joyn with him therein went on by themselves and poll'd for Four Heads with a Salvo Jure to their former Election The next day the Mayor having caused his Books to be cast up and finding the Majority of Voices to be for Box he declared North and him to be Sheriffs But Box refusing to serve and paying in his Fine according to Custom the Mayor call'd another Common-Hall on the 19th of September and proposed Peter Rich Esq to be chosen in his stead who having the Majority of Voices and being declared Sheriff the Mayor dissolved the Court and returned home But the Two Sheâ—iffs notwithstanding the Mayor's dissolution continued this Assembly as they had done the former and demanding of their own Party the rest being departed with the Mayor whether they would abide by their former Choice for Papillion and Duboise proceeded likewise to a Poll and having cast up their Books declared them to be Sheriffs Elect. Whereupon the Mayor acquainting the King with their Proceedings he commanded them to attend him in Council where they were severely checkt and not dismist without giving sufficient Bail to answer to an Information which should be exhibited against them for their unwarrantable proceedings But notwithstanding this ill success they were not so discouraged as to desist from the like practices for the future For on Michaelmas-day when the Citizens met for the Election of a Mayor they mustered up their utmost strength and appeared with as much Violence against Sir William Pritchard the next in course as they had done against North and Box setting up Gold and Cornish against them altho Cornish had been Sheriff but the very year before However Pritchard carried it by the Majority of Voices In this year died the Illustrious Prince Rupert in the 63d year of his Age The Constableship of Windsor-Castle which had been enjoyed by him for many years being after his Death conferred by the King on the Earl of Arundel And on the 18th of December died Henâ—eage Earl of Nottingham and Lord High Chancellor of England who had enjoyed that place ever since it was taken from Shaftsbury in the year 73. and was succeeded by Sir Francis North Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas This year was very remarkable also for the Arrival of Two Extraordinary and Famous Embassages from Two Princes never known to have sent any into England before one from the Emperor of Fez and Morocco who in his Letter exprest much Kindness and a great Veneration to the King His Name was Hamet Benhamet Benhaddu Otter a man of a Majestick Presence and great Wisdom His business was about setling a Peace in relation to Tangier and his Person and Conversation was so pleasant and taking that he was received and caressed with more Honour and Respect both by the King and his Nobles than any Embassador I ever knew at Court And so he was by both Universities which he visited seeming to have an equal Esteem and Valuation for our Nation Nor was there ever any Embassador before him so much admired by the common people great multitudes always attending before his House which was near Katherine-street in the Strand to gaze upon and wonder at the strange Garb worn by him and his Attendants one whereof was an English Renegado formerly a Barber somewhere about Temple bar but being afterward a Soldier in Tangier he ran away from that Garison to the Moors and was by them highly advanced for his perfidious directing them in their Wars against that Town The other Embassage was from the King of Bantham in the East-Indies whose business was about the East-India Trade who would have been as much admired as the former if he had come another time but all mens Eyes were so generally fixt upon the Morocco that they were less minded than otherwise they would have been They brought the King several rich presents of Diamonds and other things of great value But not long after their return we received ill news when we least expected it For the Dutch having under pretence of assisting the Rebel Prince who was commonly called The Young King of Bantham against his Father the Old King seized upon that Town turn'd out the English whom they found there and seized on their Factory to the great damage of the English Nation On the 24th of April hapned one of the most famous and extraordinary Exploits that was ever known in London For one Broome Clerk of Skinners-Hall and Coroner of Landon having a Latitat out of the Kings-Bench in an Action upon the Case at the Suit of Papillion and Duboise agaiâ—st the Lord Mayor Sheriff North and several Loyal Aldermen Upon acquainting them therewith they all submitted to his Arrest and went with him as Prisoners to Skinners-Hall where they remained till about midnight Eight Companies of the Trained Bands being raised by order of the Lieutenancy upon that altogether new and unusual attempt to prevent Tumults But one Fletcher a Serjeant of the Poultrey-Compter having an Action of Debt upon a Bond of 400. l. agaiust Broome who had the Week before promised to give Bail to it but neglecting it and seeing him act so imperiously against the Chief Magistrate of the City took him into custody and carried him forthwith to the Compter The Mayor and his Fellow-prisoners seeing Broome carried away by a Serjeant demanded if there were any in the house who had Orders to detain them which being answered in the Negative they all peaceably departed to their several homes In the next Month was tried at Guild-Hall before the Lord Chief Justice Saunders Pemberton having been removed to the Common-Pleas upon North's receiving the Seal the great Riot committed the year before at the Election of Sheriffs Fourteen being found Guilty thereof and Fined And the better part of the City both for Number and Quality Resolved at a Common-Council held on the 22d of that Month That notwithstanding the Action in which the Mayor was Arrested at the Suit of Papillion and Duboise was said to be prosecuted at the Instance of the Citizens of London yet they to deliver themselves and the said Citizens from that false imputation did declare they were no way privy or consenting to that Action and therefore did disown and disapprove the same But the City having in the Judgment of Lawyers forfeited their Charter by several illegal proceedings the King thought the best way to prevent such kind of Tumults which might be of ill consequence to the Nation in general for the future would be the taking that Forfeiture that so by having the Charter delivered up into his hands they might by a more absolute dependance upon his Goodness be obliged to a stricter performance of their Allegiance and take the greater care to preserve the publick peace and quiet Whereupon he ordered a Writ of Quo Warranto to go out against their Charter which was grounded chiefly on their illegal exacting of Tolls in their Markets and their having framed and printed a scandalous
under the Command of the Earl of Suffolk a smart Skirmish pass'd between them and continued till Ten at Night when it was renewed again by the return of the beaten Companies from the Fort but the English Horse not being able to come up there was not that execution done upon them which otherwise might have been However the Dutch lik'd not that hot Service well enough to abide their coming but as soon as their Boats were afloat embarqued with all haste and returned to their Ships and sailing for the Humber they engaged a Squadron of the English which they found there but being worsted shewed themselves before Portsmouth and made some slight Attempts in Devonshire and Cornwall And after de Ruyter their Admiral had been civily treated in the West by the Earl of Bath and Sir Jonathan Trelawney and received advice that the Peace was concluded they sailed back for Holland This Peace was concluded at Breda upon the twenty first of June in the Year 1667. when the Articles were signed by the several Plenipotentiaries and upon the fourteenth of the following August the Ratifications thereof interchanged the Mediators first bringing the Ratifications and other Instrustruments of the Dutch French and Danes into the English Embassadors Lodgings and received theirs in exchange which done the English Embassadors went into the apartments of the Dutch and their Allies where they made and received the Complements usual in such cases and the Peace was thereupon immediately Proclaimed before the Doors of the several Plenipotentiaries and on the twenty fourth of that Month at the Exchange which was then kept at Gresham Colledge and other places in London But the Foundation of the Royal Exchange in Cornhil being about that time appointed to be laid the King was pleased to shew his readiness to countenance that Work by being present at and assisting in the solemnity thereof with his own Royal hands as his Brother the Duke of York did shortly after who laid the first stone of the second Pillar which Edifice was in a short time finished and is now the most curious Fabrick of that kind in the whole World About this time that wise and useful States-man and Privy-Counsellor Edward Hide Earl of Clarendon and Lord High-Chancellor of England who had always behaved himself with abundance of Loyalty and Faithfulness to his Master as well before as after his Restauration falling into disgrace with the Parliament was forced to abscond and leaving that Office which he had so long managed with advantage to the King and honour to himself retired into France where he lived in a voluntary Exile 'till he died A sort of idle and licentious Persons getting together in the Holy-days at Easter and pretending former custom took the liberty to pull down some Houses of bad repute about the Suburbs of London under the notion of Apprentices yet others being found guilty of it four of them were apprehended Tryed Condemned and Executed and two of their Heads set upon the Bridge for a terror to others Having dispatch'd the Earl of Carlile as his Embassador Extraordinary to the Court of Sweden with which King he always maintained a friendly correspondence he directed a Letter for the Earl when he was at Copenhagen on his way to Sweden to be by him delivered to the King of Denmark in answer to an obliging Letter he had a little before received from him which Letter of the King 's was so acceptable to the Dane that upon the Earl's request he immediately dispatch'd orders to all his Ports and Towns of commerce especially those in Norway for restoring the English to the same Freedom and Priviledges in Trading thither as they had before the War And the Earl upon his arrival in Sweden presented that King with the George worn by the Knights of the Garter and after his having been entertained in that Court with all imaginable respect upon his Masters account and dismiss'd with particular marks of the King of Sweden's favour and testimonies of the acceptableness of his Embassie he was upon his return home solemnly Installed in that Order at Windsor While the King was diverting himself this Summer with the Duke and others of his Nobles in the new Forrest in Hampshire he received the doleful tidings of his Mothers death at Columbe the thirty first of August she being nobly buried in the December following at St. Dennis And to close the publick affairs of this Year the restorer of the Crown to the King and happiness to the Kingdom George Duke of Albemarle and Lord General of all the Kings Land Forces exchanged his temporary Coronet for an Eternal Crown and the King as a mark of Gratitude to the Father sent his Garter to his Son and Successor the present Duke of Albemarle whom he continued in many of his Honours and Preferments promising withall that himself would take care of his Fathers Funeral which he accordingly did and after he had publickly lain in State at Somerset-House for some time caused his Funeral to be solemnized with that Pomp and Splendor that it is verily believed no Subject was ever honoured with the like In the following Spring the King having a great desire to unite Scotland and England into one Kingdom endeavoured to have it accomplish'd by procuring an Act of Parliament in order thereunto and nominating Commissioners for each Kingdom to meet and treat about it But they not being able to agree it was wholly laid aside and came to nothing The King's Wisdom and Conduct being famed throughout all parts of the World like a second Solomon drew to his Court several Foreign Princes to see and admire him And about this time the Prince of Tuscany came upon the same Errand and was by him treated both at London and Windsor with great Respect and Splendour and by several of his Nobles in his Progress through England the chief Cities whereof he was desirous to take a view of after which he departed for Holland and so returned into his own Countrey where not long after besides his splendid Entertainment of the Earl of Northumberland in acknowledgment of the King's Kindness and Affection express'd to him when in England he built and gave to the King two very stout Galleys for a guard of the Coast about Tangier which were of great importance to his Service in those parts But altho' the King was well pleased with this Princes visit yet he shortly after received a more welcome one from his Sister the Dutchess of Orleans who came to Dover to pay him her last Visit and was there entertained by him with as much Affection and Bounty as the time of her stay which was but short would permit Nor was her stay in this World much longer for soon after her return she died suddenly to his unexpressible grief The King being now at peace at home employed his Naval Forces against the Algerines a People that never keep Peace longer than till they can have an opportunity to break
run thorough all the violences of a tumultuary Life when he had escap'd all these dangers of impious and unreasonable men when he now had establish'd His Throne in Safety Peace and Righteousness and as we may properly say just now began to enjoy himself and you him behold He is taken away from you Who can forbear complaining of the uncertain Estate and frail Condition of human kind when neither the most inestimable riches and un-perishing Graces of the mind nor the most enlarged Extremities of Glory and Greatness spreading on the one hand towards the War-like Thunder or on the other towards the Peaceful Scepter nor even the hearty and united Prayers of a Virtuous People cou'd impart Efficacy enough to make one Person immortal or should be able to hinder the disunion of one Soul from a Body That he who had his youthful Years try'd by the Austerity of a gloomy Fate and had avoided so many Parliamentary tricks laid â—or His Life and being the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did almost Suffer Martyrdom with his Father Who in that Fatal day of Worcester differed only from the common Soldiers in courage and Eminence rejoicing as oft as the Bullets graz'd upon His Helmet or Buckler Who in his Flight thence like another Aeâ—eas envelop'd in a Cloud by his Mother pass'd through all the amazing Maeanders of Providence vvhile Posterity shall come â—o see and shevv their Children the Cottage vvhere he râ—bb'd off his Martial Dust and the sacred Tree vvherein he lay hid That he vvho at his Restoration â—as stil'd the English Titus The â—elight of Mankind and the onâ—â— Restorative to a Nation so long opprest by Civil War who afterwards reach'd the utmost Degrees of Fame by staining the English Seas so often with his Victories and encreasing the Armory in the Tower That he who was the Supreme Arbiter of Life and Death and Europe's Moderator who when moved the World was mov'd and when quiet it was still And who if he had lived an hundred Years the People would never have been tired with his Government should dye like one of us But let this be our Consolation that when ordinary men dye they dye but when a Good Prince expires it is not his Death but his immediate Apotheosis he presently flies to the Kingdom of Heaven and there reigneth for evermore as also here by his example exchanging a Temporal for an Eternal Crown of Glory Lest therefore we should seem to repine at his happiness let us no longer think two Eyes too few to pay the Tribute of our Tears and bedew his Ashes withal Let not every Subject weep as if it were at his Fathers Funeral not only something of his own Accord but more out of Instinct and the command of Nature Let not this one Spectacle be as hideous and doleful as that of Xerxes numerous Army Let not the Maps of the whole Earth in proportion to the dimensions of his Fame be hung in Black Let not that colour be the Livery of Mens Souls as well as their Bodies any longer And let not the very Graces and Joy it self weep any more Neither let the expressions of our sorrow be as abundant as our sorrovv it self in regard he himself took the greatest care imaginable in his Life-time that we should not lament his Death and that he should not be miss't but has left us not only a Successor but in a manner the Partner and Companion of his Throne and which is above all his Dearest Friend so that we have not lost but only chang'd a Gracious Soyereign in whom we find so many God-like Perfections that we shall never be tempted to adore the Former now since his translation and pay Religious Worship to him instead of Allegiance And now MY LORDS what remains But That as nothing could have repair'd our ineffable Loss of CHARLES the II d but the Succession of JAMES the II d we prostrate our selves at the feet of Almighty God by whom Kings Reign imploring him that it may be many Years before we have the same occasion for Grief putting up our Vows for the Kings Health and the Eternity of this Empire that he would grant him a long and a prosperous Reign over us that never his Breast may be sensible of any sigh unless it be at Devotion nor his Face know any Wrinkle or Contraction unless like Thunder to strike Traitors and Exclusioners Dead That his days may be upon Earth as the days of Heaven That as he hath been the Great Argument of Providence by escaping so many Perils in War Perils by Sea and Perils by his own Country-men so he may still remain the Great Mathusalem of Providence and that we may see that CHARLES is not yet dead still live to demonstrate that Heaven is infinite in its Mercies and does embrace both him and it self in Eternal Circulations that without any new Disloyal and discriminating times he may at length arise to that Pitch of Power and continue in that heigth of Safety Success and Glory till Treason shall be lookt upon as deplorable Madness not for that it is Wicked but Desperate And lastly That by an uninterrupted series of Tranquillity his Happy Subjects may think him so happy that if the Option was given to any One of them he would chuse it as a better Condition to be King JAMES his Subject than to be Monarch of Anothers more large and Wealthy Territories I am MY LORDS Your Lordships Most Humble Most Obedient Most Devoted Servant AUR. COOK March 19. 1684-85 Being conscious to my self Reader of having too many Faults of my own to answer for in managing so great and glorious a Theme I am mightily unwilling to be responsible for those of the Printer's occasioned by my Absence and the horrid Negligence of the Corrector And therefore having taken notice of the most material I desire thee to correct them PAge 5. r. it 's p. 6. r. moderator p. 8. l. 22 r. cou'd ib. l. 30. r. the King was prevail'd c. p. 10. l. 4. r. the King ib. l. 17. dele they ib. l. 23. r. But this p. 11. r. Governour p. 18. dele the l. 14. r. Battels so that whilst c. ib. l. 29. r. he was advis'd c. p. 21 r. and p. 28. r. for free p. 37. r. unless p. 44. r. shou'd p. 45. l. 17. r. it l. 18. r. in p. 46. r. pretences p. 48. r. direction p. 49. r. them p. 50. r. secluded p. 51. r. them l. 7. r. are p. 52. d. shou'd p. 57. r. to his Son p. 60. d. part p. 61. r. p. 79. r. was p. 83. r. out of p. 97. r. whither p. 107. r. were p. 117. l. 22 r. employ l. 28. r. none p. 129. r. Lastell p. 147. r. Marquis p. 162. r. an p. 172. d. and l. 25. r. George p. 173. r. Zanchy Stamford Leicester Dellaware p. 174. Morgan p. 175. r. Chester p. 176. d. one p. 180. d. to be
Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle which was performed with abundance of splendor at Colchester the place which they had bravely defended for him and where they were at its Reduction basely shot to death all the Gentry of those Parts together with the Townesmen in Armes and Mourning attending their Hearses As he had done a little before for the Earl of Montross in Scotland Count Coningsmark who was sent hither from the Young King and Queen of Sweden being upon his departure another more splendid Embassy was sent from thence at whose Reception near the Tower a Fray or Conflict happened between the French and Spanish Ambassadors upon a Quarrel for Precedency whose Coach should follow next after that wherein the Swedish Ambassador rode Both Parties came prepared for the Encounter but the French were basely worsted and seven or eight of them slain which was like to have proved the ground of a new War between those Crowns the French King sending a Messenger to Madrid to demand satisfaction But at the entreaty of the new married Queen and the Spanish King consenting that the French Ambassador should for the time to come have the Precedency upon such occasions the difference was composed Now also several Prisoners in the Tower Regicides and others were by reason of the unwearied Practices of their Parties abroad sent to several remote Castles and Islands for securing the Peace The adjournment being expired the Parliament met again on the 20th of November when the Lords Spiritual the Bishops by vertue of the Act of Repeal made in the former Session took their places again in Parliament which the King was very much pleased to behold and in his Speech to both Houses did Congratulate with them for their enjoyment of their former priviledges as a Felicity he had much desired to see accomplisht in that goodly restored and re-establisht Fabrick of the Government and the Regicides that came in upon Proclamation and were upon that account respited after Sentence to the Pleasure of the Parliament being brought to the Bar of the House of Lords and demanded what they had to say Why Judgment should not pass upon them according to Sentence pleaded the Proclamation Harry Martyn adding that he never obeyed any Proclamation before and therefore hoped he should not be then hanged for taking the Kings word whereupon they were remanded back again to the Tower till further Order Ireland having been hitherto governed by three Lords Justices The Duke of Ormond having been a faithful Servant and constant Attender upon the King in all his Troubles was now nominated Deputy of that Kingdom and Episcopacy after it had been so long banished out of Scotland and so many Miseries and Confusions had befallen that Kingdom through the Fury and Zeal of the Kirke was reduced with all gladness and sufficient testimonies of a welcome reception the four Bishops that had been a little before Consecrated at Lambeth restored whereof Dr. James Sharpe Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and Metropolitan of Scotland was one who Consecrated others in that Kingdom the whole Order being defunct by the long Usurpation of the Presbyterian Discipline A Fleet was at this time sent to fetch home the Queen from Portugal and carry Forces to Garrison Tangier which being part of the Queens Dowry was delivered by them to Sir Richard Stayner who with Five Hundred Men had taken possession of it in his Masters behalf and was to maintain it till the Earl of Peterborough who was nominated for Governour should arrive and the King supposing her to be by this time at Sea on her way for England acquainted the Parliament therewith and desired that as a Complement to her they would cause the Streets and High-wayes of London to be fitted and cleansed against Her Reception This Royal Bride seems to have been fitted and predisposed by Heaven for his Princely Embraces for besides being designed for him by her Father in the beginning of the late Troubles her Family had suffered a long Eclipse by the interposition of the Spanish Monarchy for the space of near one hundred Years and had now newly recovered its Splendor by her Fathers assuming the Crown which was almost as miraculous a Revolution and as strange a turn of Providence as that of our Captivity by his recovery of his Dominions On the 14th of May She arrived safe at Portsmouth in the Charles which had brought the King over to England after a tedious and dangerous Voyage the joy whereof served to alleviate the grief and wipe away the Tears occasioned by the death of his Aunt the Queen of Bohemia who died a little before having lived to survive all the Misfortunes of her Family which almost from the very time of Her Marriage in the Year One Thousand Six Hundred and Twelve had fallen very thick upon it Her death was followed with a most violent and Tempestuous Wind whereby divers Persons were killed and much damage done as well in Forraign parts as in these Kingdoms as if Heaven had designed thereby to intimate to the World that those Troubles and Calamities suffered by that Princess and the Royal Family and by which most parts of Europe had been tempested were now all blown over and was like her to rest in a perpetual Repose Several Bills which were ready for His Royal Assent detained him at White-Hall somewhat longer then he was willing had their weight and tendency been of less importance but in regard their being past into Acts would set the Nation right where it was before the Troubles began by providing remedies against those mischiefs which had then unhinged the Kingdoms happiness such as the Forbidding armed or tumultuary Petitions and ordering that not above Twelve shall resort together at any time to deliver Petitions to the King whereby they provided so far as Humane Wisdom could foresee against the like dangers by insensible degrees brought upon the Nation in the late Confusions But having once signed those Acts and thereby furnisht his Subjects with so many good and wholsome Laws as no Age of our fore-Fathers could ever boast of he posted away to Portsmouth having sent the Bishop of London thither before Him who was to consummate the Sacred Rights of Marriage which was performed in private and the Queen Conducted soon after by Him to Hampton-Court and from thence to London in great Pomp and Splendour The Parliament of Ireland having about that time for the better defraying his necessary Charge given him a subsidy of One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds to be raised in two Years The Affrican Potentates alarumed by the Arrival of the English and terrified by the Fame of those Warlike and Martial Atchievements began to fear that if they suffered them quietly to possess Tangier they should thereby give them incouragement to incroach farther upon them which consideration drew thither Gayland a War-like Prince but then a Rebel against the Emperour of Fez and Morocco having usurpt part of his Dominions who continued there