In the meane time I trust I have here sufficiently discovered refuted many common impostures and erroneous grosse mistakes in Law Policy Divinity Antiquity which have in later ages beene generally received as indubitable verities by most men yea professedly defended by sundry injudicious Lawyers and ignorant Divines though perchance reputed learned solid in their own and others opinions who never tooke the paines to dive into the true originall fundamentall creations institutions publicke Lawes Reasons Policies Jurisdictions compositions Rights Customes Histories of Kings Kingdomes Parliaments States Magistrates People the ignorance whereof hath made them confidently vent many grand absurdities and untruthes to the prejudice imbroyling and almost utter ruine of divers Kings and States which now I hope they will ingenuously acknowledge and recant with reall griefe and shame that they have so grossely cheated seduced Kings Kingdomes People and oft times stirred up civill warres to maintaine their idle lies crazy fictions as just Royall Rights and indubitable Prerogatives when as they are nothing lesse I shall not begge any mans beliefe of any Truth here newly discovered further than his own judgement conscience upon serious consideration shall convince him of it and himselfe discerne it fully ratified by substantial precedents and Authorities in the body and close of the Treatise Appendix Only this I shall request of every Reader to peruse over all the Parts of this Discourse with a cordiall Love of Truth and Peace and when he is convinced what is Truth then to live and dye in Pauls resolution 2 Cor. 13. 8. We can doe nothing against the Truth but for the Truth It was our Saviours owne reply to Pilate John 18. 37. For this end was I borne and for this cause came I into the world THAT I SHOULD BEARE WITNESSE UNTO THE TRUTH O then let it now be every ones end and practice too since it is the Truth and nothing else that shall make and keepe us free Free from Errors Troubles Tumults Warres Slavery Tyranny Treachery Popery dangers feares Wherefore love the Truth and Peace and then through Gods mercy we shall speedily regaine retaine them both Farewell THE Fourth Part of the Soveraign POWER of PARLIAMENTS and KINGDOMES The Parliaments Interest in the Militia Forts Navy Officers of the Kingdom IN the preceding Parts of this Discourse I have with as much perspicuity and sincerity as I could waded through those deepe and weighty differences of greatest importance which have lately to our great unhappinesse I know not by what evill spirits solicitation unexpectedly risen up by insensible degrees betweene the Kings Majestie and the present Parliament whose primitive sweet agreement made us not so happy as their subsequent Divisions in place affection opinion have rendred the whole three Kingdomes miserable in point of Royall Prerogatives onely which I have dispatched I should now proceed to other Controversies betweene them principally concerning the Subjects Liberties But before I passe to those particulars I shall present you with some few Records of speciall note casually omitted in their proper place through over-much haste and want of time which will very much cleare the Parliaments just right and ancient Jurisdiction In ordering the Militia of the Realme by Sea and Land in disposing the Ships the Forts of the Realme for the publicke safety in times of danger in concluding matters of Warre and Peace in placing and displacing the great Officers the Privy Counsellors of the Kingdome yea regulating the Kings owne houshold and meniall servants oft times when there was occasion which may serve as a supplement to the second part It it the determination of Henricus Rauzovius a Noble Dane a great Statesman and Souldier in his Commentarius Bellicus Dedicated to Christierne the fourth King of Denmarke Anno 1565. lib. 1. c. 3. That All Kings and Princes in most Republickes rightly and lawfully constituted are obliged by their paction entred into before their Inauguration Not to begin or move any Warre without the consent of all the Estates and Nobles Thus in my hearing Philip King of Spaine when he demanded and tooke an Oath from his Subjects in the Netherlands promised by a mutuall Oath to the Estates That he would make no warrs in those parts without their privity The same also most Noble King is received and observed not only in your Kingdomes and Dominions but likewise is in use almost in all Europe Therefore Frederick your Father of most famous memory knowing himselfe to be bound hereunto by compact before he would be involved in the Swedish Warre communicating the whole businesse faithfully to his people as well to the Senators of the Realme as to the Nobles of the Dukedomes maturely advised with them about the manner of waging it Wherefore lest the Warre which is undertaken bee accused as unjust by the States because it was undertaken without their advice contrary to custome and agreements all ought to be assumed into the Counsell and care of Warre For thus it will come to passe besides that things very well thought on and deliberated by many have for the most part better successes than those things which are rashly begun by some one that the Subjects who not unwillingly bring their estates and lives into danger will lesse feare the losse of both will fight more valiantly and will put forth all thier strength in prosecuting and ending the combate of warre even for this reason that themselves have beene the advisers of the warre Upon this reason not onely the Kings of the Jewes Arragon France Navarre and others as I have manifested in the Appendix but even of this our Realme have usually undertaken all their warres and ordered all their Military affaires both by Sea and Land by the advice and direction of their Parliaments as the Grand Councell of Warre both for King and Kingdome This I have plentifully manifested in the premises by sundry examples and shall here onely briefly ratifie with some few new Precedents In the first Parliament of 13 Ed. 3. after Proclamation made Num. 2. That none should come armed with weapons to the Parliament Num. 3. The causes of summoning the Parliament were shewed to the Lords and Commons to have their counsell and advice therein what was best to be done and expressed to be three First that every one great and small should consider in what manner the peace might most surely be preserved within the Realme Secondly how the Marches of Scotland and the Northerne parts might be best defended and kept against the enemies of Scotland Thirdly how the Sea should be guarded against the enemies that they should doe no dammage nor enter the Realme for to destroy it After this Num. 4. The Bishops and Letters from the King then in France relate to the Houses the Estate of the Kings Army warres and proceedings in France and the great debts the King stood ingaged in for the maintenance of his Army for discharge whereof and the Kings
said in full Parliament that if a treaty of peace or truce should be entertained betweene their Lord the King and his adversary of France that they thought it expedient and necessary if it should please the King that Mounseur de Guyen because he is the most sufficient person of the realme shall goe to the same Treaty And the King said that he liked it well if it pleased the said Lord de Guyen and thereupon Mounseur de Guyen said that he would with a very good will travell and doe any thing which might turne to the honour and profit of the King and of his realme In the Parliament of the 14 H. 6. Num. 10. The Kings grant of the custody of the Town and Castle of Calice the Towne of Risbanke the Castles of Hamures Marke Oye Stangate Bavelingham and of the Castle and Dominion of Guynes in Picardy to be made to Humfrey Duke of Glocester his unkle in the presence of the Lords spirituall and temporall then being in the present Parliament was on the 29 day of October read before them which being understood and mature deliberation taken thereupon the severall reasons of the said Lord being heard it was at last by their assent and consent agreed and ordered that the said Duke should have the custody of the said Towne Castles and premises to the end of nine yeeres then next ensuing which Charter was subscribed by all the Lords there present In the Parliament of 31 H. 6. Num. 41. pro custodia Maris it was enacted For as much as the King considering that as well divers His Clergy men of this his realm inhabiting nigh the coast of the Sea and others His Subjects using the Trade of Merchandises have been oftentimes grievously imprisoned distressed put to great sufferances and ransomes and their Ships Vessels and Merchandises of great value taken upon the Sea by his enemies and also Merchant strangers being under his leageance amity safegard or safe conduct upon the Sea have been robbed and spoyled against the forme and contents of such truces and safe conducts signed His Highnesse willing and intending sufficiently to provide for the remedy of such inconveniences and to eschew and avoyd all such robberies and dispoylers HATH BY THE ADVICE AND ASSENT OF THE LORDS SPIRITUALL AND TEMPORALL in his high Court of Parliament assembled desired certaine great Lords of this realme that is to say Richard Earle of Salisbury John Earle of Shrewsbury John Earle of Worcester James Earle of Wiltshire and Iohn Lord Sturton with great Navies of Ships and people defensible in great number purveyed of abiliments of warre to intend with all diligence to their possibility the safeguard and keeping of the Sea For which cause the subsidies of Tonnage and Poundage granted to the King for his naturall life this Parliament that they might be applied to such uses and intent as they be granted the King BY THE ADVICE AND ASSENT OF THE LORDS SPIRITUALL AND TEMPORALL AND COMMONS IN THIS PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED AND BY AUTHORITY OF THE SAME were granted to the said Earles and Lord Sturton and the survivers of them for three whole yeeres with power for them to appoint Collectors to receive and collect them in every Port without rendering any account so as they kept the covenants and endentures made between the King and them for the safegard of the Seas with a proviso that this Act during the three yeeres should not be prejudiciall to the custome of the Towne or Castle of Calice or Rishbanke for the payment of the wages and arreares of the Souldiers there And over that if the goods of any of the Kings liege-people or any of his friends be found in any Vessell of the Kings enemies without any safe conduct that then the said Earles and the Lord Sturton shall take and depart it among them and their retinue without any impeachment according to the Statute thereupon made In the Parliament of 33 H. 6. Num. 27. the said Lords were discharged of the custody of the Sea by the Parliament in these words For as much as the Earles of Salisbury Shrewsbury and Worcester and the Lord Sturton besought the Kings Highnesse in this present Parliament that it might like his Highnes and Excellency of his Noble grace to have them clearely discharged of the keeping of the Sea the King therefore and for other causes moving his Highnesse BY THE ADVICE OF THE LORDS SPIRITUALL AND TEMPORALL IN THE SAID PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED the 30 day of Iuly the 23 day of the same Parliament admitted their desire and would that the said Earles and Lord Sturton or any other THAT HAD THE KEEPING OF THE SEA BY AN ACT MADE IN THE LAST PARLIAMENT begun and holden at Redding and ended at Westminster be from the 30 day of July fully discharged of the keeping of the same and that IT SHOULD BE ENACTED OF RECORD In the Parliament of 39 H. 6. Num. 32. The King BY THE ADVICE OF THE LORDS SPIRITUALL AND TEMPORALL AND COMMONS IN THIS PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED AND BY AUTHORITY THEREOF ordained and established that his dearest cosin Richard Duke of Yorke rightfull heire to the Countries of England and France and of the Lordship and Land of Ireland have and take upon him the power and labour to ride into the parts of England and Wales where great rebellions murders riots spoylings executions and oppressions be used committed and attempted to represse subdue and appease them And also to resist the enemies of France and Scotland within the realme And further granted ordained and established by the said advice and authority that every Sheriffe with the power and might of his Sheriwicke and every Major Bailiffe Officer Minister and Subject of the said realme of England and of Wales shall attend upon his said cousin for the said intent as the case shall require and to the same intent be ready at the command of his said cousin and the same obey and performe in like case as they ought to doe at his commandement after the course of the Lawes of England and in Wales after the customes there c. And to cite no more presidents in so cleare a case in the Parliament of 21 Iacobi ch 33. The Temporalty having granted three intire Subsidies and three Fifteenes and tenths to King James towards the maintenance of the warres that might then suddenly insue upon the breach with Spaine and more particularly for the defence of the realme of England the securing of Ireland the assurance of the states of the united Provinces with the Kings friends and allies and for the setting forth of the Navy-royall did by that Act for the better disbursing of the said ayd and mannaging that warre according to the Parliaments true intention by that very Act wherein they gave the Subsidies did especially appoint eight Aldermen and other persons of London Treasurers to receive and issue the said moneys and appointed ten Lords and Knights particularly named in the Act to be of the Kings
the Parliament of 5. Henry 4. Num. 16. Upon certain prayers and requests made before by the Commons divers times touching the removing of divers persons as well aliens and others by reason of divers destructions by them moved and for certaine Articles appointed by the Lords upon the charges given to them by our Lord the King in Parliament and by the said Lords it was specially accorded That four persons to wit the Kings Confessor the Abbot of Dâ—ne Master Richard Derham and Crosseby of the Chamber shall be quite ousted and voided out of the Kings house whereupon the ninth of February the said Confessor Master Richard and Crosseby came before the King and Lords in Parliament and there the King in excusing the said four persons said openly that he knew not by them any cause or occasion in speciall for which they ought to bee removed from his houshold notwithstanding our said Lord the King well considered that what the said Lords and Commons shhall do or ordaine was for the good of him and of his Realme and therefore he would conforme himselfe to their intentions and did well agree to the said Ordinance which charged the said Confessor Master Richard and Crosseby to avoid his said Court and like charge should have beene given to the said Abbot had he been present And our Lord the King said further That he would doe the like with any other which was about his royall Person if he was in hatred or indignation with his people And Numb 37. To the end that good and just government and remedy may bee made of divers complaints grievances and mischiefs shewed to our Lord the King in this Parliament our Lord the King to the honour of God and upon the great instances and requests to him divers times made in this Parliament by the Commons of his Realm for the ease and comfort of all his Realme hath ordained certain Lords and others underwritten to be of his great and continuall Councell to wit the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Lincolne Chancellour of England the Bishops of Rochester Winchester Bath and Bangor the Duke of Yorke the Earles of Som merset and Westmerland the Lord Roos Treasurer of England the Keeper of the Great Seale the Lord Berkley the Lord Willoughby the Lord Furnevall the Lord Lovell Mounsier Pierce Courtney Master Hugh Waterton Master Iohn Cheyne Master Arnald Savage Iohn Northbury Iohn Doreward Iohn Cawson In the Parliament of 7. 8. Henry 4. Numb 31. The 22. day of May the Commons came before the King and his Lords in Parliament and then Iohn Tibetot their Speaker reheased how they had prayed the King in the beginning of the Parliament and after to increase the number of his Councell for the better government of the Realme and prayed the King to put it in execution and further rehearsed how that the Archbishop of Canterbury had reported to them That the King would be counselled by the most sage Lords of the Realme the which ought to have the survey of all that which shall be done for the good government of this Realme which thing the King agreed to doe and rehearsed with his own mouth That it was his entire will And thereupon a Bill made by the King himselfe by his own will was delivered containing the names of the Lords which shall be of his Councell the tenour of which Bill ensueth It is to bee remembred that our Lord the King considering the great labours occupations and diligence which he ought necessarily to imploy about the good government of his Realme and other his possessions as well on this side the Sea as beyond it First of all for the preservation of our Lord the King and of his Crowne and that the revenues of the same may be the better collected to his profit and increase as much as a man may justly doe to the end that he may the better sustaine his honourable estate And secondly for the confirmation of the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme to the end that equall right may be done to every one as well poor as rich Our Lord the King of his proper and good will desirous to be supported in the foresaid causes because that he cannot attend thereunto in proper person so much as he would for the great love and good affiance which he hath among others in the most revered Fathers in God the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Winchester and Excester the Duke of Yorke the Earle of Somerset the Lord Roos the Lord Burnet the Lord Lovell the Lord Willoughbie the Chancellour Treasurer and Keeper of the privie Seale the Steward and Chamberlaine Master Hugh Waterton Master Iohn Cheyney and Master Arnald Savage hath chosen and charged them to be of his counsell praying and commanding them that in all the foresaid causes they will put to their intire diligences for the profit of our said Lord the King and likewise for the confirmation of the Laws and Statutes aforesaid In the Parliament of 2. Henry 6. num 15. After divers speciall requests of the Commons of the Realme being in the present Parliament made to my Lord of Glocester Commissary of the King and to other Lords Spirituall and Temporall there for to have notice and conusance of the persons assigned and elected to be of the Kings Councell to their great ease and consolation By advice and assent of all the Lords Spirituall and Temporall aforesaid were elected and named certaine persons as well spirituall and temporall to be Councellours assistant to the governance of the Realm whose names here ensue The Duke of Glocester the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Norwich Worcester the Chancellour Treasurer and Keeper of the privie Seale the Duke of Excester the Earle of March the Earle of Warwick the Earle Marshall the Earle of Northumberland the Earle of Westmerland the Lord Cromwell the Lord Fitz-Hugh the Lord Bourchier the Lord Scroop Master Walter Hungerford Master John Tiptoff Thomas Chaucer William Allington In the Parliament of 29. Henry 6. num 16. Vpon the Petition of the Commons against divers Lords Bishops Knights Esquires and others to the number of 29. who mis-behaved themselves about the royall Person of the King and in other places by whose only meanes it was suggested the Kings possessions had been greatly diminished his Laws not executed the peace of the Realm not observed to the great hurt and trouble of the liege people of the Realm and likely subversion of the same of which misbehaviour universall noise and clamour was openly received thorowout all the Realme upon the same persons specified in the Petition all of them except the Lords and some few others without further evidence against them were by the King now removed from his presence and Court for a whole yeeres space within which time any man that could and would object against any of them should be patiently heard and intended to These few fresh Presidents added to the precedent
Kingdom which if they contemned to do thy would with force of Arms and Banners disslayed MARCH AGAINST THEM AS PUBLIKE ENEMIES SUBVERT THEIR CASTLES BURN THEIR HOUSES AND EDIFICES AND NOT CEASE TO DESTROY THEIR PONDS PARKES AND ORCHARDS Whereupon all the Lords Knights and People dâ—serting the King who had scarce seven Knights in all left with him confederated themselves to the Barons in the Common Cause wherein to be a Neuter was to be an enemy and no member of the politicke body in which all were equally engaged Whereupon the King thus deserted by all condescended speedily to their demands and confirmed the great Charter much against his will A very apt President for these times which would make the people more unanimous faithfull and couragious for the Common Cause if but imitated in the commination onely though never put into actuall execution he being unworthy once to enjoy any priviledge of a free-born Subject in the Kingdom who will not joyn with the Parliament and Kingdom to defend his Libertie and the Kingdoms priviledges in which he hath as great a common share as those who stand pay and fight most for them It is a good Cause of disfranchising any man out of any Citie Corporation or Company and to deprive him of the Priviledges of them if he refuse to contribute towards the common support defence or maintenance of them or joyn in open hostilitie contributions or suites against them There is the same and greater reason of the generall Citie and Corporation of the whole Realm to which we are all most engaged and therefore those who refuse to contribute towards the defence and preservation of it if able or by their persons purses intelligence or counsell give any assistance to the common enemy against it deserve to be disfranchised out of it to have no priviledge or protection by it and to be proceeded against as utter enemies to it Christs rule being here most true He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad The Common-wealth of which we are members hath by way of originall contract for mutuall assistance and defence seconded by the late Protestation and Covenant a greater interest in our Persons and Estates then we our selves or the King and if we refuse to ayd the republike of which we are members in times of common danger with our Persons Abilities Goods or assist the common enemy with either of them we thereby betray our trust and fidelitie violate our Covenants to the Republike and expose our bodies to restraint our estates to consiscation for this most unnaturall treachery and sordid nigguardlinesse as well as for Treason Fellony or other more petty injuries against the State or humane societie made capitall by the Laws most justly for the publike service of the State which hath a generall Soveraign Interest in them in all times of need paramount our private Rights which must alwayes submit to the publike and lose all our formerly enjoyed Priviledges either of Laws Liberties or free-born Subjects if we refuse to defend or endeavour to betray them as the Laws and common practise of all Nations evidence In the Barons warres against King John Henry the third and Edward the second in defence of their Liberties and Laws they seised upon the Castles Forts and Revenues of the Crown and upon the Moneyes and Goods of the Priors aliens and malignant Poictovines which they imployed in the Kingdoms service Eodem tempore Castellanus de Dovera Richardus de Gray vir fidelis strenuus qui ex parte Baronum ibidem constituebatur omnes transeuntes transituros diligenter considerabat cuncta prudâ—nter perscrutando invenit NON MODICUM THESAURUM paratum dictis Pictaviensibus clanculo deferendum qui TOTUS CAPTUS EST IN CASTRO RESERUANDUS Similiter Londini apud novum Templum THESAURUS MAXIMUS de cujus quantitate audientes mirabantur quem reposureunt Pictavienses memorati licet contradicentes reniterenter Hospitelarii CAPTUS est AD ARBITRIUM REGIS ET BARONUM IN UTILES REGNI USUS UTILITER EXPONENDUS writes Rishanger the continuer of Matthew Paris a good President for the present times After which the Barons banished all the Poictovine Malignants who miscounselled and adhered to the King out of England Anno 1260 who Anno 1261. were all baâ—ished out of London and other Cities and Forts An. 1234. The Earl Marshall having routed John of Monmouth his forces which assisted King Henry the third against the Barons in Wales he wasted all the said Johns Villages and Edifices and all things that were his with sword and fire and so of a rich man made him poor and indigent In the very Christmas holy-dayes there was a grievous warre kindled against the King and his evill Counsellors For Richard Suard conjoyning other Exiles to him entred the Lands of Richard Earl of Cornwall the Kings brother lying not farre from Behull and burned them together with the Houses and the Corne the Oxen in the Ox-stalls the Horses in the Stables the Sheep in the Sheep-cots they likewise burned Segrave the native soyl of Stephen Justiciar of England with very sumptuous Houses Oxen and Corne and likewise brought away many horses of great price returning thence with spoils and other things They likewise burned down a certain village of the Bishop of Winchesters not farre from thence and took away the spoils with other things there found But the foresaid Warriers had constituted this laudable generall rule among themselves that they would do no harme to any one nor hurt any one BUT THE WICKED COUNSELLERS OF THE KING by whom they were banished and those things that were theirs they burnt with fire extirpating their Woods Orchards and such like by the very Roots This they did then de facto de Jure I dare not approve it though in Cases of Attaint and Felony the very Common Law to terrifie others gives sentence against perjured Juries Traytors and Felons in some Cases that their houses shall be raced to the ground their Woods Parkes Orchards Ponds cut down and destroyed their Meadowes and Pastures plowed up and defaced though not so great Enemies to the State as evill Counsellors Anno 1264. the forty eight yeers of Henry the third his raign The King keeping his Christmas with the Queen Richard King of Romans and many others at London Simon Montford the Captain of the Barons at the same time preyed upon the Goods of these who adheared to the King and especially those of the Queens retinue brought by her into England whom they called Aliens Among others some of the Barons forces took Peter a Burgundian Bishop of Hereford in his Cathedrall Church and led him prisoner to the Castle of Ordeley and divided his treasure between themselves and took divers others of the Kings partie prisoners Who thereupon fearing least he should be besieged in the Tower by the Barons army by
his chiefe Councellors villaines and men of low birth as Iohn de Lude Iohn Balua Oliver Devill whose name for odiousnesse he changed into Daman with others whom he promoted to great honours and places VVhereupon the Lords murmured and were so discontented that the Duke of Brittaine and others withdrew them from the king and refused to come unto his presence when he sent for them raising a great power And when no peace could be mediated between the king and them they met in a plaine battell at Chartres where many were slaine on both sides but the king lost the field After which an accord was made betweene them but the king continued his old courses delighting more in the company of lewd irreverent persons to eate and drink with them and to heare them talke of ribaldry and vicious fables then to accompany his Lords which might have won him much honour going liker a Serving man then a Prince and being a great oppressor of his subjects to maintaine Hiprodigality for lack of money he was driven of necessitie to aske a preste of the citizens of Paris who after many excuses which might not be allowed they lastly denyed the kings pleasure VVherewithall he being grievously discontented removed divers from their offices and put many of the richest and head men of the citie to death upon surmised causes without proofs of justice For which causes and many other oppressions the Lords against assembled their people intending to subdue the king and to set his brother in his place or to cause him otherwise to rule the Commonwealth To which end all the Lords met at a Towne called Stampes where they continued their Councell fifteene dayes and then marched to Paris sending four severall letters unto the citie one to the Bishops and spirituall men the second to the Consulls and headmen the third to the Vniversitie the fourth to the Commonalty signifying That neither they nor any of their company were come thither as enemies to the Citie or to warre against it or the Commonwealth of the Land but for the increase and augmentation thereof to the uttermost of their powers VVhereupon these foure parties sent certaine Orators for them to the Lords who after long communication with them had returned to the citie with this report First the Lords would that the inhabitants of the City should consider the conditions of the King which yearly oppressed his Subjects with taxes and other grievous servages Secondly how he despised the noble bloud of his Realme and drew to him villaines and men of no reputation by whose counsell onely all the Common-weale of the Land was guided and ruled Thirdly how hee ruled his Subjects by force and will without administration of justice and himself in all Counsels and Parliaments is Iudge of all causes and calleth himselfe Counsels and Parliaments more for this singular weale then for the Common-weale of his Realme Fourthly how he enhaunsed men of low birth to great honours and caused Noblemen to be obedient unto them intending to bring the said ignoble men to be equall with the Princes of the Land Fifthly how the Lawes be delayed and bolstered by such as stand in his favour wherethrough at this day Law is will and will is Law and no man almost in any surety of life or goods insomuch that daily many have been banished and put to death for unlawfull causes and also to any Noble-man at this day no power or roome of honour belongeth so that to the wild Beasts in the Forrests appertaineth more Liberty and surety then to the more party of the Kings subjects Sixthly The great taxes and summes of money which daily be levied of the Commons be not spent in the Kings honourable needs and for the Commonweale of the Realme but are spent vainly and riotously and bribed out of the Kings Coffers for which enormities and misgovernance with many other the said Lords were come thither in defensible wayes for the safeguard of their owne persons as to the head and principall City of the Realme for to have aide and Counsell to reforme the foresaid evills not intending any harme to the Kings person or yet to remove him from his regality or Kingly Majestie but to induce and advertize him to that which should be for his honour and the weale of his Realme and to live in wealth and honour as his Noble Progenitors lived before him For which causes and considerations the said Lords as the Kings true Subjects and friends to the Commonwealth of the Land and of that City desired to enter there to refresh them and their people and to pay truly for all things they should take without doing harme or violence to any person All which requests and matters of the Lords shewed to the Inhabitants of the City by fauour of some friends they there had it was with the more partie well accepted and though convenient they should be received into the Citie but by meanes of the Earle of Davoise it was respited till they had further knowledge of the Kings pleasure who comming out of Normandie into Paris after diuers Skirmishes the King and Lords fell to a Treaty of peace whereupon Commissioners on both sides assembled and communed together by sundry times two dayes In which season new strength of Souldiers came to the King out of Normands The Treatie hanging long and a longer Truce being proclaimed the souldiers fell to robbing and other unlawfull acts and at last through obstinacy on both parties all offers were refused and the day of the Truces expiration approached without hope of accord whereupon provisions for warre were made on both sides Then begun grudges and murmures betweene the kings souldiers and the citizens of Paris and shortly after newes came to the king that the Castle and Citie of Roan was yeelded up to the Duke of Burbon VVhereupon the King considering what great advantage the Lords had of him both by strength and favour of the Commons which daily drew unto them by sundry companies in avoiding of more danger concluded a peace which being proclaimed thorowout all France the King and Lords met to whom the King shewed great semblance of kindenesse specially to his brother Charles Duke of Normandy therein appeared great dissimulation Lewes being of such conditions That what he might not overcome with strength he would win with dissimulation and treachery Not long after the King warred upon Charles his brother the Duke of Burgundy and Brittaine and a Treaty of peace being propounded betweene them Charles answered That if a perfect concord should be established betweene the King and him it should be authorized by the whole consent and counsell of the Barons of the Realme VVith which the King being content at Turon in the moneth of April and tenth yeare of his reigne assembled a counsell of his Lords spirtuall and temporall in the which the demands of Charles and offers of the king were shewed And after the said Councell had at length reasoned the said
and plotted the meanes to raise their race to the Royall Throne by displacing all great Officers substituting others of their owne faction and endeavouring to extirpate the Protestant party whom they seared as most opposite to their treacherous designes They doe and undoe place and displace in Parliament and Privie Councell like absolute Kings they revoke all alienations for life or yeares made by the deceased King in recompence of any services except sales they caused divers Protestants to be put to death imprisoned pillaged Wherewith the princes Officers and people being generally discontented to redresse the present and prevent all future disasters that might ensue require a generall Parliament as the Soveraigne cure for such dâ—seases whereby the Queen Mother might be put from her usurped Regency and those of Guise excluded from the King person who to please the king perswade him that their opposites sought only to bridle and make him a Ward and that he should hold them enemies to his Authority and GVILTY OF HIGH TREASON THAT TALK OF A PARLIAMENT The King of Spaine to crosse them by Letters to the King his Brother-in-law declares himselfe for the good affection he bare to him Tutor and Protector of him his Realme and affaires against those that would change the Government of the Estate as if the King were not capable of the Government Pleasant people which reject so much the word of lawfull tutelage and yet usurped it against the Lawes and Orders of the Realme holding it onely by tyranny After this they cast many slanders on the Protestants put Anne dis Burge and other Councellours of Parliament to death pistoll Anthony Minard president of the Parliament publish sundry Edicts against those of the reformed Religion promise great recompences to those that discover their assemblies fill their prisons with them imploy ayre fire and water to ruine them and kept the king from hearing his Subjects complaints The princes were kept backe the greatest of the Realme out of credit threatned and secretly pursued to death the convocation of the Estates refused the parliaments corrupted the Judges for the most part at the Guisians devotion and the publike treasure offices and benefices given to whom they pleased This their violent government against the lawes and orders of the Realme purchased them wonderfull hatred and caused many which could no longer endure these oppressions to consult VPON SOME IVST DEFENCE to the end they might preserve the just and ancient Government of the Realme They demand advice TOVCHING LAW AND CONSCIENCE OF MANY LEARNED LAWYERS AND DIVINES who resolved THAT THEY MIGHT LAWFVLLY OPPOSE THEMSELVES against the government which the house of Guise had usurped AND AT NEED TAKE ARMES TO REPVLSE THEIR VIOLENCE so as the Princes who in that case are born Magistrates or some one of them would undertake it being required by the Estates of the Realme or by the sounder part of them They who first thought of this Act of consequence had severall considerations Some moved with a true zeale to serve God the King and Realme thought they could not doe a greater worke of pietie then to abolish Tyrannie rescue the State and to finde some meanes to ease them of the Religion There were others desirous of change and some were thrust on with hatred for the wrongs which the house of Guise had done them their kinsmen and friends yet all had one designe to suppresse this unlawfull government In these consultations it was held necessary to seize on the Duke of Guise and the Cardinall his brother being advowed by one chiefe member of the State and then to require an assembly of the Three Estates to the end they might yeeld an account of their Government provide for the King and Realm After which they make the Prince of Gonde acquainted with this their designe engage him in this quarrel which being discovered produced a long bloody civill war against the Protestants under this and the two succeeding Kings in which warre those that died departed this world with this singular content to have couragiously sacrificed their lives for their countries libertie So the generall History of France in which and in Richard Dinothus you may read at large both the History and the lawfulnesse of this defensive warre over tedious to transcribe Francis dying the Crowne descended to Charles the ninth being but eleven yeares of age and a Parliament of the Estates being assembled on the three and twentieth day of December 1560. the Queene Mother was thereby allowed and confirmed Regent during the Kings minority In severall Parliaments contradictory Acts are made some restraining others granting the free exercise of the Reformed Religion thorowout the Realme The Guisian Popish faction being the strongest party most powerfull at Court and intimatest with the King notwithstanding all Acts for the Protestants immunitie and libertie of conscience impose divers illegall restraints upon them commit many outrages and massacres on them for which they could have no redresse whereupon for their own defence and preservation after many fruitlesse Petitions delusory promises they take up Arms whereupon many bloody civill wars ensue Many propositions and overtures of Peace were made by the Guisian royall party not one of them reall but all to get advantages and over-reach the Protestants against whom they had the most mischievous designes in agitation when they seemed most earnestly to desire Peace Four or five severall conclusions of Peace were solemnly made and ratified betweene them but no sooner made and proclaimed but presently violated of the King and Popish party by massacres and new treacherous Plots to extirpate the Protestant party so that every accommodation proved but a seminary of a new and more bloody warre almost to the utter ruine of France In the yeare 1592. when a publicke peace was made and all differences to outward appearance buried in eternall oblivion the King contrary to his faith and oath caused the Admirall of France the Protestants chiefe pillar as he departed from the Councell to dinner to be shot with a Harguebuze which carried away the forefinger of his right hand and wounded him in the left arme The king to colour this treachery sweares with an execration to the King of Navarre and others who complained of this outrage to take such exemplary punishment on the offendors as the Admirall and his friends should have cause to rest satisfied commands them to be pursued appoints three of the Parliament to make information against them protests after this again and again to be exceeding sorry that this act touched his honour that he will be revenged for it so as the memory thereof should remaine for ever writes to the governours of the Provinces chiefe Townes and Magistrates That he would take such order as the Authors of so wicked an act should be knowne and punished And to his Ambassadours to forraigne Princes That they should make it knowne to all the world that this outrage did displease him And
be supprest by such a conspiracie Vpon this the king and Q. Mother through advise of these ill Counsellors raise an Army declare these Princes and Nobles Rebels and Traitors if they submit not by a day whereupon they Arm raise Forces in their own the publikes defence and being at Noyon concluded That as their Armes were levyed for the maintenance of the Crown so they should be maintained by it to the which end they seized on the kings Rents and Revenues in sundry places Mean while the Protestants being assembled in a generall Synod at Grenoble Marsh Desdiguires makes an Oration to them to disswade them from opposing the mariage with Spain wherein he hath this memorable passage to justifie the lawfulnesse of a necessary defensive war for the preservation of Religion and Liberties We have leisure to see the storme come and to prepare for our own preservation Finally having continued constant in our Duties if they seek to deprive us of our Religion and to take that from us wherein our libertie and safetie depends purchased by the blood of our Fathers and our own and granted unto us by that great King Henry the fourth the restorer of France we shall enter into this comerce full of justice and true zeale finde againe in our breasts the courage and vertue of our Ancestors We shall be supported IN OVR JVST DEFENCE by all good Frenchmen assisted by all Princes and Estates which love the true Religion or the good of this State and in a word we shall be favoured of the blessings of God whereof we have hitherto had good experience in our Arms and which will be to the glory of his Name and the spirituall advancement of our Churches After which the Duke of Rhoan and Protestants in defence of their Religion and Liberties joyn with the Princes and Nobles At last both sides came to Articles of agreement made at Luudun Anno 1616. whereof these were a parcell That the grievances of the generall State should be speedily answered That Soveraign Courts should be preserved in their authority and the Remonstrances of the Parliament and Peers considered of That such as had been put from their Offices should be restored That all moneys they had taken out of the kings Revenues should be discharged All Edicts of pacification granted to them of the Reformed Religion observed The prince of Conde and all those of either Religion who had assisted him in this war held for the Kings good and loyall subjects all illegall Imposts removed and all prisoners taken on either side set at liberty Anno 1617. the King and Queene Mother seizing upon the Prince of Conde his person and sending him to the Bastile upon false pretences of disloyaltie and treason caused new insurrections warres and tumults and the Princes hereupon meeting at Soyssons resolved to make open war to seize on the Kings Revenues and to fortifie those Towns and Castles which they held in their Government which they executed and withall set forth a Remonstrance of their grievances unto the king complaining especially against the Marshall of Ancre and his Wife with their adheronts who were the causes of all their miseries who having drawn unto himselfe the whole administration of the Realme made himselfe master of the Kings Councels Armies and Forts thereby supprest the lawfull libertie and Remonstrances of the Parliament caused the chief Officers to be imprisoned and was the cause of the violence done to the Prince of â—onde first Prince of the Blood To the end therefore that they might not be reproached to have been so little affected to his Majestie so ungratefull to their Countrey and so unfaithfull to themselves and their posterity as to hold their peace seeing the prodigious favour and power of this stranger they beseech his Majestie to provide by convenient means for the disorders of the Estate and to cause the Treaty of Loudun to be observed and to call unto his Councels the Princes of the Blood with other Princes Dukes Peers ancient Officers of the Crowne and Councellors of State whom the deceased King had imployed during his reigne Withall they publish a solemne Declaration and Protestation for the restoring of the Kings authority and preservation of the Realme against the conspiracie and tyrannie of the Marshall of Ancre and his adherents Who finding no safetie in the settling of justice resolved to make triall of his power by violating the publike faith thereby to plunge the Realme into new combustions conspiring to destroy the princes of the blood of Peers and chiefe Officers of the Crowne and to oppresse them altogether with the State who might be an obstacle to his ambitious designes To which end he raised false accusations against them as if they meant to attempt the Kings and Queen Mothers persons and caused the King to go in person to his Court of Parliament to publish a Declaration whereby they were declared guilty of Treason though at last being better informed he declared them to be his good Subjects and caused De Ancre to be suddenly slain in the Louure and his Wife to be legally condemned and executed Vpon which the new Councellors and Officers advanced by him were removed the old restored the Princes reconciled to the King and by him declared for his good and loyall subjects Vpon which followed a generall assembly of the Estates wherein divers grievances were propounded and some redressed the King therein craving their advice for the setling and ordering of his Privie Councell Anno 1620. there happen differences between the King and Queen Mother who fortified Towns and raised an Army against the king at last they came to an agreement and were reconciled The two following years were spent in bloody civill warres betweene the King and those of the Religion who avowed their defensive warres lawfull which at last concluded in peace that lasted not long but brake out into new flames of war by reason of the great Cardinall Richelieu who of late years proved the greatest Tyrant and Oppressour that France ever bred reducing both Nobles Gentlemen and Peasants into absolute slavery and vassallage to make the King an absolute Monarch of France and himselfe both Pope and Monarch of the world But he lately dying by the of Divine Iustice of filthy Vicers and Diseases and the King since being some say poysoned by the Iesuites who murthered his two immediate Predecessors wise men conjecture the French will now at last revive and regain their ancient just hereditary freedom rights Liberties and cast of that insupportable yoke of bondage under which they have been oppressed for sundry years and almost brought to utter desolation I have the longer insisted on these Histories of the Kings and Kingdom of Frances which clearly demonstrate the Realm Parliament and three Estates of France to be the Soveraigne Power in that Kingdom in some sort paramount their kings them selves who are no absolute Monarchs nor exempted from the Laws jurisdiction restraints censures
made and wars decréed But ordinarily the councellers of the Realm of Poland the Chancellor of the Polish Repub. c. although the King in the mean time hath his own Chamberlains Stewards Ministers Domesticks But he who will dispute among the Polonians whether the King or the whole people of the Kingdom represented by the Estates of the Realm be greater doth just like him who should dispute at Venice whether the Duke or the Republike were the superior But what shal we say of those kingdomes which are wont to be carried by succession Verily the thing is no otherwise there The Realm of France which not long since was preferred before the rest both for the excellency of Laws and Orders was thus constituted in times past and although those who hold that place do not sufficiently discharge their duty yet they are not thereby the lesse obliged to do it The king verily hath his great Master or Arch-Steward his Chamberlains Hunters Guard Butlers and the rest whose Offices heretofore did so depend on the King that he dying themselves seemed also to die in their Office so that even yet after the end of the mourning royall the great Master or Arch-Steward is wont to pronounce certain conceived words wherewith he dismisseth the royall family and bids every one provide for himself Yet notwithstanding the Kingdom of France hath its Officers the master of the Palace who afterwards was stiled the Earl of the Stable the Marshals Admirall Chancellour or great Referendary Secretaries Treasurers and Officers who verily heretofore WERE NOT CREATED BUT IN THE GREAT PUBLIKE COVNCELL of the three Orders of the Clergie Nobilitie and people but since the standing Parliament was ordained at Paris they are not thought setled in their Offices before they be received and approved by the Senate of Paris neither can they be casheer'd without their consent and authority Now all these first plight their faith TO THE KINGDOM that is to all the people after that to the King as the Guardian thereof which is perspicuous even from the very form of the Oath But especially the Earl of the Stable when he is girded by the King with the Liliated sword as appears by the words which he pronounceth is girded to that purpose THAT HE MAY DEFEND AND PROTECT THE REPVBLIKE Moreover the Realm of France hath its Peers as Consuls of the King or its Senators as the Fathers of the Republike every of them denominated from the severall Provinces of the Kingdome to whom the King being to bee crowned is wont to plight his faith as to the whole Kingdome from whence it appeares THAT THEY ARE SVPERIOR TO THE KING These again likewise swear that they will defend not the King BVT THE ROYALL CROWN that they will assist THE REPVBLIKE with their councell and that for this end they will be present in the sacred Councell of the Prince in time of Peace or Warre as manifestly appears out of the formulary of the Peership Therefore by the Law of Lombardy in giving sentences they did not onely sit with the Lord of the Fee as Peers but likewise heard the Causes ofttimes between the Superiour Lord and his Vassall We likewise see these Senators of France to have ofttimes judged between the King and Subjects so that when Charles the 6. would have pronounced sentence against the Duke of Britain they withstood him and said THAT THE JVDGEMENT WAS NOT THE KINGS BVT PEERS FROM WHOSE AVTHORITY HE COVLD DEROGATE NOTHING Hence even at this day the Parliament at Paris which is called the Court of Peers or Senators is in some sort constituted a Iudge between the King and People yea between the King and every private man and is bound as with an obligation to right every one against the King Procurers if he invades any thing against Law Besides if the King determines any thing or makes any Edict at home if he make any compact with neighbour Princes if any Warre be to be waged if any Peace be to be made as of late with Charles the fifth The Parliament ought to approve and bée Authour of it and all things which appertain to the Common-wealth ought to be registred among its acts which verily are not ratified untill they shall be approved by it Now that the Senators might not fear the King heretofore none could be preferred into that Order but such who were nominated by the Senate neither could they Lawfully be removed but by its Authority for a lawfull cause Finally even the Kings Letters unlesse they be subscribed by the Kings Secretary and rescripts unlesse they be signed by the Chancellour who hath a power of cancelling have no authority There are likewise Dukes Marquesses Earles Vicounts Barons Castellanes also in Cities Maiors Deputies Consuls in Sindeches Auditors and the like to whom some particular Region or City are severally commended that they may defend the People so farre forth as their jurisdiction extendeth although some of these dignities at this day are reputed Hereditary And besides this yearly heretofore at leastwise as often as necessity required there was held an Assembly of the three Estates wherein all the Countries and Cities of any note did send their Deputies namely Commons Nobles Ecclesiasticks in each of them apart where they publikely determined of those things which appertained to the Republike Now such was evermorethe authority of this Assembly that not only those things which were therein accorded were reputed sacred and holy whether Peace were to be concluded or War to be waged or the Guardianship of the Realm to be committed to any one or a Tax to be imposed was there concluded but even Kings themselves for their luxury slothfulnes or tyrannie were thrust into Monasteries by their authority even all their Ofsprings deprived of the succession of the Kingdom no otherwise then at first when as they were called to the kingdom by the peoples authority verily those whō consent had advanced dissent did pull down again those whom imitation of paternall vertues had as it were called into that inheritance a degenerate and ungratefull minde as it had made then uncapable and unworthy so it did make them to be disinherited From whence verily it appears that succession truly was tolerated to avoid competition succession an interregnum and other incommodities of Election but truely when greater damages would follow where Tyranny should invade the Kingdom where a Tyrant the Throne of a King the lawfull Assembly of the people Perpetually reserved to themselves an Authority of expelling a Tyrant or slothfull King and of deducing him to his Kindred and of substituting a good King in his place Verily peradventure the French received this from the Gauls Caesar in the fifth Book of the Gallic War being the Author For Ambiorix King of the Eburoni confessed that all that time the Empires of the Kings of Gallia were such that the people duely assembled had no lesse authoritie over the King
THE FOVRTH PART OF THE SOVERAIGNE POWER OF PARLIAMENTS and KINGDOMES Wherein the Parliaments Right and Interest in ordering the Militia Forts Ships Magazins and great Offices of the Realme is manifested by some fresh Records in way of Supplement The two Houses Imposition of moderate Taxes and Contributions on the People in cases of extremity without the Kings assent when wilfully denyed for the necessary defence and preservation of the Kingdome and their imprisoning confining of Malignant dangerous persons in times of publicke danger for the common saâ—ety are vindicated from all Calumnies and proved just Together with an APPENDIX Manifesting by sundry Histories and Foraine Authorities that in the ancient Kingdome of Rome the Roman Greeke German Empires the old the present Graecian Indian Aegyptian French Spanish Gothish Italian Hungarian Polonian Behemian Danish Swedish Scottish with other Foraine Kingdomes yea in the Kingdomes of Judah Israel and other Gentile Royalties mentioned in Scripture the Supreame Soveraigne Power resided not in the Emperours or Kings themselves but in the whole Kingdome Senate Parliament State People who had not onely Authority to restraine resist yea call their Emperours and Kings to an account but likewise when they saw just cause to censure suspend deprive them for their Tyranny vices mis-government and sometimes capitally to proceed against them With a briefe Answer to the contrary Objections and tenne materiall Observations confirming all the Premises By WILLIAM PRYNNE Utter-Barrester of Lincolnes Inne Olaus Magnus l. 8. c. 32. De Iniquis Consiliariis c. 33. Iniqui Consiliarii aiunt Regem nihil injuste facere posse quippe omnia omniunt ejus esse ac homines etiam ipsos-Tantum vero cuique esse proprium quantum Regis Benignitas ei non ademerit c. Vtcunque sit multi Principes his similibus consiliis consiliariis facti sunt enules miseri infames inhabiles in se posteritate sua amplius gubernandi Principis itaque Officium est ut non secus curet subditos quam fidelis Pastor oves ut dirigat foveat conservet It is this tenth day of July Ordered by the Committee of the House of Commons concerning Printing that this Booke Intituled The fourth Part of the Soveraign power of Parliaments and Kingdoms c. be Printed by Michael Sparke senior John White Printed at London for Michael Sparke Senior 1643. To the READER Courteous Reader I Here present thee with the last Part of The Soveraigne Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes and An Appendix in pursuance of it abundantly manifesting from the very fundamentall Constitutions Lawes Customes Resolutions Remonstrances Oathes Inaugurations Elections Ceremonies Histories publique Transactions Treaties Agreements Wars of Forain Empires Emperors Realmes Kings States Senates Diets Parliaments in all Ages and the most judicious foraine Authours of all sorts That whole Kingdomes Parliaments Senates States Nations collectively considered have ever constantly enjoyed in all Ages Nations the most Soveraigne Jurisdiction and Authority and beene Paramount their Kings and Emperours who were and are subordinate accountable for their actions to them and copiously refuting the fond erroneous fancies of all illiterate flattering Court-Doctors Theologasters Lawyers Statists who without any shadow of Truth or Reason audaciously averre the contrary not so much to flatter or seduce their Princes as to advance themselves against whom the contrary constant practice and resolutions of most lawfull Kingdomes that either are or have beene in the world from Adams dayes till now shall unanimously rise in judgement and passe a most Catholike irreversible sentence on them for their notorious flatteries and Impostures For mine owne particular as I have alwayes beene and ever shall be an honourer a defender of Kings and Monarchy the best of Government whiles it keepes within the bounds which Law and Conscience have prescribed So I shall never degenerate so farre beneath the duty of a Man a Lawyer a Scholar a Christian as to mis-informe or flatter either nor yet out of any popular vain-glory court either Parliaments or People to the prejudice of Kings just Royalties but carry such an equall hand betweene them as shall doe right to both injury to neither and preserve support their just Legall severall Soveraignties Jurisdictions Rights within their proper limits without tyrannicall invasions or seditious encroachments upon one another to their mutuall and the Republickes prejudice It fares with Regall and Popular Powers usually as with Seas and mighty Rivers if they violently breake downe or swellingly overflow their fixed bankes they presently cause an Inundation and in stead of watering surround and drowne the Countries round about them for a season sometimes for sundry yeares ere they can be perfectly drained and their bankers repaired to confine them to their ancient proper Channels of which we have present sad experience written in Capitall red Bloody Letters throughout the Realme To redresse prevent which overflowing mischiefe for the future I have without feare or flattery of any humane Power or party whatsoever by Publicke Authority divulged this last and the three preceding Parts of this Discourse together with the Appendix all hastily collected and more confusedly compacted through want of time and sundry interrupting Avocations then I desired wherein I have impartially according to my judgement conscience defended nought but ancient undoubted universall Truthes of reall State-Policy and true Theologie almost forgotten in the world yea cryed Preached Printed down for erronious seditious Paradoxes if not Treasons by Sycophants and Malignants in these later ages out of a cordiall affection as much as in me lyeth to restore and settle the weale tranquillity and safety of my bleeding dying Country now miserably distracted wasted consumed every where through the long foreâ—plotted conspiracies of Romish Priests and Jesuites to subvert the Protestant Religion and our Realmes upon a pretended quarrell unhappily raised by them betweene the two much mistaken Grand Soveraigne Jurisdictions of King and Parliament Crowne and Kingdome now miserably clashing one against the other through ignorance and mistakes and trying their Titles in the open field BY BATTAILE in stead of Law by the Sword of the Souldier not of the Spirit the onely proper peaceable Judges in these Quarrels by which alone they can and must be finally resolved settled else neither King nor kingdome can be ever quiet or secure from dangers and Commotions I dare not presume to arrogate to my selfe a Spirit of in-errability in the grand Controversies here debated wherein I have travelled in no beaten common road No doubt Generall Nationall Councells Parliaments Popes Kings Counsellors Statesmen Lawyers Divines all sorts of men both may and usually doe erre from Truth especially in Questions which concerne their owne Jurisdictions Honours Profits and so may I. But this I darewith safe conscience protest to all the world that I have not willingly erred in any particular and if I have casually failed in any thing out of humane frailty I shall upon better information acknowledge and retract it
the Cinque-ports were to finde 21 ships of their owne and nine ships of the River of Thames Num. 12. The Mariners towards the West promised to finde 70. ships of an hundred Tunne and upwards and to make them ready by the same day and to defray the charges of them as farre as was requisite and for the residue the Kings Counsell were to send them a summe of money for their aide but not as wages but of speciall grace and a Clerke was ordained to survey the charges of the Mariners of the West and of the Cinque-ports Num. 23. All the ships of Portsmouth and the West were to meet at Dartmouth at the day assigned and the Earle of Arundell was assigned their Admirall And the ships of the Cinque-ports and the River of Thames were to meete assemble at Winchelse and the Earle of Huntindon appointed their Admirall and that all these ships should be ready by the middle of Lent Num. 19. The Admiralls of all parts were commanded to arrest all other ships that might passe the Seas for feare of being surprised by the enemies that 200. men should man those to whom the smaller ships belonged to bring them in to such havens where they might be safest from the Enemies Num. 15. Writs were directed to all Sheriffes of England to make Proclamation that all those who had Charters of pardon should repaire towards the Sea in the service of the King and at his wages by the middle of Lent upon paine of losing their Charters and being put to answer the things contained in them in case they should not goe Num. 16. It was accorded and assented in Parliament that Master Richard Talbot ordained to guard the Towne of Southampton which he had undertaken to doe should have a company of men at Armes and Archers at the Kings wages which he might increase if there were cause that he and they should have their wages paid them monethly from the second Sunday in Lent and so forwards whiles they continued in that Services that he should receive 200. pounds in money and 200. markes in Wooll in respect of his said service and to defray his ancient debts And he had power given him to assesse and levy monies upon the said Town towards its defence and if the Towne were not able to defray all the charge the King should ayde them for the residue Num. 18. The Bishop of Winchester the Prior of St. Swithin of Winchester and the Abbot of Winchester were commanded to have the people of their Manners next the Towne of Southhampton well armed and arrayed that they might be ready to their power to defend the said town upon summons of the Guardians thereof that no perill might happen thereunto Num. 19. That two Pinaces one of Melbroke and the other belonging to Roger Normand should be assigned to remaine in the port of Southampton at the appointment of the said Mr. Richard for the safety thereof Num. 20. All the Burgesses and Sea-men of the Town which had departed thence were ordered to goe and abide therein for the defence thereof and of their owne possessions and in case they refused that their Lands and Possessions should be seized into the Kings hands and the profits of their Lands which should be found elsewhere Num. 21. That a Commission should be made to Stephen Butterly and William Weston Serjeants at Armes to take Timber Bords and other things necessary for the safety of the said Towne at certaine prises upon endenture made between them and the owners of the said goods and that the King should pay or give them other satisfaction Num. 22. 23. That all the Armes Engines Ammunition Iron and Lead in the said Towne should be delivered to the Gardian of it by Indenture who should have the same power in all things within that Towne as the Earle of Warwicke had when he was Governour Num. 24. That the Sheriffe should have a Writ of attendance to be attendant on the said Mr. Richard with Victuals and all other things necessary for the safegard of the said Towne Num. 25. 26. 27. Certaine Merchants are appointed and take upon them to the Parliament to buy great proportions of Corne Peas Oates Hay and other provisions the quantities whereof are particularly expressed at certaine rates to victuall Barwicke the Castles of Edenburg and Strivelyn which Castles Mr. Thomas Rokeby Guardian thereof promised to keep till Saint Iohns day then next to come upon condition to receive his wages formerly due out of the first moneys granted to the King in this Parliament by a certaine day provided they shall carry no victuals to the enemies of the King and Realme and that they should be payd out of the first moneys arising out of the ayde granted to the King Num. 28. 29. The inhabitants of the Isle of Wight were respited of the ayd granted to the King according as their good carriage should be during the war and it was agreed in Parliament that no Commandement nor Ordnance or license granted under the great or privy Seale to any of the said inhabitants bound to defend the said Isle should licence any to absent himself from it during the war unlesse it were for feare of disinheriting or other great necessity with which the Councell should be acquainted or upon in quests Num. 30. 31. Provides that the Castle of Careshroc in the I le of Weight should be furnished with a certaine proportion of Wine Corn Peas Oats Hey Coles Iron Salt and that a Commission should be granted to Robert Vandalym Sheriffe of Southampton and to William of Kekenwich joyntly and severally to purvey and deliver the same provisions over by Indenture to the Constable of that Castle and a Writ directed to the Kings Botteller to deliver the Wines assigned to wit ten Tonne out of the Wines then in or which should first come into his hands Num. 32. Mr. Thomas Ferrers undertakes to the Parliament to send without delay a sufficient man to the Castle of Iernsey to survey the defaults and state of the said Castle to certifie the Councell fully of them and in the meane time to finde the wayes of those remaining there in garrison to the summe of an hundred pounds and a Writ is directed to the Sheriffe of Southampton to furnish the said Thomas with a convenient quantity of Powder and Iron and other necessaries for the defence of that Castle And because Thomas Peyne one of the Jurates of that Isle was gone to the enemies contrary to a defence made that a Writ should issue to the Bayliffs and Jurates of the same Isle to choose another sufficient man in his place and to seize his Lands goods and Chattels into the Kings hands and answer the meesâ—e profits of them Num. 34. dorso There is an exact Array or List of all the Captaines and men at Armes and archers under their severall commands for defence of the borders of Scotland amounting in all to 4715. Num. 35. Those of the
Counties of Nottingham Derby Yorke were to goe to Newcastle upon Tine at the Countries charges and then to receive the Kings wages and those of Westmerland Cumberland and Lancashire to marth to Carlile at the Counties charges and then to receive the Kings wages and that the Commanders great men and all the host when they assembled should lie and travell in the Land of Scotland and not in the Marches of England Num. 36. 37. A fit and trusty Clerke is appointed to pay the Souldiers wages by the advise and survey of the Lords Percy and Nevill and Merchants are ordered to returne moneys for the exploit and to furnish the King of Scotland with moneys sufficient to maintaine twenty men at Armes Num. 38. Because Mr. Richard Talbot had discharged himselfe of the government of Barwicke the Lords in Parliament earnestly intreated Sir Walter Creake to take upon him the custody of Barwicke and to certifie the Lords within a short time how many men at Armes and Archers would suffice to guard it and whether he would accept of the charge or not and if not they would provide another Num. 39. A Commission is granted to Master Thomas Wake and others to muster the Horse and Foot arrayed for this expedition in Yorkeshire and the other Counties and to conduct them towards Newcastle Num. 46. It is accorded and assented that Writs shall be made to the arrayers of the Men of Armes Hoblers and Archers in the County of Oxford for the guarding of the Sea for the Prior and Canons of Burnacester to surcease their demand which they made to the said Prior and Canons to finde a man at Armes and two Archers to make such a guard at Portsmouth and also for the payment of certaine moneys for this cause untill they have other command from the King by reason that the Prelates and other great men in the Parliament are informed that all the possessions of their house will hardly suffice for their sustenance and that they cannot finde such charge without very great oppression of them and their house Loe here in these two Parliaments the Rols whereof I have recited more largely because rare and memorable all businesses concerning the Warres Militia and Array both by Land and Sea were particularly consulted of ordered and determined in and by the Parliament onely in a farre more ample manner then this present Parliament at first petitioned desired they should have been ordered and setled now In the Parliament rolls 14 E. 3. Num. 19. Certaine men are appointed to guard the Islands and Sea-coasts against the enemies Num. 42. The Lord Mowbray is appointed keeper of the Town of Barwicke Num. 53. 54. 55. c. Commissions of Array in severall Counties are made by Parliament to the Earle of Angoyes and others for defence of the Kingdome In the Parliament of 50 E. 3. Num. 15. A Commission is granted in Parliament to the Lord Percy and others to appoint able persons for defence of the Marches of the East-riding In the Parliament Roll of 1 R. 2. Num. 51. Because that the Lands of Gascoigne Ireland the Seigniory of Artoyes and the Marches of Scotland are in perill to be lost through default of good Officers the Commons petition that it would please the Lords to ordaine good and sufficient ministers which may be sent to governe in the same Lands in the most hasty manner that may be by reason of the great need that requires it And that all the chiefe guardians of the Ports and Castles upon the Sea as Dover Bannburgh Carlile and other Marches may be put in the forme aforesaid And that these Guardians of the Castles and keyes of the Realme may be sufficient men who may forfeit their inheritance if any mischiefe shall happen by reason of them which God forbid And that in all other sufficient persons of your Leiges be placed who may forfeit in the same manner for the salvation of the Realme To which the King answers The King willeth it and will doe that which shall belong to him by the advise of the Lords of His continuall Councell In 2 R. 2. Rot. Parliament Num. 37. the Admiralty is disposed of by the Parliament and Num. 39. a Schedule of Orders for the defence of the North sea is confirmed by the Parliament In the Parliament of 7 8 H. 4. Num. 26. The Parliament gave power to the Merchants to name two meet persons to be Admirals to guard the Seas In the Parliament rolls of 2 R. 2. pars 2. Num. 37. The Commons supplicate how the enemies of France with great Armies and many Vessels of warre have been continually and yet are in the Northerne parts and namely about the coasts of Scarburrough which Towne is dangerously seated upon the Sea open to the assaults of the said enemies and that the people of the said Towne had within two yeeres last past paid above one thousand pound ransome to the said enemies and yet were destroyed and carried prisoners into Boloigne and other places where they were yet kept prisoners and that the Towne was upon the point to be burned and destroyed and all the coast about it in short time if hasty remedy were not provided That therefore it would please the King and his most sage Councell considering the great dammages and perils the said Towne and coasts about it had sustained and were yet apparently like to sustaine to ordaine and assigne certaine Vessels of warre upon the said coasts to guard them against the malice and power of the said enemies and that during the warres for saving of the said Towne and the Kings Castle there situate and all the Country about it The Answer is This matter is in part touched by the Merchants of the said coast which are at this Parliament and by their advise and others who are to passe their Merchandize in these Marches by Sea remedy hath beene ordained in such sort as the Earle of Northumberland and the Major of London who were assigned in Parliament to treat of this businesse know more fully to declare In the Parliament of 6 R. 2. pars 2. Num. 11. The Bishop of Norwich offered before the King and Lords that if the King would grant him the quindisme and disme of the Laity and Clergy and the 6 pound and 2 shillings on the Tonne of Wine lately granted to the King for the safeguard of the Sea that he would within 20 daies after the receipt of the last payment transport into France 3000 Archers well armed and mounted for the ayd of Gaunt and would defray all the charges of shipping them And that if he might have the attendance of the West-Admirall he would finde on the Sea for the safeguard of it betweene this and Michaelmas next ten great ships and ten Barges armed in which besides Marriners necessary he would finde at least 500 fighting men for the said terme In the Parliament of 15 R. 3. Num. 15. It is to be remembred that the Commons
and to such forraign examples of this nature cited in the Appendix will abundantly cleare the Parliaments right and Kingdoms interest in nominating placing and displacing the great Officers of the Kingdom and in regulating the Kings own meniall servants in some cases when they either corrupt or mis-counsell him And thus much touching the unhappy differences between the King and Parliament concerning matters of his own royall Prerogative The Parliaments Right and Iurisdiction to impose Taxes and Contributions on the Subjects for the necessary defence of the Realm Laws Liberties without the King in case of the Kings wilfull absence from and taking up Arms against the Parliament and Kingdom briefly vindicated from the calumnies against it THe severall grand Objections of consequence made by the King and others against the Parliaments pretended usurpations upon the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crowne being fully examined and refuted in the Premises so far I hope as to satisfie all ingenuous men in point of Divinity Policy Law Reason Conscience I shall next proceed to the remaining materiall Accusations which concerne the Subjects onely in regard of Property and Liberty wherein I will contract my Discourse into a narrow compasse partly because the debate of the fore-going Differences between the Kings Prerogative and the Parliaments Soveraigne Jurisdiction hath in some sort over-ruled the Controversies betwixt the Subjects and both Houses representing them party because these accusations are not so universally insisted on as the former which concerne the King the justnesse of them being generally acknowledged willingly submitted to by most except such who calumniate and traduce them either out of covetousnesse onely to save their Purses or from a groundlesse Malignity against the Parliament or out of a consciousnesse of their owne Delinquencies subjecting them to the Parliaments impartiall Justice or out of some particular interests which concern them in their gains honours preferments or such who by their restraints for not paying Parliamentary Assessements hope to save their purses for the present or to gaine favour and preferment by it for the future If these private sinister ends were once laid by this second sort of accusations would speedily vanish especially with men of publike spirits who prefer the Common-weale before their owne particular interests The first of these Cavillatory Objections against the Parliaments proceedings is That both Houses without the Kings Royall Assent have contrary to Magna Charta the Petition of Right the Statues De Tallagio non concedendo and other Acts by their Ordinances onely imposed late Taxes on the Subjects amounting to the twentieth part of their estates and since that monethly or weekly Assessements to maintaine a war against the King a grand incroachment on the peoples Properties contrary to all Law and justice This Objection seems very plausible and cordiall to covetous Earth-worms being politikely contrived to Court the close-handed niggardly party by those who are guiltiest in themselves of that they thus object against others But it will easily receive an answer as to the Parliament and recoyle with infinite disadvantage on those that make it First then I answer That the Parliament is the absolute Soveraigne power within the Realme not subject to or obliged by the letter or intendment of any Laws being in truth the sole Law-maker and having an absolute Soveraignty over the Laws themselves yea over Magna Charta and all other objected Acts to repeale alter determine and suspend them when there is cause as is undeniable by its altering the very common Law in many cases by repealing changing many old Statute Lawes and enacting new ones every Sessions as there is occasion for the publike safety and defence This the practice of all Parliaments in all ages yea the constant course of all Parliaments and Assemblies of the Estates in all forraigne Kingdoms too abundantly manifests The Parliament therefore never intended by all or any of these objected Acts to binde its owne hands but onely the Kings and his Ministers with inferiour Courts of Justice neither is the Parliament within the letter words or meaning of them therefore not obliged by them 2. The King with his Officers Judges and inferiour Courts of Justice only are included and the Parliament is directly excluded out of the very letter and meaning of all these Acts as is apparent First in generall from the occasion of enacting all these Laws which was not any complaints made to the King of any illegall taxes imprisonments or proceedings of our Parliaments to the oppression of the people but onely the great complaints of the people and Parliament against the illegall taxes impositions imprisonments and oppressions of the Subject by the King his Officers Judges and inferiour Courts of Justice as all our Histories with the Prefaces and words of the Acts themselves attest to redresse which grievances alone these Lawes were made by the Parliaments and peoples earnest solicitations much against the Kings good will The Parliament then who would never solicit the making of a Law against or to restrain it selfe being cleare out of the originall ground and mischiefe of enacting these Lawes and the King with his Ministers and inferiour Courts only within them they can no way extend to the Parliament but to them alone 3. The Parliament ever since the making of these Acts hath alwayes constantly enjoyed an absolute right and power without the least dispute of granting and imposing on the Subjects whatsoever Taxes Subsidies Aids Confiscations of Goods or restraint of Liberty by temporall or perpetuall imprisonment it thought meet and necessary for the publike defence safety and tranquility of the Realm as the severall Taxes Subsidies and Poll-monies granted by them in all ages the many Statutes enjoyning confiscation of Lands Goods corporall punishments banishments temporary or perpetuall imprisonments for divers things not punishable nor criminall by the Common Law or when Magna Charta and the ancient Statutes in pursuance of it were first enacted abundantly evidence past all contradiction none of all which the King himselfe his Officers Judges or inferiour Courts of Justice can doe being restrained by the objected Acts. Therefore it is altogether irrefragable that the Parliament and Houses are neither within the words or intentions of these Acts nor any wayes limited or restrained by them but left as free in these particulars in order to the publike good and safety as if those Acts had never beene made though the King with all other Courts Officers Subjects remaine obliged by them 4. This is evident by examination of the particular Statutes objected The first and principall of all the rest is Magna Charta cap. 29. But the very words of this Law Nor We shall not passe upon him nor condemne him but by the lawfull judgement of his Peeres or by the Law of the Land We shall deny nor deferre to no man either Justice or Right compared with the Preface to and first Chapter of it Henry c. know ye
Talleage or Custome shall be set granted taken or leavied but by common consent and grant of the Prelates Earles Barons Knights Burgesses and other free men of the Realme in Parliament or without the assent of the Parliament so that their grant and assent in Parliament not the Kings is the onely thing that makes them legall and binding to the subject Now both Houses have granted ordered and assented to this Assessement exceeding not the twentieth part of mens estates and given order for the leavying of it and that for the Parliaments Kingdomes religions necessary defence and preservation Therefore it is obligatory and legall though the King himselfe consent not or disassent thereto especially as the present condition of things stands even by the very letter of these acts Secondly this is apparent by the letter of all our publique Acts for the granting of Subsidies Ayds Tenths Fifteenes Taxes Customes Tonnage Poundage or any such like impositions in and by Parliament either by the Temporalty or Clergy which Acts runne usually in this manner The Commons of this Realme HAVE GRANTED FOR DEFENCE OF THE SAID REALME and especially for the safegard and custody of the Sea a Subsidy a Subsidie called Tonnage c. The Prelates Earles Barons and all the Commons of the Realme willingly and with one assent HAVE GRANTED the ninth Lambe ninth sheafe and ninth fleece c. And of Cities and Burroughs the ninth part of all their goods and chattels c. in aide of the good keeping the Realme as well by Land as by Sea c. We your poore Commons desire your excellent Majesty willingly to accept and receive these OUR POORE GRANTS hereafter following as GRANTED of free hearts and good wils as the first-fruits of our good wils and hearts c. by the advice and Assent of the Lords spirituall and temporall GIVE GRANT for the defence of your realm and the keeping and safegard of the seas c. one Subsidy called Tonnage c. The Prelates and Clergy c. as a speciall and significant testimony of their loyall affection c. with one affection and uniforme consent HAVE GIVEN GRANTED foure whole and intire Subsidies We your Commons assembled in your high Court of Parliament humbly present your Majesty with the FREE CHEERFULL GIFT of two intire Subsidies c. All Subsidies and Taxes then being the free gift of the Commons Clergy and Peeres in Parliament and that onely for the defence of the Kingdome by sea and land it is infallible that they do may and can oblige themselves and those they represent to pay such publike Taxes to this end without the Kings concurrence Thirdly this is cleare by considering that the Commons and Lords in Parliament have alwaies had 1. An absolute right and power to grant or deny Taxes Subsidies aydes and assistance as they saw occasion 2. To proportion the aydes and Subsidies granted 3. To limit the certaine manner waies and times of paying and levying them and the persons who shall either pay assesse collect receive or disburse them 4. The ends and uses to which they should be imployed when leavied debarring the King oft times when they saw cause of any power at all to receive or dispose of them appointing Collectors and Treasurers of their owne to receive and issue them out againe by the advice and directions of these as themselves prescribed for which I shall give you some few instances of note in lieu of many more that might be remembred Anno 1237. being the 21 yeere of Henry the third The Parliament after many contestations with the King for his fraud oppressions favouring of Aliens c. to the Kingdomes detriment the King by Oath promising amendment granted unto him the thirtieth part of all their moveables excepting ready Money Horse and Armour to be imployed for the Common wealth and benefit of the Realme with this condition often annexed that the King should leave the Counsell of Aliens and onely use that of his naturall Subjects And for more security it was ordained that foure Knights of every Shiere and one Clerke of the Kings in every severall Shiere shall upon their oathes collect receive and deliver the said Subsidy either into some Abbey or Castle to be safely reserved there and disposed of for the benefit of the King and Kingdome by the view and counsell of the Earle Warren or others when there should be need Or otherwise if the King failed in performance of His promises and grants it ought to be faithfully restored and distributed to the Country whence it was collected In the 11. yeere of King Edward the 2. Anno 1318. The Parliament not daring to trust this prodigall mis-counselled King with moneys instead of Subsides granted him an aide of armed men against the Scots London set forth 200. Canturbury 40. Saint Albanes 10. and so all other Burroughs and Cities according to their proportion whereby a great Army was leavied The Parliaments of 14 E. 3. c. 20. 21. Stat. 1. Stat. 2. c. 1. 18 E. 3. Parliament 2 3. forecited at large part 2. p. 8. 9. 31 H. 6. Num. 41. 21 Jac. c. 33. particularly direct how the Subsidies granted shall be disposed of by certaine Nobles and others whom they nominate and appoint Treasurers to receive and issue them to the ends for which they granted them prescribing them an oath to issue none of them to other purposes or in any other maner then they prescribed Yea the Acts of former Parliaments and this present concerning Tonnage Poundage Polemoney and Subsidies frequently do the like Therefore the granting and disposing of those Taxes Aydes Subsidies rests wholly in the Commons and Lords and no waies on the King who commonly desires the Parliament to grant them Fourthly this is further evidenced by the Kings usuall answer and assent unto such Bills as these Le Roy remercy ses Loaulx Subjects accept LOUR BENEVOLENCE auxy le veult taking it wholly as a free grant from them which assent in this case is rather formall then substantiall it being the Commons and Lords owne consent only to Bils of this nature not the Kings that make the Taxes and Impositions binding as the forecited Statutes the Petition of Right 3 Caroli Fortescue and our Lawbookes resolve and I have elsewhere manifested more at large Therefore the want of the Kings assent or disassent to the Parliaments present assessement for the Kingdomes necessary defence in the present extremity when the King not onely wilfully absents himselfe from but hath raised Armes against the Parliament is not materiall nor simply necessary in point of Law though usually requisite and necessary for formality sake at other seasons to compleat such Acts since Sepenumero Necessitas vincit legem quod necessarium est licitum est as this assessement now is though all formalities be not punctually observed as is resolved in Dormers case Cooke l. 5. f. 40.
they will maintain to the utter impoverishing and ruining of the Country yea they have burned sacked plundered many whole Towns Cities Counties and spoiled thousands of all they have contrary to their very Promises Articles Agreements which they never faithfully observe to any in the least degree and all this to ruine the Kingdom People Parliament and Religion yet they justifie these their actions and the Parliament People must not controule nor deem them Traytors to their Country for it And may not the Parliament then more justly impose a moderate in-destructive necessary taxe without the King for the Kingdoms Religions and Peoples defence and preservations against their barbarous Taxes Plunderings and Devastations then the King or his Commanders Souldiers play such Rex and use such barbarous oppressions without yea against the Parliaments Votes and consents Let them therefore first cease their own most detestable unnaturall inhumane practises and extortions of this nature and condemn themselves or else for ever clear the Parliament from this unjust Aspersion The last Objection against the Parliament is That they have Illegally imprisoned restrained plundered some Malignants and removed them from their habitations against Magna Charta the Fundamentall Laws forenamed and the Liberty of the Subject contrary to all Presidents in former Ages To which I answer First That the Objectors and Kings party are farre more guilty of this crime then the Parliament or their Partisans and therefore have no reason to object it unlesse themselves were more innocent then they are Secondly For the Parliaments imprisoning of men pretended to be against Magna Charta I answer first That the Parliament is not with in that or any other Law against imprisonments as I have formerly cleered Therefore is not obliged by it nor can offend against it Secondly That it hath power to imprison restrain the greatest Members of their own Houses though priviledged men exmept from all other arrests and publike persons representing those that sent them thither Therefore much more may they imprison or restrain any other private persons notwithstanding Magna Charta And the Parliament being the supreamest Judicaturo paramount all other Courts their commitments can not be Legally questioned determined nor their prisoners released by Habcas Corpus in or by any other inferior Court or Judicature whatsoever 3. The Parliament hath power to make new Laws for the temporall and perpetuall imprisonment of men in mischievous cases where they could not be imprisoned by the Common Law or any other Act before or since Magna Charta and so against the seeming letter of that Law w ch extends not to the Parliament and what persons they may restrain imprison by a new enacted Law though not restrainable before by Magna Charta or the Common Law without breach of either they may whiles they sit in case of publike danger restrain imprison by their own Authoritie without or before a new Law enacted In how many new Cases by new Statutes made since Magna Charta the Subjects may be lawfully imprisoned both by Judges Justices Majors Constable and Inferiour Courts or Officers whereas they could not be imprisoned by them by the Common Law before these Acts without breach of Magna Charta and violating the Subjects Liberties you may read in the Table of Rastals Abridgements of Statutes and in Ashes Tables Title Imprisonment and False-Imprisonment Yea by the Statutes of 23. H. 8. cap. 1. 31. H. 8. cap. 13. 33. H. 8. cap. 12. 5. Eliz. cap. 14. 1. and 2. Phil. Mary cap. 3. 5. and 6. E. 6. cap. 1. 1. Eliz. cap. 2. with other Acts perpetuall imprisonment during life is inflicted in some cases for which no imprisonment at all could be prescribed before these Acts and for crimes for which the parties were not formerly punishable yet for the publike weale peace safety and prevention of private mischiefs even against the Letter as it were of the great Charter the Parliament hath quite taken away all liberty the benefit of the Common Law and of Magna Charta it self from parties convicted of such offences during their naturall lives and if they bring an Habeas Corpus in such cases pretending their perpetuall imprisonment and these latter Laws to be against Magna Charta they shall notwithstanding be remanded and remain prisoners all their dayes because the Parliament is above all Laws Statutes yea Magna Charta and may deprive any Delinquents of the benefit of them yea alter or repeal them for the common good so farre as they see just cause Though neither the King nor his Counsell nor Judges nor any Inferiour Officers or Courts of Justice have any such transcendent power but the Parliament alone to which all men are parties really present and allowing all they do and what all assent to decree for the common good and safetie must be submitted to by all particular persons though never so mischievous to them this being a Fundamentall Rule even in Law it self That the Law will rather suffer a private mischief then a generall inconvenience Seeing then the Parliament to prevent publike uproars sedition treachery in or against the Kingdom Cities Houses or Counties where factious persons live hath thought meet to restrain the most seditious Malignants especially these about London and Westminster where they sit and to commit them to safe custody till they receive some good assurance of their peaceable behaviour they must patiently suffer their private restraints for the common safety tranquility till the danger be past or themselves reformed who if they reform not their own malignity not the Parliaments cautelous severity themselves must be blamed since they detain themselves prisoners only by not conforming when as the Parliament desires rather to release then restrain them if they would be regular and so they must blame themselves alone not clamour against the Houses All Leprous persons by the Leviticall and Common Law were to be sequestred and shut up from others least they should infect them and so all persons visited with the Plague by late Statute Laws may be shut up without breach of Magna Charta Why then not Malignant seditious ill affected persons who infect others in these times of Commotion and Civill Warres as well as Leapers and Plague sick persons removed into Pest-houses for fear of spreading the Infection upon the self-same grounds by the Houses Authority The Parliament by an Ordinance Act or Sentence hath Power to banish men out of the Kingdom in some cases which no other Court nor the King himself can lawfully dâ— as was expresly reâ—olved in Parliament upon the making of the Sâ—atute of 35. Eliz. cap. 1. as is evident by the case of Thomas of Weyland An. 19. E. 1 Of Pâ—irce Gavaston and the two Spencers in King Haward the second his raign Of the Lord Maltravâ—rs in Edward the third his raign Of Bâ—lknap and divers over Judges in the 10 and 11 yâ—ers of Richard 2. his
King and his Councell in disposing all Officers all places of command and trust under him The Confederacie and Contributions of forraign Popish States to maintain this warre to ruine the Parliament Kingdom Religion and re-establish Popery in its universall extent with the large progresse the Papists have lately made in Ireland Scotland and England to accomplish this their long-agitated Conspiracie and the late strange proceedings in Ireland where the best Protestants are displaced disgraced restrained the Popish Rebels advanced and a truce negotiated if not fully concluded with the Rebels to the end that all their forces may be speedily transported hither to ruine our Religion and cut all our throats enough to awake the most stupid English spirits and rouze them up to a speedy unanimous resolution to unite all their purses and forces to the Parliament against the Popish Conspirators and these bloody Butchers now ready to devoure us and then I douâ—t not if they have any true love to God Religion King Countrey themselves or their Posterities they will soon change their former opinions and practises against the Parliaments just proceedings and joyn hearts hands forces yea their uttermost endeavours with them to prevent and ward off that imminent destruction which now hangs over our heads and will in short time wholly ruine us if God open not our eyes and unite not all our hearts and mindes unto the Parliament with one unanimous resolution to oppose these cursed Confederates who have plotted occasioned all these warres and miseries under which our Kingdomes now groan and languish which long plotted Treacherie in humane probabilitie can no wayes be prevented nor a settled peace and Reformation established but with the totall suppression of the Popish partie now in Arms and by rescuing His Majesties person Children forces out of their Trayterly hands and power whose death they have conspired long agoe if he refuse to grant them an universall open toleration of their Antichristian Religion in all His Kingdoms and then to seise upon the Prince and train him up in their Religion which how easie it is for them to effect now they have the King Prince the Kings Ports his Forces in their power yea potent Armies of their own in the field here and such a force of Irish Rebels now ready to be shipped over to Chester Milford and Bristoll for their assistance and enforcement to over-power the Protestant party in the Kings Armies no understanding man can without fear and trembling coâ—sider O then if ever we will shew our selves faithfull valiant couragious magnanimous bountifull really cordiall and loyall to our King Kingdoms Countrey Parliament Religion Laws Lives Liberties Kinred Families Posterities Let all who professe themselves Protestants lay aside all causelesse jealousies and prejudices against the Parliament or any others and now speedily unite all their Prayers Hearts Hands Purses Forces Counsells and utmost endeavours together to defend secure them all against these forraign and domestice Jesuiticall Romish Confederates and if any prove traiterous fearfull cowardly unfaithfull base or faint-hearted in this publike Cause as too many who deserve to be made spectacles of treachery and cowardise to posteritie and cannot without injustice or dishonour to the Parliament and Kingdom be suffered to scape scot-free without severe exemplary punishment have done to their eternall infamy and betraying of their Countrey the present generations shall abhorre them posteritie curse and declaim against them as most unnaturall Monsters unworthy to breath in English ayre or enjoy the name the priviledges of English men or Protestants There is a double kinde of Treachery in Souldiers both of them adjudged Capitall The first proceeds from a sordid pusillanimous fear unworthy the spirit of a Souldier and this is Câ—pitall both by the Civill and Common Law By the Civill Law The Souldiers who first begin to flye or but fain themselves sick for fear of the Enemy are to be adjudged to death for this their cowardize Yea Lacaena and Dametria two magnanimâ—us Women slew their timorous sonnes who fled basely from the battle with their own bands disclaiming tbem as degenerous Brats and not their sonnes the latter of them inscribing this Epitaph on her sonnes Tombe Hunc timidum Mater Dametriam ipsa peremit Nec dignum Matre nec Lacedaemonium Indeed Charondas and the Thurians enacted That cowards who basely fled or refused to bear Arms for their Countries defence should set three dayes one after another in the open Market-place clad in Womans apparell a punishment farre worse then death it self writes Diodorus Siculus whereas all other Lawyers made it Capitall yea our Common Law adjudgeth it Treason Witnesse the notable Cases of Gemines and Weston 1. R. 2. num 38 39. who were adjudged Traytors in Parliament for surrendering two Castles in France onely out of fear when they were strongly besieged and battered sooner then they needed without any compliency with tbe enemy The Case of Jobn Walsh Esquire accused of bigh Treason in Parliament against the King and Kingdom for yeelding up the Castle of Cherburg in France to the enemy when as he might have defended it And the Case of Henry Earl of Essex in the second yeer of Henry the second accused of high Treason by Robert de Monfort and vanquished by him in a Duell waged thereupon for throwing down the Kings Standard which he bare by inheritance and flying in xpassing a straight among the Mountains when fiercely encountred by the Welsh For which though his life was pardoned yet he was adjudged to be shorne a Monke put into the Abbey of Reading and had his Lands seised into the Kings hands And as for treacherous revolting to or delivering up Castles to the Enemy it is Capitall and high Treason by all Laws and so resolved in Parliament 3. R. 2. in the Case of Thomas Ketrinton Esquire accused of high Treâson by Sir John Annâ—sley Knight for delivering up the Castle of Saint Saviour in the Isle of Constantine to the French for a great summe of Money when as he neither wanted provisions nor means to defend it As for those unnaturall Vipers and Traytors who shall henceforth after this discovery joyn with the Popish Conspirators to ruine their Religion Countrey and the Parliament for private ends as Count Julian the Spaniard joyned with the Mores An. Dom. 713. whom he brought into Spain his native Countrey furiously pursuing his own private injury with the Ruine of the publike I shall onely bestow his Epitaph upon them with which I shall conclude this Treatise Maledictus furor impius Juliani quia pertinax indignatio quia dura vesanus furià ammimosus furore oblitus fidelitatis immâ—â—or religionis contemptor divinitatis crudelis in se homicida in vicinos reus in omnes Memoria ejus in omni ore amarescit nomen ejus in aeternum puâ—â—escet FINIS AN APPENDIX Manifesting by sundry Histories and Authors that in the ancient Roman Kingdome and
Empire in the Greek and German Empires derived out of it in the old Graecian Indian Aegytian Realmes in the Kingdomes of France Spaine Italy Hungary Bohemia Denmarke Poland Sweden Scotland yea of Judah Israel and others mentioned in the Scripture the Supreame Soveraignty and Power resided not in the Emperours and Kings themselves but in their Kingdomes Senates Parliaments People who had not only a power to restrain but censure and remove their Emperours and Princes for their Tyranny and misgovernment With an Answer to the Principal Arguments to prove Kings above their whole Kingdomes and Parliaments and not questionable nor accountable to them nor censurable by them for any exorbitant Actions HAving finished the preceding Treatise which asserts The Supreame Authority and Soveraigne Power in the Realme of England legally and really to reside in the whole Kingdome and Parliament which represents it not in the Kings Person who is inferiour to the Parliament A Doctrine quite contrary to what Court Prelates and Chaplaines have for sundry yeeres inculcated into our Kings and People who preach little else but Tyranny to the one and Slavery to the other to support their owne Lordly Prelacy and hinder an exact Church Reformation and directly opposite to the resolutions of many malignant Courtiers Lawyers and Counsellours about His Majesty who have either out of ignorance or malice created him a new Utopian absolute Royall Prerogative unknowne to our Ancestors not bottomed on the Lawes of God or the Realm for maintenance of each Punctilio whereof against the Parliaments pretended Encroachments the whole Kingdome must be engaged in a destructive civill Warre now like to ruine it I could not but conjecture how in all probability these Clergy men Courtiers and Lawyers out of their unskilfulnesse in true Divinity History Law and Policy would upon the first tydings of this strange Doctrine passe a sentence of Excommunication and death against it as guilty not onely of Heresie but High Treason and judge it such a monstrous Antimonarchicall Paradox as was never heard of in much lesse claimed or practised by any Kingdome Realm or Monarchy whatsoever To anticipate which rash censures and undeceive both Kings and Subjects whom these grosse Parasites have over-long seduced in this point to their prejudices convince the consciences of all gainsaying Malignants irradiate this long obscured verity whose seasonable discovery may through Gods blessing conduce very much to period the present Differences between King and Parliament touching matters of Prerogatives and Priviledges claimed by either I conceived it not only expedient but necessary to back theforecited presidents of our own Kingdom with paralelled examples in most forraign Realmes and Monarchies in which it is not mannerly to be overbusie without just cause which I have faithfully though sudenly collected out of the best approved Authors and Historians whereby I shall infallibly prove that in the Roman State and Empire at the first in the Greek Empire since in the German Empire heretofore and now in the ancient Kingdomes of Greece Egypt India and elsewhere in the Kingdomes of France Spaine Hungary Bohemia Denmarke Sweden Poland Scotland and most other Kingdomes in the world yea in the Kingdomes of Judah and Israel and others mentioned in Scripture the Highest Soveraigne Authority both to elect continue limit correct depose their Emperours and Kings to bound their royall power and prerogatives to enact Lawes create new Offices and formes of Government resided alwayes in these or Princes persons I shall begin with whole Kingdomes Senates Dyets Parliaments People not in the Emperors Kings the Roman State as having much affinity with curs which was long under their command heretofore After the building of Rome by Romulus and Remus Romulus being elected King divided the people into two Rankes those of the highest quality he stiled Senators making them a Court of Counsell and Justice much like our House of Peeres the other he termed The People being the body of the State and representing our House of Commons In this distinction made by the Peoples consent the Soveraigne Authority to elect Succeeding Kings to enact binding Lawes to make warre or peace and the like rested not in the Kings person but in the Senate and people joyntly if they accorded yet principally in the people in case either of assent or dissent between them their very Kings and Lawes having their greatest power and efficacy chiefly from the peoples election and assent To begin first with their Kings Election and Authority when Romulus their first King deceased there arose a great controversie in Rome about the Election of a new King for though they all agreed to have a King yet who should chuse him and out of what Nation he should be elected was then controverted In the Interim to avoid confusion the Senators being 150. divided the Regall power between them so as every one in his turne in Royall Robes should doe Sacrifice to the Gods and execute Justice six houres in the night time and six houres in the day which tended to preserve an equality among the Senators and to diminish the envie of the people when in the space of one night and day they should see one and the same man both a King and a private person But the people disliking this Interregnum as tending to put off the Election of a King that the Senators might keep the principallity and divide it among themselves cried out that their bondage was multiplyed having an hundred Lords made instead of one neither would they suffer it any longer unlesse they would admit a King created by themselves Hereupon the Senate thinking it best to offer the people that which they were like to lose to gaine their favour Summa potestate populo permissa permitted to the people the chiefe power of Electing a King but yet that they might not give away more right then they deteined they decreed That when the people had commanded and elected a King it should be ratified if the Senators should approve it or be reputed the authors of it Then the Interex assembling the people spake thus unto them O Romans REGEM ELIGITE chuse yea King so the Senators thinke fit and if he be one worthy to succeed Romulus they will approve him This was so gratefull to the people that lest they should be overcome with the benefit they commanded that the Senate should decree who should reigne at Rome At last Numa Pompilius was named and none of the people or Senate daring to preferre any before him all of them joyntly decreed that the Kingdome should be conferred upon him Whence Canubius the Tribune of the people in his Speech against the Consuls long after used these words Numa Pompilius POPULI JUSSU Patres autoribus Romae Regnavit Reges exacti JUSSU POPULI which manifests the chiefe power to be in the people Numa departing Tullus Hostilius by the people command consent and approbation was made King which Livy thus expresseth Tullum
Townes What power the Princes Electors and German states had and yet have in electing rejecting deposing restraining their Emperours in calling Diets and making Lawes you may read more largely in Munster and Grimston By all which and other particulars which for brevity I shall omit it is most evident that the Supream Soveraigne Authority of the Roman State both under their ancient Kings and Emperours and of the Greeke and German Empires resided not in the Kings and Emperours themselves but in their Senates Diets People States who prescribed them conditionall Oaths at their Coronations and to whom they were still accountable for their actions and misgovernment This Iohn Bodin a famous learned French Lawyer of great experience in State affaires surpassing all who writ before him of Republikes plainly affirmes in these words The Roman Emperours were at first nothing else but Princes of the Common weale that is to say the cheife and principallmen the SOVERAIGNTY neverthelesse still RESTING IN THE PEOPLE AND SENATE the Emperour having the Soveraigne authority only in fact not in right the State being but a very Principality wherein THE PEOPLE HAD THE SOVERAIGNTY So the German Empire at this day is nothing else but an Aristocraticall Principality wherein the Emperour is head and chiefe the POWER and majesty of the Empire BELONGING VNTO THE STATES THEREOF who thrust out of the Government Adolphus the Emperour in the yeare 1296 and also after him Wenceslaus in the yeare 1400 and that BY WAY OF IVSTICE AS HAVING IVRISDICTION AND POWER OVER THEM And so properly ancient Romans said Imperium in Magistratibus Auctoritatem in Senatu Potestatem in Plebe Maiestatem in Populo Command to be in the Magistrates Authority in the Senate Power in the Maeniall People and Majesty in the People in Generall The Senate in Rome did consult the people command for Livy oft times saith Senatus decrevit populus iussit the Senate hath decreed and the People commanded Which he there more largely prosecutes as you may read at leysure To all which Bishop Bilson himself doth fully assent affirming that Germany is a free state that the Emperour holds the Empire by election and that but on condition which he takes an oath to performe And if he violate their liberties or his oath they may not only lawfully resist him by force of armes but repell and depose him as a tyrant and set another in his place by the right and freedome of their Countrey And Cassanaus holds that the people may take away the very name of the Emperour at this day degrade him and resume his royall power This then being an unquestionable verity disproves that palpable common mistake of Dr. Ferne with other ignorant Court Doctors and Royalists who would make the world and Kings beleeve that the Roman Emperours were of greater power and authority than the Senate people the highest powers upon earth to which all persons yea the Senate and people collectively considered ought to submit and that it was unlawfull either for the Senate or people forcibly to resist Caligula Claudius Nero and other their wickedest and most tyrannicall Emperours much lesse to depose take armes against or call them to a strict just account for their Tyranny Oppression or Misgovernment it being directly contrary to Pauls Doctrine Rom. 13. 1 to 6. Let every soule be subject to the higher powers c. which false groundlesse principle is the sole foundation upon which all their late Sermons Books and rayling Discourses against this Parliaments proceedings and taking up of defensive armes are built when as in truth the Senate people were the highest powers to whoÌ„ the Roman Emperours themselves were to be obedient in all iust requests commands under paine of damnation and subiect to the Senates sword of â—ustice in case of disobedience misgovernment as all the premises evidence yea it likewise manifestly evidenceth that whole States Parliaments are the highest power and above their Kings who are subject to theÌ„ since the Roman and Greek Senates and people heretofore the very German States at this day are the highest power and above their Emperours though ever reputed of greater power Soveraignty and dignity than any Kings and the greatest Monarchs in the world and that therfore Kings even by Pauls Doctrine Rom. 13. ought to be subiect to the higher power and Iurisdiction of their Parliaments the Laws and Statutes of their Realmes and to be accountable to them if not subiect to their censures as some affirme in exorbitant cases of misgovernment which concern the Kingdomes and peoples safety If Kings iniuriously take away the lands goods or imprison the persons of any particular subjects the Law gives every one a particular remedy against them by way of Action or Petition of Right If then every private subiect may have redresse much more the whole Kingdome in and by Parliaments only not in inferiour Courts against their Soveraigns which oppresse them who being subiect unto the Lawes of God and their Realmes which have no respect of persons may as many affirme be questioned and iudged by them in their Parliaments as well as other princes great officers of State and Magistrates who in scripture are called Gods the higher powers and said to be â—rdained to rule judge by and for God as well as Kings and Emperours It is branded as a spice of Antichristian pride in Popes and their Parasites to deem themselves so High above other men that they are accountable to none but God for their wicked actions though many Popes in former and later times have been questioned consured imprisoned and deposed both by Emperours Kings and Councels for their intollerable misdemeanors And is it not the very selfe same crime in Kings in Emperours and their flatterers to hold this Popish erronious opinion that they are in no case responsible to their whole Kingdomes or Parliaments for their grossest exorbitances Our Popish Prelates and Clergy generally heretofore and some of our Protestant Bishops and Divines of late times from St. Ambrose his practise have held that kings for murthers rapes and great crying offences may be Lawfully excommunicated and censured by the spirituall Law and sword as sundry Emperours and Kings have been then why not likewise by the temporall when their Parliaments and whole Kingdoms see just cause the case of hundreds of Emperours and Kings in former times as the Histories of all Nations and ages prove abundantly beyond all contradiction I shall here instance in some few Kings censures subject to the Roman State and Empire with whom I shall conclude this discourse touching the Roman Monarchs Deioratus King of Galatia under the Romans Iurisdiction and one of their allies was accused of Treason and condemned to lose both his head and estate for certaine offences against C. Caesar and the Roman State as appeares by Tullies Oration to Caesar in his behalfe
to procure his pardon which because it was the first president of this kinde made his advocate say tamen it a inusitatum est Regem capitis reum esse ut ante hoc tempus non sit auditum yet long before that Zedechiah King of Iudah rebelling against the King of Babylon was brought prisoner to the King of Babylon to Riblah where hee gave judgement upon him slew both his sonnes and Princes before his eyes and then put out his own eyes bound him with fetters of brasse and carried him prisoner to Babylon where hee died 2 Kings 25. 1. to 8. Ier. 52. 1. to 12. And after Detoratus Antigonus King of the Iewes being taken prisoner by Antonius for moving sedition against the Roman State was beheaded with an axe at Antioch without any legall triall to prevent further seditions which never befell any King before that time writes Alexander ab Alexandro And Agrippa not long after put Bogus King of the Mores to death for siding with Antonius Of later times I read that Ludovicus Pius the Emperour taking Bernard his Nephew King of Italy prisoner for rebelling and denying his superiority over him carried him into France to determine what should be done with him according to Iustice for this his offence where though a King hee was condemned to death and executed as some or at least cast into prison and had his eyes put out as others write So Charles of France taking Conradine King of Sicily prisoner publikely arraigned and condemned him of high Treason and cut off his head Anno 1208. Yea our owne King Iohn being a Feudatary to the King of France was by Philip the French king in a full Parliament there during his absence in England arraigned condemned to death and deposed from his Crown by the sentence of his Peeres for murthering his Nephew Arthur then a Subject of France with his owne hands So Iohn Bailiol king of Scotland renouncing his homage for that Crowne to king Edward the first was for this offence compelled to resigne his Crown with all his right to the kingdome of Scotland to King Edward the first and sent Prisoner to the Tower of London and Mary Queene of Scots within many mens memories after long debate in Parliament was condemned and beheaded at Fothringhom Castle Febr. 8. An. 1587. for laying claime to the Crowne of England and other particulars mentioned in our Historians And thus much for the Roman Grecian German Emperours kings and kingdomes I shall now give you a briefe Survey of what Greeke Authors write concerning Kings and Kingdoms and of the power the kinds of ancient Kings and Kingdomes in Greece and other places That great Father of Learning and policie Aristotle Tutor to the greatest Emperour Alexander the Great whose Authority is irrefragable in our Schooles resolves That true Kingdoms were erected at first and conferred on the worthiest men by the free voluntary joynt consent of the people and founded confirmed by the customes and Lawes of each country which Polibius also affirmes That there are 4 severall sorts of Kings some of greater some of lesser Authority and continuance then others some elective some successive some during life some Annuall all of them receiving their distinct jurisdictions Formes Limitations and different Royalties from the peoples primitive or subsequent institutions and consents For all men being equall by the Law of nature can have no dominion nor Supercrity one over another but by their own voluntary consents That the Lawes not the Kings Princes or Magistrates be they one or more or never so good ought to be the sole Lords or Rulers of the Common-wealth and that Princes and Governours ought to governe by the Lawes who cannot command what the Lawes doe not command That those who command that the Law should rule command that God and the Lawes should rule but he that commands a man to be a Prince he commands that both a man and beast should be Princes for covetousnesse and the lust of the minde is a certaine beast which poverts both Magistrates and the very best men but the Law is a constant and quiet Minde and Reason voyd of all motions of lusts and desires That the power of the greatest things and greatest power ought DE IVRE of right to be in all the people because their wisdomes resolutions and revenues considered altogether are greater and more considerable then those of a few wise or honest men placed in the highest offices of Magistracie who are but a small particle of the State in respect of all the people That the people ought to be of more power then the King or greatest Magistrates to prevent their Tyranny and Oppression and that a King ought to governe by his Lawes and not to doe any thing against them according to his lust wherefore he ought to have so much power and force wherewith he may protect the authority of the Lawes yea he must necessarily have forces and power yet so much onely as thereby he may be able to curbe every particular man or many also yet not so great power but that a populo autem universo idem REX ILLE IPSE COERCERI POTEST the very King himselfe may yet BE CVRBED by all the people such Guards verily the Ancients gave to their Kings when they would set any Tyrant or Governour over the City And when Dionysius required Guards a certaine Syracusan perswaded them to curbe such Guards to which Polybius also suffragates According to these Rules of Aristotle I read in Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and Polybius that in the Lacedemonian Common-wealth the Kings had not the chiefe Dominion so as they might doe what they pleased sed summa totius Reipub. administratio penes Senatum erat but the chiefe Government of the whole Commonweale was in the Senate from whence the Romanes tooke their patterne Alexander ab Alexandro Boemus and Xenophon write That the Lacedemonians sometimes elected a King out of the Family of the Heraclidae or of Agis but more often two joynt Kings of equall Authority out of the stock of Proclus and Aemisthenes who yet had not the chiefe Command as Kings Quia juris omnis publici potestas penes Senatum erat because the power of all publike law or rule was in the Senate the better to keep their Kings from attempting and usurping a Tyranny they being Kings rather in name then Dominion and like the Athaean two Annuall Praetors whence Aristotle makes them the lowest ranke of Kings Iohn Bodin informes us That in the Lacedemonian Aristocracie the Soveraignty remained in the State wherein were two Kings without any Soveraignty at all being indeed nothing else but Captains and Generals for the managing of their Warres and for that cause were by the other Magistrates of the State sometimes for their faults condemned to pay their fine as was Agesilaus and sometimes to death also as was
Agis and Pausanias Agis the last of the Lacedemonean kings as Plutarch records being apprehended and condemned by the Ephori without an Indictment and then hanged in a halter Finally Aristotle himself and Xenophon informe us that the Kingdom of the Lacedemonians flourished very long yea longer then any other forme of Government because their Kings power was but small and their Kings never desired greater things then the Lawes would beare by which they had received their Kingdome in the beginning for in the beginning that Kingdome was divided between two joynt Kings After which Theopompus left it more moderated to his successours and constituted the Magistracie of the Ephori who had power even to depose and execute their kings if they offended and rose not up out of their seates unto them to retain that moderation By which meanes he verily weakned the power of the Kingdome but yet certainely setled it more lasting and stable whence Theopompus gave this answer to his complaining and upbraiding wife whether he was not ashamed to leave the Kingdoms lesse to his Children then he had received it from his Father No truly saith he for by this means I leave it more stable and lasting A Speech well worthy the consideration of the very greatest hereditary kings These Lacedemonian kings whose honours writes Xenophon were not much better then those of private men Etenim neque Regibus animos 〈◊〉 Tyrannicos voluit Lycurgus neque civibus eorum potestatem invisam reddere tooke an Oath every month to governe the Kingdome according to the Lawes enacted I finde that the Cumaeans had a Magistrate whom they called Phylactus whose office was to come into the full Senate and hold the Kings hands who stood in judgement before them untill by the Senators decree their reward or punishment was appointed By which it is apparent that the Cumaean Senate was above their kings and did usually arraigne and punish them iudicially if they saw cause as they rose up in Armes against Aristodomus their king who tyrannized over them by Zenocrita her instigation slew him and so recovered their Liberties The ancient Carthaginians had two kings whom they stiled Suffites who were but annuall removed every yeares Yea the Ibersans and Parthians had two joynt kings in ancient times the one to judge the other to governe the people In Meroe where they elected their kings by their beauty stregth or wealth their Priests had the chiefe power who had so great authority that sometimes like the Pope and his Nuncioes they would send a Messenger and command the king to be put to death and make another in his steed Which custome was after abolished by one of the kings who violently assaulted and slew all the Priests and in Meroe if the king offended after the Priests power was abolished they inflicted no corporall punishment on him but all withdrew themselves from him and avoided his company till he was killed with griefe and consumption The Indians will not permit their king to sleep in the day time and if he be drunken at any time if any woman of whom he hath a guard kill him whiles he is drunke she is so farre from being guilty of Treason that for a reward she shall be married to his Successour much like the ancient publike institution of the Selavonians recorded by Saxo Grammaticus that the assassinate of evill Kings should succeed them in their kingdomes a thing frequently practised in many kingdomes and Empires though very ill enacted in any The Sabaeans confined their Kings to their Palaces and used to stone them if they went forth of their bounds The Mosseriaes whose kings were elective used to punish them when they offended by keeping them fasting a whole dayes space Among some of the Indians if the king dyes having male children of his owne or cosen-germans or brothers children they shall not succeed him in the kingdome but his sister sonne if there be any if not then his next alliance and that ex gentis instituto by the institution of the Nation the reason is because their Priests used to defloure the Queene whose issue is held to be illegitimate In Thraciae the people elect a king who is well qualified mercifull grave for his age and one who hath no children For no Father though never so well qualified is admitted to raigne and if he fortune to have issue while he reignes he is deprived and so kept lest the kingdome should become hereditary Yea though the king be never so just yet they will not that he should have the whole power but appoint him 40. Governours lest hee alone should judge in capitall causes And if he be convicted of any offence be is punished with death yet not by laying violent hands on him but by publike consent all food is kept from him so as at last he perisheth with famine The Taprobani had this custome that no man who had any children should be chosen king lest he should claime the kingdome as hereditary and make it so The Athenians Ionians Milesians Marchomanni Quadi Persians Sicilians Corinthians Parthians Meroes Gordii Medes Paphii Cathians Aetheopians Sydonians Germans Swedes Danes and other Nations had severall Customes Lawes Rules over-tedious to recite by which they elected and inaugurated their kings of which you may read in Alexander ab Alexandro Strabo Boemus Peter Martyr Purchas and others and different degrees of power and government derived from their kingdomes and people the soveraigne Authority still residing in them to prescribe both Laws and limits to their kings and call them to publike account for their grosse offences and misgovernment The ancient Aethiopiant elected the most fanatique Priest for their king whom though they adored and honoured for a God yet Vitam agere STATVTAM LEGIBVS DEBET iuxta patrios mores he ought to live such a life as the Laws appointed him according to the manners of the Countey neither ought he to reward or punish any man himselfe though chiefe parts of Royalty The old German kings had no free nor infinite but a restrained and bounded power by the Lawes Diodorus Siculus writes that the first Egyptian Kings lived not like other Monarchs to rule all things according to their wills Nullis obnoxii censuris as ob noxious to no censures but all things not only their publike actions but even the regiment of their daily life were conformed to the rule of the Lawes as he there manifests in sundry particulars both in respect of their attendants dispatches devotions recreations moderate spare dyet and the like neither was it lawfull for them to judge nor doe any thing nor punish any man out of petulancy or anger or any other unjust cause contrary to what the established Lawes required concerning every of them Whiles they observed these things customarily it was so farre that they tooke it ill
or were offended in minde that on the contrary they thought they lived a most blessed life For other men rashly giuing indulgence to the affections of nature acted many things accompanied with losses and dangers yea some men ofttimes although they foreknew they should sinne did notwithstanding perpetrate evill things being led away with love or hatred or some other perturbation of minde but they imbracing the rule of life approved by the most prudent men resolved not to erre from their duty in the least degree Whiles Kings used this Iustice towards their Subjects they had their Subjects bound unto them in greater benevolence and love then their very kindred For not only the Colledge of Priests but the whole Nation of the Aegyptians and likewise every one of them were not so carefull of their wives and children and private goods as of the safety of their Kings Wherefore they preserved the estate of the Republike intire for a long time under the mentioned kings spending their life in greatest felicity as long as this constitution of Lawes flourished And when these kings dyed all the Aegyptians generally mourned for them in an extraordinary manner divers wayes made solemne Orations in their praise buried them with great pompe and solemnity and erected Pyramides to their eternall honour all which funerall pompous solemnities many ill kings wanted after their deaths ob plebis refragationem because the people gain-sayed it who together with the Priests and Senates who were ever present with the kings to assist counsell and direct them were superiour to their kings since they could thus decree or deny them these funerall honours which made many of their following kings to addict themselves to just actions too for feare of contumelious handling and sempiternall ignominy after their decease So this Author To which I shall adde Xenophons definition of a Kingdome and Tyranny A kingdome is an Empire over men by their free assents according to the Lawes of the City And a Tyranny is an unlawfull Empire over men against their wills which depends upon the will of the Prince And this observation of Polybius That Kings in ancient times did give themselves wholly to doe that which was honest and just and to suppresse the contrary the very beginning of all true kingdomes and the end for which kings were first instituted by the people Whiles they thus demeaned themselves they were subject to no envy because they differed not much from others neither in apparell nor in meat and drinke but observed a conversation of life conformable to other men and lived perpetually like to others But afterwards when those who obtained the principality of succession and the prerogative of their blood had those things already provided which made them able to secure themselves and to support their state following their lusts by reason of their abundance they then thought it belonged to Princes to be better clad then subjects to exceed them in costlinesse and variety of meats and to use venery with whom they pleased Hence envy and offence was begotten and implacable hatred and anger kindled and a kingdome by this meanes changed into a Tyranny Hence men most generous and magnanimous bold spirits unable to beare such affronts and insolences of Princes seditiously conspire against them and the people having got such Captaines to make resistance joyne with them for the foresaid causes that the Princes may be repressed And thus the forme of a Kingdome and Monarchy is utterly taken away by the roots and the beginning of an Aristocracy again laid the people refusing to set any more a King over them yet not daring to commit the Republike to many fearing as yet the iujustice of Superiours and therefore most esteeme equality and liberty So that the Soveraigne power of setling of changing the Kingdome and forme of government resides principally in the people who as hee there largely proves by the Lacedemonian and Roman state ought to enjoy the Supreame authority and to be above their Kings as it seems the Aegyptian did who deposed and expelled Evergetes their King for his cruelty and after him their King Ptolomaeus Auletes setting up Cleopatra his eldest child in his Threne and as the Romane Senate did who had power to dispose of the common Treasury and revenue one of the greatest points of Soveraignty to appoint Lieutenants and Governours of Provinces to grant Triumphes to dispose of Religion for which cause Fertullian saith that never any God was received in Rome without the decree of the Senate and to receive answer and dismisse the Ambassadours of Kings and Nations which none else did but the Senate whose Soveraigne power was such that Tiberius the Emperour in the beginning of his Reigne called the Senators assembled altogether in the Senate Indulgentissimos DOMINOS his most loving LORDS and moved the Senate to divide the Empire not to commit it all to one man as we read in Tacitus though they were his Subjects and inferiours when divided and severally considered And such Soveraigne power had the Panaetolium or generall assembly of Parliament among the Aetolians who received and answered all Embassadours determined all affaires of warre and peace it being provided by the Lawes of the Aetolians that nothing should be intreated of concerning peace or war but in their Panaetolium or Pelaicon Councell as Livy and Bodin record But to leave these ancient and come neerer our present neighbor Kings and Kingdomes of greatest eminencie and power which may parallell our owne The Kings of France to whom Caessanaeus in his Catalogus Gloriae mundi gives precedency before all others and to the Emperour himselfe while but elect before his Coronation have in ancient times been inferiour to their Kingdomes Parliaments and subject to their censures even to deposition if not more though some cry them up for absoluts Monarchs and make them little better then Tyrants now Iohn Bodin a learned French Lawyer and Statesman writes That in ancient times the Kings of the Cities of the Gaules were subject to their States whom Caesar for this cause oftentimes calleth Reguli little Kings being themselves subjects and justifiable to the Nobility who had all the Soveraignty causing them even to be put to death if they had so deserved And that is it for which Amphiorix the Captaine Generall whom they called the King of the Lingeois said Our commands are such as that the people hath no lesse power over us then we over the people Wherein he shewed evidently that he was no soveraigne Prince howbeit that it was not possible for him to have equall power with the people as we have before shewed Wherefore these sort of Princes if they polluted with wickednesse and villany cannot be chastised by the Authority and severity of the Magistrate but shall abuse their wealth and power unto the hurt and destruction of good men IT ALWAYES HATH AND SHALL BE LAWFVLL not for strangers onely but
divided the Land of France betweene them so that either of them should under the King Rule and Governe such proportion as then there was to them appointed Charlemayne soone after renounced his Government and turned Monke and Pipin as onely Ruler tooke upon him the charge of the whole Realme Pipin then considering in his minde in what danger and trouble before him his Father and he now had ruled the Land and that the King to whom belonged all the charge kept his Palaces and followed all his delights and pleasures without taking any paine for reformation of the same sent an ambassage to Pope Zachary asking his advice in point of conscience Whether it were more necessary or wealfull for the Realme of France that he should be admitted for King that did nothing but apply his minde to all bodily pleasures without care and charge takeâ— upon him for the guarding of the Land and the People of the same or he that tooke upon him all the charge and paine in defence of the Land and keeping of the people in the due subjection To this the Pope answered and wrote back to Pipin that he was best worthy and most profitable for the Realme to be admitted for King that ruled well the Commonalty by justice and prudence and the enemies thereof defended and subdued by his policie and manhood Aventine relates his answer more largely in these words I finde saith Zachary in the Story of Divine Scripture that the people fell away from their wretchlesse and lascivious king that despised the counsell of the wise men of the Realme and created a sufficient man one of themselves King God himselfe allowing their doings All Power and Rule belongs to God Princes are his Ministers in their Kingdomes And Rulers are therefore chosen for the people that they should follow the will of God the chiefe Ruler in all thing and not do what they list He is a true King that guideth the people committed to his charge according to the Prescript and Line of Gods Law all that he hath as power glory riches favour and dignitie HE RECEIVETH OF THE PEOPLE and the people MAY WHEN THE CAVSE REQVIRETH FORSAKE THEIR KING It is therefore LAVFVLL for the Franks and Germanes refusing this unkindly Monster Childericke to chuse some such as shall be able in warre and peace by his wisdome to protect and keep in safetie their Wives Children Parents Goods and Lives Which answer of the Pope recited and approved in our owne King Edward the Confessors Lawes and Childerickes deposition likewise Chap. 17. being declared to the Lords Barons and Commons of the Realme whom this Pope likewise wholly absolved from their allegiance to Childericke soone after they of one assent and minde proceeded and deposed and put downe their King and Governour Childericke being a Sott a foole a beast and one unfit to governe and closed him in a Monastery after he had reigned ten yeares in the Kings room by name onely which done they unanimously elected and crowned Pipin for their King By meanes whereof the Royall Line of Moroveus after 17 discents ended and the Crown was translated to Pipins blood Which act in point of policie is determined lawfull by Polybius who Writes That the reason why some Kingdomes became hereditary was onely this because their first Kings being vertuous and worthy men they were perswaded their Children would prove like them but if at any time they degenerat and prove otherwise and the posteritie of the first Kings displease the subjects they thenceforth make the Kingdome elective chusing Kings not according to their strength of body and mindes attempting great things but according to the difference of their will and reason manifested by their actions And by Aristotle who informes us That in Kingdomes confirmed in succession of blood this is to be numbred among the causes of their ruine that the Kingdomes descend to many contemptible and slothfull persons who although they obtaine no tyrannicall but Royall dignitie yet they live lustfully and proudly and so the Kingdome easily falls to ground and becomes a tyrannie the people being unwilling that such should rule over them and so either wholly alter the forme of government or make choice of a fitter King for the necessary preservation of the State yea this election in point of Police and Divinity too is justified and proved lawfull by Buchanan in his Book de Iure Regni apud Scotos by Iohn Mariana de Rege Regis Instit l. 1. c. 3 5. by Pope Zachary in his forceited Epistle by King Edward the Confessor in his Laws c. 17. by a generall Councell of all the Peers and Prelates of France Convocato enim Principum et Senatorum Concilio de COMMVNI SENSV ET VOLVNTATE OMNIVN Childericum solo nomine Regem à regni fastigio deponunt c. ac OMNIBVS GAVDENTIBVS ET VOLENTIBVS Pipinum super Francos REGNARE FACIVNT writes Antoninus and in a word our Bishop Bilson himselfe an Anti-Puritane and great Royalist affirmes That if the King be a naturall foole distracted and altogether unable to governe as Childericke was any Realme by publicke consent and advice may choose another to govern them of which more before Pipin deceasing Charlemain and Charles the great his sons reigned joyntly over the Frenchmen by their â—oyous admittance Having now two Kings instead of one Lewes sirnamed the godly sonne of Charles the great a pious yet unfortunate Prince by meanes of his sonne Lothair was first imprisoned and then by a Councell and Parliament held at Compaygne by authority of the spirituall and temporall Lords and of that Parliament discharged of all rule and dominion as well of the Empire as of the Realme of France after that shorne a Monke and thrust into the Monastery of Saint Marke where he was strictly guarded and when some of the Nobles and people afterwards desired Lothair to release and restore him to his former dignity he answered them That the deposing of him was done by the whole Authority of the Land wherefore if he should be againe restored it must be by the same Authority and not by him onely After which by the Lords assents hee was restored Lewes and Charles after Lewes Balbus their fathers death were joynt Kings of France and being very young by a Parliament held at Meaux Lewes the Emperour their Vncle was declared to be more apt to rule the Kingdome of France then these Infants or Barnard their Guardian and these Children held by some illegitimate Whereupon by the greater number of voyces an Ambassadour was sent to the Emperour to come and take upon him the Rule of middle France which he comming to doe his Nephewes friends compounded with him and then caused these Infants to be crowned and proclaimed Kings Charles the simple at his Fathers death Anno 895. being too yong to take upon him the charge of the Realme the Lords of France
misleading the Commonalty of the City said That albeit the King by his Prerogative might at his pleasure and for his advantage make his monies when he would and so to suffer them to be currant thorow his Realme yet for the weale and ease of his Subjects considering their manifold and late charges he was content that at this season this new money should be spared and that the 3. estates should be againe assembled and that they should deprive all such persons then bearing Offices as they should thinke prejudiciall to the Realme and â—ver that to ordaine such Money as might be beneficiall for the Land Of all which Grants the Provost to the intent that he might of authority shew them unto the Commonalty of the Citie desired a writing The which the Duke to appease the people though it were much contrary to his minde and his pleasure granted unto his request The thirtieth day of Ianuary ensuing the Duke at the request of the said Provost sent certaine Officers to the houses of Simon de Burg and others accused of misgoverning of the Realme whose houses the said Officers seized and made Inventories of their goods That done the Duke sent out Commissions and assembled the Three Estates againe at Paris the 15. day of February Where in the parliament chamber in the presence of the Duke Estates and divers Nobles Robert Coke Bishop of Laon by command of the Duke made a long Oration of the misguiding the King and the Land by meanes of evill Officers as well by changing of money as other many unlawfull Excises and Taxes to the great impoverishment of the Commonalty of the Realme and to the singular enriching and advancement of the said Officers Wherefore the Three Estates prayed that all such Officers may be removed from their Offices and other that shall be thought more beneficiall for the King and his Realme to be admitted Of which Officers the Archbishop of Roan then newly made Cardinall was noted for one and other to the number of 21. whereof some were right neere to the Duke After which Oration Sir Iohn de Pigquine in the name of the Three Estates offered That the Three Estates should finde to the King 30000. men for an whole yeare so as all things might after that day be ordered as the Bishop had before devised All which Articles were unto them by the Duke granted and incontinuently all such Officers as they before had named were clearly avoided and other such as by the said 3. Estates were thought most necessary were put and chosen to their roomes except that some of the old as Masters of Accounts and some of the Presidents and Masters of the Requests were holden in for a time to shew unto the new how they should order and guide their said Offices And the 26 of March was a new money proclaimed thorow Paris such as the said 3. Estates had newly devised The King informed of this sends the Archbishop of Sennes and two Earles from Burdeaux where he was prisoner with a Proclamation which they caused to be proclaimed in Paris the 6. of April That the people should not pay such Subsidies as the 3. Estates had ordained for the waging of the 30000. men aforesaid or for the Kings fine and also that the 3. Estates after that day should no more assemble for any causes or matter before touched till they had farther knowledge of the Kings pleasure For which Proclamation the Citizens of Paris much blamed the said Bishop and Earles who purchased it who as soone as this Proclamation was made for feare of the people fled from Paris Vpon this Proclamation the Commons waxed so mad that they left their occupations drew them to Conventicles and Companies and used many unfitting words of the King and his Counsell Whereupon to avoid inconvenience the Duke commanded a Watch to be kept in the City day and night and certaine Gates of the City to bee kept shut Vpon the 9. day of April another Proclamation was made all contrary to that other By vertue whereof it was charged that the fore-said Subsidies should bee levyed and also that the 3. Estates should re-assemble at Paris the 5. day after Easter and there to proceed upon all such matters as were before by them begar When the Estates meet againe there grew a difference between them and the Duke about the subsidies for the finding of 30000. men the summe assessed for that purpose being too small by much the Clergy and Lords then refusing to pay any more then they were first sessed unto By meanes of which difference the assembly of State was dissolved Whereupon strait command was given by the Duke to the Provost of Paris and others who bare principall sway within the City and were great stricklers and doers in the Assemblies of the 3. Estates so that much of the businesse was ruled by them and their meanes that they should cease their Authority and not to deale any more with the rule of the Realme but onely with the good rule and government of the City of Paris That done the Duke rode about to divers good Townes making request to them for ayde and to have this new money currant among them But he sped little of his purpose Then shortly after he assembled at Paris certaine person of 20. or 30. Townes next adjoyning with whom he held a Counsell for sundry dayes who in the end shewed him that they might bring nothing to effect without the assembling the 3. states besought him that they might be eft-soon assembled trusting that they would then satisfie his minde Upon which the Duke sent forth Commissions charging the said 3. Estates to appeare before him at Paris the next Wednesday after All-Saints day which they did where the Duke condiscending to their former Articles he gave the King of Navarre and the 3. Estates full content who promised that they would demeane themselves to his Father and him as true and dutifull Subjects and advising him to take upon him the Government of the Realme they created him Regent of France during his fathers imprisonment After this hee assembled the Estates and chiefe Burgesses of Cities at Paris and acquainted them with the King of Englands large demands for his fathers inlargement which were so displeasing to all the company that they answered The said Treatie was neither honourable nor profitable And rather then the King should binde him and his land to such inconveniences they would prepare to make sharpe Warre against England whereupon they granted to finde divers thousands of men at Arms at their owne costs for certain moneths to relieve the King And at another Parliament assembled when Iohn was dead and Charles came to the Crowne they granted an excise of every 4 penny of all things bought and sold for the maintenance of his warres the spiritualty granted him a disme and the Lords and Gentlemen were stinted at a certaine And in the eleventh yeare of his reigne he assembled his
demands and offers it was finally determined That the Dutchy of Normandy was so appropriated unto the King of France and to his heires that in no wise it might be dissevered from the Crowne but that a perfect unitie might be had betweene the King and his brother the King should be instanced to give yearly to his brother in recompence of the said Dutchy 12000 pounds of Turon money with certain land to be assigned with the name of a Duke and 40000 annuall rent of like money during his naturall life for such portion as he claimed to be his right within the Realme To all which the king agreed and to pardon the Duke of offences against his Majestie and all such Lordships as he had wonne from him in Britaine to restore which offers Charles refusing was the yeare following contented with the Dutchy of Guyan onely and so the warre of Normandy ceased After Lewes his death most of his speciall and dearest beloved Servants and ill Councellours whom he specially recommended to his sonne Charles the ninth on his death-bed came to disgracefull ends Oliver Damman was beheaded for Treason and Iohn Doyacon for trespasse and hatred unto the common people by his desert was with all shame brought to the Market place at Paris and there bereft of both his ears and then banished the Court for ever by reason whereof arose this proverbe among the Frenchmen Principibus obsequi haereditarium non esse The favour of Princes is not hereditary Philip de Commines living under Lewes the eleventh and Charles the eighth by whom he was made Lord of Argenton being in high favour with them and a great Councellor of State hath this notable passage against the French Kings power then to impose any taxes on their Subjects without their free assents in a Parliament of the 3. Estates though the contrary be now daily practised to the intollerable grievance of the subjects Is there any King or Prince that hath power to leavie one penny upon his subjects besides his demains without leave or consent of those that must pay it unlesse it be by tyrannie and violence A man will say that sometime a Prince cannot tarry to assemble his Estates because it would require too long time Whereunto I answere That if he move a Warre offensive there needeth no such haste for he may have leisure enough at his owne pleasure to make preparation and further he shall be much stronger and much more feared of his enemies when he moveth warre with the consent of his subjects then otherwise Now as touching a warre defensive that Cloud is seene long before the tempost fall especially when it is a forraine warre and in this case good subjects ought not to complaine nor to refuse any thing that is laid upon them Notwithstanding such invasion cannot happen so suddenly but the Prince may have leisure at the least to call together certaine wise personages to whom he may open the causes of the warre using no collusion therein neither seeking to maintaine a trifling warre upon no necessitie thereby to have some colour to leavie money Money is also necessary in time of peace to fortifie the Frontiers for defence of those that dwell upon them lest they be taken unprovided but this must be done measurably In all these matters the wisdome of a sage king sufficeth for if he be a just Prince he knoweth what he may do and not do both by Gods Lawes and mans To be short in my opinion of all the Seniories in the world that I know the Realme of England is the Countrey where the Commonwealth is best governed the people least oppressed and the fewest buildings and houses destroyed in civill warre and alwayes the lot of misfortune falleth upon them that be authors of this warre Our King is the Prince in the whole world that hath least cause to alledge that he hath priviledges to leavie what he listeth upon his subjects considering that neither he nor any other Prince hath power so to doe and those that say he hath do him no honour neither make him to be esteemed any whit the mightier Prince thereby but cause him to be hated and feared of his neighbours who for nothing would live under such a government But if our King or those that seeke to magnifie and extoll him should say I have so faithfull and obedient subjects that they deny me nothing I demand and I am more feared better obeyed and better served of my subjects than any other Prince living they endure patiently whatsoever I lay upon them and soonest forget all charges past This me thinkes yea I am sure were greater honour to the King then to say I leavie what I list and have priviledge so to doe which I will stoutly maintaine King Charles the fift used no such termes neither did I ever heare such language proceed from any king but from divers of their servants who thought they did their Master great service in uttering such speeches but in mine opinion they misbehaved themselves towards their Prince and used such language partly because they would seeme to be good servants and partly because they knew what they said But for a manifest proofe of the French mens loyaltie and obedience to their Prince we need alledge none other example then that we have seene ourselves of late by experience when the Three Estates were assembled at Towrs after the death of our Master King Lewes the eleventh which was in the yeare of our Lord 1483. A man might have thought this good assembly to be dangerous for the kings estate yea and divers there were of mean calling and lesse honesty that said then and often said since That it is Treason to make mention of assembling the Estates and a thing tending to the diminishing of the Kings authoritie but themselves are those that worke Treason against God the king and the Common-wealth neither doe any use these speeches but either such as are in authoritie without desert and unworthy thereof or such as are common Tale-carriers and accustomed to talke of trifling matters or such as feare great assemblies lest their doings should there be ripped up and reprehended c. Charles the eighth of France beeing but thirteene yeares of age when the Crowne descended to him hereupon in the year 1484. a generall Parliament was held at Towrs with more free accesse then had beene usuall yet not so effectuall as was expected every one seeking rather to maintaine his private authoritie then to procure the peoples ease In this Parliament the pragmatick sanction was restored to use it as they had accustomed The Constables sword was given to the Duke of Bourgon the government of the Kings person to his Sister a cunning woman and somewhat of her fathers humour but the name of Regent was forbidden to them all to prevent jealousies and there was a Counsell enacted of Twelve by whom matters should be dispatched in the kings name of the
their consents who shall be the next Heir to avoid questions and commotions about the Title to the Crown That where the Right of the Crown is in controversie the whole Kingdom and State ought to decide the right and settle it where they see best cause That if the right Heir in Hereditary Kingdoms yea in Spain be an Ideot Infant Woman or a person unmeet or not so fit to Governâ— as others of the blood he may be lawfully put from the Crown and another of their Race lawfully substituted King in his place by the whole State especially when the good or safetie of the Commonwealth requires it because the safety of the people is the supremost Law and what they by common consent have Enacted onely for the publike safetie they may without any obstacle alter when things require it by like common consent especially because the hereditary Rights of reigning are for the most part made rather by the dissimulation of the People not daring to resist the will of former Princes then by their certain will and the free consent of all the Estates That he which is thus settled by consent of all the Estates hath a just Title against the next Heir of the Blood and his Issue who are put by the Crown else divers Kings and Princes now reigning in Spain elswhere should be usurpers and want good Titles to their crownes they or their Ancestorâ— being not the next right heires of the Royall Stock for all which particulars he gives sundry instances in the Kingdomes of Spaine as in Berengaria Blanch the Mother of Lewes of France Ferdinand Sancho the younger sonne of Alfonso Henry the Bastard Iohn King of Portugall Fardinand and Iohn the 2. of Aragon c. concluding That if the King degenerate into a Tirant by subverting Religion Lawes Liberties oppressing murthering or deflowring his subjects the whole Kingdome may not onely question admonish and reprehend him but in case he prove incorrigible after admonition deprive him and substitute another in his place which saith he hath been done more then once in Spain Thus King Peter was publikely rejected for his cruelty to his subjects and Henry his Brother though of an unclean Mother obtained the Crowne so Henry his Nephewes Nephew for his slothfulnesse and evill manners was deposed by the Nobles suffrages and Alphanso his Brother though but a yong child proclaimed King After his death Elizabeth Henry his sister had the chiefe government of the Realme leaving Henry And for a conclusion he addes That such a Tyrannicall King continuing incorrigible after publike admonitions of the whole State if there be no hopes of amendment may not onely be deposed but put to death and murthered by the whole State or any particular persons by their appointment yea without it a note somewhat above Ela if he be declared a publike enemy by the whole state and in case the whole states cannot publikely assemble by reason of such a Princes knowne notorious tyranny he writes That then in such a case it is lawfull for any private man to murther him to free the Countrey and Kingdome from destruction Adding that it is a wholsome meditation for Princes to be perswaded that if they oppresse the Common-wealth if they become intoller able thorow vices and filthinesse that they live in such a condition that they may not onely be slaine of right but with laud and glory Peradventure this feare â—â—â—retard some Princes that they give not themselves wholly to be corrupted with vices flatterers and cast bridles upon their fury That which is the chiefe let the Prince bee perswaded that the authority of the whole Common-wealth is greater then his being but one neither let him beleeve the worst of men affirming the contrary for to gratifie him which is very pernicious All these positions of Mariana however other Kings and Kingdomes may relish them especially the last touching private Subjects which few can approve the Parliaments of France doing publike execution on this Book as they had just cause for extolling and justifying the barbaroâ—s murther of their King Henry the 3. by James Clement a Dominican Frier l. 1. c. 6. p. 51. to 57. and justifying the Guises Rebellion are yet authorized as Catholike and Orthodox by the most Catholike King of Spaine and the Emperour of Germany in whose Kingdomes they passe for currant coyne the most dangerous of them being seconded not onely by Hieronymus Blanca in his Aragonensium Rerum Commentariis Iohannis Pistorius Hispaniae Illustratae c. and other Spanish Historians collected by him but likewise by Alvarius Pelagius Cardinall Tolet Capistranus Dominicus Bannes Franciscus Victoria Simancha Patensis Gregory de Valentia Suarez the Doctors of Salamancha Becanus Bellarmine with other Spanish Iesuites Writers who most heretically affirme That even the Pope alone either with or without a Councell for heresie as they deem it and obstinacy against the See of Rome may excommunicate censure depose kill or murther any Christian Princes depose them from their thrones dispose of their Crownes to others at their pleasures absolve their subjects wholly from their allegeance and give subjects power to rise up in armes against and murther them by open force or secret treachery which Bishop Bilson truly affirmes to be farre more dangerous and derogatory to Princes then to attribute such a power not to any particular persons but to their own whole Kingdomes and Parliaments onely who being many in number of the same Nation and Religion with and having many dependances on and many engagements by oath duty favours benefits to their Princes lesse malice against them judging onely according to the fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and former presidents of their Ancestors and aiming at nothing but their Kingdomes safety are like to be more just indifferent Iudges of their Princes action when questioned then the Pope a meer enemy and forraigner who proceeds by no other authority but what he hath unjustly usurped from Kings and by no other rules but his owne will pride malice honour or profit I have thus given you an account of the Kings of Spaines subordination to their whole kingdomes and Lawes in point of Thesis and positive Doctorine approved by themselves professed by their eminentest Writers I shall now proceed to Historicall examples to confirme it in point of practise Ordogno the 14. king of Castile summoned 4. Earles of Castile to appeare before him who refused to goe to the warres against the Saracens promising them safe conduct not withstanding he commanded them to be apprehended imprisoned and slain for which bloody Treachery those of Castile rebelled against him rejecting his government and providing for the safety of them and theirs Duos Milites non de potentioribus sed de prudentioribus eligerunt quos Iudices statuerunt c. They elected two prudent Knights of their owne to be their Magistrates and Iudges to governe them to manage their warres and administer justice to them the one
people whereto the Nobilitie as well as the rest should contribute imposing 5. Maravidis of gold for every person but it took no effect for all the Gentlemen of Castile being discontented that he sought to infringe their Liberties fell to armes and being led by the Earle Don Pedro de Lara they were resolved to resist this tax and defend their Liberties with the hazzard of their liveâ— Whereupon Alphonso changed his opinion and let them understand that from thenceforth he would maintain their immunities and that whatsoever he had then propounded was not to continue but only to supply the present necessity of affaires which he would seek to furnish by some other meanes For the great resolution which Don Pedro de Lara shewed in this action the Nobility of Castile did grant to him and his successours a solemn breakfast in testimony of his good endeavour in a businesse of so great consequence and thereby the Lords of Lara have the first voyce for the Nobility in the Court of Castile z An. 1204. King Alphonso the Noble called a Parliament of the Lords Prelates and Deputies of the Townes of his Realm at Toledo to advise and assist him in his warrs against the Moores where they concluded to crave ayd from all Christian Princes and a Crossado from the Pope against the Moores and made divers Lawes to restrain the supersluities of the Realm in feasts apparell and other things Iames the 8. King of Arragon being young at the time of his Fathers death it was thereupon after ordained in the assemblies of the Estates of Mencon and Lirida that Don Sancho Earl of Roussilon should govern the Realm during the Kings minority but they gave him limitation The Kings person they recommended to Frier William of Moncedon Mr. of the Templers After which An. 1220. this yong kings Vncles seeking to wrest the Realme from him instead of governing it by the fidelity of the Estates and their authority his interest was preserved and three Governours with a superintendent of his Provinces were appointed by them and to prevent the continuall practises of the Earles of Roussillon and Fernand the kings Uncles the states and justice of Arragon declared the King of full age when he was but ten yeeres old and caused the Earle of Roussillon to quit the Regencie the authority of the justice of Arragon being then great for the defence of the publike liberty An. 1214. Alphonso the Noble king of Castile dying his sonne Henry being but 11. yeer old the Prelates Nobles and Commons assembled at Burgon having declared him king and taken the oath made Queen Eleonora his Mother Governesse of his Person and Realms after whose death the custody of him was committed to the hands of the Lords of Lara This king afterwards playing with other yong children of Noble Houses at Palenca in the Bishops Palace one of them cast a tyle from the top of a Tower which falling on the covering of an house beat down another tyle which fell on the young kings head wherewith he was so grievously hurt that hee dyed the eleventh day after An. 1217. yet this his casuall death for ought I finde was neither reputed Felony nor Treason in the child that was the cause of it After whose death Fernand the 3. was proclaimed and made King by the States of Castile to prevent the pretentions of the French after which his Mother Queen Berenguela in the presence of the Estates renouncing all her right to the Crown resigned it up to her sonne Fernand About this time the Moores in Spain rejected the Miraluminis of Africk and created them severall Kings and Kingdomes in Spain being never more united under one Crown after this division which they thought it lawfull for them to make An. 1228. the Estates of Arragon assembling at Barcelona they consenting and requiring it according to the custome of the Arragonians and Cattelans these Estates having authority to make Warre and Peace and Leagues a warre was resolved against the King of the Moores and Majorkins Anno 1231. the Realm of Navarre being very ill governed by reason their King Sancho retired to his chamber did not speak with any man but his Houshold servants and would not heare of any publike affaires thereupon the State began to think of electing a Regent to govern the Realm during his retirednesse to prevent which Sancho made an unjust accord with the king of Navarre and confederated with Iames King of Arragon by the assents of the states of the Realm to leave his Kingdome to him if he survived him yet after his death Thibault Earle of Champaigne was by the states of Navarre elected and proclaimed King And anno 1236. The Estates of Arragon and Cateloigne assembled at Moncon for the continuance of the warre with the Moores and conquest of Valentia without whom it was not lawfull for the King to undertake any matter of importance For maintenance of this warre a custome called Marebetine and an exaction of impost for cattell was by the Estates imposed on the People it was likewise decreed that all peeces of Gold and silver coyned should be of one goodnesse and weight to the observation of which Edict for coynes all were bound to sweare that were above 18. yeers of age Anno 1236. Iames King of Arragon revealing to his Confessor the Bishop of Girone that before his marriage with Queen Yolant he had passed a matrimonial promise to Theresa of Bidame she sued him thereupon before the Pope who gave sentence against her for want of sufficient witnesse notwithstanding his Confessors testimony The King hereupon grew so angry with the Bishop for revealing his secrets that sending for him to his chamber he caused his tongue to be cut out For which out-rage committed on the Bishop though faulty the Pope in the Councell of Lions complained and in the end interdicted all the Realme of Arragon and excommunicated the king Hereupon to take off this interdiction and excommunication the king sent the Bishop of Valentia with his excuse and humiliation to the Pope wherewith he being somewhat pacified sent two Legates into Arragon who having assembled a Synod of Bishops at Lerida they caused the King to come thither and to confesse his fault upon his knees before these fathers with great submission and teares who gave him absolution upon condition he should cause the Monastery of Boneface to be built and endowed with an hundred and forty pounds of silver of annuall rent endow an Hospitall for the poore with foure hundred pounds silver per annum and give a Prebendary in the great Church of Girone for the maintenance of a Masse-priest About which time the Moors in Spain erected many new Kings and Kingdoms by mutuall consent and Mahumad Aben Alamar for his valour was by the Inhabitants of Mariona elected and made first King of Granado Anno 1243. all was in combustion in Portugall by the negligence and basenesse of their king Don Sancho
Capello who was wholly given to his wives humours hated of the Portugales and himselfe disliked for her sake for many Malefactors and insolent persons were supported by her who grew daily more audacious in their excesse without feare of Iustice which was trodden under foot for their respect For these considerations and her barrennesse too all the Noblemen of the kingdome desired to have the Queen called Mencia separated and sent out of Portugall for effecting whereof they made a great instance at Rome but neither exhortation admonition nor commandment nor censure could prevaile the king so doting on her that he would not leave her Which the Portugals perceiving some of them presumed to seize on her in the City of Coimbra and conducted her into Gallicia from whence she never more returned into Portugall Not content herewith they sought to depose the King from his Royall dignity too for his ill government and to advance his Brother Don Alphonso to the Regall Throne in his place whom the Estates assembled made Regent of Portugall leaving only the Title of King to his brother which fact of the Estates the Pope in the Councell of Lions authorized by his Apostolicke power with which the King being displeased abandoned his Realme and retired into Castile Anno 1247. The Lawes and Customes of Arragon were reduced into writing by King Iames his appointment and compacted into one body having till that time been observed onely by tradition which Volume was coufirmed by the Estates held at Huâ—fâ—a And the same yeere the King of Castile erected a kind of Chancery and standing Court of Parliament of 12. learned men which followed the Court. Anno 1254. Thibald the 2. king of Navarre being but 15. yeers old at the descent of the crown unto him was at 25. yeers of age declared of full age and crowned King in the great church of Pampelone where he did sweare TO PRESERVE AND AUGMENT THE PRIVILEDGES OF THE COVNTRY Afterwards he doing homage to the king of Castile for the Realme of Navarre as his predecessours had done before him and making such a peace with him as the prelates Knights and Commonalties of the Realme in the States had approved yet divers knights and the Inhabitants of the Borough of St. Iermin of Pampelone disallowed this homage this peace and would not subscribe to it as tending to the kings dishonour whereupon the king did punish them by fines but his choller being past some few dayes after considering they were good and faithfull subjects loving his honour and greatnesse and that they resisted his will out of true love and zeale which they owed to the Crowne and their Countrey hee caused their Fines to be restored Alphonso the 3. fifth King of Portugall putting away his first wife Mahault without cause after he had children by her and marrying Beatrix hereupon when by no intreaties of Friends or the Pope he would entertaine his first wife again he was excommunicated by the Pope and his Realme interdicted 10. or 12. yeers space continuing still obstinate till his first wife dyed after which he was absolved Anno 1260. and in some yeere following there were divers controversies concerning the Crown Lands and setling of Portions for the King of Arragons younger children moved and determined in the Assembly of the Estates of Arragon and the Nobility complaining that their King Iames did breake their priviledges made many Leagues and Factions This matter being debated in the Estates at Saragossa and then at Ex ea in the yeare 1265. for pacifying these troubles they enacted That no honours nor military fees should be given to any but to Gentlemen of race and born in the Countrey That no Gentleman should be subject to the tribute of Cattell nor to any other That in all controversies which the Nobility might have against the king or among themselves the Magistrate called the Iustice Major of Arragon should be Iudge being assisted by the Councell That the King should not give the fees and Military rewards allotted to them that doe him service as a recompence of their vertue and valour to any of his lawfull children who by right have their portions in the Realme Anno 1274. Iames King of Arragon comming to the Councell of Lions desirous there to be crowned by the hands of Pope Gregory a ceremony whereof he made great account the Pope refused him unlesse he would acknowledge himselfe vassall to the church of Rome and pay the arrerages of the rent which the deceased King Don Pedro his Father had promised the which King Iames would not doe holding it an unworthy thing so to debase the greatnesse of his Crowne and restraine the Liberty of his Realme in any sort And this yeare there were great and continuall Tumults in Arragon the Nobility opposing themselves against the King for composing which differencs the Estates of Arragon assembled in Parliament at Exea where king Iames tooke the government and managing of the affaires of the Realme from his sonne Don Pedro and diverse great Dons were there condemned of contumacy and their Lands confiscated by the Iustice Major of Arragon In this Assembly the Nobility pleaded the Priviledges of Câ—â—teloyne That the Nobility might quit the Kings obedience in case of controversies and suites especially if there were question of their Liberties and to protest it publikely Anno 1265. Denis the infant King of Portugall desired his Grandfather Alphonso King of Castile to discharge the Realm of Portugall of the homage and vassallage it ought to the King of Leon who thinking it would be taken ill by the Noblemen his Subjects advised the infant to propound it in an open Assembly called to that end The opinion of Don Nugno de Lara was that by no meanes he should diminish the authority and greatnesse of his Crown which he should doe if he did quit this homage to the King of Portugall For which opinion the King growing angry with him the residue fearing the kings displeasure advised him to doe it Whereupon the Realme of Portugall was freed from all homage and subjection due to the Kings of Leon and Castile For which prodigality the other Nobles and D. Nugno were so much discontented that they made a League with the King of Granado against their own King for dismembring Portugall from the Crown of Leon to pacifie which differences the King used many mediations and at last called an Assembly of the Estates at Burgos the which was held without the Towne for the safety of these Confederates That great Astronomer Alphonso King of Castile who presumed to controule the Author of Nature saying That if he had been at the Creation of the world hee should in many things have been of another opinion and amended Gods workmanship was a most willfull indiscreet unfortunate Prince for his eldest sonne Fernand dying in his life time leaving Alphonso and other issue males behind him Don Sancho his second son resolved to dispossesse his
to their charge the King and his houshold servants on the other side denied that there was either Law or custom which tyed the King or his followers to any such subjection In the end it was concluded that the reformation of the Court should be made by twelve of the principall Families the like number of Knights four Deputies of Saragossa and one of either of the other Cities the which should give their voices in that case This Vnion of Aragon obtained likewise a Decree that the King should have certain Councellors chosen to wit four of the chief Nobility four Knights of noble and ancient races four of his houshold servants two Knights for the Realm of Valencia two Citizens of Saragossa and one of either of the other Cities whom they particularly name with a condition that whilest the King should remain in Aragon Ribagorca or Valencia two of those Noblemen two of his servants two Knights of Aragon one of Valencia and the four Deputies of the Realm of Aragon should follow and reside in his Court AS COVNCELLORS APPOINTED BY THE VNION who protested by solemn Deputies sent to the King to that end that if he did not receive observe and maintain those orders THEY WOVLD SEIZE VPON ALL HIS REVENVES and on all the fees Offices and dignities of such Noblemen as should contradict them Thus were the Kings of Aragon intreated in those times by their subjects who entred into a Vnion between themselves resolving That for the common cause of liberty Non verbis solum SED ARMIS CONTENDERE LICERET that it was lawfull for them to contend not onely with words BVT WITH ARMS TO and determined in this assembly of the States A Comitijs intempestive discedere REGI NEFAS ESSE That it was unlawfull yea a grand offence for the king to depart unseasonably from his Parliament before it was determined Our present case Iames the second of Aragon being in Sicily at the death of King Alphonso Don Pedro his brother assembled the Estates at Saragossa to consult lest the State in his absence would receive some prejudice where James arriving having first sworn and promised the observation of the Rights and Priviledges of the Countrie was received and crowned king About the year 1320 Iames by advice of his Estates held at Tarragone made a perpetuall Vnion of the Realms of Arragon and Valencia and the Principality of Catâ—lone the which from that time should not for any occasion be disunited In which assembly Don Iames eldest son to the Crown being ready to marry Leonora of Castile suddenly by a strange affection quitting both his wife and succession to the Realm of Arragon told his Father That he had made a vow neither to marry nor to reign so as notwithstanding all perswasions of the King and Noblemen he quit his Birth-right to his Brother Don Alphonso after the example of Esau discharged the Estates of the Oath they had made unto him and presently put on the habite of the Knights of Ierusalem Whereupon his second brother was by the Estates of Arragon acknowledged and sworn heir of these Kingdoms after the decease of his father At this time the Authority of the Iustice of Aragon was so great That it might both censure the King and the Estates and appoint them a place and admit them that did assist or reject them Ferdinand the fourth king of Castile being but a childe when his father Sancho died was in ward to his mother Queen Mary his Protectresse he had two competitors to the Crown Alphonso de la Cede and Den Iohn who making a strong confederacy were both crowned Kings against right by severall parts of his Realm which they shared between them The States assembled at Zamora granted great sums of money to Ferdinand to maintain the wars with his enemies and procure a dispensation of Legitimation and marriage from the Pope who would do nothing without great fees After which he summoning an assembly of the Estates at Medina they refused to meet without the expresse command of the Queen Mother who commanded them to assemble and promised to be present After this divers accords were made twixt him and his competitors and at last calling an assembly of the Estates to assist him in his warres against the Moors he soon after condemned two Knights called Peter and Iohn of Caravajal without any great proofs for a murther and caused them to be cast down headlong from the top of the Rock of Martos who professing their innocency at the execution they adjourned the king to appear at the Tribunall Seat of Almighty God within thirty dayes after to answer for their unjust deaths who thereupon fell sick and died leaving his son Alphonso the 12 very young for whose Regency there being great competition the inhabitants of Avila and their Bishop resolved not to give the possession and government of the Kings person to any one that was not appointed by the assembly of the Estates Whereupon the Estates assembling at Palence committed the government of his person to Q. Mary his Grandmother and Queen Constance his mother who dying another Assembly of the Estates was called at Burgos Anno 1314. who decreed that the Government of the King and Regencie of the Realme should be reduced all into one body betwixt Q Mary Don Pedro and Don Iohn and if any one of them should dye it should remain to the two other that did survive and to one if two dyed After this Anno 1315. these Tutors and Governours of the Realme of Castile were required by the Estates in an Assembly at Carrion to give caution for their government and to give an account what they had done Who often jarring and crossing one another divers Assemblies of Estates were oft called to accord them Anno 1320. The Estates assembling appointed new Governours of the King and Realme who discharging their trust very lewdely and oppressing the People Anno 1326. they were discharged of their Administration at a Parliament held at Vailledolet in which the king did sweare to observe the fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and to administer justice maintaining every one in his Estate goods and honour Which done the Deputies of the Estates swore him Fealty This King afterwards proving very cruell and tyrannicall his Nobles and Subjects oft times successively took up defensive armes against him his Tyranny augmenting their obstinancy and procuring him still new troubles Whereupon at last discerning his errours he became more mild and often assembled the Estates in Parliament who gave him large Subsidies to maintain his warres against the Moores The Province of Alava had a custome to chuse a Lord under the Soveraignty of Castile who did govern and enjoy the revenues appointed by the Lords of the Countrey for the election of whom they were accustomed to assemble in the Field of Arriaga those of this Election being called Brethren and the Assembly of the Brotherhood Notwithstanding in the yeer 1332. the
Coyning and High Treason Anno 1328. Alphonso King of Castile treacherously murthering Don Iohn the blinde his Kinsman in his own Court when he had invited him to dinner on all Saints day and then condemning him for a Traitor confiscating his lands a fact unseemly for a King who should be the mirrour of Iustice Hereupon Don Iohn Manuell stood upon his Guard fortified his Castles revolted from the King for this his Treachery allyed himself with the Kings of Arragon and Granado overran the Countries of Castile from Almanca unto Pegnafield the Prior of Saint Iohns Don Fernand Rodrigues hereupon caused the Cities of Toro Zamora and Vailledolit to rebell and shut their gates against the King and many others likewise revolted from him At last he was forced to call an Assembly of the Estates who gave him Subsidies to ayde him in his wars against the Moors and to conclude a peace with Don Manuel and his other discontented Subjects whom he afterwards spoiling of their lawfull inheritances and pursuing them in their honours and lives by Tyrannous crueltie extending his outragious disdain even to women of his own blood he thereby so estranged most of his Princes and Nobles from him that they revolted from him and joyned with Mahumet king of Granado and the Moors in a warre against him which lasted three or four yeers putting him to infinite trouble vexations and expences enforcing him to make a dishonourable peace with the Moors to release the Tribute which they payed him formerly and after much mediation he concluded a Peace thorowout all the Realm with his discontented Subjects This Prince thinking to raign more securely had taken a course of extream severity shewing himself cruell and treacherous to his Nobility whereby he was feared but withall he lost the love and respect of his subjects so as he was no sooner freed from one danger but he fell into another worse then the first his Nobles holding this for a Maxime That a Tyrant being offended will at some time revenge himself and therefore they must not trust him upon any reconciliation who to pacifie the troubles which had grown by his own errour had made no difficulty to sacrifice upon the peoples spleen his own Mignions degrading and in the end murthering condemning them as Traitors after their death yea the Princes of his own blood taking their goods estates and depriving the lawfull Heirs seeking to reign over free men and generous Spirits as over beasts entreating them as base and effeminate slaves who might not speak their opinions freely in matters of State and Government of which they were held dead members and without feeling Whereupon D. Manuel and other Nobles as men endued with understanding reason and not forgetting the nature of Alphonso who was proud a contemner of all laws and treacherous they proceeded so farre as to withdraw themselves from his subjection by protestation and publike act and entred into a league with the King of Portugall incensing him to take up Arms for their defence Where upon King Alphonso having some feeling that cruelty was too violent remedy for men that were Nobly borne he sought by all milde and courteous meanes to divide them and to draw some of them to his service which he effected and so more easily conquered and reduced their companions An. 1337. was founded the Town of Alegria of Dulanci in the Province of Alava and many Villages thereabout the which obtained from the King the priviledges and Lawes of the Realm whereby the inhabitants should govern themselves with libertie to chuse their own Iudges Don Pedro the first king of Castile surnamed the cruell most tyrannically murthering and poysoning divers of his Nobles and subjects without cause banishing others quitting Blanch his espoused wife within three dayes after his marriage to enjoy the unchaste love of Donna Maria de Paedilla by whom hee was inchanted which much troubled the whole Court divorcing himselfe without colour by the advice onely of two Bishops without the Popes assent from Blanch and marrying Jane of Castro in her life time Hanging up divers Burgesses of Toledo causlesly for taking the Queens part too openly and among others a Goldsmiths sonne who offred to be hanged to save his fathers life causing his own brother Don Frederick and divers Nobles else to be suddenly slain Anno 1358. poysoning and murdering likewise divers Noble Ladies among others Don Leonora his own Aunt after which Anno 1360 he murthering two more of his own brethren executing divers Clergy men and Knights of Castle banishing the Archbishop of Toledo putting divers Jews as Samuel Levy his High Treasurer with his whole family to death to gain their Estates and causing his own Queen Blanch to be poysoned after she had long been kept prisoner by him Anno 1361. Hereupon his cruelties rapines and murders growing excessive and the Popes Legat denouncing him an utter Enemy to God and man Henry Earle of Transtamara his brother with other Fugitives getting ayde from the King of Navarre entred Castile with an Army where by the Nobles importunity he tooke upon him the title of King of Castile and Leon which done the whole Kingdom long oppressed with D. Pedro his Tyranny immediately revolted from him so that in few dayes Henry found himselfe King of a mighty great kingdom almost without striking stroke the people striving who should first receive him such was their hatred to the Tyrant Pedro who being doubtfull what to doe fled with two and twenty Ships out of his Realme to Bayon craving ayde of the English to revest him in his Kingdom mean time king Henry assembling the Estates at Burgon they granted him the tenth penny of all the Merchandize they should sell in the Realm to maintaine the warres against Pedro who getting ayde from the English upon conditions accompanied with the valiant Black Prince of Wales entred with a great Army into Spain where the Prince writing to Henry voluntarily to resign the Crown to Pedro his Brother to avoyd the effusion of Christian blood he made answer That he could not hearken to any accord with him who had against the law of nature taken delight to murther so many of the blood Royall and other great personages of Castile who had no respect of the Lawes of the Countrey and much lesse of God falsifying his Oathes and promises having no other rule in his actions but his Tyrannous passions Whereupon battell being joyned Henry was conquered and Pedro restored But hee discontenting the English and others who had reseated him in his Kingdome by his insolency and Tyranny and the Biscaniers refusing to be under the command of strangers whom they would never consent to be put in possession of their Countrey and withall falling to his former cruelties and courses contrary to the advice of his friends and Astrologers he so estranged the hearts of all from him that the English returning and Henry receiving new forces from the French entred Castile
affirm that in this alone the summe of preserving civill concord both to Kings and the Kingdome hath consisted This Magistrate was at first called THE IUSTICE MAIOR afterwards assuming the name of the Kingdome it selfe it was called THE IUSTICE OF ARAGON By these formentioned prescribed Lawes the will of him who desired to be King of Aragon was wholy to bee directed and formed and unlesse he would first suffer his faith to bee obliged in most strick bonds for keeping of them any future soliciting was to be preposterous Having therefore laid the foundations of their Countreys liberty all of them began to dispute among themselves about electing a King to which end they all assembled together at Arahvest to chuse a King where they were suddenly besieged by the Arabians which Junicus Arista King of the Pompelonians hearing of came with an Army and rescued them whereupon they elected him for their King with unanimous consent and calling him unto them shewed him the Lawes they had pre-established one whereof concerning the middle Magistrate seemed most hard unto him But having more deligently considered the matter and that they voluntarily offered him the Kingdome gained from the enemies Hee not only ratified the Lawes themselves but likewise added this new Law or priviledge to them That if the Kingdome should happen hereafter to bee oppressed by him against the LAWES Iustice or Liberties the Kingdome it selfe should have free liberty to elect another King whether a Christian or an Infidell which clause of an Infidell King they refused to have bestowed on them because they judged it shamefull and dishonourable After which Iunicus taking an oath to observe the former Lawes was advanced to the Throne and made King of Aragon about the year 868. Moreover to establish all these Lawes and Constitutions our Ancestors themselves adjoyned the accession of a publike Vnion ordaining that it should be lawfull and just for them to meet all together ET RE 〈◊〉 OBSISTERE ARMIS ET VI and to resist the King with armes and force as oft as there should be need to propulse any assault of him or his made against the Lawes which form of assembling together for the common cause of liberty they called a Vnion or Association Neither did they anciently lesse think all their Liberties to be preserved by this Vnion then humane bodies themselves are by nervs and bones And although it were not prescribed in that Suprarbian Forum yet they thought it deduced from the very beginnings of things and deeply fixed and impressed in the sense of all men and to be established by our common Law as by another Law of Nature and that its force was enough and more then sufficiently known and discerned by use and reason For they said it would be but a thing of little profit for them to have good Lawes enacted and the very Iudiciary Presidentship of a middle Iudge if when there should be need AD EARVM DEFENSIONEM ARMA CAPERE NON LICERET cum jam tunc satis non esset pugnare consilliis it should not be lawfull for them to take up Armes in their defence when as then it would not be sufficient in such a case to fight with Counsells Neither verily did that seem altogether impertinent from the matter for if it should be so all things long ere this had been in the power of Kings themselves Whence our people reputed these two priviledges of the Union obtained from Alphonso the 3. to wit That it shal be lawfull for the Estates of the Realm if the King shall violate the Lawes of the Countrey To create a new King in his place and without the crime of Treason to make confederacies among themselves and with Neighbour Princes To defend their Liberty which King Ferdinand upon the petition of the Castilians refused to revoke because he had taken a solemn Oath to observe them not as new favours or benefits but as things done out of Office c. Therefore in those ancient Rulers of which we treat the Liberty of our Country was hedged about by our Ancestors with three most strong fences namely with the Prefecture of this middle Iudge with the most ample power of the Rici-men or Palatines and with this most fierce force of the Vnion of which the first seemed to be Legal and civill the other domesticall and of greatest moment the last warlike and popular Neither ought it then to be inclosed with a lesser hedge that so we might rejoyce that it hath therby come safe sound to us now But of these garrisons or fences the ancient inventers of them and those who next succeeded them conferred more assistance and labour upon the two last namely the domestick and popular then on that Court presidentship For they would alwayes retain in themselves a power of moderating and governing the most loose reines of the Royall Dignity which they might restrain or enlarges as there was need The fore they assigned those 12 elders to him elected out of the greatest men by whose Counsels the Kings ought to be hedged in on every side the place of which Elders the Rici-men afterwards possessed who were the chiefe of our Nobles who in times past were second to the Kings in such sort that they might seem to be their Peers and Companions These called that publike union to the ayde of Liberty and out of them were chosen those who should alwayes be the prime and principall conservators of it for thus they called the presidents of the Vnion Finally they sustained on their necks all the Offices and burdens of peace and warre if not with the same power as the Kings yet I may truly say with very little lesse for the Rici-men as long as they flourished relying on the Forces of the Vnion did alwayes hover over the Royall Empire and by the intire power of their offices if the violence or assaults of Kings were unjust did from inordinate reduce them into order and as it were into a circle of Law and Iustice In which thing verily their grave censorious and domesticall authority had sufficient tight and moment with our ancient Kings who were well mannered but if peradventure they could not with their fitting counsels bridle the exulting royall Forces they did constantly repell them from their necks with the force of the raised Vnion Thus and much more this Spanish Author in whom you may read at large the Power and Authority of the Iustice of Arragon of the Generall Assembly of the Estates or Parliaments of that Kingdom of their Rici men Peeres Magistrates Councellors and in Ioannis de Laet. his Descriptio Hispaniae cap. 5. cite Ioannis Mari. and De Rebus Hisp l. 8. c. 1. Gen. hist of Spain l. 17. p. 618. To which I shall onely adde this most notable custome and ceremony used at the Coronation of the Kings of Arragon recorded r by Iunius Brutus r Franciscus Hotomanus and others The Arrogonians when as they create and
himselfe justly deserted of his subjects ayde returned into Hungary Stephen the third comming to the Crowne did nothing without the Authoritie and advise of the Senate Stephen the fourth sonne of Bela usurping the Crowne was soone after expelled the Kingdome Emericus being elected King was very likely to be depriued by the Nobles and people for his sloathfulnesse but that he appeased them with good words and promises King Andrew going to Jerusalem his Queene Elizabeth in the meane time delivered the Wife of Bauchan a Nobleman being very beautifull to her brother who doated on her to be abused which Bauchan hearing of slew the Queene the King upon his returne examining this businesse acquitted Bauchan and judged her murther just being for so lewd a fact Ladislaus the fourth giving himselfe to all effaeminacy luxury and Harlots became odious to his Barons Nobles People for which he was excommunicated by Firmanus the Popes Legat that he might live Christianly and Chastly but he reforming not was soone after in the yeere 1â—90 slaine by the Cumans and his Kingdome infested with civill warres Mary the daughter of K. Lewes being received as Queene by the Hungarians for her fathers merits after his decease being yet young was married to Sigismond who was admitted into partnership in the government of the Realme and being governed by her mother and Nicholas de Gara who perswaded them to carry a strict hand over the Nobles of the Realme which they did thereupon the Nobles seeing themselves despised sent for Charles King of Naples into Hungary forced Mary and her Mother to resigne their rights to the Crowne and crowned Charles King at Alba Regalis When he was crowned the Bishop of Strigonium according to the custome demanded of the people thrice with alowd voyce Whether it were their pleasure that Charles should be crowned King who answered Yes which done he was crowned and soone after murthered by the two Queenes treachery Who were shortly after taken prisoners by Iohn de Horrach governour of Croatia the Queen Mother Elizabeth drowned Queen Mary kept prisoner and at last released upon oath given not to revenge her Mothers death who contrary to her oath caused Hornach and 32. Nobles more to be beheaded by Sigismond her husband whose kindred and children thereupon conspired against King Sigismond tooke and detained him prisoner Anno. 1401. till they should proceede further against him and in the meane time the Nobles of Hungary elected Ladislaus King of Apulia for their King and at last deposed Sigismond for his misgovernment cruelty love of women After Sigismonds death the Nobles and people were divided in the choise of their King one part electing and crowning Vladislaus King of Poland the other party Ladislaus an infant for their King but Vladislaus his party prevailing he was not long after slaine in a battle against the Turkes and the government of the Realme committed to that Noble Souldier Huniades during the Minority of Ladislaus who at his ripe age was received and declared King by all the Hungarians Ladislaus deceasing the Hungarians elected the Emperour Frederick King who delaying to come and take the election they thereupon chose Mathias King who enjoyed the dignity notwithstanding the Emperours opposition Anno. 1608. Mathias King of Hungary denyed the Protestants in Austria free exercise of their Religion they thereupon were forced to take up Armes and assembling together at Horne made a Protestation and sent to the States of Hungary requiring them to assist them with the succours that were promised by the offensive and defensive league after which they obtained a peace and part of what they demanded Anno 1613. In an Assembly of the Estates of Hungary the differences concerning the defence and Militia in the borders of Hungary against the Turke were ordered and setled And An. 1618. After many slow proceedings they elected Ferdinand of Bohemia for their King of Hungary but with these conditions That he should Religiously observe and cause to be immovably observed all the Liberties Immunities Priviledges Statutes Rights and Customes of the Kingdome with the Conclusions and Freaties of Vienna and all the Articles comprehended therein and all other concluded both before and after the Coronation of the Emperours Majestie in the yeares 1608. and 1609. Which Articles being ratified by the Emperour under his Letters Patents they proceeded to the Coronation according to the accustomed manner Such is the Soveraigne power of the States of Hungary to this very day And in one word so odious were Tyrants anciently to the Slavonians and Hungarians that by a publick Law of their Ancestors he who slew a Tyrannicall King was to succeede him in the Kingdome Bohemia For the Kings and Kingdome of Bohemia M. Paulus Stranskius in his Respublica Bohemiae c. 5 12. informes us out of the Fundamentall Lawes of Bohemia That the power of the Kings of Bohemia who are Elected by the generall Votes of the States is so farre restrained in that Realme that they can determine nothing concerning the Kingdome or great Affaires of the Realme but in their Parliaments or generall Assemblies of the Estates by the generall consent of the people which are Summoned by the king himself and held just like our Parliaments in the kings Regency and during the Interregnum by the Senate of the Realme as often as there is occasion there being this clause in the Writ of Summons That whether all those who are sommoned come at the day or not the king with those who appeare will proceed to decree what shall be just and beneficall for the Republicke and that those who neglect to appeare shall be bound thereby all Lawes and Acts are therein passed by publicke consent The king cannot alien or morgage any of the Crown Lands nor release not diminish the revenue Liberties of the Realm nor promote any strangers to the custodies of Castles or publicke functions impose no Taxes charges nor altar the ancient manner of the Militia of the Realm nor make warre or peace without the Parliaments advise and consent And before the king is Crowned the Burgrave and Nobles in the Name of all the Realme demand of him to confirm and ratifie both with his especiall Charter and publick Oath the Ancient and laudable Priviledges Immunities Liberties Rights Laws Customes and Institutions as well private as publicke of all and singular the inhabitants of the Realme and to governe them according to the rule of the Lawes after the example of his predecessors kings of Bohemia Which done he seales and delivers them a speciall Charter takes such a solemne Oath and then is Crowned upon these Conditions The Arch-bishop of Prague after the Letany ended demands of the king kneeling on his knees Wilt thou keepe the holy faith delivered to thee from Catholick men and observe it in just workes He answering I will He proceedes and saith Wilt thou Governe and defend the Kingdome granted thee from God according to the
Justice of thy Fathers He answeres I will and by Gods Assistance promise that I will doe and performe it by all meanâ—s After this kneeling on his knees the Arch-bishop holding the New Testament open and the Burgrave reading the words first the king takes this Oath in the Bohemian tongue We sweare to God the mother of God and all Saints upon this holy Gospell that we will and ought to keepe immovably to the Barons Knights and Nobles also to those of Prague and the other Cities and to all the Commonalty of the Realme of Bohemia the Institutions Lawes Priviledges Exemptions Liberties and Rights and also the ancient good and laudable customes of the Realme and not to alienate or morgage any thing from the same Kingdome of Bohemia but rather to our power to augment and enlarge it and to doe all things which may be good and honourable to that Kingdome So helpe me God touching the booke with two of the fingers of his right hand and all Saints The Kings of Navarre take the like Oath How this Realme hath beene altered from a Principality to a Dukedome and from it againe to a Kingdome having sometimes Kings sometimes Dukes both elected by the free choyse of the Estates to whom they were inferiour in Soveraigne power accountable for their mis-government and removeable from their Throne you may read in the marginall Authors Not to mention the Bohemians deposition of Libussa a Noble Virago who governed them for a season reputing it a dishonour to the Nation to be ruled by a woman and electing Przemysâ—â—s for their Prince their deposition and banishment of Prince Borzinegius because he became a Christian and renounced their Pagan Religion though they afterwards twice restored him Of Boleslaus Rufus of Borzinogius the 2. thrice deposed banished by the Nobles and people or Sobeâ—slaus and other Princes Wladislaus first King of Bohemia in his old age by the assent of the Estates associated his sonne Frederick Anno 1173 with him in the Regality Henry King of Bohemia using the Councell of the Germans rather then the Bohemians and looking more after his owne private gaine then the Kingdomes was deposed in a generall Assembly of the Estates Anno 1310. and the sonne of the Emperour Henry the 7 th chosen King upon this condition if he would marry the youngest daughter of King Winceslaus King Wenceslaus the drunken for his drunkennesse negligence and cruelty was twice imprisoned and severely handled by his Nobles and upon promise of amendment restored to his liberty and dignity in his and Sigismond his successors raigns Zizca and the Taborites in defence of their Religion against the Popish party who most unjustly against their promise and safe conduct caused John Hus and Jerome of Prague to be put to death waged great warres and obtained many victories against the King and Emperour and gained free liberty of professing their religion publickely much against the Popes good will which liberty they have ever since maintained by the sword both against the Popish Emperours and Kings by meanes of which civill wars the kingdome suffered some Interregnums During the Minority of king â—c Ladislaus Anno 1439. this kingdome was governed by two Presidents appointed by the Estates Anno 1611. the Emperour Rodulph being willing to settle the kingdome of Bohemia on his Brother Matthias in an assembly of the States of Bohemia called for that purpose the Estates thereupon drew many Articles which Matthias was to sweare to before his Coronation with 49. Articles of complaints and grievances for which they craved redresse and the inhabitants of Prague required the confirmation of 8. Articles which concerned the private Government of their City All which the Emperour and Matthias were constrained to Grant and sweare to before they would admit Matthias to be their King who had nothing in a manner but the Title some of the flowers of the liberty of the Crowne being parted with by his assenting to these Articles Anno 1617. Matthias resigning the Crowne of Bohemia and renouncing his right thereunto recommended Ferdinand Arch. Duke of Austria to them or his successour The States would not admit him king but upon Conditions the which if he should infringe The States should not be bound to yeeld him Obedience Moreover it was added That he should confirm to the States before his Coronation to maintaine all the Priviledges Charters Immunities Municipall Rights Constitutions and Customes of the Realme and people as the Emperour and his predecessors had done by his Oath and Charter in Writing All which assented to he was proclaimed and crowned king Soone after the Arch-bishop of Prague causing some of the Protestant Churches to be ruined and those who complained of it to be put in prison and plotting the extirpation of the Protestant Religion through the Iesuites instigation contrary to their Liberties and the Provinciall constitution hereupon the Protestant States of Bohemia assembled at Prague fortified the Towne binding the three Townes of Prague to them by an Oath entred into a solemne League promising to fight against the Common enemies of God the King and Religion and in that cause to live and dye to which end they levyed a great Army banishing the Jesuites out of Bohemia as the Authors of all the miseries which had hapned in that Realme and many other Realmes and States of Christendome and inciting murderers to kill Kings who would not live after their manner and medling with affaires of State and who had drawne the whole Country into the hands of certaine perfidious Catholickes by whose practises the Country was in danger of ruine For which causes they banished them for ever out of the Realme of Bohemia enjoyning them to depart within 8 dayes never to returne After this the Protestants hearing that the Emperour and Popish party raised Forces against them possessed themselves of many Townes and places within the Realme and raised two Armies All the Protestant Princes and States of Germany Morauia and Silesia except the Elector of Saxony assisted them with men money or Councell publishing a Declaration to justifie their action being for the Common cause of Religion theâ— endangered The Prince of Orange and States of the united Provinces promised them assistance of men and money other Protestant Princes and the Protestant States of Lower Austria did the like The Protestant Armies after this had many victorious incounters with the Imperialists and Popish Forces and took many Towns King Ferdinand in the meane time being newly chosen Emperour the States of Bohemia being assembled together at Prague which the Deputies of the incorporated Provinces Anno. 1619. Concluded and protested by Oath never to acknowledge Ferdinard for their King who had violated his first Covenants resolving to proceede to a new Election and on the 26. of August Elected Fredericke the Prince Electer Palatine of Reine to be their King who accepted the dignity was afterward Crowned king accordingly After which the States of Bohemia
in sundry Declarations justified their rejection of Ferdinand their Election of Frederick and his Title to be just and lawfull with their preceedent and subsequent warres in defence of Religion Yea Fredericke himselfe by sundry Declarations maintained his own Title and the lawfulnes of these wars which passages and proceedings being yet fresh in memory and at large related by Grimston in his Imperiall History I shall forbear to mention them By this briefe account you may easily discerne the Soveraigne power of the Realm and States of Bohemia over their kings and Princes most of the great Offices of which Realme are hereditary and not disposable by the King but States who Elect their Kings themselves and their greatest Officers too Poland For the Kings and Kingdome of Poland Martinus Chromerus in his Polonia lib. 2. De Republica et Magistratibus Poloniae informes us that the Princes and Dukes of Poland before it was advanced unto a Kingdome and the Kings of it ever since it became a Realme were alwaies elected by the chiefest Nobles and States unanimous suffrages That after the Kings of Poland became Christians their power began to bee more restrained then it was at first the Clergy being wholly exempt from their royall Iurisdiction That the King cannot judge of the life or fame of a knight unlesse in some speciall cases without it be in the assembly of the Estates with the Senate nor yet publickly make Warre or Peace with any nor impose Taxes or Tributes or new Customes nor alienate any of the goods of the Realme nor yet doe or decree any greater thing pertaining to the Common-wealth without the Senate or Parliaments assent Neither can hee make new Lawes nor publickly command money in an extraordinary manner nor coine money nor nominate a Successor not with the Senate without the consent of the Nobility whether of Knights or Gentlemens Order By or out of whom all publicke Magistrates and Senators almost are chosen so as now the summe or chiefest power of the Republicke is residing in them So that the Kingdome and Republicke of the Polonians doth not much differ in reason from that of the Lacedâ—monians in ancient times and of the Venetians now An Oath is exacted of the new King when he is crowned to this effect That he shall raigne according to the Lawes and institutes of his Predecessors and will safely conserve to every order and man his right priviledge and benefit confirmed by former Kings nor will he diminish any of the borders or goods of the Realme but will according to his power recover those that are lost from others After all which the Senate sweare fealty to him c. The Revenues Tributes and Customes of the King are all reduced to a certainty the Nobles Clergie are exempted from Taxes The king by the Lawes of King Alexander is prohibited to alien to any one the Lands of the Crowne No new Lawes can be made nor old ones repealed but by the king Senate and Nobles assembled in Parliament And because there is wont to be in highest power a slippery and ready degree to Tyrannie certaine Senators and Councellours are adjoyned to the King who may direct his Councells and Actions to the safety of the Common-wealth and his judgments according to the Rule of justice and equitie and with their wholsome monitions and Councells may as there shall be occasion as it were with certaine living Lawes both informe his minde and moderate his power This Royall Senate much greater now then in times past consists of a certaine number of men which wee call the Senators or Councellours of the REALME who are not admitted to the Councell without an Oath and this Office is perpetuall during life having certaine Honours and Magistracies thereto annexed partly Ecclesiasticall partly Civill It consists of 96. persons in all some of them Bishops others Palatines Knights Castellanes and other Officers of the Realme The Chancellor of the Realme may signe many things without the Kings Privitie and may deny to seale those things which are contrary to Law though the king command them Most of the great Officers and Magistrates are chosen in Parliament and cannot be displaced but in Parliament and that for some great offence Their Parliaments or Generall Assemblies of the States are held much like ours once every yeare at least and some times every fift or sixth moneth if there be occasion and then they are kept constantly at one place to wit at Petricow or Warsavia in the midst of the Kingdome unlesse it be upon some extraordinary just occasion and then the king by advice of this Councel may sommon the Parliament at another place It is provided by a Law within these 20. yeares That it shall not be lawfull to the King to make a warre without the assent of his Parliament and Great Councell and that the Nobles as oft as there is occasion shall at their owne costs without wages defend the borders of the Realme yet not without the King unlesse it be during the Interregnum but they may not be compelled to goe out of the Realme to any Forraigne warre without wages the Souldiers wages are reduced to a certainety and asseased by publicke consent in Parliament which Orders all Military and Civill Affaires So Cromerus For their carriage towards their ill Kings I shall give you onely a short account Miesco their second King being unfit to governe a man given wholly to his belly ease sleepe pleasure and governed by his Queene thereupon most of his subjects revolted from him and he dying the Polonians at first for many yeares refused to chuse Cazimirus his Son King least he should follow his fathers step till at last after a long Interregnum when he had turned Monke they elected him King Boleslaus his sonne a man of a dissolute life given to lust and the pâ—st of the Realme was excommunicated by the Bishop of Cracow for his wickednes for which cause he slew him Whereupon the Pope deprived him and Poland of the Crowne and absolved his Subjects from their obedience to him who expelled and forced him to flee out of the Realme into Hungary where he became mad and died Myâ—zlaus the 10. King of Poland exercising tyranny every where upon his people by reason of his power and allies was deposed by his subjects and Cazâ—miâ—us elected King in his stead He was three or foure times deposed â—nd put by the Crowne Boleslaus who succeeded Henry was deprived of the Monarchy Henry was surprised and most strictly imprisoned Boleslaus was slaine by his Nobles and Vladislaus Locktect elected King in his stead ravishing virgins Matrons and not reforming things according to promise the Nobles hereupon assembling together An 1300. abrogated his election as pernicious and chose Wenceslaus King of Bohemia King in his place And not to recite more ancient histories of such like nature King Henry the third of Poland was elected and sworne King upon conditions which he
not daring to goe abroad to suppressâ— bâ—ing generally hated was at last strangled by his own fellowers in the night in his own House Ethedius the 2. being a stupid man and of a duller wit then was suitable to the government of so fierce a people the Nobles hereupon assembling together oâ—t of their respect to the family of Fergusius would not wholy deprive him of the name of a King though he were slothfull being guilty of no crime but assigned Him governours to execute Justice in every County at last he was slain in a tumult of his familiars King Athirco his sonne degenerating from his former vertues and growing extreamely covetous angry luxurious sloathfull and leaving the company of all good men was not ashamed to goe openly in the sight of the people playing upon a Flute and rejoycing more to be a Fiâ—ler then a Prince whereby he became very odious to the people at last ravishing the daughters of Nathalocus a Noble man and then whipping and prostituting them to his lewd companions lusts thereupon the Nobles rising up in Armes against him when he had in vain endeavoured to defend himself by force being generally deserted by his own people who hated him for his wickednesse he murthered himself and his brother Donus was enforced to flie with his little ones to the Picts to save his life Nathalicke succeeded in his Realme governing it ill by indigent ordinary persons who would attempt any wickednesse and treacherously strangling divers of the Nobility who were opposites to him in the prison to which he committed them to establish his Kingdome thereupon their friends with others being more enraged against him raised an Army to suppresse him which whiles he endeavoured to resist he was slain by one of his own servants or as some say by a Sorceresse with whom he consulted to know his end King Findocke being treacherously slain through the conspiracy of Carantius his second brother Donald his third brother was elected King Donald of the Isles usurping the Realme by violence so farre oppressed the people by ill officers and discords raised amongst them that he durst seldome stirre abroad he never laughed but when he heard of the discord and slaughter of his Nobles for which he was at last surprised and slaine by Crathilinthus who was unanimously elected King and slew all thâ—s tyrants children After the death of Fircormarch there were great divisions and warres for the Crowne between Romach and Angusian two brethren Romach at last conquering his brother and chasing him into Ireland gained the Crown rather by force then love of the people which to preserve he shewed himselfe very cruell to the adverse party reduced capitall causes to his owne arbitrement and putting many to death strucke a generall feare in all good men Upon this he grew so generally odious to all estates that they conspired against and suppressed him before he could collect his Forces and cutting off his head carried it about 〈◊〉 Poll as a joyfull spectacle to the people Constantine the first of Scotland as soone as he obtained the Crowne loosed the reines to all Vices he was cruell and covetous towards his Nobles kept company with men of the basest Ranke gave himselfe onely to the rapes of maides matrons and immoderate feasts having fidlers Stage-players and ministers of all sorts of pleasures almost about him with which vices the Nobles of Scotland being offended admonished him of his duty But he proudly contemning them wished them to looke after other matters saying he had councell enough from others and that they should lay aside their false hope that they could reclaime the King by their Councell On the contrary he was of so poore a dejected Spirit towards his enemies that he not onely granted them peace but remitted them injuries and restored them Castles as soone as they demanded them Which caused the Picts and Scots to consult together to depose him by force of Armes from which Douglasse disswaded them for the present by reason of their forraigne wars with the Britans and Saxons In the end he was slaine for ravishing a Noblemans daughter in the 15. yeare of his Raigne King Goran was slaine by the people for favouring Towers chiefe Inquisitor or judge of capitall causes who much oppressed the people his children being young Hugonius succeeded to the Crown and afterwards his brothers Congalus and Kumatel after whom Ardan the sonne of King Goran reigned Ferquhard the 52. King of Scots a craftie man desiring to turne the Kingdome into a tyrannie nourished great divisions among the Nobles but they discovering his malice privily enter into an accord among themselves and calling a Parliament sommoned him thereunto who refusing to appeare keeping within his Castle they thereupon tooke it by force and brought him to judgement against his will where many and grievous crimes among others his cruelty and negligence in the affaires of the Common-wealth the Pelagian Heresie with contempt of Baptisme and the other Sacraments were objected against him of none whereof he being able sufficiently to purge himselfe was cast into prison where out of shame and sorrow he slew himselfe Ferquhard the second a man polluted with all kinde of wickednesse an unsatiable desirer of wine and money inhumanely cruell towards men and impious towards God when he had every where vexed others with cruelty and rapines at last turned his fury against his owne slaying his owne wife and ravishing his owne daughters for which wickednesses he was excommunicated but the Nobles willing to assemble together to punish him were diswaded by holy Bishop Colman who told the King openly that some Devine judgement would shortly seize upon him which fell out accordingly for falling into a Feaver and not abstaining from his intemperance he was eaten up of lice Maldwin 55. King of Scotland was strangled by his Queen for suspition of Adultery with an Harlot for which fact she her selfe was burned 4 dayes after Amberkelethus a vicious wicked king was slain by one of his own men with an arrow in the night when he was marching against the Picts whereupon lest the Army should be dissolved or left without a Generall Eugenius the 7 th was presently chosen King in the Tents who making peace with the Picts his wife being slaine in his bed by two conspirators who sought his life the king being suspected of this murther was thereupon imprisoned but before his triall set at liberty by the apprehension of the Murtherers King Eugenius the 8 th rushing into all Vices and neither regarding the admonitions of his Nobles or Clergie was for his filthy lusts covetousnesse and cruelty slaine in the assembly of his Lords by their generall consent and his companions in wickednesse and villany hanged which was a gratefull spectacle to the people Fergusius the third succeeded him both in his Crowne and Vices he was a foule drunken glutton and so outragiously given to Harlots that he neglected his owne wife and brought her to such poverty
king then he was no king before they had made him as many Divines most sottishly averre against the very letter of the Text and Iosephus who writes That it pleased the Assembly of the Israelites there held that HEE SHOULD RECEIVE THE KINGDOM BY THE PEOPLES CONSENT And Ieroboam and ALL THE CONGREGATION OF ISRAEL came and spake unto Rehoboam saying Thy Father made our yoake grievous now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy Father and his heavy yoake which he put upon us lighter AND WE WILL SERVE THEE because naturally subjects delight in mild Kings who will somwhat descend from their altitudes saith Iosephus This was the condition they propounded to him before they would accept him for their king and upon this condition only would they admit him to reigne over them therefore doubtlesse the disposall of the Crown and limitation of the kings royall power resided in all the congregation who had authority to prescribe their kings what equall and just conditions they pleased And he said unto them depart yet for three dayes then come again to me and the people departed Hereupon Rehoboam consulted with the old men that stood before Solomon his Father while he lived and said how doe you advise that I may answer this people And they spake unto him saying If thou wilt be A SERVANT unto this people this day and wilt SERVE THEM and answer them and speak good words to them THEN THEY WILL BE THY SERVANTS FOR EVER But he forsooke the Counsell of the old men which they had given him and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him and which stood before him and following their ill advise when Ieroboam and all the People came to Rehoboam the third day as he had appointed the King answered the people roughly and forsaking the old mens Counsell he spake unto them after the Counsell of the young men saying My Father made your yoake heavy and I will adde to your yoake my Father chastised you with whips but I will chastise you with scorpions Wherefore the King HEARKNED NOT UNTO THE PEOPLE for the cause was from the Lord c. SO WHEN ALL ISRAEL SAW THAT THE KING HEARKNED NOT VNTO THEME the People answered the King through indignation with one voyce writes Iosephus saying What portion have we in David NEITHER HAVE WEE INHERITANC IN THE SONNE OF IESSE that is we have not intailed our Subjection nor the inheritance of this our Realme to David and his seed for ever but are still free to elect what King we please to thy Tents O Israel Now see to thine House David so Israel departed to their Tent. But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the Cities of Judah Rehoboam reigned over them the Tribes of Iudah and Beniamin CHOOSING HIM THEIR KING BY THEIR COMMON SVFFRAGES writes Iosephus Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the Tribute to excuse saith Iosephus the petulancy of his young tongue and to appease the mindes of the enraged vulgar And all Israel stoned him with stones that he dyed therefore King Rehoboam imagining truly that himselfe was stoned in his servant and fearing lest the once conceived hatred should be poured out on his own head tremblingly getting up into his chariot as hastily as he could made speed to flee to Ierusalem So Israel fell away from the house of David unto this day And it came to passe when ALL ISRAEL heard that Ieroboam was come again that they sent and called him unto the Congregation AND MADE HIM KING OVER ALL ISRAEL c. it being so preordained by God 1 King 12. 26. to 41. Loe here the whole Congregation or Parliament of Israel if I may so stile it had full and free power to reiect Rehoboam from the Crown for refusing to subscribe to their conditions to elect Ieroboam for their lawfull King and erect a new Kingdome of their owne divided ever after from that of Iudah which action I shall prove anon to be lawfull warranted by Gods owne divine authority and no sinne nor rebellion at all in the People who never admitted Rehoboam for or submitted to him as their lawfull Soveraigne So Iehu having slain King Ioram Ahabs eldest sonne sent a Letter to Samaria where his other 70. sonnes were brought up to the Rulers and Elders there wishing them to look out THE BEST AND MEETEST of their Masters sonnes and set him on his Fathers throne and fight for their Masters house But they being exceedingly afraid said two Kings could not stand before him how then shall wâ— stand and sent word to Iehu We are thy servants and will doe all that thou shalt bid us WE WILL NOT MAKE ANY KING A clear evidence that the kingdom was then elective and that they had power to choose the meetest man not eldest brother for their king After this Zimri slaying Baasha king of usrael and usurping the Crown the people then encamped about Gibbethon hearing of it that Zimri had conspired and also slain the King Wherefore ALL ISRAEL MADE OMRI Captain of the Host king over Israel that day in the Campe who burnt Zimri in his Palace then were the People divided into two parts halfe of the People followed Tibni to make him king and halfe followed Omri But the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that followed Tibni so Tibni dyed and Omri Reigned being made king onely by the peoples free election without any divine designation So Ioash the sonne of Ahaziah when Athaliah had usurped the Crowne and kingdome of Iudah neer seven yeers space was MADE KING anointed and crowned by Iehoiadah the High Priest the Captaines of hundreds and ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND who rejoyced at it when he was but 7. yeeres old and Athaliah was apprehended deposed and murthered by them as an Vsurpresse So Amaziah King of Iudah being slain by a Conspiracie at Lachish ALL THE PEOPLE OF IVDAH tooke Vzziah who was but 16. yeers old and MADE HIM KING instead of his Father Vzziah king of Iudah being smitten with Leprosie unto the day of his death dwelt in a severall house Iotham his son in the mean time by common consent was over this house judging the people of the Land Ammon king of Iudah being slain by his own servants the people of the Land slew all them that had conspired against Ammon And THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND MADE Iosiah his sonne King in his stead And after Iosiah his death the PEOPLE OF THE LAND took Iehoabaz the sonne of Iosiah and MADE HIM KING in his Fathers stead in Ierusalem From all which sacred Texts and Presidents as likewise from Hosea 8. 4. THEY HAVE SET VP KINGS But not by mee THEY HAVE MADE PRINCES and I knew it not it is most apparant that the kings of Israel and Iudah were usually elected by and derived their Royall authority from the people who made them kings and received not their
will give one Tribe to thy Sonne for my servant Davids sake and for Jerusalems sake which I have chosen In pursuance whereof the Prophet Ahijah rending Ieroboams garment into 12 peeces said to Ieroboam Take thee ten peeces for thus saith the Lord the God of Israel Behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten Tribes to thee BECAVSE THAT THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME and have worshipped the Goddesse of the Zidonians c. AND HAVE NOT WALKED IN MY WAYES to doe that which is right in mine eyes to keep my Statuts and my judgements as did David his Father howbeit I will not take the whole Kingdome out of his hands but I will make him Prince all the dayes of his life for David my servants sake whom I chose because he kept my Commandements and my Statutes But I will take the Kingdome out of his sonnes hand and give it unto thee even ten tribes And unto his sonne will I give one tribe that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Ierusalem the City which I have chosen to put my name there And I will take thee and thou shalt reigne according to all that thy soule desireth and shalt be King over Israel But what without any limitation or condition at all think you No such matter And it shall be IF THOV WILT HEARKEN VNTO ALL THAT I COMMAND THEE and wilt walk in my wayes and doe that is right in my sight to keep my Statutes and my Commandements as David my servant did that I will be with thee and build thee a sure house as I built for David and will give Israel to thee And I will for this afflict the seed of David but not for ever Loe here both Kingdomes of Iudah and Israel are given and entailed on David Solomon and Ieroboam onely upon condition of good behaviour which not performed they shall be rent from either And was this only a vain idle condition as some deem the Covenants and Coronation oathes of Kings to God and their Kingdoms Surely no for we read experimentall verifications of them in King Rehoboam Who answering all the people and Ieroboam when they came to Sechem to make him King roughly according to the Counsell of the young men and threatning to adde to their yoake instead of making it lighter and hearkning not unto the people FOR THE CAVSE WAS FROM THE LORD that he might perform his saying which he spake by Abijah the Shilomite unto Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat thereupon when all Israel saw that the King hearkned not unto them the people answered the king saying What portion have we in David neither have we inheritance in the son of â—esse to your tents O Israel now see to thine own house David so Israel departed to their tents stoned Adoram who was over the tribute whom Rehoboam sent to appease them Whereupon Rehoboam made speed to get him into his Chariot to flee to Ierusalem So all Israel fell away from the house of David to this day and calling Ieroboam unto the congregation made him King over all Israel there was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Iudah onely Vpon this revolt when Rehoboam was come to Ierusalem he assembled all the House of Iudah with the tribe of Benjamin an hundred and fourescore thousand chosen men which were Warriers to fight against the house of Israel to bring the Kingdome again to Rehoboam the sonne of Solomon But the Word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God saying speake unto Rehoboam the sonne of Solomon King of Iudah and unto all the house of Iudah and Benjamin and to the remnant of the people saying Thus saith the Lord Yee shall not goe up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel return every man to his house For this thing is done by mee They hearkned therefore unto the Word of the Lord and returned to depart according to the Word of the Lord. Behold here an experimentall for feiture of a kingdome and translation of the major part of it to another family for Solomons idolatry executed by the peple through Gods appointment which being fore-threatned in the generall by God himselfe to David and by David to Solomon in case he transgressed predicted by way of menace to Solomon and Ieroboam by God himselfe and his Prophets after Solomons transgression executed by the people by Gods speciall direction and approbation and thus owned and justified by God in the peoples behalfe after the execution when Rehoboam would have made war against them for this revolt must certainly be acknowledged not only a iust and warrantable action in respect of God himselfe but likewise of the people unlesse we will make God himselfe the Author and approver of rebellion By all which it is apparant that Solomon and Rehoboam held their Crownes onely upon condition from God the breach whereof might and did forfeit them to the people in some measure And so did Ieroboam too hold the kingdome of Israel newly erected by the people after this revolt upon the conditions of obedience already mentioned which being violated by his setting up 2 calves in Dan and Bethel out of an unwarrantable policy to keep the people from returning to Rehoboam if they went up to Ierusalem to worship this thing became sin to the house of Ieroboam even to cut it off and destroy it from off the face of the earth 1 King 13. 34. For Ieroboam committing idolatry with the Calves Ahijah the Prophet sent him this sharp message by his wife 1 K. 14. 7 8 9 10 11. Go tell Jeroboam Thus saith the Lord God of Israel for as much as I exalted thee from among the people and made thee prince over my people Israel and rent the Kingdom away from the house of David and gave it thee yet thou hast not been as my servant David who kept my Commandements and who followed me with all his heart to do that onely which was right in mine eyes but hast done evill above all that were before thee for thou hast gone and made thee other gods and molten images to provoke me to anger and hast cast me behinde thy backe Therefore behold I will bring evill upon the house of Ieroboam and will cut off from Ieroboam him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Ieroboam as a man taketh away dung till it be gone Him that dieth of Ieroboam in the the Citie shall the dogs eat and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the ayre eat for the Lord hath spoken it Moreover the Lord shall raise him up a King â—ver Israel who shall cut off the house of Ieroboam in that day Neither was this an unexcuted commination for Ieroboam dying and Nadah his sonne succeding him both in his kingdom and idolatriâ—s wherewith
themselves for the whole Nation in generall and every of them in particular frequently enter into solemn Vowes and Covenants with God to serve the Lord to be and conttnue his people to seek the Lord God fo their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great whether Man or Woman not the King or Queen excepted and they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with Cornets and all rejoyced at the Oath for they had sworn with all their hearts Witnesse the Covenant made by Ioshua and all the people To serve the Lord by Samuel Saul and all the people at Sauls Coronation and by king Asa and all his people To seek the Lord c. who in pursuance thereof removed his mother Maacha from being Queen because she had made an idol in a Grove and cut down her idol and stampt it and burnt it at the brook Kidron 2 Chron. 15. 16. of King David Solomon and all the people at Solomons Coronation between King Iehoash Iehoiada and all the Congregation at his inauguration that they should be the Lords people in pursuance whereof all the people went to the house of Baal and brake it down and brake his altars and images in pieces and slew Mattan the Priest of Baal before the altars between Hezekiah and all his subjects and God between Iosiah and all that were present in Ierusalem and Benjamin and Gad who made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments and his Testimonies and his Statutes with all their heart and with all their soul to perform the words of the Covenant formerly written in the Book of the Covenant that was found in the house of the Lord in execution whereof Iosiah tooke away all the abominations out of all the Countrey that pertained to the children of Israel and made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God and not to depart from following the Lord God of their Fathers all his dayes Together with the like solemne publike Covenants made by Ezra Nehemiah and all the People unto God which Covenant the Princes Levites Priests and all the people sealed and entred into a Curse and into an Oath to walk in Gods Law and to observe and doe all the Commandments â—udgements and Statutes of the Lord c. And that God himself expresly commanded them That if any Prophet or Dreamer of dreams or thy Brother or son of thy Mother or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosom or thy friend which is as thine own soul should secretly intice them to commit idolatry or serve other gods they should neither consent nor hearken to nor pitty nor spare nor conceal him but shalt surely kill him thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and after the hand of all the people and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die onely for this secret inticement to idolatry And all Israel shall hear and fear and do no more such wickednesse as this is And if they should hear that the inhabitants of any City were seduced to serve other gods then they must diligently search and inquire after it and if it be truth and the thing certain that such abomination was wrought among them then they shall surely smite the inhabitants of that City with the edge of the sword destroying it utterly and all that is therein and the cattell thereof with the edge of the sword and gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof and burn the City with all the spoile thereof every whit for the Lord their God and it shall be an heap for ever and shall not be built again In pursuance whereof the ten tribes and a half assembled to warre against the Reubenites Gâ—dites and half Tribe of Manasseh for their supposed idolatrous Altar and all the children of Israel assembled together as one man and made warre against the men of Gibeah and the Benjamites for not punishing the grosse Rape of the Levites Concubine destroying the City utterly and the Tribe of Benjamin too welnigh And upon this ground the City of Libnah revolted from under the hand of Iehoram the idolatrous King of Iudah Because he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers And as some learned men conceive the people made a Conspiracie against King Amaziah in Ierusalem and he fled to Lachish but they sent after him to Lachish and slew him there not privately but openly as acted by publike authoritie consent and medicated deliberation not out of any private hatred but for his impietie whereby he violated the chiefest part of his Oath and Covenant whereupon we read not of any complaint or inquisition or proceedings or punishment inflicted on those that slew him after his death either by the people or his children as there was upon those who slew King Ammon but being slain they brought him back on horses and he was buried at Ierusalem with his Fathers in the Citie of David out of reverence to his royall dignity and family And All the Peâ—ple of Iudah took Azariah and made him King in stead of his father Amaziah which plainly shewes that what was formerly done by the greater part of the States at Ierusalem was afterwards confirmed by common consent as done upon a just cause and executed by command of those who might lawfully doe it Whence they conclude That the Orders or States of the People of Israel had right to chuse what King they would themselves out of the family of David and being elected afterward to correct and punish him as there was cause that they were obliged by this Covenant made to God both to reprehend resist oppose yea depose if not put to death their King for his open incorrigible idolatries and sins by common consent as their king was obliged to punish and put them to death for their idolatries and crimes their kings being included within their Covenants and Gods inhibition of idolatry under pain of capitaâ— punishments extending to Kings as well as others if not more then to any because their examples were most pernicious and they were as far forth bound by their joynt Covenants made to God with their Kings to hinder their Kings from and to proceed against them for their idolatries as their kings were to impedite and punish them for their breach of Covenant and because God himself did punish them for their Kings idolatries as is evedent by Ier. 15. 1 to 6. and the History of the Kings and Chronicles every where which God would not in justice have done had not the people both just right and power to resist hinder censure punish depose their Kings by publike consent of the State and people for their idolatries and breach of Covenant as
Zuinglius Stephanus Iunius Brutus the author of the Treatise De Iure Magistratus in Subditos with others prove at large and Master Calvin yea Bishop Bilson himself assents to Such a Soveraign power had the whole State and Congregation of Israel and Iudah over their kings themselves whose estates in their Crownes and Kingdoms by Gods own institution was not absolute but onely conditionall and subject unto forfeiture upon breach of these Covenants and Conditions by which they did injoy them Fourthly The Kings of Iudah and Israel were no absolute Soveraign Princes paramount their whole Kingdoms the generall Congregation of the people Senate or Sanhedrin but inferiour to them in power and not onely counselled but over-ruled usually by them in matters of publike concernment This is evident not onely by Iosh 22. 11. to 34. and Iudges 20. and 21. where the whole Congregation of Israel as the Soveraign power in the dayes of Ioshua and the Iudges assembled about the great causes of the Reubenites Gadites and halfe the Tribe of Manasseh concerning their Alter and of the Gibeonites and Benjamites concluding both matters of publike war and peace But likewise by the peoples rescuing Ionathan out of the hands and power of King Saul his father that he died not though Saul had twice vowed that he should be put to death 1 Sam. 14. 38. to 36. And the people said unto Saul Shall Ionathan die who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel God forbid as the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground for he hath wrought with God this day So the people rescued Ionathan that he died not By the 1 Chron. 13. 1. to 7. where thus we reade And David consulted with the Captains of thousands and hundreds and with every Leader and David said unto all the Congregation of Israel If it seeme good unto you and that it be of the Lord our God let us send abroad unto our brethren every where that are left in all the land of Israel and with them also to the Priests and Levites which are in their Cities and Suburbs that they may gather themselves unto us and let us bring again the Ark of our God to us for we enquired not at it in the dayes of Saul And all the Congregation said that they would do so For the thing was right in the eyes of all the people And David went up and all Israel to Baalah to bring up thence the Arke of God the Lord. Compared with the 1 Samuel 18. 2 3 4. where when David sent out the people to battell against Absalon under three Commaunders the King said unto the people I will surely goe forth with you my selfe also But the people answered Thou shalt not go forth for if we flee away they will not care for us neither if halfe of us die will they care for us but now thou art worth ten thousand of us therefore now is better that thou succour us out of the Citie And the king said unto them Whatsoever seemeth you good that I will doe and thereupon stayed behinde in the City as they advised him So he likewise followed Ioabs advice to go forth and sit in the gate and speak comfortably to the People after his mourning for Absalons death else not one of the People would have tarried with him that night 2 Samuel 19. 1. to 20. and by this means All the people came before him though they had formerly fled every man to his tent and he so engaged them to him That all the people were at strife thorowout all the Tribes of Israel to bring the King back again to Gilgal whence Absalon had chased him Adde to this the 1 Kings 12. 1. to 25. and 2 Chron. c. 10. and 11. where we finde that after Solomons death All Israel came to Sechem to make Rehoboam King and all the Congregation of Israel spake unto Rehoboam saying Thy father made our yoak grievous now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy Father and his heavy yoak which he put upon us lighter and we will serve thee And he said unto them Depart ye for three dayes and then come again and the people departed In the mean time he consulted first with the old men after that with the young men about him what answer he should return who giving contrary advice Ieroboam and all the people coming to him again the third day the King answered the people roughly after the counsell of the young men saying My Father made your yoke heavy and I will adde to your yoke My Father chastised you with whips but I will chastise you with scorpions So when all the people saw that the King hearkned not to them the people answered the King saying What portion have we in David neither have we inheritance in the son of Iesse to your tents ô Israel now see to thine own house David So Israel departed to their Tents and fell away from the house of David unto this day And all Israel called Ieroboam unto the Congregation and made him King over all Israel And the Text expresly addes this memorable observation Wherefore the King hearkned not unto the people for the cause was from the Lord that he might perform his saying which the Lord spake by Abijah the Shilonite to Ieroboam the son of Nebat Where we see the Kings not hearkning to the people and congregation of Israel in their just request and giving them an harsh answer was a sufficient ground and occasion for them to cast off his government and elect another King to reign over them and that with Divine approbation from God himself Such was the whole peoples and congregations Soveraigne power over their Kings We reade in the 1 Kings 20. 1. to 10. that when Benhadad king of Syria gathered a great Host and sent to Ahab king Israel to resign up all his silver gold Wives Children and pleasant things into the hand of his servants Then the king of Israel called all the Elders of the Land and said Heark I pray you and see how this man seeketh mischief for he sent unto me for my Wives and for my Children for my silver and for my gold and I denyed him not And all the Elders and all the people said unto him Hearken not unto him nor consent Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Benhadad tell my Lord the King all that thou didst send for to thy servant at first I will do but this thing I may not do Where the Elders and people both advise and over-rule the King in this matter of great importance both to the Kingdom and King who returned no answer to this publike case without the congregations publike advise So Hezekiah king of Iudah sent to all Israel and Iudah and wrote Letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Ierusalem to keep the Passeover unto the Lord God
own wisdome And to doe nothing without the advice of the High-Priest and Senate and that if he multiplyed horses and mony more then was fitting They might resâ—st him lest he became more potent then was expedient for their affaires Hence Petrus Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. l. 1. c. 12. p. 101. 102. writes thus of the Sanhedrin or Parliament among the Iewes Thus the Prophets who grievously offended were no where else punishable but in this Assembly which Quod summae potestatis est as it is an Argument of The Supremest power did both constitute the King ac de Bello gerendo deque hostibus profligandis de proferendo Imperio delâ—berabaâ—t Sed quoniam haec ejusmodi erant in quibus salus omnium summae Reipublicae vertebatur Consultatum de his plerumque cum populo est indictae enim Comitiae sunt in quibus solis populus partem aliquam caperet regendae reipublicae c. De Rege igiâ—ur deque Bello ut dixi decreta facta interdum Populi auctore sunt Caetera omnia Senatores Sanhedrin Per se expedivere So that the Sanhedrin and Congregation of the people were the highest Soveraigne power and principall determiners of publike matters concerning warre and peace by Cunaeus his resolution Who debating this weighty controversie What the Scepter of Iudah was prophesied of Gen. 49. 10. and what and whose the Majesty of the Empire was determines thus I suppose the Scepter to be nothing else but the Majesty of the Empire or Government to wit that Quae ipsi Reipublicae assidet which belongs to the Republike it selfe Wherefore whos 's the Republike is the Scepter ought to be said theirs Now the Hebrew Republike from Moses his time till the Kingdome of Rehoboam was not of the Iewes or tribe of Iudah but of the twelve Tribes from whence it followes that even the Scepter for all those times was of all the Israelites Now of this Scepter which was long common to all the twelve Tribes the divine Patriarke spake not in that most famous Oracle for he looked at latter yeares and future ages when as the Tribe of Iudah the people being divided into contrary parts began to have its Republike apart from the Israelites which God approved and loved and would have to be called Iewish from the Tribe of Iudah alone untill hee to wit Christ should be given to the assemblies of men to whom not onely the Empire of the Iewes but Gentiles also was destinated And verily this Majesty of the Scepter from the time it once began to be of the Iewes we say continued to be theirs although the state of the Commonweale was sometimes changed and the soveraignty of the Empire was sometimes in the Elders and High Priests sometimes in the Kings and Princes They doe too foolishly who here dance in a narrow compasse and suppose that the honour of this name appertaines not but to Kings For what people soever useth its owne Republike and its Lawes Is recte Gloriari de Imperio deque sceptro potest it may rightly boast of Its Empire and Scepter It is recorded that at Ierusalem even at that time when not the Princes but the Elders governed the people in the midst of the great Councell which they called the Sanhedrin there hung a Scepter which thing verily was a certain Ensign of its Majesty which Marcus Tullius in a particular Oration saith Esse magnitudinem quandam Populi in ejus potestate ac jure retinendo quae vertitur in imperio atque omnis populi dignitate Not Kings not Princes but Consuls and the Senate managed the Roman Common-wealth whence this Law of Truce was given to the Aetolians which Livy reports That they should conserve The Majesty of the People of Rome without mal-engin And the very same thing was commanded all free People who by any league but not equall would come into the friendship of the Romanes as Proculus the Lawyer witnesseth in l. 7. F. de Captiu Post reversis Neither think we it materiall to our purpose of what Nation or Tribe they were who moderated and ruled the Iewish affaires for although the Hasmonaean Lâ—vites held their Kingdome for many yeeres yet the Republike was of the Iewish people That most wise Master Seneca said to Nero Caesar That the Republike was not the Princes or of the Prince But the Prince the Republikes Neither verily was the opinion of Vlpian the Lawyer otherwise for he at last â—aith that That is Treason which is committed against the Roman People or against their safety l. 1. s 1. F. ad Legem Iul. Majest Now Vlpian lived in those times when the people had neither command nor suffrages left them but the Emperours held the Empire and Principality and yet he who is wont most accurately to define all things saith That Majesty is of the People From all which it is apparant that not onely in the Roman Empire and other Kingdomes but even among the Iewes themselves the Majesty and Soveraign Power and Scepter resided not in the Kings but in the whole State and People Hence Will. Schickardus in his Ius Regium Hebraeorum Argent 1625. p. 7. determinesthus The state of the Iewish Kingdome was not Monarchicall as our Court Doctors falsely dream but mixt with an Aristocrcie for the King without the assent of the Sanhedrin Could determine nothing in great causes They constituted not a King but in it c. attributing the Soveraignest power to the Congregation and Sanhedrin who had power to create elect and in some cases to resist and depose their Kings Hence Huldericus Zuinglius writes expresly That the Kings of the Iewes and others when they dealt perfidiously contrary to the Law of God and the rule of Christ might be lawfully deposed by the People This the example of Saul manifestly teacheth whom God rejected notwithstanding he had first elected him King Yea whiles wicked Princes and Kings were not removed all the people were punished of God as is evident by Ier. 15. 1. to 6. where they were punished with four judgements and plagues for Manassehs sinnes In summe if the Iewes had not permitted their King to be so wicked without punishment they â—ad not beene so grievously punished by God By what means he is to be removed from his Office is easily to conjecture thou maist not slay him nor raise any war or tumult to do it but the thing is to be attempted by other means because God hath called us in peace 1 Cor. 7. If the King be created by common suffrages he may again be deprived by common Votes unlesse they will be punished with him but if he be chosen by the election and consent of a few Princes the people may signifie to them the flagitious life of the King and may tell them that it is by no means to be endured that so they may remove him who have inaugurated him Here now is the difficulty for those that do this the Tyrant
Lord will not hear you in that day Verse 17 18. Certainly the people neither would nor ought to crie to god against the proceedings of a just upright King but onely of a Tyrant and Oppressour therefore this Text must needs be meant of such a one who should be a scourge and punishment to them as Tyrants are not a blessing as good Kings alwayes be Fifthly consult we with all Polititians whatsoever this description suites onely with a Tyrant not with any lawfull King and that it is meant of such a one we have the testimony of Iosephus the generall concurring suffrage of all Commentators and Expositors one the place see Lyra Hugo de Sancto Victore Carthusian Angelomus Lexoviensis Calvin Brentius Bugenhagius Beda Bertorius Martin Borrhaeus Peter Martyr Zanchius Piscator Serrarius Strigelius Doctor Willet Deodate the English Bibles notes with others and of sundry who descant on this Text in other writings by name of M. Iohn Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. sect 26. Bishop Ponet his Politicall Government p. 44. Iunius Brutus Vindiciae contra Tyrannos qu. 3. p. 121. 122. 134. 135. 153. 154. 155. 159. De Iure Magistratus in Subditos p 270. 271. Bucholceri Chronichon p. 208. Petrus Cunaeus de Repub. Hebraeor l. 1. c. 14. Bertrami Politia Iudâ—ic p. 53. Shickardus jus Regium Iudae p. 64. Albericus Gentilis de jure Belli l. 3. c. 15. p. 613. Hugo Grotius de jure Belli Pacis l. 1. c. 3. Adnotata p. 72. Governado Christiano p. 87. Georgius Bucanus de jure Regni apud Scotos p. 44. Dole-man p. 68 70. Haenon disp polit p 432. Weemse 2 Vol 2. Part. p. 14. Hotomani Franco Gallia c. 10. Amesius de Casibus Conscienciae p. 306. and to name no more in so plain a case of Doctor Ferne himself in his Resolving of Conscience sect 2. p. 10. where hee writes That Samuel here tels the people how they should be oppressed under Kings yet all that violence and injustice done unto them is no cause of resistance c. This Text then being cleerly meant of their Kings Oppression violence injustice against Law right and a clear description of a Tyrant not a King I may safely conclude from all the premises that even among the Israelites and Iews themselves their Kings were subject to the Lawes and that the whole Congregation Kingdom Senate Sanhedrin not their Kings were the Supreme Soveraign power and Paramount their Kings themselves whom they did thus freely elect constitute and might in some cases justly censure resist depose if not put to death by common consent for notorious grosse Idolatries and publike multiplied crimes as the forecited authors averre All which considered eternally refutes subverts confounds the erronious false Positions and Paradoxes which Doctor Ferne Griffith Williams Bishop of Ossery the Authour of The necessitie of Subjection with other late ignorant Pamphletters have broached to the contrary without either ground or presidents to warrant what they affirm touching the absolute Soveraignty Monarchy irresistibilitie incorrigibility of the Kings of Iudah and Israel by their whole States Congregations Kingdoms generall assents and utterly takes away those sandy fabulous foundations upon which their impertinent Pamphlets against the Soveraign Power of Parliaments Kingdoms and the illegality of Subjects taking up defensive Arms against Tyrannicall Princes bent to subvert Religion Laws Liberties the Republike are founded which must now needs vanish into nothing before this Catholike irrefragable clear-shining verity abundantly ratifyed by innumerable presidents in all eminent Kingdoms States Nations that either have been in any former ages or are yet extant in the world which must and will infinitely over-sway swallow up the inconsiderable contrary opinions of some few privadoes who either out of flattery hopes of getting or keeping undemerited preferments fear of displeasing greatnesse or inconsiderates following of other reputed learned mens mistakes without due examination of their erronious Tenents have engaged themselves in a Polemicall blinde Combate against these infragable transparent Verities whose defence I have here made good against all their misprisions and bootlesse assaults Having now Historically ran over the most eminent Empires Kingdoms of ancient and present times in a kinde of confused method their copious vastnesse and varietie being so boundlesse and my time to collect them so small that I could hardly marshall them into any comely distinct Regiments or reduce them to the particular Heads debated in the premises I shall therefore for a conclusion deduce these distinct Conclusions from them to which the substance of all the recited Histories may be aptly reduced and are in truth abundantly confirmed by them beyond all contradiction annexing some new punctuall Authorities of note to ratifie and confirme them First it is undeniably evident from all the premises That all Monarchies Empires Kingdoms Emperours Kings Princes in the world were originally created instituted ordained continued limited and received all their jurisdiction power Authoritie both from by and for the people whose Creatures Ministers Servants they are and ought to be If we survey all the severall Lawfull Monarchies Empires Principalities Emperours and Kings that either have been or yet are extant in the world we finde all sacred and prophane Histories concurre in this that they had their originall erections creations from by and for the People Yea we read the very times when the most Monarchies of note were instituted the Names of those on whom the first Monarchies were conferred by the peoples free election onely yet extant on record in most Histories and withall expresse relations of many different kinds of Kingdoms Kings in respect of succession continuance Power jurisdiction scarce any two kingdoms or their Kings being alike in all things in regard of Prerogatives jurisdictions all Histories Polititians concurring resolving with Peter that Kings are humane Creatures or Ordinances instituted diversified thus by men and the people alone out of Gods generall or speciall providence not one of them all being immediately or directly ordained by God as the onely efficient cause without the free concurrence consent and institution of the people This truth is not onely ratified by Lex Regia whereby the Roman Emperours were created yea invested with all their power registred by Iustus Eccardus de Lege Regia Marius Salamonius de Principatu l. 6. formerly transcribed by Plato Aristotle Xenophon Berosus Polybius Cicero Livy Iustin Plinie Strabo Plutarch Dionysius Hallicarnassaeus Diodorus Siculus Pausanias Solinus Alexander ab Alexandro Hermannus Schedell Herodotus Boëmus Pomponius Mela forecited and generally by all Historians Chronologers Antiquaries Lawyers Politians whatsoever but directly averred and proved by Franciscus Hotomanus a famous Lawyer in his Franco-Gallia c. 1. 6. 10 13. the Author of De Iure Magistratus insubditos Quaest 5. p. 239. 240 c. Thomas Garzonius Emporij Emporiorum Pars 1. Discursus 1. de Dom. p. 13. Vasquius Controvers Illustrium 12. n. 133. 59. n. 8. 61. n.
then the King over the people which also appears in Vercingetorix who pleaded his cause before an assembly of the people In the Kingdoms of Spain especially in Valentia and Catteloigne of the Arragonians it is even thus for the Soveraignty of the Realme is in the Justice of Aragon as they call it therefore the great men who represent the people fear not to tell the King in direct terms both in his very Coronation it self and likewise every third year in the generall assembly of their Estates Tantum valemus nos quantum vos We are as powerfull as you but the Justice of Aragon is above us both who rules more than you Yea oftentimes what things the King hath asked what he hath injoyn'd the Iustice hath prohibited nay he never dares to impose any tribute without the authority of that Assembly In the Realms of England and Scotland the Supreme power is in the Parliament usually wont to be held almost every year Now they call a Parliament the Assembly of the Estates of the Realme where the Bishops Earls Barons Deputies of the Cities and Counties by common suffrage determine of the Republikes affairs whose authority is so sacred that what things soever it shall once establish it is unlawfull or a wicked act for the king to abrogate Likewise all the Officers of the Realme are wont to receive their Offices from that Assembly and those who ordinarily assist the King or Quéen in Councell In brief other Christian Kingdoms as Hungary Bohemia Denmarke Sweden and the rest have all their Officers of the Realm or Consuls of the Royall Empire who by their own Authority have sometimes used even to depose their Kings themselves as Histories teach or fresh memory sufficiently manifests Neither is there verily any cause that we should think the Royall Authority to be thereby deminished or that Kings should hereby suffer as it were a diminution of their heads Truly we deem not God the lesse potent for this because he cannot sin by himself nor his Empire more restrained because it cannot be ruined nor grow worse therefore not a King if that he who may offend by himself be sustained or kept from sinning by anothers help or if peradventure he had lost any Empire by his own negligence or fault that he may retain by anothers prudence What do you think any man lesse healthy because Phisitians sit round about him who dehort him from intemperance who interdict him the eating of hurtfull meats who likewise oft-times purge him against his will and resisting Or whether doest thou think those Phisitians who take care of his health or flatterers who obtrude the most unwholsome things to be more his friends Therefore this distinction is altogether necessary to be adhibited Some are friends of the King others of Caesar those are friends of Caesar who serve Caesar those friends of the King or Emperour who serve the Kingdom For since any one is called a King for the Kingdoms sake and the Kingdom consists in the people but the Kingdom being lost or decayed the King must altogether cease to be a King or at least be lesse a King those verily who shall study the profit of the Kingdom are truly the Kings friends those who neglect or subvert the profit of the Realm are truly his Enemies and as thou canst by no means separate the Kingdom from the people nor the King from the Kingdom so neither the friends of the King from the friends of the Kingdom or people yea verily as those who truely love Caesar would rather have him to be a King then a private man nor can they have him a King without a Kingdom in good sooth those shall be the Kingdoms friends who are Caesars and those who would seem to be more the friends of Caesar then of the Kingdom or people are truly to be reputed Flatterers and most pernicious enemies But and if they bee truely friends is it not manifest that the King will become more powerfull and stable as Theopompus said of the Ephori when instituted by how much those shall be more and more powerfull to whom the profit of the people or Realm shall be commanded and committed But perchance thou wilt say You tell me of the Senators Peers and Officers of the Realm but I on the contrary see nothing but Ghosts and as it were ancient Cote-Arms in Tragedies but I scarce any where discern any foot-steps of ancient libertie and authoritie Finally you may see most men every where to look to their own affairs to flatter kings to cheat the people scarce any where maist thou finde one who takes pity of the mascerated people much lesse who will give help to the miserable but if there be any who are truely of that minde or thought to be so they are judged Rebels or Traitors they are banished and they are compelled to begge even their very food What the thing is thus It seems almost alwayes and in every place the audacitie of Kings or partly the prevarication partly the slothfulnesse of the Nobility hath been such that kings may seem to have usurped that licentiousnesse wherewith most of them at this day seem to wax insolent by a long prescription of time but the people may seem to have determined their Authority or to have lost it by not using it For so it happens for the most part that no man takes care for that which all are bound to take care of that which is committed to all no man thinks it is commended to him Yet notwithstanding against the people neither this prescription nor prevarication doth any thing It is a vulgar saying that no prescription can hurt the king or Exchequer much lesse all the people who are potenter then the King and for whose sake the Prince hath this priviledge for why else is the Prince only the administrator of the Exchequer but for the people the true proprietors as shal be after proved Furthermore is not this a known truth that no violence no not in the longest lasting servitude can be prescribed against liberty But and if thou objectest that Kings were constituted by the people who perchance lived above five hundred yeer since not by the people extant at this day I answer that although kings doe die the people in the mean time as neither any other Universitie never dyeth for as flowing waters make a perpetuall river so also the vicissitude of birth and death an immortall people Therefore as the Rheine Seine Tyber is now the same as it was above a thousand years agoe so likewise the Germane French Roman people are the same unlesse Colonies shall have casually intervened neither can their right be any wayes changed either by the flux of water or change of individuals Besides if they attribute the Kingdom received not to their people but to their Father he to his Grandfather and so upwards could he transfer more right to another then himself first had But and if he
could not as it is certain he could not is it not manifest whatsoever he shall arrogate to himself besides that he cannot any more usurp it then any theef But on the contrary the people have a right of perpetuall eviction Therefore that the Nobles have been for a long space oppressed in any Kingdom can no way prejudice the people but rather as the servant should not be heard who in that he hath a very long time detained his Lord captive should boast that he was not onely a Free-man but would likewise arrogate to himself a power of life and death over his Lord nor yet a Theefe who because he hath robbed 30. yeers or is the sonne of a Theefe should think himselfe to be without fault yea rather by how much the longer he hath been such a one the more severely should he be punished So likewise a Prince is not to be heard or endured who because he hath succeeded to a Tyrant or hath for a long time used the people like a bondslave from whom he hath received his kingdome or hath offered violence to the Nobles should think that what ever â—e lusted should be lawfull to him and ought to be granted of right Neither doe yeers substract any thing from the peoples right but adde to the injury of the King But what if the Nobles themselves have colluded with the King what if in betraying the cause they have betrayed the people as it were bound into the hands of a Tyrant shall the authority of the people by this prevarication or treason seem to be plainly transferred upon the King whether I say by this fact is any thing taken away from the liberty of the people or adjoyned to the licentiousnesse of the Prince You will say they may impute it to themselves who made choise of such men of perfidious faith But yet these are as patrons to patronize the publike profit and the peoples safety and liberty Therfore as when an Advocate shall make a compact with the adversary of his Client concerning the value of the suit as they speake if he had betrayed his cause he should not hurt him at all so this conspiracie of the Nobles as it were made to the dammage and destruction of the people cannot verily detract any thing from their right but even they themselves shall fall into the penalty of the Law which is promulged against prevaricators and the Law permits the people to chuse another patron and to prosecute their right againe For if the Roman people condemned their Emperors to punishment who at the Caudine Gallowes had dishonourably contracted with the enemies although by compulsion and reduced to greatest straits and judged that they were no wayes obliged by that paction shall not the people be much lesse bound to suffer that yoke which not by force but willingly not for feare of death but out of desire of gain hath been thus treacherously put upon them Or if those who ought to shake it off shall impose it or those who might doe it shall tolerate it He hath many other pertinent passages to the same effect which brevity enjoynes me to omit those that please may read them at their leisure in the Author himselfe whose opinion is fortified by Alphonsus Menesius his poems annexed to his Treatise Thirdly it is abundantly manifest from all the premises That Kings and Emperours alwayes have been are and ought to be subject to the Lawes and Customes of their Kingdomes not above them to violate breake or alter them at their pleasures they being obliged by their very Coronation Oathes in all ages and Kingdomes inviolably to observe them This verily is confessed by K. Iames by our K. Charls himself in his late Declarations to al his Subjects resolved by Bracton Fleta Fortescue our Common and Statute Laws forecited by the Year Book of 19. H. 6. 63. a. where Fray saith That the Parliament is the highest Court which the King hath and the Law is the highest inheritance which the King hath for by the Law he himselfe and all his Subjects are ruled and if the Law were not there could be no King nor inheritance This is proued by Stephen Gardiner Bp. of Winchester in his Letter to the Lord Protector where he writes That when he was Embassadour in the Emperours Court he was faine there and with the Emperours Embassadour to defend and maintaine by Commandment in a case of Jewels That the Kings of this Realme were not above the Order of their Laws and therefore the Jeweller although he had the kings Bill signed yet it would not be allowed in the Kings Court because it was not obtained according to the Law and generally granted by all our own English Writers is copiously asserted and professedly averred by Aristotle Polit. l. 3. c. 11. 13. Marius Salomonius de Principatii in sixe speciall Books to this purpose by Justus Eccardus de Lege Regia Thomas Garzonius Emporii Emporiorum Pars 1. Discursus 1. de Dominiis sect 6. p. 9 10. Joannis Carnotensis Episc lib. 4. Policrat c. 1. Bochellus Decreta Eccles Gal. l. 5. Tit. 1. Cap. 6. 15 16. Haenon Disput Polit. p. 428. to 442. Fenestella de Magistratu p. 149. Ioannis Mariana de Rege Regis Instit l. 1. c 9. an excellent discourse to this purpose Petrus Rebuffus Praefat. ad Rubr. de Collationibus p. 583 584. Sebastianus Foxius de Rege c. part 1. p. 108 109 part 2. 192 c. Buckanon de Iure Regni apud Scotos passim Iunius Brutus Vindiciae contra Tyrannos quaest 3. p. 116. to 139. an accurate discouse to this effect Grimalius de Optimo Senatore p. 33. 201 205. Vasquius contr Illustr 16. n. 15. 19. 21. 17. n. 1. â—3 20. n. 3. 44. n. 3. 73. n. 12. 13 15. 72. n. 7. and elswhere De Iure Magistratus in subditos passim Polanus in Ezech. p. 824. 854. Pareus in Rom. 13. p. 138. Francis Hotomani Franco Gallia c. 6. to the end of Cap. 20. Sparsim Governado Christiano p. 108. Cunaeus de Republ. Hebr. l. 1. c. 1. 14. Schickardus Ius Regium Hebrae p. 54. Hugo Grotius de Iure Belli l. 1. c. 4. f. 7. l. 2. c. 14. and elsewhere thorowout his second Book with infinite others of all sorts This all good Emperours and Kings in all ages have professed as these Authors prove Thus the good Emperour Trajan practised and professed That the Prince was not above the Laws Hence Apollonius Thyanaeus writing to the Emperor Domitian saith These things have I spoken concerning Lawes which if thou shalt not think to reignover thee then thy self shalt not reign Hence Autiochus the third King of Asia is commended that he writ to all the Cities of his Kingdom if there should be any thing in his Letters he should write which should seem contrary to the Laws they should not obey them And Anastatius the Emperour
called Pretorian Consular Royall should be rendred safe from theeves plain and easie which charge even now lieth upon the kings Attorny that the publike Bridges should be repaired as appears out of the Constitution of Lewes the godly twelve over Seyne that Ships should be ready at hand to transport men over Rivers c. There were no Tributes of Saltpits yea most of them were in the Dominion of private men because what things nature did voluntarily give they thought ought no more to be sold then Light Ayre water And whereas a certain King named Lycurgus had begun to impose a Tax on Salt pits as if nature would not suffer her liberality to be restrained they are said to have been presently dried up although at this day If we beleeve Palphur or Armilot Whatever good or faire thing can be got Out of the Whole Sea in each Realme it flowes Some custome to the Kings Exchequer owes He who first instituted this custome at Rome was Livius Censor whence he obtained the surname of Salinator which he did for the most present necessity of the Commonwealth For that very cause truly King Philip obtained it onely for five yeares whose continuation what commotions it hath produced every man knoweth Finally that tributes were instituted to pay Souldiers wages in warres appeares even from this that to make a Province stipendary or tributary is the selfe-same thing indeed Thus Solomon imposed Tributes to fortifie Cities and to furnish a publike Armory which because they were finished the people under Rehoboam desired to be eased thereof Yea the Turkes themselves call the Tribute of Princes The sacred blood of the People which profusely to spend or to convert to any other use but to defend the people is a cursed act Therefore what things soever a King acquires in warres in every Nation because he gaines it by the common treasure he acquires it to the people not to himselfe as a factor doth to his Master Moreover if perchance he gaine any thing by marriage which I say is pure and simply his wives he is thought to acquire it to the Kingdome because he was presumed to marry that wife not as he is Philip or Charles but as he is King On the contrary as Queenes have part of those things which their husbands not yet coopted into the Kingdome have gained during the marriage so plainly they have no part of those things they get after they have obtained the Kingdome because they are reputed gained to the publike Treasures not to the private meanes of the King which was judged in the Realme of France between Philip Valoyes and Ioan of Burgundy his wife Now lest the monies should be extorted to some other use the Emperour sweares that he will impose no customes nor enjoyne no taxes but by the Authority of a publike Assembly The Kings of Poland Hungary Denmarke England doe the like out of the Lawes of Edward the first The French Kings heretofore demanded Tributes in the Assemblies of the three Estates Hence also is that Law of Philip Valoyes That impositions should not be imposed but upon great and urgent necessity and that by the consent of the Three Estates Moreover in times past those taxes were laid up in Castles throughout every Diocesse and delivered to selected men they even now call them Elected to be kept by whose hand the Soldiers enrolled in every Town should receive their wages which was also usually done in other Countries as in the Belgick At this day at least whatsoever things are commanded are not confirmed unlesse the Parliament consent Now there are some Provinces which are not bound by covenant but by the consent of the Estates as Languedoc Britain Province Dolphenie and some others and in the Netherlands clearly all Finally lest the Eschequer swelling like the spleen whereby all the other Members do pine away should draw all things to it self every where a due proportion is allotted to the Eschequer Since therefore at last it appeares that the tributes customes demesall that which they call demesnes under which names Portages Imposts Exposts Royalties wrecks forfeitures and such like are comprehended which are ordinarily or extraordinary given to Kings were conferred on them for the benefit of the people and supportation of the kingdome and so verily that if these nerves should be cut in sunder the people would fall to decay these foundation being under-mined the Kingdome must needs fall to the ground it truely followes that he who to the prejudice of the people burthens the people who reaps a gain out of the publike losse and so cuts their throat with their own sword is not a King but a Tyrant contrarily that a true King as he is a survey or of the publike affaires so likewise an Administrator of the publike riches but not a proprietary Lord who can no more alienate or dissipate the Royall Demesnes then the kingdome it selfe but if he shall demene himselfe otherwise verily as it is behoovefull to the Republike that every one should use his own proper goods well much more is it beneficiall for the Commonweal that every one should use the publike estate well And therefore if a Lord who prodigally spends his Estate is by publike authority deduced to the Wardship of his kinsmen and Family and compelled to abstaine from his possessions then truly much more justly the Gardian of the Republike who converts the publike Administration of all wealth into the publike destruction or utterly subverts it may justly be spoiled by those whom it concernes and to whom it belongeth out of Office unlesse he desists upon admonition Now that a King in all lawfull Empires is not a proprietary Lord of the Royall patrimony is easie to be manifested That we may not have recourse to those most ancient ages whose Image we have in the person of Ephron king of the Hittites who durst not verily sell his field to Abraham without the peoples consent that very law is at this day used in all Empires The Emperour of Germany before he is Crowned sacredly swears That he will alienate distract or morgage nothing of those things which appertain to the Empire and the patrimony of the Empire but if he recovers or acquires any thing by the publike Forces that it shall come to the Empire not to himself Therefore when Charles the fourth that Wenceslaus his sonne might be designed Emperor had promised an 100000 Crowns to every one of the Electors and because he had no ready monies had obliged to them by way of pawne to this end the Imperiall Customs Tributes Townes Proprieties and Rights there arose a most sharp dispute about it and the most judged the morgage to be void which verily had not availed unlesse that morgage had been gainfull to those very men who ought to defend the Empire and principally to oppose that morgage Yea therefore Wenceslaus himself was compelled as incapable to deprive himself of the Empire because
he had suffered the Royall Rights especially the Dukedome of Millain to be taken from him In the Polish kingdom there is an ancient Law of not alienating the Lands of the Kingdom of Poland renewed An. M.CCCLXV by king Lewes There is the same Law in the Realm of Hungary where we reade that Andrew king of Poland about the year M. CCXXI was accused before Pope Honorius the third that neglecting his Oath he had alienated the Crown Lands The like in England in the Law of K. Edward An. M.CCXCVIII Likewise in Spain by the Constitution made under Alphonso renewed again MDLX in the Assembly at Toledo which Lawes verily were enacted when as custome for a long time before had obtained the force of a Law But verily in the kingdome of France wherein as in the pattern of the rest I shall longer insist this Law was ever sacrosanct It is the most ancientest Law of the Realme I say the Law born with the Kingdom it self Of not alienating the Crown or demesne Lands renewed in the year M D 66. although it be ill observed Two cases onely are excepted Panage or Apennage aliments to be exhibited to his children or brethren yet so as the clintelary right be alwayes retained again if warlike necessitie require it yet with a pact of reddition Yet in the interim both of them were heretofore reputed void unlesse the Assembly of the three Estates had commanded it but at this day since a standing Parliament was erected it is likewise void unlesse the Parliament of Paris which is the Senate of Peers and the Chamber of publike accounts shall approve it and the Presidents of the Eschequer also by the Edict of Charles the 6 and 9. And this is so farre forth true that if the ancient Kings of France would endow any Church although that cause then seemed most favourable they were bound to obtain the consent of the Nobles as king Childebert may be for an example who without the consent of the French and Normans durst not endow the Monastery of S. Vincents in Paris as neither Clodoveus the second and the rest Moreover they cannot release the Royalties or the right of nominating Prelates to any Church but if any have done it as Lewes the eleventh in favour of the Church of Sennes and Philip the fourth of Augiers Philip Augustus of Naverne the Parliament hath pronounced it void The king of France when he is to be Crowned at Rheimes sweares to this law which if he shall violate it avails as much as if he contracted concerning the Turkish or Persian Empire Hence the Constitutions or as they callit the Statutes of Philip the sixt John the 2 d Charles the fift sixt eight of resuming those things which were alienated by their Ancestors of which resumptions there are many instances cited by Hugo Grotius de Jure Belli Pacis l. 2. c. 14. n. 12. 13. Adnotata Ibid. Hence in the Assembly of the three Estates at Towres An. 1323. 1360. 1374. 1401. 1483. in which Charles the eight was present many Towns of the alienation of Lewes the eleventh his Father which he had by his own Authoritie given to Tancred Castellan who demerited well of him were taken from his Heirs which even in the last assembly of the three Estates held at Orange was again decreed Thus concerning publike Lands But that it may the more evidently appeare that the kingdome is preferred before the king that he cannot by his private Authoritie diminish the Majestie which he hath received from the people nor exempt any one from his Empire nor grant the right of the Soveraign Dominion in any part of the Realm Charles the great once endeavoured to subject the Realm of France to the German Empire but the French vehemently withstood it a certain Vascon Prince making the Oration The matter had proceeded to Arms if Charles had proceeded further Likewise when some part of the Realm of France was delivered to the English the supreme right was almost perpetually excepted but if Force extorted it at any time as in the Brittish League wherein king Iohn released his Soveraign Right in Gascoigne and Poytiers the king neither kept his Contract neither could or ought he more to keep it then a Captain Tutor or Guardian as then he was who that he might redeem himselfe would oblige the goods of his Pupils By the same Law the Parliament of Paris rescinded the agreement of the Flusheners wherein Charles of Burgundy extorted Ambian and the neighbour Cities from the king and in our time the agreement of of Madrit between Francis the first a Captive and Charles the fift the Emperour concerning the Dukedome of Burgundy was held void and the Donation of Charles the sixt of the kingdom of France by reason of death conferred on Henry king of England may be one apt argument of his extreme madnesse if others be wanting But that I may omit other things which might be said to this purpose by what right at last can a king give or sell his kingdom or any part thereof seeing they consist in the people not in the walls now there is no sale of free men when as Land-Lords cannot so much as constrain their free Tenants that they should settle their Houshold in any other place then where they please especially seeing they are not servants but Brethren neither onely are all kings Brethren but even all within the Royall Dominion ought to be so called But whether if the king be not the proprietorie of the Realme may he not at least be called the usufructuary or receiver of the profits of the Crown Lands Truely not so much as an usufructuary A usufructuary can Pawn his lands but we have proved that kings cānot morgage the Patrimony of the Crown A fructuary can dispose or give the profits at his pleasure contrarily the great gifts of the king are judged void His unnecessary expences are rescinded his superfluous cut off what ever he shall convert into any other but the Publike use he is thought to have violently usurped Neither verily is he lesse obliged by the Cincian Law then any private Citizen among the Romanes especially in France where no gifts are of force without the consent of the Auditors of the Accounts Hence the ordinary Annotations of the Chamber under prodigall kings This Donation is too great and therefore let it be revoked Now this Chamber solemnly swears that whatsoever rescript they shall at any time receive from the king that they will admit nothing which may be hurtfull to the kingdom and Commonweale Finally the Law cares not how a Fructuary useth and enjoyeth his profits contrarily the Law prescribes the king in what manner and unto what use he ought to put them Therefore the ancient kings of France were bound to divide the Rents into four parts one part was spent in sustaining the Ministers of the Church and the poor another upon
them the chiefe places and offices as they doe in the Realm of Naples Sicilie Millaine at the Indies and in other Countries which are subject to the Kings command being also moved thereunto by the riches of the said Countries well knowne to the most of them the said councell or some of the chiefe of them have oftentimes given the King to understand That for his Maiesties reputation and greater authority it were better to conquer the Netherlands anew and then to command absolutely at his pleasure than to govern them under such conditions which he at his reception to the Seigniory of the said Countries had sworn to observe The King of Spain following this counsell hath sought all meanes to reduce these countries spoiling them of their ancient Liberties into servitude under the government of Spaniards having under pretext of Religion sought first to thrust in new Bishops into the chiefe and greatest Townes indowing them with the richest Abbeyes adding to every Bishop nine Chanons to serve him as Councellors whereof three should have a special charge of the Inquisition By which incorporation of the said Bishops being his creatures and at his devotion the which should happily have been chosen as well of strangers as of them which were born in the Country they should have the first place and the first voyce in the assemblies of the Estates of the Country And by the adiunction of the said Chanons had brought in the Inquisition of Spain the which had also bin so abhorred and so odious in these Countries even as slavery it selfe as all the world doth well know So as his Imperiall Maiesty having once propounded it unto these Countries upon due information given unto His Maiesty ceased from any more speech thereof shewing therein the great affection which he bare unto His Subjects Yet notwithstanding divers Declarations which were made unto the King of Spain as well by the Provinces and Townes in particular as by some other of the chiefe Noblemen of the Country namely by the Baron of Montigny and afterwards by the Earle of Egmont who by the consent of the Dutchesse of Parma then Regent of the said Countries by the advice of the Councell of Estate and of the Generalty had to that end been successively sent into Spain And notwithstanding that the king had by his own mouth given them hope that according to their petitions hee would provide for the contentment of the Country yet that he had since by his letters done the contrary commanding expresly and upon pain of his indignation to receive the new Bishops presently and to put them in possession of their new Bishopricks and incorporated Abbeyes to effect the Inquisition where they had begun to practise it and to observe the Decrees and Canons of the Councell of Trent the which in divers points doe contradict the priviledges of the Countrey The which being come to the knowledge of the Commons hath given just occasion of so great an alteration among them and greatly diminished the love and affection the which as good subjects they had alwayes borne unto the King and to his predecessours For they called chiefly into consideration that the King not onely pretended to tyrannize over their persons and goods but also upon their consciences whereon they held themselves not to be answerable nor bound to give account to any one but to God only For this cause and for the pitty they had of the poor people the chiefe of the Nobility did in the yeare 1566. exhibit certain admonitions by way of a Petition beseeching him that for the pacifying of the Commons and to avoid all tumults and seditions it would please his Majesty shewing the love and affection which as a mild and mercifull Prince he bare unto his Subjects to moderate the said points and especially those which concerned the rigorous Inquisition and punishments for matters of Religion And to informe the King more particularly thereof and with more authority and to let him understand how necessary it was for the good and prosperity of the Countrey and for the maintenance of peace and tranquility to abolish and disannull those innovations and to moderate the rigour of publike Edicts for matter of Religion the said Marquesse of Berges and Baron of Montigny at the request of the said Lady Regent the Councell of Estate and the Generall Estates of all the Countries went into Spain as Embassadors whereas the King instead of giving them audience and to prevent the inconveniences delivered by them the which for that they were not redressed in time as urgent necessity required began in effect to discover themselves throughout the whole Countrey by the perswasion and advice of the Councell of Spain hee hath caused all them to be proclaimed Rebels and guilty of high Treason and to have forfeited body and goods that presented the said Petition And moreover thinking himselfe to be fully assured of the Countrey by the Forces of the Duke of Alva and to have reduced them under his full power and subiection he had afterwards against the Lawes of Nations the which have been in all ages inviolably observed yea among the most barbarous and cruell Nations and most tyrannous Princes imprisoned and caused the said Noblemen Embassadors to be put to death confiscating all their goods And although that all this alteration which had hapned in the yeare 1566. upon the foresaid occasion was in a manner pacified by the Regent and her councell and that the greatest part of them which had presented themselves unto her for the Liberty of the Countrey were retired or chased away and the rest brought under obedience yet not to lose the opportunity which the Councell of Spain had long expected as it appeared plainly the same yeere 1566. by Letters intercepted which were written by the Embassador Alana to the Duchesse of Parma to have meanes under some pretext to overthrow all the priviledges of the Country and to govern them tyrannously by the Spaniards as they did the Indies and other Countries which had been newly conquered by them he by the advice and councell of the said Spaniards shewing therein the small affection which he bare unto his Subiects of these countries contrary unto that whereunto he was bound as their Prince protector and good Shepheard sent into these countries the Duke of Alva very famous for his rigour and cruelty and one of the chiefe enemies of these countries with a councell of the same Humour and disposition And although that the said Duke of Alva entred with his Army into this countrey without any let or opposition and was received of the poore Inhabitants with all reverence and Honour expecting all mildnesse and clemencie according unto that which the King had so often promised by His Letters fainedly written yea that He was resolved to come himselfe in person into the Countrey and to order all things to every mans content the said King having besides all this at the very instant of the Duke of
Alva his departure caused a fleet of ships to be armed in Spaine to bring him hither and another in Zeeland to goe and meet him as the bruite was to the great charge of the Countrey the better to abuse his poore subjects and to draw them more easily into his snares notwithstanding the said Duke of Alva presently after his arrivall although he were a stranger and not any way of the blood Royall gave it out that hee had a Commission from the King of Governour Generall of the Countrey the which was quite contrary to the priviledges and antient Customes thereof and discovering his designes plainly he suddenly put garrisons into the chiefe Townes and Forts of the Countrey and then he built Citadels in the richest and strongest Townes to keep them in subjection And by commandement from the King as they said he friendly called unto him as well by letters or otherwise the chiefe Noblemen of the Countrey pretending that he had need of their councell and assistance for the service of the King and the good of the Countrey who having given credit to letters were come unto him whom contrary to the priviledges hee caused to bee carried prisoners out of Brabant where they had been apprehended causing their processe to bee informed before him and his Councell although they were no competent Iudges and before any due proofes were made and the Noblemen that were accused fully heard in their defences they were condemned to have committed Rebellion causing them to be publikely and ignomiously put to death Others who for that they were better acquainted with the Spaniards dissembling were retired and kept out of the Countrey were declared Rebels and guilty of high treason and to have forfeited bodies and goods All which was done to the end the poor inhabitants should not aide themselves in the just defence of their liberty against the oppression of the Spaniards and their forces by the help and assistance of these Noblemen and Princes Besides an infinite of Gentlemen and rich bourgers whereof some he hath put to death others he had chased away and forfeited their goods oppressing the rest of the good inhabitants as well by the insolence of the souldiers as by other outrages in their wives children and goods as also by divers exactions and taxes forcing them to contribute for the building of new Citadels and fortifications of townes which hee made to oppresse them and also to pay the hundreth and twintieth peny for the payment of souldiers wherof some were brought by him and others newly levied to employ them against their Countreymen and themselves who with the hazard of their lives sought to defend the liberties of their Countrey to the end that the subjects being thus impoverished there should be no meanes to frustrate his designes for the better effecting of the instructions which had been given in Spain which was to use the Countrey as new conquered To which end in some places and chiefe Townes he changed their forme of government and of justice and erected new Consuls after the Spanish manner directly contrary to to the priviledges of the Countrey And in the end thinking himselfe free from all feare he sought to bring in by force a certaine imposition of the tenth peny upon all marchandise and handi-works to the absolute ruine of the Commons whose good and prosperity consists chiefly in traffique and handi-works notwithstanding many admonitions and perswasions made to the contrary as well by every one of the Provinces in particular as by all in generall The which he had effected by force if it had not beene that soon after by the means of the Prince of Orange and a good number of Gentlemen and others borne in these Countries banished by the Duke of Alua following the party of the said Prince and being for most part in service and other inhabitants affected to the libertie of their Countrey the Provinces of Holland and Zeeland had not revolted and put themselves under the Princes protection Against which two Provinces the Duke hath since during his Government and after him the great Commander of Castile sent in his place by the King not to moderate any thing of his Predecessors Tyrannie but to pursue it more covertly and cunningly than he had done force those said Provinces who by their Garrisons and Citadels were made subject to the Spanish Yoke to imploy their persons and meanes to helpe to subdue them yet no wayes easing the said Provinces but intreating them like enemies suffering the Spanyards under the colour of a mutinie in view of the said Commander to enter by force into the Town of Antuerpe and there to continue six weeks living at discretion at the poore Bourgers charge sorcing them moreover to be freed from their insolencies to furnish foure hundred thousand florins to pay the said Spanyards which done the said Souldiers growing more bold through the sufferance of their Commanders presumed to take Armes against the Countrey seeking first to surprize Brussels and in the place of the ancient and ordinary seate of Princes to make it a nest and den of theeves The which not succeeding according to their designe they tooke A lost by force and soone after forced the Towne of Maestricht And since being violently entred into Antuerpe they spoyled it sacked it and wasted it with fire and sword in such sort as the most barbarous and cruell enemies could not have done more to the unspeakable losse not onely of the poore inhabitants but in a manner of all the Nations of the world who had their Merchandise debts and money there And although the said Spanyards by a Decree of the Councell of Estate to whom the King by the death of the great Commander had conferred the generall Government of the Countrey were in the presence of Ieronimo de Rhoda proclaimed enemies to the Countrey yet the said Rhoda of his owne private authority or as it is to bee presumed by vertue of some secret instruction which he had from Spaine took upon him to be the head of the said Spanyards and their adherents so as without respect of the Councell of Estate he usurped the kings Name and Authority counterfeited his Seale and carried himself as a Governour and the Kings Lieutenant in the Countries The which moved the Estates at the same instant to agree with the Prince of Orange and the Estates of Holland and Zeeland which accord was allowed by the Councell of State as lawfull Governours that they might joyntly with their common forces make warre against the Spanyards Omitting not as good subjects but by divers humble petitions to beseech the King to have regard unto the troubles oppressions and insolencies which had hapned and were like to follow and that hee would bee pleased with all convenient speed possible to command the Spanyards to depart out of the Countrey and especially those which had been the cause of the sacke and ruine of the chiefe Towns of the Countrey and other innumerable insolences
imputed to the Co-gardians unlesse where they ought and are able they suspect and likewise take care to remove him to wit when he communicates not the administration with them if he doe not faithfully manage the tutelage or care if he admits fraud if he doth any thing sordidly or perniciously to the Pupill if he intercept any of the Pupils goods if he become an enemy to the Pupill finally if he be over rude sloathfull unskilfull c. So even the Nobles shall be held guilty of the Princes deed unlesse they remove or prevent his tyranny or supply his sloathfulnesse with their vigilance and diligence Finally as oft as the Gardian doth not doe in the name of the Pupill that which any fit Master of a family would doe he may not seeme to be defended but that he may be the better defended his Co-gardians are bound to foresee So much more justly if the Prince doth not act the housholder but the Enemy the Nobles may and ought to act against him since they are bound by his deed no lesse then by their owne Moreover the Nobles may consider that the King in governing the Republike holds the first part but they the second third and every one in his place Therefore if he doth his part ill they may not follow him if he destroy the Republike they may not connive for it is committed to them as well as to him and in such sort truly that not onely they themselves ought rightly to execute their office by themselves but to containe the Prince within the bounds of his office Finally as the King promiseth that he will take care of the benefit of the Commonweale so also doe they Therefore if he breakes his oath they may not thinke that they are absolved from theirs no more then Bishops if the Pope should defend heresie or destroy the Church yea they should thinke themselves so much the more obliged to performe their oathes by how much the more he shall violate his Therefore if they collude they are reputed in the number of prevaricators if they connive of desertors and TRAITORS if they vindicate not the Republike from the tyranny of tyrants as finally they become Patrons Defenders little Kings if they by all meanes protect and defend the Republike which they have undertaken to protect These things though they are sufficiently firme of themselves yet they may be demonstrated by examples The Canaanitish Kings who oppressed the people of Israel with hard servitude as well corporall as spirituall interdicting them both commerce and armes were true tyrants I say in practice yet not without a title for Eglon and Jabin reigned quietly almost twenty years Now God extraordinarily stirred up Ehud who slew Eglon craftily and Debora who routed the army of Jabin and by that meanes freed the people from tyranny This was not verily because it was lesse lawfull to the ordinary Magistrates and Princes of the Tribes and the rest to doe it but Debora rather objecteth their sloathfulnesse and carelesnesse to them and curseth some of them for this cause But truly God pittying his people extraordinarily supplyed the negligence of ordinary officers Rehoboam the sonne of Solomon refuseth to ease the people of unnecessary Tributes being intreated to doe it in a generall Assembly of all the people he groweth insolent and assisted with the counsell of flatterers even arrogantly threatens more grievous burdens No man doubts but that according to the covenant first made betweene the King and people the Nobles might have restrained this pride But the sinne was in this that they did by secession which was to be done in the Assembly and did a just and lawfull thing unjustly Frequent examples of this thing occurre in other Kingdomes he instanceth in Tarquin the proud expelled by Brutus and Lucretius who confiscated his goods and would have publikely sentenced himselfe had they apprehended his person because he consulted not with the Senate as former Kings usually did because he made warre peace and truces at his pleasure without the Senates and peoples advice violated the Lawes which he should observe and neglected the covenant established betweene the King and people in Nero the Emperour publikely sentenced by the Senate Vitellius Maximinus and the speech of Trajan forecited Likewise the French by authority of a publike Councell through the care of the Kingdomes officers expelled Childericke the first Sigibert Theodoricke Childericke the third from the Crowne for their tyranny and set up others of another stocke in their places Yea for sloathfulnesse negligence madenesse as also for injuries to Forrainers and yeelding to the impotencie or lust of flatterers or women they have deposed some and as it were taken away the reines from Phaeton lest all men should be burnt with the same fire as Theodoricke for Ebroines sake Dagobert of Plectrude and Theobald his Mignions with others reputing it to be all one whether a woman or an effeminate Prince reigned or whether a tyrant or petite tyrants under a sloathfull Prince domineered or finally whether he himselfe were a Devill or possessed by the Devill himselfe Thus not long since they compelled Lewes the eleventh a most imperious Prince to receive 36. Governours by whose counsell he was bound to governe the Republike Yea what other right had either the Carlingi adopted into the Kingdome in place of the Meruingi or the Capets who at this day hold it preferred before the Carlingi by the Decree of a publike Councell but from the people represented as it were in an Epitome by the Councell of the Realme which they call an Assembly of the three Estates who might lawfully of right both depose those and by their owne authority establish these in the Throne In the same manner we read Adolphus deprived of the German Empire An. 1296. because corrupted with mony he had made war with France in favour of the English and Wenceslaus An. 1400. although these may be called not so well evill as lesse good Princes Thus in the Realme of England Edward the second for his tyranny to his Subjects especially the Nobles whom he destroyed without hearing their cause was at his Queenes request adjudged unworthy of his Crowne by the Parliament Not long since Christierne in Denmarke Ericus in Sweden Queene Mary very lately in Scotland were deprived which Histories worthy credit testifie hath beene frequently done in the Kingdome of Poland Hungary Spaine Portugall Bohemia and the rest But what concerning the Pope himselfe The Cardinals they say because they have chosen him or if they doe not their duty the Patriarks who are Primates next after the Cardinals may against his will for certaine causes call a Councell and in it judge the Pope if he shall scandalize the Church by his notorious offences if he be incorrigible if reformation be necessary as well in the head as members if contrary to his Oath he will not assemble a Councell and the like and de facto we
the Senate conniving at his tyranny But especially that Laconick judgement is observable which verily proceeding from that Senate ought to passe into a thing adjudged among all Nations When the Lacedaemonians possessed Byzantium they made Clearches Captaine of the Army Governour of the City who taking corne from the Citizens distributed it to the forraine souldiers but in the meane time the families of the Citizens perished with famine Anexilaus therefore one of the Magistrates of the City moved with that tyranny agreed with Alcibiades about the yeelding up of his Countrey to him and he soone after is received into the City Anexilaus being accused at Sparta for yeelding up of Byzantium pleaded his cause himselfe the Spartanes absolved the man because they said warres were to be waged with enemies not with the nature of things now nothing is more repugnant to nature then if those who are bound to defend a City became more unjust then the enemies Thus the Lacedaemonians determined justly to whom scarce any good Kings will not assent verily those who desire to rule well care not at all what is determined concerning tyrants or what the Nobles or people themselves may doe by Law But we must yet proceed further Every one of the Mariners is bound if the Ship be endangered through the default or negligence of the Ship-master to put to his helping hand every one of the Nobles is bound if the Republike perish by the wickednesse or carelesnesse of the Prince and his Colleagues to helpe it being like to fall and to vindicate the whole Kingdome or at least that part thereof which is committed to him from tyranny But then shall it be lawfull for every ordinary slave to doe the like or peradventure shall it be lawfull to Herdonius Sabinus Euno Surianus Spartacus the fencer or I say to any private man to enfranchise servants to stirre up Subjects to armes finally to combate with the Prince if tyranny urge them No verily The republike is not committed to single or private men yea they themselves are committed to the care of the Nobles and Magistrates no otherwise then Pupils Therefore they are not bound to defend the Republike who cannot defend themselves The sword is not committed to every man neither by God nor by the people therefore if they draw the sword without command they are seditious although the cause may seeme to be just Finally private men doe not make the Prince but all Therefore they ought to expect the command of all or of those I say who represent all in a Realme Countrey or City which may make a part of the Realme or at least of one of them before they attempt any thing against the Prince For as a Pupill cannot bring an action without authority of his Tutor although the Pupill be truly a Lord and the Tutor onely is reputed for the Lord as farre forth as appertaines to his tutelary providence So neither may the people doe ought but by the authority of those on whom they have transferred their authority and power whether they be ordinary Magistrates or extraordinarily created in a publike Assembly whom I say they have guirded with the sword for this purpose to whom they have delivered themselves up to be governed and cared for who finally like that Pretor of Rome who judged betweene servants and masters are truly constituted in that place that if any contention arise betweene King and Subjects they may shew themselves Judges and Redressors lest the Subjects themselves should pronounce sentence in their owne cause Therefore if unjust customes or grievous taxes be imposed if things be done against pacts or fraudulently and yet not one of the Nobles speakes against or resists it let them thinke they must then sit still and thinke that the best Physitians to prevent or take away a disease doe oft-times prescribe the opening of a veine the evacuation of humours yea and scarification For such is the nature of things that scarce any mischiefe can be cured without another scarce any good may be acquired without diligent labour They have the example of the people under Solomon who refused not the grievous tributes imposed on them for the building of the Temple and fortifying the Kingdome because they judged those things to be imposed by the publike Councell to the glory of God the beauty and ornament of the Republike They have likewise the example of Christ our Saviour who although he were the King of Kings yet because he then sustained a private person he payed tribute willingly If the Nobles and Magistrates themselves favour apparent tyranny or at least oppose it not they may remember that for the sinnes of the people God suffers Hypocrites to reigne whom unlesse they turne themselves to God with all their heart cannot be overturned with any engines Therefore there is no need of feet or hands but bended knees Finally they must suffer evill Princes wish for better and thinke they must beare that tyranny with a patient minde as they doe haile stormes tempests and other naturall calamities or change their habitations David retired into the Mountaines and spared Saul a tyrant because he was none of the Nobles of the people Christ because he was not of this world fled into Egypt to avoyd Herods tyranny Paul because he describes the office of private Christians not of Magistrates teacheth that they must obey Nero himselfe But if all the Nobles or most of them or at least one of them endeavour to restraine apparent tyranny or the Magistrate to drive it from that part of the Realme which is committed to him if he be such a one as under pretext of expelling it may not introduce another tyranny then verily assembling together they may run who shall goe fastest to this choyce man they may earnestly assist with their feete and hands and as if God himselfe had given a signe from Heaven of a fight against tyrants endeavour to free the Kingdome from tyranny For as God punisheth and chastiseth the people by tyrants so likewise tyrants by the people and that is a perpetuall truth which Syrach saith that Kingdomes are translated from Nation to Nation for the iniquities injuries and wickednesse of Princes and that every tyranny continues but a short space Thus the Captaines and souldiers carefully executed all the commands of Iehojada the High Priest in revenging the tyranny of Queene Athaliah Thus all the godly men of Israel went to the Maccabees partly that they might defend the true worship of God partly that they might free the Republike against the impious and unjust attempts of Antiochus yea God favoured their just endeavours and gave them prosperous successe What then May not God likewise out of private men themselves raise up some avenger of tyranny Cannot the very same who raiseth up tyrants out of the people backed with no title no pretext to punish the people likewise raise up deliverers also out of the lowest of the people
one of us may breake or fall from it by dissimulation secret intelligence or in any sort whatsoever And that for the preservation of our holy Catholike and Romish Faith and the accomplishment of the Pacification as also for the expulsion of Spaniards and their adherents with all due obedience to his Majesty for the good and quiet of our Countrey and the maintenance of our Priviledges rights Freedomes Statutes Customes and antient uses For the effecting whereof we will use all meanes possible imploying both Money Men Counsell and goods yea and our lives if it were necessary And that none of us may in private give any counsell advice or consent nor have any secret conference with them that are not of this Union nor yet reveale unto them in any sort what hath or shall be treated of in this Assembly or resolved but shall wholly conforme himselfe according to our generall and common resolution And in case that any Province Estate Countrey Towne Castle or House were besieged assaulted invaded or opprest in any sort whatsoever yea if any of us or any others having indeavoured himselfe for his Countrey and the just defence thereof against the Spaniards or for other causes depending thereon as well in generall as particular should be sought after imprisoned ransomed molested or disquieted in his person and goods honour and estate or otherwise we promise to give him assistance by all the said meanes yea and to procure the liberty of them that shall be imprisoned either by force or otherwayes upon paine to be degraded of their Nobility Name Armes and Honour and to be held perjured disloyall and enemies to our Countrey before God and men and to incurre the note of Infamy and cowardise for ever And for the strengthening of this our holy Union of Association we have signed these presents the tenth of January 1577. Underneath were the signatures of the Deputies of every Province Prelates Noblemen and Commissioners for Townes and underneath them was written the agreation of the Councell of State as followeth The Deputies of the generall Estates here under-written having required them of the Councell of State committed by his Majesty for the government of the Netherlands to consent unto and allow of that which is contained in the Union above written The Councell in regard of the said request and the reasons therein contained have as much as in them lay allowed and doe allow by these presents the said Union according to the forme and tenor Made at Brussels in the State-house in the Assembly of the said States the tenth of January 1577. And underneath was written By the commandement of the Lords of the Councell of State Signed Berrii If any shall here object that Kings are of divine institution whence Dei gratia By the grace of God is peculiarly annexed to their Titles and not communicated unto Subjects Therefore though they prove never so flagitious or tyrannicall they may in no wise be forcibly resisted or questioned by their Nobles and Parliaments for their crimes I answer briefely because I have elswhere largely dissipated this objection First that Kings are no more of divine institution then any other inferiour Magistrates Officers or Princes whatsoever as the Scriptures abundantly evidence But all other inferiour Magistrates Officers and Princes whatsoever are resistible questionable censurable and deposible for their tyranny wickednesse and misgovernment by the Parliaments censure as I have proved notwithstanding their divine institution therefore such degenerating Kings too as well as they in such cases Secondly all Ministers of the Gospel are as much if not farre more Jure divinâ— and by Gods owne ordination as Kings are a truth undeniable But they for their offences and misdemeanors contrary to their function may be both forcibly resisted censured deprived degraded yea and executed notwithstanding their divine right and institution as the Canons of most Councels the practise of all ages yea the expresse letter of the 26. Article of the Church of England with all our Episcopall Canons and Canonists attest Therefore tyrannicall degenerating Kings may be so too by the selfe-same reason in some cases Thirdly this Title of Dei gratia in publike Writs anciently hath beene and yet is common to Bishops Prelates inferiour Magistrates and Subjects as well as to Kings as sundry precedents in our Law bookes Matthew Paris Salon with others attest and Mr. John Selden in his Titles of Honour part 1. chap. 7. Sect. 2. p. 123. professedly proves at large to whom I shall referre you But these both lawfully may be and alwayes have beene forcibly resisted questioned convented deprived censured for their tyranny and misdemeanors notwithstanding this their stile of Dei gratia or pretence of divine institution yea we know that Bishops have beene lately thrust out of many Churches notwithstanding their long pretended Ius Divinum to support their Hierarchy and Iohn Gerson a Papist hath writ a particular Treatise De Auferibilitate Papae notwithstanding the Popes pretended Divine Title to his Monarchy which may be now and one day shall be totally abolished Therefore tyrannicall degenerous Kings may be justly resisted censured deprived as well as they and royalties changed into other governments by the peoples and kingdomes common consents if they see just cause If any secondly object That Kings are annoynted at their Coronation Therefore their persons are sacred irresistible unquestionable unpunishable for any tyrannicall or exorbitant actions whatsoever I briefly answer first that every Christians Baptisme being a Sacrament of Christs owne institution at least his spirituall unction and sanctification as I have formerly proved makes a person as sacred yea more holy then Kings annoynting being no Sacrament can or doth of it selfe make the person of any King whatsoever A truth which no Christian can without blasphemy deny But Baptisme and the inward unction of the spirit of grace and sanctification exempts no Christians from resistance censure punishments of all sorts in case they commit any exorbitant or capitall crimes as experience tels us Therefore Kings Coronation annoyntings cannot doe it Secondly Priests anciently were and at this day too in the Roman Church are annoynted as well as Kings and so are children and sicke persons that I say not Altars Bels c. with Chrisme and extreame Vnction But these Unctions conferre no such immunity to Priests children sicke men others c. Therefore neither can this annoynting doe it to Kings especially now being no divine institution Thirdly The annoynting of Kings is not common to all Christian Kings many of them especially in former times having beene crowned without any annoynting at all but peculiar to Emperours and to the Kings of Ierusalem France England and Sicily the foure annoynted Kings onely as Albericus Restaurus Castaldus Antonius Corsetus Azorius Cassanaeus and sundry others affirme out of the old Roman Provinciall though some other Kings have now and then beene
annoynted when they were crowned as Mr. Selden proves Since therefore all Kings persons are reputed sacred as well as these foure who are annoynted and these Kings as soone as the Crowne descended to them even before their Unctions and Coronations were deemed as sacred and inviolable as before it is certaine that their very enoyling of it selfe makes no addition to their personall immunities from just resistance publike censures or deprivations for grosse unsufferable publike crimes Fourthly the annoynting of Christian Emperours and Kings is not very ancient Charles the great being the first annoynted Emperour if we beleeve Mr. Selden The first annoynted King in France was Pipin about the yeare 750. the annoynting of their Clovis the first about the yeare 500. with that holy Vial of never-decaying Oyle reserved at Rheimes to annoynt their Kings which they say a Dove brought downe from Heaven to annoynt him with a ridiculous Monkish fable much insisted on by Bochellus and other French-men who relate the grand solemnity used in the carrying and recarrying of this fabulous Vial at the French Kings Coronations being not at his Coronation as many fondly mistake but onely at his baptisme as Mr. Selden manifests by pregnant authorities The annoynting of Kings is farre more ancient in England then in any other Realme as Mr. Selden notes out of Gildas yet Egfert is the first of whose annoynting there is any intimation in our Histories about the yeare 790. To adde to the holinesse of which ceremony some of our Monkes in latter ages have forged a Legend as good as that of the holy Viol at Rheimes that the Virgin Mary gave to Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury during his exile under Henry the second a golden Eagle full of precious Oyle inclosed in a stone vessell commanding him to preserve it foretelling him that the Kings of England annoynted with this Oyle should be Champions of the Church and bountifull and victorious as long as they had this Eagle oyle How late the Unction of Kings began in other Realmes you may read at large in Mr. Selden and how the later Kings of Judah were annoynted and with what unguent or Oyle the curious may read at leisure in Cunaeus This annoynting therefore of Kings being not of divine institution of such puny date in most Realmes and no wayes necessary nor essentiall to the constitution or Inauguration of any Christian King can adde no immunity or priviledge at all to the persons of Kings much lesse exempt them from all forcible resistance just censures or deprivation it selfe if there be just and reall cause to proceed criminally against them in case of incorrigibility as I have elsewhere more fully demonstrated and therefore shall no further expatiate in this particular here onely I shall conclude with one notable History which proves it I read in Gulielmus Neubrigensis that for an hundred yeares space and more though there were a numerous succession of Kings in Norway yet none of them ended his life by old age or sicknesse but all of them perished by the sword leaving the soveraigne power of the Realme to their murderers as to their lawfull successors so as to all those who are knowen to have reigned there for so long a time that which is written might seeme to have reference Hast thou slaine and also taken possession The Nobles of this Land out of a pious endeavour desirous to heale this infamous mischiefe obteining now the vigour of a Law as it were through long custome decreed That the new King should be solemnly annoynted with a mysticall unction and crowned so as no man should dare from thenceforth to lay hands on the Lords annoynted For till that time none in that Nation hath ever beene consecrated King after an Ecclesiasticall manner but whosoever had Tyrannically slaine a King put on the person and power of a King thereby and left the same likewise after a little fortune to his murtherer by a law of inveterate custome which verily out of a certaine Christian simplicity was thought by many to have beene therefore so frequently done because none of the former Kings had deserved to be initiated with the solemnitie of a Royall Vnction Therefore Haco being slaine who had succeeded King Jnge slaine by him when the succession of the Crowne seemed to belong to one Magnus a child Nephew to Jnge the Wisemen and Nobles of the Realme by a common Decree caused the said child to be solemnly consecrated to be the Lords annoynted and crowned with a Diadem By which deed they thought that they had a Prince made sacred to them and that the disgrace of the ancient custome was thereby abolished But when Magnus had reigned some few yeares in great prowesse and happinesse a most infamous Priest Suerus surnamed Birkebain usurped a Tyranny twice defeated Magnus by warlike stratagems and at last utterly routed and slew him in battell notwithstanding his annoynting and usurping the Crowne renounced his holy orders married a wife and would have beene crowned by the Archbishop of that Land but he being a great man would neither be moved with prayers nor threats to annoynt an exectable head with sacred Vnction for which he was banished the Countrey at last after two great victories against two competitors who were slaine Suerus obtained the Royall Crowne with mysticall Vnction by the hands of a certaine Bishop compelled thereunto under paine of death as it were secure by his frequent successes from the uncertaine end of a long prospering tyranny c. By which History it is evident that it is but a childish simplicity to beleeve that the ceremony of annoynting Kings can of it selfe make Kings persons sacro-sanct or preserve them from violence or assassinations since it no way prevented this mischiefe in this Realme nor yet in any other the very first King for whose personall safety this ceremony of annoynting and crowning was introduced among the Norwegians and Danes being not long after slaine by his Subjects and competitor in battell I shall close up this with the notable sentence of deprivation solemnly given and executed against Wenceslaus the Emperour notwithstanding his annoynting The sentence of Degradation and Deprivation of the Emperour Wenceslaus King of Romans pronounced by the Electors of the Empire in the yeare of our Lord. 1400. IN the name of God Amen We John by the grace of God Archbishop of the Church of Mentz Arch-chancellor of the sacred Roman Empire throughout Germany make knowne to all men present and to come What various manifold and grievous as well incommodities as discords have for many yeares since beene brought into the holy Church continuing even to this present and daily sprouting up more abundantly to the most grievous convulsion imminution and dissipation of the sacred Roman Empire which ought to be a Garrison to the Church of God and the Christian world as they cannot be all written so the mischiefes daily increasing do manifestly enough
justice that Tyrants and the subverters of Law and the Republike should be curbed charity that the oppressed should be releeved and have a helping hand extended But those who take away these things take away piety justice charity from among men and desire them to be altogether extinguished So he If this then be an irrefragable verity that forraine States and Princes are so farre obliged to assist and relieve those of the same Religion and all others whose liberties rights priviledges are forcibly invaded which our Parliament and State by their assistance if the Netherlands and other Protestant States both in Quaene Elizabeths King James and King Charles his reigne approved and justified both by words Acts of Parliament and reall performances then certainly those of the self-same Church Nation Kingdom and fellow Subjects under the self-same Prince betweene whom there is a farre nearer relation much stricter obligation and more strong ingagements ought mutually to aide and assist each other to the uttermost of their abilities when their Religion Lawes Liberties be violently invaded their dearest native Countrey wasted sacked plundered burned ruined in a hostile warre-like manner with open force of Armes either by the King himselfe or a prevailing Malignant Popish faction who have surreptitiously possessed themselves both of his person and affections which they have gotten into their owne over-ruling power How much then it now concernes every reall Protestant within this Realme of England and all other his Majesties Dominions to unite all their common forces together unannimously to protect defend maintaine and propagate our established reformed Religion fundamentall Lawes Liberties the very Priviledges of Parliaments their estates liberties lives the peace welfare and common good of their dearest native Countrey and our three united Realmes against all Popish Malignant forces now in armes to invade eclipse impaire subvert sacke ruine them and how monstrously unnaturally unchristianly and detestably impious treacherous perfidious all those English Irish and Scottish Protestants proclaime themselves to the present and future age who now trayterously joyne their forces with the Malignant Popish party or prove uncordiall false treacherous and perfidious to their Religion Liberties Countrey and the Parliment who have not onely waged imployed but confided in them and contribute their uttermost endeavours to betray enslave undermine and to sacke burne and totally overturne them as many we finde have done to their eternall infamy I here referre to every mans judgement and conscience seriously to determine Certainly such unnaturall monsters such trayterous Judasses such execrable infamous Apostates as these can expect no other reall remuneration of this their treachery and perfidiousnesse but the ruine of their credits the detestation of their persons memories the confiscation of their estates the extirpation of their families the execrations of all good men the severest judgements of God and utter confusion with horrors of conscience tormenting them constantly day and night whiles they continue languishing under all these miseries here and the sharpest torments the very largest dangers the hottest flames in hell for ever hereafter and those Antichristian Papists who now are and have beene so faithfull active zealous couragious industrious liberall bountifull if not prodigall to prosecute their owne interests designes to maintaine and propagate their false erroneous detestable Religion superstitions idolatries both in England and Ireland with the effusion of their bloud expence and forfeiture of all their estates and never yet deserted or became treacherous to their false execrable cause or Religion in the least degree shall all joyntly rise up in judgement against them both here and hereafter to their sempiternall infamy reproach and most just condemnation O consider this all yee who now so much forget neglect betray both your God your Christ Religion Lawes Liberties Countrey Parliament yea your very selves your soules bodies and posterities Consider with your selves the bitter curse denounced by God himselfe against Meroz Judg. 5. 23. Consider the fatall dismall end of treacherous Judaâ— Matth. 27. 3. 4 5. Acts 1. 18. 19 20. Consider that dreadfull speech of our Saviour Christ Marke 8. 35 36 37 38. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels shall save it For what shall it profit a man if he shall gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my word in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the sonne of man be ashamed when he commeth in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels If we suffer with him we shall also reigne with him if we deny him he will also deny us If we be but fearfull in the cause of Christ we shall be sure to have our part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 21. 8. O what then will be our portion if we be unzealous negligent perfidious to it or professed enemies especially in open armes against it when it cries out to us for our necessary assistance every where If Jesus Christ will render tribulation to them which doe but trouble his people yea and shall be very shortly revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on all them that onely know not God and that obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 6. to 10. O where shall all those ungodly sinners Rebels and Traytors appeare who now every where murther plunder persecute extirpare Gods dearest Saints and not onely refuse to owne but even desert betray the cause of God and their Countrey who refuse not onely cordially maintaine the very truth of God the Gospel of Christ and which themselves in shew not onely pretend to know but professe but also joyn with Papists and Malignants openly to fight against and totally to suppresse it Certainly if judgement shall beginne at the house of God it selfe as now it doth and if the righteous who defend the cause of God and the Kingdome shall scarcely be saved what these mens dreadfull end and judgement at last shall be transcends my thoughts to conceive my expressions to relate all I can say is this it will be superlatively miserable and grievous that eternity of incomprehensible torments will onely be able to demonstrate the infinity and execrablenesse of their sinne O then let all of all sorts consider seriously of this and all the premises and the Lord give them understanding and grace to keepe a good conscience and discharge their severall trusts and bounden duties faithfully cheerefully to their God Religion King Countrey and the Parliament in all things that so they may enjoy the honour comfort benefit of all their faithfull endeavours to defend promote and propagate Religion Lawes liberties and the publike welfare here