to run away with the prey from both of them The People of England were no more satisfied before with their imaginary happiness in the King's Restoration but they were now upon the ill management of Affairs the much Treasure that had been spent to so little purpose and more especially upon our Conjunction with the French to the manifest hazard of the Protestant Religion as well as the Civil Rights of Europe as much uneasie and suspitious of the Court-proceedings And it did not a little incense them that the French made such a Progress in Flanders and got all by Land while we got nothing but Blows at Sea and therefore the House of Commons on the 31. of October 1673. Voted that considering the present State of the Natition they would not take into further Consideration any Aids or Charges upon the Subject except it did appear that the obstinacy of the Dutch did render it necessary nor before the Kingdom should be effectually secured from Popery and Popish Counsels and other Grievances redressed which procedure thunder-struck the King and his Frenchified Council so as that a Peace with the Dutch was quickly huddled up and so he then set up for a Mediator of Peace between the rest and the Treaty spun out to a very great length at Nimeguen and was at last concluded after some years Conferences without King Charles consent by Beverning the Dutch Agent which spared him a labour of entring into an actual War with Franee as the Parliament would have had him and to which he was as unwilling as he had been before forward in his engaging against the Dutch a Protestant State The remainder of his succeeding Reign was as uneasie to himself and to the Nation upon the account first of the Popish Plot the many endeavours to stiffle it the Bill of Exclusion and the Division of the Nation into Whig and Torry hereupon then that called the Presbyterian Plot both Plots they said against his life which if true he was the more unhappy for which last the Noble Lord Russel suffered and the Great Earl of Essex had his Throat Barbarously cut in the Tower of London the King's Prison and King Charles had the unhappiness to be there that day where he had not been hardly in twenty years before And last of all the forfeiture and seizure of Charters which tho carried on with great fury in his Reign that thereby he might have a Parliament of his own choosing as Cromwell had and so do what he pleased yet he did not live to compleat his designs Tho' the Censures upon the manner of his Death are various yet most are agreed says the Author of the Introduction to King Charles II. Character there was some fraud in it some ascribing it to the intreagues of France who as they Undid his Father by a Wife Ruined the Son by a Mistress and therefore alleadge that the French King being weary of feeding him with Pensions and dreading his natural Parts if upon any disgust he should come to unite with his Parliaments against France he thought it his Interest to take him off and make way for a Successor who as he made open profession of his own Religion would be more pliable to his dictates Then as touching the method of effecting it they say that the Dutchess of P. who bewitched him with her Amours and had not only drained the substance of his Body but likewise the substance of his Purse either of which being once accomplished the Love of a St â—t to her Paramour vanishes so that having a mind to change Gallants or seeing no more hopes of former advantages she gave him such Provocatives as made him act beyond his natural Strength and threw him into those Apoplectick Fits which carryed him off There are others who ascribe his Death to the Romish Faction who being angry at his having so often deceived them and impatient till they came to a tryal of skill for establishing their Religion while Lewis XIV was in the height of his Power and Glory did therefore administer the fatal Dose which sent King Charles II. a Packing and brought his Brother to the Throne under whose auspicious Conduct they made no question of restoring the Church of Rome to the full possession of all she had formerly enjoy'd in these three Kingdoms It 's certain there were some accidents fell out some time before the King's Death that raised some Jealousy in the breast of the Romanists who thought by that he would upon the presenting of the first opportunity face about as they found by experience he had more then once done and fall in with the Interest of a Party he now for some years by their instigation had been endeavouring to destroy and root out of the World And what rendred their suspitions of him the more incurable was that a Pamphlet having been spread abroad a little before Christmas 1684. setting forth that the Earl of Essex had not cut his own Throat but had been Murdered by Russians set on by the Papists c. the King upon the hearing of it should say Well I am resolved to examine Essex's Cause once more And that he might meet with no obstruction in the way he ordered the Duke his Brother to prepare to go for Scotland which the other whether smelling the design or that the train to blow the King up was already layd by him absolutely refused to do this occasioned high words between them insomuch that the late M. of H. who was well known to be a great favourite coming on the Sunday before the King Dyed to wait upon him after Evening Service he found him in his Closet alone under great concern of Mind puffing after a more then ordinary rate and looking pensive with his Face towards the ground which the M. observing made him stand still till the King looking up asked hastily How now my Lord How do you do to which the M. answering the better to see his Majesty well and soforth the King returned again to his former posture but at length broke forth into these Words My Lord will you be ingenious with we and answer me one question to which the Marquess replying he would if he could Then said the King I charge you upon your Alleagiance to tell me how I stand affected with the People of England The M. after some pause answered Sir you have been always ranked among the mercifull and Clement Princes and have given evident Testimonies of your being so upon various occasions but I must tell your Majesty that of late your Government has been somewhat uneasy to your People Well said the King one thing I am resolved on I 'll once more throw my self upon the People of England and to that end will go this week into the City and I 'le call a Parliament at the Guild-Hall the M. was somewhat surprized at these words and said Sir If that be your Resolution I pray God to bless it but let me beg of
less of them in proportion to the Troops of his own Subjects and this after his full re-settlement on the Throne And not only so but shall deliver up Dover Castle Plymouth and Portsmouth to be Garrisoned by French Soldiers as cautionary Towns for the security of performance Seventhly That in regard of the Situation of the Irish Ports and their conveniency for the French Fleets as also in consideration of the agreement of the Irish with the People of France in Religion He shall after his full restoration to the English and Scotch Kingdoms be obliged to give Ireland to the French King in full compensation of all the Moneys he has already expended or shall expend further in his Quarrel and for vindicating of his right to his Dominions But that however because of the Scituation of the Islands of Sicily and Sardinia in the Mediteranean for the English Navigation and Trade into the Levant the sly Monsieur hath obliged himself to conquer those Kingdoms for the late King at his own Expence and with his own Arms and to give them up entirely to him in lieu of his Kingdom of Ireland Eighthly That still towards the furthering a stricter Friendship and Allyance between the two Nations of England and France and for perpetuating a mutual amity and sincere Correspondence If in case by the Violent or Natural Death either of King William or Prince George of Denmark or both of them one or both of the Princesses Royal shall become Widdows and that their Persons can be seized That then they shall be convey'd with all expedition and secrecy into France and be put into the French King's Power and shall there be Married Nolens Volens to such Prince or Princes as he shall appoint or think fit for them Ninthly That the Eldest or Surviving Issue of such Marriage shall succeed to the Crowns of Ireland and Scotland and England only to remain to the pretended Prince of Wales with the American Plantations Thus My Lord I have now given you the Stipulations so much desired by you I 'le leave your Lordship to descant and make such use of them as your known Wisdom and Ability shall direct for the good of the King and Country and shall reserve some further things which I cannot conveniently Write now and which relate to this subject to another opportunity and in the mean time I am and ever shall remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Faithful Servant Paris Aug. 19. 1689. N. S. LETTER IX Some Reflections upon King James's League with the French King with an account of some further terms agreed upon between them in relation to the English Protestants in Ireland My Lord THis Court is mighty uppish upon the success of the late King James or I may more truly say their own in Ireland which if totally reduced by their conjoint Arms is to be one day their own as appears by the seventh Article stipulated between the two Kings and of which I gave your Lordship an account in my last And 't is not doubted but the Count d' Avaux hath already taken Livery and seisin of it privately in his Majesty's Name And that it is really so I am not only assured of by the said Articles but the same is more then probable by the great care and exactness that is had at Brest and other Ports of the Ocean to keep an account of all the Cloaths Arms Ammunition and Provisions that are shipped off there for Ireland and which according to some of the accounts stated and transmitted hither somewhat whereof I have had the opportunity to have a slight view of are set down at such extravagant rates as if they designed in a short time not only to ballance the account with him for Ireland but to make him considerably their Debter over and above for the carrying on another Game But they may chance to reckon without their Host in this as well as all the rest I pray God keep King William and his Royal Consort and may she and her Royal Sister be never so unhappy as to fall into the French power as your Lordship sees has been again conserted by the Ninth and last Article If ever it should so happen which God of his Mercy avert and that any such Match or Matches shall come to pass and issue come thereof my Friend hath secretly whispered me That then the pretended Prince of Wales is not like to be long liv'd But I still trust all these towering hopes of our Enemies will evaporate into Smoak and that their designs shall have as little Effect upon the lives and fortunes of our true Princes as their contrivances against the Religion and property of their Subjects shall become abortive and fruitless and whom they have agreed upon to treat in the following manner First That all possessors of Lands in Ireland that are of the Protestant Religion and will not turn Papists shall be bound to sell their Estates at a set price to the French King who shall let them out to the old Irish proprietors at certain Quit-rents and services that shall in a reasonable time reimburse him of the purchase Money Secondly But still to shew their good Nature and Lenity it s agreed that all Protestants that will shall have leave freely to depart with their Effects whither soever they please And lastly That such as will stay shall have liberty of Conscience granted them for the space of Twenty Years till the Country shall be fuller stockt with French Catholicks and other Papists I am well satisfied your Lordship will not think these Machinations a matter of nothing but as a good Patriot which you have shewed your self to be in the most Arbitrary times will stir up your self and honest Countrymen to obviate them seasonably which I as heartily wish as I have little reason to doubt it who am My Lord Your faithful and most Obedient Servant Paris Octo. 27. 1689. N. S. LETTER X. Of King James's Army in Ireland and Duke Schomberg's with Cardinal Bouillon's Motion for a Contribution for the support of the former My Lord THE raising of the Siege of London-derry and the landing of the English Army without interruption in Ireland under Duke Schomherg with other successes and advantages are so far from discouraging this Court in their hopes of a speedy conquest of that Kingdom that they have already in the Cabinet vaunted it to be as good as their own and that perhaps they need not stay for another Campaign to re-establish the late King upon the Throne of England and put themselves in an entire possession of the other Kingdom according to the full extent and meaning of the Stipulated Articles which I have formerly transmitted to your Lordship But because Money here is very hard to come by in such a proportion as to answer those vast Expences they are at to carry on the War upon the Continent which must be got at any rate they have resolved to carry on the Irish
Henry VIIth's Daughter and lastly a Peace between both Kings during their Lives This Kings Reign is remarkable upon many accounts which being not the scope of this Treatise we designedly omit But one passage I meet with in Lesley's History of this Kingdom which for the rarity of it I cannot omit and hope the Reader will not think it an Impertinent Digression About this time says the aforesaid Author The King to tell you a business that to this day is remembred with great Laughter among the Roman people created a certain Italian with whose Wit and Pleasant Conversation he was much taken Abbot of Tungland This man thinking to magnifie his own parts did on a certain time perswade the King that he was so well skilled in the Secrets of Nature and more especially in the noble Science of Chimistry that he could transmute any other Metal into Gold if the King would please to bear the Charges thereof But after much Time and Treasure spent and long Expectation of this Glorious Effect all proved Abortive and came to nothing so that the vain Braccadocio fell into great contempt both by the King and People which grieved him very sore so that he sets all his Wits on work how he might do somewhat that might regain his fame in the world and at the same recover the King's Favour At last he gave out a Report that he would by flying be in France before the Kings Ambassadors who were sent thither and were then actually under sail to pursue their Voyage and that this might not be all talk without any Performance he boldly appointed a Day and Place which was Sterling from whence to begin his flight the noise whereof brought you may be sure a great concourse of People together among whom was the King himself When the Time was come the man gets up to the Top of Sterling Castle and having fastned the Wings which he had made of the Feathers of several Fowls to his sides he lifts himself into the Air thinking to pursue his course But alas he came quickly down headlong to the ground his Wings availing him nothing whereupon the people who knew not whether they should rather Rebuke his Presumption or Pity his Misfortune flocked about him and asked him how he did he made Answer that he had broken his Thigh-bone and despaired of ever flying any more at which they all laughed their fill But this Icarus to salve the matter laid the fault of his flying wholly upon his Wings because they were not made of Eagles Feathers and the like but only of Poultry which were not fit to cut the Air with flight and which by a certain innate Virtue operating according to the Nature of those Fowl drew the Feathers downwards to the Dunghill where those Birds fed But to re-assume the Thread of our Story things continued in a tollerable state of Tranquillity till the death of Henry VII the King's Father-in-law but Henry VIII a young ambitious and active Prince had not long mounted the English Throne when he makes Preparations to recover his Right in the Kingdom of France The French King to fortifie himself as much as possible against the impending Storm requir'd Aid of the King of Scotland who by his Embassadors would have accommodated Matters and perswaded both Kings to a Peace But King Henry persisting in his Resolution the Scot won by French Promises of Money and Ammunition joyns with them in League against England and because the English Commissioners appointed to accommodate the Differences between both Nations about some Irregularities and Depredations committed upon the Borders would not come up to their Terms James takes this occasion to send Lyon King at Arms to King Henry by this time besieging Terwin with Letters of Complaints commanding him for want of satisfying the Contents of the said Letters to denounce War against England When Henry had read the Letters and advised with his Council thereupon he told the Herauld he would make him answer If he would promise faithfully to declare the same to his Master Lyon replied Whatever his Master commanded him to say to others that he was obliged to do and would but for the Commands of others to his Master therein he desired to be excused but added your Highness Letters that declare your Pleasure I am willing to carry tho' your Answer requires doing and not saying I mean that you should immediately return home The King sharply retorted I 'll return at my own Pleasure to your Damage and not at thy Master's Summons and so delivers him a Letter to carry to his Master importing he had receiv'd his Full of frivolous Complaints which had been sufficiently answer'd before sharply sets forth the baseness of the Scotch Nation but says at the same time it was always their Ancestors custom to invade his Dominions in his absence which they never offered nor durst do while he was within the Land but however that he had taken caution for his security and would not desist from his present enterprize which the Scotch King had nothing to do with as being no Competent Judge for so the words are of so high Authority to require him in that behalf c. But before the Herault arrived and the Letters could be delivered King James had precipitated his own fall at Floddenfield For having dispatched Commissions for the raising of Forces he determines to put himself at the head of them before they were fully Compleated but first goes to a place called Limuch and there heard even Song as they called it where after he had entred the Chappel came an old man to him whose hair was somewhat of a yellow red hanging down over his Shouldiers his Forehead high with Baldness bare Headed clad in a Blewish Garment with a white Girdle and had a very Reverend Countenance and said King I am sent to admonish thee that thou go not forward to the place which thou hast determined which warning if thou dost despise it shall succeed ill with thee and all such as shall attend thee Further I am Commanded to give thee Intelligence before-hand that thou eschew the familiarity and Custom or Counsell of Women if thou do otherwise it shall tend to thy Dishonour and Hurt And when he had so said he mingled himself with other Company and when Prayers were over and that the K. sought for him he could by no means be found for he was never seen after the delivery of this Message which seemed the more strange because that many who stood near him and observing all he said and intent to hear more from him could not perceive his departure of which Number David Linsey a Person of known Virtue and approved Reputation was one who told me the same saith Buchanan of a most certain truth or else I would have past it over for a Fable handed down to us by Common Fame But no premonitions from Heaven nor Advises upon Earth could divert the Career of this willfull Prince
Earl of Rothes was one This same Person had done great and eminent Services for the Cardinal but on a time there fell out a dispute concerning a private business which enstranged them a while one from another but Norman upon great promises made to him quitted his right in the matter contested for But coming after some months to demand the performance of what was promised him They fell from plain discourse to hot words and afterwards to down-right railing uttering such reproachfull words to one another as became neither of them and so they parted in great rage from one another The Cardinal fancying that he was not treated with that deference due to his Eminency and Norman full of Wrath and Fury as being Circumvented by fraud so that he returned home with thoughts bent upon revenge and openly among his Friends inveyed against the intollerable Pride of the Cardinal insomuch that they agreed to take away his Life And that the matter might pass with the least suspicion Norman with five only in his Company came to St. Andrew's and took up his usual Inn that his intentious might be concealed by reason of the paucity of his followers But there were ten more in the Town Privy to the Conspiracy who all in several places expected the Signal to fall on The Days were then very long as being in the Month of May and the Cardinal was Fortifying the Castle for his Defence for fear of any surprize in such great haste that the workmen continued at work almost Night and Day So that when the Porter early in the morning opened the Gates to let in the workmen Norman had placed two of his Men in ambush in an adjacent House with orders to seize the Porter And when they had by so doing made themselves Masters of the Gate They were to give the Signal to the rest By this means they all entered the Castle without any noise and dispatched four of their number to watch the Cardinal's Door that no Tydings might be carried in to him others were appointed to go to the Chambers of the rest of the household to call them up for they knew well enough both the Men and the Place them they roused up half awake and calling them by their Names threatned them severely to kill them without any more ado if they made but the least Out-cry so that they lead them all out of the Castle in great silence without doing them the least harm And now all the rest being put out they alone remained Mastâ—rs of the Castle Whereupon those that were posted at the Cardinal's Door knock'd at it and being asked by those within what their Names were they told them and then were admitted Having as have some written given their words that they would hurt no body But when they once got in they dispatched the Cardinal with many wounds In the mean time the Rumor run about the Town That the Castle was taken insomuch that the Cardinals Friends half drunk and half asleep started out of their Beds and cryed out Arms And thus they run to the Castle and called with Menaces and Reproaches for Ladders and other things necessary for a Storm They within seeing this that they might blunt the present impetuosity of their minds and put some check upon their fury Cryed out to them and demanded why they made such a bustle for the Man was dead whom they thought to rescue and with that threw out the Cardinals dead body in the sight of them all even out of that very place where before he rejoicingly beheld the Execution of George Wiseheart The English in the mean time pursue their expedition and make terrible havock in the Country at last the Regent with the assistance of the French gave them some repulse which was followed with a perswasive Letter from the English to a Peace But the Regent with his Regiment of Popish Priests about him and with whom he consulted alone about it rejected the proposals and gives them Battle but receives a most terrible defeat and the Priests and Monks paid the shot For the English who well knew it was by their Advice their Generous Offers had been refused took terrible Vengeance upon them and gave them no Quarter that bloody day But this and other Succesfull expeditions that followed could not prevent the Priestly faction to send their young Queen over into France which was the thing the English mostly dreaded as having a desire to have her Married to Edward VI. which would have United both Kingdoms But now the French had gained that point they grew very imperious and almost intollerable to the Scots themselves and at last came to an Agreement with the English to quit Scotland which was done in May 1550. The Regents Proceedings had disgusted many and he began to decline in his Authority so that he was brought at last by the French Artifice to resign his Office which by the same Interest was conferred upon the Queen â—owager But this was out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire and almost all the time of her Regency was spent with furious contests between her and the Reformed who at last with the Assistance of the English carried the Day tho' the young Queen was in the mean time Married to the Dauphine of France and the Q. Regent at last was forced to resign her Office by Death worn out with sickness and with grief that she could not Accomplish her Design After the Queen Regents Death Peace was concluded between both Parties and the French were to leave Scotland a point the Regent would never yeild to in her life time tho' often prest unto it and the Death of Francis the Queen of Scots Husband now become King of France occasioned her return into her own Country and the rather because she found her Mother-in-Law who managed matters of State now somewhat alienated from her and she could not endure to truckle to her Soon after her arrival she dispatched William Maitland Embassador to Q. Elizabeth to Confirm the Peace lately made but the Chief of his Errand appear'd to be to press Elizabeth to declare her to be the next Heir to the Crown of England which motion because Queen Elizabeth did not a little stomach and and I do verily believe had some influence upon Queen Mary's Future Calamity we shall a little more particularly insist upon together with the Queens reply to the Ambassador upon it He began first to acquaint her how highly the Queen his Mistress was affected toward her and how much she desired to maintain Peace and Amity with her he also carried to her Letters from the Nobility in which was mentioned a Friendly Commemoration of former obligations and Courtesies But one thing they earnestly desired of her that both publickly and privately she would shew her self Friendly and Courteous towards their Queen and being incited by good Offices she would not only preserve them in her ancient Friendship but superadd daily stronger obligations if possible
towards him advised him now at length to submit otherwise he should hear the Sentence of Death resolved on by the Court against him but he still refused to plead and desired he might have liberty to say some things for the good of the People before both Houses but the President said this would but delay and retard Justice But the King answered that he had not sought occasions of delay else he would have made a more Elaborate contestation of the Cause but that there could be no hurt in a delay of a day or two rather than precipitate Judgment which might lay the Nation under perpetual Miseries and so desired to withdraw and the Court to consider The King was carried to Cotton-house and the Judges withdrew to the Court of Wards and in half an hour returned and when the King insisted still that he might be first heard before his Parliament and not prevailing the President went on and shewed how contumacious he had been how hateful his Crimes were and asserted the Parliamentary Authority producing Examples both Domestick and Foreign especially out of Scotland wherein the People had punished their Kings and then affirmed that the Power of the People of England was not less over their King That the Guilt of this King was greater than of all others as being one who according to Caligula's wish had attempted to cut off the neck of the Kingdom by waging War against the Parliament for all which he was in his Charge called Tyrant Traytor Murderer and a Publick Enemy to the Commonwealth and that it had been well if that any of those terms might have been spared At which words the King said How Sir but the other went on and argued that Rex est qui bene regit Tyrannus qui populum opprimit and so lodged Arbitrary Government on him which he sought to put upon the People That his Treasons were his breach of trust to the Kingdom as his Superior and was therefore called to an account Minimus majorem in judicium vocat That his Murders were many as being guilty of the Blood shed in the War between him and his people which could not be cleansed but by the Blood of him who shed that Blood he wished him to have God before his Eyes and called God to witness that the Court came meerly out of the Conscience of their Duty to that place and imployment which they were resolved to effect and called for God's assistance in his Execution Here the King made a motion to speak but was told his time was now past and his Sentence was coming on which the President commanded to be read under this form Whereas the Commons of England in Parliament have appointed them an High Court of Justice for the Trial of Charles Stuart King of England before whom he had been three times Convented and at the first time a Charge of High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanors was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England c. as in the Charge which was read throughout to which Charge he the said Charles Stuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do and so exprest several passages at his Trial in refusing to answer for all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge that the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murderer and Publick Enemy shall be put to death by severing his Head from his Body And then the President said the Sentence now read and published is the Act Sentence Judgment and Resolution of the whole Court to which the Members of the Court stood up and assented by holding up their Hands Then the King was taken away and the Court broke up As the King was lead along some of the Mobb carried it very rudely and unchristianly towards him and that Night which was Saturday January 27. he was Lodged in Whitehall next day the Bishop of London Preached before him in his Chamber and the same day the President and all the Members of the High Court of Justice fasted in the Chappel at Whitehall On Monday Morning he was conveyed to St. James's and in the mean time Sir Hardress Waller Colonel Harrison Colonel Dean Commissary General Ireton and Col. Oaks were to consider of the time and place for Execution and the President and Judges met on Monday Morning Jan. 29. in the Painted Chamber who together with the Committee resolved that the open Street before Whitehall was the fittest place that the King should be there Executed on tho next day between Ten and Two a Clock upon a Scaffold covered with Black The King who was now apprehensive of the approach of his fatal end exprest his desires by a Member of the Army That in regard Sentence of Death was past upon him and that the time of Execution might be near that he might see his Children and so receive the Sacrament and to prepare himself for Death and that the Bishop of London might pray with him in private in his Chamber all which was granted him When the fatal day appear'd which was Tuesday Jan. 30. about Ten of the Clock in the Forenoon he was called upon to come forth from St. James Palace now his Prison and was Conducted on Foot over the Park to Whitehall Guarded with a Regiment of Foot part whereof marched before the rest behind with Colours flying and Drums beating his private Guard of Partizans being next him Dr. Juxton Bishop of London on the one side and Col. Tomlison on the other they went up by the Stairs to the Park Gallery and so into his Cabinet-Chamber where he continued at his Devotion and refused to Dine only about Twelve-a-Clock he Eat a Bit of Bread and drank a Glass of Claret From thence he was conveyed into the Banquetting-House and the Great Window Enlarged out of which he ascended the Scaffold the Rails whereof were hung round and the Floor covered with Black with the Block and Axe set in the middle and the Executioners wearing Vizzards standing by He looked round about upon the People who were kept a considerable distance off by the thick Guards and Troops of Horse that beset the Scaffold and turning to the Officers and more particularly to Col. Tomlison begun with what necessity there lay upon him to say somewhat lest his silence might be made an argument of his guilt and with a Protestation of his innocency in reference to any design he had to retrench the just Priviledges of Parliament yet acknowledged his punishment to be just from God and instanced only in his giving way to the death of the Earl of Strafford appealed to the Bishop of London who stood by for his forwardness to forgive his Enemies yet professed a great concernedness for the Weal of the Kingdom shewed how the then Managers of the State were in the wrong to think to govern by the Sword advised them to restore his Son to the Inheritance of his Ancestors and the People to their Rights and due Liberties
to the abrogating of which by the enormous power of the Sword because he could by no means be induced he was brought thither to undergo a Martyrdom for his People Then he prayed and being minded by the Bishop to satisfie the Spectators as to his Religion he said that he had deposited the Testimony of his Faith with that holy Man meaning the Bishop That his Life and Profession had been well known and that now he died in the Christian Faith according to the Profession of the Church of England as the same was left him by his Father of Blessed Memory And then turning about to the Officers and professing the hopes he had of his Salvation he began to prepare for the Circumstances of Death The Bishop put on his Night-cap and uncloathed him to his Sky-coloured Sattin Wastcoat he delivered his George to the Bishop's hands and charged him to remember to give the same to the Prince and having prayed again he stooped down to the Block and had his Head severed from his Body at one Blow about Two of the Clock in the Afternoon the day aforesaid in the year 1648. dying the same death as to kind as his Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots had done sixty two years and eight days before at Fothringham Castle in Northamptonshire and I think was no whit inferior to her in the misfortunes of his Life And to note a few his three Favourites to wit Buckingham Laud and Strafford undergoing a violent death and the two latter falling by the Axe as forerunners of his own destiny And as to his own Personal errors when Bristol was cowardly surrendred by Fines had he then marched to London as he might have done very well all had been his own but loytering to no purpose at Gloucester he was soon after well banged by the Earl of Essex When he had worsted Essex in Cornwall he neglected the like opportunity of getting to London Guilty he was of the same oversight in not commanding the Duke of Newcastle to march Southwards toward the Metropolis of England before the Scots entred the English Borders and in not doing the like himself after he had taken Leicester for there was nothing then that could have hindred him to become Master of the City The same ill success he had as to his Treaties about being restored And in short he was generally unfortunate in the World in the esteem not only of his Enemies but in some sort of his Friends too for as the later were n'er pleased with his breach of Faith so the former would say he could never be fast enough bound and the Blood that some years before dropt upon his Statue at Greenwich and the falling off of the Silver Head of his Cane at his Trial were interpreted as dismal presages of his disastrous fate His Head and Trunk after the Execution were immediately put into a Coffin and conveyed to the Lodgings in Whitehall and there Embowelled and from thence conveyed to St. James House and Coffined in Lead About some fortnight after the Duke of Lennox Marquess of Hartford Earl of Southampton and Bishop of London got leave to bury the Body which they conducted to the Chappel at Windsor and Interred it there in the Vault of Henry the Eight with this Inscription only upon his Coffin Charles King of England And herein he was more unhappy than his Grandmother Mary for whereas her Corpse were some years after her death taken up by her Son King James and Reposited with all the Funeral Pomp that could be in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh her Great Grand Father This King's Remains notwithstanding the Commons had Voted in 1669 the Sum of 50000 l. for the Charge of taking it up a Solemn Funeral had of it and a Monument for it yet lay neglected as if it had been blasted by fate King Charles the Second his Son they said forbidding of it A Physician that made inspection into the dissection of the Body related that nature had designed him above the most of mortal men for a long life but Providence ordered it otherwise for he was cut off in the Forty ninth year of his Age being his Climacterical and twenty fourth of his Reign leaving six Children behind him three Sons Charles Prince of Wales James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester whereof the two Elder were Exiles and three Daughters Mary Princess of Orange Elizabeth a Virgin who not long survived him and Henrietta Maria born at Exeter Charles his Eldest Son who was then at the Hague when he heard of his Father's disastrous fate assumed the Title of King of England c. tho an Exile and without any Kingdom to command He was born at St. James's May 30. 1630. it was said a Star appeared over the place where he had been born in broad day which in those times was interpreted to prognosticate his happiness but the Ecclipse of the Sun which happened presently after was no less a presage of his future Calamities There was little remarkable in him or concerning him till the year 1639 when the unhappy disaster of breaking his Arm befell him and that not long after he was afflicted with a violent Feaver accompanied with a little of the Jaundice but having at length recovered his perfect health and the fatal differences begun long before but now daily increasing between the King his Father and the People he accompanied him into the North of England where he was a Spectator of that dismall Cloud which tho small at its first gathering yet was pregnant with that dreadful storm which in a short time spread it self over him his Father and three Nations For going to take possession of Hull as they thought they were by Sir John Hotham denied Entrance and forced to wait several hours at the Gate all in vain From this time forward the War increasing between the King and Parliament he was first spectator of that successless Battle to his Father's Arms at Edgehill staid some time after at Oxford From thence returning to the Field and the King's forces in the West under the command of the Lord Hopton of which the Prince was nominally General being routed by General Fairfax he was necessitated to retire to the Isle of Scilly and from thence betook himself into France To whom his Father now depriv'd of Command himself sent a Commission of Generalissimo of those few Royalists that survived the late unhappy overthrows and this brought him to the Isle of Guernsey where he possest himself of some Vessels that lay there and having joyned them to those he had brought with him out of France he sailed from thence into the Downs where he seized several rich Merchant-Ships and expected some Land-forces from Holland raised by the Prince of Orange for his Service But alas he was as unfortunate now in his Warlike attempts as his Father had been before and was still in his Treaties of Peace for Poyer and Langhorn who made a
A CONTINUATION OF THE Secret History OF WHITE-HALL From the Abdication of the late K. James in 1688. to the Year 1696. Writ at the Request of a Noble Lord and Conveyed to him in Letters by late Secretary Interpreter to the Marquess of Louvois who by that Means had the Perusal of all the private Minutes between England and France for many Years The whole consisting of Secret Memoirs which have hitherto lain conceal'd as not being discoverable by any other Hand Published from the Original Papers Together with the Tragical History of the STUARTS from the first Rise of that Family in the Year 1068 down to the Death of Her late Majesty Q. MART of Blessed Memory By D. JONES Gent. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin in Warwick-lane MDCXCVII Of whom is to be had the First Part of the Secret History of WHITE-HALL from the Restoration of King CHARLES II. to the Abdication of the late King JAMES THE PREFACE I Am so far from believing the World will be surprised with the Publication of this Second Volume since 't is no more than what I have promised once and again in my Preface to the First that I am ready to flatter my self it has been waited for with Longing Expectations especially when I consider what a kind and general Reception has been given to the former Part though it has not at the same time according to the Fate of Things of this kind escaped without the Harsh and Malevolent Censures of some as if the Letters were not only not Genuine but the whole of a Supposititious Extract and Original But I have said so much upon this Head already as may in Reason satisfie the scrupulous Curiosity of any ingenious and disinterested Person and therefore I shall concern my self no further with it But as I have not failed to be copious in a Vindication of the Work in my First Preface so I have been as sparing to expatiate upon the Use and Excellency of the Discoveries leaving that wholly to the Observation of the Judicious Reader as I do it also in this wherein I foresee he will be much better satisfied with me than for my Silence in respect to the Nature and Method of this last Correspondence where so much Danger and Difficulty must be apprehended to be and which I find as difficult to gratifie him with a Discovery of any further than the Letters themselves intimate especially that now the Author is actually abroad again and by his Absence contributes a double Reason for my Excuse and the Reader 's Disappointment Some may be apt to wonder these Letters should be so few and consequently bear so little Proportion to those that make up the First Volume But as a manifest Difference in the Duration of Time as well as the different Circumstances of Things in Europe while these last were written are Irrefragable Arguments against any Cavils that may be suggested by reason of such a contracted Compass So the fame Limitation is no less a Proof of the candid Management since 't is far enough from being impossible but an Able Head might have found out Matter and Means to have made the Second Volume of these Letters to swell up to the Bigness of the First Yet after all I do confess I did not think when I published the First Part that these Papers then Rude and Undigested would have been couched in so small a Room And therefore I have found my self under a kind of Necessity to make up the Defect by the Subsequent Treatise concerning which I cannot but expect something should be required to be said by me in a more particular manner 'T is true the Connection here does not so exactly quadrate nor does it look so natural even to my self as I could wish for but yet the Sameness of the Race whereunto both the one and the other Treatise bear a Relation doth sufficiently secure it from appearing with a distorted and monstrous Countenance And this latter being an History dating its Original from the first Foot-steps of Antiquity relating to this Family even long before their Assumption of the Name of Stuart and treating chiefly of the unfortunious Accidents of their Lives 〈◊〉 so many Preludiums to their Tragical Ends wherein no Records of Time can shew a Family so remarkably unhappy not only in such of it as have sway'd a Sceptre of whom only Two went to their Graves in Peace but in all the other diversified Branches of the same This I say doth abundantly â—vince the Truth of the Assertion I had compleatly finished this Treatise before I knew of or that any of the fore-mentioned Papers came into my Hands and was intent upon the Publication of it when the other interrupted me therein But if any should demand of me what were my first Inducements to such an Undertaking I am free inform them that I had my first Intimations from my ever Honoured and Learned Friend Roger Coke Esq with whom while living I have had most intimate and I may say daily Converse for the Revolution of some Years and who during the Time of my Acquaintance with him was pleased to intrust me and no other with the Care and I may say Revisal too of all his Papers and particularly of The Detection of the Court and State of England during the Four last Reigns and from whom I have received some uncommon Hints towards the Compiling of this Structure which upon Perusal I question not but the Unprejudiced Reader will acknowledge as such and whose Memory now he is dead I shall always revere and honour It will be unnecessary to make a Recapitulation here of the Authorities cited by me they will best appear in the Work it self where they cannot escape the Reader 's View and to which I refer him I am not unsensible how sure I am to disoblige one Party of Men by this Undertaking and whose sole Cry is That the Princes here spoken of were the best and most vertuous in their Lives and surely could not be so generally unhappy in their Deaths as here represented but they are for the most part of the other Side and I shall not break my Rest to please them And since t is notoriously known they will hardly allow the present Lawful and Rightful Possessor of the Throne of Great Britain any of those Vertues they so prodigally ascribe unto others who many of them we will not deny had their Good as others had their Bad Qualities either their Judgment may be greatly suspected or else all the Christian World is Witness of their gross and matchless Partiality Profit and Pleasure are the main Things to speak of the general Course of Sublunary Matters that we pursue in this Life and these Two are also the great Props of Humane Studies How far the former may be met with in the Compass of this Treatise I will not take upon me to determine But I shall only observe that I have endeavoured to give as
of War That the late King whom some have so much cried up for a Lover of Military Glory has no Share therein But his Admirers have found out as they think a very plausible Pretence for his Absence Because it is not known in what Quality he would have appeared in the Field But the Truth is my Lord they have no great Opinion of his Valour and Conduct and he has succeeded so very ill in his own Concerns and Undertakings that they are very much afraid his Presence should infuse some malignant Influence into the French King's Designs And whatever Veneration those now in England of his Interest and from thence denominated according to his Name may have for him there is hardly a Day passes here wherein some Satyrical Piece or other does not appear against him far enough from sparing Personal Reflections But this will make the Confederates in general but small Amends for the Loss of Mons However I could not but once take notice of it to your Lordship desiring you to believe how ready I am to the utmost of my Intelligence My Lord To Serve and Obey you whilst Paris April 18. 1691. N. S. LETTER XX. Of the Raising of the Siege of Coni and of the Death of that Grand Minister of State to the French King the Marquis of Louvois and also of Monsieur Barillon's once the French King's Ambassador in England My Lord THE general Affairs of the War are so publick that your Lordship cannot but come to the Knowledge of such Transactions as fall out from Time to Time as soon as any other in the Kingdom and they are such at this Juncture as sufficiently perplex this Court especially so far as they regard Italy and Savoy in particular from whence they have just received the bad News of the raising the Seige of Coni which is yet but whispered amongst them But your Lordship may so far rely upon my Intelligence in this particular as confidently to report it in England of which News I question not your giving hereby the first Intelligence But though this ill Success is so much the more mortifying to this Court in that they fully reckoned upon the Taking of the Place seeing all others that had hitherto been besieged by their Arms on that side have made little or on Resistance and that they own themselves they have lost before it Eighteen Hundred of the best of their Men Yet another Accident has my Lord this very Day happened here which at present seems more surprizing and a greater Subject of Discourse than the other and that is the Death of our Grand Minister of State the Marquess de Louvois Your Lordship knows what Relation I have stood to him in and what Word I sent you once by Major H if there was a Possibility of his seeing you of my then Circumstances upon the same Foot Things being still much the same I shall not further trouble you with a vain Repetition of what I am now well assured the said Major has reported to your Honour but observe That the Marquess having dined with the Princess d'Espenoy and Madam de Soubize he found himself presently after ill in the King's Chamber from whence he retired into his own to be Let Blood but not finding any Ease by Bleeding in one Arm and being extreamly oppressed in his Spirits nothing would content him but he must needs be Let Blood in the other and thereupon died at the same time These my Lord are the naked Circumstances of this Great Man's Departure and you may relie upon it though I do not question but many may be apt to ascribe his Death to some extraordinary and violent Cause since I have even already heard a Whisper of it in a Corner But whatever Reflections the World may make upon the Causes of his Death I foresee there will be no less Animadversions upon the Train of Consequences that may attend it Perhaps many of the Confederates may be apt to believe that the Death of Monsieur de Louvois may produce such an Alteration of Affairs here as may not a little contribute to the Advantage of theirs since much of the happy Success that has hitherto attended the King's Designs will be ascribed to the Address Cunning and Policy of this Minister and that the French Lilies will wither in another's hands I do very well know that such Suggestions carry a great Appearance of Truth in them But if I may freely deliver my Opinion to your Lordship from my own Observation and Experience I cannot but declare my self contrary to the aforesaid Sentiments which if any Ways relyed on will be found to prove but broken Reeds For believe me my Lord the French King has had a greater Share in the publick Transactions of his Kingdom than any of his Ministers for all the Time I have known France And no one understands his own Affairs and Interests as well as himself to say nothing of the Assistance of so many politick Persons and Men of great Abilities he has constantly about his Person and who serve him with more than ordinary Zeal and Affection which will sufficiently compensate for the Loss of one single Minister Your Honour cannot but be sensible why I observe this at the present Juncture such an Aery Advantage as this is like to prove can bring no solid benefit to my Country but a real Detriment will infallibly succeed a Dependance upon it But the Death of Monsieur Barillon which happened a few Hours before the other and who knew England better than any other French-man may I trust conduce more to the Tranquility of the Kingdom within which none more passionately desires to hear of than My Lord Your ever Obliged and Most Faithful Serv. Versailles July 16. 1691. N. S. LETTER XXI Of Monsieur Pompone's being made Minister of State And of some Particulars relating to a Peace said to be offered by France to the Confederates My Lord WHat I observed to your Lordship in my last how vain the Hopes of the Confederates were like to prove of any good Advantage to their Affairs by the Death of Monsieur de Louvois appears here daily more and more by divers Instances that might be given But I shall only confine my self to inform your Honour that the Advancement of Monsieur Pompone to be Prime Minister of State is a clear Demonstration of the Truth I have advanced as 't is of the King 's great Skill and Judgment also Though indeed it must be owned that this new Favourite enters upon his Ministry in a ticklish Juncture of Time yet for my own part I am fully satisfied Things are not so bad with France as the World would believe them to be and the following Proposals of Peace intended to be or as some say already offered to the Confederates would insinuate of which I communicate to your Lordship a Copy as I have received them from a Friend with some difficulty First That the Most Christian King will acknowledge
Lordship here the reason of my so long silence since you know it already by a remarkable instance and it is possible you may have by his time heard the issue of our King's mâ—â—ch towards Pont Esperies and the Daupâ—e's diligence to secure that Pass Were you to have seen the Consternation men generally were under in this City upon the first advice of the said March you would have thought all France had been in danger of being lost without retrieval and the letter of thanks which the King hâ—â— dispatched to the Dauphine the rest of the Generals and to every particular Regiment both French and Switz by Name for their Zeal and indefatigable industry for the preservation of their Country lifes and most important places on the Sea Coast is an evident demonstration hereof As the common Murmurs and many Libels that appear abroad every day against the Government are no less a proof of the decline of the French affairs and growing greatness of the Confederates the causes of both which I need not take upon me to commemorate to your Lordship since they are evident to none more than your self My Lord I must keep my Hand in use and write to you as long as I am here and can have any opportunity to testify thereby how much I am My Lord Your Humble and ever Obliged Servant Paris Octo. 2. 1694. N. S. LETTER XXX Of the King James his receiving an account of Queen Mary's death c. My Lord I have had often some Thoughts to inform your Lordship of many unhappy accidents that have befallen me of late in this Country but had I been now at length fully determined to transmit the particulars the general Calamity in the untimely fate of the Excellent Princess Mary Queen of Great Britain c. must have quite supprest it I am so concerned not only for the present loss but for the events to follow that I am not fit for ordinary Conversation It s scarce belief how elevated those in the late King's Interests are upon this turn of things but the truly vertuous tho' Enemies carry the signs of Sorrow in their Countenances This Court and the late King have had very timous information of this our misfortune and I am well assured they have had a long Conference together upon the said subject and that at the same time some Letters have been dispatch'd in order to a Tryal whether any Tares may be sown in England upon this occasion But I hope the prudenâ— Management of Affairs on your side of which the Nations Enemies of late begin to have an high Opinion will choke them in the production Neither of the Courts are yet gone into Mourning neither is there any appearance they will But several private Gentlemen under pretence of the Death of Relations in the Country are in Black For any other particulars I beg your Lordship to Pardon me that I can give no account and to believe that I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Jan. 10. 1695. N. S. POSTSCRIPT My Lord I had under my present concern of mind almost forgot to acquaint you that five days ago the Duke of Luxenburg departed this Life at Versailles in the Sixty Fourth Year of his Age while he was sick the King continually sent to see how he did and went often in person to visit and comfort him and when he was dead he publickly declared that a greater loss could not have befallen him I am My Lord Your c. LETTER XXXI Of the Successes of the Confederates in Flanders Italy c. in the year 1695. with some account of the designs of France for the succeeding year and of the Authors design to return to England My Lord THe great success the Confederate Arms have had this Compaign both in Italy and Brabant by the Reduction of Cazal and Namur is more mortifying to this Court than I am able to express tho' a good meen is put upon it and that it is already given out that the King of France being weary of acting defensively as has been done the last Summer will act offensively next Campaign and that the Council have already found out ways for the settling of sufficient Funds towards the maintaining not only of such forces as are already on foot but for a considerable augmentation of them And for Men the raising of them is made practicable by an Edict prohibiting all persons whatsoever to keep any Male Servants above One and Twenty Years of Age so that all Young Men that are above those Years must either starve steal or go to the Wars How far these projects may be put in Execution I know not but I do believe them in the main impracticable Yet I question not but there are some more secret and dangerous Machinations on foot and the more than ordinary consultations between the two Kings I fear forbodes no good to England in particular Some general observations that I have made of things during my aboad in I shall reserve till I see your Lordship which my present circumstances urge me to and which I hope and long to effect before who am in the mean time and always will be My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant 〈◊〉 Paris Nov. 3. 1695. N. S. THE Tragical History OF THE STUARTS FROM The First Rise of that Family in the Year 1086. down to the Death of Her Late Majesty Queen MARY of Blessed Memory By D. JONES Gent. LONDON Printed in the Year 1697. THE Tragical History OF THE STUARTS IN the Reign of Duncane King of Scotland who came to the Possession of the Scotish Crown upon the decease of his Uncle Milcolm in the Year 1040. while one Bancho Thane of Lochquaber from whom the Stuarts descended was gathering the King's Revenues within the bounds of his own Jurisdiction and withal somewhat severely punishing such as he found to be notorious Offenders it caused a Mutiny in the Country and so a Conspiracy was formed against Bancho by a parcel of Riotous and Lawless Fellows who first spoil'd his Goods and then assaulted his Person giving him many dangerous Wounds so that he had much ado to escape with his Life But assoon as he found himself a little recover'd and in a condition to travel he determined to repair to the Court in order to require Satisfaction for the Damages he had sustained where after he had made Complaint to the King of the same and of the Indignities that had been offer'd to him he at length prevail'd to have an Herald sent to the Offenders to cite them to make their personal Appearance for to answer to such Matters as should be laid to their Charge But they instead of complying with the Summons entertain'd the Messenger first with all manner of Reproaches and when they had as despitefully used him both in Words and Actions as they could slew him out-right and so entring into a Confederacy with their Friends and Kinsfolks as expecting to be call'd to a
that our History may appear to be all of a piece and void of Breaks as much as may be Walter therefore had a Son named Alane who as they say follow'd Godfrey of Bullogn into the Holy Land in the Year 1099. Alexander was his Son who begat Walter Stuart he had Issue Alexander whose Son was John the Father of Walter Stuart that marry'd the Daughter of King Robert Bruce and begat on her Robert Stuart call'd in the Scotch Chronology Robert the second King of Scotland but he was the first Stuart that was advanced to the Throne of that Kingdom But before we can fairly come to give you an exact Account hereof it will be necessary to premise a short Scheme of the Contests between the said Baliol and Bruce because somewhat interwoven with the Affair of this Family Upon the disastrous death of Alexander the Third who broke his Neck as he was gallopping his Horse at Kingcorn over the West-clift of the place near the Sea-side and left no Issue but had only a Grand-child by his Daughter in Norway very young and who died soon after Scotland fell under an Interregnum for the space of six Years and nine Months as Buchanan computes it for so long it was between the Death of Alexander and the declaring of John Baliol King of Scotland and in the mean time you may be sure there wanted not Pretensions to the Crown and the case briefly was thus William King of Scotland had a Brother named David Earl of Huntington and great Uncle to this Alexander the III. which David had three Daughters Margaret marry'd to Allan Lord of Gallaway Isabel to Robert Bruce Lord Annadale and Cleveland and Adda to Henry Hastings Earl of Huntington now Allane begat on his Wife Margaret a Daughter named Dornadilla marry'd in process of time to John Baliol after King of Scotland and two other Daughters Bruce by his Wife Isabel had Robert Bruce Earl of Carrick as having married the Inheritrix thereof but as for Huntington he laid no manner of Claim Now the question was whether Baliol in right of the eldest Daughter or Robert Bruce being descended of the second but a Male should have the Crown he being in the same Degree and of the more worthy Sex The Controversie was tossed up and down by the Governors and Nobles of the Kingdom for a long time but at last upon serious deliberation it was agreed to refer the whole matter to the decision of Edward the I. King of England which he was not a little glad of For resolving to fish in these troubled Waters he stirs up eight Competitors more that he might further puzzle the Cause and at length with twenty four Councellors half Scots half English and a great many Lawyers so handled the Business that after a great many cunning delays he secretly tampers with Bruce who was then conceiv'd to have the better Right of the Business that if he would acknowledge to hold the Crown of him he would adjudge it in favour of him But he generously answering That he valued a Crown at a less rate than for the wearing of the same to put his Country under a Foreign Yoke Edward turns about and makes the same motion to Baliol who did not stick to accept of it Baliol having thus gotten a Crown as unhappily kept it for he was no sooner invested with it and done Homage to King Edward according to Agreement but the Aberthenys having slain Mackduff Earl of Fife he not only pardon'd them the Fact but gave them a piece of Land that was in Controversie between them Whereupon Mucduff's Brother being enraged makes a Complaint of him to King Edward who sent for him used him so that he made him rise from his Seat at Parliament and go to the Bar and answer for himself He hereupon was so enraged at this manner of Usage that when King Edward sent to him for Assistance against the French he absolutely refused it and proceeded so far as to renounce his Homage to him This incensed King Edward to the quick and so with an armed Power he hastens to Berwick where he routed the Scots took and kill'd to the number of Seven Thousand of them among them most of the Nobility of Fife and Lowthian and some time after gave them also a great Overthrow at Dunbar which occasion'd the immediate surrender of the Castle of the said place into his Hands After this he marches to Montross where Baliol was brought to resign up both himself and his Crown to King Edward all the Scotch Nobility at the same time doing him Homage The Consequence whereof was that Baliol was sent Prisoner to London and from thence after a Years detention into France But while Edward was possess'd of all Scotland one William Wallace arose who tho' but a private Man bestirred himself in the publick Calamity of his Country and gave the English several notable Foyls This brought King Edward into Scotland again with an Army and falling upon Wallace routs him who was overcome with Emulation and Envy from his Countrymen as well as power from the Enemy upon which he laid by his Command and never acted after but by slight Incursions but the English Army after this being beaten at Roslin Edward comes in again and takes Sterling and makes them all render him Homage Robert Bruce Son to the foresaid Bruce that contested with Baliol for the Crown was in King Edward's Court and him the King had often promised to put in possession of the Crown But Bruce finding at last that all his promises were illusory and nothing but smoak he enters into a Confederacy with John Cummin sirnamed the Red how he might get the Kingdom but being basely betray'd by him to King Edward he had much ado to make his escape and when he was got into Scotland the first thing he did was to stab Cummin at Drumâ—reis and then got himself Crown'd King at Scone Never did any Man come with greater disadvantage to the possession of a Crown or underwent greater Hardships for the sake of it He was beaten over and over by King Edward's Troops forced to flee to the Highlands with one Companion or two and to lurk in the Mountains in great misery as if he had been rather a Beast of prey than a rational Creature And while he was in this miserable State it is storied of him by Fourdon That being in a Morning lying down on his Bed in a little Cottage whither he was glad to retire and make the same his Pallace he espies a Spider striving to climb up into her Web which she had spun to the roof of the House but failing of her purpose the first time she attempts it the second and third time and so on to the sixth and last wherein she accomplishes it and gets in the King who as well as his Companion had all the while view'd the Action said Now let 's get up and hasten to the Lowlands to try our Fortunes
once more we have attempted it in five rencounters already and fail'd but in the sixth we shall prevail and so having gather'd some Force together he advanced towards Sterling where he gave Edward the II. who was then King of England such a Defeat as Scotland never gave the like to our Nation and so continued War with various Fortune with Edward the III. till at last Age and Leprosie brought him to his Grave But some time before his Death he got the Crown settled upon his Son David then a Child and for want of his having Issue upon Robert Stuart his Sister's Son and this by Act of Parliament and the Nobles sware to it accordingly His Son David of between eight and nine Years old inherited that which he had with so much Difficulty and Danger obtain'd and wisdom kept He was in his Minority govern'd by Thomas Randolf Earl of Murrey whose severity in punishing was no less dreaded than his Valour had been honoured but he soon after dying of Poyson and Edward Baliol the Son of John coming with a Fleet and being strengthned with the assistance of the English and some Robbers the Governor the Earl of Mar was put to the Rout so that Baliol makes himself King and David was glad to retire into France Amidst these Parties Edward the III. backing of Baliol Scotland was pitifully torn and the Bruces in a manner extinguished till Robert Stuart afterward King of Scotland with the Men of Argyle and his own Friends and Family began to renew the claim and brought the Matter into a War again which was carry'd on by Andrew Murray the Governor and afterward by himself so that David after nine Years Exile adventured to return where making frequent Incursions he did at length in the fourth year after his Return march into England and in the Bishoprick of Durham was routed and fled to an obscure Bridge shewed by the Inhabitants to this day where he was taken Prisoner by John Copeland and continued so for the space of eleven Years Soon after his Releasment and Return home he calls a Parliament wherein he enacted several Laws for the punishment of such as had fled from him at the Battle of Durham and more particularly levelling at Robert Stuart as being one of them who had been the Cause of that great Overthrow He got that Act passed in his Father's time whereby the Crown was appointed for want of Issue of his Body lawfully begotten to descend to the said Robert Stuart to be repeal'd and John Southerland Son to Jane his youngest Sister made Heir apparent in his stead and the Nobility swore to the observance of the said Law This made the Earl of Southerland so confident of the matter that he gave almost all his Lands away among his Friends and Acquaintance But alas he was wretchedly mistaken for his Son being afterwards one of those sent as Hostages into England for the security of the payment of King David's Ransom he died there of the Plague and Robert Stuart attain'd the King's Favour again and succeeded as Heir to the Crown being the first of the Name of the Stuarts that ever sway'd a Scepter But things did not go on so smoothly with Robert Stuart upon the Death of Southerland his Competitor first and of King David afterward but that he met with another Rub in his way from William Earl of Dowglas who when the Lords were assembled at Lithguo about the Succession came thither with a great Power and urged he ought to be preferr'd before Stuart as being descended from the Baliols and Cummins But finding at length that his own Friends and particularly the Earls of March and Murray his Brethren with the Lord Erskein who all three were in great power as being Governors one of Dunbritton another of Sterling and the third of Edinburg opposed him he thought it most advisable to desist from his Claim And so Robert Stuart was Crown'd at Scone on Lady-day in the Year 1370. being the 47th Year of his Age. But that Dowglas might be a little soothed up under his present Disappointment and kept from disturbing the common Tranquillity the King bestows Euphemia his eldest Daughter in Marriage upon him Whether it were thro' an advanced Age or Sloth we find he did but little since his Accession to the Crown but his Lieutenants and the English were perpetually in action during the course of his Reign which was according to Buchanan nineteen Years and four and twenty Days And tho' it's true we do not find his Death to have been violent or any ways accelerated by Grief of Heart but natural in an old age having lived seventy-four Years yet surely he laid the Foundation for the many Parricides Fratricides and other dreadful Calamities that befel his Posterity in a very great measure by preferring his Illegitimate Children by Elizabeth Moor his Concubine before those he had lawfully begotten on Euphemia Ross his Wife And the Case was briefly thus At the time of his attaining the Crown the foresaid Euphemia Daughter to Hugh Earl of Ross was his lawful Wife by whom he had two Sons Walter afterward created Earl of Atholl and David Earl of Strathern but before he was married he kept one Elizabeth Mure for so the Scotch write the Name as his Concubine and had by her three Sons John Earl of Carrick Robert Earl of Mentâ—ith and Fife and Alexander Earl of Buchan with several Daughters Now Queen Euphemia departed this Life three Years after her Husband became King who forthwith marry'd Elizabeth Mure his old Paramour either to legitimate the Children he had by her which it seems was the manner in those days or else for old acquaintance her Husband Gifford for you must know he had got her matched to cover her shame dying about the same time as the Queen had done This step drew on another and there was no stoping now but the Children formerly begotten on this Woman in Adultery must have the Crown entailed upon them by Parliament in prejudice to the other two who by any thing that appears in History were finer Gentlemen and fitter as they had a juster Claim to govern then either of these I know the Lord Viscount Tarbert in a late Pamphlet has taken upon him to vindicate the Legitimacy of Moor's Children against all the Authority of the Scotch Historians who lived at or near those times and ever since who could not be ignorant of so material a thing as this and to this end he Cites several Records It 's not my business to answer his allegations but I am sure the Records would never have named John that afterwards succeeded Tanquam haeres if he had been true and undoubted Heir And so I leave any one to judge if the Records do not thereby make much more against his Legitimacy than it does for it But right or wrong the Sluts Will must be gratified and so John succeeds his Father in the Scottish Kingdom but not by the
every part of it Some time elapsed before this dreadful news of the Prince's death came to the Ears of the King none adventuring to be the sad Messenger unto him of that which almost all knew off but when he was advertised of it and had also some secret intimations given him his Brother had had a deep if not the sole hand in it for none durst accuse so great a Man openly he grew very sad and melancholy thereupon and the rather in that he had not power to take Vengeance upon him for the perpetrating of so barbarous a deed and for doing him so unretrievable an injury However to make some semblance of Kingly Authority he sends for the Duke his Brother to come to him at leastwise to expostulate with him about the fact The Duke who knew the purport of the message as well as himself frames a fair and specious story to excuse himself as tho he were as innocent of the fact as the Child Unborn And for a farther proof of it urges his care to seek out the Perpetrators of that horrid deed and that he had now at length made so far a progress in the matter that he did not doubt but if the King would be pleased to come to Edenburgh he should be able to bring in all the Offenders The King who was then at a place called Bute where for the most part he ever resided tho he was very unfit to travel upon many accounts and especially by reason of a tedious fit of sickness he had laboured under yet so great and eager a desire he had to see his Son's death punished that he made a hard shift to get in a Chariot into Edenburgh When he was come thither the Governour convenes the Council and orders the parties accused to be brought before them the King himself being also present The Accusers as the Duke who was rather the guilty person had before contrived it stoutly charge them with the fact The King after he had imprecated Vengeance from Heaven and the most dreadful Curses upon them and their Posterity who had perpetrated so horrid an act being over-prest with sorrow and infirfirmity of Body returns to Bute from whence he came The Duke that he might colour the matter as much as might be brings the supposed Criminals to their Tryals and by corrupt Judges such as the Duke had provided for that purpose were Condemned as guilty of his Murder whom in all their life time they had never seen Tho this matter waâ— managed on the part of the Governor with all the Fineness and Address imaginable yet the King was not so satisfied in his Mind but that he retain'd still a great suspition of the Duke's having an Hand in his Sonâ—s Death But forasmuch as he well knew that the Duke had all the Kingdom of Scotland under his Obeisance partly by Policy and partly by virtue of his Office of Governour he durst not shew his resentment nor attempt to call him to an account for it but was rather afraid on the other hand lest having ambitious Desires to possess himself of the Crown he would also make it his Business to procure the death of his second Son James and by that means take off the only Rub in his way The King I say being thus sollicitous in Mind about securing that to his Posterity which his unnatural Brother was intent to deprive them of consults with Walter Wardlaw Arch-bishop of St. Andrews about his Son's Security After serious deliberation they at last conclude it was no ways safe for Prince James to remain in Scotland and therefore he resolved to send him over into France to Charles the VI. an old Allie and real Friend to the Scotish Nation knowing he could no where be more safely and liberally educated than there But considering the uncertain vicissitude of Humane things and that no Precautions for his future Security might be wanting the King delivers his Son a Letter written to the King of England in his Behalf if it should be his hard Fortune to fall into the Hands of the English The King in pursuance to the said Resolution orders all things to be got in a readiness for his Passage and appointed Henry Sinclear Earl of Orkney to take care for the safe Conveyance of him They took Shipping at the Bass and so shear'd their Course for the French Shoar but when they were got as far as Flamborough-Head they were as some say taken by the English who had heard of their sailing and laid in wait to intercept them But others write that the Prince finding himself extreamly Sea-sick and not able to endure it desired he might be put on Shoar there and so was taken into Custody and carry'd up to the English Court but however it happened taken he was in the ninth Year of his Age Anno 1406. Henry IV. was then King of England to whose Presence when the Prince was come he deliver'd him his Father's Letter which because of the rarity of it as being written in the Scotish Dialect of those times we have thought fit to insert and is as followeth Robert King of Scots to Henry King of England Greeting THY great Magnificence Humility and Justice are right patent to us by thy Governance of thy last Army in Scotland howbeit sike things had been uncertein to us afore for tho' thou seemed as Enemie with most awful Incursions in our Realme Èœit we found mair Humanities and Plaisures than Damage by thy cumming to our Subdities speciallie to yame that receivit thy noble Fader the Duke of Longcastle the time of his Exile in Scotland we may not câ—is your fare while we are on life but I yl layf and loif thee us maist noble and woarthy Prince to joys thy Realme for yocht Realmes and Nations contend among themself for Conâ—uests of Glory and Launds Èœit na accasioun is amang us to invade other Realmes or Lieges with Injuries but erar to contend amang our self â—uhay shall perseue other with maist humanitee and kindness As to us we will meis all occasion of battell quare any occurres at thy pleasure Farther bycause we have no lesse sollicitude in preserving our Children fra certein deidley Enemies than had some time thy noble Fader we are constreined 〈◊〉 seek Support at uncowth Princes Handâ— Howbeit the invasioun of Enemies is sa great that small defense oâ—urres against yame â—ithaut they be preserved by Amitie of nobill Men. For the World is sa full of perversit malice that na crueltie nor offence may be devisit in erd bot the samme may be wroucht be motion of gold or silver Heirfore because we knaw thy Hyness full of Monie nobill Vertueâ— with sike Puissance and Riches that na Prince in our daies may be compared thairto we desire thy Humanity and Support at this time We traist it is not unknowen to thy Majesty how our eldest Son David is slain miserablie in Prisoun by our Brother the Duke of Albanie quhome we
chesit to be Governor quan we were fallen into decrepit age to our Subdittes and Realme beseekaund thy hieness thairfore to be sa favarable that this Bearer James our second and allanerlie Son may have to liefe under thy Fayth and Justice to be some memory of owr Posterity knuwaund the unstable Condition of mans life sa sodanlie altered Now flurisaund an sodenlie falling to utter consumption Forthir beliefe well quhan Kings and Princes hes na other beild bot in thair owin folkes thair Empireis caduke and fragill for the minds of common People are evir slowaund and mair inconstant than wind Èœit quhen Princes are robarat be amited of othir uncowth Kings thair brathir and neighbowris na adversitie may occure to eject thaim fra thair dignitie viall Forthir gif thy hieness thinke nocht expedient as Gad forbeid to obtemper to thir owr desires Èit we request any thing quhilk was ratisijt in owr last trewes and conditioun of Peace that the supplicatioun made be ony of the two Kings of Ingland and Scotland sall staund in manner of saufe conduct to the Bearer And thus we desire to be observat to this owr allanerlie Sonne and the gracious God conserve thee maist nobill Prince When King Henry had read this Letter he deliberated with his Council what was most expedient for him to do upon this occasion at last considering there were divers English Rebels harbour'd in Scotland he resolved to keep Prince James as his Prisoner but yet in such Honourable State that he could not have met with such Treatment and Advantages of a Princely and Liberal Education in his own native Country The immature and violent Death of Prince David as has been already noted had sunk King Robert's Spirits very low but when the dreadful News of Prince James being made Prisoner in England reached his Ears which was as he sat at Supper he had like to have died in the Arms of the Standers by his Heart was so overpower'd with Grief and Melancholy as to admit of no manner of Consolation exclaiming against his hard Fortune in marrying a Woman of so mean a degree to the disparagment of his Blood as was Queen Annabel by whom he had these Sons which as he took it was the only Cause why Forreign Princes as well as his own Subjects had him thus so much in Contempt So being carried into his Chamber what with wilful Abstinence and violent Sorrow he died in three Days after having reign'd about sixteen Years Anno Dom. 1408. A Man he was of a mighty stature but had not an Heart proportionable to his Bulk as appears manifestly by the Circumstances of his Death which tho' not procur'd by violent Hands yet was sufficiently tragical and herein discover'd himself to be far from the Temper Senecca speaks of Nihil tam acerbum est in quo non aquus animus solâ—tium inveniat The Death of King Robert introduced an Interregnum in Scotland for the space of near Eighteen Years for so long a time was James detain'd a Prisoner in England and there was no way left but to confirm the old Governor in his Station again who held it for the space of fifteen Years longer and at length died a natural Death but 't is strange he should that had been so unnatural to his own Nephew by famishing him to Death and done so many barbarous actions for to clear himself and to palliate his horrid Fact He was succeeded in his Estate and Honours by Mordo his eldest Son who was also chosen Governor of the Kingdom a Man full of Repugnant Vices and so unfit for the management of that high Office he was entrusted with that he was not capable to rule his own Family He had three Sons Walter James and Alexander who abusing the Lenity and Foolish Indulgence of their Father and playing many Outragious Tricâ—s to the Offence and Prejudice of many and one of them at length being displeased with his Father in that he would not give him a Falcon he had for a long time greatly desired he stept unto him and audaciously plucking the Bird from off his Father's Fist wrung his Neck from his Body before his Face whereupon the Father being somewhat enraged with such presumptuous Doings of his Son said Walter for so was his Name seeing it is come to that pass that thou and thy Brothers will not be ruled by my soft and gentle Government I shall ere long bring him home that shall chastise both you and me after another manner and from hence forwards he made it his whole Business to get King James redeem'd from the Hands of the English and to set him on the Throne To this purpose he call'd a Parliament at Perth where it was unanimously agreed to send a solemn Embassie to the King of England to demand the Restitution of their King and to offer Terms for his Releasment James had contracted some Friends in England during his Captivity especially by the means of the Lady Jane Daughter to the Earl of Somerset whom he had taken to Wife so that in a short time the Terms for his Liberty were agreed on and so he sets forwards towards Scotland Where he was no sooner arrived but he was encountred with diverse Complaints against several Persons and especially Walter Stuart the Son of the Governor aforesaid who was sent to Prison in the Bass and in the next Parliament convened at Perth Duke Mordo himself with Alexander another of his Sons were arrested and committed to safe Custody the Duke to Carlaurock and his Dutchess to a place call'd Tantalloun Not long after James Duke Mordo's third Son to hasten the fate of the Stuarts being moved with great Indignation that his Father and Brethren were thus as he conceived unjustly imprison'd came suddenly with a good Band of Men to the Town of Dunbritton sack't and burn the Place killing one Stuart more to wit John sirnamed the Red as Buchanan says and the King's Uncle with two and thirty Persons besides But he was so straitned by the King's Arms and pursued so close that he was forced to flee into Ireland and soon after died there an exile The same Year the King call'd a Parliament at Sterling whereing Mordo with his two Sons Walter and Alexander and Duncan Stuart Earl of Lenox four of them at one clap were convicted of High-Treason and the two Sons the very same day were beheaded in the open place before the Castle and next Morning Duke Mordo and Lenox run the same Fate in the same place It 's a constant Fame saith Buchanan tho' I find it written no where that the King sent the Heads of the Father Husband and Children to Isabella Wife to the said Mordo his Cousin-Germane to try a barbarous Practise whether she who was known to be a fierce Woman would as mostly it happens through excess of Grief discover the Secresie of her Mind upon such an occasion But she notwithstanding all that grievous and unlook'd
for Spectacle did not inordinately break forth into any bitter Words but only said with a calm Temper If the faults were true which have been laid to their Charge the King had done nothing but what is Right and Just unto them As this King's Reign was usher'd in with the foresaid Troubles it continued to be in a ferment upon other Accounts and particularly for the great Pension raised for his Ransom and for raising of other Moneys which tho' the Revenues were exhausted was interpreted Covetousness in him But in the thirteenth and last Year of his Reign a sharp Rencounter happening between Henry Percy and William Dowglas Earl of Angus at a place call'd Piperden in the Kingdom of Scotland James thinking himself injured hereby by the English as the Scotch Historians write but Hall and Graston charge him home with Ungratitude herein raises a great Army and lays Siege to the Castle of Roxborough but when as the Scotch write he had almost brought his Work to Perfection and that the besieged began to capitulate about surrendring of the place the Queen in all haste came to the Camp and acquainted him there was a horrid Conspiracy framed against his Life and conjured him to use all the Precautions imaginable to secure himself The King was surprized with the Message he forthwith raised the Siege and returned home to provide for his better safety tho' all avail'd little But that you may have a clearer Idea of the whole Matter we must a little look back and tell you again that Robert II. had three Sons by his Concubine whom he afterward married and so settled the Crown upon them to the Exclusion of his two legitimate Sons by his Queen Euphemia Ross who were Walter Earl of Athol and David Earl of Strathern Now these two tho' they found themselves injured by such a Preference of an illegitimate Race before them Yet being inferiour both in Years and Wealth they dissembled their Resentment for the present The Death also of the Earl of Strathern weakned their Hands who left one only Daughter behind him who was given in Marriage to Patrick Graham a noble Youth and a most potent and illustrious Family as any in that Age on whom he begat Melisse Graham whose Parents did not long survive And the Child not many Years after being then a Stripling was sent into England among those who were Hostages till the Money for the Kings Ransom were discharg'd and paid But Atholl tho' he were every ways inferior to the opposite Faction yet ever made it his Business to take off his Kindred and did not lay aside his Hopes of recovering the Crown and because he was not capable of doing any thing by open force he craftily sowed Discord among them and so plied the Matter that as has been already in some measure set forth a very numerous Family were reduced to a few for the most part by his Council For many were of Opinion that it it was by his Contrivance that David Duke of Rothsay King Robert's Son was cut off neither had James escap'd his Snares unless he had spent the greatest part of his Life in England far from his reach He would have encouraged the Earl of Fife to seise upon the Kingdom taxing his Brother with Slothfulness and fit to be taken off and when the King having now no Children to succeed him for James was then a Prisoner in England and obnoxious to the Pleasure of his Brother had suddenly died of Grief there was only the Governor now and his Children that impeded his Hopes But when Robert the Governor was dead and his Son John kill'd at the Battle of Vernole in France he re-assumed his former Thoughts with greater Vigour and strain'd all his Wits to compass the same first by getting of King James released and then contriving Duke Mordo's and his Children's Death and since it was almost inconsistent that all these should subsist and be safe together he foresaw that which soever fell of them he was one degree nearer to the Crown Therefore when James was at last return'd to his Country he set all his Engines on work to hasten Mordo's death finds out fit tools to bear Testimony against him and set himself as Judge upon him and his Children and when they also were cut off there was only King James and a young Son of six Years old that stood in the way and when he by a conjuration of the Nobility were once removed the Earl did not doubt but himself who was the only surviving Person of the Royal Stem should be advanced to the Throne Atholl therefore I say being night and day agitated with such Considerations did however keep all his Designs close and secret and thro' a counterfeit Zeal for the King's Welfare made it his Business to cut off his Relations and Friends and more especially to advance his own Estate by the Misfortune and Crimes of other Men and so to lessen his Adversaries In the mean time King James to further his own Misfortune deprived Melisse Graham who we have said was one of the Hostages in England of the Earldom of Strathern alledging it was bestowed on his Grandfather of the maternal side and his Masculine Line and for want of such Issue to revert to the Crown The Misfortune of the young Man induced many to commiserate his Case but made Robert his Guardian almost stark mad and so being more impatient of the Injury offer'd to his Kinsman stuck not to accuse the King openly of unjustice and being cited to appear to make his defence but did not a Sentence of Banishment pass'd against him This did but enrage him more and more and his whole Business seem'd to be to engage others who had been injur'd in their own Persons or Friends to entertain the same Sentiments of the King in respect to his Avarice and Cruelty as he had done but it had been well if he had rested here You have heard before how the King was advertised of a Conspiracy against him at Roxborough and how the King to obviate the same retired home and took up his Lodgings in the Convent of the Dominicans at Perth and what Designs Walter Earl of Atholl had been hatching from time to time Now this Walter the King's Uncle tho' he were Principall Author and Contriver of the Conspiracy yet he did his utmost endeavour to put off all manner of Suspition of it from himself therefore he privily sends for and discourses with Robert Graham afore-mentioned who as being an active bold rash Man and an hater of the King upon account of his own Imprisonment and â—anishment and the Injury done to his Nephew by divesting of him of the Earldom of Strathern he thought to be a Person most fit for his purpose and with him he engaged his own Grandson Robert Stuart a stout hardy Youth who readily engaged in the Work He instructs them what they were to do assured them of his favour when the Fact was perpetrated
not doubting but himself should be advanced to the Throne Having thus agreed and resolved upon their hellish Design they advance secretly with their Accomplices whom they had drawn into the Conspiracy towards the Friers aforesaid where the King then resided and encourag'd the King's Porter whom before they had brought over to their Party to give them un-interrupted admittance which he does and they advanced into the Gallery adjacent to the King's Bed-Chamber where he shews them the Door might be easily forced open he himself having taken away the Bolt Others think it was Robert Stuart aforesaid Atholl's Grandson that let them into the Court however it was while they in the mean time tarried in the Gallery seeming to deliberate about the breaking the Door open an Accident made their Passage the more easie for Walter â—tratâ—on coming out of the Chamber as having brought in some Wine for the King a little before and seeing of armed Men in the Gallery he endeavours to whip in again crying out Treason Treason But before he could get within the Door to make it fast they rushed upon him and slew him outright While this was done not without great bustle and noise a noble Maiden named Katherine Dowglas marry'd afterward to Alexander Lovell of Bolunny got to the Door and not finding the Bolt that had before been taken away as you have heard she thrusts her Arm into the place where the Bar should have been but her Arm was soon crusht and broke and the Ruffians forced their way into the Chamber Such of the Servants as were there and made Resistance they dispatch forthwith and then advanced towards the King and fell upon him The Queen did all she could to defend him and receiv'd two Wounds and thereby was forced to give over the Conflict and so at last the King having received to the number of eight and twenty Wounds and some of them to the Heart was slain by them Thus fell James the I. King of Scotland by violent and bloody Hands and seem'd to entail a violent Death upon all of his Name that succeeded him but because the Execution of some of the Conspirators was the most terrible that can be met with in History we shall shall give you a short Account of it and the rather because of the Persons concern'd therein The Nobles of the Kingdom hearing this unexpected News assembled from all parts of the Nation to Edinburg and made such diligent Search after the Conspirators that they were soon apprehended Tried and Condemn'd Walter Stuart Earl of Atholl was charged as being principal Actor in this Tragedy his crime exaggerated to the height and was executed in this tremendous manner On the first day being stripped of all his cloaths save only his shirt only he was bound fast in a Cart to an Instrument of wood made like to a swipe with Ropes and Pullies to the same by which means they sometimes raised him up on high into the Air that the people might see him and by slackning of the Rope all of a sudden let him down with a swang dis-jointing all his body thereby then they brought him to an open place where all might be Spectators and Crowned him with a red hot Crown of Iron with this Elogium that he might be Stiled the Ring of all Traytors The reason of this part of the punishment was said to be this for that a Witch had told him that he should be Crowned with great Pomp and Magnificence in the presence of the people and that the prediction was in this manner either fullfilled or eluded On the second day he was drawn on a hurdle through the high Street of Edenburg at an Horses tail he was on the third day extended upon a board at the Market-Cross his Belly ripped up and his Bowels taken out thrown into the fire and burnt before his face then was his heart plucked out and burnt likewise and last of all his head was chopp'd off and fixed upon a long Pole and set upon the highest place of the City his body divided into four Quarters and sent to the four principal Cities of the Kingdom The Execution of Robert Stuart was not altogether so severe as that of his Grandfather some respect being had to his youth But as for Robert Graham who as did appear was the Person that slew the King with his own hands he was put into a Cart and that hand that did the deed fastned to a pair of Gallows that was set up in the said Cart then were three persons appointed to thrust him through all parts of his body with hot Irons beginning first with those places where it was thought no hasty Death would ensue as with his Legs Arms Thighs and Shoulders and thus was he carried through all the Streets of the City and tormented in a most horrible manner and at last his Belly ript open Bowelled and Quartered as Atholl was before and thus was the cruel Death of King James revenged in the most cruel manner that was ever heard off beyond all the Bounds of Humanity You have seen the dreadful effects of the Interrâ—gnum now the Kingdom falls under a worse Administration even under one of the woes of God Almighty himself for this King was succeeded by his Son James the second of that Name a Minor of about six years old And as the King was not yet able to Govern himself another must be chosen to Govern both him and the Kingdom and this fell to Sir Alexander Levinston and Sir William Creichton the Chancellor the former had the denomination of the Governour and the other had the Kings keeping Never was poor Prince more harrased till he came to Maturity which they say in Princes is at fourteen through the Jealousy and Ambition of these two men fomented also by others who were willing to fish in troubled waters The Chancellour kept the King in Edenburg Castle the Queen Jane sides with the Governor and resided at Sterling Archembald Earl of Dowglass a powerful Subâ—ect kept within his own Territories and would obey none of them all by which discords many evils ensued The Queen being intent upon advancing the Governor's side and thereby gratify her own Ambition repairs one day with a small retinue to the City of Edenburg and with a Womanish Dissimulation won the Chancellor to give her Admittance into the Castle to see the King and to abide with him whose Company she so extreamly longed for But when she had been there three Days she feigns a Pilgrimage one morning to the White Kiâ—k but first wheedles with the King to make his escape which she easily brought him to packed him up dexterously in a Trunk as if he had been a bundle of Cloaths and sent him away by one of her trusty Servants laid upon a Sumpter Horse into Lieth from whence he was conveyed by water to Sterling and Joyfully received by the Governor who highly extolled the Queens Conduct in deceiving so wise a
Man as the Chancellor and without delay raises Forces and Besieges him in Edenburg Castle He perceiving the danger had no other way left but to send to the Earl of Dowglass for his Assistance Dowglass disdains them both and would not be concerned The Chancellor seeing this agrees with the Governor and he was still to keep the Castle and his Chancellorship Not long after died Dowglass and was succeeded by his Son William who kept a greater port and retinue than his Father But things could not hold long in this State for the Chancellor disdaining that the Governor should take the whole Administration upon him leaves him and the King at Sterling where he then was and repairs to Edenburg and there imploys all his Wits how he might recover the King from the Governor and after he had well thought of it he rides one morning with four and twenty Men in his Company to the Park of Sterling where he knew the King was a Hunting and that the Governor was absent at Perth He found the King with a very small retinue and saluted him very dutifully and finding him in some surprize at the Company he exhorted him in a few words as the time would permit to be of good cheer and fear nothing that they were come to deliver him from his Captivity that he might be no longer under the Government of another but take the Administration into his own hands and much to the same purpose All which the King received with a pleasant aspect either because the motion pleased him as desirous to Rule or to dissemble the fear he had of the Chancellor and so went with him to Edenburg The Governor upon his return was horribly surprized at the News but being now unable to remedy the matter by the means of friends he and the Chancellor came to an Accommodation again and the result was that the Governor should still continue in his Office and the King remain in the keeping of the Chancellor as at first So that the freedom before tendred to him and with which he seem'd to be well pleas'd was now but a meer illusion being as much a Captive as ever And if the King was no better for this Agreement It proved fatal to the Earl of Dowglass Both Governor and Chancellor dreading his power now conbine together to ruine him and to that End a Parliament must be called where several Complaints were made against Dowglass and his followers But they two perswade the Parliament to send for the Earl in a friendly manner and not as a delinquent to take his place in that Assembly And by the Governors contrivance Honourable Letters were directed to him in the Name of them all full of soothing expressions intimating his own Person was so far from being in any danger by such his attendance in Parliament that if any of his Friends or Family had chanced to be guilty of any disorders all should be frankly remitted This bait took the young Gentleman and so with his Brother David and an handsom retinue sets forward for Edenburg the Chancellor the better to cloak the Treachery rode out many miles from Edenburg to meet him Caressed and Entertained him splendidly on the way at the Castle of Creichton and to blind him the more there in the most friendly and tender manner in the World began to advise the Earl in what concerned his Duty towards his Prince and the Honour and Glory of his Family and this showed him on to Edenburg tho' things could not be carried on so coverlly between the Governor and Chancellor in the management of this intrigue but that some of the Earls Friends began to smell a Rat and advised him not to go to Edenburg But finding him quite averse to Counsel and void of all suspicion they urged him to send his Brother David back to the End he might not hazard the whole Family under the fortune of one stroke as his Father had before admonished him upon his Death-Bed But all in vain and so to Edenburg Castle they came where the Governor meets him and Carressed him highly and because he should now think his Entertainment every ways suitable to the semblance made of it all along he was set to Dine at the King's Table but latet Angus in herba the Earl before he hâ—d well half Din'd was strangely surprized with the sight of a Bulls Head set before him which in those Days was a certain sign of Death whereat being about to rise from the Table he and his Brother David were immediately seized by Armed men set there for that purpose carried into the Court yard and there forthwith beheaded It was said the King in whose presence this was done and who now was entring into years of Maturity and Discretion lamented his Death bitterly for which the Chancellor severely rebuked him but however it was in this case it 's most certain he afterwards most barbarously murdered one of this Earls Successors with his own hands as you 'l see by and by This Earl of Dowglass was Succeeded in his Estate and Honours by his Unkle James Dowglass Baron of Abercorn who is Succeeded by his Son William who to prevent the division of the Inheritance Married the only Sister of the last William Beheaded who was Stiled the fair Maid of Gallaway This Earl flourishing in Estate and Honours and finding the King take the Administration of the Government upon himself came to Sterling and in a short time grew into high Favour with him insomuch that through his perswasion the Chancellor and Governor were not only discharged from their Offices but put out of the Council and their Friends banished the Court and themselves Summoned to appear before the King and upon default proclaimed Rebels so that now the Tables are quite turn'd Dowglass Rules all and the King suffers minority under him in his Just Age as he really did under the others during his nonage himself and his Kindred and Friends possessing all places of profit and Preferment in the Kingdom But the Earl having I know not what crochet in his brain must needs go into Italy and a Noble retinue he had with him but leaves his Estate during his absence to be managed by his Brother the Earl of Ormond His back was no sooner turned but his Enemies set all their Engines on work to put him out of the Kings Favour and good Esteem and prevailed so far upon him as to put out an unreasonable Summons requiring the Earl to appear within forty Days or else he should be put to the Horn and so his Lands were seized on to the Kings hands The Earl being advertised hereof returns with all speed and was again received into Favour But happening to go into England without leave this incensed the King highly against him yet upon submission was again reconciled But there was nothing could reconcile him and the Chancellor Creichton envy brought them to make attempts upon each other's life and at last the Earl
was so put to it that he was forced to flee out of Edenburg to save his own life whereupon he enters into a Confederacy with his Friends for his own security which together with some Depredations made in the Lord Ferres Lands by some of the Earls Tenants without redress from him upon Complaint made thereof enraged the King to an high degree against him But sore disorders still increasing through the Earls not punishing of the offenders at last Ferres makes an inroad by way of reprisal into his Lands was taken and by the Earls command was put to Death tho' the King by an Herault commanded the contrary so that upon serious Deliberation the King finding his power unsufficient for curbing him had no other way left than to send to him in a most Courteous manner to come to him who was then in Sterling Castle The Earl apprehensive of some design upon his Person refused without he had an assurance of safe Conduct under the Kings great Seal which being Granted he came and was received with a great semblance of good Will by the King who toâ—k him into a Room by themselves and there after some other Admonitions expostulated with him about the Confederâ—cy he had entred into with the Earl of Crawford and others and would have urged him to forsake the same Alledging it was no ways Honourable for him but hurtfull and tho' he took it very ill at his hands yet he allowed him the Liberty to disâ—null it tho' himself had full power to command it Dowglass was very obsequious in all things 'till this business of the League came in Question whereunto he did not Answer distinctly but would have put it off 'till he had discoursed with his Confederates thereupon neither could he well see at present what could be in that League which could be offensive to the King that he should insist so much upon his breaking of it whereupon the King who it's likely had already determined to commit the perjur'd Fact tho' his flattering Courtiers would have his displeasure only to arise from the Earls present stubborness said if you will not I will break it and without any more ado struck him with his Dagger in his breast those that stood at the Door hearing the bustle rushed in and dispatched him by many wounds His Brethren and Kindred being at first surprized and then exasperated at the horridness of the Fact and the faithless proceedings of the King towards the Earl flew to their Arms and made no less than a Civil War of it which was waged between the King and them with various Fortunes at last the King prevailed which brought great Destruction and Calamity upon that Noble Family of the Dowglasses And then it was that King James began to Reign as the Historian says their greatness having been hitherto a Check upon him But his Civil broils were scarce ended when he was brought to engage in the fatal controversy which happened in England between the Houses of York and Lancaster He at first sided with King Henry VI against Richard Duke of York but afterward faced about Upon the Duke's promise that Cumberland and other Lands should be restored unto him that had been in the possession of his Ancestors if the Duke prevailed and so assisted the Yorkians having therefore raised an Army as he was entering into England he was for a time diverted cunningly by an English Gentleman who took upon him to be the Pope's Nuncio His Speech Habit and Retinue were perfectly Italian and to make the matter more plausible with the Cloak of Religion he had a Monk along with him and so with the Popes Counterfeit Letters they approached to the King and charged him to proceed on no farther and threatned him if he did to curse him For that the Pope to the end the War might be carried on against the Common Enemy of Christianity with greater vigor having now Composed all differences in Europe was set upon Accommodating this matter in Britain That they indeed were sent before to preadmonish him but that another Legate would quickly follow with an Ample power to Compose the Civils Discords in England and to procure satisfaction for the injuries sustained by the Scots This bait took him and so he Disbanded his Army But alas nothing could divert this Prince's now impending Fate for being soon after advertised of the trick put upon him by the foresaid Counterfeit Nuncio he re-assembles his Army and because he could not directly Joyn with York's Forces He marches to the Siege of Roxborough and having quickly master'd the Town lays close Seige to the Castle which made a brave defence The Duke and his Companions having in the mean time prevailed sent to give King James thanks for his Assistance desire him now things were amicably terminated to return home least the English being incensed they should be forced to march against the Scotch Army The King having received the Message asked those that brought it whether the Duke of York and his Friends said any thing in relation to the promises they had made when he came into their Assistance but finding no satisfaction in that point he proceeds with great Fury to assault the Castle and Batters the Walls with Cannon which began then to be much used as they were much dreaded and being very forward and intent upon his work one of his Guns being over-charged burst and a slice thereof struck the King dead to the ground and hurt no other besides himself a strang fatality that brought him to his end when he had lived twenty nine Years and of them Reigned twenty four Anno. 146â— He left three Sons behind him James that Succeeded him Alexander Duke of Albany and John Earl of Mar who were a plague to one another while alive and not one of them died a natural death as we shall shew in its proper place James III. a Minor of seven Years old as his Father before him came to the Crown and at first fell under the Care and Regency of his Mother as did the whole Kingdom a Woman after the decease of her Husband James II. that lead a Scandalous life keeping one Adam Hepborn who was himself a Married Man for her Gallant but death put an end to her Lewdness and Government together about three Years after Then he came into the hands of the Boyds who Ruled the roast for a long time but at last made a fatal Catastrophe he took to Wife Margaret Daughter to the King of Denmark and Norway Anno. 1469. And about this time began to Exercise the Royal power himself He involved himself at first with the Affairs of the Church and not long after became miserably enslaved with the predictions of Astrologers and Witches to which he was strangely addicted and which brought not only destruction upon his kindred but also at last upon himself which we shall now prosecute as they fell out in order He was on a time it seems informed by some
Sycophant or other that his kindred laid in wait for his life and that he was in great danger which agreeing with the sayings of the Witches which he had Consulted and who had told him that the Lyon should be devoured by his Whelps it made very deep impressions upon his suspicions mind and so from a Prince at first very hopefull and of great expeâ—â—ation degenerated to a Monstrous Tyrant So that now these suspicions having once possession of his mind from henceforth he looked upon his neer Relations and almost all the best of the Nobility as his Enemies The Nobility on the other hand finding none preferred by the K. but Men of base degree were not a little disatisfied and began to alienate their Affections from him wherefore they met together upon this occasion to concert measures how they might purge the Court of those abject Fellows and reduce it to its former State of Grandeur The principal of this Assembly were the Kings two Brothers Alexander and John the latter whereof having discoursed of the Irregularities and the present State of that Kingdom somewhat frankly and liberally and with less Caution than the rest he was suddenly taken by night in his own House by the Court Faction and conveyed to a place called Crâ—gmiller and there Imprisoned by the King's order and not long after by the same Courtly Crew was adjudged to Die and Executed accordingly in the Cannon Gate by cutting his Veins and letting him bleed to Death And as they had thus barbarously murdered his Person they proceeded also to murder the Earls fame for they gave out that his Crime was that he had had Secret Consultation with Witches about destroying the King and to put as good a Colour as they could upon this unnatural Act tho' it were by heaping up iniquity upon iniquity they brought several other Witches and Sorcerers to their Tryal for the said Fact and burnt them at Edenburg for the same So that here is one of the three Brothers dispatch'd you 'll here of the rest by and by Alexander the other Brother and Duke of Albany tho he had neither acted nor said any thing that might Justly disgust either the King or Courtiers that were about him yet as he was next of Kin so it seems he was next in danger for these Blood-suckers mistrusting with themselves that they could ne'er be safe as long as he was alive got him suddenly seized and sent Prisoner to Edenburg Castle He was kept close there by such as did believe his power might be Fatal to them and finding there was no way by his Friends for to pacify the Kings displeasure he had nothing to do now but to consider how he might make his escape he had none to communicate his design to or to further him in it but one only Servant of his own that was left to be with him in his Chamber him he sent to get a Ship ready to attend him at the next Part at the time appointed which he does effectually In the mean time his persecutors to Plague him the more with their delusions sent several Messengers from the Court who feigned in the presence of his Keepers for he was not allowed to talk with any privately that the King's Anger began to be pacified and that he might shortly hope for his Liberty but when the day appointed for his escape was come he puts as good a meen as possible he could upon the matter and begins to feign a belief in what the Messengers said in Favour of him and Questioned not but to have a speedy and honourable deliverance And to further the Design treats his Keepers with a splendid Supper and Drinks with them till it was late at night but when they were gone and fast asleep he falls to work and makes a Rope of the Sheets of his Bed long enough as he thought to reach the ground and first for to make a Tryal therof le ts down his Man by it by whole fall he finds it was shorter then it should have been Having therefore lengthened the Rope as much as the present Circumstance would admit he follows his Man who in his descent had broke his Leg takes him up upon his back and carries him about a mile to the Sea-side and having got a Favourable Wind set sail for Dumbarton and from thence having first well secured the Castle he sailed into France The Duke was honourably received in France and Married the Earl of Bologn's Daughter but upon the Death of his Wife who lived not long with him finding Affections cool towards him he goes over into England and was entertained by Edward IIII. then King of England who assisted him with an Army to invade Scotland under the Command of his Brother Richard Duke of Gloucester King James makes all the Force he could to oppose them but being Governed by his former Councells the Nobility took it in high disdain and therefore they met together in the Church of Lowder where the King and his Army then were to deliberate what they should do in such a conjuncture Where Archibald Dowglass Earl of Angus takes upon him to set forth the occasion of their meeting which he did in a very pathetick Speech and shew'd at large all the enormities of the King's Reign down to the present time the danger they then stood in from a Foreign Army and therefore exhorts them first to shake of the Domestick Yoke of servitude they were under before they Engaged with the Enemy c. this Oration wrought so effectually upon their minds that they were immediately ready to run in headlong into the Pallace without any Consideration of what they were to do But the principal Men amongst them appeasing the tumult advised that a sufficient number should only enter in without any shew of Commotion and take out the Criminals lead them to Judgment and Punish them according to Law In the mean time while these things were in Agitation comes a Rumour into the Court that the Nobles held a Consultation together before day in the Church the subject whereof was uncertain but that it must be strange that such Men should Assemble together without the King and his Councellors Knowledge The King hereupon being hastily awaken out of his sleep enquires of those about him what he had best to do in the mean time he sends Cockram before to observe what was done and to give him an Account of all with speed he with a few followers goes towards the Church and meets the cheif of the Nobility advancing towards the Court whom they no sooner espied but Dowglass laid hands on him and catching hold of a large Gold Chain he had about his neck squeezed him first a little and then sends him to Prison himself with the rest going directly to the King's Bed-Chamber Where when they came they filled all with Astonishment so as that there seemed to be a little pause upon the matter for the present but it was not
long e're they seized upon the Kings Evil Councellors that were about him and sent them all away save only John Ramsey a very young man that clung to the King and who intreated for him that he might be spared The rest were lead to Judgment and with the loud cries of the Army calling for Justice upon those miscreants were hanged out of the way and such forwardness was shewed to have them dispatched speedily that when they wanted Ropes upon such a sudden occasion every one was ready to offer his Horses Halter or the Reins of his Bridle for that purpose These Wretches were charged with many private injuries and among the more publick ones was their advising the King to Coin base Copper Money which the Common people by way of reproach called Black-Money and that this was the principal cause of the scarcity that was in the Land the want of Trade and many other Calamities too long to be incerted To the Kings charge was laid the unjust death of the Earl of Mar his Brother his advancing of Cockram a Mason to the said Earldom his practising of Magick and resolvedness to destroy his Relations This done they returned to Edenburg and appointed the King himself to be kept in the Castle of the said City by the E. of Atholl and in the mean time they send to the English Army for a Cessation of Arms for three Months The Duke of Albany was honourably received into his Country again and had the Castle of Dunbar with the Earldoms of March and Mar conferred upon him and was withal Proclaimed the Kings Lieutenant General While things were in this state the English take the Castle of Berwick the Town having been surrendred to them before The Duke of Albany making a faint of relieving the same but did nothing At length the Duke accompanied with the Chancellor Archbishop of St. Andrews and others went to Sterling to pay the Queen and Prince a visit they had not been there long when the Queen entering into a secret Conference with the Duke unknown to the rest about the King's Confinement and urging how noble and generous as well as advantagious an act it would be in him to imploy his power for his releasement he consents to the undertaking and so returning to Edenburg besieged the Castle and took it remov'd the Earl of Athol and so sets the King and all his Servants at liberty for which extraordinary favour the King shewed him great tokens of his affections but they were not long-lived for the remembrance of old offences are of greater force in a degenerous and impotent mind than fresh kindnesses And to foment his jealousies he had always those at his Elbow who never ceased to upbraid the Duke to him of affecting too much popularity and to construe the same as an infallible sign of his intentions to snatch at the Crown when ever a fit opportunity presented The Duke who was not ignorant of those jealousies entertained of him and at last finding there was a design formed against him of no less than taking away his Life and that as appeared by poyson withdraws privily into Dunbar Castle And the King as conscious of his evil doings fearing the displeasure of his Nobles hereupon withdraws also into the Castle of Edenburg where the Earls of Angus Buchan and others forsook him and assisted the Duke But the King being haunted still by his Evil Spirits I mean those vile fellows whom he had again placed about his Person he summoned the Duke and his adherents to appear and answer for such treasonable Crimes as he had to lay to their Charge and withall prepared an Army to Besiege Dunbar which the Duke having notice off he flies into England And afterwards being accompanied with the Earl of Dowglass and others was engaged to invade the Marches of his own Country but meeting with ill success and being checked by the King of England for his ill Conduct he grew sullen thereupon and withdrew secretly into France where not long after according to the usual fate of his Family running at Tilts with Lewis Duke of Orleans he was wounded with the splinter of a Spear and thereof Dyed So that here is two of them gone the fate of the third is now approaching with winged hast For the King having once got a Peace with the English and the Castle of Dunbar into his hands which seemed for some time to put a check upon his exorbitance he returns to his old haunts gives himself over not only to be guided by Favourites and mean Persons as before who were his Leeches to drain his Subjects to satiate his covetous desires but to unlawful pleasure with loose Women Among the men Favourites John Ramsey saved as you have heard before by the Kings importunity from an Halter was chief This Man having been advanced to the dignity of Lord Stuard K of the ing's Houshold and endowed with many large demesns became so elated in mind that not being content with that large fortune nothing would serve but he must have an order that none besides himself and his Companions should go armed in those places where the King resided designing by this devise to fortifie himself and his Faction against the Nobility of the Kingdom whom he found to go frequently armed themselves and accompanied with such as were well provided for their defence But this Edict procured him more hatred than it wrought fear in his Enemies In the mean time the King minded nothing as much as to gratifie his mind with the blood of those who were thought to be the Authors of Rebellion And seeing he could not bring about his purposes he endeavours to surprise them by cunning for feigning to be reconciled to one of them after another he entertained them with that gentleness and in so soothing a manner as came below the Dignity of a Prince to do Others of them who excelled in Riches and Power he accumulated with Rewards and Honours making David Lindsey Earl Crawford Duke of Montross and George Earl of Angus he would have frequently in his Company carrying it so by communicating his secret Counsels unto him as if he were throuhgly reconciled But his Rewards and Blandishments had but little effect upon any of them in respect to any opinion his Sincerity for they who knew his disposition doubted not but all that semblance of Goodness and Favour tended to no other end than either to surprise them one after another or to set them at variance one against another which when he had got the chief of Nobility to Edenburg did more clearly appear for having sent for Dowglass to him into the Castle he shewed him what a brave opportunity he now had to be revenged on them for if he did but secure the Heads of the Factions and punish them the rest would be quiet That if he lett his opportunity that presented it self slip he could never afterward hope for such another Dowglass who well knew that the Kings mind
was as implacable towards him as the rest of them cunningly discusses that rash and evil Counsel arguing with him what a base and flagitious offence all the world would look upon it to be if he should without due Process of Law suddenly hale to execution so many Illustrious Persons to whom he was reconciled as having given his Royal Word for pardoning of what was past and that not long since and now secur'd with the Publick Faith for the fierce and enraged minds of Enemies would not be broken with the ruine of a few and coming once to despair of Pardon they would turn their wrath into fury and the consequence of that would be that they would grow more stobborn and obstinate and less value the King's Authority and their own lives and if your Highness will take my Counsel continued the Earl Iâ—ll put you in a way whereby to salve the King's Honour and Dignity and that revenge may at the same time be prosecuted For I having gathered my Friends and Tenants together will openly and in the day time lay hold of them and then you may try them where you will and punish them as you please and this will be not only more Honourable but also more safe for the King than if they should be killed at unawares in the Night as it were by Thiefs The King believing the Earl spoke what he thought for he knew well enough that he was able to perform what he promised he gave him many thanks for his advise and dismissed him laden with large Promises of Reward The Earl having warned the Peers to take care of their safety and to withdraw from the imminent danger that hung over their Heads does himself also retire to a place of safety The King from hence forwards finding his secret Counsels laid open and not daring to trust any body betook himself to the Castle of Edenburg and from thence being conveyed by Sea to the Countries beyond the Forth which still were obedient to him did in a short time levy a good Army And now the Nobility who before designed nothing but that the King should amend in his male administration finding all accommodation with him desperate and his evil disposition incurable bend all their Counsels to remove him A bad Steward its most certain he had been and now they are resolved to call him to a severe account for the same The great difficulty that stood in their way and which they were deliberating to remove was whom they should appoint to be their Captain who when the King were brought to a compliance might be constituted Vicegerent of the Kingdom It was adjudged highly necessary it should be a person that was pleasing to the Commonallity of an Illustrious Name That the Faction might not be opprest and weakned out of an envy to his Greatness and at last after they had thought of one and another they pitched unanimously upon the King 's own Son the Prince of Scotland who being taken from his Keepers and Governours of his tender years was urged to a speedy compliance for if otherwise they were resolved to transfer the Kingdom into the hands of the King of England who would take care to root out him and his Family for the better security of it Now the King had past over the Forth and pitched his Tents at a place called Blackness and the Sons Army ready prepared to give Battle were not a far off But by the mediation of the Earl of Athol the King's Uncle things were at present brought to an accommodation and Athol himself was delivered as an Hostage to Adam Hepborn Earl of Bothwell in whose custody he remained till the K. death which now was not far off But the agreement as being between such as had an incurable jealousie of one another did not last long In the mean time Couriers and Mediators past continually from one to another at last the Lords gave determinate answer That seeing the King acted nothing sincerely with an intention to perform they adjudged it better to be engaged in a certain War than a delusive and treacherous Peace That the only hopes of agreement was if the King would Abdicate the Throne and have his Son advanced in his room if not it would be to no purpose for them to try and frustrate one another with Conferences The King not to be wanting to himself in this desperate Fortune orders his Embassadors in England and France to communicate this answer to those Kings whom he earnestly sollicites to make use of their Authority or if need were their Forces too in his behalf for the repressing of the insolence of a few Rebels and reduce them to Reason and their Duty and to esteem his Fortune common with their to own and such as might by the Contagion thereof easily creep to other Nations He sent also to Eugenius IIII. Pope of Rome to intreat him out of his Paternal care and love to the Scotish Name and Nation to send a Legate into Scotland to enforce the Rebells according to the Authority of his Holiness's Power and Jurisdiction to lay down their Arms and obey their King The Pope having one Adrian Castlean for his Legate in England a Man of great Learning and Prudence he Writes to him to use his endeavour to compose the Scotch Affairs and bring them to a settlement But this came a day after the fare for the Lords who knew well enough that these proceedings of the King abroad were in agitation and withall that his mind was implacable towards them resolved before he should have an opportunity to augment the number of his Forces to try it out by Arms and though they had the Kings Son with them as well to manifest their Authority to the Common People as to shew that they were not angry with or had no quarrel against their Country but a pernicious King who would have ruined them yet least the minds of the people should be alienated by the cunning or forreign Ambassadors and other accidents that attend procrastination they were busied night and day how to commit all to the hazard of a Battle But the Kings timerousness was an obstacle to their eagerness and hast who because he had ordered considerable Levies to be made for the augmentation of the Troops he had on foot already in the northern parts of the Kingdom did in the mean time keep himself close within the Castle of Edenburg But that he might precipitate his fate he was brought by his Followers whether designedly or ignorantly is uncertain to forsake this wholsome Counsel which he looked upon to be safest for him for they perswaded him that by reason of the frequent tides there which might cause delay and danger to them that were about to meet together it were more adviseable he should go to Sterling Castle the best situated place of any for gathering of Forces together out of all parts of the Kingdom That he would be as safe there as in Edenburg Castle
and by But before her arrival in Scotland John Forbes a young Gentleman of a great Family was accused of a Design he had many years before to Assassinate the King It was believed to be a malitious prosecution of the Huntley's but Condemned he was and lost his head and a few Days after came on another Tryal which on the account of the Family of the accused Parties the Novelty of it and the heinousness of the punishment was very Lamentable and Tragical and plainly shews the Kings mind was cruel and implacable Joan Dowglass Sister to the Earl of Angus of whom we have said so much and Wife to John Lyons Lord of Glames also her Son and latter Husband Gilespy Campell John Lyons Kinsman to her former Husband and an old Priest were accused for endeavouring to poyson the King All these tho' they lived continually in the Country far from the Court and their Friends and Servants could not be brought to witness any thing against them yet were put on the rack to extort a Confession from them and so were Condemned and shut up in Edenburg Castle Joan Dowglass was burnt alive with great Commiseration of all the Spectators The Nobleness both of her self and Husband did much affect the beholders Besides she was in the vigour of her youth much celebrated for her rare Beauty and in her very punishment she shewed a manlike Fortitude But that which people were more concerned for was that they thought the enmity against her Brother who was banished did her more prejudice then her own objected Crime Her Husband endeavoured to escape out of the Castle of Edenburg but the Rope being too short to let him down to the foot of the Rock brake almost all the bones of his body with the fall and so ended his Days Their Son a young Man and of greater Innocent simplicity then to have the suspicion of such a wickedness justly charged upon him was for all that shut up a Prisoner in the Castle And the accuser of all these William Lyons by name afterwards perceiving that so eminent a Family was like to be utterly ruined by his false Information Repented when it was too late and confessed his offence to the King Yet so bloody was he an instance I think hardly to be parallelled in all the records of time that it did not prevent the Execution of the Condemned or hinder their Estates from being Confiscate and the aforesaid young Gentleman was not discharged from his Imprisonment and Restored to his Inheritance till after the King's Death which is now upon the Wing But as we have given you the Tragical part of his past life in all the Circumstances of them we shall depeint unto you all the concurrent causes of his Tragical and Untimely Death and to that End we are necessitated to recount some few things to you that in order of time precede and you must note That King Henry VIII having upon the account of his Divorce from Queen Katherine Proclaimed himself head of the Church and utterly disclaimed the Pope's Authority in England he thereby contracted great enmity not only from Rome but also from Spain and the Empire Wherefore to strengthen himself against any Combination that he expected to be made against him he was desirous to entertain a strict amity with his Nephew James V. of Scotland and to that End directs Ambassadors to him inviting him to a Conference at York whither Henry offered to come and meet him Alledging That by such an interview matters might be better concerted for the mutual Interest of both Kingdoms K. James after a serious Deliberation returns Answer he would attend his Unkle at the Time and Place appointed who thereupon made very great preparations to Entertain him with utmost solemnity But the Scotch Clergy apprehensive least their King through his Unkles Perswasions and Example might be wrought upon to shake off the Pope's Authority in Scotland as he had done in his own Dominions Resolve to do the utmost of their endeavours to prevent the intended interview and so mustering up all their Forces by themselves and the Kings minions and flatterers acquaint him with the evil Câ—nseâ—uence of his going to England shew how King James I. had been kept Prisoner in England how ill the French their old Confederates and the Emperor would take it at his hands That King Henry was excommunicate that a dangerous Heresy had overspread not only the greatest part of that Kingdom but had infected even the King himself That many of his own Nobility were favourers of the said Heresy which notwithstanding if he took care timously to suppress it would be of mighty advantage to him and he might very much increase his revenue by their Estates a list of whose names they presented to him which he put in his Pocket thinking it a very profitable proposal and therefore with all expedition to be put in Execution The Lord Grang his Treasurer and who secretly favoured the Reformation was then much in his favour and to him the King shews the foresaid List telling him what great advantage he would make of it whereat the Treasurer smiled and withall desired leave to speak his mind freely upon which the King drew his Sword and merily said to him I le kill thee if thou speak against my profit Then the Treasurer began to set before him at large the various troubles of his Reign while in minority and what an hand the Clergy had in all the disorders that he had not been long a free Prince And that though his Majesty had done very much in thâ— time in setling the Highlands and the Borders yet desired him to consider of what a dangerous consequence it might be if his Nobility should get intelligence that some greedy fetches had been insinuated to him under pretence of Heresie to dispoile them of their Lives and Inheritances And thereby endanger his own Estate at the instance of those whose Estates were in danger and who would hazard him and his to save their own I mean continued the Treasurer the Prelates who are afraid least your Majesty according to the Example of the King 's of England and Denmark and other Princes of the Empire should make the like Reformation among them and therefore they are clearly against your having any familiarity with the King of England or to have your Affairs so settled as to give you leisure to look into and reform the abuses of the Church Then he went on and shewed him how the Revenues of the Crown were wasted and the vast Estates of the Clergy their addictedness to the Pope their sly carriage in insinuating themselves into all secrets of State the wisdom of the Venetians in that particular in excluding the whole Levitical Order from their Senate-house the gross abuses of the Church of Rome the scandalous lives of the Scotch Clergy and last of all urged how dishonourable and dangerous it would be to his Majesty not to keep his word with
before the Army which so distasted all of them and especially the Lord Maxwell that all things were presently in a Confusion and the Army ready to disband The opportunity of an adjoining Hill gave the English a full prospect into their Army and invited them to make advantage thereof and so they fell upon the Scots with a furious charge quickly routed them slew a great number of them and took abundance of prisoners among whom Sinclair their General made one The News of this defeat was no sooner brought to the King who was not far off but he fell into a great rage and fury which terminated in sadness and heavy grief of heart as Robert II. his great Ancestor did upon the taking of his Son James by the English and this brought him to watch and be abstemious disdaining to eat his Victuals And coming to understand that the Country was full of murmurings that the Kingdom should be thus endangered for the Prelates pleasure and knowing withal that such Complaints were Just and True this made him burst out with some threatning and revengeful language against such as had given him such bad advice and so hastned his untimely Death For those evil Councellors had no sooner understood what he said but they considered the danger they might be in if he should survive and fearing the Effects of his displeasure they poisoned him having learnt the Art in Italy called an Italian Posit in the Three and Thirtieth year of his Age and two and Thirtieth of his Reign See Melvill's Memoirs Cardinal Beaton who t is supposed had a great hand in his Death counterfeited his will wherein himself and three more were appointed Governors of the Kingdom He left one only Daughter Mary that Succeeded him in his Kingdom and Misfortunes and was at her Fathers Death but eight Days old He never saw her and 't was said when he was informed of her Birth it did rather aggravate his sorrow then exhilarate his mind as foreseeing Scotland would one way or other fall under the Government of the English Nation The King cut thus off in the flower of his Age the tumults of the former times were rather hushed up then composed so that Wise men foresaw such a tempest impending over Scotland as they had neither ever heard before in the ancient records of time nor had themselves seen the like For what from private animosities and dissension upon the score of Religion and from a War from aboard with a puissant King now enraged with the Scots prevaricating with him there was reasonably to be hoped for little less then an utter desolation However something must be done and the Cardinal according to his Develish subornation takes the Administration into his hands but James Hamilton Earl of Arran being presumptive Heir to the Crown and his friends as well as many others disdaining to be under the bondage of a Mercenary Priest they encouraged him to assume the Regency which the return of the Prisoners taken in the last Battle by the English who were released by the King of England with the hopes and upon promise of procuring their young Queen to be married to Prince Edward and thereby to have the two Crowns United did not a little promote so that the Cardinals forgery being in a little time detected he was casheered and his Kinsman Arran substituted in his room Not long after came Sir Ralph Sadler Ambassador from King Henry into Scotland to treat about the foresaid Match but the Cardinal and his faction raise forty colourable pretences to affront him and elude his Message and to fortify themselves as much as might be sent for Mathew Stuart Earl of Lennox out of France by whose Interest they thought to ballance that of the Hamiltons But soon after his arrival finding the Regent and Cardinal had joined Interests and that himself was eluded in respect to the promise made him of Marrying the Queen Dowager and having the chief management of affairs and withal mis-representing his proceeding to the French King he has recourse to Arms But not finding himself to have Force sufficient to cope with the Regent with the additional Interest of the Queen and Cardinal he makes some sort of Accommodation with them But at last experimenting there was but little sincerity in all their Actions and that himself was opprest and in danger of his life every moment he made some faint resistance and in the end withdrew into England where he was Honourably received by the King who besides his other respects gave him Margaret Dowglass in Marriage who was Sister by the Mother side to James V. last King of Scotland begot by the Earl of Angus upon Margaret Sister to Henry VIII from which Marriage sprâ—ng Henry Stuart Lord Darnley Husband to Mary Queen of Scots and Father to James VI. of Scotland and I. of England of whom more here after The King of England in the mean time being highly affronted with the Scots violating of their faith with him in respect to the Marriage resolves to call them to a severe account for their perfidity and to that End invades their Country with a puissant Army commits great ravages and even Pillaged and Burnt Edenburg it self and then retreated The Scots with the assistance of the French whose Alliance they had preferred before that of the King of England endeavoured to retrieve the loss by the Invasion of the English Bordirs but made little of the matter So â—hat things for a time seemed to hang in â—uspence between both Nations and the Cardinal with his cut-throat Ecclesiasticks had leasure to prosecute those that espouesd the Reformation and because the Civil power would not meddle with the matter they take the whole into their own hands And among others put to Death one George Wiseheart burning him for an Heretick and who when the Governor who stood by exhorted him to be of good cheer and ask Pardon of God for his offences He replied This flame occasions trouble in deed to my body but it hath in no wise broken my spirit but he who now proudly looks down upon me from yonder lofty place pointing to the Cardinal shall e're long be as ignominiously thrown down as now he proudly â—ies at his ease Which strangely came to pass and which because of the Tragicalness of the Story we think will not be impertinent to insert in this place The Cardinal being on a time at St. Andrew's and having appointed a day for the Nobility and especially those whose Estates lay nearest the Sea to Meet and Consult what was fit to be done for the common safety for their Coasts were severely threatned by the great Naval preparations of the English made against them He determined for the more effectual Execution of his Design to take a strict view of all the Sea-Coasts to Fortify all Convenient Places and to put Garrisons into them Among the rest of the Noble Men Sons who came into the Cardinal Norman Lesley Son to the
the present Possessor to part with his Inheritance and she desired his Father-in-Law and Friends to perswade him to it But this matter not meeting with the desired success the Queen took the repulse as a great Affront to her and which was worse David took it very hainously also These things being known abroad the Commonalty began to bewail the sad state of Affairs and expected that things would grow worse if Men eminent for their Families Estates and Credit should be outed of their ancient Patrimony to gratifie the Lust of a beggerly Varlet Yea many of the Elder sort called to mind and told others of the time when Cockburn wickedly slew the Kings Brother and of a Stone-cutter was made Earl of Marr which raised up such a flame of a Civil War that could not be extinguished but by the Death of the King and almost the Destruction of the Kingdom These things were spoken openly but Men did privately mutter much worse yet the King would never be perswaded to believe it unless he saw it with his own Eyes so that one time hearing that David was gone into the Queen's Bed-Chamber he came to a little Door of which he always carried the Key about him and found it Bolted on the inside which it never used to be whereupon he knocked but no body answered and so he was forced to go his ways but conceived great Wrath and Indignation in his Heart that he could not sleep that Night From that time forward he consulted with some of his Servants for he durst trust but a very few many of them having been corrupted by the Queen and put upon him rather as Spies over his Actions than Attendants upon his Person how to rid David out of the way His design they approved of but to find out a probable way to effect it was the difficulty When that Consultation had been managed for some days others of his Servants who were not privy to the Design suspecting the matter and there being evident signs of it went and acquainted the Queen therewith and withall told her that they would bring her to the place where they were and they were as good as their words For to that end they observed and watcht the opportunity when others were shut out and the King had only his Confidents about him and ordered it so that the Queen as if passing through his Chamber to her own surprized him with her Partizans whereupon she inveighed bitterly against him and highly threatned his Domesticks telling them all their Plots were in vain for she knew all their Minds and Actions and would remedy them well enough in due time Things being brought to this desperate pass the King thought fit to acquaint his Father the Earl of Lennox with his sad Condition and after some Conference they both concluded that the only remedy for the present Malady was to reconcile that part of the Nobility which were present and to recal those that were absent But great expedition was required in the thing because the day was near at hand wherein the Queen had resolved to Condemn the Nobles that were absent having appointed a Convention of the States for that purpose against the Wills of the English and French Ambassadors who interceeded in the case for they well knew that the accused had not committed such heinous Offences and besides foresaw the danger that would ensue thereupon About the same time did Queen Elizabeth send her a very obliging and long Letter full of good Advice in reference to the present State of her Kingdom and endeavouring to reduce her from a wrathful to a reconcileable Temper The Queen coming to understand that the Nobility knew that such Letters were come and that they guessed at the Contents of them she counterfeited a civiller respect to them than ordinary and began to read the Letters in the presence of many of them But when she was got about the middle David stood up and bid her Read no more she had read enough she should stop which strange carriage of his seemed to them rather Arrogant than New for they knew how imperiously he had carried it towards her heretofore yea and sometimes how he would reprove her more sharply than ever her own Husband durst do At that time the Cause of the Banished Lords was hotly agitated in the Parliament House some to gratifie the Queen's Humour would have the punishment due to Traytors past upon them others stiffly contended that they had done nothing worthy to be so severely used But David in the mean time went about to all of them one by one to feel their Pulses what every Man's Vote would be concerning the Exiles if he was chosen President by the rest of the Convention And he told them plainly the Queen was resolved to have them Condemned that it was in vain for any of them to struggle against it and besides who ever did should be sure to incuâ— the Queen's Displeasure thereby His aim herein was partly to confound the weaker Minds betwixt hope and fear and partly to exclude the most resolute out of the number of the Judges Select or Lords of the Articles or at least that the major part might be of such a Gizzard as to please the Queen and this audacious procedure and wickedness in so mean a Fellow was feared by some and hated by all Whereupon the King by his Father's Advice sent to James Douglas and Patrick Lindsey his Kinsmen the one by the Father and the other by the Mothers side who advise with Patrick Ruven an able man both for Advice and Execution but he was brought so low with long Sickness that for some months he could not get out of his Bed However they were willing to trust him amongst some few more in a matter of so great a Concernment both by reason of his great Prudence as also because his Children were Cousin-Germans to the King But here the King was told by them what a great Error he had committed before in suffering his Kinsmen and Friends to be driven from Court in favour of such a base Rascal as Rizzio yea that he himself did in effect thrust them out of the Court with his own Hands and so had advanced such a contemptible Mushroom so as that now he himself was abashed and despised of him They had also much other discourse concerning the State of the publick and the King was quickly brought to acknowledge his Fault and to promise to act nothing for the future without the Consent of the Nobility But those wise and experienc'd Counsellors thought it not safe to trust the verbal promises of an uxorious young man as believing that he might be prevailed upon in time by his Wife to deny this Capitulation to their certain Ruin and therefore they thought it adviseable to draw up the Heads of their Agreement in Writing to which he willingly and forwardly subscribed The substance whereof was That Religion should be established as it was provided for
all his days they framed an Accusation against Morton and got him committed to Edinburgh Castle from whence in a short time he was brought to his Tryal and Condemned for having an hand in the Lord Darnley the King's Father's Murder that he was privy to the same he did not deny at his Execution and withall confessed that he had a design to send the young King into England for his Safety and so there 's another Governor gone who was the fourth and last and every one whereof died a violent Death and now the King assumes the Government himself and if he was unhappy during the time of the Regency I think it will appear it was no better with him ever after for he himself was as much governed now by his Favourites and Sycophants as the Kingdom had been by a Regent and the first into whose Hands he fell was Aubonie now Created Duke of Lennox and a Papist and the aforesaid James Steward who assumed to himself the Style and Title and then the Earldom of Arran These two led him by the Nose at their Pleasure and carried all things with an high Hand lording it over the rest of the Nobility and aiming at their Estates which made them begin to look about them and concluding after serious Consultation that from two such Counsellors no wholsome Advice could proceed for the Peace of the Country and Establishment of Religion but rather if they were suffered to go on still both the one and the other would be endangered they resolve to remove them The King was at that time designing to go from Athol to Dumfermling to take his usual Divertisement of Hunting where the Lords designed to encounter him with a supplication full of Complaints against the Duke and Earl with pressing Instances for the removing of them and least their supplication should miscarry they backt it with strong Forces which could not be resisted The King had but a very few attendance at Dumfermling for Lennox staid at Dalkeith and Arran at Kinweel and several of the Council were gone to hold the Assizes in divers Shires of the Country Sir James Melvill was at Edenburgh whither a Gentleman one morning came to his Bed-side and told him that he had formerly done him several kindnesses which till then he was never able to recompence but that now he would make him an Instrument of saving the King his Master out of the Hands of those who were upon an enterprise to take and secure him Melvill replied he could hardly believe such a thing but that he feared the Duke of Lennox might be in danger who was gone to Glasgow because of the Hatred that was bore to him by the Nobility The Gentleman subjoyned they will lay hands first on the King's Person and then the Duke and Earl of Arran dare no more be seen their insolency being looked upon as the Cause of almost all the Disorders of the Nation and when he had so said he desired the King might be acquainted with the matter but to have his Name concealed from him for he said that design would be put in execution in ten days time and as Sir James started up to put on his Cloaths he slipt out at the door with a short farewell Sir James upon this Information rides with all the expedition imaginable to Dalkeith where the Duke of Lennox then was and laid the whole matter open before him and advised him withal to lose no time but to Ride to the King to give him notice that he might make timely provision for his own security but the Duke chose rather to dispatch a Gentleman with all possible diligence to the King upon that Occasion and wished Sir James to write to the Earl of Gaury about the same for it seems the Gentleman that gave him the first Information of the Plot had not named Gaury with the rest of the Lords to him either out of forgetfulness or else because he had been but lately won over to the Party by the Land of Drumwhafel who had assured him that Lennox had resolved to kill him whereever he met him and used this as a convincing argument to Embark the Earl in the same Cause but however matters fell out the Lords receded from their first Resolution of presenting their supplication as aforesaid and would not tarry 〈◊〉 the King came to Dumferling but they surprised him at Huntingtown-House which was the Earl of Gaury's its uncertain whether it were not done with a design to imbark the Earl more deeply in their Bond or that fearing least the design was discovered they made the greater haste to execute the same by seising the King there which was afterward called the Road of Ruthven The King is once more a Prisoner and the Lords conduct him to Sterling-Castle where he is kept for a time In the mean while the French King and Queen Elizabeth by their Ambassadors make Instances for his Liberty and Condole his Misfortune but so hen-hearted was he that he ordered their Ambassadors to declare to their respective Princes that he was well satisfied with the Lords that were about him that they were his own Subjects c. and when the Lords called a Council to resolve what course to take he agreed with them to form an Act declaring That what they had done was good service to himself the Kirk and Commonwealth though Mr. Carey who I think was afterward Created Earl of Monmouth whispered him in the Ear and desired him to tell the plain Truth which he engaged to conceal from all others whatsoever and only acquaint the Queen his Mistress therewith he told him his Heart was full fraught with Grief and Displeasure at his Misfortune The Lords having thus effected their purpose as having now rid the Court of the Duke of Lennox who fled into France and the Earl of Arran whom they committed to the Custody of the Earl of Gaury most of them withdrew from the Court to their respective homes whereupon the King retaining a displeasure still in his Heart towards them takes occasion to appoint a Convention to be held at St. Andrews whereunto by Missive Letters he invited some of the Nobility but none of the Lords that had lately left him designing thereby to get loose out of their Hands and to retain about him such Lords as he had written for and notwithstanding some about him endeavoured to divert him from the said Resolution alledging the fresh Jealousie that would be Created in the absent Lords by such a procedure and with all the Power they had to be revenged of the conceived affront he rejected the advice wherefore for the better management of his design it was thought expedient that he should go a few days to St. Andrews before the Convention was to meet that being once there a Proclamation might be issued out to forbid any Nobleman whatsoever to come to the said Convention without express Orders from the King so to do and to this end it was
to be a breach of Faith in the King and himself to be charged with being Author of the said Murder but none resented it so highly as the Lord Ochiltrie who took such despight that his Friend should be slain during a time of Treaty that he solemnly Declared he took part with the Earl of Bothwell and divers others in revenge of his Quarrel encouraging the said Earl to assassinate the King within his Palace of Falkland having several at Court familiar enough with the King who guided him at pleasure to favour the said Conspiracy but things could not be carried with that Secrecy but that some about him got intelligence of the Design and advised him for his own safety to pass over to Coupar and with all expedition to Assemble the Barons of Fife for his own safety but such as had contrived his Ruin perswaded him to stay alledging that the Earl of Louthian would not come from Louthian till such a day tho he kept to his time and came to Falkland two days sooner according to appointment and this they did with a design to have surprized the King before he could either have entred within the Tower of Falkland or making any tolerable Provision for his own Defence and because they knew Sir James Melvill and his Brother Sir Robert might be some obstruction to the Design they advised the King to send them home to their Houses the very same night that they uuderstood the Earl of Bothwell purposed to be there but before the Brothers departed they advised the King to ride quietly to Bambrigh that from thence he might when he pleased take Boat and go over to Angus where he would have leisure to Assemble Forces out of Perth and Dundee with the adjacent Countrys but this advice was also rejected Sir Roberâ— upon the Road homewards had notice given given him by one of Bothwell's gang that he was already got as far as Fife and would be in Falkland about Supper time who forthwith dispatched his Gentleman whose Name was Robert Aufleck to acquaint his Majesty therewith and to desire him to go into the Tower with all expedition but they called him Fool and laughed him to scorn for his pains and so he left them in great discontent but upon his return he met Bothwell and his followers upon the height of Lammonds it being by this time dark night and so struck in with them as if he had been one of the gang and used great diligence to get first to the King shutting the Court Gate after him upon his entrance he urged the King to get into the Tower with utmost expedition which at length he did and so for this time escaped also for tho Bothwell came well provided of all things for forcing the Palace where he thought to surprize the King and tho' it was alledged some shot Paper only out of the Culverins in the Tower upon Bothwell's Men yet others shot Bullets which together with the fear he was in lest the Country might come caused him to retire and flee none pursuing them The Assassination failing this terminated in open Rebellion Bothwell associating himself with the Popish Lords the more to strengthen his Party who for a time prevailed but at last were necessitated to go beyond Sea and Bothwell several years after died at Naples but no sooner was one fear over but comes on another but of a different nature the King you have heard before plaid the Knight-Errant rather than be without a Wife who was Anne Sister to the King of Denmark a Lady that bears a fair Character in the Annals of Time tho' I find one say of her that she was a Person he heard little of saving that Character which Salust gives Sempronia that she could Saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae See had about two years before bore him a Son Prince Henry to whom the King assigned the Earl of Marr Governor now the Queen 't is not known upon what design nor well by whose agency and Promotion laid a project in the King's absence to surprize the Prince and take him out of the Earl's hands but the King 's suddain arrival from Faulkland to Edenburg and taking the Queen away along with him to Sterlin rendred the Project abortive Hower it were the very projection put King James into no small Bodily fear as appears by the following Letter he writ to the Earl of Marr upon that occasion which is recited by Sanderson in his Life of King James My Lord of Mar BEcause in the security of my Son mine is Conserved and my Concredit of his Charge to you upon Trust of your Honour and Honesty This I Command as singly and solely of my self being in Company of those I like not that upon any Charge or Necessity that possibly come from me you shall not deliver him and in case that God call me at any time see you that neither for the Queen nor for the Estates Pleasure you deliver him out of your hands till he be 18 years of Age and that then he Command you himself James Rex This Court juggle and jealousie was followed by a more dangerous one from the Presbytery who met at Edinburg to treat of their Ecclesiastical Affairs and some other matters that came under their Consideration but the Kings Sentiments and theirs were as remote as East and West which produced such Heats and Factions that the King dissolves the Convention they stand stifly to it and meet for all that several Lords espouse their Cause at last the King truckles and was willing to come to an Accommodation but to shew the Image of Authority first asked Who they were that durst Convene against his Proclamation but his Mouth was quickly stopped by the Lord Linsay's reply saying That they durst do more than so and would not endure Destruction of Religion and by the Nobles crying out Arm others Bring forth Haman and some the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon it made the King and his Council flee from Edenburg to Linlithgo but futy by degrees began to cool and some Concessions of all sides introduced a little Tranquillity in the State and some Remissions of the Kings Fears but the Revolution of about two years ushered in that memorable Conspiracy of the Earl of Gowry which because not foreign from the scope of the present Treatise and by reason of the Barbarity and Tragical circumstances thereof as well as it has been the subject of the discourse of many but hardly a Man to be met with that can give the true state of it I shall endeavour to oblige the Reader with a distinct and impartial Narrative of the same even according to what the Court Party and King's Favourites have related concerning it Sanderson in his Life and Death of King James says the Surname of the Earls of Gowry was Ruthven and a Family of small account till Anno 1568. when the chief of them among other Confederates endeavoured to Imprison Mary
Salisbury Worcester Suffolk Sir George Carew and Sir Julius Caesar to Interrogate with Cobham upon the said Head Cobham protested he never did nor could accuse Sir Walter but said That Villain Wade after a long Sollicitation so to do but not prevailing got him by a trick to write his Name upon a piece of Paper which he dreaming of no harm did so that if any Charge came under his Hand it must have been forged by Wade by Writing something above his Name without his Consent or Privity The Lords returning to the King made Salisbury their Spokesman who elusively said Sir My Lord Cobham hath made good all that ever he said and so the matter rested Sir Walter being no ways relieved hereby but the King further possest with his guilt but surely the baseness of those Lords and the King's credulity were unpardonable Crimes Soon after this Hodge-podge of a Plot the King and Queen were Crowned in great Pomp at Westminster And the same year a Conference was managed at Hampton-Court between the Prelatical and Puritan Party the latter conceiving great hopes that because of the King's Education in the Scots Discipline he would be of their side but they mistook quite their mark for he was by that time become Heart and Soul Episcopal and to give evident Demonstration of his entire Conversion issues out a Proclamation of which no Prince was ever so prodigal and which at last as naturally happens were as little regarded for Uniformity in Religion according to Law Established then at length comes a Parliament between whom and the King notwithstanding some mutual Caresses for a time arose several Jars and Jealousies but the discovery of the Gun-Powder Treason attributed to the King's Wisdom and Foresight seemed for a time to heal all the Breaches which hellish Contrivance against the King and Kingdom will fall pertinently enough to be noted in this place The Popish Party finding their Petition for a Toleration of Religion rejected grew enraged thereat and now nothing would serve but the Destruction of King Prince and the Representative Body of the whole Nation in Parliament and to that end they hid 36 Barrels of Gun-Powder under the Parliament House the principal Contriver whereof was Robert Catesby a Gentleman of a plentiful Estate who made choice of Thomas Piercy Winter Grant Ambrose Rookwood I am told the Ancestor of the late Ambrose Rookwood executed for Conspiring the Death of our Renowned Sovereign King William Wright Tresham Sir Everard Digby and others who are all bound to Secresie by those Sacraments which are the greatest Ties upon the Soul and St. Garnet the Jesuit was their Confessor Piercy was to hire the Cellars under the Parliament House to lay Wood and Coals in for his Winters Store and Guido Faux a desperate Ruffian who was to give Fire to the Train was appointed to be his Man to bring in Wood and Coals The Gun-Powder bought in Flanders was brought in the Night from Lambeth and covertly laid under the Wood and every thing made ready against the 7th of February whereon the Parliament was to meet but the Parliament being providentially Prorogued to the 5th of November following this dispersed the Conspirators for the present and made them almost at their Wits end but reassuming again their former Courage they resolve to carry on their Villany and to bear up with Patience till the day came They were sure the King and Prince must perish with the blow as for the Duke of York Piercy undertook to dispatch him but the Lady Elizabeth they resolved to save that under her Minority and Innocency they might the better establish their Bloody Principles of Piety and Policy and to that end they appointed a great Hunting Match to be at Dunsemore-Heath in Warwickshire to be nearer the Lord Harrington's House where the Lady Elizabeth then was on the 5th of November aforesaid Thus Solacing themselves in this Bloody Expectation and thinking all Cock-sure one tender-hearted Murderer among the rest writ a Letter to the Lord Monteagle wishing him to have a care of himself and to forbear his Attendance at that Parliament for God and Man had concurred to punish the Wickedness of the time and they should receive a terrible blow and yet not see who hurt them The Lord Monteagle thinking there might be something in the Letter oâ— dangerous Consequence though he understood it not carried the same to the Earl of Salisbury who also could not tell what to make of it but upon the King 's coming to Whitehall from Royston where he had been Hunting of a Hare he shewed him the Letter who being naturally of a fearful Temper and suspicious Mind ordered the Earl of Suffolk and Lord Monteagle to make a search about the Parliament House who entring into the Cellar and observing the Stores as aforesaid enquired of the Wardrobe Keeper Mr. Winyard who was also House-keeper whose they were Winyard replied he had let the Cellar to one Thomas Percy and close in a Corner there stood Faux who being asked who he was said Percy 's Servant The Lords for the present left all things as they found them but departed full of Suspicion the Lord Monteagle assuring himself the forementioned Letter must come from Percy for there were some little intimacy between them and gave the King and Council a Relation of their Proceedings who resolved that night to make a further search and committed it to the management of Sir Thomas Knevet a Gentleman of approved Fidelity and who with a suitable Assistance coming to the Cellar about midnight met Faux at the Door on whom he presently seized and proceeding in his search pulled out the Core of all that Horrid Contrivance whereupon Faux confessed all being only sorry it came not to perfection and saying God would have concealed it and the Devil only discovered it In his Pockets they found a Watch which were not common then and a Tinder-Box Engines to minute out his time to strike the fatal blow The Conspirators finding all detected hastened for all that to the Hunting Match aforesaid furnishing themselves with Horses by breaking open several Stables and taking their choice but the Sherriffs of Warwickshire and Worcestershire pursued them so hard that at last they were forced to earth themselves at Littleton's House at Halbech where Percy and Catesby were slain with a few more and the rest taken Prisoners and afterwards Hanged This happy Deliverance was Celebrated with great Joy and Foreign Princes though Popish would Congratulate the Discovery and the Parliament made an Act for the perpetual Solemnizing of the day of Deliverance with publick Thanksgivings So things continued for a time and the King of Denmark the Queen's Brother coming over to visit the King and his Sister the Summer following added a greater gust to the Recreations and Pastimes of the Court now wallowing in all sensual Pleasures as if the Devil was quite laid and ne'er more Storms to be feared from any Quarter but the
Parliaments stiffness to supply their Court Extravagancies in time of Peace and rejection of the King 's much desired proposal to unite both Nations by a Naturalization of the Scots without they would come under the English Laws and Government was some allay to his Delights At last an accident broke out which wrought in him no small disquiet as you have already heard while King James was only King of Scotland that he was entirely at his Favourites Devotion which as has been related had many Tragical Effects you must know he was become no changling now he was King of England and among others one Robert Carr a young Man of no fortune in the World and who it seems had been formerly one of his Pages in Scotland coming to Court in a good Garb and being a comely Person was taken notice of by the King and in a short time was Knighted by him made Gentleman of his Bed-Chamber Viscount Rochester and at length Earl of Sommerset and over-topped all the rest of his Favourites abundantly even to Cope with the Prince himself who disdaining to be thus bearded by an upstart of yesterday would not afford him a good look nor speak to him and some said that some love Jealousies the Prince being now in his Puberty encreased the Emulation between Carr and him The Countess of Essex then a top Gallant Lady in the Bloom of her years and disdaining the Company of the Noble Earl her Husband being the Bane of Contention between them but be this as it will the Countess was enamoured on the Favourite and cast her Love-Anchor there but I should think the Prince above all these Thoughts by the following passage for being on a time Dancing among the Ladies and the Countesses Glove falling down it was taken up and presented to him by one that thought he did him acceptable Service but the Prince refused to receive it saying publickly He would not have it it was streatched by another meaning Carr then Viscount Rochester But things could not continue long in this State for as the Court were full of Rejoycings upon the Palsgrave's arrival in England to Marry the Lady Elizabeth there was a damp struck upon the Hearts of all true Englishmen upon the suddain immature and I doubt violent death of the Noble Prince Henry in the flower of his years Sir A. W. says his death had been foretold by one Bruce a famous Scotch Astrologer for the which the Earl of Salisbury caused him to be banished who left this farewell with the Earl That it should be too true but that his Lordship should not live to see it The Earl dying in Day and the Prince in November following to the infinite grief of all but Sommerset and the Family of the Howards who by his death thought themselves secured from all future dangers for he being an open Prince and hating all baseness would often say He would not leave one of that Family to piss against a Wall I do not know why Sir Anthony might not have put the King himself into the foresaid number I am sure he shewed but small symptoms of Sorrow at his death which happened as was said but then in November by his commanding no Man should appear at Court in Mourning in the Christmass Holidays following the Jollity Feasting and Magnificence whereof must not be laid aside upon any account whatsoever it is certain that the Princes Court was frequented more than the King 's and by another sort of Men so that the King upon seeing of him once at a distance in the Park with a far more numerous Train than himself was heard to say What will he bury me alive jealousie is like a fire that burns all before it and that fire is hot enough to dissolve all Bonds that tend to the diminution of a Crown Don Carlos Prince of Spain and Henry's Contemporary not long before this for wishing himself but one day in his Father's Throne fell soon after into the hard hand of an immature fate However it were the manner of the Prince's death was variously rumour'd some saying he was poison'd with a bunch of Grapes others with the venemous scent of a pair of Gloves presented to him and some again that a French Physician gave him poison and it was observed that poison was never more in fashion than at this time but surely there was something black enough in it for when Sir Thomas Mouson a long time after who was one of the Countess of Essex's Agents in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury had past one days Trial at Guildhall the Lord Chief Justice Coke vented some expressions as if he could discover more than the death of a private Person saying God knows what is become of that sweet Babe Prince Henry but I know somewhat and blessing himself at the horror of such villanies as came to his knowledge and 't was believed that in searching the Cabinets he had lighted on some Papers that spake plain in that which was ever whispered and what strongly increased the suspicion was that Monson's Trial was laid aside he quickly set at liberty and the Chief Justices wings clipt for ever after And no less jealousie did something relating to the Earl of Somerset's Trial for the said Murder of Overbury create in Men's Minds about this matter for when the Lieutenant of the Tower according to Custom gave Somerset notice of his Trial next day he absolutely refused it saying They should carry him in his Bed that the King had assured him he should not come to any Trial neither durst the King bring him to any this was an high strain and a Language not understood by Sir George Moor the Lieutenant and tho' otherwise esteemed a wise Man it reduced him to his Wits end After some pauses he at last resolves to go to the King then at Greenwich as late as it was being Twelve a Clock at night he bounced at the Back Stairs as if he had been mad to whom Jo. Leveston one of the Grooms came out of his Bed and enquired the reason of that unreasonable distemper Moor tells him he must speak with the King immediately Loveston answered He was quieted meaning in his Scottish Dialect He was fast asleep but Moor said he must awake him and so was called in and left alone with the King in his Bed-chamber where he tells him those passages that happened between Sommerset and himself and desired to be directed by the King what he should do for he was gone beyond his Reason to hear such bold and undutiful Expressions from a faulty Subject against a Just Sovereign Hereupon the King falls into a fit of Tears and said On my Soul Moor I wot not what to do thou art a Wise Man help me in this great streight and thou shalt find thou dost it for a faithful Master with other sad Expressions to the same purpose Moor leaves the King in that Agony but first assured him he would strain his Wits
to the utmost for to serve his Majesty and was really rewarded with a Suit worth 1500 Pounds tho' he was cheated of one half by a true Scot that pretended great friendship to him he returned to Sommerset about Three next Morning which was the day he was to come to his Trial and told him he had been with the King found him a most Affectionate Master and full of Grace in his intentions towards him but said for to satisfy Justice the Earl must appear tho' to return again instantly without any further proceedings against him and that thereby he should come to know his Enemies and their Malice tho' they should have no power to hurt him with this device he allaid the Earl's Fury and got him quietly about Eight in the Morning to the Hall yet fearing his former bold Language might revert him again and that finding himself thus brought within the Toye by this trick he might be more enraged to fly into some strange discovery he took care to place two Servants on each side of him every one having a Cloak on their Arms and gave them a positive Command If Sommerset did any way fly out against the King that they should immediately Hoodwink him with the Cloak take him by force from the Bar and carry him away for which he would not only secure them from any danger but they should be sure of a bountiful Reward but the Earl finding himself over-reached recollected a better temper and went on calmly in his Tryal where he held the Court till Seven at night but he that had seen the King's restless motion and concernedness of Mind all that day by his sending to every Boat he saw landing at the Bridge and cursing all that came without tidings would have easily judged all was not right and that there were very good grounds for Sommerset's boldness but at last having word brought him that he was condemned with the particulars of the Trial all was quiet You may judge of the Story as you please but my Author Sir A. W. says he and another Gentleman had it from Sir George Moor's own Mouth in Wanstead Park and 't is very remarkable that tho' the King made the most direful imprecations that could be to Sir Edward Coke at Theobalds upon the discovery of Overbury's Murder he would pardon any thing of them yet he gave both the Earl and Countess as deep in the sudds as any a Lease of their Lives allowed the Earl 4000 l. per Annum and kept correspondence with him by Letters almost every week to his dying day I shall not enter upon any further narration of Overbury's death of the Countess of Essex Divorce and her Marriage with Sommerset how the Discovery was made how the King was made a Pimp as he told Sir Edward Coke to carry on their Bawdry and Murder as being not pertinent to the present Design but acquaint you that the Lady Arabella Steward whose Genealogy we have already given you dying about this time in the Tower sets Mens Tongues and Fears at work that she went the same way she had been Married some years before to Sir William Seymour Son to the Lord Beauchamp and Grandchild to Edward Earl of Hertford and both of them being at some distance allyed to the Crown such a conjunction would not be admitted in the Royal Almanack so dreadful is every Apparition that comes near Princes Titles especially if they light upon jealous and weak Minds Sir William was for the Marriage committed to the Tower and the Lady Arabella confined to her House at Highgate but both of them after some imprisonment concluded to make their escape together beyond Sea appointing to meet at a certain place upon the Thames Sir William leaving his Man in his Bed to act his part with his Keeper got out of the Tower in disguise and came to the place appointed she dress'd like a young Gallant in Man's Cloaths followed him from her House but staying somewhat longer than the limited time it made him suspicious of her interception so that he went away leaving notice if she came that he was gone away before for Dunkirke the poor Lady thus desolate fraught with Fears and lugging in her slight was apprehended and sent in her Husband's room into the Tower where she ended her sorrowful days somewhat too early as was generally believed tho' no clear proof thereof could e'r be made it 's certain the King was very jealous of his Title to the Crown which at times made him very uneasy tho' besides actual possession he had apparently the best of any Title in the World and the free Speeches of his Subjects upon that head did not a little contribute to that uneasiness as was that of Tobie Matthews Bishop of Durham who being at Law with the King about some Priviledges which he claimed in his Bishoprick and having one day stated the case before some of his Friends and they seeming to approve of it Yes says the Bishop I could wish he had but half as good a Title to the Crown But one Hydra's Head is no sooner cut off but up starts another one of the Judges for Wales being about this time holding the general Assizes at Pembrooke there was among other Malefactors brought to the Bar to be Tryed for Murder one whose Name was Plantagenet a Name that for some hundreds of years had swayed the English Scepter from the time of Henry II. down to Henry VII the Judge hearing of the Name deferred the Man's Tryal and sends to acquaint the King with it who upon the news was in no small tiff but dispatcht away Orders immediately to bring the Man up when he was brought into his Presence Cousin said he How do you do the poor Man in a trembling amazement made no ready Answer but at length recollecting his Spirits replyed He knew of no Relation he was to his Majesty nay but said the King If thy Name be Plantagenet thou must be my Cousin and so entring into another Communion with him engaged him for a considerable Reward to change his Name into that of Steward from whom as I have been credibly informed the Family of the Stewards late of the County of H. but now extinct were descended It was now the Fifteenth year of the King's Reign when he goes to visit his Native Country of Scotland accompanied with Buchingham now prime Favourite but upon his return some of the looser Bishops pretending Recreations and Liberty to Servants and the common People of which they craved to themselves too much already procured the King to put out a Book to permit Dancing about Maypoles Churchyards and such debauched exercises upon the Lords Day after Evening Prayer wherein all Ministers were enjoined to read it to their Parishioners and those that refused were brought into the High Commission which was Plague sufficient but this brought him some disquiet and particularly one time the King being to go from London to Theobalds on a Monday
the Duke did so wind himself into the Affections of the Prince that he governed the Son now as Despotically as ever he had done the Father and this had another Misfortune attending of it that the rising Sun was now Worshipped and the old King neglected which yet he had not power to redress and which no doubt hastned his Fate as we are now just ready to relate unto you The King who was the most impatient of all Men to be told of his Faults was so out of love with Parliaments for that very Reason that by his Good-Will he would never have called another but Dire necessity which has no Law brought him once more to it and so a Parliament was Summoned to meet on the Twelfth of February Anno 1623. but that same morning as a kind of Presage of his own Destiny the King missed the Duke of Richmond's Attendance who being a constant observer of him at all times the King did now as it were want one of his Limbs to support the Grandeur of His Majesty at such a Solemnity and calling for him with great Earnestness he dispatched a Messenger to his Lodgings in all haste where the King's Command and the Messengers importunity made the Dutchess his Wife somewhat unwillingly go to his Bed-side when drawing the Curtain she found him Dead in his Bed the sad News whereof was carried with that violence to the King that he would not Adorn himself that day to Ride in Pomp to the Parliament House but put it off till the nineteenth of February Dedicating some part of that time to the memory of his dead Servant The Parliament sate at the time appointed and upon Buckingham's fine Narration about the Spanish Match advised the King to break off the Treaty with Spain which the King himself seemed forward to promote being now got quite into the Prince and Duke's Toll and sets a Treaty of Marriage on Foot with France But before the entire Consummation of the same as the Duke of Richmond was the long so now the Marquess of Hamilton was the short forerunner of the King's Death both which 't was believed were forwarded by the same hand The Marquess Died with very presumptuous Symptoms of being Poisoned his Head and Body swelling to an excessive bigness and the Body being all over full of great Blisters with variety of Colours the Hairs of his Head Eye-brows and Beard came off with a touch and brought the Skin with them great Clamour there was about it in the Court so that Doctors were sent for to view the Body but the matter was hudled up and little said of it only Doctor Eglisham a Scotch Man was something bitter against the Duke as if he had been Author of it 'T is certain That the Marquess's unwillingness that his Son should Marry the Earl of Denbigh's Daughter the Duke's Niece made a difference between them with some other concurring Accidents which however did not in this King's time break out into a Reflection upon the Duke being bound up close more as it was thought by his Power than his Innocence Not long after this the King going to his last Hunting Journey to wit the last of the year as well as of his Life he fell sick of a Tertian Ague which if we believe the Proverb is not dangerous in the Spring and had a few Fits of it having this Ague upon him the Countess of Buckingham who Trafficked much with Mountebanks and whose Fame had no good savour tampered with him in the absence of the Doctors and the Duke her Son when in the Judgment of the Physicians the Ague was in the decline did apply Plaisters to the King's Wrists and Belly and did also deliver several quantities of Drink to him and told him they were approved Medecines though some of the King's Physicians did disallow thereof and refused to to meddle further with the King till the said Plaisters were removed which the King much complained off and was glad to have it pulled off tho' with part of the Skin along with it It 's certain the King found himself much worse after the said application and that an high Fever Droughts Raving Fainting and an intermittent Pulse followed thereupon and 't is manifest he was himself suspicious of foul play upon him for when one of his faithful Servants saw him in one of his Fits and to comfort him said Courage Sir this is but a small Fit the next will be none at all He answer'd Ah 't is not the Ague that afflicts me but the Black Plaister and Powder given me and laid to my Stomach by Buckingham And he would often say to Montgomery whom he trusted above all Men in the time of his Sickness For God's sake look I have fair Play When he was near the point of Death as Buckingham entred the King's Chamber one of his honest Servants said to him Ah my Lord you have undone us all his poor Servants altho' you are so well provided for you need not care With which words the Duke was so stung for where there is Guilt it will quickly appear that he kickt at him who caught his Foot and made his Head first come to the ground where presently rising he ran to the King's Bed-side and cryed Justice Sir I am abus'd by your Servant and wrongfully accus'd At which the poor King Mournfully fix'd his Eyes upon him as if he would have said Not wrongfully yet without Speech or Sence But before his Departure he called for the Prince his Son who rising out of his Bed something before day and presenting himself before him the King rouzed up his Spirits and raised himself up as if he meant to speak to him but Nature being exhausted he had not strength to express his Intentions but soon after Expired being upon Sunday Morning the 27th of March 1625. at Theobalds in the Eight and fiftieth year of his Age and the Two and twentieth of his Reign compleat there being more than a Presumption that he run the same Destiny with his Ancestors whose Deaths were Violent as well by Father as Mother's side which we have more particularly noted for Henry Stuart Lord Darnley his own Father was Strangled and carry'd out of his House and set under a Tree and then his House Blown up with Gunpowder his Grandfather Matthew Stuart Earl of Lenox was Shot at Sterlin of which Wound he some days after died and his Great Grandfather John Stuart Earl of Lenox was slain near Linlithgow in a Conflict he had with the Hamiltonians and the Douglasses about the Enlargement of James the Fifth The Duke 't is true did afterward endeavour to Purge himself from the foremention'd Application by alleadging he had receiv'd both the Drink and Plaister from Doctor Remington at Dunmore in Essex who had often Cured Agues and such Distempers with the same yet they were Arguments of a complicated kind and not to be easily unfolded considering that whatsoever he receiv'd from the Doctor in the
Country he might apply what he pleas'd to the King at the Court and besides had the Medicine been the best in the World the Act was Daring and no ways Justifiable in him because he wanted the Consent of the King's Physitians thereto and one of Buckingham's great Provocations was thought to be that the King now being weary of his too much Greatness and Power was about to set up Bristol his deadly Enemy against him to pull him down The Application of this Medicine was one of the 13 Articles charged afterward upon the Duke by the Parliament who rarely accuse upon false Rumour or bare Suggestion and surely he will have work to do that takes upon him to excuse the King his Successor in this Matter for Dissolving the Parliament to preserve one that was accus'd by them for Poisoning his Father especially if it be consider'd that the Commons had then Voted him Four Subsidies and Four Fifteenths which they had not time to pass into an Act. What did farther increase Mens suspicions was one Doctor Lamb a Fellow of a most Infamous conversation his frequenting to and being much imploy'd by the Countess and her Son which did at length so incense the People against him that finding him in the Streets of London An. 1628. they set upon him with Stones and Staves and knocked out his Brains as also one Butler an Irishman that pretended to be a Chymist and was very intimate with the foresaid Company I mean the Duke and his Mother and indeed the Story of his Death as was then reported is a very convincing Evidence of some secret Machination betwixt the Duke and him which made the Duke be desirous to be rid of him For Mischief says Mr. Wilson being an ingrosser is unsecured unsatisfied when their Wares are to be vented in many Shops This Man was by the Dukes means recommended upon some plausible pretence to some Jesuites beyond the Seas where he was entertain'd with a great deal of specious Ceremony and Respect in one of their Colleges and at Night being attended by them into his Chamber with much Civility which was hung with Tapestry and had Tapers burning in stretched-out-Armes upon the Wall when they gave him the Good-night they told him they would send one should direct him to his Lodging and they were no sooner out of the Room of Death but the Floor that hung upon great Hinges on one side was let fall by Artificial Engines and the poor Vermine Butler dropt into a Precipice where he was never more heard of To conclude King James was Learned and had fine Notions in Conception but could bring but few of them into Action tho' they tended to his Honour and Safety for this was one of his Apothegms which he made no timely use of Let that Prince that would beware of Conspiracies be rather jealous of such whom his extraordinary Favours have advanc'd then of those whom his Displeasure hath discontented these want Means to execute their Pleasures but they have means at pleasure to execute their desires But a late Learned Author has exprest as much contempt of his Learning as Ben Johnson did of his Poetry saying It was a Scandal to his Crown meaning his Writings against Bellarmine and Perrone about their King-killing and King-deposing Doctrines and it seems Henry 4. of France had not a much better opinion of the same who when he heard some Men Celebrating of him with these Attributes answer'd truly enough That he was a fine King indeed and Wrote little Books King James was Succeeded by His Son Charles in all His Dominions but much more so in all His Misfortunes for this was one of the unhappiest Princes that ever Swayed a Scepter There is little remarkable concerning this Pâ—â—â—ce in his Infancy only he was noted as Lilly says to be very wilful and obstinate by the old Scottish Lady his Nurse and even by his own Mother Queen Ann who being told on a time he was very Sick and like to die said He would not then die but live to be the Ruine of himself and the Three Kingdoms through his too much Wilfulness And it seems the Symptoms of his Fore-Fathers Destiny appear'd in his very Face for his Picture having been presented to the then Duke of Tuscany the first sight and inspection thereof made him sâ—art and say He saw something in it that Presag'd a strange and violent Exit Moreover if what the said Author says be true That Laud at His Coronation at Westminster alter'd the Old Coronation Oath and framed another New one for him in the room of it it was a foul stumble at first dash It rarely happens and I think but very few Instances can be given that one and the same Person proves a Favourite to Two Princes together but it seems nothing could resist the Charmes of the Glorious Buckingham who now Governs the Son more Despotically than ' er he had done the Father and put him upon those very Expeditions that with other concurring Mismanagements made Shipwrack of His Honour at home procured him scorn and contempt abroad and hastned those Calamities which at length resolved in his own sad Catastrophe and Ruine But surely it argu'd a very mean and poor spirit in him to take him into his Bosom and to be govern'd by one that had twice in his Father's time so highly affronted and disdain'd him the first at Royston before many People by bidding of him in plain terms Kiss his A And the second time at Greenwich in the sight of about 400 Persons when lifting up his hand over his head with a Ballon Brasser and saying in most undutiful terms to him By G. it shall not be so you shall not have it The Prince answer'd What my Lord I think you intend to strike me It 's true to have forgotten and never to revenge such Injuries when he had been King had been worthy the Noble Mind of a Prince but it also became him never to have suffer'd him to come near his Court to be upbraided with the sight of so much scorn that had been so publickly offer'd him and some Criticks at Court at that time did not stick to read his future Destiny At King James's Death the Nation was rent into Four Factions viz. the Prerogative Popish Puritan and Country Party which in a short time was reduc'd into two the two former uniting their force against the other two and one should have thought it had been the business of the New King to have composed those first rather then make War abroad But King James his Body was scarce cold when Buckingham put King Charles upon a War with Spain Both of them when in that Kingdom had receiv'd so many Civilities from his Catholick Majesty that they now resolve to Invade his Country with a Powerful Fleet and a Land Army under the Command of my Lord Wimbleton but in their passage they met with a Furious Storm which so scatter'd the Fleet that of
rising in Wales were soon beaten so were the Surry Essex and Kentish Forces without any reinforcements from him as was designed and when he Landed some forces for the relief of Deal-Castle they were vanquished almost as soon as Landed This with the taking of Colchester by Sir Thomas Fairfax sent him back again to his Sister the Princess of Orange to the Hague Here it was that he was first Entertained with the horrible news of his Father's Tragical death and then saluted by the name of King but a forlorn Man and without any Subjects to govern for now the Rump Parliament ruled the Roast in England and had assumed to themselves the Supream power of the Nation by the name and title of the Commonwealth of England but this procedure of theirs did not relish well with the Scotch Covenanters and especially now they found that those Persons in the English Parliament that had been most forward in establishing the Solemn League and Covenant between both Nations were not only laid aside but clapt up into nasty PRISONS Wherefore being willing to lay hold on any Twig the Scots resolve not to put up the supposed injury tamely but to try their Fortune with the Rump by Arms and to that end agree to invite the King over to take Possession of his ancient Kingdom of Scotland but yet tye him so by vertue of the Treaty with him to take their Solemn League and Covenant as a Testimony of his sorrow for his Father's Sins and to banish all those out of his Court who would not take the Covenant or bare Arms for his Father But they could not have found a Plant as Mr. Coke observes more unlikely to produce the Fruit of Repentance or to establish Presbytery than himself however over Shooes over Boots prepare he does to waft himself over for Scotland To be a King in fact he desired above all other things and in June 165O landed at the Spey in the North having scaped a scouring for some of the Rump Ships lay in wait for him as he passed the Sea and narrowly mist him In some time after he was solemnly Crowned at Scone but alass it was no long-liv'd Dignity and he had but little Joy of his Crown for Cromwel had entred Scotland with the English Army and having beaten the Scots in several smaller Rencounters did at last upon the 8 of September utterly overthrow the much more numerous Kirk Army at Dunbar commanded by old General Lesley killing 3000 of them in the Battle and pursuit and taking 9000 Prisoners with all their Baggage and Ammunition with above 200 Colours To augment these Miseries the King who was very squeamish in Religion and could not submit to the rigid discipline of the Kirk runs from Scone towards the High-lands after whom ran Montgomery promising if he would return the Kirk would remit part of the Discipline and so he came to St. John's Town But here was no lasting Tranquillity for him for tho' in this time he raised a very numerous Army yet the Kirkmen being beaten at Dunbar as aforesaid by the English began to rail bitterly against those who had called the King in too hastily before he had given true signs of Repentance and they assumed the Kingly Authority so far as to make such Generals of the Kirk Army as they thought sit But Cromwel in the mean time prevails in his Conquests and tho' Scotland were a cold Climate yet he made it too hot for the King and his Army to hold long there and therefore he slips with them to England by the way of Carlile but was followed close at the heels by Lambert and Harrison and soon after by Cromwel himself with the main Army But he arrived at Worcester City with little opposition and there Cromwel came up with him where they joyned Battle but as all his attempts before in his Fathers Cause had proved succesless he met with no better Fortune now he fought in his own Cause nor indeed hardly ever did in all his Life-time by Arms for here his Army was utterly Routed by Cromwel that very day twelve Month he had beaten the Scots at Dunbar 3550 whereof were killed with Duke Hamilton and General Forbes and 5000 taken Prisoners of which number were the Earls of Rothes Kanworth and Kelly the Lords Sinclaer and Monâ—gomery General of the Ordinance and soon after David Lesley who fought not or but little in the Battle was Routed by Colonel Lilburn and together with Lauderdale the Lords Kenmoure and Middleton taken Prisoners The poor King seeing all now irrecoverably lost about six in the Evening marched out at St Martin's Gate leaving all that was valuable but his Life behind him as a prey to the Enemy and being come to a place called Barbon-Bridge he consults with the few followers he had with him what to do among whom it was resolved he should endeavour to get back into Scotland and one Walker who belonged to the Lord Talbots Troop was made choise of to be his Guide Northward But Walker being at a loss when he came to Kinver-Heath and not knowing which way to go the King consulted with the Lords yet about him whither he might repair with most safety to take a few hours rest in regard he found himself quite worn out and spent whereupon the Earl of Derby advised him to go to Bosoobel where in his Flight from Wiggan to Worcester he met with a trusty Person and where there was great conveniency of Concealment This being agreed to Mr. Gifford who knew the way best was appointed to conduct him thither but he proposing to carry him first to White-Ladies a house about half a mile from Boscobel where he might repose himself a while and then take farther Resolutions this was consented to and thither they immediately repaired and were readily entertained by George Pendrel the youngest of the five Brethren By this time the King found himself extream hungry and very much tired with his long and hasty march and here it was that he rubbed his hands and face with the foot of the Chimney had the locks of his hair disorderly cut off and was stripped of his blew Ribbon buff Câ—at and other Princely Ornaments which to prevent a discovery were buryed under Ground and his Case now was not imparallell to his Great Ancestor Robert Bruce King of Scotland who for fear of Edward I. King of England was forced to sculk in the High-Lands and there to live for a time more like a Brute Beast then a Man much less a Prince as we have noted towards the beginning of this History The Kings fine Shirt was also exchanged for a course Canvass one borrowed of one Martin and a suit of Cloaths answerable to it of Richard Pendrells put on by him and then he assumes the name and imployment of a Woodman and so with Richard with a Bill in his hand he went into the Wood while the other Brothers went out to scout It was not above
an hour after his going into the Wood before a Troop of the Parliaments Horse came to White-Ladies to look after him But being told by the Towns-men that a Party of Horse had been there about three hours before but hasted away they made no stay but went upon the pursuit which being told to the King he would not adventure to come into the house out of the Wood all day where he was miserably wet with the heavy Rain that fell and where about noon Richard's Sister brought him a mess of Milk mixt with Eggs and Sugar in a black earthen Dish and the King guessing it to be Milk and Apples said he loved it very well In the Evening he left the Wood and with the brothers and Francis Yates their Brother-in-law went to Richard Pendrell's House under the name of one William Jones a Wood-Cutter newly come thither for Work where he had Bacon and Eggs for supper When he had refresh'd himself a little he departed that night to Mr. Wolfs at Madeley with Richard only in his Company the rest of the brethren taking their leave of him and Yates supposing he wanted Money offered him thirty Shillings which was all he had of which the King took only Ten. As they Journyed on towards the foresaid place he met with an odd encounter which put them into no small fright at a place called Eveling-Mill for the Miller who as it afterward appear'd was a Royalist had then in his House some Considerable Persons of the Kings Army that had sheltered themselves there in their Flight from Worcester and being allarmed by Richard's suffering a gate to clap through which he passed and boldly demanding who was there Richard fearing he had pursued them quited the way in great hast and waded through a little Brook and the King thereupon doing the like followed him only by the ratling of his leathern Breeches by which means they escaped the Miller who not knowing but they were Enemies was as glad to be rid of them as they were to shun him When they came to Mr. Wolf's House the Family was a bed but upon Richard's knâ—â—â—â—ng the Daughter came to the door and they were admitted in and some Refreshment the King had here but the fear of his Enemies would not let him rest in this House and so he retired to an adjacent Barn as to a place less lyable to the danger of a surprize During his stay there he consulted with Mr. Wolf about his going into Wales but finding upon enquiry the strict guard that was kept every where he was advised to retire to Boscobel house as the most retired place in all those parts which he did the night following But in the mean time his Hands and Face not appearing sufficiently discoloured Wolf bathed them in a decoction of Wallnut leaves as the readiest expedient for that purpose When Richard and he came to Boscobel which was about three next morning the King was left in the Wood while Richard went in to see if there were any Soldiers there and finding none but Collonel Careless who was fled thither from Worcester Fight for shelter he tells him of the Kings arrival who went immediately out to conduct him in where he fed heartily on Coarse Bread and Cheese and a Possit which as a rarity was made by William Pendrell's Wife of thin Milk and small Beer and after Supper his feet being extream dirty and very much gall'd with travelling he was forced to wash them and for want of Shooes to wear whilst his own were dryed they were necessitated to put hot embers into them to dry them a little whilst his feet were a washing After the King had refrest himself he was advised by the Collonel to retire to the Wood again as the safest place where he ascended together with the Collonel into an Oak thence-forward called the Royal-Oak where he stayd most part of the day but in the Evening he returned back into the House and was conducted by William to the same place where the Earl of Derby had formerly been secured which he liked so well that he resolved during his stay there to trust to it only and to go no more into the Oak But one of the Pendrels going on the Saturday following to Shefnall he met with one of the Parliament Colonels who was in search for the King and who coming to understand where Pendrell lived examined him strictly about it laying before him the reward of a Thousand Pounds if he made a Discovery and also the Penalty of Concealing the King which was Death without Mercy all which Pendrell upon his return at Night acquainted the King with whereat he was not a little terrified But the Collonel and Pendrell upon their Assurance of his Safety did a little comfort him and that night the King Supped upon no common dainty which was a dish of Chickens prepared by Dame Joan as he called her Richard's Wife After Supper when a little Bed was put into the Secret place where the King was to lye the Collonel asked him What he would please to have for Dinner next day being Sunday He told him he could wish he had a little Mutton but this they found hard to come by in that it was not advisable for to have any bought in the Market because Pendrell's Neighbours knew he was not used to provide any such Meat for his own eating But the Collonel next Morning early would go to Stanton's Sheep-Coat and having chosen out a good Sheep stuck him with his Dagger and order'd William Pendrell to carry him home where being flead and quarter'd and a Leg brought to the King he called for a Knife and a Trenchard and having cut some of it into Collops called for a Frying-pan and Cooked some of them himself the Collonel in the mean time by making the Fire and turning the Collops in the Pan officiating as Under-Cook But being inform'd by John Pendrell that the Lord VVilmot was at Mr. VVhitegraves at Mosle he sent John thither to let him know he was safe and would be there that Night but when John came he found VVilmot was gone to Bentley however he acquainted Mr. VVhitegrave and Mr. Huddleston that the King was at Boscobell where he had but very ill Accommodation Whereupon they went with him to Bentley and the Lord VVilmot sent John back to acquaint the King with his resolution to meet Him that Night about Twelve or One of the Clock in a little Grove of Trees not far from VVhitegraves to which end the King prepared to set forth But having not yet recover'd his late foot Journey to Madley it was concluded he should Ride upon Humphrey's Mill-horse a sorry Jade and a Saddle with other Accoutrements answerable and was conducted thither by the Five Brothers four whereof were only Scouts while the fifth attended upon His Person When they were come to Penford-Mill his Guides desir'd him to alight and walk the remainder of the way on foot which was about
an entire disappointment of his hopes that way and they to be so beaten as they were never before nor after by the English Fleet. Oliver Cromwel sometime after assuming the Supream Power by the Title of Protector he and Mazarine grew so gracious one with another that France began now to be too hot to hold King Charles so as he was necessitated to retire thence to the Elector of Cologn and afterwards into the Spanish Netherlands where he ordered the English Scots and Irish in those parts which amounted to between four and five thousand Men to joyn the Spaniards to attempt the relief of Dunkirk then besieged by the French and English But herein he was as fatal in his Arms as he had been all along before for the Spanish Army were utterly routed and this defeat broke his whole design so that he never after made use of Arms to recover his Inheritance but retired to Bruges where he stay'd to see the event of things The death of Oliver Cromwell together with the many changes of Government that happened thereupon in England gave new life to his hope and made him go in person to the Pyrenaean Treaty to promote his Interest from whence he returned through France to Bruxells But coming to understand that Sir George Booth and the Cheshire Men were supprest by Lambert it did not a little damp his hopes and made him return again to Bruxells from about St. Maio's where he privately lay in readiness to take Shipping for England upon the first good event of Sir George and others undertakings for him But his Crown was not to be recovered by War how then came he to be restored A grand step towards it was the Rump Parliament's Jealousie of Monk and his Jealousie of them again But what contributed most to it was the unsetled state of the Nation under the many Vicissitudes of Government that had been introduced since the death of the King his Father which made the People very uneasie and long for a Settlement upon any terms and therefore the Convention when they met in order to it on April 25. 1660. did hand overhead without any Preliminaries of asserting the Rights and Liberties of the English so manifestly violated by his Father and Grandfather restore him without any contradiction which did not a little contribute to the succeeding uneasiness of his Reign as well as the Nations trouble But restored he was as aforesaid and on May 25. following Landed at Dover and was received every where with utmost Demonstrations of Joy About October following came over the Queen-Mother seemingly to Treat about a Marriage between Mounsieur of France and her fair Daughter Henrietta Maria But it 's like the Marriage between the King and the Infanta of Portugal was no less designed which was after Consummated and wherein he was as unhappy in respect to Procreation by her as he was fruitful in what ground soever else he sowed his seed which he was Prodigal enough of But there was yet somewhat else of far more dangerous consequence to poor England and more dishonourable to the King that brought the Queen-Mother over and that was the Sale of Dunkirk to the French whose Agent she was in that fine spot of work If the King's Arms whilst an Exile in conjunction with the Spaniards were so unsuccessful in the relief of Dunkirk then Besieged by the joint force of English and French he was much more unhappy in the Sale of it afterward for 400000 l. whereof one moiety was detained for the Portion of Henrietta Maria his Sister and not to the Spaniards who were kind to him in his adverse Fortunes and had most right to it but to the French who had done all they could by their Embassador Bourdeux to hinder his Restoration and on whose side the Ballance then lay which it had been his business to have kept even as his Predecessors the Kings of England were wont to do and particularly Henry 8. and Queen Elizabeth This action I think was us unparallel'd as any can be found in our English Annals It was indeed a Charge against Mary Queen of Scots that she would have transferred her Right of Succession to the English Crown to the then King of Spain Philip 2. but that if true was giving away what was not in her power to dispose of and much such another Donation as that of the Pope's to the Emperor Charles of the Kingdom of Mexico tho with a different fate to both Nations but here was neither Donation force nor any visible necessity but a voluntary act in King Charles to the inestimable damage of England as has been but too sensibly felt to this very day You must note that the gazing World stood a little while amazed at the strange Revolution in England by the King 's easie and pacifick Restoration and with what transports of Joy he was received by the Nation then in a most Warlike posture and as much dreaded by our Neighbours and particularly by the French who had formed designs for an Universal Monarchy But now they were put to a stand to see what such a mighty power and apparently lasting Settlement in England would produce yet finding at length that here all thoughts of Military glory and extention of Dominion seemed wholly to be laid aside and all the severity of the preceding times daily degenerate to the Luxuries of an Effeminate Reign they began to reassume their former design and to prosecute the foundation Cardinal Richlieu had laid for them But that they might make sure work on 't and see that they made a true judgment of the English affairs they resolved to try such an Experiment as would throughly decide the matter and what must that be but overtures for the buying of Dunkirk which succeeding as aforesaid according to their wishes raised their hopes higher than ever of attaining their ends And because they knew well enough that the English were a powerful People by Sea and that while they retained the Soveraignty of it it would be a hard rub in their way they joyn their strength with the Dutch to dispute the Dominion of it with us but the Dutch were as unfortunate in their Allyance in the first Dutch War as the English were in the second when they joyned with them against the Dutch for excepting the time that the English Fleet was divided in the first War and that base business of burning the Ships at Chatham so much to the King and Nations dishonour the Dutch came by the worst of it in all the rest of the Engagements and it was much the same luck the English had by their Conjunction in the second War the French both times standing aloof as looking on and no doubt laughing in their sleeves to see the two most Potent Nations in the World by Sea weaken and destroy one anothe whilst they in the mean time not only saved their own stake but learned how to fight and doubted not but in time
your Majesty never to let it go out of your own Breast any further tilâ— you put it in Execution Which when the King had promised to do they parted The King that night supped at P. Lodgings where he seemed to be very merry and in the close drunk a Dish of Chocolate prepared by a Wise Lady of which he complained again and again that it tasted hotter than ordinary but he sipped it off and thence went to his Rest Next morning which was Munday he was taken very Ill which no doubt was the effect of the last nights Entertainment however they might call his Distemper and so continued till the Fryday following in extream Misery and Anguish when he dyed most People suspecting he had foul Play And many that saw him during his Illness believing it to be so and particularly says the Author of his Character the most knowing and deserving of his Physitians Doctor Short did not only believe him Poysoned but thought himself so too not long after for having declared his opinion a little too boldly in the case And as the manner and contrivance of this King's Death was the work of Darkness so were his Funeral Obsequies for never any King who dyed possest of a Crown was so obscurely and contemptibly Buryed being hurryed in the dead of the Night to his Grave as if his Corps had been to be arrested for Debt and not so much as the Blew-Coat Boys to attend it King Charles was no sooner gone but James Duke of York his only surviving Brother ascends the English Throne by the style and Title of James II. And made open Profession immediately of the Popish Religion for which some in his Brother's Reign were severely punished for but saying he was such or so inclined and not only so but ordered his Brothers Dying in the Communion of the Church of Rome and before his Death his receiving his Viaticum and other Ceremonies of that Church and attested by Father Huddleston to be printed and also the Papers taken out of the King 's strong Box shewing That however he outwardly appeared otherwise in his Life yet in his Heart he was sincerely a true Roman Catholick He made profession in his Speech to the Council the day of his Brother's Death that he would preserve the Church and State of England as by Law Established and as he would never depart from the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so he would never invade any Man's Property but how ill he conformed himself hereunto is but too manifestly known to all the World For the very first Week he took both the Customs and the Excise granted only for his Brothers Life before they were given him by Parliament And for the Church I think no Man so Audacious as to deny the design of his whole tho' blessed be God short Reign was to overthrow it by the introduction of his own Monkish Religion in the room of it But if he was unhappy first in making such a Promise of adhering to both Church and State as then Established contrary no doubt to the designs he had framed before of Ruining them he was much more so in the methods he took to bring his ends about which Terminated at last in a fatal Abdication yet so as that he remains to this day naturally alive to be a living Monument and confessor of his own egregious folly And the loss of the Button of his Scepter that day he was Crowned which as far as I could hear was never found was I remember then Interpreted by some as a presage of no lasting connection between him and the Nation His petty success against the D. of Monmouth and his Adherents did not a little elate his spirits which gave him an opportunity to keep a standing Army and put such Officers into it as were of his own stamp and so being backt with this Armed Power he proceeds bare-fac'd to dispence with the Laws by granting Liberty of Conscience to all that dissented from the Church of England thinking hereby and by a timely regulating of Corporations to gain such a Parliament as would quite repeal them And that in the mean time he might curb the Church and the Universities he puts his High Commission upon their Backs thinking by it to worry them into a compliance And because my Lord of London would not comply with his Arbitrary Proceedings Jeffery's with this Popish Bull I mean the High Commission roared him into a Suspension And because the Fellows of Magdalen-Colledge would not contrary to their Statutes and Oaths choose a President to the King's mind he first entertained them with a Dish of Billingsgate and then by virtue of the same Commission sent them a Grazing into the Countries to make room for his own Popish Seminaries and Cut-throat Jesuits But among all the actions of this King 's Diminitive reign That of sending the Bishops to the Tower not for refusing to take care to have the Declaration of Indulgence read in their respective Diocesses but for Petitioning of him in a regular and dutiful manner wherein they gave their Reasons why they could not comply with his order together with an Introduction of a Prince of Wales into the World as a new Miracle to the Legend the next day after their Commitment was the rashest most inconsiderate and madest thing he could be guilty of Surely when he did this he wanted some body to pray over the Poets wish for him Dii te damasippe Deaeque Donent Tonsore For it was most apparent by the Universal Joy expressed throughout the Nation at their Acquitment how they resented their Commitment and Trial And if the King did before decline in the affection of the People day by day I may truly say this was a concluding act and lost him England For now all the Eyes of the People are turned from him towards Holland where the Prince of Orange was Arming to come to their relief The King would not at first believe that the vast Preparations in Holland concerned him tho the French King had given him notice of them the 26. of August before but being at length convinced by the States Manifesto of the truth of the matter he undid in one day all that he had been doing since his first coming to the Crown as dissolving his Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs restoring the City of London to all its Ancient Franchises and Charters as fully as before the Quo Waranto and giving order for the resetling the Expelled Fellows of Maudlin Colledge in their places again He made also great Preparations both by Sea and Land for to defend himself but tho he be naturally still alive and he above knows who knows all things what his end may be yet all these Precautions and windings against the grain were so far from preventing that they did now but concur to precipitate his Civil death which we shall now briefly relate unto you The Prince of Orange having on November the Fifth Landed
his Army in Torbay he presently Published his Declaration setting forth the Cause of his coming Upon which some of the Nobility and Gentry joyned him and others made Preparations in the remoter parts to declare for him King James upon the News of the Princes Landing ordered his Army to march Westward with a resolution to follow in Person But before he went he thought it requisite to provide for the safety of his darling Prince of Wales whom the Prince of Orange in his Manifesto spread about the Kingdom some days before declared upon just and visible grounds that both himself and all the Good People of England did vehemently suspect not to be born of the Queen's Body Wherefore several Persons were summoned who were present at the pretended birth to declare the truth upon Oath and to have the same registred in Chancery but the King not daring to trust to the validity of these Affadavits which the Nation had all the reason in the world to suspect he ordered the Yonker to be sent away with a strong Guard to Portsmouth that if things went ill he should be convey'd over into France In the mean time the Prince of Orange prospered in his Army and advanced as far as Exeter and was joyned among multitudes of others that flocked in to him daily out of the adjacent Countries by the Lord Cornbury with Three Regiments along with him which he carried off from the King's Army About this time the Prince received also intelligence that the Lord Delamere had declared for him in Cheshire King James being informed of all these things was horribly dismayed and uncertain whether he should go to the Army or no However at length he took up a resolution of going to Salisbury where he began to bleed violently at the Nose which together with the many ill adventures that befell him there as his being forsaken by his own Daughter the Princess Anne Prince George the Duke of Grafton the Lord Churchill and many others who went over to the Prince then at Sherborn all of them dangerous limbs to be lost by him he returned Novemb. 26. in the Evening to London where for an accumulation of the rest of his Misfortunes he received an Address from the Fleet for a Free Parliament So that thinking London nay all England now too hot to hold him he first sent his Queen and pretended Son into France and quickly after followed himself In order thereunto he put himself Aboard a small Smach Commanded by one Captain Saunders but was forced for shelter to put into Eastwall the Eastern part of the Isle of Sheppy in order to the taking in of Ballast where the Inhabitants of Feversham being abroad to pick up Jesuits and other suspected persons met this Vessel and having seized it found this wretched Prince attended only by Sir Edward Hales and Mr. Labady therein who not being at first known were all of them but coarsly handled by the Mobilâ—ty more particularly the King himself who was rifled of what Gold and Jewels he had about him and had his Clothes rent and torn in the searching of him When the Lords at London had notice of his being at Feversham they sent some Persons to attend him to move him to return but they had in the mean time made their application to the Prince of Orange for to assist them for the Security of the Protestant Religion and sent some of their number with Four Aldermen and Eight Commoners to attend him at Henley The King who was detained at Feversham till the aforesaid Orders came from London did December 15. remove to Rochester and from thence next day being Sunday returned to Whitehall attended once more like a King of England with a Troop of Granadiers and three Troops of the Life-guard But it was only Pageant greatness for a set of Boys only followed him through the City and made some Huzza's but the rest of the People silently looked on And here he found the Popish Religious houses laid as flat to the ground as his own heart was now sunk deep in his body Upon his Arrival at London and finding there no ease he desired the Prince that he might return to Rochester again which being granted readily he took his final farewell of the City and went to the foresaid place where he staid till the 23. of December when about One or Two in the Morning he privately withdrew taking only Mr. Shâ—â—don and Delabady along with him with whom he went to Dover and there Embarkt in a Vessel that lay ready for his Transportation to France So he went out like a snuff in England but still retained some glimmering light in Scotland and Ireland in the last of which he arrived in Person the March following But his light in Scotland did not long burn for the Convention there as well as in England rejected him as the Violator of all their Rights and Dundee falling by the Sword the July following 1689 together with the Surrender of Edenburg Castle and other misfortunes quite extinguished his hopes there But in Ireland he had a name to live as King till about a year after when his Army being totally routed at the Boyn by our brave King William he made as much haste to get over into France as if he had been to go to take possession of a Crown instead of running away from one Various Struggles he made still to recover a Regal Life but he prosecuted his ends by such Villanous Methods and Instruments and more especially by setting his Vile Assassins on Work to Murder the best of Kings and bravest of Men our Lawful and Rightful Sovereign King William III. as are not to be mention'd but with utmost Horror But through the goodness of Heaven they have met with as little success as the Practices have been foul and Clandestine and so we leave him to him that made him and withall wish him a far greater proportion of rest and happy Tranquillity in the future World then he hath found of unrest and disquietude here and a much speedier translation into that state then the hast himself hath made to precipitate his own Abdicated fate The Abdicated Throne was filled up by the Advancement of a Prince and Princess to it that England was n'er blest with the like before one in Religion and one in Interest and Affection with the Nation our King Hero-like Fighting our Battels abroad and pray think it not a small thing for England has not enjoy'd such a Blessing these Hundred and fifty years and it has scarce ever been well with us when our Kings did not go in and out before our People and our Queen as wisely and gently Swaying the Scepter at Home to the Gladning of all our Hearts and in all Her excellent Comportment choosing to Rule in the Love and Affections rather than the Fears of Her People Here we promis'd our selves a lasting Tranquility and many happy days to come under the benign influence of her Reign but Alass alass our hopes quickly vanished our Joys faded our Hearts failed us for fear and sable clouds of Despair overshaddowed our whole Isle by Her unexpected by Her early I say by Her early tho' natural Transition from a Corruptible to an Incorruptible Diadem Her gain it was but our loss She tho' young yet ripe for ineffable Joys above And we tho' long inur'd to Tryal unripe for to sustain the loss of Her here below And surely no Prince ever departed this Transitory Life that was so unfeignedly lamented by his Subjects as this incomparable Queen as was apparent by our universal mournful weeds without a demonstration of the blackning sadness of our hearts within The last she was and incomparably the best of the Stuarts that wore a Crown and the Second of that number that went to Her Grave in Peace as Robert II. who was the first of the Stuarts that ever was King was the only other of the Kingly Race that did so I know Mr. Coke says in his Character of King Charles II. That none of His Name hereafter was ever like to have a Stone to cover his Grave as King of England but that I will not say as not pretending to know what is laid up in the Womb of Futurity But if you please after all this Mournful Entertainment I 'll tell you a Story The Lyon on a time called to the Sheep and asked her If his Breath smelt she innocently said Ay which made him bite off her head for a Fool then he called to the Wolf and asked him who reply'd No and his head he bit off for a Flatterer last of all he put the same Question to the Fox but the Fox truly for his part desired to be excused for he had a Cold upon him and could not Smell FINIS Robert Stuart by the Name of Robert II. tho' the first of the Stuarts was crowned King of Scotland Mar. 25. Anno Dom. 1370 Robert III. Alias John Stuart began his Reign An. Dom. 1390. James Stuart I. began his Reign actually Anno 1423. having been a Prisoner in England almost eighteen Years James Stuart II began his Reign March 27. 1437. James Stuart III. began his Reign Anno 1460. James Stuart IV. began his Reign An. 1488. James Stuart V. began his Reign Feb. 14th 1513. James Stuart I. began his Reign over Great-Britain Mar. 24. 1602. †Charles Stuart I. began His Reign over Great Britain March 27 th 1625. Charles Stuart II. assumed the Title of King upon his Father's Death Jan. 30. 1648. Charles Stuart II. Restored to his Dominions An. 166â— James Stuart II. came to the Crown February 6. 1684 5. William of Nassaw III. and Mary Stuart II. began their Reigns Febr. 13. 1688 9.
name of John for that forsooth was ominous for John King of France was a Prisoner in England but by the name of Robert It 's true there is no great matter in the thing it self either one way or other for an Alias or a double name cannot prejudice an honest and vertuous Man and when Judge Catiline took exception at one in this respect saying that no honest Man had a double name and came in with an Alias the party asked him what exception his Lordship could take to Jesus Christ Alias Jesus of Nazareth The Father was scarce well cold in his Grave or the Son warm in his Throne but his Progeny begot by him in the heat of his Blood began in their Stations to act their Tragical part This King in his Fathers life-time had the misfortune to be kicked on the Leg by an Horse of Sir James Douglass of Dalkeith and so lamed his Body as he was lame in his Intellectuals being a dull stupid Man and unfit to Govern insomuch that he had but the name of King the whole Administration being lodged in his Brother Robert Earl of Fife who did what he pleased with him and his as you 'll see by and by Alexander the youngest brother and Earl of Buchan a Man of a Fierce Nature could not long contain it but he begins to disturb the Government of his Brethren upon a slight displeasure conceived against the Bishop of Murray and seeing he could find no opportunity to kill him he revengfully sets fire to the Cathedral Church which was the stateliest Pile of Building in all the North of Scotland A Son he had whose name was Duncane or Dunach ten times more profligate if it were possible than himself and guilty of the basest and most degenerous actions He upon the death of his Grand-father lets the Reins loose and supposing now there was room for Rapine and Villany Heads a strong band of Thiefs and comes down to the Country of Angus spoils and ravages the Country as if he had been a professed Enemy and being elevated by some petty success they had against Walter Ogilby and Walter Lichton who opposed them they proceeded to perpetrate greater Villanies than before till at last being dispersed by the Earl of Crawford many of them were persued and slain and the rest taken and suffered condign Punishment King Robert had now Governed by his Governour for the space of Light Years when a Parliament was held at Perth wherein to manifest his Favour he made his Eldest Son David who was then Eighteen Years of Age Duke of Rothsay and his Brother the Governour Duke of Albany Virgin Titles that till this time had been unknown in Scotland saith Buchanan and which boded no good success to the Masters of them but generally proved very ominous About some three years after dyed Queen Annabella and Walter Tralie Archbishop of St. Andrew's the one while he lived keeping up the Ecclesiastical Discipline in the Church and the other the Dignity of the Court so that the death of two such useful and Illustrious Persons ushered in great Calamities in the Land and such a Tragedy as can scaâ—ce be met with in the Records of Time The Queen in her life-time had had a particular eye over and care of the Education of her Son David Duke of Rothsay and by a severe Discipline restrained his boisterous and untoward nature in a great measure But now the check was taken off he gave himself over to all manner of licentiousness His Fathers indulgence to him proved an incitative to his Lust and lack of Authority despoiled him of that Reverence that should have been paid unto him and made his admonitions of none effect So that at last he grew to that height of outrageousness and impiety that laying aside all manner of fear and shame he made it his business to defile mens Wives dâ—flower Virgins Nuns and all other kind of Women and where he found opposition he made use of Force and Violence These Tragedies could not go long undiscovered and therefore several complaints were prefered against him to his Father who at last perceiving it beyond his power to restrain those exorbitant Courses and that such violations would unavoidably bring both Father and Son to utmost Contempt and might have a very bad Consequence to attend them he Writes to his Brother the Governour and now Duke of Albany to take the young Man into his own governance and keeping till such time and in expectation he should be reclaimed and brought to a better temper This was that which the Governour for a long time had lacked as thinking if he were once taken out of the way his passage to the Crown might in time be made smooth and easie and therefore leaves no stone unturned to get him into his bloody Clutches at last he contrived the matter so that he seized him upon the Road near St. Andrew's and conveyed him to the Castle of the said place which he had taken into his own hands upon the death of the Bishop a little before under pretence of securing of it and in a short time after removed him thence into his own Castle of Falkland making him there a close Prisoner And now resolved he was to be rid of him and he could think of no method more expedient to effect his devilish design than by starving of him But that life which the barbarous cruelty of the Unkle had destined for a most miserable death the compassion of two young Women prolonged for a time One of them was daughter to the Governour of the Castle and who had the charge of the young Duke who as often as she had an opportunity to go into the Gardens adjacent to the Castle did put into him some oaten Cake folded up in a Vail which she carelesly wore on her head to keep off the Sun through a small chink rather than a Window The other was a poor Nurse who through a long Read fed him with the Milk from her own Breasts When the young Man's Punishment as well as his Life had by this hard shift been for some days prolonged which rather served for the increasing than allaying of his hunger the Women were at last discovered by the Spies they had every where about them and were both villanously put to death the Father shewing as much unhumane cruelty towards his daughter as she had shewn mercy to his Royal Prisoner bitterly cursing her perfidy as he called it as endeavouring thereby to shew himself faithful to a faithless Brother Unkle and Governour The young Man being thus deprived of all humane relief was constrain'd through the violence of hunger not only to eat all such filth as he could find within his Prison but at last to set upon his own flesh and to gnaw off his own Fingers and so ended his wretched life and died as I may say a double Death This barbarous act needs no Comment it bespeaks Villany to the height in