines as Rochell and the neighbour Ports are no lesse for Salt France yeeldeth Saffron and Oade for dying which they call Du Pastell and many small commodities to be exported as Cards Pinnes Paper and the like yea they export into Spaine linnen cloathes made thinne with wearing and sell them there for a good price The Spaniards bring into France some quantity of wooll raysons Oliues Oyle Cytrons and other fruites whereof France needes no great quantity and Cochenillo for dying The Fortingals bring into France holy Thistle an hearbe like a white thorne hauing leaues like cotten on them and sugar and diuers kinds of Indian wood as 〈◊〉 Schomache Fustocke and Logwood and a smal quantity of Dates And these carry out of France great quantity of Linnen cloth which we call white Roanes and greater quantity of vittree Canuas and Paper some woollen cloth much Corne especially Wheate good quantity of waxe and cardes and the like commodities The English bring into France great quantity of woollen-cloaths called Kersies and Cottons Leade Tynne English Vitriall or Shooemakers blacke sheepe skinnes and by stealth other Hides forbidden to be exported great quantity of Hearrings and new found land Fish dried of wooll though forbidden to be exported Oyle Soape tunned Soape ashes old worne cloakes and I know not to what vse very old shooes with other natiue and forraigne commodities And they bring from thence Linnen cloathes called white Roanes and Vitree Canuas Paper white and red wines in great quantity Threed Saffron Waxe and from Paris Gold and siluer The Hollanders bring into France two or three kindes of their Linnen cloathes Copper Feathers and Wier and they carry thence the foresaid Linnen cloathes Wines Prunes Paper and the aboue named commodities The French carry into Italy Tinne Lead dry fish called Poore Iohn brought to them by the English and their owne aboue named commodities And they bring out of Italy silke cloaths and other Italian commodities Among the French onely those of Marseile trafficke with the Turkes and their greatest trade is onely at Tripoli in Syria who carry into Turkey Spanish siluer and French Linnen cloathes and bring from thence raw silke spices gals cotton and Indico for dying Old Writers relate that the Gals vsed to lie on the ground to feed on milke and Swines flesh and to be giuen to gluttony At this day none eate lesse Bacon or dried flesh for ordinary diet then the French yet I cannot commend their temperance since all as well Men as Weomen besides dinner and supper vse breakefasts and beuers which they call collations and gouster so eating foure times in the day All France abounds with necessaries for food as well all kinds of Cattle as fruites not inferiour in some places to those of Italy and wild Boares and Red Deare for they haue no fallow Deare and Birds and Fowle and all kinds of Fish affoorded by the Sea and their many pleasant riuers but their Beef is neither very good nor much vsed Their Sheep are lesse then ours in England but the flesh of them is sweete and sauoury In the Innes they haue greater plenty of Partridges and diuers kinds of Birds because the Countrey people neither doe nor may eate them and the Gentlemen are generally sparing in their ordinary diet so as great plenty of these dainties is brought to the chiefe Innes Howsoeuer England be happy in all aboundance and hath some dainties for food proper to it selfe as God wits and some other kinds of Sea Fowle and especially fallow Deare and Brawne Though it passeth France generally in plenty of Sea Fowles and as well the variety as plenty of Sea fishes yet hath it not such aboundance as France hath of Land Fowle or such as haunt the woods and fields as Partridges Feasants Woodcocks and the like or at least by reason of the common sort not feeding thereon and the said spare ordinary diet of the Gentlemen France seemeth much more to abound with them being common in all the chiefe Innes I speake of England in generall for in some places they so abound with vs as they beare little or no price The French are commended and said to excell others in boyled meates sawces and made dishes vulgarly called Quelques choses but in my opinion the larding of their meates is not commendable whereby they take away all variety of taste making all meates sauor of Porke and the French alone delight in mortified meates They vse not much whitmeates nor haue I tasted there any good Butter which our Ambassadours cause to be brought vnto them out of England and they haue onely one good kinde of Cheeses called Angelots pleasing more for a kind of sharpenesse in taste then for the goodnesse As well the Gentlemen as Citizens liue more sparingly then the English in their ordinary priuate diet and haue not their Tables so furnished with variety and number of dishes They dine most with sodden and liquid meates and sup with roasted meates each hauing his seuerall sawce but their Feasts are more sumptuous then ours and consist for the most part of made fantasticall meates and sallets and sumptuous compositions rather then of flesh or birds And the cookes are most esteemed who haue best inuention in new made and compounded meats And as in al things the French are chearefull and nimble so the Italians obserue that they eate or swallow their meate swiftly and adde that they are also slouenly at meate but I would rather say they are negligent or carelesse and little curious in their feeding And to this purpose I remember an accident that happened to a Frenchman eating with vs at the Masters table in a Venetian ship gouerned by Greekes and sailing from Venice to Ilierusalem who turning hir foule trencher to lay meat on the cleane side did so offend the Master and all the Marriners as well the best as common sort as they hardly refrained from offering him violence For Marriners in generall but especially the Greekes are so superstitious as they tooke this his negligence in turning his trencher being of like opinion for the turning of any thing in the ship vpside downe as if it had been an ominous signe that the ship should be cast away In a Village of Normandy halfe way
and raised vp with wier shewing their necks and breasts naked But now both more commonly and especially in winter weare thicke ruffes Gentlewomen and Citizens wiues when they goe out of dores weare vpon their faces little Maskes of silk lined with fine leather which they alwaies vnpin and shew their face to any that salutes them And they vse a strange badge of pride to weare little looking glasses at their girdles Commonly they go in the streets leaning vpon a mans arme They weare very light gownes commonly blacke and hanging loose at the backe and vnder it an vpper-body close at the breast with a kirtle of a mixed or light colour and of some light stuffe laid with many gardes in which sort the women generally are attired They weare sleeues to their gownes borne out with whalebones and of a differing colour from the gowne which besides hath other loose hanging sleeues cast backward and aswel the vpperbodies as the kirtles differ from the gowne in colour and stuffe And they say that the sleeues borne vp with whale-bones were first inuented to auoid mens familiar touching of their armes For it was related vnto me I know not how credibly that by Phisitians aduice the French make issues in their armes for better health as the Italians vse to make them vnder the knees couered with a close garter of brasse In France as well men as women vse richly to bee adorned with Iewels The men weare rings of Diamonds and broad Iewels in their hats placed vpon the roote of their feathers The Ladies weare their Iewels commonly at the brest or vpon the left arme and many other waies for who can containe the mutable French in one and the same fashion and they commonly weare chaines of Pearle yea the very wiues of Merchants weare rings of Diamonds but most commonly chaines of bugell and like toyes of black colour The Gentlemen haue no plate of siluer but some spoones and a salt much lesse haue they any plate of gold But the great Lords or Princes eate in siluer dishes and vse basons and ewers of siluer and no other kind of plate vsing alwaies to drinke in glasses and each seuerall man to haue a glasse by himselfe Caesar reports that the old Britans were apparrelled in skinnes and wore long haire with the beard all shauen but the vpper lippe Now the English in their apparrell are become more light then the lightest French and more sumptuous then the proudest Persians More light I say then the French because with singular inconstancy they haue in this one age worne out all the fashions of France and all the Nations of Europe and tired their owne inuentions which are no lesse buisie in finding out new and ridiculous fashions then in scraping vp money for such idle expences yea the Taylors and Shopkeepers daily inuent fantasticall fashions for hats and like new fashions and names for stuffes Some may thinke that I play the Poet in relating wonderfull but incredible things but men of experience know that I write with historicall truth That the English by Gods goodnesse abounding at home with great variety of things to be worne are not onely not content therewith and not onely seeke new garments from the furthest East but are besides so light and vaine as they suffer themselues to be abused by the English Merchants who nourishing this generall folly of their Countrymen to their own gaine daily in forraigne parts cause such new colours and stuffe to be made as their Masters send painted out of England to them teaching strangers to serue our lightnesse with such inuentions as themselues neuer knew before For this cause the English of greater modesty in apparrell are forced to cast off garments before they be worne since it is the law of nature that euery man may eate after his owne appetite but must weare his apparrell after the vulgar fashion except he will looke like an old picture in cloth of Arras I haue heard a pleasant fable that Iupiter sent a shower wherein whosoeuer was wet became a foole and that all the people were wet in this shower excepting one Philosopher who kept his study but in the euening comming forth into the market place and finding that all the people mocked him as a foole who was onely wise was forced to pray for another like shower that he might become a foole and so liue quietly among fooles rather then beare the enuy of his wisedome This happens to many wise men in our age who wearing apparrell of old and good fashion are by others so mocked for proud and obstinate fooles till at last they are forced to be foolish with the fooles of their time The English I say are more sumptuous then the Persians because despising the golden meane they affect all extreamities For either they will be attired in plaine cloth and light stuffes alwayes prouided that euery day without difference their hats be of Beuer their shirts and bands of the finest linnen their daggers and swords guilded their garters and shooe roses of silke with gold or siluer lace their stockings of silke wrought in the seames with silke or gold and their cloakes in Summer of silke in Winter at least all lined with veluet or else they daily weare sumptuous doublets and breeches of silke or veluet or cloth of gold or siluer so laid ouer with lace of gold or silke as the stuffes though of themselues rich can hardly be seene The English and French haue one peculiar fashion which I neuer obserued in any other part namely to weare scabbards and sheaths of veluet vpon their rapiers and daggers For in France very Notaries vse them in the Cities and ride vpon their footecloaths or in Coaches both hired and in England men of meane sort vse them In the time of Queene Elizabeth the Courtiers delighted much in darke colours both simple and mixt and did often weare plaine blacke stuffes yet that being a braue time of warre they together with our Commanders many times wore light colours richly laced and embrodered but the better sort of Gentlemen then esteemed simple light colours to be lesse comely as red and yellow onely white excepted which was then much worne in Court Now in this time of King Iames his Reigne those simple light colours haue beene much vsed If I should begin to set downe the variety of fashions and forraign stuffes brought into England in these times I might seeme to number the starres of Heauen and sands of the Sea I will onely adde that the English in great excesse affect the wearing of Iewels and Diamond Rings scorning to weare plaine gold rings or chaines of gold the men seldome or neuer wearing any chaines and the better sort of women commonly wearing rich chaines of pearle or else the light chaines of France and all these Iewels must be oriental and precious it being disgracefull to weare any that are counterfet In like manner among the better sort of Gentlemen and Merchants
meere title and his authoritie hath no sinews so as he can neither call them if they thinke not good to come nor decree any thing if they be vnwilling nor compell those that are refractory And the very Princes are not constant to their owne iudgement if you respect the iminent dangers from the Turks nor actiue in their owne motions concerning the publike cause but are diuersly distracted betweene feare to increase the suspected power of the Emperour by helping him or to stirre vp Ciuill warres to the ruine of the dis-vnited State by making open opposition to his authority In the meane time nothing is more frequent with them then boldly to refuse either appearance in the Emperours Court or obedience to any other of his commandements that are vnpleasing to them And giue me leaue to say that my selfe there obserued that a great Prince of Germany for good respect namelesse to whom the Emperour had ingaged certaine Cities for money borrowed of him when the Emperour lending the money by Ambassadors desired restitution of the townes not onely refused to restore the same but could not bee induced to appeare at Prage by his Substitute to compound this difference and it seemed more strange to mee that diuers other Ambassadours comming to the City the same time had all audience before those from the Emperour who staid long before they were admitted to speak with the said Prince The declining generositie of the Princes of Austria and the fearefull danger hanging ouer them from the Turkes nourish this confidence in the Princes of Germany and indeede the Turkish warre doth so imploy or rather bind the hands of the Princes of Austria as were they neuer so valiant yet they should be forced rather to suffer any thing from these Christian Princes then by opposing them to be deuoured by Infidels Neither can the priuate calamity of Germany and the publike misery of all Christians in this point be sufficiently bewailed I say the priuate calamitic of Germany because the members being most strong if they were vnited yet are without sinews thus disioyned and haue no common force though in each part they be strong I say the publike calamity of Christians because howsoeuer the priuate Princes of Germany be of great power yet the whole body of the Empire being weake the daily victories of the Turkes threaten destruction not onely to Germany but to the name of Christians The Dukes of Florence of Sauoy and of Mantua and all the Princes of Italy whom the Pope hath not drawne to be his vassals the Dukes of Lorayne of Burgundy with diuers Dukes and Earles of Netherland after a sort acknowledge the safe and farre remoued patronage of the Emperour but they neither come to the Parlaments about the affaires of the Empire as not pertaining to them nor contribute any money to vphold the dignitie thereof except perhaps sometimes in the common cause of the Turkish warre they lend the Emperour some mony which no doubt all other Christian Princes would no lesse doe who haue no bond of subiection The King of Denmark by a double bond of his Kingdome and of the Dukedome of Holst the King of Swetia the Cantons of the Sweitzers and the Grisons inhabiting the Snowy Alpes were of old members of the Empire but in time these Feathers pluckt from the Eagle haue growne into new bodies and at this day do not at all acknowledge the Emperour In Germany the Tolles and Taxes are frequent as the number of absolute Princes is great who impose them in their seuerall Territories vpon all passengers and kinds of Merchandize or very small packs Schollers of Vniuersities onely excepted who passe free for their persons and goods But aboue all other Princes the Elector of Saxony as shall bee shewed in his due place seemes best to haue learned the art of shearing his subiects so as he not onely imitates but is equall in this point to the Princes of Italy Boterus relates that the Emperour of his owne hereditary dominions hath the yeerely rent of two thousand fiue hundred thousand Crownes and besides exacts fiue hundred thousand Crownes ordinarily and as much more by extraordinary means Men of good credit haue affirmed to me that the Prouince of Silesia alone subiect to the Emperor as King of Bohemia yeelds him each quarter of the yeare 60000 gold Guldens or Crownes by which may bee coniectured what hee receiues of his other large Dominions Yet Silesia yeelds more then any one of the rest in respect that of the twelue Dukedoms therein contained eight are fallen to the Emperour for want of heires-maies The Bishop of Silesia is called the Golden Bishop and the same Prouince hath thirty Abbies being most rich in that and all other respects At Prage subiect to the Emperour as King of Bohemia I obserued that euery house paid him yeerely three Dollers but this burthen equally imposed on thatched houses and stately Pallaces seeming vnequally shared the Citizens agreed among themselues of a more equall diuision thereof so as I remember that my Hosts house purchased for three hundred Dollers paid yeerely to the Emperor nine Dollers besides other charges of maintaining poore Scholers of Watches and the like imposed vpon each Master of a Family in each seuerall parish for which he also paid two Dollers yeerely In the Dominions of the Emperour the Brewers of Beere for each brewing paid six dollers to the Emperour which tribute in one City of Prage was said to passe fiue hundred Dollers weekely Also the Emperour exacted of his subiects for each Tun of Wine drawne a Doller and tenne Grosh for each bushell of Corne bought in the Market not the priuate Corne of their owne spent in their houses one siluer Grosh These and like tributes were at first granted for certaine yeares by consent of the three Estates but Princes know well to impose exactions and know not how to depose them The Emperour giues a City to the Iewes for their dwelling at Prage who are admitted in no City of Germany excepting onely at Franckfort where they haue assigned to them a Streete for their dwelling of which Iewes vpon all occasions hee borrowes money and many waies sheares those bloud-suckers of Christians The Germans impose great taxes vpon all forraigne commodities brought into their Hauens and not onely vpon mens persons and vpon commodities laded on beasts to bee distracted from City to City but euen vpon small burthens to be carried on a mans shoulder as they passe through their Forts or Cities which they vse to build vpon their confines to that purpose and onely Scholers of Vniuersities are free from these frequent exactions for their bodies and goods Touching the reuenews of the Empire it selfe Boterus relates that it receiues yeerely seuen thousand thousand Crownes or gold Guldens and this reuenew is of small moment for such great affaires if hee containe all the Princes of Germany vnder this taxation since otherwise a communication of treasure cannot bee expected
forced to wonder at the quantity varietie and goodnesse thereof which if they were all vnder the command of one Prince no two of the mightiest Kings of Christendome might therein compare with him It remaines briefely to adde something of the Nauall power of the Germans Almost all Germany being within land onely the Cities vpon the Northerne Ocean and vpon the Baltike sea haue any exercise of Nauigation And I did neuer reade or heare that any of them did euer vndertake any long and dangerous voyage by sea nor can their Marriners be praised for their experience or boldnesse compared with the English and Netherlanders The City of Dantzk which for agreement of tongue and manners I reckon among the Cities of Germany though it be in some sort annexed to Poland howsoeuer it is famous for concourse of Merchants and rich commodities yet not vsing to export them in their owne ships but rather to sell them to strangers or to lade their ships especially those of the Hollanders I could not vnderstand that forty ships belonged to that Citie Among the other Cities Lubeck and Hamburg are farre more powerfull in this kind then all the rest ioyned together The Hauen of Hamburg hath commonly great number of shipping and they said that more then six hundred ships did then belong to the City But they being vast and built onely for burthen are held vnfit for warre The City of Hamburg and the other Cities vpon the Northerne Ocean hauing long inioyed peace as neutrals while all their neighbours haue made warre one with the other and none of the Cities excepting Hamburg sending out ships further then vpon the coast it cannot be that the ships should be strongly armed At Hamburg I did see a ship then building for a man of warre of one thousand two hundred tunnes and among the other ships belonging to that Citie the greatest was called the golden Lion strongly built and bearing eighteene brasse pieces on each side which they named their Admirall But our best Sea men thought them both more fit to defend the Hauen as Forts then to make any fights at Sea In our age thirty seuen ships of Hamburg were laded by the Flemmings with Dantzk Rie for Spaine where they had free trafficke in the heate of the warre betweene England France Netherland and Spaine and of these ships sixe perished in the very going out of the Elue by tempest while English and other ships safely put to sea and the rest despaiting of the Voyage into Spaine were vnladed Not long before my being there they had sent some eight or ten ships into Spaine whereof onely one returned in safetie to Hamburg The City Lubeck hath a greater number of ships then Hamburg but they commonly trading within the Baltick sea seldome troubled with warre or Pyrates and their ships being onely built for burthen are slow of saile and vnfit to fight at sea Besides that for the foresaid reason they carry few or no pieces or other armes To conclude while I was at Lubeck a great ship of that Citie of one thousand foure hundred tuns called the Eagle laded with salt perished in the returne from Spaine Whereupon I then heard our best Sea-men impute great ignorance to the German Marriners of those Cities This shall suffice for their skill in Nauigation whereof I haue formerly spoken in the third Booke of this Volume or Part treating of the trafficke of Merchants in Germany Touching their Lawes and iudiciall courses in generall Of old the Magistrates of Germany were as Captaines of Cities who determined of Ciuill causes at home and had publike meetings yeerely for that purpose most commonly in the moneth of May or at the times of the full and new Moones They came armed to these meetings not all together but euery man at his pleasure and as it pleased the multitude so they sate in iudgement Silence was commanded by the Priests who had power to punish them Then the Prince or King or any eminent person in eloquence or in fauour was heard to speake yet as perswading not commanding and if the speech pleased the people shewed consent by murmuring or otherwise dissent by striking their speares together Here they determined all controuersies and chose new Captaines or Gouernours They had a custome that if any man complained of another hee should make a supper for a hundred men who duely examined the cause and if the plaintife had the right the defendant paid the charge otherwise he scaped free They gaue of free will to their Prince of their Cattell and Corne as much as they thought fit for his honour and necessity Tacitus writes that the old Magistrates of Germany did nothing vnarmed publikely or priuately And the Germans themselues confesse that their old Progenitors seldome tried iniuries by Law but commonly reuenged them with fire and sword and that they shamed not to take preyes by stealth or sorce Quintilianus Varus appointed Gouernour of Germany by the Emperour Augustus did first appoint the iudgement of Scabines which in the Hebrew tongue signifies a Iudge for he had formerly beene Gouernour of Iury These Scabines determined all controuersies and to this day the Germans in most places so call their Iudges The lower and vpper Saxony hath a prouinciall Law yet determines also many causes by the ciuill Law The Statutes of the Diots or Parliaments bind all but the Statutes of priuate Princes onely bind their owne subiects The greatest part of Germany is gouerned by the Ciuill Law And therefore the Doctors of the Ciuill Law are much esteemed among them and are Counsellors of Estate aswell to the Emperour as to other Princes which place they thinke vnfit to be conferred on any Doctors of Diuinity Yea the Princes of Germany haue this peculiar fashion that no sonne vseth his Fathers old counsellors but rather new chosen by himselfe The said Doctors of the Ciuil Law haue priuiledge by their degree to weare chaines of gold about their neckes and feathers in their hats There be in Germany foure kinds of Law giuing or rather foure cheefe Courts of Iustice. The first is that of the Diets or Parliaments vulgarly called 〈◊〉 that is Daies of the Kingdome which meetings by the Law should be made once in the yeere and last no lesse then a moneth at least no man hauing liberty to depart from them without leaue of the Councell Neither may the Emperour or his sonne or the elect King of the Romans make any warre or league without consent of the same The second Court is called Landgericht that is the Iustice of the Land wherein the cheefe men of each Prouince are to be called together thrice in the yeere and are to sit three weekes to determine the cheefe affaires of the Prouince as the Parliaments handle the cheefe affaies of the Empire The third Court is vulgarly called Camergerichl that is the Iustice of the Imperiall Chamber which is held at Spirt foure times each yeere each time lasting forty
dayes to determine the generall causes of the Empire The fourth Court is the Burgraues right by which debts by specialty are recouered The Kingdome of Bohemia hath a prouinciall Law deriued from the Law of Saxony and for that cause there be few Students of the Ciuill Law but because the Emperour hath instituted three Chaunecries one for the Law of Saxony which Prouince lies vpon the North side of the Kingdome the second for the Law of Bohemia the third for the Ciuill Law in respect of the Emperours subiects of Austria lying on the South side o. Bohemia for this cause there be many Doctors of Ciuill Law and they also much esteemed in the Emperours Court. If a Bohemian haue a cause in any Court of the Germans he is tried by the Ciuill Law or by the Law of Saxony and if a German answer in the Court of the Bohemians he is tried by the prouinciall Law of Bohemia and the Defendant drawes the cause to his owne Court Morauia a Prouince incorporated to Bohemia vseth the Language and Law of that Kingdome In the old City of Prage howsoeuer almost all speake Dutch yet the Law is giuen in the Bohemian tongue by a statute lately made Silesia a Prouince incorporated to Bohemia hath the manners and language of Germany and Iustice is there administred by the Law of Bohemia deriued from the Law of Saxony but for the greater part by the Ciuill Law Generally in Germany if a cause be receiued into any Court and the defendant escape to another City the Magistrate of the place must send him backe to answer the Plaintife his accuser The causes of the Empire as I formerly said are handled in the Imperiall Chamber at Spire And therefore it will not be amisse to relate some Statutes made in the Imperial meetings which are collected into a Booke vulgarly called Reichs abscheidt that is the Epitome or abstract of the Kingdome but I will onely set downe breefly some of the cheefe statutes It was decreed in the yeere 1556 that no subiects of the Electors nor any Inhabitants or Earles of their Prouinces should appeale from them to this Court of the Imperiall Chamber The Emperour Fredericke the third in the yeere 1442 made these statutes That no Prince should by armes right himselfe against another before Iustice haue beene denied to him in this Imperiall Court. That the Iudge of the Chamber should be a Prince or Barron and of sixteene Assessors halfe should be Ciuill Lawyers and halfe of the Knightly Order That the greater part should carry the cause and the voices being equall the Iudges voyce should cast it That the Iudge should not be absent without leaue of the Assessors nor they without his leaue and that without some great cause more then foure of them should not be absent at one time That in absence they should haue no voyce That the cheef Iudge being sicke shall substitute a Prince in his place who shall first take his oath The Procters and Aduocates shall take no more of their Clients then the Iudges shal appoint and shall sweare to auoide slander and malice The Notaries shall execute the iudgements in the name of the Emperour Appeales shall be of no force except they be made in order to the next superiour Court and so ascending All that belong to this Chamber shall be free from all payments but not one of them shall either keepe an Inne or trade as a Merchant The Iudge shall deliuer ouer to the Senate of the City those that are guilty of death By the same decree all fees for writing and processes are set downe so as the Clyent swearing pouerty shall goe free so as hee sweare to pay the fees when he shall be able Further it was decreed that the seate of this Chamber or Court should not be changed but by the consent of the Imperial diot or Parliament That the Defendants hiding themselues the Princes or Citizens to whom they are subiect shall sweare vpon a set day that they are not priuy to any of their actions or else shall satisfie all damages That the Procters shall speake nothing but to the purpose and for ieasts or impertinent things in word or writing shal be punished by a mulct in money and by being put to silence in that cause By the Emperour Charles the fifth in the Diot at Augsburg the yeere 1518 two new Assessors were added and it was decreed that Charles as Emperour should appoint the cheefe Iudge two Assessors of the Law and two Gentlemen Assessors and as heire to his patrimony should appoint two learned Assessors That three Gentlemen Assessors should be named by the three secular electors three learned by the three spiritual Electors and three Gentlemen with three learned by the common consent of the six Communities For the Empire was deuided into sixe Communities vulgarly called Kreysen for the collection of tributes aad like duties as other Kingdomes are deuided into Counties and since that time in the yeere 1522 for the same purposes the Empire was deuided into ten Communities Further it was decreed that twenty two persons should with like equality be named yeerely to visit this Chamber or Court. That no appeale should be admitted into this Court vnder the value of fiftie Guldens and that the executions of iudgements should be done by the next Magistrates and they not willing or not daring to doe it should be referred to the Emperour At a Parliament in the yeere 1522 it was decreed That no stranger should be appointed cheefe Iudge That for absence the pensions should be abated after the rate of the time and be distributed among the present That the Iudges should sweare to take no guifts not to prolong causes and to doe right without respect of persons and that the Procters should take no fees but such as are set downe by statutes At the Parliament in the yeere 1555 it was decreed that no Assessors should be of any other Religion then of the Roman or the Confession of the Protestants made at Augsburg That one Assessor should not interrupt the speech of another nor should rise to conferre one with the other and that all speeches of anger should be punished and all be sworne to keep secret the Acts of the Councell That Aduocates should not be more then foure and twenty in number That any man should be admitted to speake for himselfe first swearing to auoide slander That this Chamber or Court should be yeerely visited vpon the first of May by the Archbishop of Mentz as substitute to the Emperour by three other each chosen by one of the Electors by two Princes one temporall the other spirituall and by one Counsellor chosen by each order namely one by the Earles and one by each free City to whom the complaints should be presented vpon the first of March That no man should forbid his subiects to appeale to this Court except they should willingly renounce the appeale but that all froward
appeales for vniust causes should be punished by paying charges and being fined and that no appeale should bee admitted vnder the value of fifty Guldens excepting those who haue priuiledge to appeale for lesse summes and that no appeale be made for corporal punishments That the Chamber should be held at Spire till it be otherwise decreed by Parliament but that in time of famine or plague they may for the time choose another place That two brothers should not be the one an Assessor the other a Procter That the Iudges shall meete three dayes in the weeke and eight of them at the least shall be present That execution of iudgement shall first be required by letters of the Court to which if the Defendant shal not yeeld obedience he shal be cited to appeare and shall be condemned in costs and the Plaintife shall be put in possession of his goods and the Defendant by the Popes priuiledge granted to this Court shall be excommunicated and then execution shall be desired from the Magistrate of the Community or in case the defendant be powerful it shall be desired from the Emperour himselfe Lastly that no appeale nor petition against the iudgement of the Chamber shall be admitted And thus much breefly written of the Imperiall Chamber or Court shall suffice Onely I will adde that appeales were of old granted to the Electors subiects and at this day in some cases and aboue a certaine value are granted to the subiects of Princes and Cities and that in difficult causes the Germans often referre them to beiudged by the Colledges of ciuill Lawyers in the Vniuersity but since Princes and Cities weekely hold Courts of iudgement so as execution is done before appeale can be made and since many Cities and Princes haue priuiledges against appeales granted to them from the Emperor these appeales are many times and by diuers meanes made voide In this Chamber the Emperour himselfe may be accused and many times a Gentleman or any man of inferior condition hauing difference with a Princes gaines the cause against him and the great differences of Princes wont to breake into warre vse quietly to be composed in this Court The cheefe Iudge if he be Earle or Barron hath two thousand Guldens yeerely by the statute made in the yeere 1548 and hath more if he be a Prince An Assessor if he be an Earle or Barron hath yeerely by the same statute seuen hundred Guldens if he be a Doctour of the Ciuill Law or a Gentleman he hath fiue hundred Guldens and each Aduocate in Exchequer causes hath yeerely three hundred Guldens and by a statute in the yeere 1557 they receiue for each Gulden 77 Creitzers for bettering of their pensions whereas formerly each Gulden was valued at sixteene Batzen or sixty foure Creitzers Touching capitall iudgements By the Ciuill Law in most heinous offences the affection is punished though it take no effect yet in common custome and after the forme of the Statutes of Italy he that hath a mind to kill is not punished except he doe kill The old Law of Saxony respects the fact not the will but of late the Electors of Saxony haue made a Statute which is yet in vigour that he that prouokes a man to fight or threatens death to him shall dye though hee neuer assaile him The Germans hold it reprochfull to apprehend any malefactor which is onely done by the Serieants of the Hangmans disgracefull Family My selfe obserued that a young man Kinsman to the Consul or Maior of a Citie hauing killed a Gentleman remained two howers in the Citie and then fled without any stop by the Serieants who notwithstanding did afterwards for fashion sake pursue him some few howers Yet I must needs confesse that the Germans are generally most seuere in Iustice sparing not the Inhabitants more then strangers yea in some cases fauouring strangers more then the Inhabitants as in debts which a stranger cannot stay to recouer by long processe My selfe hauing a sute for money at Lindaw my aduocate would by no meanes take any fee of me and the Iudge gaue mee right with great expedition In criminall offences they neuer haue any pardons from Court which are common in forraigne Kingdomes but the punishment is knowne by the fact so the malefactor be apprehended For all hope of safety is in flight yet I deny not that fauour is often done in the pursute For since onely the Serieants can apprehend there is no place where more malefactors escape by flight In the Citie of Lubeck most honoured for Iustice the common report was that the very Iudges and Senators had lately wincked at a Gentlemans breaking of prison and flight with his keeper whom being imprisoned for a murther they could neither execute without greatly offending the King of Denmark nor otherwise set free without scandall of Iustice. A man suspected of any crime or accused by one witnesse is drawne to torture yet is neuer condemned vpon any probability till himselfe confesse the fact which confession is easily extorted because most men had rather dye then indure torment So as many times innocent men haue been after knowne to haue perished by their owne confessions as with vs sometimes innocent men haue been knowne to dye being found guilty by a Iurie of twelue sworne men And because it cannot be that the iudgements of men should not often erre hence it is that the Ciuill Lawyers haue a strange yet good saying that a mischiefe is better then an inconueniency namely that it is better one innocent man should dye by triall then many nocent persons should escape for want of triall In Germany not onely men but women also being accused are put to torture And for diuers great crimes the Law iudgeth them to death with exquisite torments And because they can hardly bee indured with Christian patience lest the condemned should fall into despaire the very Preachers when they haue heard their confessions and setled their mindes in true faith by rare example of too great charitie permit and aduise that they be made drunken to stupifie their sences so as thus armed they come forth with more bold then holy mindes and lookes and seeme not to feele vnsufferable torments of death Neare Lindaw I did see a malefactor hanging in Iron chaines on the gallowes with a Mastiue Dogge hanging on each side by the heeles so as being starued they might eate the flesh of the malefactor before himselfe died by famine And at Franckford I did see the like spectacle of a Iew hanged aliue in chaines after the same manner The condemned in Germany lose not their goods but onely in case of Treason against their absolute Lords But in Bohemia the goods of the condemned fall to the Emperour as he is King of Bohemia in the Territories belonging to the King and to the Princes and Gentlemen in the Territories whereof they are absolute Lords as they are all in their owne lands In Germany Courtiers and Students of Vniuersities
being the second chapter of this 3 Part. Here I wil onely say that in combat very few or no Germans are killed few hurt and that lightly which I rather attribute to their peaceable nature not apt to take things in reproch then to their seuere Lawes I haue said that manslayers die without hope of pardon if they be apprehended but otherwise the Germans haue no seuere Lawes to punish iniuries in which Iustice the Sweitzers of all Nations excell without which Lawes no capitall punishment can keepe men from reuenge especially in a warlike Nation and vnpatient of reproch Onely at Augsburg I remember seuere Lawes made to keepe the Garrison Souldiers from combates where they haue a plat of ground to which they call one another to fight vpon iniuries but it serues more to make shew then proofe of their valour For a Souldier wounding another payes foure Guldens Hee that drawes his Sword though he draw no blood payes two Guldens He that vpon challenge and the greatest prouocation kils another is banished And the Magistrate giues such reall satisfaction to the wronged by deed or word as they may with reputation forbeare reuenge yea he that doth a wrong is bound vnder great penalty that he himselfe shall presently make it knowne to the Magistrate crauing pardon and submitting himselfe to punishment howsoeuer the wronged neuer complaines At Prage in Bohemia manslaughters committed by Gentlemen against strangers and those of meaner condition are much more frequent because Gentlemen can only be iudged in Parliaments which are not often called and are then tried by Gentlemen who are partiall in the common cause and commonly acquite them or delude Iustice by delaies Otherwise the Bohemians punish manslaughter murther robbery and like crimes as the Germans punish them By the Ciuill Law the punishment of a boy for manslaughter is arbitrary but he is not subiect to the Cornelian Law or capitall punishment except he be capable of malice By the Law of Saxony a boy for manslaughter is punished by the foresaid mulct if he be capable of malice otherwise he is subiect to no punishment and in like sort if he depriue one of the vse of any member but in custome if he be seuenteene yeeres old he may be and is commonly put to death By the Ciuill law the punishment of reall and verball iniuries is arbitrary and as many wounds as are giuen so many are the punishments But by the law of Saxony he that strikes another so as he leeseth the vse of a member is punished by a mulct of money vncertaine which is giuen alwaies to him that is maimed and if he die not a thousand wounds or maimes are punished onely with one mulct except they bee done at diuers times and places in which case seuerall mulcts are inflicted Alwaies vnderstand that these iudgements are giuen where the offender is ciuilly accused for if these wounds be giuen of set malice and if he be capitally accused he shall dye according to the circumstances which the Germans much regard Thus at Lubeck a man was beheaded for striking a Citizen in his owne house And in the way from Stoade to Breme I did see a sad monument of a wicked sonne whose hand first and then his head was cut off for striking his father He that killes a man of set malice and like hainous murtherers haue all their bones broken vpon a wheele and in some cases their flesh is pinched off with hot burning pinsers and they that kill by the high-way are in like sort punished And many times for great crimes the malefactors some few dayes before the execution of iudgement are nailed by the eares to a post in a publike place that the people may see them After the execution the bones and members of the malefactor are gathered together and laid vpon the wheele which is set vp in the place of execution commonly where the crimes were committed for eternall memory of his wickednesse with so many bones hanging on the sides of the wheele as he committed murthers or like crimes and my selfe haue numbred sometimes eighteene often fourteene bones thus hanging for memory of so many murthers or like crimes committed by one man These markes long remaining and crosses set vp in places where murthers were committed though the murtherer escaped by flight make passengers thinke these crimes to be frequent in Germany yet the high-way is most safe and the nature of the people abhorring from such acts which are neuer committed by Gentlemē but only by rascals against footmen in the highway and those that dwel in solitary houses Yet the seuerity of punishments the more fierce nature of the Germans retaining some kind of fiercenes from their old progenitors make such as are thus giuen ouer to wickdnes to be more barbarous vnmerciful and when they haue once done ill to affect extremity therin To conclude I haue said that the law of Saxony condemnes a man to death who threatens to kil another though he neuer do the act By the Ciuill law difference is made between a day a night thiefe because we may not kil him that steales by day but may kil him that robs by night if we cannot spare him without danger to our selues By the law of Saxony he that by night steales so much as a little wood shall be hanged but stealing that or like goods by day shal only be beaten with rods In the ciuil law it is doubtful whether theft is to be punished with death or no most commonly it concludes that only theft deserues not death if it be not accompanied with other crimes But the law of Saxony expressely condemnes a thiefe to be hanged if he steale aboue the value of fiue Hungarian Ducates of gold or vnder that value to bee beaten with rods and to be marked with a burning iron in the eares or cheekes and forehead and so to be banished And howsoeuer generally a thiefe may not be hanged by the Ciuill Law yet in some cases it condemnes him to be hanged By the law of Saxony the thing stolen must be restored to the owner and may not be detained by the Magistrate and they who wittingly receiue stolen goods or giue any helpe to theeues are subiect no lesse then the theeues to the punishment of hanging In Germany there be very few robberies done by the high-way and those onely vpon footemen for they that passe by coach or horse carry long Pistols or Carbiners and are well accompanied But if any robbers affaile in respect of the seuere punishment they commonly kill In Germany they who are hanged for simple theft hang in iron chaines vpon the gallowes till they rot and consume to nothing but in Bohemia after three dayes they are cut downe and buried I did see one that had stolen lesse then fiue gold guldens whipped about the towne one that consented being led by his side for ignominy but not whipped I did see another small offender led to the
with death In Germany I did see a poore knaue hanging and rotting on the gallowes being condemned to that death for hauing two wiues at one time in two seuerall Cities and I did see another beheaded for lying withhis wiues sister In Ciuill causes I obserued these laudable customes in Germany namely that in many Courts they that goe to Law lay downe a caution or pledge which he loseth who in the end of the triall is found rashly and vniustly to haue sued the other That the Fees of Lawyers are limited and that icasts or impertinent speeches are punished and they are tied to speake nothing that is not to the purpose Of old no beauty age nor riches helped a defloured virgin to get any husband at any time And no doubt virgins to this day are no where so carefull of their good name as in Germany no where virgins more modestly behaue themselues no where virgins liue to so ripe yeers before they be married as in Germany At Wittenberg I did see harlots punished by standing at the Altar with a torch lighted in their hands and by being whipped with rods while many drums were beaten basons tinckled about them At Heidelberg I did see an harlot put in a basket and so ducked into the riuer Neccar and because she whooped and hollowed as in triumph when she rose out of the water she was for that impudency ducked the second time At Prage in Bohemia howsoeuer harlots be there as common as in Italy and dwell in streets together where they stand at the doores and by wanton signes allure passengers to them yet I did see some men and women of the common sort who for simple fornication were yoked in carts therewith drew out of the City the filth of the streets But while the Bohemians thus chasten the pooter sort I feare the greater Flies escape their webs In Germany at the time of publike Faires after the sound of a bell it is free for debtors harlots and banished people to enter the Citie but they must haue care to be out of the territories before the same bell sound againe at the end of the Faire they being otherwise subiect then to the Law At Leipzig I did see an harlot taken after this second sound of the bell who had been formerly banished with two of her fore-fingers cut off and shee not for incontinencie but by the law of banishment was next day beheaded Whiles I liued in the same Citie it happened that a virgin of the better sort being with child and cunningly concealing it was surprised with the time of birth in the Church vpon a Sunday and silently brought forth the child in her pew or seat couering it with rushes being dead which was vnknowne to all in the body of the Church only some yong men sitting in a roode or loft with the Musitians perceiued the fact and accused her for murthering the child In the meane time shee went home from the Church in the company of the other virgins without any shew of such weaknes after vpon the said accusation being imprisoned the report was that shee should bee iudged to death after the old Law mentioned by the Poet Propertius namely being sewed in a steke with a liuing cat in steed of an Ape and a liuing Cocke Snake and Dog and so drowned in the riuer with them But delay being vsed in the iudgement and her honourable friends making intercession for her and the murther of her child being not prooued when I left the Citie after six moneths shee remained in prison and it was not knowne what would become of her Aswell in Germany as Bohemia bastards are excluded from publike profession of liberall or mechanical arts only they may exercise them in the houses of priuate Gentlemen in which course of life as seruants they commonly liue but neuer in open shops All graduates in Vniuersities take an oath that they were begotten in lawfull matrimony And if any man ignorantly should marry a woman great with child howsoeuer the child bee borne in mariage yet it shall inherit nothing from the husband Bastards cannot bee sureties for any imprisoned or delinquent man nor inioy the extraordinary benefits of the law and are commonely named of the Citie or Towne where they were borne for a marke of ignominy not after any mans sirname But the publike Notaries by priuiledges granted to them from Emperors and Popes haue power to make their posterity legitimate In the lower part of Germany which was all named Saxony of old a debtor shall not be receiued into prison except the Creditor allow the Iaylor two pence by the day to giue him bread and water and after a yeeres imprisonment if the debtor take his oath that he is not able to pay he shal be set free yet the creditor hath stil his right reserued vpon his yeerly wages for his labour and vpon his gaines by any art or trade and vpon any goods whatsoeuer he shall after possesse And before any debtor bee imprisoned the Magistrate giues him eighteen weeks time to pay his debt and commits him not till that time be past And in some places the debtor lines at his owne expence and shall be tied to pay his creditors charges if he be able to doe it In some places especially at Lubecke I haue obserued that strangers being Creditors haue more fauour then the Creditors of the same City against a Citizen debtor because strangers by reason of their trafficke and hast homeward cannot well expect the delay of sutes in which respect their debtors shall presently be imprisoned whereas mutually among the Citizens they giue the foresaid or like time of payment before they will imprison them Debts without specialty are tried by Oath In Bohemia the debtors are imprisoned presently and maintaine themselues not being released till the creditors be satisfied In Germany if any man draw other mens monies into his hands and being able yet payes not his debts he is guilty of capital punishment but that ingenious and honest Nation hath few or no such bankerouts By the Law of Saxony he that deceiues by false weights and measures is to be whipped with rods The Emperours of old granted the priuiledge of coyning Money to many Princes and free Cities and the Emperour in the Dyet or Parliament of the yeere 1500 commanded all Princes Persons and Bodies so priuiledged to send their Counsellors to him at Nurnberg and that in the meane time all Coyning should cease vnder the penalty to leese the priuiledge of Coyning In the same place the yeere 1559 many Lawes were made for coyning Monies whereof I will relate some few First the weight and purity of the mettall was prescribed together with the Inscriptions to be set vpon the Coynes Then it was decreed that after sixe moneths no strange Monies should bee currant whereof many are particularly named That all forraigne Gold should after the same time be forbidden excepting the Spanish single and donble
the clocke in the morning Iohn George borne 1585 the fifth of March at ten of the clock in the night Augustus borne the seuenth of September 1589. These three were Pupils vnder William Frederike D. of Wyneberg whereof the elder was to be Elector the other two Dukes of Saxony Elizabeth married to Casimire Administrator of the Electorship of the Palatinate Dorothy married to the Duke of Brunswick and Anne to Iohn Casimire Duke of Coburg This is the seuenteenth Duke of Saxonie and the first Elector of Saxonie in his Family Witikynd the third of whom are the Capeti Kings of France The Princes borne of these three Families are Dukes of vpper Saxony for there bee also poore Dukes of lower Saxonie as one residing at Angria While I liued at Leipzig Christian the Elector of Saxonie died 1591 whose Vncle by the Fathers side Mauritius was the first Elector of that Family For the Emperour Charles the fifth making warre against Iohn Frederike then Duke and Elector of Saxonie and against the Langraue of Hessen as Rebels to the Empire but indeede with purpose to suppresse these chiefe defenders of the Reformed Religion and to bring the free Empire of Germany vnder the Spanish yoke he cunningly warned Mauritius as next heire to sease the lands of Iohn Frederike or otherwise they should fall to him that tooke possession of them Whereupon Mauritius though he professed the Reformed Religion which now had great need of his helpe yet inuaded his kinsmans lands vnder a faire pretext that he tooke them least the Emperour should alienate them to strangers professing that he would restore them to his kinseman when he should be reconciled to the Emperour But such is the power of ambition as in the end he did nothing lesse but further receiued the title of Elector taken from Iohn Frederike and his children and conferred vpon him and his heires males by the Emperour The report was that Luther seeing Mauritius brought vp in the Court of the Elector Iohn Frederike foretold the Elector that he should one day confesse hee had nourished a Serpent in his bosome True it is that Mauritius shortly after restored the cause of Religion in like sort deceiuing the Emperours hope by making a league with the King of France But euer since the posteritie of Mauritius hath been iealous of the heires to Iohn Frederike and hath gladly taken all occasions to suppresse them Whereupon Augustus succeeding his brother Mauritius was easily induced by vertue of his Office as Arch-Marshall of the Empire to prosecute with fire and sword Iohn Frederike the eldest sonne of the said Iohn Frederike whom the Empire had proscribed At which time he besieged him in Gotha a strong Fort which he tooke and razed to the ground coining Dollers in memory of that Victory with this inscription Gotha taken and the proscribed enemies of the Empire therein besieged either taken or put to flight in the yeere 1567 Augustus Elector of Saxony coined these And it is not vnlikely that Christian sonne to Augustus especially for feare of this Family fortified Dresden with so great cost and art howsoeuer the common people thought it rather done because he affected to be chosen Emperour at the next vacation Of this Family thus prosecuted and deposed from the Electorship are the two Dukes of Saxony the one of Coburg the other of Wineberg so called of the Cities wherin they dwell And the Duke of Coburg hauing been proscribed by the Empire and neuer restored the Duke of Wineberg though more remoued Kinsman yet was made Administrator of the Electorship with title of Elector as Tutor to the sonne of Christian his two brethren who were brought vp by him in the Court at Dresden vnder their mother the Widow to Christian being of the house of Brandeburg So as were not the Germans nature honest and peaceable had not the power of the Elector of Brandeburg stood for the Pupils it was then thought that the wronged Family had great meanes of reuenge This example makes me thinke that it is farre more safe to make the next Kinsman on the mothers side Tutor who can haue no profit but rather losse by the death of the Pupill then the next Kinsman by the Fathers side being his heire The Dukes of Coburg and of Wineberg are Dukes of Saxony by right of blood and of possessions therein but the Family of the Elector hath nothing either in vpper or lower Saxony but onely Wittenberg belonging to the Electorship which was conferred vpon them by the Emperour Charles the fifth The Elector holds his Court at Dresden in the Prouince of Misen Touching Christian the Elector hee was reputed to be much giuen to hunting to be prone to anger not to be sollicited by petition but at some fit times to affect solitarinesse and little to be seene of the people hardly to admit strangers to his presence at any time much lesse when he sat at the table to eate contrary to the vse of the Princes of the house of Austria to haue skill in the Art of Gold-Smithes and to spare no charge in keeping braue Horses And no doubt hee was so carried away with this last delight as he would take in gift from his very enemies any beautifull thing belonging to the Stable And while I was at Wittenberg a Scholer hauing spoken some words that he loued Horses better then Scholers was sent to Dresden and there whipped about the streetes Beyond measure he was giuen to large drinking in plaine termes to drunkennesse and that of the most strong Wines so as this intemperance was thought the cause of his vntimely death And for these drinking games he had certaine faire chambers ouer his Stable something distant from his lodgings of his Court which were appropriated to festiuall solaces As soone as he was made Elector he presently ordained the new Iudges for the Saxon Law vulgarly called Schoppenstuel and the Consistories In the yeere 1586 hee had a meeting at Lubeck with the King of Denmarke and the Elector of Brandeburg In the yeere 1589 at Naumberg he renewed the hereditarie league betweene his Familie and the neighbour Princes namely the Elector of Brandeburg his eldest sonne 〈◊〉 Frederike then called Administrator of Hall the three brothers a William Lodwike and George Langraues of Hessen Frederike William Duke of Saxony for one man hath often times two names in Baptisme Iohn Duke of Saxony for the title is common to younger brothers and houses of one Family with the elder Iohn Casimire Tutor to his Nephew the Elector Palatine Iohn Ernest Duke of Saxony Christian Prince of Anhalt Wolfang and Phillip Dukes of Grubenhagen And to knit his friends loue more firmely to him I haue said that he did institute an Order of Knighthood called the Golden Fellowship He had for his Counsell his Officers of Court and some Doctors of the Ciuill Law and among them Crellius Docter of the Ciuill Law and the Master of his Game or hunting whose name I
Marpurg and died in the yeere 1567. The said Phillip married the Daughter to the Duke of Meckelburg and by her had the following issue William borne 1532 held his court at Cassiles hauing half the inheritance He deliuered his father out of prison and married Sabina daughter to the D. of Wirteberg and died not long before I passed through Germany Mauritius a most Noble young Prince Langraue of Cassiles vpon his Fathers late death Anna Maria married to Lodwick Count of Nassawe 1589. Heduigis then a Virgin Sophia then a Virgin Lodwick borne 1537 held his court at Marpurg had a fourth part of his fathers inheritance He first married Heduige daughter to the D. of Wirteberg after Mary of Mansfield both barren And at this time he liued but without any child Agnes married to Mauritius Elector of Saxony 1541 and after to Iohn Frederick D. of Saxonie George borne 1547 held his court at Dormstat and had a fourth part of his fathers inheritance and maried Magdelen daughter to Bernard Count of Lipp she was dead but he thē liued Lodwick oldest his Father yet liuing Phillip Iohn George Two Sisters Christian and Elizabeth Anna maried to the Duke of Zweybruck died 1581. Barbara married to George Earle of Mompelgard Elizabeth married to Lodwick the fourth Elector Palatine Christina maried to Adolphus of the roial bloud of Denmarke His Sister Elizabeth was married to Iohn Duke of Saxonie The foresaid William Langraue of Hessen of his chiefe City called the Langraue of Cassiles had in diuision with his brethren halfe his Fathers inheritance the other halfe being diuided betweene his two brothers And since that time I heard that his brother Lodwick of Marpurg was dead without issue and that his fourth part of this inheritance was returned to Mauritius eldest sonne to William Yet because Mauritius was addicted to the reformed Religion after the doctrine of Caluin which hee and his Courtiers with many subiects professed how soeuer hee had not yet made any generall alteration whereas his Vncle Lodwick persisted in the doctrine of Luther I remember the common speech in the land of Hessen that Lodwick had threatned his Nephew Mauritius to disinherit him and giue his lands to the children of his brother George of Dormstatt if he made any generall alteration in Religion I haue formerly said that the dignity of the Empire decaying many Principalities were giuen in Fee and the Lords thereof became absolute Princes At that time many great Cities were immediately subiect to the Empire whereof many were at sundrie times after ingaged for money to the said Princes At last the power of the Empire being more fallen by many Ciuill warres raised by the Popes to confirme their vsurped power ouer the Emperours these Cities with money bought their liberty partly of the Emperours partly of the said Princes from which time these Cities being called Imperiall and hauing freedome with absolute power became daily more and more beautified with buildings and strong by fortifications yet some Cities still subiect to diuers Princes yeeld not to them in beauty and strength as Dresden and Leipzig subiect to the Elector of Saxony Monach and Ingolstat subiect to the Duke of Bauaria and Breslaw the chiefe Citie of Silesia a Prouince ioyned to the Kingdome of Bohemia The Emperour at his election sweares that hee will maintaine these Cities in their freedome and not suffer them to be drawne backe to the subiection of the Empire or the said Princes Also I haue formerly spoken of the many and iust suspitions betweene the Emperour the Princes and these Free Cities which it were needlesse to repeate Of old the great Cities of the Empire were ninety sixe in number but many of them haue since been alienated to the Princes of Netherland or vnited by League to the Cantons of Sweitzerland so at this day there remaine only sixty Free Cities of the Empire Of the Common-wealths of these Cities it shall suffice in generall to haue said that the Gouernement is very moderate and equall The Patritians liue vpon their reuenues as Gentlemen The Plebeans intend Traffique and Shop-keeping and bee they neuer so rich neuer so wise can neuer become Patritians but still keepe their owne rancke as all other Orders doe And the Artisans so they keepe the Lawes which bind the highest as well as them are secure from the iniuries of any greater man In ciuill causes they iudge not after strict Law but according to equity and without delay but more easily to coniecture of all in generall It will not be amisse particularly to obserue the gouernement of some few And because Nurnberg is one of the chiefe I will beginne with it The Margraues of Brandeburg were of old Burgraues of Nurnberg till Fredericke the fourth about the yeere 1414 sold that his right and the Castle of Nurnberg to the Citizens thereof Albert his sonne called the Achilles of Germany for some duety denied to him made warre vpon the City drawing seuenteene Princes to take his part as the other free Cities assisted Nurnberg At this day the Margraue of Anspath being of that Family cals himselfe Burgraue of Nurnberg but hath onely the bare title without any command in the City yet because his lands lie on some sides vnder the very wals thereof the Citizens repute him a dangerous neighbour The common report was that this Margraue had lately sold to the City a great wood growing very neere the walles thereof and that shortly after hee was at variance with them as if hee had sold onely the wood and not the soyle so as if vulgar speech may be beleeued they were forced againe to buy the ground And yet he hath not renounced his right of hunting therein which he challengeth proper to himselfe Giue me leaue to digresse so much from my purpose as to say that the neighbourhood of this Margraue is no lesse suspected by the free City Wasenburg not farre distant where vpon a mountaine in his owne ground hanging ouer the City he hath built a strong Castle And because all the streetes of that little City lie open to it the Citizens when first he beganne to build complained to the Emperour of that wrong and obtained letters to command the Margraue to build no further but he not onely disobeyed those letters but built the same with more speed and strength Now I returne to Nurnberg the Common-wealth whereof is Aristocraticall The great Counsell hath no set number but commonly consists of some three hundred persons whereof many are Patricians liuing honourably vpon their rents as Gentlemen others are Merchants and some few Artisans of the best and richest workemen The Senate referres to this Counsell the impositions of tributes and the decrees of peace and warre which Subiects of Counsel being rare this Counsell is seldome called together but the authority of them is so great as the seales of any two of them set to any last Testament serues in steed of seauen witnesses
required by the Ciuill Law Out of this great Counsell the new Senate is yeerely chosen and when the time of Election is at hand this great Counsel names a Consull and a Scabine of the Gentlemen called ancient or out of the cheefe of the next Order and in like sort the old Senate of the yeere past names three of the ancient Gentlemen These fiue are called the Electors of the new Senate and as soone as they are chosen all Magistracy ceaseth Then these Electors being sworne are shut vp into a Chamber whence they come not forth till they haue chosen twenty six Consuls and Scabines of each thirteen Then they chuse the rest of the new Senate and assoone as they are chosen they name among themselues those that are called ancient which are commonly the same men except some bee put in the place of them that are dead for it is a disgrace to be put from that dignity This Election is made in one day and the Senate consists of forty persons whereof thirty foure are Patricians or Gentlemen and so the gouernement is especially in the hands of the Gentlemen as a thing whereof they hold the common people to be vncapable Of these Gentlemen are 〈◊〉 the seuen Men and the Senate of the ancient as also the Captaines and Treasurers To be a Doctor of the Ciuill Law makes a Gentleman or any other to be vncapable of a Senators place But when in dificult cases they neede the aduise of Doctors they send two Senators to consult with them who relate their iudgment to the Senate For this cause and because all iudgments are according to equity not after the strict Law there be fowe Doctors in that Citty neither haue they many Aduocates the Senate giuing stipend onlyto foure who plead all causes Yet the Citty intertaines some Doctors to aduise them at I formerly said to assist them in iudgment exhibiting the cause in writing as also to be Ambassadors To the said 34 Gentlemen 8 Plebeans are added which make the said Senate and these Plebeans haue free voyces but are remoued from secret Counsels and hauing liberty to be absent seldome meete with the Senate except they be called So as the common people haue little or no authoritie and are kept vnder in so much as meetings excepting funerals and like ceremonies and walkings by night are forbidden yet they haue their priuiledges inuiolably kept and liue in great libertie vnder a most equall gouernement Of these Gentlemen gouerning the Citie they haue as I haue heard twenty eight honourable Families or there about And of the said thirty foure Gentlemen of the Senate eight are called the Ancient who like old soldiers are freed from seruice the other twentie sixe diligently attending the publike affaires with capitall and Ciuill iudgements and one of them is chosen to intertaine passengers worthy of Honor by presenting wine to them in name of the Senate and also to call the Senate together to propound the causes vpon which they deliberate to aske their Voyces and to doe many like duties These twenty sixe Gentlemen are diuided into thirteene Consuls and thirteene Scabines and these Scabines iudge capitall causes first examined by the whole Senate as the Consuls iudge Ciuill causes And they so diuide the yeere betweene them as each of them for a moneth is Consull or Scabine Out of them are chosen seuen men who haue the greatest authority and determine all secrets of State and to them the Treasurers make account And howsoeuer two of one Family may be Senators yet two of one Family cannot be of these seuen men Three of these seuen are chosen Captaines who haue the keeping of the Armory and the keyes of the Gates and vpon any tumult all flie to them and yeeld them obedience Two of these Captaines are Treasurers where of the chiefe hath the first place in all Assemblies To these Treasurers one of the Plebeans is added to ouersee the expence of the treasure and two of the best sort of the Plebeans are Clerkes of the Exchequer but onely the two chiefe Treasurers disburse and lay vp all moneys They haue in all publike Counsels two Chauncellors whereof one alwaies attends the Counsell of seuen men and these Chauncellors write the Decrees of Counsell receiue and reade write and send all letters being as Secretaries and they haue sixe Clerkes to write vnder them All the Senators haue their seuerall stipends out of the common Treasure Each of the seuen men hath yeerely fiue hundred Guldens besides gainefull Offices as the keeping of the Seales and each Treasurer hath eight hundred Guldens and each Chauncellor two hundred Guldens yeerely In Iudgements they doe not much vse the pleadings of Proctors or Aduocates but vse to iudge summarily vpon oath or to appoint Arbiters to compound controuersies But among the Courts of Iudgements one is of fiue men from whom there is no appeale yet they referre the greatest causes to the Senate The second Court is of eight men and hath two Tribunals where the causes of citizens are determined which exceede not the value of thirtie two Crownes and these two Tribunals in greater causes are vnited and haue three or foure Doctors appointed by the Senate to aduise them for onely the Scabines iudge and from these Tribunals appeale is granted to the Senate if the cause exceede the value of fiue hundred Crownes These chuse a Iudge to see their Decrees put in execution and to see capitall offenders executed They appoint a Iudge for the Villages and territories subiect to the City for whose assistance the Senate chuseth some out of the great Counsell These weekely giue the Law to the Villages and Country people and by the exercise of this Office the Iudges are inabled for the Office of Scabines Also they chuse a Iudge to haue care of the Faires and Markets who sets the price of Bread Flesh and all things there sold and he hath foure Senators to assist him in weekely inquiring after the workes of Artificers that they sell no vnperfect workes nor vse any fraude Of the Senators three are chosen supreme Tutors for pupils and widowes who diuide inheritances see that all Testaments be performed and appoint new Tutors in case the old bee dead suspected or absent These supreme Tutors prouide that the moneis of pupils be put forth to vse and that the profit returnes to the pupills They receiue the accompts of the Tutors and prouide that the Pupils be religiously and honestly brought vp One Senator is set ouer each Church Monastery and Almes house to see the reuenues well administred and to promote the causes thereunto belonging Fiue Gouernors are set ouer the Territory without the walls among which the Chancelor hath yearly one hundreth Crownes each of the rest twenty fiue Crownes for stipend In time of warre they chuse seuen Senators who take vpon them the care to prouide all necessaries for the same I vnderstoode there that not long before they
had numbred in the City twenty two thousand Artificers seruants and people of inferior rank and that the last subsidy imposed in time of warre was one Gold Gulden in the hundreth of euery mans mouable and vnmouable goods and one gold Gulden by the Pole for all such as had neither inheritance nor Art to liue vpon Augsburg is one of the Imperiall Citties vulgarly Ein Reichs statt and in the yeare 1364. the Senate consisted of two Patritian Consuls and of ten Merchants and seauen Artisans with power of Tribunes all yearly chosen The Emperor Charles the 4 gaue the City new priuillges confirmed the old because the Citizens swore obedience to his Sonne And the Emperor Sigismund confirmed and increased the same When the Emperour Charles the fifth held a Parliament in this Citty as many Parliaments haue beene held there the old honour was restored to the Patritians the Plebean Tribunes were taken away two Aduocates being set in their roomes Two Gentlemen Consuls at this day gouerne the City with six Iudges for criminall causes whereof three are Gentlemen two Citizens one Plebean These are chosen by the great Senate consisting of those three Orders but in causes of Religion the City is subiect to the iurisdictiō of the Bishop of Tilling This City hath many noble and rich Merchants whereof many haue priuiledges of Barrons and some of Earles and among them the chiefe Family is of the Fuggari famously knowne being at this time both boyes and men some thirty in number and the chiefe of them was Marke of the Fug gari who had married the Daughter to the Earle of Schwartzenburg and was much delighted in the gathering of antiquities with much curtesie vsing to shew the same to such passengers as tooke pleasure therein Three Cozens of this Family had great and large but dispersedly scattered possessions besides that they were rich in treasure for supply whereof the Emperour Charles the fifth and his sonne Phillip King of Spaine often made vse of them ingaging to them the impositions custome of Hauens for ready money and giuing them great priuiledges of trafficke In which kind the said King of Spaine so obliged them to him as the heart being alwaies where the treasure is hee made them no lesse obsequious to him then subiects so difficult a thing is it for couetous Merchants to preserue their liberty Great iealousies were betweene this City and the Duke of Bauaria whose territory extends to the very walles of the City And I remember at my last passage through Augsburg this Duke attempted to stop the course of water from the City whereupon the Citizens sent out Souldiers to beate backe the Dukes workemen but the controuersie was soone after appeased and came not to blowes They perpetually euen in time of peace keepe some fiue hundred Souldiers in the City who dwell in a streete by themselues and the City being seated vpon the mouth of the Alpes leading into Italy and the Citizens being diligent in trafficke it cannot be that it should not abound in riches Augsburg in the foresaid Parliament held there after Charles the fifth had ouercome the Protestant Princes was said to haue bought their peace of the Emperour with 3000 gold guldens I know not for what cause they are seuere towards strangers but I obserued that they haue a Law forbidding strangers to dwell in the City allowing them onely a short time of abode and during the same curiously obseruing what businesse they haue Strasburg is also a free City of the Empire and as the rest gouerned by a Senate yeerely chosen for howsoeuer it is one of the Cities leagued with the Cantons of Sweitzerland yet it is still numbered among the free Imperiall Cities And it is stately built and rich in treasure for so it must needes be since the ordinary tributes and taxes are so great as I haue heard the Citizens professe that they yeerely pay one doller in a thousand for the value of their mouable and also vnmoueable goods wherein the full value of Land not the yeerely rent is reckoned and that if any fraud be detected in the last Testament or otherwise the heire or the party offending if hee liue is deepely fined for the same While I passed through the City they had begun a warre with the Duke of Loraine about the choice of their Bishop which warre they had vnprouidently denounced before they had leuied Souldiers or made prouisions to make it so as their territories were exposed to many oppressions before they could gather troopes to defend them and offend the enemy And it was vulgarly reported that they could deliberate of nothing in counsell so secretly as it was not presently made knowne to the enemy The Imperiall City Franckfort is famous for the two yeerely Marts one at Midlent the other at the middest of September at which times all neighbour Princes keepe Horsemen to guard the Merchants passing that way to which Horsemen I remember that each passenger gaue 6 creitzers either of duty or in curtesie for his person Also this City is famous for another priuiledge contained in the Lawes of the golden Bulla namely that all Emperours must be chosen there and in case two Emperours be chosen the same Law defines that if one of them shall besiege the City and there expect his enemy halfe a moneth and if in that time he come not to breake the siege then it shall be free for the City to receiue the first as hauing the victory For of old custome the new chosen Emperours keepe their coronation Feast in this City with great magnificence which was lastly kept as they said by Maximilian the second at which time among other solemnities they roasted an Oxe in the middest of the field for the people and when the Marshal of the Court had cut a peece as for the Emperor the rest of the Oxe was in a moment rent in peeces by the common people I must make at least some mention of the Cities lying vpon the Sea of Germany towards the North whereof most are not onely called free because they are Imperiall Cities but by the same name though in diuers signification are called Hans steten that is Free Cities in respect of the priuiledges of trafficke granted to them of old in the neighbour Countries Among these Lubecke is the chiefe of the neighbor Cities ioined in league for common defence whither the Senators of all the other Cities come once in the yeere to consult of publike affaires The territory of the City reacheth not aboue a German mile but after some few miles distance there is a certaine Towne which belongs to Lubecke and Hamburg by common right being ingaged to them for money by the Duke of Lower Saxony of whom they after bought the rest of his Inheritance This Towne for sixe yeeres space was wont to be kept by those of Lubecke appointing the Gouernour and receiuing the rents which time ended those of
then put into the possession of the Dukedome of Milan made league with the Sweitzers and gaue them the foresaide Gouernments in Italy Also Pope Leo the tenth in the yeere 1515 ioyned himselfe to the league made betweene the Emperour Maximilian and Sfortia Duke of Milan and the Sweitzers against the King of France Lastly Pope Clement the eight sitting in the chaire of Rome when I passed through Italy had also league with the Sweitzers But I must come to the hereditary forraigne leagues which onely and no other can truly be called part of the Commonwealth Among the cheefe of them is that of Milan And not to speake of the ancient leagues which some of the Cantons had with the Insubres old inhabitants of Lombardy Galeacius Duke of Milan in the yeere 1466 made a league with eight Cantons wherein mention is made of the said leagues with the Insubres and he granted to the Vrij that they should possesse the Lepontian Valley for which they were to send vnto the Duke yeerely foure Hawkes and a Crosse-bow Moreouer he granted to the eight Cantons that in his Dukedome they should bee free from all impositions and taxes Afterwards these and other heads of that league were confirmed and renewed by the Duke his successours And Ferdinand Gonzaga in the name of the Emperour Charles the fifth confirmed the same in the yeere 1551. And among other heads of that league it is couenanted that it shall be free for the Sweitzers to buy corne yet in time of dearth they may carry none out of the Dukedome onely some 200 bushels shall in that case be sold to them as friends Also cautions are inserted about the buying and carrying of salt and that they shall freely passe to and fro without safe conduct excepting those times in which Sweitzerland shall be infected with the plague and that they shal be free from impositions in all places excepting the city of Milan where they shall pay custome at the gates Lastly that the Sweitzers thus priuiledged shall not take any others to be partners in trafficke with them to the preiudice of the Dukedome and that all such shall be excluded from these priuiledges as haue fled out of the Dukedome whether they liue in Sweitzerland or else where And this league was made to continue foure yeers after the death of the Emperour Charles the fifth and this time expired howsoeuer the league was not for a time renewed yet the Sweitzers enioied all these priuiledges This hereditary league descends to the Kings of Spaine who succeed Charles the fifth in the said Dutchy of Milan and all his possessions in Italy The Sweitzers haue had sharpe warres with the House of Burgundy and long continuing warres with the House of Austria which at last were ended in league and friendship The first warre of Burgundy began in the yeere 1474 the House of Austria vsing the pride ambition of the Dukes of Burgundy to keepe downe the Sweitzers with whom themselues had often fought with no good successe For the cause of the warre sprang from certaine Countries to this end ingaged by Sigismund Duke of Austria to Charles Duke of Burgundy whence the desired expected ielousies grew between them which Lewis the II King of France did nourish bearing a splene to Duke Charles and for that cause did furnish the Sweitzers with money to make that warre And Sigismund Duke of Austria more to incourage the Sweitzers made league with them against the Duke of Burgundy Also the Emperor Frederick of the House of Austria leading an Army against the said Duke did stirre vp the Sweitzers to assaile him But when they had with good successe pierced into Burgundy the Emperour made peace with the said Duke wherein the Sweitzers were not contained so as the Duke turned all his Forces vpon them and not to speake of light skirmishes and fights the maine busines was tried betweene them in three battels wherein the Duke himselfe was in person First at the town Granson where the Sweitzers had the victory but they hauing no horse which could not so soone be sent to them from their confederates and the horse of the Duke defending the foot in their flight few of the Burgundians were killed there Secondly they fought at Morat where they write that 26000 of the Burgundians were slaine And to this day huge heapes of dead bones lie in that place to witnes that great ouerthrow The third battel was at Nancy a City of Lorain where Charles Duke of Burgundy besieged Renatus Duke of Loraine confederate with the Sweitzers and then 8000 Sweitzers 3000 of their confederates sent to helpe them ouercame the Duke of Burgundy and himselfe being killed 〈◊〉 his death gaue an end to that warre in the yeere 1477. After the house of Austria had made many wars leagues for yeers with the Sweitzers at last Sigismund Duke of Austria before the Burgundian warre made an hereditary league with them Lewis the French King mediating the same that hee might draw the Sweitzers to make warre with Charles the proud Duke of Burgundy By this league it was agreed that any controuersies falling they should be put to Arbiters both parts binding themselues to stand to their iudgemēt That al old leagues alwaies preserued they should serue the Duke of Austria in his wars vpon the same pay they haue at home seruing the State On the other side that the possessors should hold all places without calling into question for them That neither part shold ioine in league the subiects of the other or make them free of their Cities That neither part should burthen the other with customes or impositions At this time in the yeere 1474 many neighbour Princes Cities and Bishops did ioine themselues in league for yeeres but the foresaid league with the house of Austria ceased in the time of the Emperour Maximilian the first who made League with the Princes and cities of Germany against the Sweitzers called the great League of Sucura That warre ended Maximilian in the yeere 1511 renewed the former League ioyning therein the house of Burgundy and his grand-child Charles after made Emperour the fifth of that name so vniting all the thirteene Cantons with both those houses and he promised in the name of Charles that he should yeerely pay in the Towne of Zurech two hundred gold crownes to each Canton for a testimony of loue and for the Abbot of Saint Gallus and the Towne and besides for Apenzill he should yeerely giue each of them one hundred Crownes and that he should confirme this league This was done in the yeere 1543 wherein Charles the Emperour renewed the League of Burgundy and his brother Ferdinand succeeding him in the Empire renewed the League of the House of Austria At this time whereof I write the Ambassadour of the King of Spaine resided at Frihurg and Philip King of Spaine sonne to Charles had as I vnderstood by Sweitzers of good credit renewed
Abbot and Towne of Saint Gallus the Rhetians or Grisons the Bishop of Sedun the Valcsians and the Townes Rotauile Mulhasium and Bipenue And the gouernements are Turgea that of Baden of the Rhegusci of the Sarunetes of the free Prouince the Lugani the Locarnenses the Inhabitants of the middle Valley and the Bilitionenses That of Turgea is subiect to the seuen old Cantons yet Bern Friburg and Solothurn haue also their rights in capitall causes That of Raden the Sarunetes the Rhegusci and the free Prouince are subiect likewise to the seuen old Cantons onely Bern hath beene admitted partner in that of Baden and Apenzill in that of the Rhegusci The foure Italian gouernements are equally subiect to all the cantons excepting Apenzill and the Bilitionenses are subiect to the three old Cantons All these ioined haue these Cities and Townes Zurech Bern Lucern Zug Bazill Friburg Solothurn Schafhusen the Towne of S. Gallus Chur of the Grisons Sedun of the Valesians Roteuil Mulhuse Bipenne all the rest dwell in Villages Among the cantons Bazill of the Rauraci Schafhusen of Germany Glarona in part of the Grisons Vria in part of the Lepontij are seated out of the old confines of Sweitzerland and so are all the fellowes in league excepting the Abbot and Towne of S. Gallus and the Towne Ripenne Among these the old Nation of the Rhetians now called Grisons were of old called Valesiani Viberi Seduni and Veragri And Roteuile is a city of Germany and Mulhuse of the Sequaui in France Among the gouernements the Rhegusci and the Sarunetes are of the old Rhetians and the Luganenses the Locarnenses the Mendrisij and the Inhabitants of the middle Valley and the Bilitionij are of the Lepontij and Italian Nation which tongue they speake Many doubt to number these confederates among common-wealths since each of them is no otherwise tied to the decrees of the other then by free consent as all priuate societies are whereas in a commonwealth the greater part binds all yet because they haue one common councell and most of the Prouinces are ruled thereby because warre and peace is made by common consent and they liue almost vnder the same lawes and customes and are vnited strictly in perpetuall league Semler concludes that this society comes neerest to the forme of a common-wealth for whereas some hating the nation obiect Anarchy to them and say they got freedome by killing the Gentlemen and others interpreting it more mildly and confessing the oppression of the Gentlemen yet iudge the reuenge to haue exceeded all measure the truth thereof will appeare by the History of Semler and others shewing that great part of the Gentry was extinguished by the House of Austria Therefore it must be a mixt commonwealth if such it may be called being neither a Monarchy of one iust King Aristocraty of iust great men nor Democrity a popular state much lesse any of the corrupt commonwealths called Tyranny Oligarchy and Anarchy that is the tyranny of a King or of noble men or a confused State the equity of the gouernment shewing that it much differs from them The Vrij Suitij Vnderualdij the Glaronenses dwelling scattered and Zug though it be a Towne gouerne all with the consent of the people Zurech Bern Lucern Bazill Friburg Solothurn and Schafhusen are gouerned by the cheefe men but since the Magistrates are chosen by the people some of these Cities are more some lesse Aristocraticall or popular The Ambassadours sent to publike meetings haue Aristocraticall forme but since they are chosen by the people with limited power it may seeme popular And it is not vnequall that the people hauing setled freedome with their danger should be partners of their gouernement but in the meane time the Sweitzers auoide as much as they can the discommodities of a popular State while none but the best and most wise are sent to the meetings and howsoeuer their power is limited yet when they returne they so relate all things to the people as they easily vnderstand them and giue consent thereunto But to make the strict vnion of these confederates more apparant it will not be amisse to peruse some of the heads of the league between the eight old Cantons Therin first is cautioned of sending mutuall aides so as first in publike counsell the iustnes of the warre may be examined Then the aides are not to be required of all but of each particular Canton according to their mutuall leagues Zurech by old league hath right to require aides of the first six Cantons and by a new league also of Bern. And Bern requires aide of the three first Cantons and they of Bern. Lucerna requires aide of fiue Cantons The three first Cantons require mutuall aides of one another and of all the rest Zug and Lucerna are bound to aide the fiue Cantons Glarona requires aide of the three old cantons and Zurech Thus while one Canton cals the next ioined to it in league howsoeuer each one cannot require aid of all or each one by right of league yet in any common danger all the Cantons bring their forces being called of some one or more Cantons in league with them besides that they haue wisely decreed that in sudden dangers all shall bring succours whether they be called or no. They which are called to giue aide by vertue of any league serue at their owne cost without any pay Between Bern and the three old Cantons it is decreed that if the aides be sent beyond certaine bounds then they which called them shall giue them pay and in like sort certaine bounds of sending aides are limited between all the rest of the Cantons in their seuerall leagues with all conditions expressed In any siege the Canton which causeth it is bound to find many necessaries but if the cause be publike all prouisions are made at the publike charge The foure old cantons and Glarona cannot make any new league which is free to the rest alwayes preseruing the old league which they also may encrease or diminish by common consent It is decreed that euery fiue or ten yeeres this league shall be renewed by word or writing or if need be by oath Zu rech Bern Vria Suitia and Vnderualdia in this league except the rights of the Roman Empire Lucerna and Zug the rights of the Dukes of Austria Glarona the rights of their lawfull Magistrates and each Canton the rights of old leagues When the said eight Cantons receiued the other fiue into their number besides the foresaid heads it was decreed among other things in their league that the fiue last cantons howsoeuer wronged should make no warre without the consent of the eight old Cantons and in like sort that they should make no league without their consent neither in time of warre should refuse good conditions of peace And lastly it was decreed that without great cause no warre should be made in places out of the mountaines and difficult passages of that Prouince where
they could not fight with aduantage The thirteene Cantons haue that priuiledge that they deliberate and determine the affaires of the commonwealth in publike meetings by voices and gouerne by equall right the gouernments gotten iointly by them and haue equal part in all booties The greatest Senate is when all the Ambassadours that is chosen Burgesses of the cantons and Fellowes in league are called together which is seldom done but in the causes of making warre or peace onely the Ambassadors of the thirteene Cantons being commonly called to counsell Al Ambassadors haue equal right in giuing voices but two or more being sent from one Canton haue but one voice In causes concerning the gouernements belonging to seuen or eight or 12 Cantons onely the Ambassadours or Burgesses or States of those Cantons meet to whom the gouernement belongs and so the Burgesses of all other seuerally for things belonging to themselues but where the cause concernes the publike State the full Senate of all the Cantons is called to the meeting Since the late differences of Religion new and particular meetings haue beene instituted The Cantons of the Roman Religion Vria Suitia Vnderualdia Lucerna and Zug ioined in a more strict league doe often meete together when any man names the fiue Cantons simply they meane them not the hue old cantons howsoeuer naming the three seuen or eight Cantons they are taken according to the time of their entring into league And sometimes the Cantons of Frihurg and Solothurn being also of the Roman Religion come to the meetings of the said fiue Cantons Greatest part of the Citizens of Glarona and Apenzill are of the reformed Religion and the foure Cities chiefe of the Cantons namely Zurech Bern Bazill Schafhusen haue altogether cast off the Roman Religion haue particular meetings but not often yet when I passed through this Prouince I vnderstood that Glarona was altogether of the reformed Religion and that Apenzill was numbred among the Cantons of the Roman Religion The great Senate determines of warre peace leagues each hauing freedome to refuse any league likewise of making Lawes of sending receiuing answering Ambassadors of gouernments of distributing gainefull Offices of difficult causes referred to the Senate by Gouernors of appeales made from Gouernours to the Senate Ambassadours or Burgesses in place of Iudges are sent about the moneth of Iune to heare the causes of the Italian gouernments from whom they may appeale to the Senate and these appeales as all other are determined by the Senate in the meetings at Baden where also they deliberate of customes impositions the reuenues and if need be of punishing the Gouernours or displacing them in which case the Canton which sent that Gouernour appoints another The City Zurech chiefe of the Cantons hath the first place not by antiquity but dignity and of old custome hath the highest authority to call the Senate together signifying to each canton by letters the cause the time of each meeting yet if any canton thinke it for the publike good to haue an extraordinary meeting they write to Zurech to appoint the same or if the cause admit no delay they meet vncalled Most commonly the generall meetings are at Lucern Zurech Bremogart and Baden but more commonly in these daies almost continually they are at Baden in respect of the commodity of the houses and Innes the pleasant situation famous medicinall Baths and because it is seated in the center of Sweitzerland and is subiect to the 8 old cantons The cantons of the Roman religion commonly haue their particular meetings at Lucerna sometimes at Bockenried of the Vrij or Brame of the Suitij are called together by the canton of Lucern and the cantons of the reformed religion haue their particular meetings commonly at Arowike vnder Bern somtimes at Bazil are called together by the canton of Zurech Forrain Ambassadors require of Zurech to haue audience in the Senate but the peculiar meeings for French causes are called by the French Ambassador as often as he wil at Solothurn where he resideth or at Lucern other Ambassadors shold not be denied extraordinary meetings so they pay the expences as the French Ambassador doth The ful Senate yeerly meets about September at Baden about which time I said that Burgesses in place of Iudges are sent to heare the causes of the Italian gouernments And in this first meeting the greatest causes are not determined either because the Ambassadours or Burgesses or States haue not full power or for other causes but another meeting is there appointed and howsoeuer this Senate is onely called for publike causes yet those being ended they vse to heare priuate causes also Assoone as the said Burgesses or States at the appointed day come to the City the Burgesse of Zurech sends the Vice-gouernor of Baden to salute them to acquaint them with the time of meeting Then they sit downe in the Court first the Burgesses of Zurech in a place raised higher then the rest 2. Those of Bern Thirdly Those of Lucerna as chief though not in antiquity yet in dignity and after the rest according to the antiquity of their Cantons The Burgesse of Zurech first makes an Oration and propounds the causes vpon which they are to consult adding what his Canton hath commanded him in each particular and then the rest speake in order according to the directions giuen them at home The vnder Gouernour of Baden of what Canton soeuer he be askes and numbers the voices The peculiar meetings of particular Cantons and those for French affaires haue no set times Each Canton hath publike Magistrates vulgarly called Vmbgelten who administer the Impositions vpon wine and corne and gather them by their deputies They pay tribute only for that wine which is sold in Tauerns and for that corne which is exported or vsed by Bakers for otherwise the Citizens pay not for wine and corne brought iuto their priuate houses and spent therein And I haue obserued that they pay in some places the value of 24 measures tribute for a vessell of wine containing ninety six measures The salt which is brought in is onely sold by the Senate of each Citie or Canton and I vnderstood by discourse that the Citizens may not buy salt or take it of gift out of the Citie Particularly at Schafhusen the Customes are great especially for salt in respect that the water of the Rheine hath a great fall from a rocke so as all ships must be vnladed before they can passe by that Citie In generall the Sweitzers especially want wine corne and salt as may appeare by the couenants of their forraigne leagues and otherwise the tributes are small which can bee imposed vpon such a free Nation Concerning their Lawes I haue formerly said that the senerall Cantons are not bound one to the decrees of the other except they freely consent thereunto yet that they all haue one Common Councell and almost all
haue the same common Lawes and customes which they inuiolably keepe They long suffered the Gouernours of the Empire to bee ouer them in capitall causes though with preiudice to their freedome till at last in the Sueuian warre about the yeere 1499 the iudgement of capitall causes was granted to them by the Emperor among the conditions of peace Whereupon the ten oldest Cantons who made this warre haue equal right of capitall iudgements in the stipendiary Cities and gouernments with the Cantons to whom they are subiect though gotten before they entred into the common league howsoeuer they haue no right in the Ciuill causes nor any other commaund ouer them In the old leagues besides the Articles concerning vnion many Lawes for the publike good are contained and established Such is that of the old league between the eight first Cantons wherin they set downe cautions for peaceable determining of publike controuersies between the Cantons and thereby two Cantons being at strife are to chuse two honest men who giue their othes to make an equall composition between them and the rest of the Cantons are to adde one Arbiter to them and in case one of the Cantons consenteth the other refuseth to stand to their iudgement all the rest are to helpe the Canton consenting thereunto And in the league of the fiue last Cantons as in al other they iustly giue curious cantions for taking away all controuersies and especially labour to effect that they breake not out into Ciuill war in which case they should be diuersly distracted according to their diuers combinations and leagues among themselues Therefore of old when the Abbot of Saint Gallus attempted to remoue the trade of clothing and the holy reliques the superstitious worship whereof brought great profit from Apenzill to Rosake where the Abbot had absolute commaund and this matter drew them to Armes wherin the Abbot called the foure Cantons his confederates and Apenzill the six Cantons with whome it had league to giue them aide according to their mutuall leagues the saide Cantons thus called to aide both parts earnestly endeuored to make peace wherby they preserued the common-welth For if they should not alwaiea carefully so doe in like occasions many times the dissention of one or two Cantons might draw all the rest into a pernicious Ciuill warre In the foresaid league betweene the eight oldest Cantons and in the Stantian Transaction in the yeere 1481 Lawes were established That he who killed any confederate vulgarly called Eidgenossen that is inioiers of the oath should be beheaded except he had sufficient witnessea that he did it to saue his life and in case of flight he being banished by one Canton should also be banished by all the rest and that he should be iudged guilty of the crime who should helpe him and that sentence shoud be giuen vpon him in the Canton where the crime was committed That there should be no generall meetings of the people without consent of the Magistrate That none of the Cantons should support any disobedient subiect of another Canton but should force them to obedience That a lay person shall not vse the helpe of an Ecclesiasticall Iudge but in causes of matrimony and manifest vsury which are referred to Ecclesiasticall iudgement That pledges or gages be not taken at priuate mens pleasures but with consent of the Iudge That causes be iudged in the Canton wherein the act was done and sentence be giuen without fraud or deceit and that euery man bee content and rest satisfied in the Iudgements Lawes and customes of another Canton That all booties in warre be diuided among the Cantons according to the number of Souldiers which each of them sent but that Townes Tributes and like things gained by warre shal be vnder the common command of all the Cantons of which commodities the subiects of stipendary Cities and fellowes in league shall haue no part though their Forces be ioined in the same warre with the Forces of the Cantons howsoeuer they are to haue part in the deuision of all other booties In like sort the league of Schafhusen with the Cantons of the Sweitzers determineth how debts are to be recouered and what law is to be vsed in such suites and that no leagues be made by one without the priuity and against the will of the rest and that the oldest leagues be euer most respected The Common-wealth is administred with great equity yet with no lesse seuerity of Iustice then the Germans vse And howsoeuer all the Country lies within mountaines woods yet the high way for passengers is no where more safe from theeues so as it is there prouerbially said that you may carry gold in the palmes of your hands For all crimes are seuerely punished without all respect of persons The scope and butt whereat all their leagues aime is that euery man may peaceably enioy his owne and that the best men among them may in publike counsell examine the causes of warre that they be iust and lawfull to the end they may neuer rashly make warre vpon any And because the common people being burthened with debt is more prone to seditions curious orders are set downe in their leagues for the manner of exacting debts and taking pledges neither giuing liberty of oppression to the creditors nor permitting fraud to the debtors Also because military men and such as drinke in excesse are prone to brawling and blowes most heauy penalties are thereby insticted vpon such as are Authours of iniuries and the leagues make not more frequent mention of any other thing then of reproaches for which they prescribe such good remedies and reall satisfactions not passing ouer the least iniury of the poorest man as among the very Souldiers yea halfe drunken there very seldome hapneth any murther Wherein I could wish that our inferiour Magistrates would apply themselues and our Lawes were accommodated to the Sweitzers gouernement For the English being most impatient of reproches and the law giuing ridiculous satisfactions for iniuries by word and all wrongs excepting maimes it hath beene accounted a disgracefull course to seeke remedy that way and most iniuries haue commonly beene reuenged by the Sword in single combat But in Sweitzerland all standers by are bound to keepe the peace and compose the strife and if they who striue being remembred of the Lawes doe not obey they vse to punish them most seuerely and if any kill another he is sure to be beheaded except he escape by flight in which case he shall be banished by his owne and all other Cantons or except he can proue by witnes that he killed him in defence of himselfe And such is the fame of the Sweitzers sincere Iustice as many strangers their neighbours desire to haue their controuersies ended after the manner of the Sweitzers and by them When causes are to be pleaded before the Senate most men pleade their owne cause some vse Lawyers brought by them from home or sound there by chance and
must haue full knowledge of the Lawes Customes Priuiledges and all secrets of the Common-wealth Zurech hath two publike Courts of Iudgement or Iustice one of eight Iudges chosen out of the lesser Counsell or Senate who determine Ciuill causes Debts and the like and from them there is no appeale but themselues referre the most difficult matters to the Senate The other determines the causes of the Reuenue Basil hath two Courts of Iustice in the great Towne and a third in the lesser Towne The greater Court consists of ten Iudges who are partly taken out of the Senate partly out of the people and they determine Ciuill and Criminall causes but the Burgomaster or Maior is President for Ciuill causes and the Aduocate of the Empire for Criminall and three men called the Capitall Triumuiri of Senators degree pleade and proue inditements against malefactors But at Zurech and Schafhusen the new Senate iudgeth capitall causes yet the Consull or Burgomaster is not then President as at other times but the Aduocate of the Empire whom the Senate by speciall priuiledge chuseth yeerely out of their owne body And at Basil capitall Iudgements are giuen in a publike place but at Zurech in a close priuate Court with the doores shut and at Schafhusen the accusation and defence are made in open Court but all are excluded when the Senate giues iudgement The lesser Court of the great Towne at Basil doth onely determine small controuersies not exceeding the value of ten pounds The Court of Iustice in the lesser Towne of Basill hath his owne Burgomaster or Consull and determines all causes except criminall At Schafbusen the Cities Court of Iustice determines of debts contracts and the like but if the summe of the controuersie exceed the value of one hundred gold Guldens the Senate iudgoeth it And this Cities Court hath twenty Assessors namely one of each Tribe and eight other chosen by the Senate It hath another Court of Iustice for the Mulcts or Fines consisting of twelue men and the Aduocate of the Empire is President thereof and this Court imposeth Fines and iudgeth the criminall causes of lesse weight as small iniuries and vulgar reproches for the Senate determines of the greater Touching the Magistrates and Officers of these Cities the Consuls called Burgomasters are of chiefe dignity then the Tribunes then diuers Treasurers and Officers about the Reuenues and Tributes The next degree is of those Officers who haue the care of publike buildings and workes then those who haue the care of victuals as those who looke to the weight and goodnesse of bread and those who ouersee the shambles that no vnsound meate be sold and that all things be sold at a moderate price which they set downe and appoint how flesh shall be sold by the pound In like sort the ouerseers of the fish market and salted meates and butter and cheese Likewise the Officers who protect Orphanes and widowes who dispence publike aimes gouerning those houses and who ouersee weights and measures and the publike Schooles Some of the prefectures or gouernements belonging to the Cities are gouerned by the Senate of the City so as the Gouernours remaine Senators in the City and onely at-set daies goe to the Villages for administration of Iustice but the Senate onely iudgeth of capitall causes but to those Gouernements which be larger and farther distant they send Gouernours who iudge not onely ciuill but most capitall causes In priuiledges customes and peculiar Courts of Iudgement where the prefectures haue power to chuse Iudges among themselues the Gouernours alter nothing therein but onely sit as Presidents in their iudgements these their rights alwaies preserued Thus among other the City of Zurech hath two pleasant saire Townes subiect to it which are ruled by the Lawes of Zurech but haue their owne Magistrates and serue Zurech in warre but vnder their owne colours And this shall suffice touching the Common-wealths generall and particular of the Cantons Among the fellowes in league are the Abbot and Towne of Saint Gallus The Abbot is numbered among the Princes of the Empire but his power is much diminished in these daies yet he sets Gouernours ouer many places and his Ammans doe Iustice in his name Also he hath instituted an high Court of Iustice to which appeales are made from the lesser Courts and besides he hath Officers of all kinds after the manner of Princes The Towne as likewise that of Mulhuse and Roteuil is numbered among the Cities of the Empire and it as the other two hath the forme of a Common wealth formerly described sauing that this Towne of Saint Gallus hath some peculiar things It hath sixe Tribes whereof one is of Gentlemen It hath two Senates the greater and the lesser in which lesser Senate are foure and twenty Senators namely three Consuls nine Senators and twelue Masters of the Tribes for each Tribe hath three Masters chosen by the Tribes and confirmed by the lesser Counsell or Senate and one of them yeerely by course gouernes each Tribe being sixe in number the other two are of the Senate and make twelue And twice euery yeere is the choice made of the Senate and Magistrates The first of the three Consuls exerciseth that Office for the present yeere the second did exercise it the yeere besore and the third is Iudge of capitall crimes And the Consull is yeerely chosen by the whole assembly of the people The greater Senate consists of sixty sixe men This Towne hath also an inferiour Consull or as I may say a Deputy Consull The lesser Senate iudgeth ciuill causes The greater meeteth fiue times in the yeere and iudgeth of appeales and of taking new inhabitants and the like and extraordinarily it is called oftner as for iudging capital causes at which time the Aduocate of the Empire whō I said to be the third consul is President of the counsel The whole people is called together thrice in the yeere first when the Consuls are chosen 2. when oath is giuen to the newe Consul thirdly when the Ordination of Tributes is read before the people the Lawes deuided into three Parts are read before the pepole at these three meetings The first Court of Iustice is of fiue men which iudgeth of debts of wages or hires of victuals of iniuries and fines without appeale The court of Iustice for the City is of twelue men changed twice each yeere from it apeale is admitted to the lesser Senate so the cause be aboue the value of fiue pounds but if he that appeales lose the cause he paies a fine to the Iudges The common people of the towne and country liues by making woollen cloth whereupon strict Lawes are made for the same that the web vndressed be viewed by three skillfull men and be marked according to the goodnes and if it be faulty be rent in the middest through the breadth or be burnt where any great fault is found and that publikely besides a fine imposed vpon
all the neighbour Prouinces were thereby impouerished all which trade by the warre fell to Holland most strong in shipping or for that the vnited Prouinces haue such commodity by the Sea and waters running to all Townes and by the strength of their cities as in the heat of war they are free from the enemies incursions or any impediment of their traffick and seeme rather to carry the war to their confines then to haue it in their bosomes In which point it is not vnpleasant to remember how the Hollanders mock the Spaniards as if not acquainted with the Northern Sea the ebbing and flowing therof they thought they might at pleasure come into any hauen leade their army into any of those Prouinces that when the Spaniards first entered Holland with their Army and they cutting the banckes of the sea drowned their Country the Spaniards were therewith astonished and gaue gold chaines money and the most precious things they had to the Country people on condition they would bring them out of those watery places to firme land If any man require truer and greater reasons of these Prouinces growing rich by warre let him make curious search thereof for it is besides my purpose No doubt the frequent Armes of the sea within land passing by their Cities the innumerable waters though for the most part standing or little mouing which by made ditches carry boats and barkes to all their Cities being there more frequent then in any other part of the World and to all their Villages and compasse almost all their pastures yeeld no small commodity to their Common-wealth For they hauing little of their owne to export and wanting Corne Wood or Coales and many necessaries for their vse yet by this onely benefit and their singular industry not only most abundantly inioy all commodities of all Nations for their owne vse but by transporting them from place to place with their owne ships whereof they haue an vnspeakable number make very great gaine being delighted in Nauigation by nature as borne and bred in the midst of Seas and waters and hauing by warre heating their Flegmaticke humours attained to such skill therein as for trafficke they saile to the most remote coasts of the world and in processe of time being growne so bold sea-men as they will scarcely yeeld in this Art to the English for many former yeeres excelling therein So as their tributes imposed on Merchants commodities must needs be of exceeding great moment And not to weary my selfe with the curious search thereof I will onely adde for coniecture of the generall one particular related to me by credible men That in time when Italy suffered dearth and was supplied with corne from these parts the tributes of one Citie Amsterdam in one weeke exceeded the summe of ten thousand pounds sterling whence the reuenewes of all tributes in all the Hauens and Cities may bee coniectured to be excessiuely great So as adding the impositions vpon domesticall things and the great contributions paid by the enemies subiects vpon the confines in time of warre to purchase the safety of their persons and goods with freedome to till their grounds from the rapine of freybooting souldiers a man may well say that the vnited Prouinces are no lesse able then they haue been daring to doe great things This Common-wealth is gouerned by particular lawes and customes of diuers places and by the publike edicts vpon diuers new occasions made by the States of the Prouinces and these wanting by the Ciuill law The particular Cities are gouerned after the manner aboue named And particularly at Leyden my selfe haue obserued the inhabitants of Villages called by writings set vpon posts in the publike streets to haue their controuersies iudged by the Magistrates of the city not at any set time of the yeere but according to the occasions of other affaires at the Iudges pleasure High iniuries and maimes of any member are punished by the law which passeth ouer lighter iniuries not giuing such ample satisfactions to the wronged euen by word as the constitutions of the Sweitzers giue so as with them no lesse then in England quarrels and brawlings are frequent and often breake out into man-slaughters wherein those who will reuenge themselues by force first agree betweene themselues whether they will strike or stab and then drawing out long kniues which they ordinarily weare they wound one another by course according to their agreement either by slashes or stabs which they call schneiden and stecken They commonly allow mony to be put out to vse and to the end poore men vpon pawnes may borrow small summes for a short time they admit an Italian or Lumbard vulgarly so called in each Citie who taking a pawne lends a gulden for a brasse coine called a doigt by the weeke But this Lumbard in the French Church there is not admitted to receiue the Communion The pawne vseth to bee worth a third part more then the mony lent and one yere a day being past after the mony is due the vsurer hath the pawne to himselfe but before that time the debter at his pleasure may at any time haue his pawne first paying the borowed mony with the vse to the day of paiment And the common report then was that the States would take this as a publike Office into their owne hands to help the poore not able to pay by selling the pawnes to the owners best profit Touching inheritance Vpon the Mothers death the children may compell their Father to deuide his goods with them least perhaps hee should consume or waste the same And the wife that brought a dowry be her husband growne neuer so rich by his trade may when shee dies giue not only her dowry but halfe her husbands goods gotten in mariage to her owne Kinsmen after his death if shee haue no children by him and if she brought no dowry yet shee hath the same right to dispose of halfe her husbands goods gotten in mariage and as is supposed by their mutuall labor A sonne may not be disinherited but vpon causes approued by the Law for the Father is bound to giue a third part of his estate among his children and only hath power to dispose of the rest or any part thereof in Legacies at his pleasure The wiues of Holland buy and sell all things at home and vse to saile to Hamburg and into England for exercise of traffique I heard from credible men that the Citizens of Enchusen within thirty yeeres then past vsed to marry a wife and put her away at the yeeres end if they liked her not which barbarous custome Ciuility and Religion hath since abolished and at Delph I did see two examples of men who hauing buried their wiues did after marry their wiues Sisters It is no rare thing for blowes to happen betweene man and wife and I credibly heard that they haue slight punishments for that fault and my selfe did heare the Crier summon a man