for at my hands Thus the Beams of Majesty had an influence upon every branch and leaf of the Kingdom by reflecting upon the Root their Representative Body every particular expecting what fruit this Sun-shine would produce striving as much to insinuate into him as he did into the general so that there was a Reciprocal Harmony between the King and the People because they courted one another But when the Kings Bounty contracted it self into private Favourites as it did afterwards bestowing the affection he promised the whole people upon one man when the golden showers they gaped for dropt into some few chanels their passions flew higher than their hopes The Kings aims were to unite the two Kingdoms so that the one might corroborate the other to make good that part of his Speech by this intermixtion wherein he divides England and Scotland into halves But the English stumbled at that partition thinking it an unequal division and fearing that the Scots creeping into English Lordships and English Ladies Beds in both which already they began to be active might quickly make their least half the predominant part But he was Proclaimed King of Great Britain England must be no more a Name the Scotish Coyns are made currant and our Ships must have Saint Georges and Saint Andrews Crosses quartered together in their Flags all outward Ensigns of Amity But those English that had suckt in none of the sweets of this pleasant Stream of Bounty repined to see the Scots advanced from blew Bonnets to costly Beavers wearing instead of Wadmeal Velvet and Satin as divers Pasquils written in that Age Satyrically taunted at Which is not set down here to vilifie the Scots being most of them Gentlemen that had deserved well of their Master but to shew how cross to the publick Appetite the Hony-comb is that another man eats But the King like a wise Pilot guided the Helm with so even an hand that these small gusts were not felt It behoved him to play his Master-prize in the Beginning which he did to the life for he had divers opinions humours and affections to grapple with as well as Nations and 't is a very calm Sea when no billow rises The Romanists bogled that he said in his Speech They were unsufferable in the Kingdom as long as they maintained the Pope to be their Spiritual Head and He to have power to dethrone Princes The Separatists as the King called them were offended at that Expression wherein he professed willingly if the Papists would lay down King-killing and some other gross errors he would be content to meet them half way So that every one grounded his hopes or his fears upon the shallows of his own fancy not knowng yet what course the King would steer But these sores being tenderly dealt with did not suddenly fester but were skinned over The King desirous of the Title Pacificus did not only close with his own Subjects but healed up also that old wound that had bled long in the sides of England and Spain both being weary of the pain both willing to be cured The King of Spain sent the Constable of Castile with a mighty Train of smooth-handed Spaniards to close up the wound on this side where the old Enmity being well mortified they were received with singular Respect and Civility The King of England sent his High Admiral the Earl of Notingham with as splendid a Retinue of English to close it on that Who being Personages of Quality accoutred with all Ornaments suitable were the more admired by the Spaniards for beauty and excellency by how much the Iesuits had made impressions in the vulgar opinion That since the English left the Roman Religion they were transformed into strange horrid shapes with Heads and Tails like Beasts and Monsters So easie it is for those Iuglers when they have once bound up the Conscience to tye up the Vnderstanding also EARL OF NOTTINGHAM GEORGE CAREW EARL OF TOTNES And to satisfie the Kings desires about an Vnion betwixt England and Scotland the Parliament made an Act to authorise certain Commissioners viz. Thomas Lord Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord Treasurer of England Charles Earl of Notingham Lord High Admiral of England Henry Earl of Southampton William Earl of Pembroke Henry Earl of Northampton Richard Bishop of London Tobie Bishop of Duresme Anthony Bishop of Saint Davids Robert Lord Cecil Principal Secretary Edward Lord Zouch Lord President of Wales William Lord Mounteagle Ralph Lord Eure Edmund Lord Sheffeild Lord President of the Council in the North Lords of the Higher House of Parliament And Thomas Lord Clinton Robert Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Hastings Knight Sir Iohn Stanhope Knight Vice-Chamberlain to his Majesty Sir Iohn Herbert Knight second Secretary to his Majesty Sir George Carew Knight Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen Sir Thomas Strickland Knight Sir Edward Stafford Knight Sir Henry Nevill of Berk-shire Knight Sir Richard Bukley Knight Sir Henry Billingsley Knight Sir Daniel Dun Knight Dean of the Arches Sir Edward Hobby Knight Sir Iohn Savile Knight Sir Robert Wroth Knight Sir Thomas Chaloner Knight Sir Robert Maunsel Knight Sir Thomas Ridgeway Knight Sir Thomas Holcroft Knight Sir Thomas Hesketh Knight Atturney of the Court of Wards Sir Francis Bacon Knight Sir Lawrence Tanfield Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Henry Hubberd Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Iohn Bennet Doctor of the Laws Sir Henry Withrington Sir Ralph Grey and Sir Thomas Lake Knights Robert Askwith Thomas Iames and Henry Chapman Merchants Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons or any eight of the said Lords and twenty of the said Commons Which Commissioners shall have power to assemble meet treat and consult with certain select Commissioners to be nominated and authorised by Authority of the Parliament of Scotland concerning such Matters Causes and things as they in their Wisdoms shall think and deem convenient and necessary for the honour of the King and common good of both Kingdoms Yet the good intentions of this Vnion took no effect as will follow in the sequel of this History But there were a great many good Laws made which are too voluminous for this place having a proper Sphere of their own to move in Thus the King sate triumphing as it were upon a Throne of his Peoples Affections and his beginnings had some settlement for being loth to be troubled he sought Peace every-where But our inbred distempers lay upon the Lee intermixt with other gross dregs that the Princes lenity and the Peoples luxury produced For the King minding his sports many riotous demeanours crept into the Kingdom the Sun-shine of Peace being apt for such a production upon the slime of the late War The Sword and Buckler trade being now out of date one corruption producing another the City of London being always a fit Receptacle for such whose prodigalities and wastes made them Instruments of Debaucheries divers Sects of vitious Persons going under the
into a Coffin and bury him privately on Tower-Hill Concluding That God is gracious in cutting off evil Instruments before their time Which Sentence while he was writing it reflected the judgment on himself For Northampton having a great influence in the Kingdom being a prime Counsellor to the King and intimate with Somerset they two grasping all Power and Northampton having the better head to manage it the miscarriages were not without cause imputed to him For being a Papist he did not only work upon Somerset to pervert him by letting him see there was a greater latitude for the Conscience in that Religion but got him to procure many immunities for the Papists as the Kings best affected Subjects And being Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports he gave free access to Priests and Iesuits that abundantly flockt again into the Kingdom the operation of the last Proclamation having now lost the vertue And a Letter being discovered which he had written to Cardinal Bellarmine wherein he expresses the condition of the Times and the Kings importunity compelled him to be a Protestant in shew yet nevertheless his heart stood firm with the Papists and if there were cause he would express it with much more to this purpose These things first muttered then urged against him touched him to the heart so that he retired disposed of his Estate and dyed He had a great mind tending towards eminent things which he was the better able to effect by living a Batchelor to an old Age being always attended and he loved it with Gentlemen of Quality to whom he was very bountiful His affections were also much raised to Charity as by the Almshouse he erected appears and his Works shew him to be a great getter But leaving no Issue to propagate his name he built a fair House by Charing-cross to continue it which it lost soon after his death being called Suffolk-house for a time and now is Northumberland-house Such changes there are in the Worlds measures His Body was carried to be buried at Dover because he was Warden of the Cinque-Ports as was reported by some of his Followers but it was vulgarly rumored to be transported to Rome But these actions of his about Overbury lying dormant made no great noise at this time against him but when they broke out they laid upon his name as great a stench as Infamy or Oaium could produce SUFFOLK HOUSE CHARING CROSS The Spaniards the first discoverers being more covetous to grasp than well able to plant took possession of the most precious places so that the English French and Dutch caught but what they left Sir Walter Rawleigh and others after Sir Francis Drake found out that Country now called Virginia which was long since planted with a Colony And in that tract of Land more Northerly within the degrees of 40 and 48 of latitude lies New-England a Climate temperate and healthful but not so much as the Old It is rather a low than a high Land full of Rocky-Capes or Promontories The Inmost parts of the Country are Mountainous intermixt with fruitful Vallies and large Lakes which want not store of good Fish The Hills are no where Barren though in some places Stony but fruitful in Trees and Grass There are many Rivers fresh Brooks and Springs that run into the Sea The Rivers are good Harbors and abound with plenty of excellent Fish yet are they full of Falls which makes them not Navigable far into the Land The Seas bordering the Shores are studded with Islands about which great Shoals of Fishes Cod Haddock and such like do wantonly sport themselves The main Land doth nourish abundance of Deers Bears Wolves and a beast called Moose peculiar to those Regions and the Rivers and Ponds are stored with some Beavers Otters and Musquashes There are also divers kinds of small Beasts but the most offensive are Foxes Fowls there are store in their several seasons as Turkies Geese and Ducks and the soyl naturally produces wild Vines with very large Bunches of Grapes but the extremity of heat and cold hinder their just temper There are many other Fruits which are very good with Plants whose Rinds or Barks transcends our Hemp or Flax both Air and Earth concurring to bring forth most things that Industry and Art can provide for the use of man The first that sent a Colony into this Country was the Lord Chief Justice Popham in the year 1606. A man highly renowned in his time for persecuting such as transgressed the Laws among Christians living like Beasts of prey to the prejudice of Travellers And in this he had a special aim and hope also to establish Christian Laws among Infidels and by domestical to chace away those ferous and indomitable Creatures that infested the Land Brave and gallant spirits having ever such publick ends But Planters are like Alchymists they have something in projection that many times fails in production It is conceived the Romans were not well advised to settle one of their first Colonies at Maldon in Essex whose soyl about is neither yet sound nor Air salubrious And the first opening of ground in a Climate not Natural hath an extraordinary operation upon the Bodies of Men whose Senses must comply to give entertainment to a Stranger that often spoils the place where it finds Hospitality For the first Planters of New-England having seated themselves low few of them were left to direct those that succeeded in a better way Yet People by dear experience overcame it by degrees being yearly supplied by men whose industry and affections taught them there was more hope to find safety in New-England than in the Old Though these found some stop yet our great Favourite the Earl of Somerset and his business runs smoothly without rub since Overburies death But he must alter his Bias and go less or find some new ways to bring in Monies the Revenues of the Crown are not competent to maintain such vast Expences accumulated by his Riot though he had all the Earl of Westmorelands Lands at his Marriage and Creation added to his Earldom There must be therefore a new Order of Baronets made in number two hundred that must be next Degree to Barons and these must pay a thousand pound a piece for their Honour having it by Patent under the great Seal and continued to Posterity with the Title of Knights Some of these new Honourable men whose Wives pride and their own Prodigalities had pumpt up to it were so drained that they had not moisture to maintain the radical humour but wither'd no nothing This money thus raised is pretended for planting the North of Ireland but it found many other Chanels before it came to that Sea And though at our Kings first access to the Crown there was a glut of Knights made yet after some time he held his hand left the Kingdom should be cloyed with them And the World thriv'd so well with some that the price was afterwards brought
the Ban against him which course of ours seeing it was never intended to be prosecuted to the prejudice of the Electoral College or against our own Capitulation we hope that the Electors will not take it otherwise being that we promise withal so to moderate it that no detriment or prejudice shall result thereby unto the Dignity Electoral As for the Translation of the Electorate and your advice for Restoring of the Palatinate there is I perceive some difference in your Opinions One part wisely and in favour of us affirming the great Reason we have to do it But for the other party which adviseth his Restoring we purpose not so far to consent unto it as to the restoring of him to the Electoral Dignity seeing that in the disposing of it other where we are resolved that we shall do no more than we have just reason to do nor will we defer the filling up of the Electoral College because the dispatching of it doth so much concern the Common good But for the Restitution of the Person of the Palatine you shall see how much our Mind is inclined towards clemency and how far we will declare Our self to gratifie the King of Great Britain the King of Denmark the Elector of Saxony and other Electors and Princes interceding for him And as concerning our forbidding the Exercise of the Lutheran Religion in the City of Prague we do not see how it any way concerns this Diet to inquire of our Letter have signified the causes that moved us to begin it unto the Elector of Saxony nor can we think that what we have done there any of the Neighbour States or Territories need be suspicious of seeing that we have sworn oftner than once in the Word of an Emperour that we will most Religiously observe the Peace both of Religion and civil Government throughout the Empire And thus much we could not but advertise this Illustrious Presence of Electors and Princes and you the Ambassadors of those that are absent The Protestant Electors and Princes still persisted in their Resolution that the Emperour could not translate the Electorate legally the words of the Capitulation being clearly these In all difficult businesses no process ought to be made without the knowledg and consent of the Electors and that without ordinary process no proscription should go out against any one of the States of the Empire before the cause were heard This is the fundamental Law of the Empire which required no more but to be constantly observed nor is it to be drawn into further dispute or deliberation And it stood the Electors upon to be open eyed to see to the observation of it being it concerned the three Secular Electors especially whose Dignity did by an Hereditary Right descend unto their Posterity to keep it safe and entire which they hoped that Caesar would not contradict But the Emperour would not be perswaded from his own Resolution yet in conclusion to gratifie the Princes he was contented to confer the Electorate with a Proviso that the investiture of the Duke of Bavaria should not be prejudicial to the children of the Palatine and so the Diet ended The ending of the Diet in Germany and our Prince's Journey into Spain were much about a time He went with the Marquess of Buckingham privately from Court the 17. of February to New-Hall in Essex the Marquess's House purchased of that unthrift Robert Earl of Sussex and from thence the next day by Graves-End the straight way to Dover attended onely by Sir Richard Graham Master of the Marquess's Horse where they were to meet Sir Francis Cottington who was thought fit to be the Prince's Secretary and Endimion Porter who was then taken from the Marquess's Bed-Chamber to wait upon the Prince Cottington was at first Clerk to Sir Charles Cornwallis his Secretary when Cornwallis was Ambassadour in Spain and being left there an Agent in the Intervals of Ambassadours was by that means trained up in the Spanish affairs Porter was bred up in Spain when he was a Boy and had the Language but found no other Fortune there then brought him over to be Mr. Edward Villers his man in Fleetstreet which was before either the Marquess or his Master were acceptable at White-Hall And Graham at first was an underling of low degree in the Marquess's Stable It is not hereby intended to vilifie the persons being men in this World's lottery as capable of advancement as others but to show in how poor a Bark the King ventured the rich freight his Son having onely the Marquess to steer his Course The Prince and Buckingham had false Beards for disguizes to cover their smooth Faces and the names of Iack Smith and Tom Smith which they past with leaving behind them impressions in every place with their bounty and presence that they were not the Persons they presented but they were not so rudely dealt with as to be questioned till they came to Dover and there the Mayor in a Supercilious Officiousness which may deserve the title of a careful Magistrate examined them so far being jealous they were Gentlemen going over to fight that the Marquess though Admiral was glad to Vail his Beard to him in private and tell him he was going to visit the Fleet so they had liberty to take Ship and landed at Bulloign the same day making swist Motion by Post-Horses which celerity leaves the least impression till they came to Paris There the Prince spent one day to view the City and Court shadowing himself the most he could under a Bushy Peruque which none in former times but bald people used but now generally intruded into a fashion and the Prince's was so big that it was hair enough for his whole face The Marquesses fair Face was shadowed with the same Pencil and they both together saw the Queen Mother at Dinner the King in the Gallery after Dinner and towards the Evening they had a full view of the Queen Infanta and the Princess Henrietta Maria with most of the Beauties of the Court at the practice of a Masking Dance being admitted by the Duke of Montbason the Queens Lord Chamberlain in Humanity to Strangers when many of the French were put by There the Prince saw those Eyes that after inflamed his Heart which increased so much that it was thought to be the cause of setting Three Kingdoms afire but whether any spark of it did then appear is uncertain if it did it was closely raked up till the Spanish fire went out the heat whereof made him neglect â—no time till he came to Madrid At Burdeaux the Duke D'Espernon Governour there out of a noble freedom to Strangers offered them the Civilities of his House which they declined with all bashful respects and Sr Francis Cottington who always looked like a Merchant and had the least Miene of a Gentleman fittest for such an imployment let him know they were Gentlemen that desired to improve themselves and
this blow reached presently into England and came somewhat near our Kings Heart therefore he took the best way to prevent his Fears by striving to prevent his Dangers having no other end but his own For when he considered the horridness of the Powder Plot and by it the irreconcileable malice of that Party he thought it the safest policy not to stir those Ashes where so much Fire was covered which gave way to a flux of that Iesuitical humour to infest the Body of the Kingdom But now being startled with this poysoned knife he ventures upon a Proclamation strictly commanding all Iesuits and Priests out of the Kingdom and all Recusants to their own Houses not to come within ten miles of the Court and secures all the rest of his Subjects to him by an universal taking of the Oath of Allegiance which the Parliament both Lords and Commons then sitting began and the rest of the People followed to the Kings great contentment For the last Session the Parliament was prorogued till the sixteenth of October this year and meeting now they were willing to secure their Allegiance to the King out of Piety yet they were so stout even in those youthful days which he term'd Obstinacy that they would not obey him in his incroachments upon the Publick Liberty which he began then to practise For being now season'd with seven years knowledg in his profession here he thought he might set up for himself and not be still journy-man to the lavish tongue of men that pryed too narrowly into the secrets of his Prerogative which are mysteries too high for them being Arcana imperii fitter to be admired than questioned But the Parliament were apprehensive enough that those hidden mysteries made many dark steps into the Peoples Liberties and they were willing by the light of Law and Reason to discover what was the Kings what theirs Which the King unwilling to have searched into after five Sessions in six years time dissolved the Parliament by Proclamation HENRICUS Princeps Walliae etc a. Reverendissimus in Christo Pater D.D. RICHARDUS BANCROFT Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis About this time Richard Bancroft Arch-Bishop of Canterbury died a person severe enough whose roughness gained little upon those that deserted the Ceremonies One work of his shewed his spirit better than the ruggedest Pen can depaint it For it was he that first brought the King to begin a new Colledg by Chelsey wherein the choice and abiest Scholars of the Kingdom and the most pregnant Wits in matters of Controversies were to be associated under a Provost with a fair and ample allowance not exceeding three thousand pounds a year whose design was to answer all Popish Books or others that vented their malignant spirits against the Protestant Religion either the Heresies of the Papists or the Errors of those that strook at Hierarchy so that they should be two-edged Fellows that would make old cutting and flashing and this he forwarded with all industry during his time and there is yet a formal Act of Parliament in being for the establishment of it But after his death the King wisely considered that nothing begets more contention than opposition and such Fuellers would be apt to inslame rather than quench the heat that would arise from those embors For Controversies are often or for the most part the exuberancies of Passion and the Philosopher saith men are drunk with disputes and in that inordinateness take the next thing that comes to hand to throw at one anothers faces so that the design fell to the ground with him and there is only so much Building standing by the Thames-side as to shew that what he intended to Plant he meant should be well Watered and yet it withered in the bud I can lay nothing to the charge of this great man but from common fame yet this I may truly say That for his Predecessor Whitgift and his Successor Abbot I never heard nor read any thing tending to their disparagement But on him some unhappy Wit vented this Pasquin Here lies his Grace in cold Earth slad Who died with want of what he had The Queen was Mistress of Somerset-house as well as the Prince was Master of St. Iames and she would fain have given it the name of Denmark-house which name continued her time among her people but it was afterwards left out of the common Calender like the dead Emperors new named Month. She was not without some Grandees to attend her for outward glory The Court being a continued Maskarado where she and her Ladies like so many Sea-Nymphs or Nereides appeared often in various dresses to the ravishment of the beholders The King himself being not a little delighted with such fluent Elegancies as made the nights more glorious than the days But the latitude that these high-flying fancies and more speaking Actions gave to the lower World to judg and censure even the greatest with reproaches shall not provoke me so much as to stain the innocent Paper I shall only say in general That Princes by how much they are greater than others are looked upon with a more severe eye if their Vertues be not suitable to their Greatness they lose much of their value For it is too great an allay to such resinedness to fall under the common cognizance Philip Earle of Pemb Mong Lord Chamberlaine to the King etc. Now all addresses are made to Sir Robert Car he is the Favourit in Ordinary no sute nor no reward but comes by him his hand distributes and his hand restrains our Supreme Power works by second Causes the Lords themselves can scarce have a smile without him And to give the greater lustre to his power about this time the Earl of Dunbar the Kings old trusty Servant the Cabinet of his secret Counsels died so that he solely now took the most intimate of them into his charge and the Officer of Lord high Treasurer of Scotland which staff the other left behind him and though it could be no great Supporter yet the credit of it carried some reputation in his own Country where it was his happiness to be magnified as well as in England for he had Treasure enough here where the Fountain was And to ingrandize all the King created him Baron of Brandspech and Viscount Rochester and soon after Knight of the Garter Thus was he drawn up by the Beams of Majesty to shine in the highest Glory grapling often with the Prince himself in his own Sphear in divers Conteslations For the Prince being a high born Spirit and meeting a young Competitor in his Fathers Affections that was a Mushrom of yesterday thought the venom would grow too near him and therefore he gave no countenance but opposition to it which was aggravated by some little scintils of Love as well as Hatred Rivals in passion being both amorous and in youthful blood fixing by accident upon one object who was a third mans in which the Viscount
easily committed and concealed It is an offence that is Tanquam sagitta nocte volans it is the Arrow that flies by night it discerns not whom it hits for many times the poyson is laid for one and another takes it As in Sanders case where the poysoned Apple was laid for the Mother and the Child eat it And so in that notorious Case whereupon the Statute of 22 Hen. 8. cap. 9. was made where the intent being but to poyson one or two poyson was put in a little Vessel of Barm that stood in the Kitchen at the Bishop of Rochesters house of which Barm Pottage or Grewel was made wherewith seventeen of the Bishops Family were poysoned nay divers of the poor that came to the Bishops-gate and had the Pottage in Alms were likewise poysoned Here is great talk of Impoysonment I hope I am safe I have no enemies nor any thing men can long for that is all one for he may sit at the Table by one for whom poyson is prepared and have a drench of his Cup or of his Pottage and so as the Poet saith Concidit infelix alieno vulnere he may die another mans death and therefore it was most gravely judiciously and properly provided by that Statute that Impoysonment should be High-Treason because whatsoever offence tendeth to the utter subversion and dissolution of Human Society is in the nature of High-Treason But it is an offence that I may truly say of it Non est nostri generis nec sanguinis It is thanks be to God rare in the Isle of Britain It is neither of our Country nor of our Church You may find it in Rome and Italy there is a Religion for it if it should come among us it were better living in a Wilderness than in a Court. For the particular fact upon Overbury I knew the Gentleman it is true his mind was great but it moved not in any great good order yet certainly it did commonly fly at good things and the greatest fault that ever I heard by him was That he made his Friend his Idol But take him as he was the Kings Prisoner in the Tower and then see how the Case stands In that place the State is as it were a Respondent to make good the Body of the Prisoner and if any thing happen to him there it may though not in this Case yet in some others make an aspersion and reflexion upon the State it self For the person is utterly void of his own defence his own care and providence can serve him to nothing He is in the custody and preservation of Law and we have a Maxim in our Law that when a State is in preservation of Law nothing can destroy it or hurt it and God forbid but the like should be in Persons and therefore this was a circumstance of great aggravation Lastly To have a man chased to death in a manner as it appears now by matter of Record for other privacy of Cause I know not by poyson after poyson First Rosaker then Arsnick then Mercury sublimate then sublimate again it is a thing would astonish mans nature to hear it The Poets feign that the Furies had Whips and that they were corded with poysoned Snakes and a man would think that this subject were the very Case To have a man tied to a post and to scourge him to death with Serpents for so truly may diversity of poysons be termed It pleased my Lord Chief Justice to let me know that which I heard with great comfort which was the charge that his Majesty gave to himself and the rest of the Commissioners in this Case worthy to be written in Letters of Gold That the business should be carried without touch to any that was innocent not only without impeachment but without aspersion which was a most Noble and Princely caution for mens Reputations are tender things and ought to be like Christs Coat without seam And it was more to be respected in this Case because it met with two great Persons A Nobleman that his Majesty had favoured and advanced and his Lady being of a great and Honourable House though I think it be true that the Writers say that there is no Pomegranate so fair or so sound but may have a perished Kernel Nay I see plainly in those excellent Papers of his Majesties own hand-writing as so many beams of Iustice issuing from that Vertue which so much doth shine in him the business so evenly carried without prejudice whether it were a true Accusation on the one part or a practice or false Accusation on the other as shewed plainly that his Majesties judgment was Tanquam tabula rasa as a clean pair of Tables and his ears Tanquam janua aperta as a gate not side open but wide open to the Truth as it should be discovered And I may truly affirm that there was never in this Kingdom nor in any other the blood of a private Gentleman vindicated Cum tanto motu Regni or to say better Cum tanto plausu Regni If it had concerned the King or Prince there could not have been greater or better Commissioners The term hath been almost turned into a Iustium or Vacancy the people being more willing to be lookers on in this business than proceeders in their own There hath been no care of discovery omitted no moment of time lost and therefore I will conclude with the saying of Solomon this part of my Speech Gloria Deicelare rem and gloria Regis scrutari rem It is the glory of God to conceal a thing and it is the glory of the King to find it out And his Majesties honor is the greater for that he shewed to the World this business as it hath relation to my Lord of Somerset whose Case in no sort I do fore-judg being ignorant of the secrets of the cause but take him as the Law takes him hitherto for a suspect I say the King hath to his great honor shewed That were any man in such a case of blood as the Signet of his right-hand as the Scripture saith he would put him off Now will I come to the particular Charge of these Gentlemen And first I will by way of Narrative relate the Fact with the occasion of it This wretched man Weston who was the Actor or Mechanical party in this Impoysonment the first day being indicted by a very substantial Iury of selected Citizens to the number of nineteen who found Billa vera yet nevertheless at the first stood mute But after some days intermission it pleased God to cast out the Dumb Devil and he put himself upon his Trial and was by a Iury of great value upon his own Confessions and other testimonies found guilty So as thirty and one sufficient Iurors have past upon him and he had also his Judgment and Execution awarded After this being in preparation for another World he sent for Sir Overbury's Father and falling down upon his knees with great remorse
hot and intemperate Region to soom cool Considerations If he should yield by Silence or Connivence to this Protestation it would remain as an impregnable Bulwark for the people to Posterity And what is this terrible thing their just Liberties If he should oppose it with Rigor it might produce such an intestine Division at home as with all industry he strove to prevent abroad Break the Treaty with Spain he would not his Heart was too much set upon it for he could find no Protestant Princess good enough the high and elated Extraction of Kings will raise the people up to a kind of Adoration as the old Heathens did the Race of their Gods and Heroes Whereas true Honesty and piety finds out such matches as may as well bring Glory to God as to man not worldly Blessings only but heavenly also Lose the love of the people he was loth for he thought his peaceable Reign gained upon them and that no King had ever deserved better of a People than he But Peace is a kind of Soft Rayment or Masking-dress not always to be worn Standing lakes beget Corruption The Pool of Bethesda had no Virtue till it was stirred War is necessary as Physick for unsound Bodies Iustum id bellum quibus necessarium When the King had weighed every particular scruple by the Ballance of his own Reason and Councel about him he took a Resolution to dissolve the Parliament which he did by Proclamation the sixth of Ianuary being fifteen days after the Protestation was made so much time he measured out by the Scale of consideration before he would pull down such a Structure of Love as never was built by the people for any of his Predecessors which he implies in his Proclamation laying there all the blame upon the House of Commons and not on them in general but on some ill-tempered Spirits as he called them that sowed Tares among the Corn and frustrated the Hopes of a plentiful Harvest Striving by these imputations to take away the Odium that such a Dissolution might produce The Parliament and consequently the Union between the King and People being thus dissolved every man's tongue is let loose to run Riot And though the King loved Hunting above all other exercises and had many good Hunters about him yet all those and the Strength of a Proclamation put out to forbid talking of State Affairs could not restrain them from mouthing out That Great Britain was become less than little England that they had lost strength by changing Sexes and that he was no King but a Fidler's Son otherwise he would not suffer such disorders at home and so much dishonour abroad So dangerous it is for Princes by a stegmatick remisseness to slacken the ligaments of the peoples tongues for such an overflux of bad Humor may bring their obedience to a Paralytick And the Story of David Ricius written by the King 's own Tutor Buchanan had died in every English Opinion if it had not had a new Impression by these miscarriages Edward Herbert Lord Herbert of Castle â—Land and Lord Hâ—rbert of Câ—â—erbery in England The Earl of Oxford was betrayed and accused by one White a Papist who was vulgarly called after in derision by the Name of Oxford-White to have spoken some words to the Dishonour of the King and disparagement of his Government and was committed to the Tower The Earl of Southampton was also committed to the Dean of Westminster Oxford lay by it a great while and being an Active man the King sent him at last to Sea to be one of Buckingham's Vice-Admirals for the English Coast while Sir Robert Mansell guarded the Coasts of Spain from being infested with the Turks of Algier and Sally Sir Edward Cook that was looked upon as one of the great incendiaries in the House of Commons is put from the Council Table with disgrace The King saying he was the fittest instrument for a Tyrant that ever was in England And yet in the House he called the King's Prerogative a great Over-grown Monster And how can these agree Unless because the King would not take his counsel he hanged himself on the other side But whether the King had cause to say the one I know not but he it seems found cause enough to say the other Sir Thomas Crew Sir Dudly Digges Sir Nathaniel Rich and Sir Iames Perrot men of great Repute and knowledge active in the House were sent into Ireland and joyned with others in commission to inquire into Misdemeanors committed there but it was thought as a punishment for what they had committed here for they were long detained from their own occasions under the colour of an honorable imployment And Sir Peter Hammon of Kent and others were sent into the Palatinate This kind of punishment beginning now to be in fashion and not long after this Sir Iohn Savile the Knight of York-shire that carried all the Country at a Beck and a powerful Man in the House is taken off by the King made Comptroler of his Household a Privy Councellor and not long after a Baron so the King found out two ways of silencing those that were able to do him mischief Active Spirits that come too near him must either come nearer to him or be sent further from him which he doubts not will take off the edge and bate the sharpness of the Humor another time And these preferments and punishments were also practised by his successor with this Experiment in both that the most popular men as soon as they wore the Court Livery lost the love of the people but those that suffered for them were the more beloved and admired by them The Commons of England having more than an ordinary Genius to support and strengthen the pillars of their Liberties And as these Troubles bred disturbance at home so they begot discredit abroad for now by this Breach they undervalued the King's power as much as they did before his Spirit yea even in the King of Spain's own Towns whilst this beloved Treaty was in heat they in their Comedies presented Messengers bringing News in haste That the Palatinate was like to have a very formidable Army shortly on foot For the King of Denmark would furnish him with a hundred thousand picked Herrings the Hollanders with a hundred thousand Butter-boxes and England with a hundred thousand Ambassadors And they picture the King in one place with a Scabberd without a Sword In another place with a Sword that no body could draw out though divers stand pulling at it At Bruxels they painted him with his pockets hanging out and never a penny in them nor in his purse turned upside down In Antwerâ— they pictured the Queen of Bohemia like a poor Irish Mantler with her hair hanging about her ears and her child at her back with the King her father carrying the Cradle after her and every one of these Pictures had several Motto's expressing their Malice Such
with Recriminations which was not her manner heretofore The sleight and frivolous answer given by the Marquess of Bedmar unto Our Ambassador when he acquainted him with the Siege of Heidelburg The quarrellous occasion taken by the Emperor for calling the Diet at Ratisbone contrary to his own promise which in his dispatch to Us he confesseth to have broken as you will see by the Copy All which and many more which your own judgment in the perusal of the Dispatches will suggest unto you do minister unto Us cause sufficient of jealousie on the Emperor's part as you shall plainly tell that King although We will not do him that wrong as to mistrust that He gives the least consent to it In this confidence with much earnestness We shall still solicit him that for the affection he bears us and the desire which We suppose he hath that there may continue for ever a perfect Amity betwixt Us and the whole House of Austria he will not cease to do all good Offices herein letting him know directly that in these terms We cannot stand with the Emperor but that if Heidelburg be won or the Siege continue or the Cessation be long unnecessarily delayed We must recall Our Ambassador from Bruxels and treat no more as We have already given order hoping that whatsoever unkindness We shall conceive against the Emperor upon these occasions it shall not be interpreted to reflect in any sort upon the entire affection that is at this present and as We hope shall always continue betwixt Us and the Crown of Spain And therefore as we have heretofore sundry times promised in testimony of the sincerity of Our proceedings and of Our great Desire to preserve the Amity inviolable between Us and the whole House of Austria That in case Our Son-in-law would not be governed by Us that then we would not only forsake him but take part and joyn Our forces with the Emperor against him so you may fairly represent unto that King that in like manner we have Reason to expect the same Measure from him that upon the Emperor's averseness to a Cessation and Accommodation he will likewise Actually assist Us for the Recovery of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity unto Our Son-in-law as it hath been often times intimated from Spain To conclude We shall not need to say any more unto you touching this Point but to let you see that Our meaning is to carry all things fair with that King and not to give him any cause of Distrust or jealousie if you perceive that they intend to go really and roundly on with the Match Wherein nevertheless we must tell you that we have no great Cause to be well pleased with the Diligences used on that part when we observe that after so long an expectance of the Dispensation upon which the whole business as they will have it depends there is nothing yet returned but Queries and Oâ—jections Yet because we will not give over Our Patience a while longer until we understand more certainly what the effect thereof is like to be wherein we require you to be very Wary and watchful considering how Our Honour is therein ingaged we have thought fit to let you know how far we are pleased to inlarge Our self concerning those points demanded by the Pope and set down by way of Postil unto the Articles agreed upon betwixt Spain and Us as you shall see by the Power which Gage brought Us from Rome whereof we have sent you a Copy and our Resolutions thereupon Signed with our own hand for your warrant and Instruction And further then that since we cannot go without much prejudice inconvenience and dishonour to our self and our Son we hope and expect the King of Spain will bring it instantly to an issue without further delay which you are to press with all Diligence and earnestness that you may presently know their final Resolution and what we may expect thereupon But if any Respit of time be earnestly demanded and that you perceive it not possible for them to resolve until an answer come from Rome we then think it fit that you give them two Months time after your Audience that we may understand that King 's final Resolution before Christmas next at the furthest Wansted 9. Sept. 1622. This Letter doth not only discover the shuffling and Fox-like contrivances of the House of Austria to Work and Earth themselves in the Palatinate but also the scorns and reproaches put upon Our King and if I may so call them his Terriers who with little Bayings only let them work till they had got into their Fastnesses and strong holds and then they may Bay at leisure and blame their lazy Belief But notwithstanding our King threatens in his Letter if Heidelberg be lost and the Cessation delayed he will Treat no more yet the Desire of the Match was so radicated in his Heart that neither the loss of Heidleberg or Manheim that succeeded it nor the blocking up of Frankendale the last strong hold of his Son-in-laws Inheritance could Mortifie his Hopes But as the Emperor besieged these Towns with his Armies so he beset the King of Spain with his Treaties And the Lord Digby though quickned by this Letter did not lay open the cunning carriage of these contrivers which tended to root out the reformed Religion in Germany nor press home these particulars as he was injoined but only let the King of Spain know That his late Father by the advice of his Ecclesiasticks in Spain had consented to the Articles of Marriage in matters of Religion five months since yet there were demurs upon those points notwithstanding that the King of Great Britain complied in all things then demanded particularly what he would do in favour of the Catholicks But now after two years time the Pope of his own Accord without any intimation to Spain had sent directly for England propounding to the King his Master not only many alterations in the Capitulations before a Dispensation could be granted but intruded something new which the King would by no means yield unto wherefore to expedite the Business the King having neglected all other Treaties of marriage for his Son these six years past only in respect of this Treaty he is commanded to declare plainly to the King of Spain how far the King his Master may condescend in matters of Religion and if that will give content to proceed to a conclusion of the Marriage without more Delays seeing he hath yielded to much more than was capitulated in the late King of Spain's time if this will not satisfie that then without loss of more time the King his Master may dispose of his Son and the King of Spain of the Infanta as they please These things were ruminated on by the slow paced Spanish gravity and fair and plausible answers presented that like fruits of Dissimulation gave but small Nourishment to hope yet it kept it alive though in a
Canterbury knowing that a Toleration was to be admitted though he stood tottering in the King's Favour and had the Badg of a Puritan clapt upon him thought it better to discharge his Conscience though he hazarded all rather than be silent in such a Cause where the Glory of God and the Good of the Kingdom were so higly concerned Therefore he writes this letter to the King May it please your Majesty I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it hath pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in And now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty And therefore I beseech your Majesty give me leave freely to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do with me what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you Sir take into your consideration what the Act is next what the consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up that most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How Hateful will it be to God and grievous unto your good Subjects the true Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath often disputed and learnedly written against those wicked Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those Doctrines which your Pen hath told the World and your Conscience tels your Self are Superstitious Idolatrous and Detestable Add hereunto what you have done in sending the Prince into Spain without the consent of your Council the Privity and Approbation of your People And though Sir you have a large Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet hath the people a greater as the Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty their Eyes are fixed and Welfare depends And so tenderly is his going apprehended as believe it Sir however his return may be safe yet the drawers of him to that Action so dangerous to himself to desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestioned and unpunished Besides this Toleration which you endeavour to set up by Proclamation cannot be done without a Parliament unless your Majesty would let your Subjects see That you will take unto your self a liberty to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dreadful Consequence these things may draw after them I beseech your Majesty to consider And above all lest by this Toleration and discontinuance of the true profession of the Gospel whereby God hath blessed us and under which this Kingdom hath for many years flourished your Majesty do not draw upon the Kingdom in general and your Self in particular God's heavy Wrath and Indignation Thus in discharge of my Duty towards God to your Majesty and the place of my Calling I have taken humble Boldness to deliver my Conscience And now Sir do with me what you please Thus did our Solomon in his latter time though he had fought with the Beasts at Ephesus as one saith of him incline a little too much to the Beast Yet he made his tale so good to the Archbishop of Canterbury what reservations soever he had that he wrought upon the good old man afterwards in the Conclusion of the work to set his Hand as a Witness to the Articles And his desires were so heightned to the Heats of Spain which boyl'd him to such a Distemper that he would listen to nothing and almost yield to any thing rather than not to enjoy his own Humour Divers of his intimate Council affecting Popery were not slack to urge him to a Toleration and many Arguments were used inciting to it As that Catholicks were the King 's best and most peaceable Subjects the Puritans being the only Sticklers and the greatest Disturbers of the Royal peace trenching too boldly upon the Prerogative and striving to lessen the Kingly power But if the King had occasion to make use of the Catholicks he should find them more faithful to him than those that are ever contesting with him And why should not Catholicks with as much safety be permitted in England as the Protestants are in France That their Religion was full of Love and Charity where they could enjoy it with freedom and where Charity layes the Foundation the upper Building must needs be spiritual But these Arguments were answered and many reasons alledged against them proving the Nature of the Protestant Religion to be Compatible with the Nature of the Politick Laws of any State of what Religion soever Because it teacheth that the Government of any State whether Monarchial or Aristocratical is Supream within it self and not subordinate to any power without so that the Knot of Allegiance thereunto is so firmly tied that no Humane power can unloose or dissolve it Whereas on the contrary the Roman Religion acknowledging a Supremacy in another above that power which swayeth the State whereof they are Members must consequently hold that one stroke of that Supreme power is able to unsinew and cut in sunder all the Bonds which ty them to the Subordinate and Dependent Authority And therefore can ill accord with the Allegiance which Subjects owe to a Prince of their own Religion which makes Papists intolerable in a Protestant Common-wealth For what Faith can a Prince or People expect from them whose Tenet is That no Faith is to be held with Hereticks That the Protestants in France had merited better there than the Papists had done in England the one by their Loyalties to their lawful King having ransomed that Kingdom with their Bloods in the Pangs of her desperate Agonies from the Yoak of an Usurper within and the Tyranny of a Forain Scepter without The other seeking to write their Disloyalties in the Heart-Blood of the Princes and best Subjects of this Kingdom That the Number and Quality of the Professors of these different Religions in either Kingdom is to be observed For in France the Number of the Protestants were so great that a Toleration did not make them but found them a Considerable Party so strong as they could not have been suppressed without endangering the Kingdom But a Toleration in England would not find but form the Papists to be a considerable party witness their encrease by this late Connivency a thing which ought mainly to be avoided For the distraction of a State into several powerfull parties is alwaies weakning and often proveth the utter ruine thereof These thing were laid open to the King but all were waved by the King of Spain's Offering His engagement to the Pope by oath That he and the Prince his son should observe and keep the Articles stipulated betwixt them did exceedingly affect him And the Articles now coming to close up all they were ingrossed with a long preamble Declaring to all the World the much desired Union betwixt him and the King of Spain by the marriage of his son to
Philip Knevit Sir Iohn Tasborough Sir William Selbie Sir Richard Titchborn Sir Iohn Hall Sir George Perkins Sir Thomas Penrodduck Sir Nicholas Sanders Knights Besides divers Esquires Popishly addicted either in their own Persons or by means of their Wives too tedious to be expressed here And these were dispersed and seated in every County who were not only in Office and Commission but had Countenance from Court by which they grew up and flourished so that their exuberancie hindered the growth of any Goodness or Piety their Malice pleased to drop upon These men being now touched began to shrink in their Branches like the new-found Indian Plants but they quickly put out again for though this Disturbance or Movement came upon them by the Dissolution of one Treaty yet they presently got heart and spread again by the other which was in Agitation Carolus D. G. Rex Ang Sco Fran et Hib Henreta Maria D. G. Reg Ang Sco Fran et Hib But the Iesuitical Party both here and there were incessantly laborious for a greater Liberty and the King 's chief Agent in the Treaty Monsieur de Vieuxvill having pulled on him the Odium of the people through some miscarriages being committed Prisoner by the King to protect him from their Rage the Cardinal Richelieu entring then into his Infancy of Favour being preferred by the Queen-Mother to be a manager of the Treaty whose Intimate he was and more Stubborn for promoting the Catholique Cause yet all this could give no stop to the Career but that the Match would be made up upon very easie Terms But when the King of France understood by his Ministers and Agents in England how eager our King was for the Match for he desired it above all Earthly Blessings as one near him said of him for besides the Reproach he thought would fall upon him by another Breach he should lose the Glory of a Conjunction with Kings which he highly wound up his Opinion to to Sublime and as it were Deifie his Posterity in the esteem of the people so that he would almost submit to any thing rather than the Match should not go forward which the King of France finding he bated his Humour of earnestness for it and descended by the same Steps and Degrees that he found his Brother King advanced to it and got several great Immunities for the Papists by it notwithstanding all Our King 's fair Promises to the Parliament as may be seen by those Articles seal'd and sworn to by Our King some few Months before his Death But a little before this when the Hopes of the Match with France began to bud the Earl of Carlile was sent over to mature and Ripen the proceedings with the Earl of Holland to bring the Treaty to some perfection yet with private instructions That if they could find by their Spanish Correspondencies as the Earl of Carlile was a little Hispanioliz'd that the Match there had any Probability of taking effect with the new Propositions that then they should proceed no further in the French Treaty so earnest was the King for the one so Violent for the other The Sophisticate Drugs of the Spanish Restitution of the Palatinate having not yet lost their Operation Thus the Ambition of Princes that devolve all their Happiness upon glorious Extractions doth choak and smother those Considerations that Religion like a clear light discovers to be but gross and cloudy Policy which vanishes often and comes to nothing The Duke of Buckingham swoln with Grandure having two great Props to support him doubted not to Crush any thing that stood in his way so that he fell very heavily upon his Cousen the Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for he remembred how he repined at the Moneys that were spent in Spain and his Comportment to him since his coming over Middlesex being naturally of a Sullen and proud Humor was not such as he thought did become his Creature Therefore he Resolved to bring him down from that Height he had placed him in and quickly sound the means to do it For great Officers that dig deep in Worldly Treasures have many Underminers under them and those that are not just to themselves or others must make use of such as will not be so just to them so that a flaw may easily be found whereby a great Breach may be made And as Middlesex had not Innocency to Iustifie himself so he wanted Humility whereby others might Iustifie him which made him fall unpitied The Prince that was Buckingham's right hand took part against him in the House of Lords where he was Questioned which the King hearing of writes to the Prince from New-Market whither he often retired to be free and at ease from comber and noise of Business That he should not take part with any Faction in Parliament against the Earl of Middlesex but to reserve himself so that both sides might seek him for if he bandied to take away his Servants the time would come that others would do as much for him This wise Advice speaks Buckingham a little declining from the Meridian of the King's Favour or the King from his For if the King did know that Buckingham was his chief Persecutor it could not but relish ill with the Duke to have the King plead for him if the King did not 〈◊〉 know there was not then that intimacy betwixt them that used to be But the Treasurer's Actions being throughly canvased though he had not had such great Enemies he was found guilty of such misdemeanors as were not fit for a Man of Honour to commit so that the Parliament thought to Degrade him but that they looked on as an ill Precedent But though they took not away his Titles of Honour in Relation to his Posterity who had not offended yet they made him utterly uncapable of sitting in the House of Lords as a Peer And for his fine it was so great that the Duke by Report got Chelsie House out of him for his part of it There was an odd accident hapned in Northampton-shire while this Treasurer was in his Greatness One Harman a rich man that knew not well how to make use of his Riches having some bad Tenants and being informed that one of them which Owed him money had furnished himself to go to a Fair to buy some Provisions for his accommodation Harman walks as by accident to meet him in the way to the Market when he saw his Tenant he askt him for his Rent the man that was willing otherwise to dispose of his money denied he had any Yes I know thou hast money said Harman calling him by his Name I prithee let me have my Rent and with much importunity the man pulled out his money and gave all or the most part of it to his Landlord This coming to some Pragmatical knowledg the poor Man was advised to indict his Landlord for Robbing him and taking his Money from him in the High-way which he
of some of these Particulars they insisted upon the Bishops power of Confirmation which they would have every Minister capable of in his own Parish They disputed against the Cross in Baptism the Ring in Marriage the Surplice the Oath ex officio and other things that stuck with them which they hoped to get all purged away because the King was of a Northern constitution where no such things were practised not yet having felt the Kings pulse whom the Southern Air of the Bishops breaths had so wrought upon that He himself answers most of their Demands Sometimes gently applying Lenitives where he found Ingenuity for he was Learned and Eloquent other times Corrosives telling them these Oppositions proceeded more from stubborness in Opinion than tenderness of Conscience and so betwixt his Arguments and Kingly Authority menaced them to a Conformity which proved a way of Silencing them for the present and some of them were content to acquiesce for the future and the King managed this Discourse with such power which they expected not from him and therefore more danted at That Whitgift Arch. Bishop of Canterbury though a holy grave and pious man highly pleased with it with a sugred bait which Princes are apt enough to swallow said He was verily perswaded that the King spake by the Spirit of God This Conference was on the fourteenth of Ianuary and this good man expired the nine and twentieth of February following in David's fulness of days leaving a Name like a sweet perfume behind him And Bancroft a sturdy piece succeeded him but not with the same Spirit for what Whitgift strove to do by Sweetness and Gentleness Bancroft did persevere in with Rigour and Severity Thus the Bishops having gotten the Victory strove to maintain it and though not on the suddain yet by degrees they press so hard upon the Non-conformists whom they held under the yoke of a Law that many of them are forced to seek Foreign Refuge They prevailed not only for themselves here but by their means not long after the King looked back into Scotland and put the Keys there again into the Bishops hands unlocking the passage to the enjoyment of their Temporal Estates which swel'd them so high that in his Sons time the Women of Scotland pulled them out of their tottering seats On the other side the late Conspiracy of Cobham and Grey had so chilled the Kings blood that he begins to take notice of the swarms of Priests that flockt into the Kingdom For though the Conspirators were of several Religions yet in their correspondence with Foreign Princes Religion was the pretence For in every alteration of Kingdoms few are so modest but they will throw in the Hook of their vain Hopes thinking to get something in the troubled Stream The Iesuits were not slack coming with the Seal of the Fisher in spreading their Nets but a Proclamation broke through them The King being contented to let them alone till they came too near him willing to comply rather than exasperate the safety of his own person made him look to the safety of Religion and to secure both He found this the best Remedy Declaring to all the World the cause of this Restriction VINVIT QVI PATITVR OBIIT ANNO AETATIS SVAE 73 Having after some time spent in setling the Politick affairs of this Realm of late bestowed no small labour in composing certain Differences We found among Our Clergy about Rites and Ceremonies heretofore established in this Church of England and reduced the same to such an order and form as We doubt not but every spirit that is led only with piety and not with humour should be therein satisfied It appeared unto Us in debating these Matters that a greater Contagion to Our Religion than could proceed from these light differences was eminent by persons common Enemies to them both namely the great numbers of Priests both Seminaries and Iesuits abounding in this Realm as well of such as were here before Our coming to the Crown as of such as have resorted hither since using their Functions and Professions with greater liberty than heretofore they durst have done partly upon a vain confidence of some Innovation in matters of Religion to be done by Us which We never intended nor gave any man cause to suspect and partly from the assurance of Our general Pardon granted according to the Custom of Our Progenitors at Our Coronation for offences past in the days of the late Queen which Pardon 's many of the said Priests have procured under Our Great Seal and holding themselves thereby free from danger of the Laws do with great audacity exercise all offices of their Profession both saying Masses and perswading Our Subjects from the Religion established reconciling them to the Church of Rome and by consequence seducing them from their Duty and Obedience to Us. Wherefore We hold Our self obliged both in Consequence and Wisdom to use all good means to keep Our Subjects from being affected with superstitious Opinions which are not only pernicious to their own souls but the ready way to corrupt their Duty and Allegiance which cannot be any way so safely performed as by keeping from them the Instruments of that infection which are Priests of all sorts ordained in Foreign parts by Authority prohibited by the Laws of the Land concerning whom therefore We have thought fit to publish to all Our Subjects this open Declaration of Our pleasure c. Willing and Commanding all manner of Iesuits Seminaries and other Priests whatsoever having Ordination from any Authority by the Laws of this Realm prohibited to take notice that Our pleasure is that they do before the nineteenth of March next depart forth of Our Realm and Dominions And to that purpose it shall be lawful for all Officers of Our Ports to suffer the said Priests to depart into Foreign parts between this and said nineteenth day of March Admonishing and assuring all such Iesuits Seminaries and Priests of what sort soever that if any of them after the said time shall be taken within this Realm or any of Our Dominions or departing now upon this Our pleasure signified shall hereafter return into this Our Realm or any of Our Dominions again they shall be left to the penalty of the Laws here being in force concerning them without hope of any favour or remission from Us c. Which though perhaps it may appear to some a great severity towards that sort of Our Subjects yet doubt We not when it shall be considered with indifferent judgment what cause hath moved Us to use this Providence all men will justifie Us therein For to whom is it unknown into what peril Our Person was like to be drawn and Our Realm unto Confusion not many Months since by Conspiracy First conceived by persons of that sort Which when other Princes shall duly observe We assure Our selves they will no way conceive that this alteration proceedeth from any change of disposition but out of
providence to prevent the perils otherwise inevitable Considering their absolute submission to Foreign Iurisdiction at their first taking Orders doth leave so conditional an authority to Kings over their Subjects as the same Power by which they were made may dispense at pleasure with the strictest Bond of Loyalty and Love between a King his People Among which Foreign Powers though We acknowledg Our self personally so much beholden to the now Bishop of Rome for his kind Offices and private temporal Carriages towards Us in many things as We shall be ever ready to requite the same towards him as Bishop of Rome in state and condition of a Secular Prince Yet when we consider and observe the course and Clame of that See We have no reason to imagine that Princes of Our Religion and Profession can expect any assurance long to continue unless it might be assented by mediation of other Christian Princes that some good course might be taken by a general Council free and lawfully called to pluck up those Roots of Dangers and Iealousies which arise about Religion as well between Prince and Prince as between them and their Subjects and to make it manifest that no State or Potentate either hath or can challenge power to dispose of earthly Kingdoms or Monarchies or to dispense with Subjects obedience to their natural Soveraigns In which charitable Action there is no Prince living that will be readier than We shall be to concur even to the uttermost of Our Power not only out of particular disposition to live peaceably with all States and Princes of Christendom but because such a setled Amity might by an Union in Religion be established among Christian Princes as might enable Us all to resist the common Enemy Given at Our Palace at Westminster the two and twentieth day of February in the first year of Our Reign c. This did something allay the heat and hopes of the Iesuits and their correspondents but it made way for dark and more secret Contrivances which afterwards they put in practice On the contrary another Proclamation came out for Vniformity in Religion according to the Law established to reduce those to Conformity that had not received satisfaction at the last Conference The Bishops thought themselves unsecure while so many opposites unblameable in their conversations by their Pens and Preaching gained upon the people striking at the very Root of Hierarchy that it was a hard Question whether the Iesuits whose Principles would advance their Greatness or these that would pluck it down were most odious to them And now Proclamations are the activest Agents some go abroad to please the people some the King All Monopolies like diseases that crept in when the good old Queen had not strength enough to keep them out must be purged away and such protections as licentious liberty had granted to hinder proceedings in Law must be taken off Saltpeter-men that will dig up any mans house by authority where they are not well fee'd must be restrained and Purveyors Cart-takers and such insolent Officers as were grievances to the people must be cryed down by Proclamation A Prince that is invited or comes newly to a Kingdom must have his Chariot wheels smooth shod And yet the liberty of Hunting must be forbidden the Kings Game preserved and a strict Proclamation threatens the disobeyers Indeed take this Kings Reign from the beginning to the end and you shall find Proclamations current Coin and the people took them for good payment a great while till the multitude of them lessened their valuation The Bishops could not be so wary but some Courtier or other would commend a Preacher to the King if they knew any of excellent parts so that some preached before him that were averse to the Bishops ways Among the rest one Mr. Burges an excellent Preacher and a pious man moderately touching upon the Ceremonies said They were like the Roman Senators Glasses which were not worth a mans life or livelihood For saith he this Senator invited Augustus Caesar to a Dinner and as he was coming to the Feast he heard a horrid Out-cry and saw some company drawing a man after them that made that noise the Emperor demanded the cause of that violence it was answered their Master had condemned this man to the Fish-ponds for breaking a Glass which he set a high value and esteem upon Caesar commanded a stay of the Execution and when he came to the House he asked the Senator whether he had Glasses worth a mans life Who answered being a great lover of such things that he had Glasses he valued at the price of a Province Let me see them saith Augustus and he brought him up to a room well furnished The Emperor saw them beautiful to the eye but knew withal they might be the cause of much mischief therefore he broke them all with this expression Better all these perish than one man I will leave it saith he to your Majesty to apply But the Bishops got this and some other things against him by the end and silenced him for venting any more such comparisons So that for many years after he practised Physick and grew an excellent Physician Put upon second considerations he was admitted again to Preach retaining both his Piety and Integrity though he writ a book for the moderate use of the Ceremonies ending his days in a good old age at Sutton Cofeld in Warwick-shire after a journey into the Palatinate as shall be exprest in its time The fifth of August this year had a new title given to it The Kings Deliveries in the North must resound here Whether the Gowries attempted upon the Kings person or the King on theirs is variously reported It may be he retained something of his Predecessor and great Parent Henry the seventh that made Religion give way to Policy oftentimes cursing and thundring out the Churches fulminations against his own Ministers that they might be received with the more intimate familiarity with his Foreign Enemies for the better discovery of their designs I will not say the celebration of this Holy-day had so much Prophaneness for Fame may be a slanderer But where there is a strength of Policy there is often a power of worldly wisdom that manages and sways it The King forgot not the services there done him or the secret contrivances acted for him for Erskin and Ramsey two of his then deliverers were not long after rewarded with wealth and honour the one made Earl of Kellie the other Earl of Holderness the first prime Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to the King and second got to his Bedfellow one of the prime Beauties of the Kingdom daughter to Robert Earl of Sussex and both of them had their Masters purse at command yet in our time the one died poor with many children the other poor and childless The Kings first going abroad was privately to visit some of his houses for naturally he did not love to be looked on
this the passage to his entertainment The King strucken suddenly with such heaps asked the Treasurer what this money was for who told him he had received his Majesties Commands to give so much to the Viscount Rochester The King that either carelesly thought five thousand pound to be no more than the noise so much makes in Scotland which doth not amount to above five hundred pounds or cunningly if he knew the value knew also the Treasurers meaning said it was too much for one man and made him be contented with less than the half And now the King casts his thoughts towards Peterborough where his Mother lay whom he caused to be translated to a Magnificent Tomb at Westminster And somewhat suitable to her mind when she was living she had a translucent passage in the night through the City of London by multitudes of Torches The Tapers placed by the Tomb and the Altar in the Cathedral smoaking with them like an Offertory with all the Ceremonies and Voices their Quires and Copes could express attended by many Prelates and Nobles who payd this last Tribute to her memory This was accounted a Piaculous action of the Kings by many though some have not stuck to say That as Queen Elizabeth was willing to be rid of the Queen of Scots yet would not have it her action and being it could not be done without her command when it was done she renounced her own act So though the King was angry when he heard his Mother was taken away by a violent death recalling his Ambassador threatning War and making a great noise which was after calmed and closed up with a large Pension from the Queen yet he might well enough be pleased that such a spirit was layd as might have conjured up three Kingdoms against him For Patrick Grey that the King sent to disswade Queen Elizabeth from taking away his Mothers life was the greatest Instrument to perswade her to it Distilling always into her this Sentence Mortua non mordet When she is dead she cannot bite But the Love that tends to self-preservation is an adjunct of Nature more powerful than Filial duty and therefore there will be no great strife where there are not adequate operations This time was also presented unto us in a various dress and the event shewed though some years after there was more cause of Mourning than Rejoycing though the latter got the predominance For the Prince Elector Palatine came over into England to Marry the Kings only Daughter and Death deprived us of the Kings eldest Son A Prince as eminent in Nobleness as in Blood and having a spirit too full of life and splendour to be long shrouded in a cloud of flesh If that which gave life to his life had been less he might happily have lived longer Not that there was too much Oyl or that concurrent Natural Balsamum in this fair and well-composed Lamp to extinguish it self but the light that came from it might cast so radiant a lustre as by darkning others it came to lose the benefit of its own glory Iealousie is like fire that burns all before it and that fire is hot enough to dissolve all Bonds that tends to the diminution of a Crown The Prince of Spain his contemporary Son to Philip the second not long before this like a young Phaeton wished himself but one day in his Fathers Throne and he fell not long after into the hard hand of an immature fate before he could step into the Chariot So dangerous are the paths of Greatness that the tongue many times rouling aside makes men tread awry Strange Rumors are raised upon this sudden expiration of our Prince the disease being so violent that the combate with Nature in the strength of youth being almost nineteen years of age lasted not above five days Some say he was poysoned with a bunch of Grapes others attribute it to the venemous scent of a pair of Gloves presented to him the distemper lying for the most part in the head They that knew neither of these are strucken with fear and amazement as if they had tasted or felt the effects of those violences Private whisperings and suspicions of some new designs a foot broaching Prophetical terrors That a black CARLO D'AVSTRIA PRINCIPE DI SPAGNA Christmas would produce a bloody Lent For the Spaniard who opposed the marriage of the Prince Palatine and saw their ruin growing up in Prince Henries towardly Spirit were reputed vulgarly the Mint-masters of some horrid practices and that a Ship of Pocket Pistols was come out of Spain fit Instruments for a Massacre And these Trepidations were not only in the lower Region but wrought upwards so high that Proclamations were sent abroad to forbid the making or carrying of Pistols under a foot long in the Barrel And all Papists are not only dis-armed being ever esteemed Vassals to the Catholick King but their Actions with caution pried into In such dark clouds as these the whole Kingdom was at a loss all ordinary Transitions of Nature are imputed to prodigious Omens the greater the fears are the more blazing is the Meteor that arises from them Some that knew the bickerings betwixt the Prince and the Viscount muttered out dark Sentences that durst not look into the light especially Sir Iames Elphington who observing the Prince one day to be discontented with the Viscount offered to kill him but the Prince reproved him with a gallant Spirit saying If there were Cause he would do it himself Now whether these rumors begot a further scrutiny or whether it be the Court-trick to daub and slubber over things that may be perspicuous I know not But the Physicians about the Prince gave it under their hands which was spread abroad in several copies that he died of a strong malignant Feaver so are all violent dissolutions where Nature hath power of resistance that his Liver was pale and livid lead-like the Gall had no Gall but was full of wind the Spleen was unnaturally black and the Lungs in many places spotted with much corruption the Midriff or Diaphragma blackish and the Head in some places full of blood and in some places full of clear water Thus was he Anatomized to amuze the World and clear the suspicion of poyson as if no venoms could produce these effects He died the sixth of November and was carried on a Hearse Triumphing even in Death to Westminster the seventh of December following the pomp of the Funeral being fully compleated with the People tears and Lamentations But the King though he could not but be troubled to lose so near a part of himself looked over all these Mists and like the Sun dispelled all these Clouds and Vapours commanding no man should appear in the Court in mourning he would have nothing in his Eye to bring so sad a Message to his Heart The jollity feasting and magnificence of Christmas must not be laid down There were Princes and Nobles
was the third who suffered on Tower Hill a Man much pitied being drawn in by the allurements of Northampton to be a Spectator rather than an Actor in this bloody Tragedy but his Connivence cost him his life And being a man full of sorrow for his offence he left two Pillars behind him at his death for Watch-Towers to all that pass by in this Bark of frail Mortality to prevent Shipwrack One was Not to vow any thing to God but to perform it The other was Not to take a pride in any Parts though never so excellent For the first he said he was a great Gamester and loved it and having lost one time much money he seriously and advisedly between God and his own Soul clapping his hand on his breast spake thus as it were to God If ever I play again then let me be hanged and breaking my Vow said he now God hath paid my Imprecation home The second was He took a great delight in his Pen And that Pen to use his own words which I was so proud of hath struck me dead and like Absolons hair hath hanged me for there dropt a word or two from my Pen in a Letter to the Earl of Northampton which upon my salvation I am not able to answer At my Arraignment I pleaded hard for my life and protested mine innocency but when my own Pen came against me I was not able to speak for my self but stood as one amazed or that had no tongue Such damps doth guiltiness cast upon the Spirit The fourth that fell by the stroke of Iustice was Franklin a Fellow as sordid in his death as pernicious in his life whose name deserves not so much as memory JOHN HOLLES 1st EARL OF CLARE She died before him Her death was infamous his without fame the obscurity of the rest of his life darkning the splendor of it And though she died as it were in a corner in so private a condition the loathsomeness of her death made it as conspicuous as on the house top For that part of her Body which had been the receptacle of most of her sin grown rotten though she never had but one Child the ligaments failing it fell down and was cut away in flakes with a most nauseous and putrid savour which to augment she would roul her self in her own ordure in her bed took delight in it Thus her affections varied For nothing could be found sweet enough to augment her Beauties at first and nothing stinking enough to decipher her loathsomeness at last Pardon the sharpness of these expressions for they are for the Glory of God who often makes his punishments in the ballance of his Iustice of equal weight with our sins For his Person He was rather well compacted than tall his features and favour comely and handsome rather than beautiful the hair of his head flaxen that of his face tinctured with yellow of the Sycambrian colour In his own nature of a gentle mind and affable disposition having publick affections till they were all swallowed up in this gulf of beauty which did precipitate him into these dangerous Contrivances For that which made his friendship false diverted his publick affection to his private interest and when he found himself guilty of what he thought might ruin him he grew covetous to heap that together which he thought might preserve him So that at one breach that our Corruptions make many mischiefs follow in the crowd And if he had not met with such a Woman he might have been a good man but trials and strong temptations enhanceth the Price of Vertue the conflict is gallant but to be overcome debaseth a man the more by how much his fall is the greater I was loth to separate these Delinquents in their Trials being close woven by the length of Sir Francis Bacons Speech in the Star-Chamber against Hollis Wentworth and Lumsden But knowing what an Ornament his Oratory will give to this Story and how usual it was for ancient Historians to insert their Harangues of State as well as Military Orations I could not decline this though it comes almost in the Rere the rather because it will serve as a Seal and Confirmation of what is formerly written And thus it was THE Offence wherewith I shall charge the three Offenders at the Bar is a misdemeanour of a high Nature tending to the defacing and scandal of Iustice in a great Cause Capital The particular Charge is this the King among many of his Princely Vertues is known to excel in that proper Vertue of the Imperial Throne which is Iustice it is a Master Vertue unto which the other three are ministrant and do service Wisdom serveth to discover and discern of Innocencies and Guiltiness Fortitude is to persecute and execute and Temperance so to carry Iustice as it be not passionate in the pursuit nor confused in valuing Persons nor precipitate in Time For this his Majesties Vertue of Iustice God hath of late raised an Occasion and erected as it were a Stage or Theatre much for his Honour to shew and act it in the pursuit of the violent untimely death of Sir Thomas Overbury and therein cleansing the Land from blood For if blood doth cry to Heaven in Gods ears this is a stench I may say in the Nostrils of God and Man This work of Iustice the greater and more excellent it is you will soon conclude the greater is the offence of any that have sought to affront or traduce it And therefore before I descend unto the particular Charge of these Offenders I will say somewhat of the Crime of Impoysonment somewhat of the particular Circumstances of this Fact upon Overbury and thirdly of the Kings great and worthy care and carriage in this business The offence of Impoysonment is most truly figured in that Device and Description which was made of the nature of Caius Caligula That he was Lutum sanguine maceratum Mire cemented with blood For as it is one of the highest offences in guiltiness so it is the basest of all others in the minds of Offenders Treason Magnum aliquid spectant they aim at great things but this is vile and base I have found in the Book of God examples of all other offences but not any one of an Impoysonment or an Impoysoner I find mention of some fear of casual Impoysonments when the Waters were corrupted and bitter they came complaining in a fearful manner Master Mors in olla And I find mention of Poysons of Beasts and Serpents The Poysons of Asps is under their lips saith the Psalm but I find no mention in a Human Creature of a malicious and murtherous Impoysonment Let their table be made a snare is certainly most true of Impoysonment but that I think was meant of the Treachery of Friends that were participant of the same Table This is an offence that hath two spurs of offending Spes perficiendi spes celandi it is
were of transcendent parts yet was he tainted with the same infection and not many years after perished in his own corruption which shews That neither Example nor Precept he having seen so many and been made capable of so much can be a Pilot sufficient to any Port of Happiness though Reason be never so able to direct if Grace doth not give the gate But the King more to exalt Iustice and to shew the people his high abilities came in Iune this year to the Star-Chamber where in a long and well-weighed Discourse he turns over the volume of his mind that the World might read his excellent parts in lively characters He told the Lords he came thither in imitation of Henry the seventh his great Predecessor and the reason he came no sooner was that he resolved with Pythagoras for seven years to keep silence and learn the Laws of the Kingdom before he would teach others and the other seven years he was studying to find an occasion to come that might not be with prejudice For in his own cause he could not come in a great cause betwixt man and man it might be thought some particular favour brought him thither and in a small Cause it was not fit for him to come but now he had so much to say in relation to good Government that he could no longer forbear First He charges himself Secondly The judges Thirdly The Auditory in general In his own Charge he lays a foundation for raising a most excellent structure in Government wherein he was a Master-workman and had a most admirable Theory and full abilities to put it in practice and happily the bent of his intentions tended that way though it had for the most part a loose strong And to that which concerned the Judges he not only reckons up their Duties in their publick Relation but shews them the Iurisdiction and power of their several Courts how far every one did extend to which he would have them limited that they might not clash and contest one against another to shake the Basis on which they were built but that there might be a harmony and sweet concordance among them Expressing himself with such Elegance and Prudence that the most studious Lawyer whose design had been to imbellish a Discourse fitting for the ears of his Prince could not have gone beyond what he exprest to his People so strong and retentive was his judgment and memory so natural and genuine that which came from them that it did emanare flow from him to the admiration of the hearers To the people in general and under-Officers he gave an admonition to submit to the Law and Justice of the Land and not to go upon new Puritan strains such was his expression to make all things popular but to keep themselves within the antient limits of Obedience For he feared Innovation as a Monster got loose which should be always kept in such a Labyrinth as none should come at but by the Clew of Reason Then he commands the Judges in their Circuits to take notice of those Justices of the Peace that were most active for the good of the Country that they might have incouragement from him For to use his own words I value them that serve me faithfully there equally with those that attend my person Therefore let none be ashamed of this Office or be discouraged in being a Justice of the Peace if he serve worthily in it The Chancellor under me makes Justices and puts them out but neither I nor he can tell what they are therefore we must be informed by you Judges who can only tell who do well and who do ill without which how can the good be cherished and the rest put out the good Justices are careful to attend the service of the King and Country the bad are idle slow-bellies that abide always at home given to a life of ease and delight liker Ladies than Men and think it is enough to contemplate Justice when as Virtusin actione consistet contemplative Justice is no Justice and contemplative Justices are fit to be put out Another sort of Justices are Busie-bodies and will have all men dance after their Pipe and follow their Greatness or else will not be content A sort of men Qui se primos omnium esse putant nec sunt tamen These proud spirits must know that the Country is ordained to follow God and the King and not them Another sort are they that go seldom to the Kings service but when it is to help some of their Kindred or Alliance so they come to help ther Friends or hurt their Enemies making Jugice serve for a shadow to Faction and tumultuating the Country Another sort are Gentlemen of great worth in their own conceit and cannot be content with the present form of Government but must have a kind of liberty in the people and must be gracious Lords and Redeemers of their Liberty and in every cause that concerns Prerogative give a snatch against Monarchy through their Puritanical itching after Popularity some of them have shewed themselves too bold of late in the lower House of Parliament And when all is done if there were not a King they would be less cared for than other men So wise the Kings fears made him and so wary to prevent the popular violence And even in these Infant-times the contention doth appear which afterward got more strength when by his power he had gained in every County such as he made subservient to his will For as the King strove to loosen the Piles and Banks of the peoples liberties so the people strove to bound and keep off the Inundation of his Prerogative Then he takes notice of the swarms of Gentry that through the instigation of their Wives or to new model and fashion their Daughters who if they were unmarried mar'd their Marriages if married lost their Reputations and rob their husbands purses did neglect their Country Hospitality and cumber the City a general Nuisance to the Kingdom being as the spleen to the Body which as in measure it over-grows the Body wasts and seeing a Proclamation will not keep them at home he requires that the power of the Star-chamber may not only regulate them but the exorbitancy of the new buildings about the City which he still much repined at being a shelter for them where they spent their Estates in Coaches Lacquies and fine Cloaths like French-men living miserably in their houses like Italians becoming Apes to other Nations Whereas it was the honour of the English Nobility and Gentry above all Countries in the World to be hospitable among their Tenants Which they may the better do by the fertility and abundance of all things Thus the King pried into every miscarriage being willing to reform these then growing abuses But among all the heights of Reason that the spirit of man doth actuate and give life to the highest and most transcendent is that of Religion which
accused her to be a Witch and the Author of all his misery This old woman is sent to the Bishops Chancellor at Lichfield to be examined the Boy is brought thither to confront her and having his back towards her at her coming into the Room where the Chancellor was before she yet entred or appeared he falls into a most bitter Agony crying out Now she comes now my Tormentor comes wreathing and tearing himself in so horrid a manner that it did not only breed amazement but pity in the Spectators there being many with expectation attending the issue Which with some other probabilities were an inducement to the Chancellor to send the woman to Stafford Goal At the next Assizes for that County the Boy and his Parents appear as Witnesses against the Witch the Boy was placed in a conspicuous part of the Court with his face to the Bench eying the Judg continually in a very peaceable and quiet posture and as the woman was coming in when the Court thought it impossible the Boy should be sensible of her appearance he fell into a more raging fit than ever he was possest with before So stupendiously unnatural that it was deemed by all that saw it that nothing but a Diabolical Spirit could work such horrid effects This thus openly acted and the Relation of what was done at Lichfield and other probabilities evidencing the old woman that had no good Reputation among her Neighbours being of a tetrical and froward temper incident to old age found few Friends to plead her Cause so that being indicted for Witchcraft she was found guilty by the Iury and Condemned to die Doctor Morton Bishop of that Diocess a great Father of the Anglicane Church and happily then on the Bench about Secular Affairs hearing that some Romish Priests had been tampering with their Exorcisms to the undevilling of the Boy and finding little reason produced why or for what cause the Witch should use the Child so ill was perswaded this might be some jugling trick in them for effecting their miraculous ends He therefore besought the Iudg to reprieve the woman till the next Assizes and he would take the Boy home with him have him carefully and strictly looked to and doubted not before than time to find out the Bottom of some secret and hidden â—â—â—rivance The Iudg assented to the Bishop's request and so the Boy was carried to Eccleshal Castle the Bishops House whither his fits followed him with a great deal of violence For being put out of his râ—ad having formerly all sorts of people come to admire him and now being more carefully looked to he grew sâ—llen and would not eat sometimes in two or three days so that his belly was almost clung and grown to his back and he had a new swelling about his throat which never appeared before lay in his Bed sometimes as it were senseless sometimes stâ—ring with his eyes and foaming at the mouth sometimes striking those that stood near him his own careful mother being one whom he made all black about the arms and breasts never spoke but in his fits and then a strange gibbrish at other 〈◊〉 he only muttered and made signs The Bishop visited him often striving sometimes to soften him with gentleness at other times he handled him roughly with objurgations and threatnings but his ill Spirit is capable of neither He spoke to him one time some of the Greek Testament to see how that would work and it brought him into his fit At another time he uttered some Verses out of the Greek Poets which his Devil was not so learned as to distinguish for that put him into a fit again so that the Bishop was confirmed that he was an Impostor of a most pernicious and pernicious Spirit but how to Conjure it out of him was the difficulty And finding words and menaces made no impression in him he fell to blows for taking him out of his Bed and having one to hold him the Bishop gave him six very smart lashes with a Rod which moved the Boy no more than if he had been an insensible stock They also thrust needles into his toes and fingers betwixt the nails clapt burning candles to his eye-lids till they sing ed the hair off to divert him when he was in his fits but with all their persecutions he neither winch'd nor stirred so that the Actors were more troubled to execute than he to suffer And in this condition growing almost desperate he would make signs for knives or any other instrument to do himself a mischief therefore strict care was taken and many watchful eyes set over him to prevent any such danger Thus he continued almost a quarter of a year at last his Vrine grew so black that the Physicians thought Nature had left her usual operations having never found in any Human Body so much Adust matter to give so deep and deadly a tincture This struck the good Bishop very near For he was certain the Priests had been Hammering about him and now if he should miscarry under his hand those Mini-masters of mischief would in their dark shops coin such scandals against him as might pass current in the Worlds opinion therefore he used all the means he could possible as well to preserve him as to discover him But finding the Boy indure so many Trials with patience so much tough hardship and robustness in tender years he resolved if his water continued black to sitâ— the matter no further To find out which he set a trusty servant to watch him through a hole that looked into the Chamber upon the Bed which the Boy knew not of The Bishop going that morning with his Family to a Lecture all things were very still in the house and the Boy finding all quiet no noise about him he lifts himself up stares and listens and at length gets out of his Bed and in the straw or mat under it takes out an Ink-horn and makes water in the Chamber-pot through a piece of the Cotton in his hand another little piece of the Cotton he puts into his Prepuce covering it with the skin and that was for a Reserve if he should be forced to make water when company is by Thus having cunningly put himself in order he hides the Ink-horn again and returns to his Bed The man that was appointed to watch him seeing all this discovered it to the Bishop at his coming home who came to him presently and askt him how he did He according to his usual manner pointed to his water looked ghastly on it and mutter'd out his old howling tone The Bishop that meant now to deal roundly with him said Sirrah you have Ink in your bed-straw which you make use of to black your water and your knavery is found out and calling in his man he took out the Ink-horn where the Boy had hid it and the man justified that he saw him make water through the Cotton Which with the Bishops
the Peace of the Land and had opposed himself against the wholsom advice of divers Princes Lords and excellent Persons aswel without as within the Land and that he had injured some of their mightiest Allies by his secret practices namely by calumniating the King of Great Britain as though he had been the Author of these troubles in the Low-Countries For that he had kindled the fire of Dissention in the Provinces had raised Souldiers in the Diocess of Utrecht had disreputed his Excellency as much as lay in his power had revealed the secrets of the Council and had received Presents and Gifts from Foreign Princes Finally for that by his Machinations and Plots new States have been erected in the State new Governments against the Government and new Unions and Alliances against the ancient Union to the general perturbation as well of Policy as of Religion to the exhausting of the Treasures of the Land to the jealousie and dislike not only of the Confederates but of the Natives of the Country who by this means were brought into danger that they were like to fall into final ruine He was born in Amersford descended from the Antient Family of Olden Bernevelt in his Fortune a private Gentleman but by his Industry Travels and Studies at home and abroad he made himself capable of managing the highest affairs which he did almost for forty years together He was five times Extraordinary Ambassador into England and France had been in the Field with the Princes of Orange and the Army as one of the States thirty two several Leaguers nothing was acted without his Advice Indeed he was the Tongue and Genius of the State But whether Ambition now in his old Age mounted him to grapple with the Prince for power or whether that wild and frantick fancy that men often brand their spirits with and call it Conscience but is nothing but pertinacy in opinion impt the wings of his Affections we cannot discover being only the secret Companions of his own Breast and let them dye with him But thus he ended in the seventy first year of his Age. He lived to see that which he had so much opposed a National Synod held at Dort whither our King sent Doctor George Carlton Bishop of Landaff Doctor Ioseph Hall Dean of Worcester Doctor Iohn Davenant Professor Regius in Cambridge and Master of Queens College and Doctor Samuel Ward Regent of Sidney College in Cambridge Divines of great Reputation sound Learning and well-grounded Faith Where they met with divers Divines from Switzerland and Germany besides the Natives of the Netherlands who altogether in a full Synod quashed as much as in them lay the Arminian Opinions and though they could not utterly extirpate the roots of the Heresie yet they laid them so low that they never broke out there since into exuberant branches though some of the Fibrae the small veins left behind much tainted our Nation as shall be expressed hereafter And now the Heavens declare the Glory of God A mighty blazing Comet appears in Libra whose bearded Beams covered the Virgin Sign it began on Wednesday morning the 18th of November this year and vanished away on Wednesday the 16th of December following making in 28 days motion its Circumgiration over most Parts of the known World extending its radiant locks by the observation of Astronomers sometimes 45 Degrees in length And as our Doctor Bambridge observed towards the Declination of it about the 11th of December it past over London in the morning and so hasted more Northwards even as far as the Orcades VERA EFFIGIES R.DI IN CHRISTO PATRIS GEORGII CARLETON EPISC.PI CICESTRIENSIS GEORGIUS CARLETONVS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Age tu solus regai cor Orbis cor Sol est regai cor tu Pateriut Sol Orbe â—at reg sui seripta meant 〈◊〉 Si cor principum 〈…〉 Anglie reite Per 〈…〉 Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus Aether they make not their Course in Vain These Apparitions do always portend some horrid Events here below and are Messengers of mischief to poor Mortals The Divine Wisdom pointing to us what we should do to prevent these threatned dangers that we may have our lives for a prey It appears first in Libra the Emblem of Iustice and streams over the Virgin Astrea which as the Poet saith was last of all the Virtues left the Earth Ultima Coelestum terras Astrea reliquit We must by this Admonition from Heaven learn to do justly and it is for injustice that these sad Omens threaten us What miserable Effects of War Ruine and Devastation in most parts of the known World followed at the heels of this stupendious Harbinger is obvious to all and so far as relates to us may be declared God willing in the Progress of this History but I hope the operation and power of it is almost at an end for it began in Germany took France and Spain in the way and past over England to the Orcades and so vanished as Bainbridge relates in the Description of it Fol. 7. Fulgura non semper nec semper praelia durant let 's count it almost past For War like lightning doth not always last The first remarkable Accident that happened in England after this Prodigious Forerunner was the death of Queen Anne who died of a Dropsie at Hampton-Court and thence brought to her Palace in the Strand for the more triumphant glory of her Obsequies The Common People who naturally admire their Princes placing them in a Region above ordinary Mortals thought this great Light in Heaven was sent as a Flambeau to her Funeral their dark minds not discovering while this Blaze was burning the fire of War that broke out in Bohemia wherein many thousands perished She was in her great Condition a good Woman not tempted from that height she stood on to embroyl her spirit much with things below her as some busy-bodies do only giving her self content in her own House with such Recreations as might not make Time tedious to her And though great Persons Actions are often pried into and made Envies mark yet nothing could be fixt upon her that left any great impression but that she may have engraven upon her Monument a Character of Virtue About this time Henry Earl of Northumberland who had been a Prisoner in the Tower ever since the Powder plot a long Recluse was set at liberty The Cause of his Confinement was upon a Sentence in Star-Chamber for nourishing in his House Thomas Piercy his Kinsman who was one of the Complotters of the Treason And though nothing could be proved against the Earl to endanger his life yet upon the presumpâ—â—on of his knowledge of it he was fined in thirty thousand pounds and imprisoned in the Tower He was married to Dorothy eldest Daughter to Walter Earl of Essex by whom hâ— had a Nâ—ble yet surviving Issue two Sâ—ns and tâ—o Daughters Algernon now Earl of Northumberland and Henry both in
one of you in particular And the like I may say of one that sits there Buckingham He hath been so ready upon all occasions to do good Offices both for the House in general and every Member in particular One proof thereof I hope my Lord of Arundel hath already witnessed unto you in his report made unto you of my answer touching the Privileges of the Nobility how earnestly he spake unto me of that matter Now my Lords the time draws near of your Recess whether Formality will leave you time for proceeding now to Sentence against all or any of the persons now in question I know not But for my part since both Houses have dealt so lovingly and freely with me in giving me as a free Gift two Subsidies in a more loving manner than hath been given to any King before and so accepted by me And since I cannot yet retribute by a General Pardon which hath by Form usually been reserved to the end of a Parliament The least I can do which I can forbear no longer is to do something in present for the ease and good of my People Three Patents at this time have been complained of and thought great Grievances 1. That of the Inns and Hosteries 2. That of Ale-houses 3. That of Gold and Silver Thread My purpose is to strike them all dead and that Time may not be lost I will have it done presently That concerning Ale-houses I would have to be left to the managing of Justices of the Peace as before That of Gold and Silver Thread was most vilely executed both for wrong done to mens persons as also for abuse in the Stuff for it was a kind of false Coin I have already freed the Persons that were in Prison I will now also damn the Patent and this may seem instead of a Pardon All these three I will have recalled by Proclamation and wish you to advise of the fittest Form to that purpose I hear also there is another Bill among you against Informers I desire you my Lords that as you tender my Honour and the good of my People ye will put that Bill to an end as soon as you can and at your next meeting to make it one of your first works For I have already shewed my dislike of that kind of people openly in Star-Chamber and it will be the greatest ease to me and all those that are near about me at Court that may be For I remember that since the beginning of this Parliament Buckingham hath told me he never found such quiet and rest as in this time of Parliament from Projecters and Informers who at other times miserably vexed him at all hours And now I confess that when I looked before upon the face of the Government I thought as every man would have done that the People were never so happy as in my time For even as at divers times I have looked upon many of my Coppices riding about them and they appeared on the outside very thick and well-grown unto me but when I turned into the midst of them I found them all bitten with in and full of Plains and bare Spots like an Apple or Pear fair and smooth without but when ye cleave it asunder you find it rotten at the heart Even so this Kingdom the external Government being as good as ever it was and I am sure as learned Iudges as ever it had and I hope as honest administring Iustice within it and for Peace both at home and abroad I may truly say more setled and longer lasting than ever any before together with as great Plenty as ever so as it was to be thought that every Man might sit in safety under his own Vine and Figtree Yet I am ashamed and it makes my hair stand upright to consider how in this time my People have been vexed and polled by the vile execution of Projects Patents Bills of Conformity and such like which besides the trouble of my People have more exhausted their purses than Subsidies would have done Now my Lords before I go hence since God hath made me the great Iudge of this Land under him and that I must answer for the iustice of the same I will therefore according to my Place remember you of some things though I would not teach you for no man's knowledge can be so good but their memories will be the better to be refreshed And now because you are coming to give Iudgment all which moves from the the King that you may the better proceed take into your Care two things 1. To do Bonum 2. To do it Bené I call Bonum when all is well proved whereupon ye judge for then ye build upon a sure Foundation And by Benè I understand that ye proceed with all formality and legality wherein you have fit occasion to advise with the Iudges who are to assist you with their Opinions in Cases of that Nature and woe be to them if they advise you not well So the ground being good and the form orderly it will prove a Course sitting this High Court of Parliament In Sentence ye are to observe two parts First to recollect that which is worthy of Judging and Censuring And Secondly to proceed against these as against such like Crimes properly We doubt there will be many Matters before you some complained of out of passion and some out of just Cause of grievance Weigh both but be not carried away with the impertinent Discourses of them that name as well innocent men as guilty Proceed judicially and spare none where ye find just Cause to punish But let your Proceedings be according to Law and remember that Laws have not their eyes in their necks but in their foreheads For the Moral Reason for the punishment of Vices in all Kingdoms and Common-wealths is because of the breach of Laws standing in force for none can be punished for breach of Laws by Predestination before they be made There is yet one particular that I am to remember you of I hear that Sir Henry Yelverton who is now in the Tower upon a Sentence given in the Star-Chamber against him for deceiving my Trust is touched concerning a Warrant Dormant which he made while he was my Attorney I protest I never heard of this Warrant dormant before and I hold it as odious a matter as any is before you And if for respect to me ye have forborn to meddle with him in examination because he is my prisoner I do here freely remit him unto you and put him into your hands And this is all I have to say unto you at this time wishing you to proceed justly and nobly according to the Orders of your House And I pray God to bless you and you may assure your selves of my assistance Wishing that what I have said this day among you may be entred into the Records of this House Thus the King strove to mitigate the asperity and sharpness of the humors contracted in the
by the Text of Scripture free both the Doctrine and the Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either adversary especially where the Auditory is Suspected to be tainted with the One or the other infection 6. Lastly that the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath good cause to blame for this former remissness be more wary and choice in their licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licences in this kind And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom of England a new Body severed from the ancient Clergy as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be licensed henceforward in the Court of Faculties but only from a Recommendation of the Party from the Bishop of the Diocess under his hand and seal with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Confirmation under the great Seal of England And that such as do transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocess or in his default by the Arch-Bishop of the Province ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day until his Majesty by the advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further punishment The Directions the Archbishop recommended to his several Diocesans that they might be put in execution with caution And then may be observed that the King's affections tended to the peaceable comportment of his people that both Papist and Puritan might have a quiet being which preponderation of His puts them in Aequi-librio nay the Papist was in the prime Scale But this new thing called a Lecturer he could by no means endure unless he past through all the Briers of his several Courts to the Broad Seal which was a kind of pungent Ordeal Tryal to which he must put his Teste me ipso and then it was Orthodox so that though Lecturers were not absolutely forbidden yet the charge and trouble to come to it made the way inaccessible Preachers by an Order of Star-chamber in Heaven were first licensed with an Ite praedicate before Henry the Eighth's time and certainly they have a great Seal from thence for what they do Therefore it behoves them to take heed what they say left that Spirit they receive Directions from bind them not up But this Animosity of the King 's against Puritans was thought to be fomented by the Papists whose Agent Bishop Laud was suspected to be though in Religion he had a Motley form by himself and would never as a Priest told me plainly in Flanders bring his neck under the obedience of the Roman Yoak though he might stickle for the grandure of the Clergy And now he began to be Buckingham's Confessor as he expresseth in his own Notes and wore the Court Livery though the King had a sufficient character of him and was pleased with Asseveration to protest his incentive Spirit should be kept under that the flame should not break out by any Preferment from him But that was now forgotten and he crept so into favour that he was thought to be the Bellows that blew these Fires For the Papists used all the Artifices they could to make a breach between the King and his People that they might enter at the same for their own Ends which to accomplish they slily close with the chief ministers of State to put the King upon all his Projects and Monopolies displeasing to the people that they might the more Alienate their Affections from him Sowing their seeds of Division also betwixt Puritan and Protestant so that like the second Commandment they quite exclude the Protestant For all those were Puritans with this high-grown-Arminian-popish party that held in judgment the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches or in practice live according to the Doctrine publickly taught in the Church of England And they attribute the name of Protestant 1. To such Papists as either out of policy or by popish indulgence hold outward Communion with the Church of England 2. To such Protestants as were either tainted with or inclinable to their opinions 3. To indifferent Men who imbrace always that Religion that shall be commanded by Authority Or 4. To such Neutrals as care for no Religion but such as stands with their own liking so that they allow the Church of England the Refuse both of their Religion and Ours Then they strive to make a Division of Regians and Republicans The Regians are the great Dependents upon the Crown both in Church and State who swell up the Prerogative preaching and distilling into the King the Almightiness of his power That all that the People hath is the King 's and that it is by his mercy they have a bare empty Being And this hoisting up of the King they knew would stir up the Republicans to oppose him in his Designs by which they pinch as the King thinks his Prerogative feeding a strife betwixt Law and Prerogative whereby they escape the Dint of both and hope the fire they kindle will break out at last to consume their Adversaries That these things were acted and fomented by Papists was very probable for they were great Sticklers about the Court and Council-Table But it was too apparent that some of the Clergy to make their way the smoother to their wished end began so to adore the King that he could not be named but more reverence was done to it than to the Name of God And the Iudges in their itinerant Circuits the more to enslave the people to Obedience being to speak of the King would give him such Sacred and Oraculous Titles as if their advancement to higher places must necessarily be laid upon the foundation of the peoples debasement On the other side The well affected to Religion that knew no other inclination than the Dictates of their own Reason experiences of former times and the constant practices of the Romanists for propagating their own designs did by their writings and discourses strive to warm the King 's cold temper and put fresh spirits into his chilled veins shewing the Tyranny of the incroaching Monarchy of the House of Austria who was Rome's great Factor and how just and secure the opposing of such a growing power will be That no Sword is so sharp nor Arm 's so strong as those that are cemented with true Religion The security of Conscience grounded upon the Word of Truth being not only a Bulwark to defend but the best Engin to oppose Idolatry and Ambition Thus stood the Kingdom divided in it self But as the King strove after this Rupture betwixt him and the Parliament to settle things at home and keep his people in obedience so he was as active abroad to keep up his own Reputation For he made a full account to salve up all these miscarriages by the intended Match with Spain that his people might see he could discern further into the intrinsical matters of State than they and so make the
which I would have you find out and I will make it good whatsoever it be But in all other things procure the satisfaction of the King of Great Britain who hath deserved much and it shall content me so it be not in the Match Thus was our King's plain heartedness deluded his Honour blemished his Love among his Subjects diminished the time for a positive answer for the Dispensation from Rome long expired and prolonged his Childrens Patrimony destroyed and he left so unsatisfied that the Prince himself and the Marquess of Buckingham must go into Spain to unfold this Riddle where they found it as full of Aenigma's as at first He that went to tye a knot there found it so intangled that he took some time there to clear it and when it was clear he thought it best Scindere nodum to cut that at last which he could not unloose at first The Marquess Spinola having long since left the Palatinate to the Imperials Generals with a great Army consisting of above Thirty thousand men the last Summer sits down before Berghen ap Zome a Town of very great Strength and Importance upon the Borders of Brabant and incloses himself with two strong Lines of Circumvallation notwithstanding all the Power the Town could oppose from within or Prince Maurice General of the States Army without And though he were well intrenched for his own Security yet the Works of the Town were so impregnable that he could find no way to gain it but by starving them and that could not be done but by commanding the River and those Batteries that he planted to hinder the access of Shipping with Relief into the Town were within reach of their Cannon so that he found there was little good to be done tending to the reducing of it This struck the Marquess to the Heart that he should bury his Honour as he had done a great part of his Army in those bloody Trenches and therefore he gave scope to his Resolution to make use of his time for he converted his intentions of Starving to Assaulting and his assaults were the more furious because he found they would not last long and Old Morgan that gallant Colonel with his English Brigade gave them their hands full the Scots did Gallant Service in the Town and their Colonel Hinderson was slain but many of the Enemy fell on every side for it is a great disadvantage for living Bodies to fight against dead Walls being so high and unassaultable A General that goes to besiege a City should have his access to it in his apprehension as plain as a Mathematician hath a Demonstration except it be upon some emergent cause otherwise there is an Error in his account and there cannot be two for the Honour dyes in the first which touched the Marquess near being his great trouble and made him and his enterprise both droop ERNESTUS D G COMES MANSFELDIAE MARCHIO CASTELINO VI ET BUTIGLIERAE NOB DNS IN HELD SUP DUX BELLIC ET HEROS FORT MARTE votens decus et dubijs siâ—sucia rebus ERNESTUS CAMPI VIR generosus nic est Qui genus illustri ducens à stirpe Parentum Auget honoratum per sua facta genus E. 〈◊〉 D.M.C.B. But with many Necessities in their March through Lorrain and Lutzenburgh they came to Fleury within eight miles of Namurs where Corduba with a Spanish Army strove to hinder their passage The Conflict was great betwixt them and many slain on both sides and both triumphed in the Victory For Corduba kept the Field and Mansfieldt kept his way But Mansfieldt's Victory was the compleatest because he attained to his End which was to break through Corduba But Corduba did not attain to his End which was to hinder Mansfieldt Yet the Spanish Bravery was highly exalted with Bonfires and rejoycings both at Madrid and Bruxels The Duke of Brunswicke lost his Bridle Arm in that service and many Gentlemen both English and Scots out of Love to the Queen of Bohemia behaved themselves gallantly and let the Spaniard know it was more than an ordinary shock they encountered with Among whom Sir Charles Rich brother to the E. of Warwick was a Principal person whose Voluntary Spirit not necessity made danger his Companion where Honour attended it Sir Iames Heyes Knevet Humes Heiborn and other Commanders striving for Corrivalship in Bravery Spinola hearing that Mansfieldt was broken through Corduba's Army and come into Brabant made the Court Splendor of Corduba's Conquest appear but Ignes fatui which also something extinguisht the glory of his own fame For he thought it good policy seeing he should be necessitated to leave the Siege of Berghen to do it at that time when there might be cause to think it occasioned by that Accident more than his default And therefore as soon as the Prince of Orange and Mansfieldt had joyned forces though Corduba came to him and reinforced his Army yet Winter drawing on and his Army almost wasted he trussed up his Baggage in haste set his Camp a-fire and departed leaving to his Hungry Enemies good store of Wine and other Provisions in his burning Quarters And thus stood the Ballance this year betwixt the King of Spain and the Netherlands But our King receiving so many delays and dissatisfactions from Spain and Rome they begot him so much trouble and Vexation that crowding into his thoughts prest upon his Natural Temper some fits of Melancholy which those about him with facetious Mirth would strive to Mitigate And having exhausted their inventions or not making use of such as were more pregnant the Marquess and his Mother instead of Mirth fell upon Prophaneness thinking with that to please him and perhaps they were only mistaken in the unseasonableness of the time being not then suitable to the Humor For they caus'd Mistris Aspernham a young Gentlewoman of the Kindred to dress a Pigg like a Child and the Old Countess like a Midwife brought it in to the King in a rich Mantle Turpin that married one of the Kindred whose name was renowned for a Bishop in the Romances of the Emperor Charlemain was drest like a Bishop in his Sattin Gown Lawn sleeves and other Pontifical Ornaments who with the Common Prayer book began the words of Baptism one attending with a silver Bason of Water for the Service the King hearing the Ceremonies of Baptism read and the squeeking noise of that Brute he most abhorred turned himself to see what Pageant it was and finding Turpin's face which he well knew drest like a Bishop and the Marquess whose face he most of all loved stand as a Godfather he cryed out away for shame what Blasphemy is this and turning aside with a frown he gave them cause to think that such ungodly Mirth would rather increase than cure his Melancholly Another time at Theobalds the King wanted some papers that had Relation to the Spanish Treaty so hot in Motion which raised him highly into the Passion of Anger
Saxony and which had continued free until of late were again opened and the free exercise of Religion generally permitted We see no sure Peace likely to be in the Empire but utter ruine rather and final desolation may every day be feared Seeing it was apparently known that it was not those that professed the Reformed Religion who begun these troubles but the Noblemen and great Officers whose designs the other were compelled to obey And for the Prince Palatine seeing he is already sufficiently punished it were far more commendable in your Majesty that now at last upon his submission you would be pleased to restore him to his Lands and Dignities otherwise there is no likelihood of Restoring Peace to the Empire And in the transferring of the Electorate this main thing were fit to be considered Whether the Prince Palatine excluded in his own person doth debar his Children who by the providence of their Ancestors had before this Act of their Father jus adquisitum an Hereditary Right unto the Electorate or the brother of the Prince Palatine who hath no way offended your Majesty nor by reason of his Minority could not Or others of the Kindred of the Prince Palatine should be or ought to be in this Case neglected If they be it will be hardly taken of other Electors and Princes and occasion various Distrusts betwixt the Head and the Members For the Princes allied unto the Prince Palatine who have been quiet hitherto upon Considence of Caesar's Clemency now perceiving all hope of that Dignity unto their Family taken away must needs have Recourse unto Arms and endeavour the Recovery of it by force And if Caesar should die this controversie being not compounded it may well be feared many inconveniences will fall out contrary to Caesar's desire For though upon the advantage of his Victories he hath had the Law in his own hand if the Wheel should turn that side which is lowest will get up again Therefore We hold it more Wisdom to advise Caesar not to proceed too suddenly but rather to accept the intercession of other Electors and Princes as in such Cases hath hitherto been done Considering the Prince Palatine was then but young abused by ill Councel and no ways the Author of those stirs in Bohemia they being in an uproar before his coming among them And if his Majesty would pardon the Prince Palatine he should ever oblige the whole Electoral College and all the Kings and Princes allied unto him and the Prince himself and all his posterity would be advised when they remember their Exile how they embroil themselves in such Business Whereas if he saw the door of Mercy quite shut and nothing left him but his life it would make both him and his desperate to attempt so as there would be no end of the Troubles in the Roman Empire Caesar therefore should do far righter if for his own Honour and the publick good he would prefer mercy before severity and not pursue these Extremities To these things the Catholick Princes said That Caesar had shown Causes enough which he had to deprive the Palatine and the Palatinate being devolved to him he might dispose of it without having regard to the Palatine line according to his own pleasure That his Majesty could not well hold any terms of Amity with him though he were restored and this impunity would give occasion unto others to offend As for the matter of Punishment there would be little difference between the Emperor and the Palatine seeing that his Majestie 's Lands and Dominions are no less wasted than the others and yet there is great difference in the cause for this fell out to Caesar without his Demerit and the Palatine did the other having no necessity to it That he had refused mercy in not acknowledging his fault nor seeking for favour And it is an unequal Request for Caesar to accept of any Reconciliation whilst his General Mansfield is yet in the field and prosecutes his cause by force of Arms. The safety of the Empire consisting in the filling up of the Electoral College Caesar hath done very well in a speedy resolving on it and other Emperors in the like causes have done the same before To which the other party answered That for the security of the Imperial Dignity and safety of the Empire there is no question but that it consisted in the Concord of the Electoral College with the Emperor And the Prince Palatine hath as you say done amiss yet if Caesar shall still use Rigor the Princes of the lower Saxony are of Opinion there can be no Peace established in the Empire the good of which being most worthy to be preferred Caesar should do wisely to suffer himself to be intreated and change Rigor into Clemency making the Empire by that means glad with a desired Peace otherwise new flames were likely to break out in those places which yet are preserved from burning That Caesar had now by the aid of the Electors and Princes recovered his lost Provinces and wanting nothing but quiet possession of them which this desired Reconciliation was the best means to effect The hand of War may be lifted up but who knows where the stroak will fall and Victory is so long uncertain as the adverse party hath power to reinforce his Arms. And for the renewing of the War there is yet a fair pretence left for that in bestowing the Electorate the Prince Palatine's sons and brother have been neglected and with these Principles are the minds of many of the Princes of the Empire already possessed The King of Great Britain besides could not but take it ill that he should now see all his endeavours take no good effect but his only daughter and her Children left in exile And as for the manner of this Reconciliation there might be a particular Treaty and Consultation wherein Caesar's Prerogative imperial being reserved all parties might receive Satisfaction and the Empire once again flourish in Peace If these Remedies be not applied it will produce ill blood yea Heart-burnings and distrusts in the Electoral College it self These several answers delivered to the Emperor the twentieth of Ianuary he replyed unto thanking them for their consultations And though some saith he have wisely heretofore resolved us that our proceedings in proscribing the Palatine was both legal and necessary yet now we perceive some of you are of opinion that according to our Capitulation Royal we ought not to have proceeded so far without the Knowledg and consent of the Electors But as we have no ways gone begond this our Capitulation but even before we set out the Ban punctually considered all that was necessary to be taken notice of so did we also desire nothing more then that a Diet might be convoked for the due treating and advising upon this Business which meeting being impeded by the prosecution of the War by the Palatine we could do no less to take down his courage than publish
a peaceable King and have had the Honour in my Titles and impress to be stiled Rex pacificus should without necessity imbroil my self in a War Which is so far from my Nature and from the Honour I have had both at home and abroad in endeavouring to avoid the effusion of Christian blood of which too much hath been shed and so much against my Heart that unless it be upon such a necessity that I may call it as some merrily say it of Women Malum Necessarium I shall be loth to enter into it And I must likewise acquaint you that I have had no small hopes given me of Obtaining better Conditions for Restitution of the Palatinate and that even since the setting down of this Parliament But be not jealous nor think me such a King that would under pretext of asking your advice put a scorn upon you by disdaining or rejecting it For you remember that in my first Speech unto you for proof of my Love to my People I craved your advice in this great and weighty affair But in a matter of this Weight I must consider how this Course may agree with my Conscience and Honour and next according to the Parable uttered by our Saviour after I was resolved of the Necessity and justness of the Cause to consider how I shall be enabled to raise Forces for this purpose As concerning the Case of my Children I am now old and would be glad as Moses saw the Land of Promise from a high Mountain though he had not leave to set his foot in it so would it be a great Comfort to me that God would so long prolong my daies as if I might not see the Restitution yet at least to be assured that it would be That then I might with old Simeon say Nunc dimittis servum tuum Domine Otherwise it would be a great grief unto me and I should dy with a heavy and discomforted Heart I have often said and particularly in the last Parliament and I shall be ever of the Mind that as I am not ambitious of other Mens Goods or Lands so I desire not to enjoy a surrow of Land in England Scotland and Ireland without Restitution of the Palatinate and in this Mind I will live and dy But let me acquaint you a little with the difficulties of this Case He is an unhappy man who shall advise a King to War and it is an unchristian thing to seek that by blood which may be had by Peace Besides I think your Intentions are not to ingage me in a War but withal you will consider how many things there are requisite thereunto I omit to speak of my Own Necessities they are too well known Sure I am I have had the least help in Parliament of any King that reigned over you these many years I have let you know that my disabilities are increased by the Charge of my Son's Journey into Spain which I was at for his Honour and the Honour of the Nation by sending Ambassadours by Maintenance of my Children and by assisting of the Palatinate I have incurred a great Debt to the King of Denmark which I am not able to pay The Low-Countries who in regard of their nearness are fittest to help for the Recovery of the Palatinate are at so low an ebb that if I assist them not they will be scarce able to subsist The Princes of Germany that should do me any good are all poor and weak and disheartned and do expect assistance from hence For Ireland I leave it to you if that be not a back-door fit to be secured For the Navy I thank God it is now in a better Case than ever it was yet more must be done and before it can be prepared as it ought to be it will require a new Charge as well for the own Strength as for securing of the Coasts My Children I vow to God eat no bread but by my means I must maintain them and not see them want My Customs are the best part of my Revenues and in effect the Substance of all I have to live on All which are Farmed out upon Condition That if there be War those Bargains are to be anulled Subsidies ask a great time to bring in and if you assist me that Way I must take them up before-hand upon Credit which will eat up a great part of them This being my Case to enter into a War without sufficient means to support it were to shew my Teeth and do no more In the mean time I heartily thank you for your Advice and will seriously think upon it As I pray you to consider of these other Points My Treasurer to whose Office it appertains shall more at large inform you of those things that concern my Estate Thus freely do I open my Heart to you and having your Hearts I cannot want your Helps for it is the Heart that opens the Purse not the Purse the Heart I will deal frankly with you shew me the means how I may do what you would have me and if I take a Resolution upon your Advice to enter into a War then your own Deputies shall have the disposing of the Money I will not meddle with it but you shall appoint your own Treasurers I say not this with purpose to invite you to open your Purses and then to slight you so much as not to follow your Counsel nor ingage you before I be ingaged my self Give me what you will for my own means for I protest none of the Money which you shall give for these Uses shall be issued but for those ends If upon your Offer I shall find the means to make a War honourable and sate and that I resolve to imbrace your Advice then I promise you on the Word of a King That although War and Peace be the peculiar Prerogative of Kings yet as I have advised with you in the Treaties on which War may ensue so I will not Treat nor accept of Peace without first acquainting you with it and hearing your Advice and therein go the proper way of Parliament in conferring and consulting with you And happily Conditions of Peace will be the better when we are prepared for War according to the Proverb That Weapons breed Peace Your kind Carriage gives me much Contentment and that comforts me which my Lord of Canterbury said That there was not a contrary Voice among you all like the Seventy Interpreters who were led by the breath of God I am so desirous to forget all rents in former Parliaments that it shall not be my default if I be not in love with Parliaments and call them often and desire to end my life in that intercourse between Me and my People for making of good Laws reforming abuses and maintaining the good Government of the Common-Wealth Therefore go on cheerfully and advise of these points and my Resolution shall be then declared None can blame the King for being too cautelous
or wary in such an Eruption as this so contrary to his Nature as he saith himself a War was a new World to him fearing to lay out by it more than he should receive And in this he was like the Man that when his Master gave great Charge to go and gather up his Rents in the Country and to take a pair of Pistols with him to bring home his Money with the more security After the Master had appointed him to pay so much in one place and so much in another that the Man saw he should not receive so much as he should disburse Bid his Master take his Pistols again he should not use them So the King fearing that when the War was begun there would not be where withal to maintain it Thanked the Parliament for their Advice and he would consider better of it And they seeling the King's Pulse by his expressions resolved now not to let him flag but to keep up the temper of his Spirit that a little thing would make decline again And therefore they seriously settled to their Business and answered his Expectation fully which they presented unto him shortly after in these words to his great Satisfaction Most Gracious Soveraign WE your Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled do first render to your Sacred Majesty Our most Dutiful Thanks for that to Our unspeakable Comfort you have vouchsafed to express your Self so well satisfied with Our late Declaration made unto your Majesty of Our general Resolution in pursuit of Our Humble Advice to assist your Majesty in a Parliamentary way with Our Persons and Abilities And whereas your Majesty in your Great Wisdom and Iudgment foreseeing that it will make a deeper impression both in the Enemies of that Cause and in your Friends and Allies if they shall not onely hear of the Cheerful Offers but also see the Real performance of your Subjects towards so great a Work Your Majesty was pleased to descend to a particular Proposition for the advancing of this great Business We therefore in all humbleness most ready and willing to give your Majesty and the whole World an ample Testimony of Our Sincere and Dutiful Intentions herein upon Mature Advice and Deliberation as well of the Weight and Importance of this great Affair as of the present Estate of this your Kingdom the Weal and Safety whereof is in Our Iudgments apparently threatned if your Majesties Resolution for the Dissolving of the Treaties now in question be longer deferred and that Provision for defence of your Realm and aid of your Friends and Allies be not seasonably made have with a Cheerful Consent of all the Commons no one dissenting and with a Full and Cheerful Consent of the Lords Resolved That upon your Majesties publique Declaration for the Dissolution and utter Discharge of both the said Treaties of the Marriage and the Palatinate in pursuit of Our Advice therein and towards the Support of that War which is likely to ensue And more particularly for those four Points proposed by your Majesty Namely for the Defence of this your Realm the Securing of Ireland the assistance of your Neighbours the States of the United Provinces and other your Majesties Friends and Allies and for the setting forth of your Royal Navy We will grant for the present the greatest Aid which ever was given in Parliament That is to say Three intire Subsidies and three Fifteens to be all paid within the compass of one whole Year after your Majestie shall be pleased to make the said Declaration The Money to be paid into the Hands and expended by the Direction of such Committees or Commissioners as hereafter shall be agreed upon at this present Session of Parliament And We most humbly beseech your Majesty to accept of these First Fruits of Our Hearty Oblation dedicated to that Work which We infinitely desire may prosper and be advanced And for the Future to rest confidently assured That We your Loyal and Loving Subjects will never fail in a Parliamentary way to assist your Majestie in so Royal a Design wherein your Own Honour and the Honour of your most Noble Son the Prince the Antient Renown of this Nation the Welfare and very Subsistence of your Noble and Onely Daughter and her Consort and their Posterity the Safety of your Own Kingdom and People and the Prosperity of your Neighbours and Allies are so deeply ingaged The Parliament by this Declaration came up so close to the King that he could make no evasion but rested contented now in his Latter time when the Almonds as it were begun to Blossom upon his head to plunge himself into a War which brought him again to the Parliament to thank them for their Readiness to assist him telling them That he is willing to follow their advice in the Anulling and Breach of these two Treaties They having given enough to begin a War but when the end will be he said God knows Yet he will ingage for himself and his Son his Successour That no means shall be left unused for recovery of the Palatinate And for all his Old Age if it might do any good he would go in person to further the Business But as he is contented to have the Parliament Committees to dispose of the Moneys by their Directions so the Design must not be acted by publique Councels For whether he shall send Two thousand or Ten thousand whether by Sea or Land East or West by Diversion or Invasion upon the Bavarian or the Emperor that must be left to the King And this he did that there might be no jealousies but to smooth every Rub betwixt them And to put it in execution a Council of War is chosen out of the old and long discontinued Militia of Ireland and some others of the Nobility and upon result of their Counsels after some debate it was concluded to send fix thousand men for the present into the Low Countreys to joyn with the States Forces against the King of Spain's mighty Armies under the command of Marquess Spinola that threatned the next Summer to over-run the Netherlands that weakning the Spaniard in Flanders they might have the more free access into Germany The Dissolution of the Treaties with Spain and the preparation for War resounding in every Ear gave such an Allarm to the Spanish Ambassadour the Marquess of Inoiosa that whether out of Truth and Knowledge as he pretended or Malice only cannot be determined But he sent to the King to let him know that the Duke of Buckingham had some dangerous Machination a foot that tended to his Destruction and the best he could expect would be a confinement to a Countrey-house in some Park during his life the Prince being now in full abilities and ripe in Government This Concussion was strong enough to shake an old Building that was of a fearful and tottering Temper especially if he considered how his Mother was