Bowl once put besides its Byass goes the further from its Mark the more 't is inforced THE FIFTH DYNASTY OF NORMANS OF NORMANS THE Normans so call'd by the French in respect of the Northern Clime from whence they came heretofore call'd * Dionis Patav l. 8. c. 4. Scandia since Norwey were another Branch of the antient Cimbri seated near the frozen Sea whose Country being too barren to nourish so fruitful a People they disonerated their Multitudes wheresoever force could make way for them Some stragling as far as the Mediterranian others farther Southward some few lost in the Frozen Sea attempting the Desert Isles far Northward but most following the Sun infested their Southern Neighbours About the time of Charles the Great they began to grow very troublesome by their frequent Pyracies making several Inroads into England but especially into France pressing so hard upon Lewis the Holy that he was fain to empty all his frontier Garrisons and quitting the Maritime draw them into the interior and more considerable parts of his Empire as the Spirits are drawn to the heart upon all Commotions to preserve life Their Successes in Germany England Scotland and Holland having made them so bold that they doubted not to advance as far as Paris where after divers disputes with Charles the Bald Charles le Grosse and Charles the Simple which concluded with an honourable Composition they six'd their two Chiefs Hastang and Rollo in the most fertile and best parts of that goodly Country the first being made Earl of Charters the last Duke of Neustria from him call'd afterwards Normandy the seventh in descent from whom was Duke William better known to us here by the Name of The Conquerour who with like confidence and not unlike Injustice invaded England as his Ancestors did France pretending a Donation of the Soveraignty from his near Kinsman King Edward the Confessor confirm'd as he alledged by his last Will and Testament in the presence of most of the English Nobility a pretence that could have been of no validity had it not been back'd by more then humane Power to disinherit Edgar Atheling who as being of the whole English Blood was rather Heir to the Kingdom then to the King and so by no Law could have his Right collated to a Stranger but the use he made of it was to convince the World that he had more Reason not to say Right to demand than Harold to detain the Crown who having put Prince Edgar besides the Succession desied the Justice of all Mankind as he was an Usurper and so it was a design worthy his Sword who had so fortunately vanquish'd even before he wrote Man those great difficulties at home given by the Opposition of Domestick Rivals no less puissant and populous then Harold to put him at least out of Possession But that which seems strange and was questionless a great surprize upon Harold was the conjunction of the Peers of France in an Action that was so apparently hazardous to the greatness of their own State every addition to so near and dangerous a Neighbour grown long before too powerful being a kind of diminution unto them whereof there can be no probable Cause assign'd beyond their natural affectation of Glory and wantonness of Courage but that Influence which the Conquerors Father in Law Baldwin Earl of Flanders had by being then Governour of the King and Kingdom of France who not only ingaged most of the grtatest Persons there as the Duke of Orleance the Earls of Champaigne Blois Brittain Ponthieue Maine Nevers Poictiers Aumale and Anjou but drew in the * Henry IV. Emperour himself and many of the German Princes to side with him This Preparation being such as it was it cannot be thought that the English lost any honour by mingling blood with men of that Quality and Condition the sound of whose Names was perhaps little less terrible then that of their Arms much less takes it from the reputation of their Courage to have heâ—d up the dispute but for one day only having fought it out as they did till the number of the slain so far exceeded that of the living as made the Conqueror doubt there would not be enough left to be conquer'd Who knows not that Fate made way for the Normans where their Swords could not guiding them by a Series of Successes near about the same time to the expectation of an universal Empire having but a little before made themselves Lords of Apulia Calabria Scicily and Greece and inlarged their Conquests as far as Palestine But what we allow to the Courage we must take from the Wisdom of the English that being subdued they continued Nescia vinci vexing the Conqueror after they had submitted to him by such continual Revolts as suffered him not to sheath his Sword all his Reign or if he did urged him to continue still so suspicious of their Loyalty that he was sorc'd alway to keep his hand upon the hilt ready to draw it forth having not leisure to intend what was before established much less to establish what he before intended So that they put upon him a kind of necessity of being a Tyrant to make good his being a King Yet such was the moderation of his mind that he chose rather to bind them stricter to him by the old Laws then to gall them with any new guarding his Prerogative within that Cittadel of the Burrough Law as they call'd it from whence as often as they began to mutiny he batter'd them with their own Ordnance and so made them Parties to their own wrong and however some that design'd to pre-occupate the grace of Servitude gave him the ungrateful Title of Conqueror which he esteem'd the greatest misfortune his good Fortune had brought upon him thereby to proclaim his Power to be as boundless as his Will which they took to be above all Limitation or Contradiction yet we find he suffered himself to be so far conquer'd by them that instead of giving to he took the Law from them and contentedly bound himself up by those which they call'd St. Edward's Laws which being an Abbreviation of the great triple Code of Danique Merke and West-Sexe Laws was such a form of Combination as he himself could not desire to introduce a better and if any thing look'd like absolute 't was his disarming them when he found them thus Law-bound hand and foot After which he erected divers Fortresses where he thought fit dispos'd all Offices of Command and Judicature to such as he could best confide in and by that Law of Cover feu obliging them to the observation of better hours of Repose then they had formerly been us'd to gave himself more rest as well as them As for his putting the Law into a Language they understood not whereby they were made more learn'd or less litigious then they were before it was that the Lawyers only had cause to complain of whose practise at the first perhaps was a
being to advise at the price of his own Head the Arch bishop of York like a man of great Faith was of Opinion to sight them with such present Strength as the King had trusting to the Justice of the Cause the Dukes of Ireland and Suffolk men of Action but wanting the means were for delivering up Calais to the French King to purchase his Assistance But the Majority of Voices coming from such men whose Fears made them rather wise then honest were for appeasing the Enemy with fair promises till there were a fit opportunity to suppress them the first Proposal was thought very hazardous the second much more besides there was such a bitterness in the Pill that no preparation could make the King to swallow it who not knowing what effect it might have when it was done utterly rejected it upon which they secretly withdrew that gave the Counsel and left him to himself Whereupon the Lords Regent found an opportunity to be admitted to a Parley with him who producing to him Letters from the King of France which they had intercepted pursuant to the Design of bringing in a Forreign Enemy they mov'd him no less by shame then dread of the Consequence to consent to the calling another Parliament Upon the day of the Convention the King came not to the House being infinitely troubled in his mind at News he had just then received of the Earl of Derby's Intercepting the Duke of Ireland who being gone as far as Chester in order to his passing into that Kingdom was set upon by the said Earl and totally defeated who hardly escaping fled into the Low-countries where not long after he dyed The Lords heightened with this Success sent a very harsh Message to him letting him know that they attended him there and if he would not come to the House according to promise they would chuse another King that should hearken to their faithful advice This though it were in effect no other but to tell him they would depose him without his consent if he would not come and consent to be depos'd yet having no Retreat from it but down a steep Precipice he chose rather to compâ—y and put himself under the mercy of Providence then under the uncertainty of their Mercy Upon his first appearance they presented him with a black Roll of those whom he call'd his Friends they his Enemies some to be prescrib'd some to be imprison'd and others banish'd and in this last List there were not only Lords but Ladies found Delinquents Some were accus'd of imbeziling his Treasure others of purloyning his Affection all for robbing him of his Honour whereupon some were to be try'd for their Lives others for their Fortunes and all for their Liberties but in respect of their other great Affairs which were in order to what followed they referred it to the succeeding Parliament not unfitly call'd the Parliament that wrought wonders which contrary to all other Parliaments that used to swear Obedience to the King requir'd an Oath of him himself to observe such Rules and Orders as they should prescribe to him Here now we have this unfortunate Prince brought to the last year of his Rule though not of his Reign beginning then to enter into his Wardship as he call'd it when he thought he was just got out of it All power was put into the hands of the Dukes of Lancaster and Gloucester who managed all Treaties abroad concluded War and Peace as they thought fit and were indeed absolute in every point but the Command of their own Passions and uncontroulable by any but themselves The Duke of Lancaster having now digested the Kingdom in his thoughts procures the Dutchy of Acquitaine to be setled on him as an earnest of what was to follow being the Inheritance of the Crown and descended on the King from Prince Edward his Father and having married up the King to a Child of eight years old by whom 't was impossible he could have Issue with a Portion that scarce defraid the Charge of the Solemnity he secur'd his own Pretensions by Legitimating three of his Bastard Sons in case his lawful Issue should fail The Duke of Gloucester had the same Ambition in his heart as well as the same Blood in his Veins but Nature having put a disadvantage upon him by placing him so far behind being the sixth Son of King Edward the Third he was forc'd to gratifie his Envy instead of his Ambition and rest content with the hopes of doing his Brother a Mischief when time serv'd without any great probability of doing himself good Accordingly he made a Faction who conspir'd with him to seize the King his two Brothers Lancaster and York and to put them all up in Prison and after to execute divers Lords whom he thought to be more his Enemies then their Friends but the end of his Treason being to be himself betray'd by those he made use of Lancaster came thereby to stand single like a great Tree which being at its full height spread his Limbs the wider and grew to be so conspicuous that the succeeding Parliament desired to shelter themselves under the shadow of his power hereupon he reduced the number of the thirteen Regents to seven only which being all his Confidents he with them concluded aforehand all Affairs of moment and directed how they should pass in Parliament An Example not less mischievous to the Kingdom then the King so that now there wanted no more to make him the Soveraign but the putting on the Crown But see the uncertainty of humane Glory Having just finished the great work of his Usurpation an unexpected blow from that invisible hand that turns about the great Wheel of Causes broke the frame of his projection in pieces His Son Henry Duke of Hereford accused by the Duke of Norfolk of Treason was forc'd to purge himself by the Tryal of Combat a Law that might condemn but never acquit him since it was only possible to discharge himself of the danger but never of the suspition of the Crime This being urg'd so far that they were both brought into the List there was no way left to avoid the uncertainty of the Fight but banishment of both wherein though the Duke of Lancaster got the favour to make the Exile of his Son but temporary when the others was perpetual yet the affront that Fortune seem'd to give him by this accidental Disgrace came so near his heart that his Son had no sooner taken leave of his Country but he bid adieu to the World and so left the King once more Hors de page Thus Time and Fortune seem to have conspir'd in vindicating the wrongs of this abused Prince ridding him at once of those two great Corrivals in Power whose Authority had so far outweighed his that they kept him in the condition of a Minor till they had made the People believe him insufficient for Government the one being remov'd beyond all possibility the other beyond all
Neither is it so in the Case of a particular Person only but if the whole Body of the people of this Nation should take upon them to do the like absque assensu Regis The Judges holding that where a War shall be so declared against any in League with the King without his consent and allowance the League is not thereby broken The like holds in all cases of Confederacies and Combinations which forced the late Rebels in the time of Charles the First to declare this Kingdom a Common-wealth before they could prevail with any Forrain Princes to treat with them and very few did it then Wherefore it is recorded as a wise answer of that Parliament in the Seventeenth of Richard the Second who when that King out of a necessitous compliance with the People offer'd them leave to take into their consideration some concerns of War and Peace Replied It did not become their Duty neither in Truth durst they presume ever to Treat of matters of so Transcendent Concernment No doubt then can there be of that Jus Foecialis 5. Jus Foecialis or right of Legation in directing sending and receiving all Embassies which Curtius calls Jus Regium a Power so Singular and Absolute that as (b) Bod. de Repub. Bodin and (c) In State Christ printed Anno 1657. H. Wotton both men of sufficient Authority affirm divers of our Neighbour Princes who yet call themselves absolute as the Kings of Hungary Poland Denmark Bohemia c. have nothing like it being bound up to consult with their People about all publick concerns before they can make any Conclusion of Peace or War Whereas all Addresses of State are made to Our Kings as I shewed in part before without any Obligation of their parts to communicate any thing to any of the Members of their great Council Privy Council or Common Council much less to either of the Ministers of State whether Secretaries or others however sworn to Secrecy and Trust Nor needs there a more pregnant Instance of the Kings inherent and determinate Prerogative in this point than that verbal Order of King Henry the Eight to the Lord Gray Governour of Bullen who upon a dispute about demolishing a Fort the French were then erecting by the name of Chastilons Garden contrary to the Sence of all the Lords of his Council expressed in Scriptis and which was more the formality of his own Letters confirming their Order did by a verbal Commission only privately whisper'd to him Justifie him in flinging down that Work which was a manifest breach of the Peace with the French and consequently a Capital crime in the Governour had not the same breath that made him forfeit it given him his life again which President as it was very remarkable so it proves that which follows 6. Jus Vitae Necis 26. Jus Vitae Necis that highest power of Life and Death to be only in the King being signaliz'd by the Ceremony of carrying the Sword before him in all publick Processions and is in truth so antient and undoubted a Right of the Crown that upon this Account only we find all the Pleas touching life and member to be call'd by the Lawyers Placita Coronae and all Capital Offences of high treason are termed Crimina Laesae Majestatis in proceeding whereon no Original Writ is necessary as in civil Causes but every Constable as the Kings Deputy may Ex Ossicio without any Process seize on any Murtherer Traytor or Felon and till the Statute of Magna Charta 17 of King John it is manifest that every mans Person was so subjected to the King by his Oath of Allegiance from those words De vita de membro that the (d) Vita Membrasunt in Potestate Regis Bracton l. 1. fol. 6. Cap. 5. Sect. 18. King at his pleasure might Imprison any man without process of Law or giving any cause for it and however the King has been pleas'd to circumscribe himself by Law since for the greater assurance of his Grace to his People yet the Judges have still so far respect to the Kings honour in this particular that upon the Commitment of any person by the Kings Command or by Order of the Lords of his Council they do not take upon them as perhaps by strictness of Law they might to deliver the Person till the Cause be first shewn and then expecting a Declaration of the Kings further pleasure bind him to answer what may be objected in the Kings behalf 7. Jus Rerum Sacrarum 27. The last and highest Prerogative as being purely Spiritual is that Jus Rerum Sacrarum to which no Princes in the World had a fairer Pretence than those here if considered as the only Christian Kings foster'd with the milk of a distinct National Church The Kings of great Britain the only Kings of a distinct national Church that may as properly be called the Sister as those of France Germany and Italy are call'd the Daughters of Rome and therefore the Pope when he naturaliz'd as I may say all the Christian Nations within the bosom of the Church he declared the Emperour to be Filius Major the French King Filius Minor but our King Filius Adoptivus neither matters it much though they prove our Church to be the younger Sister that disparagement if any it be being abundantly recompensed by being as indeed she is the most innocent the most beautiful and perhaps the most fruitful Parent of the two having Matriculated no less than eight Nations now as great almost as her self in the first Ages of Christianity and been the Foster-Mother to as many more in this last and most knowing age The Protestant Religion more properly called the Catholiâ—k Religion than that of Rome whereby the Reformed Religion as it is now vulgarly called to difference it from that of Rome is become as universal as that they call with so much Ostentation Catholick which if confined within the Range of the Church of Rome is not above a (c) Purchas Pilgrim cap. 13. lib. 1. fourth part of Christendom if so be the Computation of our modern Geographers be not mistaken who put Sweden in the Scale against both the Iberia's Italy and Spain and England Denmark and the Hans Towns against France which yet we know is Checquer'd in their Religion having divers Towns of the Reformed Judgment besides those Lesser Congregations in Poictou Gascony Languedoc and Normandy and take out of Germany suppos'd to be the third part of Europe two intire parts the whole being divided into three that at this day are integrally Protestant that is to say in the East Poland Lithuania Livonia Podolia Russia minor with divers Parts of Hungary and Transilvania even to the Euxine Sea in the West the Cantons of Swizzerland the United Provinces with the Grisons and the Republick of Geneva the South and North parts being yet more intirely Protestant and the heart of it every
his Head he resolves once more to venture his own In the mean time those of the Isle of Ely the remainder of Leicester's Party that had held out from the time of his death with incredible courage and patience taking new life and hope from this Revolt make many excursions and spoils to the great charge and vexation of the King and the Publick Neither could the Pope 's Legate prevail with him to come in though upon tearms safe and honourable tendering the Publick Faith of the Kingdom and which was then thought greater that of the Church to them So much were they transported with the Opinion of their Cause or by the falshood of their hopes till this stubbornness of theirs provok'd the King to raise a new Army the Command whereof was given to his Son Edward that prosperous Prince whose Fortune then being not able to resist he had the honour to conclude that War and consequently to put a Period to all his Fathers turmoâ—ls who being shaken at the Root did not long survive the happiness of that tranquillity the end of whose Troubles were the beginning of his own ingaging upon the conclusion of that in a War so much more dangerous by how much more distant the benefit whereof was to be expected only in the other World this was that Undertaking in the Holy Land which separating him from his Father beyond all hope of ever seeing him again gave some occasion to question the old Kings Understanding others his good Nature But as the great concerns of Religion are as much above Reason as that is beyond Sense so we must impute that to the resolute Zeal of the Son which we cannot allow for Devotion in the Father who had he had any thoughts of going into the other World as his great Age might have prompted him to would rather have taken care for a Grave for himself then for so hopeful a Successor who only by seeking Death escap'd it Now whether the ingratitude of the Clergy or the Ambition of the temporal Lords were a greater tryal of his wisdom or Power I know not but the course he took to reduce either to terms of modesty and submission shows the world he had no want of understanding however he was forc't to put up the front of his Lay-peers in order to the facillitating his Revenge upon the other whom he mortified by a strain of State which none of his Ancestors durst venture upon Whilst he not only put them out of his Protection but all men out of theirs denying them not only his favour but his Justice not only the benefit of his ordinary Courts but the priviledg of sitting in that higher Court of Parliament A severity not to give any worse name to it of so acrimonious a nature that it not only expos'd them to all the injuries and affronts triumphant malice and scorn could put upon them but was made more intollerable and grievous by his docking their Revenues as after he did by several * Stat. 3 Edw. 1. cap. 19.33 Stat. cont formum collation Statute Laws amongst which I cannot but take notice though by the By of the particular contempt express'd in that odd Statute aginst †Stat. de Asportatis Religiosorum c. An. 3 cap. 34. ravishment where it is declared Felony to use force to any Lay-Woman and only a trespass to ravish a Nun. Neither was it thought enough to make what abscission he thought fit without their greatness were rendred incapable of any further growth to which intent he cauteriz'd if I may so say the wounds he had given them by that Statute of ‖ An. 3. C. 32. Mort-main which as it was the most fatal of all others to them so it might have prov'd so to himself had he not at the same time he thus disoblig'd them oblig'd the Laity by another suppos'd to be the wisest Law that ever was made to wit that of Westminster the second entituled De Donis Conditionalibus which tending so much to the preservation of particular Families and adding to their greatness no less then their continuance is by some Historians call'd Gentilitium Municipale and had this good effect that it brought the temporal Nobility firmly to adhere to him against the Pope when amongst many others that intituled themselves to the Soveraignty of Scotland a Kingdom too near to be lost for want of putting a claim his Holiness became his Rival and thought to carry it as part of St. Peter's Patrimony This Victory at home which brought the proud Prelates to purchase his Justice at a dearer rate then probably they might have paid for his mercy had their submission been as early as it was afterwards earnest I take to be much greater then all those he had got abroad by how much fortune had no share in it and fame was the least part of his gains extending to give him not long after as great an advantage over the Lay Nobility whom having first discern'd of their Patronage wholly and of their other priviledges in a very great part he did as it were cudgel them into Submission by the authority of his * vid. lib. Assis fol. 141.57 Trail Baston a commission which however it were directed to the Majors Sheriffs Bayliffs Escheators c. and so seem'd to have been aim'd at those of the lower rank onely which were guilty of those Enormities of Champorty Extortion Bribery and intrusion crimes much in fashion in those days yet by a back blow it knockt down several of the great Men who either countenanc'd or comply'd with the offenders and which was more terrible this writ was kept as a Weapon in the Kings hands to use as he saw occasion And to say truth he was so expert at it and indeed at all other points of skill that brought him in any profit that he was too hard at last for the Lawyers themselves those great masters of defence Canvasing his Judges as well as his Bishops when he found both alike rich both alike corrupt Beyond these he could not descend to the consideration of any Criminal save the Jews only for whom perhaps it had been no great Injustice to have taken their Estates if at least he could have been prevail'd with to have spar'd their Lives but as so great Courage as he had would not be without some mixture of Cruelty so 't is the less wonder to see that Cruelty heightened by Covetousness as that Avarice by Ambition the adding to his Treasure by these Exactions being in order to the adding to his Dominions which were not yet so entire as consistent with his safety much less the Glory he aim'd at Wales being then as a Canton of the same Piece divided by a small seam which yet had a Prince of their own blood descended from the antient Stock of the Unconquer'd Britains who it seems had so little sense of the inequality of Power betwixt them that he had given this King great provocations
consequences of which being justly to be suspected he made use of their present apprehensions to renew the Treaty and by his contrivance there came a Letter to the King from Melancthon to whom the King seem'd alwayes to have great regard exhorting him to perfect the Reformation begun as well in the Doctrinal as the Ceremonial part of Worship To which the King by advice of Gardiner gave this Answer That he would make a League with them in honest Causes as he had done with the Duke of Juliers and after that he would treat of an Accord in Religion This being no way satisfactory to them much less to Cromwell who had slatter'd them with hopes of a better Accommodation he cast about another way to compass his end and knowing very well that the King did alwayes prefer his Pleasure before his Revenge as those that mean to take great Fishes bait their Hooks with flesh so he held up the Treaty with the Proposal of a new Match that he believ'd could not but be very acceptable not only in respect of the Kings having been near three Years a Widower but for that it was such as he said would at once anger and curb the Emperor the Popes only Executioner to make good his late Fulmination This was a Daughter to the Duke of Cleve who being a Protestant and Father in Law to the Duke of Saxony and next Neighbour to the Emperors Dominions in the Low Countries there seem'd to be in the Proposal great considerations of State besides that of Riches and Beauty the last being the first thing in the Kings Thoughts wherein Hans Holbin the famous Painter contributed much to the deceiving him which whether it prov'd more unfortunate to her or Cromwell I cannot say but it so fell out that the King disgusting her after he saw her was easily prevail'd with to repudiate her and consequently to reject the Match-maker who having it in his Fate to be undone as he was at first set up by the Smock was sacrificed to the Envy of the People rather then his Masters Displeasure who let them lay the load of his Faults upon him and being a Prince that drew upon all his great Ministers more blame then either they could bear or durst answer he left him to perish under the weight of it And which made his Case more deplorable perhaps then that of most others that felt the weight of his Iron Rod and therefore look'd more like a Judgment from Heaven then Earth was First that he suffer'd him to be condemn'd at the same time all other men by a general and free pardon were indempnified from the same Crimes of which he stood accus'd Secondly in that he died like Phalaris by an Instrument as some say of his own inventing Thirdly and lastly that after having been Vicegerent to the Defender of the Faith he should dye as an Heretick for opposing the Faith after having had the repute of a faithful Servant indeed so faithful that as Cranmer's Letter to the King yet to be seen testifies he cared not whom he displeas'd to serve his Majesty he should dye like one that had merited no favour from him That he who was so vigilant to detect all Treasons in their Embrio should dye like a Traytor himself That he that had no bounds set to his Authority should dye for exceeding his Commission Lastly That he who was the only Master of Requests and gave an answer to all men that made any Addresses to the King should himself dye unheard as well as unpitied But when we consider all this we must conclude the end of some mens Rise is to keep others from Falling Providence oftentimes upholding Justice even by Injustice that so by correcting some men causlesly she may certainly teach all men Caution The King having thus rid himself of his new Wife and his old Servant both submitting to his Will the first with the loss of her Estate and Dignity for instead of being his Queen she was adopted his Sister the last with the loss of both his Estate and Life he found the means to repair the want of the one though he could not of the other by taking to his Bed perhaps with no disparity to his Greatness if there had been none betwixt her own Vertue and Beauty the fair Lady Katherine Howard Neece to the Duke of Norfolk who seems to be born to be a Scourge of the Injustice shew'd to his former Wives whilst her Incontinence under the veil of a clear and most modest behaviour appear'd so notorious that being confessed by her self he himself was forc'd to suffer in the shame with her which he was so sensible of that we find by a Law ex post facto he labour'd to prevent the like for the future And now being as it were weary of Pleasures of that kind this being his fifth Wife that was executed or suffer'd worse his Love gave place once more to his Ambition which he gratified with a new Title or rather the Superfoetation of an old one causing himself to be stiled King of Ireland whereas none of his Predecessors were otherwise stiled then Lords thereof which as it was in the first place intended by him as an additional honour to that Nation rather then to himself so in the last place he did it to prevent James the Fifth of Scotland who had an Invitation from some of the discontented Nobility there to have taken it on him having before affronted him by assuming the Title of Defender of the Faith with the addition only of the word Christian as if there were any other Faith but what was in truth so and because he was resolv'd to quarrel him upon it he sent to require Homage to be paid him for that Kingdom urging that the Kings of that Nation had for many Ages submitted themselves in a qualified Condition of Vassalage under the Kings his Ancestors both before and since the Conquest This begat a War which ended not with the Life of that King being struck to the heart with the melancholy apprehensions of being over-match'd who dying left a young Daughter to succeed whom King Henry thought a fitting Wife for his Son Prince Edward and accordingly afterward in despight of all the tricks of the French Party that then rul'd there he brought it to such a Treaty as amounted to a Contract being under Hands and Seals of both sides But the Scots shewing themselves by their wonted breach of Faith to be true Scots all ended in War wherein though he were victorious yet the main business was nothing advanc'd by the Success there being more done then became a Suiter for Alliance and too little for one pretending to Conquest Hereupon he was forc'd to try the Fortune of another Treaty with the discontented Earl of Lenox who having formerly been set up by the French to be Governour of the young Queen and the Kingdom but deserted by them when he had most need of their aid he was
an intestine War one with another undermin'd them by Land before they could perfect any great matter by Sea they had not contented themselves as they did with an Insulary glory having laid so good a foundation to an universal Empire and so much more lasting than any that were ever before it by how much they would have had it in their power to have secur'd the obedience of the rest of the World by their ignorance rendring themselves their Masters by a mystery of State not to be resisted because not understood whereof our Kings their Successors now absolute Lords of the Sea have happily made good proof For as a modern Poet hath well observ'd Where ere our Navy spreads her Canvass Wings Homage to th' State and Peace to all she brings French Dutch and Spaniards when our Flags appear Forget their hatred and consent to fear So Jove from Ida did the Hosts survey And when he pleas'd to thunder part the Fray Waller Ships heretofore in Seas like Fishes sped The greatest still upon the smallest fed We on the Deep impose more equal Laws And by that justice do remove the cause Of those rude Tempests which for rapine sent Did too too oft involve the innocent Rendring the Ocean as our Thames is free From both those Fates of Storms and Pitacy Thrice happy People who can fear no force But winged Troops or Pegasean Horse But considering as I said the difficulties they met with before without mentioning the dangers they encountred after they were setled the checks of Fortune whilst they were rising and the counterbuffs of Envy after they were up and mounted to their height whereof as Gildas relates they were forewarned by their Gods who being consulted about the Invasion gave answer that the Land whereto they went should be held by them 300 years half the time to be spent in conquering t'other half in possessing their Conquest which agreed with the measure of their Heptarchy Lastly Considering the fierceness of the Britains of the one side and the fraud of the Danes of the other those perhaps doing them more mischief by Treaties than t'other by admitting no cessation We may conclude with the Poet Nec minor est Virtus quam quarere parta tueri THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF KENT I. I. date of accession 445 ENGIST having broken in like a Horse for so his Name imports and trampled down all that withstood him made himself King of Kent and by being the first King was worthily esteem'd the first Monarch of the English a Title that during the Heptarchy was appropriated to some one above all the rest of the Kings He reigned 34 years and left his Glory to descend on his second Son II. date of accession 448 OESKE under whose Government the Kentish men thriv'd so well that they were contentedly named from him Eskins III. date of accession 512 OCTA had a longer but less happy Reign wasting 22 years without any memorable act that might render him more renown'd then his Successor IV. date of accession 537 IRMERICK who after 25 years Reign by Stow 's Accompt 29 by Savil's had nothing to boast but that he was the Son of such a Father as Oeske and the Father of such a Son as V. date of accession 562 ETHELBERT the first Christian King of all this Nation and the sixth Monarch of the English men A Prince who was therefore esteem'd great because good but his happiness ended with himself for his impious Son VI. date of accession 617 EDBALD was laid in his Bed as soon as he was laid in his Grave apostatizing from his natural Religion to gratifie his unnatural Lust he had many Sons but the Succession fell to the youngest VII date of accession 641 ERCOMBERT more like his Grandfather then his Father a pious publick spirited Prince he was the first divided Kent into Parishes and commanded the observation of Lent He was not so good but his Sons were as bad VIII date of accession 665 EGBERT the eldest made his way to the Crown by the murther of his two Cosins the right Heirs of Ethelbert and Sons to his Fathers Elder Brother Ermenred who being not able to do themselves right were reveng'd by his younger Brother IX date of accession 677 LOTHAIRE who gave the like measure to his two Sons putting them besides the Succession to admit X. date of accession 686 EDRICK who entred with more Triumph than Joy being within two years after depriv'd both of honour and life by his own Subjects upon which his Brother XI date of accession 693 WIGHFRED assumed the Government being rather admitted then chosen or rather gave himself up to be govern'd by one Swebard who they put over him by whose advice he rul'd not ingloriously 33 years and left his Kingdom to his Sons who alternately succeeded XII date of accession 726 EGBERT the Eldest most like his Father both in Person and Fortune reigned 23 years XIII date of accession 749 ETHELBERT the second reign'd but one year XIV date of accession 760 ALRICK the last of the three and indeed the last of the Royal Lyne did only something that made him more notably unfortunate then the two former in being overcome by the great Mercian Offa whereby the Kingdom became a prey to whosoever could catch it the first whereof that got that advantage was XV. date of accession 794 ETHELBERT the third firnamed Pren who entred in the Vacancy of the first Occupant and being disseized by that Wolfe Kenelwolph the thirteenth King of Mercia he put in one XVI date of accession 797 CUTHRED who enjoyed an undisturb'd possession eight years after whom XVII date of accession 805 BALDRED stept in who being little regarded abroad was less belov'd at home fearing his People might leave him he first left them and flying over the River Thames as soon as Egbert the West-Saxon entred his Territories left all to the Conquerour who without more trouble made this Kingdom and those of the South and East-Sexes an Appenage for his younger Son Athelstan IT is hard to resolve Whether Engist that erected this Kingdom were more beholding to Fortune or his own foresight or whether indeed the folly of Vortigern were not more advantageous to him then either who not trusting the incertain obedience of his own People cast himself upon the faith of this Stranger who in serving of him could have no other design but to serve himself upon him Neither did the frowardness of the Natives contribute less to his Greatness then the folly of their King who not consenting to the Ratification of that little which was promis'd him justifi'd him in the larger Demands he made afterwards when they durst not deny his Experience on the Seas taught him how to Laveer from point to point and shift as he found the wind failing to steer in a direct course but had the Britains kept Faith with him 't is probable he had not broke as he did with them taking that advantage
a Tetrarchy but he was forc'd at the same time to banish Ten thousand of his other Country-men only to be rid of them two putting himself by an unusual Confidence upon the Faith of the English whom to oblige the more he taught the knowledge of their own Strength which till then they seem'd ignorant of shewing them the way to Victory in other Countries where while they became Conquerours under him they forgot the hate conceiv'd for being conquer'd by him Neither was he less careful in Peace to heal the wounds receiv'd in War by applying the Balsome of wholsome Laws in the making whereof he had a particular Art to meet with the Distempers of the Times wisely providing against such as were likely to have become Epidemical But more particularly severe was he against that sottish sin of Drinking then so much in fashion not without some secret instinct perhaps or presage of what did happen after that it would prove fatal to the Glory of his own House and not only cut off every Branch thereof but be the occasion of rooting out his Nation so full and wholly that in two Successions after him there should not be found scarce one Family in the whole Isle that could so trace their broken Pedigrees through the obscure windings and deviations of their so often interrupted History as to prove himself of Danish Extract both by Father and Mother But as it was too great an Undertaking to subdue the Vices of that indomitable Age where if they had not thirsted for wine they would perhaps for blood So much less was he able to contest with Heaven which had put them a period for a Penalty and bound them up by an invisible Chain of Causes beyond the length of which they could not make one step forward The Links whereof were peradventure no more and therefore the heavier then what was proper for the mystical number of their three Letter'd Name of DAN for as their Monarchy held only three Descents so the whole Systeme of their Conquest with every Action Accident and Atchievement therein seems to be circumscribed within the Circle of that hree corner'd square with like Fatality as the Britains were rul'd by the Number of Six and the Romans by that of Seven For as they were originally divided into three Tribes so each Tribe had as many Kingdoms and thereupon they gave for their ancient Arms three times three * Olao Worms Monument Dan. 431. Hearts which makes up Nine the great Square of the Number Three their Dominions then conteining just so many Islands as we learn from †Casp F. Epist Tho. Bartolinus to which they have added since Three Lions So when they began their Invasion here 't is observable they had but only Three Ships which yet landed not all at once but in three several places and that inconsiderable Party they brought over were conducted by three Generals each equal in Trust and Honour these were Gurmo Byorn and Sytherick who began that cruel war that followed upon their Departure came over Ingar Ivor and Hubbo three fierce Brothers which were seconded by Gurmo the younger Eskell and Amond as they again back'd by Cockric Hastang and Rollo The three great Triumviri in the height of the war were Edric Stroeg and Halidine after them succeeded Sytherick the Second Godfred and Anlaff after whom were Eric the Second Anlaff the Second and Swain not to mention Fran Frithegist and Frothoe whose names were over-whelm'd by Irtus Turkill and Knute who were the bringers up of the Rear and ended the war the last of whom was the first had the good fortune to shake off his right and left hand-men in the Government The like Order they observ'd in invading Ireland where the first Undertakers were Turges and the two Gurmo's Father and Son the second Expedition being managed by Thor Raglobert and Sytherick the same Sytherick I take it came after into England And as they had alwaies three Generals so all their Battalion's were divided into Tertia's and as divers Historians relate they never quit the Field how much soever over-press'd by their Enemies till they had been thrice broken Lastly as they had a Succession of three times three Kings here before they could get the intire Domination over the whole that is to say three in East-Anglia and twice three in Northumberland so they had three and but three Kings that continued the Succession after they became absolute And as their Monarchy held out but three Descents so it continued but three times nine years at longest Too short a space to compensate the loss of so much blood as the recovery of their short-liv'd Glory cost them much less to repair the Naufrages of the Common-wealth wasted by continual Storms whilst Fortune appear'd so indifferent which side to favour that there could be no measure taken of her Inclinations from the Success there being scarce any Battel fought in which the Conquerour had so much the better on 't to keep the Field long or the conquer'd so beaten as not to be able in very short time to take the Field again with confidence of getting the day next rising like Game-cocks after they were laid for dead to crow over them that had the better of them those that died intailing their Ambition on those that surviv'd infecting them if I may so say with their Courage So that that Character is very applicable to them which we find elsewhere Quos nulla fatigant Praelia nec Victi possunt absistere Ferro THE Order and Succession OF THEIR KINGS Before and after they got The Intire and Absolute Government OF ENGLAND I. date of accession 870 HUNGAR was the first Danish King in this Isle who assisted by his Brother Beorn that had marryed the Lady of Northumberland found Interest enough to give him admittance there whence marching directly into East-Anglia he sacrific'd King Edmund to the Ghost of his murther'd Father and possessing himself of that Kingdom left it to II. date of accession 874 GURMO a younger Brother of the Royal House of Denmark who to ingratiate himself to the English became a Christian and with his new Title took a new Name being by his Godfather King Elfred worthily call'd Athelstan that is to say as Verstegan interprets it the Noble he left his Title to his Brother III. date of accession 905 ERIC the first that had this name and last that had this honour who meeting with a Competitor that over-match'd him both in the dignity of his Person and the designation of his Power was betray'd by his own Subjects who put themselves under King Edward surnam'd the Elder the Northumbers and Mercians submitting to IV. date of accession 907 ERIC the Second or as some call him Sytherick a Norwegian who contracting an Allyance with King Athelstan and after the Example of Gurmo turning Christian was poyson'd by his own two Sons the eldest whereof V. date of accession 924 ANLAFF the First possess'd
fondness but out of a provident care to settle the Succession and as reasonably to fix his Sons Ambition Neither was his severity to his younger Sons less fatal to him than his indulgence to his Elder whilst thinking to recover the power he lost there by keeping a stricter hand over those here he was bereft of them too by the same way he thought to make them more surer to him for as the eldest by having so much was easily perswaded there was more due to him so the younger brothers believing they ought to have had something more than they had because their elder brother had so much more than he should press'd him out of necessity as much as t'other out of wantonness This looking so like a judgment from heaven gave both the world and himself so full a view of his fate and his failings that from this time he began sensibly to languish under the grief and shame of being so affronted the rancor of his thoughts so festring inwardly that though he asswaged it by all the Lenitives imaginable yet the wound broke out as fast as it was heal'd till the Cause was taken away by the death of those that were the two most unnatural Sons whose ends prov'd to be as violent as their natures after which yet he was no less afflicted by the no less unnatural obstinacy of the two surviving Brothers Richard and John But that which made the troubles of his own house more insupportable was the meeting with as great troubles in Gods house where the disobedience of his Children was out-vied by the contempt of a servant who advanced by destiny to make a mock of Majesty finding a purpose in him to curtail the growing greatness of the Clergy that was arriv'd to that height that they were able to make a King without a Title and might as he suspected by tampering with Posterity be able in time to set up a Title without a King resolv'd to wrestle both single and to compare authority and however he knew the design to be so well backt by the envy of the Laiety that the Pope himself and all the Conclave despair'd of weathering it yet such was his obstinacy having got the help of opinion and the belief of Integrity on his side that he stood the breach of this unhappy Kings Indignation and defied his Thunderbolt till the very minute it blasted him by whose death every one thought the King had got the better of it in that he had the satisfaction of a full Revenge without being touch'd with the guilt since those that murther'd him however they did it to please the King did it yet without his knowledg or privity But such was the Tyranny of Fate that he who in his life time only made him how being dead brought him upon his knees and forced him to acknowledg him as much above his faith afterwards as he was above his will before and then which nothing could be more unfortunate for the very same cause he prosecuted him in his life time as a Traitour being dead he ador'd him as a Saint It were too troublesome to tell of all the troubles of this great Prince much more to bring them into any method which coming from himself and not ending as I said before but with himself however they seem'd to vary in the Lines kept still in the circle of his Family mov'd by the same Causes though not by the same Persons for as his Son Henry before so his Son Richard afterwards was tempted to capitulate with him and to shew the world he was his Brothers successor in point of disobedience as well as of right he did with as great ambition but greater passion require an assurance of the same Kingdom and the same Wife both equally dear to the Father both alike fatal to the Sons wherein meeting with a denial the present fit of Love that was upon him heightened into an extream of hatred with the contagion whereof for it ran in a blood his brother John was not long after infected and so joyning together they made the last Effort upon their now almost tired fathers patience besieging him in the beloved Town where his Father was buried and himself born which he not long after took from him and in it her that was dearer to him than his life the fair Lady Adela now become the old Kings avowed Mistress however affianc'd before to his Son Richard This as it was an indignity that flaw'd his great heart at one single stroak and wounded his spirit beyond all recovery so the loss of the City provok'd him to blaspheme God and the loss of the Lady to curse all his posterity and what sence nature retain'd of the loss of his life that took away the sence of all other losses appears by the intelligence it held with his revenge after death which over-acting its part if I may so say to charge the guilt upon the unnatural offender forced the blood out of his nostrils as he lay bare-fac'd upon his hearse as soon as his Son Richard the murtherer approach'd with dissembled reverence to kiss his hand Thus Thus as he had constant troubles whilst he liv'd so it seems he had no great rest when he was dead being ordain'd by Destiny to be an Example of unparalleld Desolation and which made this unhappiness a kind of Riddle that which renders all other men happy undid him viz. great Wisdom great Power and great Possessions either of which makes great Friends at least great numbers of those that profess themselves to be so whiles he liv'd to see himself forsaken of Wife Children Family Friends and if he were not himself as in Charity we ought to think when he blasphem'd God for the loss of Mentz we may say forsaken of himself too then which there could be no sadder Epilogue to humane Glory And wherefore was all this toyl and charge imbarasing himself and his Subjects but only to hold up the vain-glorious reputation of his Courage and make good that Bestial Adjunct of Coeur de Leon which was not improperly given to him if we consider that the same Creature is as much noted for his Voracity as Courage yet was the excess of his Valour mostly spent in private quarrels the King of France who was ingaged with like Devotion and he falling together by the Ears as soon as they met in Scicily and after he came into the Holy Land he had the like quarrel with the Arch-Duke of Austria with both upon the same point of Precedence though not with like reason the other having out-brav'd him in the common Cause and planted his Colours upon the Walls of Acon before him which he plucking down in scorn t'other made him vail Bonnet to it that is surrender up his Cap of Maintenance as 't was then call'd as a Pledge of his Homage to the Emperor when he acknowledg'd him his Supream Lord. And what was the end of this great Enterprize after having tarried above a
Learned Bishop of Rochester and the Judicious Chancellor Sir Thomas Moore whose Contradiction could no way determine the Point though it was the occasion of determining their Lives their Cases being made worse by the same way they thought to have made their Causes better The first being found Guilty of saying too much for himself t'other of saying too little The Bishop desiring to add to his Oath those words by way of Explanation Quantum per Christi Legem liceret had this interpretation by the Lawyers upon his Interpretation that the addition amounted to a flat denial and depriving the King of his Title and Dignity within the Statute of 26. being in effect that per Christi Legem non liceret The wise Chancellor admonish'd as he thought sufficiently by the Bishops error to avoid the danger of any Interpretation ran into a worse for answering nothing when the Kings Councel ask'd his Opinion of the Supremacy his Silence was interpreted Misprision of Treason within the Statute aforesaid for that as the Indictment run Malitiosè Silebat Paul the third being in the Chair at the time when these two eminent men suffered hearing the King had seal'd his new Title in Blood thought it in vain to expect longer his Return to the Apostolick Obedience as he call'd it and therefore peremptorily summon'd him by a terrible Bull to appear within Ninety dayes and make his submission otherwise he and all that assisted him should be given up to utter Damnation as judged Hereticks The King depriv'd of his Realm the Realm depriv'd of his Benediction all the Issue by the last Match declar'd Illegitimate all Ties of Allegiance discharged all Commerce with other States forbidden the Leagues made by other Princes with him nullified the Nobility commanded to take up Arms against him and the Clergy to depart the Kingdom Now because this last seem'd to be the greatest Menace at least the Pope would have it thought so both in respect of his power over them and theirs over the Conscience the King took the first advantage of it and sent away many of them against their wills dissolving no less then Six hundred forty five of their Societies which much forwarded his Designs with the Confederate Princes of Germany whose Friendship now he seem'd to have some need of they believing by this he would wholly renounce all Papistry to which his late Queen was highly disaffected and against which his great Minister Cromwell was deeply ingaged and from which himself was sufficiently discharged by the Popes declaring him as he did a Heretick for now could he be no further bound to Paul the Third then his Ancestor Henry the Second was to Alexander the Third the first Pope that was ever acknowledged here to whom he made only a Conditional Oath Quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis ejus Successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint Gern Dowbern Col. 1422. 18. then thereupon dispatch'd an Ambassador to him to desire him to accept the Title of Patron and Defender of their League But the News of Queen Anne's Execution which for the suddenness and severity of it not to say any thing of the Injustice because some were of Opinion that the least Cause of Jealousie in Queens is equivalent to guilt in private Women begat such an abhorrence of his dire Inconstancy for she was flourishing accused condemned beheaded and another placed in her room at Bed and Board and all within a Months space that they fell off again from the Treaty they had entertain'd almost as soon as they began it believing it a Scandal to their Cause as some of them said to need the protection of the Devil However the great Ministers here gave it out that the Discrepancy of Interest was the only cause of the Breach they requiring Money of him without being able to answer the Reciproc on their part But the true State-Reason was that some of the wiser sort conceiv'd they could not safely admit his Supremacy for fear they should be oblig'd by the same rule to set up a Title for their own Soveraign the Emperor in his Dominions which would be more inconvenient then to leave it where it was in the Pope who being at further distance could not so easily reach them But long it was not ere the unexpected cause of that Innocent Queens sufferings was made manifest by the unexpected Labour of Queen Jane her Successor who made so good speed to bring the King a Son and Heir which was the thing he desired above all things in the World that being married on the Twentieth of May she fell in Labour the Twelfth of October following But Providence that had decreed she should only Conceive but not bring forth to signalize the Revenge of Queen Anne's Death by that of hers put it into the Kings heart to turn himself Man-Midwife rather then lose the hopes of a Kingdom who accordingly commanded the Child to be rip'd untimely out of her Womb an act of great horrour and so much more unwillingly perform'd for that he was unprovided of another Wife for the present In this Condition Bishop Gardner found him at his Return out of Germany who putting him out of all hopes of any Closure with the Protestant Princes unless he would come under the Standard of their Faith and allow of the Augustan Confession easily perswaded him to purge himself of the scandal of Heresie by shewing the World he had only shook off the Pope but not the Religion Here the Scene chang'd again and the first thing appear'd was that bloody Statute containing the Six Articles which being discharg'd as a Murthering Piece amongst the new Reformists cut off most of those who stood in its way the Report whereof was so loud and terrible that the two great Prelates Latimer Bishop of Worcester and Shaxston Bishop of Salisbury were frightned out of their Bishopricks who not being willing to have any hand in the approbation or execution of them suffer'd as patiently under his Title of Defender of the Faith as the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moore had before under that of his Supremacy And now Conscience being revolted from its ancient way of resolving Doubts to an abrupt Decision of the Common Law that did not instruct but force the Offender◠'t is not so much a wonder how so many came to suffer death under his Reign as how so many surviv'd it all Papists being in danger to be hang'd and all Anti-papists to be burn'd Yet in this great Storm Cromwell behav'd himself like a wise Pilot who finding he could not prevent the running of the Vessel in a contrary Course to his mind thought it enough that he kept it from being quite over-set and accordingly with great dexterity he brought on the Treaty once more with the Confederate Princes who were it seems alarum'd by the Counter-League which the Roman Catholicks set up under the Title of The Holy League the
Countries having given him the Kingdoms of Naples and Jerusalem before of the first of which the Pope either envying or fearing the Emperour's Greatness had made the French King some Assurance purposely to ingage him thereby in a War that might weaken them both Great Preparations were made by either Party to secure themselves both with Arms and Alliances the Emperor leaving all his Dominions on this side to his Son whilst himself retires into Spain to alarm the French on the other side and by his Vicinity to Italy whose petty Princes he suspected not to be firm to his Interest makes himself as terrible to his Neighbours as his Enemies But whilst this great design was in Prospect only King Philip was suddenly called home by a Brute that his Queen was with Child the Joy whereof was so universal that it is strange to tell how much it transported the whole Kingdom raising them by the hopes of a young Prince to a degree of seeming Infatuation for they not only mock'd God Almighty in the Church with causeless Thanksgivings but troubled the King and Queen every hour in Court withâ—s groundless Petitions for Places of Attendance on the unborn Child and so far did the Delirium prevail to delude even the Parliament themselves with extravagant apprehensions of their future happiness by the enjoyment of such a Prince who however he were like to be Lord of the greatest part of Christendom would yet in all probability make England the Seat of his Empire that they humbly besought the King in case the Queen should dye in Travel that he would be pleas'd to take upon him the rule and government of the Child and Kingdome such ado have great Princes to be born as well as to dye in quiet But this mistaken Embryo proving at length to be nothing else but a Mis-conception whereof she could not be delivered so as to make way for any better Conception turning to such a fleshy inform Substance as Physitians call a Mole and we vulgarly English a Moon-Calf it put King Philip so ouâ— of Countenance that he tarried not a Month here after her time of Reckoning was our but passing into Flanders put it out of his head since he could not put it out of her belly by beginning a War with France whereto he had a good ground upon the account of the Five years Truce being broken that had been made but a little before The Queen to requite him for her late Miscarriage broke with her People and resolving not to stand Neuter whilst her Husband was ingaged found occasion to make the French Aggressors upon the Crown of England Whereupon the Earl of Pembroke was sent over with Ten thousand Horse and Four thousand Foot who joyning with the Kings Forces which were Thirty five thousand Foot and Twelve thousand Horse before they came they all of them sate down before St Quintins a Town of great importance which the French in vain indeavouring to succour lost Twenty five thousand upon the place Amongst whom were divers of the greatest Quality as John of Bourbon Duke of Anguin the Dukes of Monpensier and Longevile the Viscount Turein c. the Lord Chadenier the Mareschal St. Andrew the Rhinegrave the Constable Mount Morency and his Son Brother to Count Lodowick Gonzaga Brother to the Duke of Mantova the Admiral Coligny and his Brother with divers other Lords of no less eminence who being all taken with the Town made it look like the beginning of a War which every Body judged could not end till the Rupture reach'd to the middle of France The report of this Victory gave great matter of rejoycing to every Body but most especially to the Queen her self yet could it not divert that Melancholy occasioned by the conceit of her Misconception which brought her into a Distemper that not long after kill'd her by her Physicians mistaking her Malady who giving her improper Medicines without regard to the over-cooling of her Liver which it seems is the mischief attends those Moles found not their error till she was so far gone into that desperate kind of Dropsie which they call Ascites that there was no help for her now That which added to her Distemper was an over-nice resentment of the Popes displeasure who offended at her breach with the French punish'd her as Princes use to be by whipping their Favourites with taking away the Legatine Power from her beloved Minister Cardinal Pool to whom as she had ever a great regard so she opin'd that the disgrace put upon a Man of so great Authority and Credit who had been so active in the Conversion of the Nation would as indeed it did not only reflect something on her honour but hazard much the reputation of the Catholick Cause whiles the Roman Religion was not so fully establish'd as she design'd it should and the Enemies of the Church no less dangerous to that of her State This gave her great trouble of Mind and that trouble being heightened by the absence of her beloved Husband brought her into a burning Feaver that foretold a death that might have proved a living one had it not been hastned by the news of the revolt of Calais which being lost in less then six dayes time after it had continued English above Two hundred years came so near her heart that drying up all her Blood brought her under such a fix'd sadness as left her not till she left the World Now to say truth she had great reason to resent the loss for as it was the only Key left to let her into France so it was no small over-sight to hang it by her side with so slender a String as she did there being not above Five hundred Souldiers in it when it was attach'd which were much too few to defend a place of that Importance where there was a kind of necessity to keep the Gates alwayes open HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE Christ was the Word that spake it He took the Bread and brake it And what the Word did make it That I believe and take it Which however it seem'd an obscure and uncertain Solution so baffled all her Adversaries that the Priests themselves who hop'd with like Success to have soil'd her as the First Temptor did the First Woman upon the First great Question of Take and Eat found themselves left in the dark to grope after her meaning as well as they could whilst she shut her self up from further Pressures within the Closet of her own private Sense But as Wisdom is perhaps the only Vertue that is distrustful of it self so to shew how little Confidence she had in the strength of her own Abilities she made it her first business to fortifie her self with able Counsellors In the choice of whom her Affections gave place to her Judgment as her Fears to her Foresight admitting divers of her Sisters great Ministers who having been privy to all the Secrets of State were like sharp
the Thirteenth to reassume the Country into his hands as one of the Kingdoms reputed parcel of St. Peter's Patrimony and held of the Church as he alledged by the Kings of England upon no other Condition but that of Fealty to the See of Rome and therefore Forfeited by the Heresie of the Queen His Holiness who has been ever very captious of all Advantages of this kind was easily prevail'd with to bestow it upon his Natural Son the Marquiss of Vincula to whom one Stukely an Englishman being therefore dignified with the Title of Marquiss of Lempster and Earl of Wexford was appointed General having Eight hundred Italians under his Command Before whom was sent as a Vant-Currier one Fitz-Morris with a Consecrated Banner two Priests and three Ships These dull Rebels were to joyn with those more active ones the Earl of Desmond and his Brothers and were to take Livery and Seisin till the rest could come upon the Place But as was the Cause so was the Success and sitter it was that he should meet with a Cross then a Crown that being but Christs Vicar should be so ambitious of having a Kingdom in this World when his Lord had none for himself Stukely ended his life before he began his Rebellion Fitz-Morris was betray'd by his Fellow-Traytors before his own Treachery could take any effect San Joseph that succeeded him one that was half Jew and half Italian was glad to secure his own with the loss of all their Lives that were under him whiles Desmond the Great Rebel was forc'd to yield to lower Conditions then any of them and the two Priests that attended the holy Banner were starved upon the Mountains But after these there started up yet several others as the Mac Williams since call'd the Burks the Mac Connels in Connaught the Mac Mahons and O Rorks in Monagan the O Connors and O Mulloys in Ophaly and some of the O Brians and Cavenaghs in Lempster who did what they could to raise Tumults but so faintly that we may rather call them Riots then Rebellions signifying no more to her than the bitings of Fleas to a Lion However doubting how she might be pestred with more such Vermine in the heat of the Summer following she took timely care to prevent the worst and having Intelligence given her that they intended to dispute her Soveraignty at Sea as they had done her Right by Land she muster'd up all her Naval Forces determining to carry the War as far from home as possibly she could These were commanded by the famous Drake who resolving to fight them in the other World as well as in this advanced to the place where 't was said the Golden Apples grew where finding no Dragon to keep them so fierce as himself he made himself Master of as much Treasure as might have been a sufficient Found for a greater Empire then that he fought for had either his Covetousness held any proportion with his Courage or his Ambition with his Activity for he brought home besides what was imbezled and conceal'd above two thousand pound weight of uncoyn'd Silver and twelve Chests of ready coyn'd and no less then five hundred pound weight of Gold besides Jewels of an inestimable value having several Carcanets of Diamonds Rubies Topazes Saphires and Emeralds of an incredible Magnitude issued Silks and other rich Commodities of the growth and manufacture of the Country being thought not worth the Portage This added no less to the Fame then to the Wealth of this great Queen who being before compar'd to Solomon for her Wisdom seem'd now not unlike him for her Opulence But not content with this single income of Glory she commanded her Fortunate Admiral back again the second time to brave them at Land as before at Sea where after having taken St. Jago St. Domingo and Cartagena three of the most considerable Towns they had he return'd even surfeited with Victory his Head being as giddy with new Contrivances as his mens were with the Calenture who in the midst of all their Abundance wanting health only were forc'd to take leave of the place being troubled that they could bring home no greater a booty then what was esteem'd at One hundred thousand pounds Sterling and Two hundred and forty pieces of brass Cannon to report their Victory But because this look'd like wounding that King in the hinder parts only she was not satisfied till she gave him one blow in the Face and accordingly sent to defie him before his own Doors entring his chief Port of Cales in which they took and fired no less then One hundred Ships and furnishing themselves with great store of Ammunition and Victuals made for the Cape of St. Vincent where having demolish'd the Forts they pass'd on to the Assores under the great Meridian where they took a great Carack returning from the East-Indies which having the name of St. Philip it was by the Superstitious Seamen look'd on as an ominous Presage of the Future ill Fortune of their King Philip by Sea Whilst Drake was thus active to the Southward Candish was no less busie to the Westward who having destroy'd several Colonies in Chily Peru and Nova Hispania return'd home Laden with the Spoils of Nineteen rich Ships taken in his way And now King Philip provok'd no less by the shame then the continued loss he had sustain'd for above two years together with redoubled diligence and charge got ready a mighty Fleet hoping to perform some wonders suitable to the Expectation of the Time as well as of the Importance of the Affair it being by Astronomers call'd The wonderful Year and being the great Clymacterich of the World they concluded it must produce some extraordinary Effects Neither indeed was there any thing then in the World so extraordinary and amazing as the sight of that moving Wood of his consisting of no less then One hundred and fifty tall Ships which carri'd in them besides all Habiliments of War Twenty thousand men and expected Fifty thousand more to be joyn'd with them that the Duke of Parma was to bring out of Flanders all which were to be Landed in the Thames mouth that so by seizing on the Head they might the more easily command every Member of the whole Body of the Kingdom Well may we imagine that the report of such a Preparation as this the work of no less then three years time was heard further then the noise of their Cannon could though 't is incredible how far they were heard and one would have thought the Sound of that terrible Name they gave their Fleet El Invincible Armado might have been sufficient to have made an universal Earth-quake throughout Christendom But it seems the Adamantine hearts of the Neighbour Princes were so impenetrable that it did not much move them for being satisfied in the Counterpoise of the Queens Power they stood at Gaze seemingly unconcern'd The Queen had prepar'd a double Guard one for the Land t'other for the Sea that by
when he was so seemingly lost by the help of the same Invisible Hand that after led his Son thorow many greater dangers and brought him home safe beyond all hope but stooping to this low Pitch to subject himself to those who had so much despis'd all Subjection they thought it a Complement to him to estimate him at so high a rate as that of their Arrears Had he cast himself upon the Parliament in the first place 't is possible by letting go his hold so unexpectedly as he did he might have given them the Fall when they were so hard tugging with him it being more then probable that the long abus'd People finding how he not only sought Peace but pursu'd it might have been mov'd to have indeavour'd his Restoration as tumultuously as they did his Dethronation restoring his Dignity as disorderly as they took it from him which how much the Hogen Mogens of Westminster dreaded appears by the surprize upon them when a little before his giving himself up to the Scots it was bruted that he was conceal'd in London But as in great Storms great Pilots are forc'd when they can no longer bear Sail to let the Vessel drive and take its chance so he being no longer able to Stem the Tide after having done all that could be hop'd for from Prudence was fain to commit himself to Providence and follow it without Light or Compass thorow many dark Dispensations and fantastick Changes the result of their Inconstancy Inhumanity and Impiety from whom he was afterward to expect his doom Trust makes us our own Traytors nor could he Alâ—yn Vit. H. 7. Be sav'd by Faith but Infidelity Having now lost his Authority from the time he lost his Liberty as the last was the occasion of ending the first Civil War so the first was the cause of beginning a second For now all the Doggs fell together by the Ears over the Marybone The Army quarrelled with the Parliament they with one another the Commons differed from the Lords the Scots divided as much from the English the Presbyterians from the Independants Great was the Dissention amongst the Brethren and all for Place Power or Profit for either of which the King appearing to be the best Pawn the Army took him from the Parliament Commissioners to secure him in their own Custody which was so ill resented by the ruling Members that all their Consultations were about disbanding them Upon which the Army drew up a Charge and disbanded Eleven of them the first * The now Lord Hollis whereof was the first of those Five Members impeached by the King who were so little able to trifle with them as they did with him that they were fain not only to quit the House but the Kingdom After this the Army sent up a †The A mies Representation An. 1647. Representation as they call'd it to the two Houses propâ—sing 1. To purge out all those that ought not to sit there meaning all the Presbyterian Party 2. To disable those who had shew'd themselves disaffected to the Army that they might do no mischief meaning those who had voted with the Eleven Secluded Members 3. To settle a determinate Period for their Sitting intending to have all rul'd by the Sword 4. To give Accompt of the vast Sums they had received during the War intending the Overplus to be divided amongst themselves This so incouraged the Independent Party that they voted in favour of the Army to take the Militia of the City of London out of the Citizens hands who were for the most part of the Presbyterian Faction Upon which a Party of Apprentices came down and making the grand Representatives Prisoners in their own House did as I may say ram their Vote down their Throats making them not only retract it but Vote the Militia back again to the City Hereupon they call'd for Aid to the Army and the apprehensions of what Effects their coming up might have divided the Common-Councel of London as much as the last Riot had those of Westminster so that the General easily entred at the breach and possess'd himself of the Strength of the City Now as Maggots are ingendred by warmth out of Corruption so by the heat of these corrupted Factions there was kindled a Generation of Vermin call'd Agitators which were like the Locusts that rose out of the smoak of the bottomless Pit mentioned in the Revelations c. 9. v. 3. to whom sayes the Text was given power like as the Scorpions of the Earth have power who not liking that the King should continue so near as Hampton-Court found an expedient to fright him from thence by muttering something like an intended Assassination the discovery whereof they knew would quickly be brought to him and tempt him to make a private Escape knowing well that they had him as a Bird in a string and could take him again when they pleas'd which Counsel if it had been rejected by him 't is probable he had been murther'd in good earnest but he flying thereupon to the Isle of Wight where he was secur'd by their fast Friend the * Hamen Governour there they thought they might adventure to treat with him at that distance Accordingly they consented that the Parliament should tender him these four modest Propositions following to be reduced into Acts. 1. That it should be lawful for the Parliament to order and dispose the Militia as they pleas'd for the future without his consent and Treason for any to assemble in Arms above the number of Thirty without Commission from them 2. That the Houses should sit at what time they pleas'd and adjourn their sitting to what place they pleas'd and meet at their own pleasure and discretion for ever after 3. That all Oaths Interdictions and Declarations set forth in Publick by the King against either House should be accompted and declared void 4. That all whom the King had dignified with any Titles from the time himself departed with the Great Seal should be degraded of their Honour Which the Scotch Commissioners we must remember it to their Honour thought so derogatory to that of the Kings and contrary to former Ingagements that they follow'd after the Parliament Commissioners with a kind of State Hue and Cry and protested against them I hope it was not all a Juggle for they had been undone doubtless if the King had sign'd them but it took effect as they desired The King refused them and thereby gave them as they would have it thought just cause to refuse him Whereupon they pass'd that never to be forgotten Vote of Non-Addresses After which the Agitators vanish'd and the Committee of Darby-house took place which consisting most of Officers were now the Plenipotentiaries of the Kingdom And near the same time the Power of England was thus given up to them they had the Resignation made of that of Ireland too The King being now civilly dead and one would think buried the Prisons of Princes proving
notwithstanding his great good Fortunes as to see his Glory unravel'd as well as his Happiness in great part there being nothing left him of all his great Gettings abroad purchased with so much Travel Expence and Bloodshed but only the poor Town of Calais which signified no more then a Gate of a City left open when all the rest is possest by too potent an Enemy But we must look on 't as a Curse that he inherited with his Crown not to be permitted to dye till he saw himself as his Father was forsaken of every Body but a poor Priest that only tarried to torment him with the remembrance of his Sins and left him at last as he left the World in such a state of uncertainty that our Historians are yet to seek whether to place him amongst the rank of our fortunate or unfortunate Princes the fatal divisions of his Posterity which took their first rise from his weakness being so pernicious to the whole Kingdom as well as to themselves that if the Dead know any thing of what is done amongst the Living he needed no other Hell to torture his guilty Spirit then the vision of those murthered Princes of his own Blood whose Ghosts just led one another where ere they met HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Now as it is easie to kindle a great Fire with very little blowing when the matter is fitly dispos'd to burn so it happen'd very unluckily that from the casual Rudeness of an inconsiderable Tax-gatherer that came into the House of a poor Tiler of Deptford and would have turn'd up the Coats of his young Daughter to see whether she were of Age to pay her Poll-mony there was occasion'd so over-grown a Riot as bearing down all respect of Laws Order or Government was not to be appeas'd with the Blood of three of the principal'st Ministers of State that is to say the Chancellor although he were Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Treasurer and the Lord Chief Justice and came at last so near to Majesty it self for some of the Rebels were little less rude with the Kings own Mother then his Officer had been with their Captains Daughter that 't was thought nothing could deliver the King himself from the approaching Danger but meeting it half way which he did with so well temper'd a Courage as never King before him shew'd except Caesar and he but once or his own Father at the Battel of Poctiers when begirt with as many perhaps but not so insolent nor unworthy Foes This being as much beyond the expectation of his Years as of his Enemies charmed them into a Submission for a while but the Distemper being universal and raging and the Contagion spread insensibly through so many parts of the Kingdom it was not possible to heal the Evil with a Touch only However one would have thought so hopeful a Prince as this was the Son of so brave a Father and fortified with so unpregnable a Title could not likely have miscarried but must have stood firm as a Mountain whose top was above all Storms but the same Stars ruling at his Birth that govern'd his Great-grand-fathers Nativity 't is no marvail being of the same temper he should fall under the same fate to be kept by Flatterers from the knowledge of himself till being not himself he too late saw his Error in the experience of their Falshood The first ten years of his Government which were the better though not the longer part of it he reign'd with great splendor if so be we may properly say he reign'd whiles he was under the dispose of others taking all occasions to let those that attempted to disturb him both at home and abroad especially his right and left-hand Enemies the French and Scots feel the sharpness of his Sword and the weight of his Power forcing the first to quit their chief Design having prepar'd a Navy of 1287 Ships to invade him the other to quit their chief City which he thereupon reduced into Ashes to make a Bonefire that might give the whole Kingdom notice of his Victory But after he came to be of Age to do all himself he began very visibly to undo himself hastning the slow pace of his Deâ—â—iny by quarrelling with his Parliaments who being actuated by the subtilty of his emulous Uncles gather'd strength by the discovery of his weakness and taking all advantages against him in point of Right or Reputation urged their Priviledges so far in derogation of his Prerogative that he could not forbear telling them the very next Sessions after he was out of his Wardship as he was wont to call it that he perceived they had a mind to rebel and therefore thought he could do no better then to ask Aid of his Cosin the King of France into whose hands he said he had rather fall being a Prince then submit to his own Subjects A rash and unadvised Reply which however it seem'd to be the Result of a proud and vindictive Stomach was in truth so abject and low so unlike himself and so like his little Great-Grandsire Henry the Third that they taking Example from the Nobility of that time as he from that King immediately put the Government into the hands of thirteen Lords of whom his turbulent Uncle Gloucester was the Chief who having Divisum Imperium lookt like a great Wen upon the Face of the State that drew all the ill humours of the Body Politick to it The Duke of Ireland that was the principal Councellor of his party and his Uncle by Marriage was so amaz'd at the sudden birth of this Oligarchy that not daring to give any Opinion of his own in the Case although he were a man of sufficient Courage and Authority he put him upon advising with all the Judges possibly that what himself should think fit might pass for Law out of their mouths and accordingly Questions were fram'd to be propos'd to them by which it was easier understood what the King would have to be Law then what in truth was so To all which having receiv'd positive Resolves on the Kings side the next Consultation was how to frame such a House of Commons as might be brought to take part with the King against the Lords and forthwith Letters were directed to all the Sheriffs and Justices of Peace in every County to interpose their Credit and Authority for the chusing of such Persons Knights and Burgesses for the next Sessions as the King and his Councel had nam'd in a List sent to them This look'd like so dangerous an Industry that the Regency took the Alarm at it and trusting to no other remedy flew to Arms. The King thereupon demanded Aid of the City of London but they failing his Expectation the Lords grew so bold as to send to him to deliver up his ill Councellors whom they call'd Traytors and Seducers Upon this there were very great and grave Deliberations each man