Justice and good order being more learned in the Law than in doing right and that he had by far more knowledge than conscience Certainly the unjust Magistrate that fancieth to himself a solid and untransparable bodie of Gold every ordinarie wit can vitrifie and make transparent pierce and discern their corruptions howsoever because not daring they cover their knowledge but in the mean while it is also true That constrained dissimulation either in the proud heart or in the oppressed either in publick estates or in private persons where the fear of God is not prevalent doth in all the leisure of her lurking but sharpen her teeth the voluntarie being no less base than the forced malitious Thus it fared between the Barons of England and their Kings between the Lords of Switzerland their people between the Sicilians and the French between the Dolphin and John of Burgoign between Charl the Ninth and the French Protestants and between Henry the third his successor and the Lords of Guise hereof in place of more particulars the whole world may serve for examples It is a difficult piece of Geographie to delinate and lay out the bounds of Authority but it is easie enough coÌ„ceive the best use of it and by which it hath maintained it self in lasting happiness t hath ever acquired more honour by perswading than by beating for as the bonds of Reason and Love are immortal so do all other chains or cords both rustâ—e rot Noble parts of their own Royal and Politick bodies But we will forbear for a while to stretch this first string of Civil Justice for in respect of the first sort of Men to wit of those that live by their own labour they have never been displeased where they have been suffered to enjoy the fruit of their own travels Meum Tuum Mine Thine is all wherein they seek their certaintie protection True it is that they are the Fruit-Trees of the Land which God in Deuteronomie commanded to be spared they gather honey and hardly enjoy the wax and break the ground with great labour giving the best of their grain to the easefull idle For the second sort which are the Merchants as the first feed the Kingdome so do these enrich it yea their trades especially those which are forcible are not the least part of our Martiall Policie as hereafter proved and to do them right they have in all ages and times assisted the Kings of this Land not onely with great sums of money but with great Fleets of Ships in all their enterprises beyond the seas The second have seldome or never offended their Princes to enjoy their trades at home upon tolerable conditions hath ever contented them for the injuries received from other Nations give them but the Commission of Reprisal they will either Right themselves or sit down with their own losse without complaint 3. The third sort which are the Gentrie of England these being neither seated in the lowest grounds and thereby subject to the biting of every beast nor in the highest Mountains thereby in danger to be torn with tempest but the Valleys between both have their parts in the inferiour Iustice being spread over all are the Garrisons of good order throughout the Realm Sir WALTER RALEIGH'S LETTERS Sir Walter Raleigh's Letter to Mr Secretary Winwood before his Iourney to Guiana Honourable SIR I Was lately perswaded by two Gentlemen my ancient Friends to acquaint your Honour with some offers of mine made heretofore for a Journey to Guiana who were of opinion That it would be better understood now than when it was first propounded which advice having surmounted my dispair I have presumed to send unto your Honour the Copies of those Letters which I then wrote both to his Majestie and to the Treasurer Ceuill wherein as well the reasons that first moved me are remembered as the objections by him made are briefly answered What I know of the riches of that place not by hear say but what mine eyes hath seen I have said it often but it was then to no end Because those that had the greatest trust were resolved not to believe it not because they doubted the Truth but because they doubted my Disposition towards themselves where if God had blessed me in the enterprise I had recovered his Majesties favour and good opinion Other cause than this or other suspition they never had any Our late worthy Prince of Wales was extream curious in searching out the Nature of my offences The Queens Majestie hath informed her self from the beginning The King of Denmark at both times of his being here was throughly satisfied of my innocencie they would otherwise never have moved his Majestie on my behalf The Wife the Brother and the Son of a King do not use to sue for men suspect but Sir since they all have done it out of their charitie and but with references to me alone Your Honour whose respect hath onely relation to his Majesties service strengthened by the example of those Princes may with the more hardnesse do the like being Princes to whom his Majesties good estate is not lesse dear and all men that shall oppugne it no lesse hatefull then to the King himself It is true Sir That his Majestie hath sometimes answered That his Councel knew me better than he did meaning some two or three of them And it was indeed my infelicitie for had his Majestie known me I had never been here where I now am or had I known his Majestie they had never been so long there where they now are His Majestie not knowing of me hath been my ruine and his Majestie misknowing of them hath been the ruine of a goodly part of his estate but they are all of them now some living and some dying come to his Majesties knowledge But Sir how little soever his Majestie knew me and how much soever he believed them yet have I been bound to his Majestie both for my Life and all that remains of which but for his Majestie nor Life nor ought else had remained In this respect Sir I am bound to yield up the same life and all I have for his Majesties service to die for the King and not by the King is all the ambition I have in the world Walter Raleigh Sir Raleigh's Letter to his Wife from Guiana Sweet Heart I Can yet write unto you but with a weak hand for I have suffered the most violent Calenture for fifteen days that ever man did and lived but God that gave me a strong heart in all my adversities hath also now strengthened it in the hell fire of heat We have had two most grievous sicknesses in our Ship of which fourtie two have died and there are yet many sick but having recovered the land of Guiana this 12 of November I hope we shall recover them We are yet two hundred men and the rest of our Fleet are reasonable strong strong enough I
published that all men might plead it for their advantage but a Charter was left in deposito in the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time and so to his successours Stephen Langthon who was ever a Traytor to the King produced this Charter and shewed it to the Barons thereby encouraging them to make war against the King Neither was it the old Charter simply the Barons sought to have confirmed but they presented unto the King other articles and orders tending to the alteration of the whole commonwealth which when the King refused to signe the Barons presently put themselves into the field and in rebellious and outragious fashion sent the King word except he confirmed them they would not desist from making war against him till he had satisfied them therein And in conclusion the King being betrayed of all his Nobility in effect was forced to grant the Charter of Magna Charta and Charta de Forestis at such time as he was invironed with an Army in the Meadowes of Staynes which harters being procured by force Pope Innocent afterward disavowed and threatned to curse the Barons if they submitted not themselves as they ought to their Soveraigne Lord which when the Lords refused to obey the King entertained an army of strangers for his own defence wherewith having mastered and beaten the Barons they called in Lewes of France a most unnaturall resolution to be their King Neither was Magna Charta a Law in the 19. of Henry the 2d but simply a Charter which hee confirmed in the 21. of his reigne and made it a Law in the 25. according to Littletons opinion Thus much for the beginning of the Great Cbarter which had first an obscure birth from usurpation and was secondly fostered and shewed to the world by rebellion JUST I cannot deny but that all your Lordship hath said is true but seeing the Charters were afterwards so many times confirmed by Parliament and made Lawes and that there is nothing in them unequall or prejudicial to the King doth not your Honour think it reason they should be observed COUNS. Yes and observed they are in all that the state of a King can permit for no man is destroyed but by the Lawes of the land no man disseized of his inheritance but by the Lawes of the land imprisoned they are by the prerogative where the King hath cause to suspect their loyalty for were it otherwise the King should never come to the knowledge of any conspiracy or Treason against his Person or state and being imprisoned yet doth not any man suffer death but by the Law of the land JUST But may it please your Lordship were not Cornewallis Sharpe and Hoskins imprisoned being no suspition of Treason there COUNS. They were but it cost them nothing JUST And what got the King by it for in the conclusion besides the murmure of the people Cornewallis Sharpe and Hoskins having greatly overshot themselves and repented them a fine of 5 or 600l. was laid on his Majesty for their offences for so much their diet cost his Majesty COUNS. I know who gave the advice sure I am that it was none of mine But thus I say if you consult your memory you shall find that those Kings which did in their own times comfirme the Magna Charta did not onely imprison but they caused of their Nobility and others to be slain without hearing or tryall JUST My good Lord if you will give me leave to speak freely I say that they are not well advised that perswade the King not to admit the Magna Charta with the former reservations For as the King can never lose a farthing by it as I shall prove anon So except England were as Naples is and kept by Garrisons of another Nation it is impossible for a King of England to greaten and inrich himself by any way so assuredly as by the love of his people For by one rebellion the King hath more losse then by a hundred years observance of Magna Charta For therein have our Kings been forced to compound with Roagues and Rebels and to pardon them yea the state of the King the Mouarchie the Nobility have been endangered by them COUNS. Well Sir let that passe why should not our Kings raise mony as the Kings of France do by their letters and Edicts onely for since the time of Lewes the 11. of whom it is said that he freed the French Kings of their wardship the French Kings have seldome assembled the states for any contribution JUST I will tell you why the strength of England doth consist of the people and Yeomanry the Pefants of France have no courage nor armes In France every Village and Burrough hath a castle which the French call Chasteau Villain every good City hath a good Cittadell the King hath the Regiments of his guards and his men at armes alwayes in pay yea the Nobility of France in whom the strength of France consists doe alwayes assist the King in those leavies because themselves being free they made the same leavies upon ther Tennants But my Lord if you marke it France was never free in effect from civill wars and lately it was endangered either to be conquered by the Spaniard or to be cantonized by the rebellious French themselves since that freedome of Wardship But my good Lord to leave this digression that wherein I would willingly satisfie your Lordship is that the Kings of England have never received losse by Parliament or prejudice COUNS. No Sir you shall find that the subjects in Parliament have decreed great things to the disadvantage and dishonour of our Kings in former times JUST My good Lord to avoid confusion I will make a short repitition of them all then your Lordship may object where you see cause And I doubt not but to give your Lordship satisfaction In the sixt year of Henry the 3d there was no dispute the house gave the King two shillings of every plough land within England and in the end of the same year he had escuage payed him to wit for every Knights fee two marks in silver In the fifth year of that King the Lords demaunded the confirmation of the Great Charter which the Kings Councell for that time present excused alleadging that those priviledges were exhorted by force during the Kings Minoritie and yet the King was pleased to send forth his writ to the Sheriffes of every Countrey requiring them to certifie what those liberties were and how used and in exchange of the Lords demaund because they pressed him so violently the King required all the castles and places which the Lords held of his and had held in the time of his Father with those Manors and Lordships which they had heretofore wrested from the Crown which at that time the King being provided of forces they durst not deny in the 14 year he had the 15. peny of all goods given him upon condition to confirme the Great Charter For by reason
Captains Souldiers c. Execution when the means or provision is not used of all used 5. Particular To be noted and collected out of the contraries of those rules that are prescribed for the preservation of the Common-wealth Particular causes of Conversion of States are of two sorts 1. FOrreign By the over greatness of invasion of some forreign Kingdom or other State of meaner power having a part within our own which are to be prevented by the providence of the chief and rules of policy for the preserving of every State This falleth out very seldom for the great difficulty to overthrow a forreign State 2. Domestick Sedition or open violence by the stronger part Alteration without violence Sedition SEdition is a power of inferiours opposing it self with force of Armes against the superiour power Quasi ditio secedens Causes of Sedition are of two sorts 1. General Liberty Riches WHen they that are of equal qualitie in a Common-wealth or do take themselves so to be are not regarded equally in all or in any of the these three or when they are so unequal in quality or take themselves so to be are regarded but equally or with less respect than those that be of less defect in these three things or in any of them Honour 1. IN the Chief Couetousness or oppression by the Magistrate or higher Power viz. when the Magistrates especially the Chief encreaseth his substace revenue beyond measure either with the publick or private calamitie whereby the Governours grow to quarrel among themselves as in Oligarchie or the other degrees conspite together and make quarrel against the Chief as in Kingdoms The examples of â—at Tylâ—r Jack Straw c. 2. In the â—â—â—â—f Injury when great Spirits and of great power are greatly wronged dishonoured or take themselves to be as Coriolanus Cyrus minor Earl of Warwick In which cases the best way is to decide the wrong 3. Preferment or want of preferment wherein some have over-much and so wax proud and aspire higher or have more or lesse than they deserve as they suppose and so in envy and disdain seck Innovation on by open faction so Caesar c. 4. Some great necessity or calamity So Xerxes after the foil of his great Army And Senacherib after the losse of 185. in one night 2. Particular 1. ENvy when the chief exceed the mediocrity before mentioned and so provoketh the Nobility and other degrees to conspire against him as Brutus Cassius c. against Caesar. 2. Fear viz. Of danger when one or more dispatch the Prince by secret practice or force to prevent his own danger as Artabanus did Xerxes 2. Lust or Lechery as Tarquinius Superbus by Brutus Pisistratiâ—â—ae by Armoaius Appiuâ— by Virginiuâ— 4. Contempt For vile quality base behaviour as Sardanaâ—alus by â—â—aces Dionysius the younger by Dion 5. Contumely when some great disgrace is done to some of great Spirit who standeth upon his honour and reputation as Caligula by Chaereas 6. Hope of Advancement or some great profit as Mithridates Anobarâ—anes Alteration without violence CAuses of alteration without violence are 1. Excess of the State when by degrees the State groweth from that temper and mediocrity wherein it was or should have been setled and exceedeth in power riches and absoluteness in his kind by the ambition covetousness of the chiefe immoderate taxes and impositions c applying all to his own benefit without respect of other degrees so in the end changeth it self into another State or form of Government as a Kingdom into a Tyrannie an Oligarchy into an Aristocracy 2. Excess of some one or more in the Common-wealth viz. When some one or more in a Common-wealth grow to an excellency or excesse above the rest either in honour wealth or virtue and so by permission and popular favour are advanced to the Sovereignty By which means popular States grow into Oligarchies and Oligarchies and Aristocracies into Monarchies For which cause the Athenians and some other free States made their Laws of Ostroâ—ismos to banish any for a time that should excell though it were in virtue to prevent the alteration of their State Which because it is an unjust Law 't is better to take heed as the beginning to prevent the means that none should grow to that heigth and excellency than to use so sharp and unjust a remedy FINIS A METHOD How to make use of the Book before in the reading of the Storie DAVID being seventy years of age was of wisdome Memory c. sufficient to govern his Kingdom 1. Reg. Cap. 1. Old age is not ever unfit for publick Government DAVID being of great years and so having a cold dry and impotent body married with Abishag a fair maid of the best complexion through the whole Realm to revive his body and prolong his life 1. Reg. Chap. 1. vers 3. Example of the like practise in Charles the Fifth DAvid being old and impotent of bodie by the advise of his Nobles and Phisitians married a young maid called Abishag to warm and preserve his old bodie Observation WHether David did well in marrying a maid and whether it be lawfull for an old decayed and impotent man to marrie a young woman or on the other side for an old worn and decrepite woman to marrie a young and lustie man For the Affirmative ARG. The end of marriage is Society and mutual comfort but there may be Societie and mutual comfort in a marriage betwixt an old and young partie Ergo 'tis Lawful Answ. Societie and comfort is a cause effect of marriage but none of the principal ends of marriage which are 1. Procreation of children and so the continuance of mankind 2. The avoiding of Fornication As for comfort and societie they may be betwixt man and man woman and woman where no marriage is and therefore no proper ends of marriage The Negative ARG 1. That conjunction which hath no respect to the right and proper ends for which marriage was ordained by God is no lawfull marriage But the conjunction betwixt an old impotent and young partie hath no respect to the right end for which marriage was ordained by God Therefore it is no lawful marriage 2. No contract wherein the partie contracting bindeth himself to an impossible condition or to do that which he cannot do is good or lawfull But the contract of marriage by an impotent person with a young partie bindeth him to an impossible condition to do that which he cannot do viz. to perform the duties of Marriage Therefore it is unlawfull For the same cause the civil Law determineth a nullity in these marriages except the woman know before the infirmitie of the man in which case she can have no wrong being a thing done with her own knowledge and consent because Volenti non fit injuria In legem Julian de adulteriis leg Si Uxor c. It provideth further for the more certainty of the infirmatie That three
condition that for one whole year no subsedies should be demanded but this promise was as suddenly forgotten as made for in the end of that year the great subsedy of Poll mony was granted in the Parliament at Northampton COUNS. Yea but there followed the terrible Rebellion of Baker Straw and others Leister Wrais and others IUST That was not the fault of the Parliament my Lord it is manifest that the subsedy given was not the cause for it is plain that the bondmen of England began it because the were girevously prest by their Lords in their tenure of Villenage as also for the hatred they bate to the Lawyers and Atturneyes for the story of those times say that they destroyed the houses and Mannors of men of Law such Lawyers as they caught slew them and beheaded the Lord chief Iustice which commotion being once begun the head mony was by other Rebels pretended A fire is often kindled with a little straw which oftentimes takes hold of greater timber consumes the whole building And that this Rebellion was begun by the discontented slaves whereof there have been many in Elder times the like is manifest by the Charter of Manumission which the King granted in hec verba Rich. Dei gratid c. Sciatis quod de gratiâ nostrâ spirituali manumissimus c. to which seeing the King was constrained by force of armes he revoked the letters Pattents and made them voide the same revocation being strengthened by the Parliament ensuing in which the King had given him a subsedy upon Woolls called a Maletot In the same fourth year was the Lord Treasurer discharged of his Office and Hales Lord of St. Iohns chosen in his place in his fift year was the Treasurer again changed and the Staffe given to Segrave and the Lord Chancellour was also changed and the staffe given to the Lord Scroope Which Lord Scroope was again in the beginning of his sixt year turned off and the King after that he had for a while kept the Seal in his own hand gave it to the Bishop of London from whom it was soon after taken and bestowed on the Earle of Suffolke who they say had abused the King and converted the Kings Treasure to his own use To this the King condiscended and though saith Walsingham he deserved to loose his life and goods yet he had the favour to go at liberty upon good sureties and because the King was but young that the reliefe granted was committed to the trust of the Earle of Arundell for the furnishing of the Kings Navy against the French COUNS. Yet you see it was a dishonour to the King to have his beloved Chancellour removed IUST Truly no for the King had both his fine 1000l lands and asubsedy to boot And though for the present it pleased the King to fancy a man all the world hated the Kings passion overcomming his judgement yet it cannot be call'd a dishonour for the King is to believe the generall counsell of the Kingdome and to preser it before his affection especially when Suffolke was proved to be false even to the King for were it otherwise love and affection might be called a frenzie and a madnesse for it is the nature of humane passions that the love bred by fidelity doth change it self into hatred when the fidelity is first changed into falshood COUNS. But you see there were thirteen Lords chosen in the Parliament to have the oversight of the government under the King IUST No my Lord it was to have the oversight of those Officers which saith the story had imbezeled lewdly wasted and prodigally spent the Kings Treasure for to the Commission to those Lords or to any six of them joyn'd with the Kings Counsell was one of the most royall and most profitable that ever he did if he had bin constant to himself But my good Lord man is the cause of his own misery for I will repeat the substance of the commission granted by the King and confirmed by Parliament which whether it had bin profitable for the King to have prosecured your Lordship may judge The preamble hath these words Whereas our Sovereigne Lord the King perceiveth by the grievous complaints of the Lords and Commons of this Realme that the rents profits and revenues of this Realme by the singular and insufficient Councell and evill government as well of some his late great Officers and others c. are so much withdrawen wasted given granted alienated destroyed and evill dispended that he is so much impoverished and void of treasure and goods and the substance of the Crown so much diminished and destroyed that his estate may not honorably be sustained as appertaineth The King of his free will at the request of the Lords and Commons hath ordained William Archbishop of Canterbury and others with his Chancellour Treasurer keeper of his privy seal to survey and examine as well the estate and governance of his house c. as of all the rents and profits and revenues that to him appertaineth and to be due or ought to appertain and be due c. And all manner of gifts grants alienations and confirmations made by him of lands tenements rents c. bargained and sold to the prejudice of him and his Crown c. And of his jewels goods which were his Grandfathers at the time of his death c. and where they be become This is in effect the substance of the commission which your Lordship may read at large in the book of Statutes this commission being enacted in the tenth year of the Kings reigne Now if such a commission were in these dayes granted to the faithfull men that have no interest in the sales gifts nor purchases nor in the keeping of the jewells at the Queens death nor in the obtaining grants of the Kings best lands I cannot say what may be recovered and justly recovered and what say your Lordship was not this a noble act for the King if it had been followed to effect COUNS. I cannot tell whether it were or no for it gave power to the Commissiouers to examine all the grants IUST Why my Lord doth the King grant any thing that shames at the examination are not the Kings grants on record COUNS. But by your leave it is some dishonour to a King to have his judgement called in question IUST That is true my Lord but in this or whensoever the like shall be granted in the future the Kings judgement is not examined but their knavery that abused the King Nay by your favour the contrary is true that when a King will suffer himself to be eaten up by a company of petty fellows by himself raised therein both the judgement and courage is disputed And if your Lordship will disdain it at your own servants hands much more ought the great heart of a King to disdain it And surely my Lord it is a greater treason though it undercreep the law to tear from the
as Caesar in Rome In a Kingdom that there be no Senate or Convention of equall power with the Prince in State matters as in Poland 4. To create such Magistrates as love the State as it is setled and take heed of the contrarie practise as to advance Popular persons in a Kingdom or Aristocracie And secondly to advance such as have skill to discern what doth preserve and what hurreth or altereth the present State 5. To that end to have certain Officers to pay abroad and to observe such as do not live and behave themselves in fit sort agreeable to the present State but desire rather to bee under some other form or kind of Government 6. To take heed that Magistracies be not sold for money nor bribe in their Offices which especially to be observed in that Common wealth which is governed by a few of the richer sort For if the Magistrate gain nothing but his Common Fees the common sort and such as want honour take in good part that they be not preferred and are glad rather that themselves are suffered to intend private business But if the Magistrate buy and sell matters the common people are doubly grieved both because they are debat'd of those preferments and of that gain they see to grow by them which is the cause that the German Oligarchies continue to firm for both they suffer the poorer sort to grow into wealth and the richer sort are by that means freed and secured from being under the poor 7. To take heed that the State as it is setled and maintained be not over-strict nor exceed in his kind viz. That a Kingdom be not too Monarchicall nor a Pâ—â—ulâ— State too Pâ—â—uâ—ar For which cause it is good that the Magistrates sometimes yield of his right touching honour and bahave themselves familiarly with those that are equall unto them in other parts though inferiour for place and office And sometimes popularly with the common people which is the cause that some Common wealths though they be very simply and un kilfully set yet continue firm because the Magistrates behave themselves wisely and with due respect toward the rest that are without honour and therefore some kind of Moderate Popularity is to be used in every Common-wealth 8. To take heed of small beginnings and to meet with them even at the first as well touching the breaking and altering of Laws as of other rules which concern the continuance of every severall State For the desease and a teration of a Common-wealth doth not happen all at once but grows by degrees which every common wit cannot discern but men expert in POLICIE 9. To provide that that part be ever the greater in number and power which favours the State as now it stands This is to be observed as a very Oracle in all Common-wealths 10. To observe a mean in all the degrees and to suffer no part to exceed or decay overmuch As first for preferments to provide that they be rather small and short than great and long and if any be grown to overmuch greatness to withdraw or diminish some part of his honour Where these Sophisms are to be practised viz. to do it by parts and degrees to do it by occasion or colour of law and not all at once And it that way serve not to advance some other of whose virtue and faithfulness we are fully assined to as high a degree or to a greater honour and to be the friends and followers of him that excelleth above that which is meet As touching wealth to provide that those of the middle sort as before was said be more in number and if any grow high and over charged with wealth to use the Sophisms of a Popular State viz to send him on Embassages and Forreign Negotiations or imploy him in some Office that hath great charges and little honour c. To which end the Fâ—â—â—â—ful served in some Common-wealths 11 To Suppress the Factions and quarrels of the Nobles and to keep other that are yet free from joyning with them in their partakings and Factions 12. To increase or remit the Common Taxes and Contributions according to the wealth or want of the People and Commonwealth If the people be increased in Wealth the Taxes and Subsidies may be increased If they be poor and their Wealth diminish specially by dearth want of Traffick c. to forbear Taxes and Impositions or to take little Otherwise grudge and discontentments must needs follow The Sophisms that serve for impositions are these and other of like sort To pretend business of great charge as War building of Ships making of Havens Castles Fortifications c. for the common defence sometimes by Lotteries and like devises wherein some part may be bestowed the rest reserved for other expences but Princely dealings needs no pretences 13. To Provide that the Discipline Training of youth of the better sort to such as agreeth with that Common-wealth As that in a Kingdom the sons of Noble men to be attendant at the Court that they may be accustomed to obedience towards the Prince In the Senatory State that the sons oâ— the Senatours be not idly nor over daintily brought up but well instructed and trained up in Learning Langues and nartiall exercise that they may be able to bear that place in the Common-wealth which their Father held and câ—nt any wise in a Popular State 14. To take heed least their Sophisms or secret practises for the continuance and maintenance of that State be not discovered least by that means they refuse and disappoint themselves but wisely used and be with great secrecie Particular Rules Rules and Axioms for preserving of a Kingdom Hereditary Conquered Kingdoms Hereditary are preserved at home by the ordering 1. HImself viz. By the tempering and moderation of the Princes Answer and Prerogative For the less and more Temperate their Power and State is the more firm and stable is their Kingdom and Government because they seem to be further off from a Master like and Tyrannte all Empire and lesse unequall in condition to the next degree to wit the Nobility and so lesse subject to grudge and envy 2. Nobility c. By keeping that degree and due proportion that neither they exceed in number more than the Realm or State can bear as the Scottish Kingdom and sometime the English when the Realm was overcharged with the number of Dukes Earls and other Noble whereby the Authority of the Prince was eclipsed and the Realm troubled with their Factions and Ambitions Nor that any one excel in Honour power or wealth as that he resemble another King within the Kingdom as the house of Lancaster within this Realm To that end not to load any with too much Honour or preferment because it is hard even for the best and worthiest men to bear their greatnesse and high Fortune temperately as appeareth by infinit examples in all States The Sophisms for preventing or reforming this inconvenience are to be
a Palmer fit To tread those blest Paths which before I writ Of Death Iudgement Heaven Hell Who oft doth think must needs Die wel Sir Raleigh's VERSES Found in his Bible in the Gate-house at Westminster EVen such is Time which takes in trust Our Youth our Ioye and all we have And pays us nought but Age and Dust When in the dark and silent Grave When we have wandred all our ways Shuts up the storie oâ— our days And from which Grave Earth Dust The Lord shall raise me up I trust Sir W. RALEIGH On the Snuff of a Candle The night before he died Cowards fear to Die but Courage stout Rather than Live in Snuff wil be put out Sir WALTER RALEIGH'S SPEECH Immediately before he was beheaded UPon Simon and Judes day the Lieutenant of the Tower had a Warrant to bring his Prisoner to the Kings-Bench W 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Attorney Generall demanded Execution according to the Iudgement pronouâ—ced against him at W 〈…〉 the Lord Chief Iustice caused the Indictment Verdict and Iudgement to be read and after asked him what he could say Why he should not die according to the Law his answer was That this fifteen years he had lived by the meer mercy of the King and did now wonder how his Mercy was turned into Iustice he not knowing any thing wherein he had provoked his Majesties displeasure and did hope that he was clear from that Iudgement by the Kings Commission in making him Generall of the Voyage to Guiana for as he conceived the words To his trusty and well beloved subject c. Did in themselves imply a Pardon But Master Attorney told him these words were not sufficient for that purpose Whereupon he desired the opinion of the Court to which the Lord Chief Iustice replied it was no Pardon in Law Then began Sir Walter Raleigh to make a long description of the events and ends of his Voyage but he was interrupted by the Chief Iustice who told him that it was not for any offence committed there but for his first fact that he was now called in question and thereupon told him That seeing he must prepare to die he would not add affliction to affliction nor aggravate his fault knowing him to be a man full of misery but with the good Samaritane administer oyl and wine for the comfort of his distressed Soul You have been a Generall and a great Commander imitate therefore that noble Captain who thrusting himself into the middest of a Battell cried aloud Mors me Expectâ—t ego Mortem Expectabo as you should not contemn so to do nor should you fear death the one sheweth too much boldnesse the other no lesse cowardize so with some other few instructions the Court arose and Sir Walter was committed into the hands of the Sheriff of Middlesex who presently conveyed him to the Gate house in Westminster Upon Thursday morning this Couragious although Committed Knight was brought before the Parliament-house where there was a Scaffold erected for his Beheading yet it was doubted over-night that he should be hanged but it fell out otherwise He had no sooner mounted the scaffold but with a chearfull Countenance and andaunted Look he saluted the Companie His Attire was a wrought Night-cap a Ruff band a hair-coloured Sattin Doublet with a black wrought Waste-coat under it a pair of black cut Taffery Breeches a pair of ash-coloured Silk Stockings a wrought black Velvet Night gown putting off his Hat he directed his Speech to the Lords present as followeth My honourable Lords and the rest of my good friends that come to see me die Know that I much rejoyce that it hath pleased God to bring me from darknesse to night and in freeing me from the Tower wherein I might have died in disgrace by letting me love to come to this place where though I lose my life yet I shall clear some false accusations unjustly laid to my charge and leave behind me a testimony of a true heart both to my King and Country Two things there are which have exceedingly possest and provoked his Majesties indignation against me viz. A Confederacie or Combination with France and disloyall and disobedient words of my Prince For the first his Majestie had some cause hâ—â—â—gh groundes upon a weak foundation to suspect mine inclination to the French action for not long before my departure from England the French Agent took occasion passing by my house to visit me had some conference during the time of his abode onely concerning my voyage and nothing else I take God to witnesse Another suspition is had of me because I did labour to make an escape from Plymouth to France I cannot deny but that willingly when I heard a rumour That there was no hope of my Life upon my return to London I would have escaped so the safeguard of my Life and not for any ill intent or conspiracie against the State The like reason of suspition arose in that I perswaded Sir Lewis Steakly my Guardian to flee with me from London to France but my answer to this is as to the other That onely for my safeguard and thought else was my intent as I shall answer before the Almightie It is alleadged That I seigned my self sick and in art made my body full of blisters when I was at Salisbury True it is I did to the reason was because I hoped therebâ— to defer my coming before the King and Councell and so by delaying might have gaine time to have got my Pardon I have an Example out of Scripture for my warrant that in case of necessity and for the safeguard of my life David seigned himself foolish and mad yet it was not imputed to him for sin Concerning the second Imputation laid to my charge that I should speak scandalous and reprochfull words of my Prince there is no witnesse against me but onely one and he a Chimicall French man whom I entertained rather for his Iests than his Iudgement this man to incroach himself into the favour of the Lords and gaping after some great reward hath falsely accused me of Seditions speeches against his Majestie against whom if I did either speak or think a thought hurtfull or prejudiciall the Lord blot me out of the book of Life It is not a time to flatter or fear Princes for I am a subject to none but Death therefore have a charitable conceit of me That I know to swear is an offence to swear falsly at any time is a great sin but to swear false before the presence of Almightie God before whom I am forthwith to appear were an offence unpardonable therefore think me not now rashly or untruly to confirm or protest any thing As for other objections in that I was brought perforce into England that I carried sixteen thousand pounds in money out of England with me more than I I made known that I should receive Letters from the French King and such like with many
Lord rather to be commended as preparing against all danger of Innovation COUNS. It should be so but call your observation to accompt and you shall find it as I say for indeed such a jealousie hath been held ever since the time of the Civill wars over the Military greatness of our Nobles as made them have little will to bend their studies that wayes wherefore let every man provide according as he is rated in the Muster Book you understand me IUST Very well my Lord as what might be replyed in the perceiving so much I have ever to deal plainly and freely with your Lordship more fear'd at home popular violence then all the forreine that can be made for it can never be in the power of any forraigne Prince without a Papisticall party rather to disorder or endanger his Majesties Estate COUNS. By this it seems it is no lesse dangerous for a King to leave the power in the people then in the Nobility IUST My good Lord the wisdome of our own age is the foolishnesse of another the time present ought not to be preferr'd to the policy that was but the policy that was to the time present so that the power of the Nobility being now withered and the power of the people in the flower the care to content them would not be neglected the way to win them often practized or at least to defend them from oppression The motive of all dangers that ever this Monarchy hath undergone should be carefully heeded for this Maxime hath no posterne Potestas humana radicatur in voluntatibus hominum And now my Lord for King Edward it is true though he were not subject to force yet was he subject to necessity which because it was violent he gave way unto it Potestas saith Pithagoras juxta necessitatem habitat And it is true that at the request of the house he discharged and put from him those before named which done he had the greatest gift but one that ever he received in all his dayes to wit from every person man and woman above the age of fourteen years 4d of old mony which made many Millions of Groats worth 61. of our mony This he had in generall besides he had of every benificed Priest 12d And of the Nobility and Gentry I know not how much for it is not set down Now my good Lord what lost the King by satisfying the desires of the Parliament house for assoon as he had the money in purse he recalled the Lords and restored them and who durst call the King to accompt when the Assembly were dissolued Where the word of a King is there is power saith Ecclesiasticus who shall say unto him what doest thou saith the same Author for every purpose there is a time and judgement the King gave way to the time and his judgement perswaded him to yeeld to necessity Consularius nemo melior est quam tempus COUNS. But yet you see the king was forc'd to yeeld to their demaunds JUST Doth your Lordship remember the saying of Monsier de Lange that he that hath the profit of the war hath also the honour of the war whether it be by battaile or retreate the King you see had the profit of the Parliament and therefore the honour also what other end had the King then to supply his wants A wise man hath evermore respect unto his ends and the King also knew that it was the love that the people bare him that they urged the removing of those Lords there was no man among them that sought himself in that desire but they all sought the king as by the successe it appeared My good Lord hath it not been ordinary in England and in France to yeeld to the demaunds of rebels did not King Richard the second graunt pardon to the outragious rogues and murtherers that followed Iack Straw and Wat Tâ—ler after they had murthered his Chancellor his Treasurer Chief Iustice and others brake open his Exchequer and committed all manner of outrages and villanies and why did he do it but to avoid a greater danger I say the Kings have then yeelded to those that hated them and their estates to wit to pernicious rebels And yet without dishonour shall it be called dishonour for the King to yeeld to honest desires of his subjects No my Lord those that tell the King those tales fear their own dishonour and not the Kings for the honour of the King is supreame and being guarded by Iustice and piety it cannot receive neither wound nor stain COUNS. But Sir what cause have any about our King to fear a Parliament IUST The same cause that the Earle of Suffolke had in Richard the seconds time and the Treasurer Fartham with others for these great Officers being generally hated for abusing both the King and the Subject at the request of the States were discharged and others put in their roomes COUN And was not this a dishonour to the King IUST Certainly no for King Richard knew that his Grandfather had done the like and though the King was in his heart utterly against it yet had he the profit of this exchange for Suffolke was fined at 20000 markes and 1000l lands COUNS. Well Sir we will speak of those that fear the Parliament some other time but I pray you go on with that that happened in the troublesome raigne of Richard the second who succeeded the Grandfather being dead IUST That King my good Lord was one of the most unfortunate Princes that ever England had he was cruell extreame prodigall and wholly carryed away with his two Minions Suffolk and the Duke of Ireland by whose ill advice and others he was in danger to have lost his estate which in the end being led by men of the like temper he miserably lost But for his subsedies he had given him in his first year being under age two tenths and two fifteenes In which Parliament Alice Peirce who was removed in King Edwards time with Lancaster Latimer and Sturry were confiscate and banished in his second year at the Parliament at Glocester the King had a marke upon every sack of Wooll and 6d the pound upon wards In his third year at the Parliament at Winchester the Commons were spared and a subsedy given by the better sort the Dukes gave 20 markes and Earles 6 markes Bishoppes and Abbots with myters six markes every marke 35. 4d and every Knight Iustice Esquire Shrieve Person Vicar Chaplaine paid proportionably according to their estates COUNS. This me thinks was no great matter IUST It is true my Lord but a little mony went far in those dayes I my self once moved it in Parliament in the time of Queen Elizabeth who desired much to spare the Common people I did it by her Commandement but when we cast up the subsedy Books we found the summe but small when the 30l men were left out In the beginning of his fourth year a tenth with a fifteen were granted upon
not more honourable and more safe for the King that the Subject pay by perswasion then to have them constrained If they be contented to whip themselves for the King were it not better to give them the Rod into their hands then to commit them to the Executioner Certainly it is farre more happy for a Soveraigne Prince that a Subject open his purse willingly then that the same be opened by violence Besides that when impositions are laid by Parliament they are gathered by the authority of the Law which as aforesaid rejecteth all complaints and stoppeth every mutinous mouth It shall ever be my prayer that the King embrace the Councel of Honour and safety and let other Princes imbrace that of force COUNS. But good Sir it is his Prerogative which the King stands upon it is the Prerogative of the Kings that the Parliaments do all diminish IUST If your Lordship would pardon me I would say then that your Lordships objection against Parliaments is ridiculous In former Parliaments three things have been supposed dishonour of the King The first that the Subjects have conditioned with the King when the King hath needed them to have the great Charter confirmed The second that the Estates have made Treasurers for the necessary and profitable disbursing of those sums by them given to the end that the Kings to whom they were given should expend them for their own defence for the defence of the Common-wealth The third that these have prest the King to discharge some great Officers of the Crown and to elect others As touching the first my Lord I would fain learn what disadvantage the Kings of this Land have had by confirming the great Charter the breach of which have served onely men of your Lordships rank to assist their own passions and to punish and imprison at their own discretion the Kings poor Subjects Concerning their private hatred with the colour of the Kings service for the Kings Majestie take no mans inheritance as I have said before nor any mans life but the Law of the Land according to the Charter Neither doth his Majesty imprison any man matter of practice which concerns the preservation of his estate excepted but by the law of the land And yet he useth his prerogative as all the Kings of England have ever used to for the supream reason cause to practise many things without the advice of the law As insurrections and rebellions it useth the marshall and not the common law without any breach of the Charter the intent of the Charter considered truely Neither hath any Subject made complaint or been grieved in that the Kings of this land for their own safeties and preservation of their estates have used their Prerogatives the great Ensigne on which there is written soli Deo And my good Lord was not Buckingham in England and Byron in France condemned their Peers uncalled And withall was not Byron utterly contrary to the custome priviledges of the French denyed an advocate to assist his defence For where lawes forecast cannot provide remedies for future dangers Princes are forced to assist themselves by their Prerogatives But that which hath been ever grievous and the cause of many troubles very dangerous is that your Lordships abusing the reasons of state do punish and imprison the K. Subjects at your pleasure It is you my Lords that when Subjects have sometimes need of the Kings prerogative do then use the strength of the Law and when they require the law you afflict them with the prerogative and tread the great Charter which hath been confirmed by 16 Acts of Parliament under your feet as a torn parchment or waste paper COUNS. Good Sir which of us do in this sort break the great Charter perchance you mean that we have advised the King to lay the new impositious IUST No my Lord there is nothing in the great Charter against impositions and besides that necessity doth perswade them And if necessity do in somewhat excuse a private man à fortiori it may then excuse a Prince Again the Kings Majesty hath profit and increase of revenue by the impositions But there are of your Lordships contrarie to the direct Letter of the Charter that imprison the Kings Subjects and deny them the benefit of the Law to the Kings disprofit And what do you otherwise thereby if the impositions be in any sort grievous but Renovare dolores And with all digg out of the dust the long buried memorie of the Subjects former intentions with their Kings COUNS. What mean you by that IUST I will tell your Lordship when I dare in the mean time it is enough for me to put your Lordship in mind that all the Estates in the World in the offence of the people have either had profit or necessity to perswade them to adventure it of which if neither be urgent and yet the Subject exceedingly grieved your Lordship may conjecture that the House will be humble suitors for a redresse And if it be a Maxime in policy to please the people in all things indifferent and never suffer them to be beaten but for the Kings benefit for there are no blows forgotten with the smart but those then I say to make them Vassals to Vassals is but to batter down those mastering buildings erected by K Henry the 7. fortified by his Son by which the people the Gentry of England were brought to depend upon the King alone Yea my good Lord our late dear Soveraign Q. Eliz. kept them up to their advantage as wel repaired as ever Prince did Defend me spend me faith the Irish Churle COUNS. Then you think that this violent breach of the Charter will be the cause of seeking the conformation of it in the next Parliament which otherwise could never have bin moved IUST I know not my good Lord perchance not for if the House presse the King to graunt unto them all that is theirs by the Law they cannot in Iustice refuse the King all that is his by the Law And where will be the issue of such a contention I dare not divine but sure I am that it will tend to the prejudice both of the King and Subject COUNS. If they dispute not their own liberties why should they then the Kings liberties which we call his Prerogative IUST Among so many and so divers Spirits no man can foretell what may be propounded but howsoever if the matter be not slightly handled on the Kings behalf these disputes will soon dissolve for the King hath so little need of his Prerogative so great advantage by the Lawes as the fear of imparing the one to wit the Prerogative is so impossible and the burthen of the other to wit the Law so weighty as but by a branch of the Kings Prerogative namely of his remission and pardon the Subject is no way able to undergo it This my Lord is no matter of flourish that I have said but it is the truth