Goodliest Personage yet I doubt he was not the Wisest and he might well affirm that his Master Lewis of France exceeded Edward the IVth in Sense and Wisdom How idle and vitious was his Consideration upon that imagined Prophecy That G. should Disposse is his Children of the Crown to suffer it to influence him so far as to consent to the Murther as 't is said of G. Duke of Clarence on supposition foreign enough that That G. was intended him whereas it fell out to be Glocester to whose Tyranny he left them by this Foolish and Ungodly Fancy and such a prophane extravagant Application of Sorceries to which in truth that Age was every where too much addicted And 't was not his jealous practices with the Duke of Britaign against Henry Earl of Richmond could secure the Crown to his Children when he overlook'd the more immediate Danger EDWARD V. ONE would have thought Edward IV. might have without Sorcery or Prophecy foreseen what would become of the committing the Care of Edward the Vth to his Brother the Duke of Glocester who had before Killed Henry the VIth with his own Hand in all probability without Commandment or Knowledge of his Brother and his Son in his own presence and was suspected also to have a hand in the Death of his other Brother the Duke of Clarence besides the symptom of an ill-contrived Soul and Body Without taking notice of all the villanous popular Harangues Insinuations and Artifices used by the Duke of Glocester to get the King's Person into his Power out of the Hands of the Queen and her Friends In short this poor Prince was an Unhappy instance of a misplaced Guardianship and an Unnatural Uncle's Care A Youth made a Jest of Sovereignty for Ten Weeks and Sacrificed to Ambition at Eleven Years of Age and an instance of the fatal Credulity of a Woman too apt to be deceived as well as to deceive He and his poor Brother were Murthered in the Tower Betrayed by an Uncle and too easily delivered up by a Mother A Reign a fit Subject only for Poetry ' Twin-Brethren by their Death What had they done Aleyn Hist of Hen. VII Oh Richard sees a Fault that they were in It is not Actual but a Mortal One They Princes were 't was their Original Sin Why should so sweet a Pair of Princes lack Their Innocents Day i' th' English Almanack RICHARD III. THIS was so great a Monster in all Respects that he ought not for the Honour of England to have place amongst the Catalogue of Kings There ought to be nothing Recorded of him but only this That he died in the Field with his Sword in his Hand 'T is said he made Good Laws but I know of none Extraordinary but only One which is rather a Popular Declaration of what was so before and that was That the Subjects of this Realm shall not be charged by any Benevolence or such like Charge but it shall be damn'd and annull'd for ever Let his Laws be transferr'd to another Reign let us not acknowledge Mercy from the Hands of Blood Sir Francis Bacon saith That his Good Laws were but the Brocage of an Usurper thereby to win the hearts of the People as being Conscious to himself that the true Obligations of Sovereignty in him failed And if he had lived no doubt would have proved such a One as King James the First describes a Tyrant to be HENRY VII IT behoved Henry the Seventh having in himself but a slim sort of distant Title to support himself by Policy And here will appear what Single Prudence can do This maintain'd his Crown whilst he trim'd between Conquest Military Election Parliamentary Birth Donation and Marriage Though he did not care to be beholding to the Last and to take a precarious Right from a Wife Sir Walter Rawleigh says He was a Politick Prince who by the Engine of his Wisdom beat down and overturn'd as many Strong Oppositions both before and after he wore the Crown as ever King of Enggland did And Cambden Through whose Care Vigilancy and Policy and Forecasting Wisdom for times to come the State and Commonwealth of England hath to this day stood Establish'd and Invincible Henricus noster Septimus cum omnes Regni rectè Administrandi Artes calleret sic his Ornamentis Instructus venit ut cum Pacem Exulantem Exul exterremque Extorris concomitatus esset reducem quoque Redux aportaret Win. Com. de rebus Brit. But perhaps the Tyranny of his Predecessor might make his first Steps more easy However I take Henry the Seventh's Master-piece of Wisdom to be That he used That of other Mens also He call'd his Parliament and consulted with it upon all Occasions especially when he had any Provocations to War from France or Scotland Not insisting on but ever waving that impertinent piece of Prerogative of Declaring War upon a King 's own Head This Method open'd his Subjects Purses This procured even a Benevolence as odious as it had been heretofore and Great Sums of Money were soon collected by it The Commotions which happen'd in the North and West upon gathering the Subsidies were but slight Exceptions taken on the Occasion of the Extravagancies and Passions of particular Persons And the Business of Lambert Simnell and the greater Attempt of Perkin Warbeck were but the Effect of a Woman's Malice and promoted by the Dutchess of Burgundy who was an Avowed Enemy to the House of Lancaster Sir Francis Bacon tells us His Time did excel for Good Commonwealth Laws so that he may be justly celebrated for the Best Law-giver to this Nation after King Edward the First For his Laws whoso marks them well are deep and not Vulgar not made upon the Spur of a particular Occasion for the present but out of providence for the future to make the State of his People still more and more happy after the manner of the Legislators in Ancient and Heroical Times I suppose he means the State-Laws against Retainers and Riots these seem more properly to be made on his own Account and that no Person assisting a King de Facto should be attainted therefore by course of Law or Act of Parliament and that if any such Act should be made it should be void which seems also calculated for a particular purpose though it hath since made so much noise in the World as the Act to take away the Writ De Haeretico Comburendo was in King Charles the Second's Time And this de Facto Act seems to have no foundation at that time unless it were for fear of the Earl of Warwick who was the last Heir-Male of the Plantagenets for the King and People most certainly knew that Richard the Younger Brother of Edward the Fifth was Dead and Safe whom Perkin pretended to represent And methinks after all this Act seems to have but a Weak and Dishonourabble Foundation and leaves an ill Savour and will cast a Reflection some-where For Fears and Jealousies
There are particular Histories of the Reformation enow and fresh in every one's Memory having had an occasion not long since to review them and consider them afresh There are Plays and Novels also of the other to gratify the Female Politicians who whether they ought to be severe upon him or not I know not and leave to them to determine This is besides my Design as being out of all Ordinary Rules of Civil Policy Therefore waving all Enquiry into the Reasons or Provocations of one or t'other though I know some are assign'd and remark'd to his Disadvantage others to his Advantage I shall dismiss my self with this general Remark upon the Qualities of a Man or King That when Either have once broke through the first Obligations of Justice or Virtue he makes but little difficulty in the proceeding upon Attempts of the same Nature Though after all to speak impartially and without Reflection I am not satisfied but the first Occasion of Divorce and Reformation too was in its self justifiable though the Circumstances inducing it are suspected and it was concluded a Reason sought not offer'd But certainly Sir Walter Raleigh's Character of him is not to be justified who says That if all the Pictures and Paterns of a Merciless Prince were lost in the World they might all again be painted to the life out of the Story of this King And that of Sir Robert Naunton is as ill-natur'd viz. Having a Design to marry within the Degrees Unlawful he set his Learned Men at work to prove it lawful and after a while being cloy'd and desiring Change set them again on work to prove it unlawful He never spared Man in his Anger or Woman in his Lust This is Satyrically said but not truly For he had no mind to marry at first where he did but did it in Obedience to his Father's Will and against the Grain with himself And he liv'd with this first Wife Twenty Years and never took notice of the Unlawfulness of that Marriage till it was objected against him again and the President of Paris started and moved it on the Proposal of Marriage between the Lady Mary his Daughter by Katherine and the Duke of Orleance the second Son to the French King And as to the Cruelty towards Men the Death of the Lord Cromwell and that of the Duke of Norfolk's Son Henry Earl of Surry sound most of Severity yet as to the first he had rais'd him from a Smith's Son he was Cardinal Woolsey's Pupil and trod in his Steps He was Attainted by Parliament and the Record says for Crimes of Heresy and Treason perhaps the Advice of the Match with the Lady Ann of Cleve but I think it doth not argue Cruelty in the King neither towards him or her He dismiss'd her with a gentle Farewel after her Marriage was declared Unlawful by the Convocation and adjudged so in Parliament and she lived sixteen Years after and died in the Fourth Year of Queen Mary As to the other It is plain it was not to gratify his Personal Cruelty For being no Lord of Parliament he was Arraigned at Guildhall before a Special Commission and found guilty by a Jury the Charge of bearing Arms which belonged to the King and Prince may seem somewhat slight yet it is always dangerous to play with Edged Tools and the Ragion di stato may in part excuse it In the main he appears a King of a great deal of Honour not without a Good-natur'd Generosity He was careful also to maintain the Civil Constitution and devout to the Privileges of Parliament He carried it fair with his Subjects in the general and was never Ill-natur'd or Froward as far as I can perceive without some Colour of Justice I know not whether I can justify him in his Politicks so well in his contradicting by the Will the Disposition of the Crown and its Succession which he had before Established in Parliament especially to bring in Queen Mary after his Subjects had sworn to the Parliamentary Succession of his Daughter Elizabeth Besides That this was subsequently by Implication to affirm the Legitimacy of his Mariage with Katharine of Spain which was with so much Solemnity laboured and declared Unlawful All that can be said is That he might in respect to the Mother be unwilling to suffer the Daughter to be Bastardised And we always ought to construe the Actions of Princes in mitiori sensu and to take them by the best part of the Handle in History To speak well of them if we can any ways justify it and to be silent in Doubtful Characters if we cannot Commend EDWARD VI. I Am at a loss in speaking to the Short Reign of Edward the Sixth He seems born and design'd for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity and to be snatched away to the Disappointment of Human Expectations to intimate That there is no Establishment of Happiness to be relied on here below However that Government which might have come to something in himself was Unfortunate in the Administration of the Councel which his Father with so much Care had assign'd him and impertinently enough shuffled between the Aspiring Conduct of the Great Men and the Foolish Ambition of Pretending Women These interrupted the Wisdom of Councels though the Protector did his part well enough at first till he came to pull down a Church and two Bishops Houses in the Strand to make him a Mansion-House c. For after the Disturbances of the Nation on the Account of Religion and the Inclosures at Home and with relation to the French and Scots Abroad had been managed with Prudence and Honour and the Kingdom began to appear with a Face of Peace and Satisfaction How vain are Mortal Considerations Behold the whole Oeconomy is on a sudden Discomposed and the Frame of Government Subverted And a Frivolous Pretence of Place between two Women Unhinges the Constitution and first exposes and then destroys and ruins the Husbands by vertue of the False Designs of a Third Person behind the Curtain who grafted Villany artificially upon their Follies and at last as was suspected brought in the King himself whose Death also is laid at the same Door What the Sense of our Neighbours was concerning it you may read in Mezeray France and England held pretty good Correspondence when Death cut the Thread of Young King Edward's Days It was believ'd to proceed from a slow Poyson and John Dudley Duke of Northumberland was suspected guilty of the Crime he having suggested to him to Institute Jane of Suffolk for Heiress to the Crown However it were it prov'd a Fatal Policy to the poor Lady Jane and himself too I confess I cannot see why Edward the Sixth might not make bold with Mary as well as his Father had done before him and dispose of the Crown by Will as he did especially for the Propagating and Establishing the Infant Reformation if that Age had been serious and well agreed in the
this or nothing This and those which Mezeray reports to have preceded the Death of Henry the IVth of France particularly that Ticket which a Priest found upon an Altar at Montargis giving notice that the King would be Assassinated his Horoscopes which determined the Year of his Life and even the Queen 's own Dream that the King was Stabbing with a Knife to pass by all others relating to this and other Occasions must import this at least to use Mezeray's own Words who I believe was no more Superstitious this way than my self That there is a Sovereign Power which Disposes of Futurity since it so certainly Knows and Foretels it But this Subject is not my Part. Nevertheless in truth there appears to have been some extraordinary Conjunctions of the Planets or something more Extraordinary which gave that extravagant Turn to Powers here below not only in Europe but other remote parts of the World and put sublunary Motions in such a Ferment about these Times as was evident in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland Spain Germany France Portugal and Naples and the Hurly-burlies and Revolutions there and in several other Parts but also between the Tartars and Chineses and in the Empire of the Great Mogul between Cha-gehan and his Four Sons especially Aureng-zeb the Story whereof is Famous and you may Read it at large in Tavernier Which Aureng-zeb Sir William Temple calls a Fanatick and compares to Cromwell as if all such strains of Empire were Enthusiastical like that of the Great Turk But to return to take my leave of King Charles Morally speaking I think the Queen was the Chief Occasion of all those Misfortunes which attended Him and the Nation for there is no reason the Welfare of a Kingdom should hang at a King's Codpiece The King 's Marrying a Papist gave the suspicion of Popery and the suspicion brought in Popery in Earnest CHARLES II. AS to the first Twelve Years of the Nominal Reign of this King 't was such a Farce of Policy and Government that it Libels the Chronicle and I believe he had been sooner in his Throne if he had never made a Step to help himself by the Disturbance of those who usurp'd his Place I wish for his Honour in the beginning he had not intermedled with the Action of Montross during the Treaty with the Scots it reflected some Aspersion upon his Sincerity and he only sacrificed one Friend's Life and the Reputation of others and thereby prejudiced his own Interest for the present But I know that Business hath also another Face and therefore I pass by that and some other Occurrences to proceed to his own Administration after he was Crowned in England Which I shall touch but very slightly neither as slightly as he did the Interests of the Nation the History of these Times being fresh in every one's Memory I am very much at a loss considering the different Opinions of him and his Inconsistency with himself with what Character to introduce this King to his Government If he was a Protestant when he came over to Us as all his fine Declarations c. import surely the Devil ow'd Us a shame pardon the Expression that we should blunder on a Popish Match again at first dash Here was a loose given to the Papist and Fanatick to play their Old Game over again and he put himself under a necessity of Suspition with his People once more For let a Prince make what Gracious Speeches he pleases his Actions will be always more significant and speak plainer than his Declarations Hence this Dilemma became entailed either he doth answer the Expectations of the Papists or not If he doth and gives them any Assurances c. his own People are upon his Skirts If not then he is attack'd by the Indefatigable Plots and Attempts of the Jesuits and that Party In the mean time in what a blessed Condition of Settlement is a Nation It can never be at quiet I shall not pretend to dive into the Mysteries of one Plot or t'other let them stand on their own Bottom in the validity of the Records No doubt there always hath been a Popish Plot of one sort or other more or less as our Kings have given them a helping hand ever since the Reformation and I believe ever will be so long at least as our Kings manage Affairs as they did for the Four last Reigns And for ought I know too there may have been a Fanatick Plot ever since Calvin's time and will continue as long as Kingly Government and Church-Hierarchy are in fashion Neither shall I trouble my self to enquire which Plot was the Agressor which Plaintiff which Defendant which the Original and which the Counter-plot But between them both this King had reduced himself to a pretty Condition of Trouble if any thing could be so to him by his Trimming a Quality which was scouted in the Subject For in the Popish Plot he was to be taken off for not being a Papist or at least for not coming up to their Expectations of him and by the Fanatick Plot he was to be Blunderbuss'd and destroy'd for being a Papist and favouring their Designs too much But to determine the precedence of these Plots I think the Popish Plot first appeared upon the Stage against him and it is thought attended him at his Exit though he died of their own Persuasion I mean the Popish was the first Plot of Quality for I take no notice of such little Things as the Extravagant Matter of Venner or that in the North which was but a Fag-end of that in Ireland and scarce then setled nor of any thing of that nature which happen'd before the Year 1670. I do not find any Plot of Consequence till after the Acts of Parliament against Dissenters not taking notice of the Act of Vniformity or that against Quakers but not till after that against Dissenting Preachers in Corporations that against Conventicles which came after the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and as far as I can see without any great provocation which Acts as they themselves speak were grounded chiefly on Surmise and Suspition Thus was he fain to shuffle on sometimes in the form of Persecution against Dissenters sometimes in that of Toleration and Indulgence to them and their Tender Consciences so that Religion grew a meer State-Weather Cock as Circumstances happen'd and turn'd as Court Cabals mov'd now one way now another Whereas if he had come over a True Church-of-England Man as he pretended to profess himself he might have reduced the Church easily enough to some degree of Uniformity and modell'd the Civil Government and Ecclesiastical State to a good Temper having the Military Power in his own hands by the Militia Acts. But I suppose that was not his Business And he discover'd the same Unsteadiness in Civil Matters shifting Ministers and Officers Proroguing and Dissolving Parliaments without apparent Reasons and 't is said for very bad Ones sometimes and at
can only attribute this to the Character Stow gives of him viz. That he advanced Persons to Dignities for Merit only and who did excel others in Innocency of Life RICHARD II. SOME Princes have Erred upon a mistaken Consideration some through a wilful and rash Inconsideration some have taken Measures by Advice of Friends as they thought and have been deceived by Misrepresentations these may be pittied Others have Miscarried by hearkening only to Minions and Favourites are head-strong and resolvedly deaf and obstinate against Advice But the Actions and Conduct of this King are so Unaccountable that it would puzzle a Matchiavel to assign him a Character or to fix him in any Rule or Principle of Government Good or Bad. The Rebellion of John or Wat Tyler ought not to be laid at his Door it is called an Accident though it had some dismal Effects in it but the occasion which appears was the Abuse of a Collector who gathered the Poll-Money yet it may teach Kings that it is a ticklish and dangerous Experiment to let out a Revenue or Tax to Farm so that it may be scrued up into what may be called in the Country Oppression This King's first Misunderstanding in earnest or Misdemeanor if I may so speak after his coming to Age was imposed upon him by way of Surprise and Artificial Insinuation of Favourites it might be the result of a hot Indiscretion not of a premeditated Violence or Invasion of Ill-natur'd Policy And if the Duke of Ireland Michael de la Pool the Chancellor or the Archbishop of York were in fault on the one side neither was the Duke of Gloucester the Bishop of Ely c. to be altogether excused on the other and the Parliament imposing on the King Thirteen Lords to have oversight under the King as they called it was an unsufferable Encroachment on the Spirit of a Young Prince And he had reason to have recourse to the Judges for their Opinions and Directions touching what had passed in that Parliament as to their Participation of the Government with him whose Opinion though they had the misfortune to suffer for it was not so Illegal but Justifiable by the Laws saving only in Two or Three of the Questions to which they gave their Answers But Law is not always measured by its own Rule it stands or falls according to the Circumstance of Times A Man may at some time sooner and better Steal a Horse as they say than look on at others This first Affront so put upon the King gave him a prejudice to Parliaments ever after and consequently put him upon indirect Means and Practices to Debauch the Constitution and we may be sure Kings will never want Tools fit for their purpose Hence were conceived those prejudices also against the Duke of Glocester and the other Lords the King had Reason to be out of Tuition when he came to be of full Age 'T is true the Attempting of the Duke of Glocester's Life in that Treacherous manner was not to be excused neither was his Behaviour to be pardoned towards the King he reproached him too severely on all Occasions for though he was the King's Uncle he was not always to be his Governor they were both in Fault no doubt and both equally Unfortunate in their End 'T was an unhappy Reign divided between too haughty Subjects and Ill-designing Favourites too powerful for a Young Inconsiderate King to Manage with Prudence and equal Power Whether Chief Justice Tresilian did according to Law or not 't is certain his Death was not according to Law and as the Duke of Glocester had taken his Life so his own was soon after taken away without Trial also in an Arbitrary manner And the Earl of Arundel had the same Measure he meeted to Calvery one of the Queens Esquires The Banishing the Duke of Norfolk and Hereford and the Archbishop of Canterbury was rather a fault in the Politicks of those times for it seems it was the Custom then to Punish the Faults of Great Men only with Banishment but an ill-advised Custom than want of Consideration in the King Sir John Bushy the Speaker of Parliament was the most in fault in attributing Vain and almost Blasphemous Titles to the King Titles fitter as is observed for the Majesty of God and putting him upon a piece of Omnipotence in Recalling his Pardons which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Adjudged in the Affirmative That the King might Revoke but the Lawyers and Judges having been burnt before designed to give Judgment t'other way and had no mind to Determine of Transactions in Parliament any more nor of the Kings Prerogative in such Ticklish Times Though at the next Parliament at Chester the Judges were drawn in to give another Extraordinary Judgment viz. That when Articles are propounded by the King to be handled in Parliament that if other Articles are handled before those are determined it is Treason in them that do it What was there Extravagant that was not done in this Parliament He brought it about as the History says That he obtained the whole Power of the Parliament to be Conferred upon certain few Persons who proceeded to Conclude upon many things which concerned generally the things of the whole Parliament to the great Prejudice of the State and dangerous Example in time to come What could we expect from a King who was Taught That the Laws of the Realm were in his Head and his Breast By reason of which fantastical Opinion he Destroyed Noblemen and Impoverished the Commons which was one of the Articles against him and which was much such a worthy fancy as Wat Tyler had who putting his Hand to his Lips said Before Four Days come to an End all the Laws of England should proceed from his Mouth But I am weary of the Medley of this King's Story In short if we survey him in his Taxations in his Laws and Ordinances after all and in the Station of a Christian and Man as well as King we shall with a little Charity or good Nature conclude him Blameable rather by Accident than natural Temper And as to his Conditions That they were more the Fault of his Education than Inclination and at the bottom those Failings that were in him retained the tincture of the light Inconstancy of his Mother He is another unfortunate Instance of the Instability and Misery of a King when he leaves the Track of Law and Justice for the Ways of Humour and Passion Sir Robert Cotton Observes That Bushy's Contrivance of Compounding with Delinquents wrought such Distaste in the Affections of the People that it grew the Death of the One and Deposition of the Other HENRY IV. IN the next Six Reigns during the Divisions of the Houses of York and Lancaster the Kingdom was scarce ever cool enough for Observations of Civil Polity and Administration The Thirteen Years of this King were divided between Conspiracies and Wars And as he came to the Crown without a Title with
Business of Religion For we shall find I doubt in History notwithstanding all Observation to the contrary That if Religion be not supported by State-props it will not stand long and that That which hath only for its Ingredients Mercy and Honour will be in short time overrun and go to the Walls whilst the Religion of Violence and Blood will propagate it self by Inquisitions and the Artifices of its own pretended Zeal And that notwithstanding all Innocent Precautions 't is too true That a Prince of Matchiavell's Composition will at present and for once prevail over one of a Sincere Vertue and open Honour This I say upon the appearing Reason of the thing That our Nation in particular may not be imposed upon over and over again with the same Appearances and only that we should stand upon our Guard against all Popish Representations how innocently soever colour'd and against all Foreign Overtures how well soever baited Queen MARY ONE would have thought that the Reign of this Queen might have satisfied a Nation of any Capacity of Thinking in the Professions of a Papist and what weight the Promises of the Church of Rome to Hereticks ought to have with Protestants The Principles and Practices of Papists were well enough known even in those times in our Neighbouring Country of France under Henry the II d by the Execution of so great a Number of Protestants who were Burn'd in the Greve the common Place of Execution but the manner of it was not Common They were Haled up by a Pully and Iron Chain then suffered to fall down in the midst of a great Fire which was repeated several times And 't is said the King himself would needs feed his own Eyes with this Tragical and Melancholy Spectacle and that the Horrible and Mournful Shreiks of one of those poor Wretches left so lively an Impression in his Imagination that all his Life long he had from time to time a very frightful and terrible Remembrance of those dreadful Groans However it were it is certain that the Smell of those Carcasses then Roasted got into the Brains of a great many People who on the one hand beholding the false Constancy as Mezeray calls it and on the other hand the scandalous dissolute Living named this Justice as he terms it a Persecution and their Punishment a Martyrdom This is the tender Account given of it by a Popish Historian And he says Faggots were then lighted every where against the Protestants Queen Mary made her passage to the Throne through her Promises to the Norfolk and Suffolk Gentlemen that she would make no Alterations in Religion but before she was warm in it she shewed how she dissembled her false Favours and removed the Protestant Bishops and sent Cranmer the Archbishop of Canterbury and Latimer and others to the Tower and passed Judgment on them to Dye All this before her Coronation And as Mezeray tells us When she was once Absolute Mistress she Cemented the Throne with the Blood of the Lady Jane her Husband her Father and almost all her Kindred and after that she spilt much more to Restore the Catholick Religion which brought the State into such Convulsions as had like to have proved Mortal and all for the Advantage of a short Duration Thus Mezeray still a French and Popish Writer And in truth the Lady Elizabeth escaped very narrowly for Gardiner that special Bishop of Winchester had procured her to be sent to Prison and had framed a Warrant under certain Councellors Hands to put her to Death but that Mr. Bridges Lieutenant of the Tower pitying her Case went to the Queen to know her Pleasure who utterly denied that she knew any thing of it or was then ashamed at least to Own it by which means her Life was preserved This Good-natur'd Merciful Bishop and Popish Priest was not contented to Lop off Boughs and Branches as he phras'd it at the Council-Board but was for plucking up the Reformation by the Root meaning Queen Elizabeth and to do the Spaniards Justice 't is said they interceded for her perhaps it was only in Policy that their Master might have Two Strings to his Bow as it appeared by the sequel for he Courted Queen Elizabeth after the Death of Queen Mary 'T was evident farther how Queen Mary intended to keep her Word as to Religion by her Match with Spain No doubt she had a mind to put it out of her Power and cast the Odium of Persecution off from her self But we ought not to Reflect on her for Marrying one of her own Religion since our Protestant Kings on this side the Reformation have had a good knack ever since of providing for the Security of the Protestant Religion by Popish Matches for though King James the First did not actually Wed he did not dare to have attempted it in Scotland a Papist yet he was more to blame in advising and pursuing One so hotly for his Son than his Son who finished a Popish Match at last This by the bye The Rebellion of Wyat was an ill tim'd Attempt begun too early as another late One since but had he let it alone a little longer till Queen Mary shewed her self more fully in her proper Colours when the Pope's Primacy came to be proposed and laboured to be Restored and Cardinal Pool came over it might have had another Effect and proved a generous Effort for the Rescuing the Infant Reformation from the Jaws of Popish Tyranny For the Pope had just Taught the People the way of being Absolved from their Allegiance and they might infer if he could do it or it were to be done for the sake of Religion That they might Absolve themselves from their Allegiance for the good of Religion also But when once a first Undertaking miscarries through an ill-tim'd and rash Precipitation a Second seldom or never comes to Maturity in the same Shape and Nature Her Five Years Reign passed in a Hurry of Religion Love Persecution Mariage c. with some Lunatick Intervals of Mercy It is said her Reign was polluted with Blood of Martyrs Unfortunate by frequent Insurrections and Inglorious by the Loss of Callis It is said also she was a Lady of Good Nature and Merciful Disposition in her self What then can we expect from the Reign of any Popish Prince where the Barbarous Zeal and Unhuman Authority of that Church can so far Impose upon and Over-rule even a Merciful Prince that Dr Heylin calls her's the greatest Persecution since Dioclesian's time and which raged most terribly 'T is truly and absolutely impossible for any thing of Honour Virtue or Good Nature to have any place in a Sovereign under such a Sovereignty Queen ELIZABETH IN rhe Reign of Queen Elizabeth we may observe the difference in a method of Protestant and Popish Reformation or Alteration of Religion The Popish under Queen Mary was begun and carried on by Imprisonments Fire and Blood The Protestants by this Queen with a true Christian
Temper by a gentle Remove without any Blood without Imprisoning any Person and without inflicting almost any Suffering or Penalty till the Seditious Practices of the Popish Party had provoked the Arm of Justice till the Pope had given away her Kingdom of Ireland as a Heretick and Parsons and Campian Two of his Emissaries had Deposed her at Home in their Doctrines And after all Campian Sherwin and Briant did not suffer as Popish Priests but were Prosecuted on the 25th of Edward the III d for Plotting Destruction of the Queen and Ruin of the Kingdom for Adhering to the Pope the Queen's Enemy and coming into England to Raise Forces against the State And 't was only for these Exorbitances of the Papists that new and strict Laws were Enacted against them in the following Parliaments in the 23d 27 29 35th Years of her Reign Before that there was only the Penalty of Twelvepence a Sunday for Absence from Church and some other necessary provisions concerning the Supremacy Administration of the Sacrament and Form of Common-Prayer which also were very tenderly put in Execution and for above Twenty Years no Body suffered Death for Religion nor till long after the Pope and King of Spain had conspired her Ruin and Gregory the XIIIth held secret Consultations to Invade at once both England and Ireland and longer after that Bloody Massacre of Paris which was a design to Cut off the Protestants as it was Termed or at least to give them a deep Wound and the terrible Slaughters of Protestants through all the Cities of France and the War afterwards declared against the Protestants in the time of Charles the IXth not to reflect on the Chambres Ardentes before against Protestants in Henry the IId's time and after the Attempt which the Duke of Alva on the behalf of the Queen of Scots and the just suspicious she might entertain on her account who was then accounted the great Patroness and only hopes of the Papists and all the other Stratagems and visible Designs of that Party And the second Execution of any Person was in her Twenty fifth Year and upon a just necessity of Self-preservation upon the rash and extravagant Proceedings of Somervill and Others Besides when the Queen was informed even of these Severities as they are call'd tender ones in comparison she grew offended with the Commissioners for Popish Causes Reproved them for their Severity although they declared and protested they Questioned no Man for his Religion but only for dangerous Attempts against her Majesty and the State and the Queen forbad them afterwards to use Tortures as she did the Judges other Punishments And not long after that when Seventy Priests were taken and some of them Condemned and the rest in danger of the Law she only shipp'd them away out of England A Merciful piece of Justice So Merciful she was that it gave her Enemies such Encouragement as her Life was never safe as may appear by the Case of Dr Parry till there was a necessity for an Association to provide for the Queen's safety which was first Voluntary by a Number of her Subjects the Earl of Leicester being foremost thence after of all Ranks and Conditions bound mutually thereunto to each other by their Oaths and Subscriptions to Prosecute all those to the very Death that should Attempt any thing against the Queen which the Year following was in a Parliamentary manner Enacted into a formal Law Notwithstanding which another dangerous Conspiracy of one Savage set on foot by Babington and Others to take away her Life as being Excommunicated was discovered and about Fourteen were justly Executed for Treason Upon which last Treason hung the Fate of the Queen of Scots the Justice whereof has been so much Controverted and Debated Rules of Policy and Self-preservation must cashier all Principles of good Nature or Honour Yet however Execution was not done upon her till the French Ambassador and others were again discovered to take off the Queen by way of prevention And the Circumstances suggested to the Queen at least of the Spanish Navy being come to Milford Haven the Scots into England and that the Duke of Guise was Landed at Sussex c. may extenuate if not excuse the Severity of her Execution with any but Papists and the manner of doing it at last shews it was Extorted from her upon inevitable Considerations and Symptoms of a relucting necessity Her often Countermanding it demonstrates it was not an Act of her Inclination and at last perhaps as far as it appears it was obtained of her by Surprise and without her Authorising Hand to the finishing Stroke If there were any thing in it of Barbarity 't was the denying her a Catholick Priest or Confessor and the Manner of her Execution Which yet is no more than Papists deny Protestants on all occasions and I know not why we should not vouch the dying Honour of our Religion as they do of theirs But enough has been said of this Tragedy on all Hands only it may be fit to Remark That even the French Historians give a more favourable Account of it than our own and particularly Mezeray is softer in his Expressions than Baker The first says The Indiscretion of her Friends was no less the Cause of her Misfortune than the Wickedness of her Enemies as the First sought with violent passion after some plausible pretence to Ruin her the Other furnished them with divers by contriving every Hour some odd Design and even Conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth so that they made her Perish by their over-much Care and Endeavours to Save her The Later gives a slim trimming Account which was worse Although 't is true the taking off the Queen of Scots did not break the Neck of the Popish Designs for who can restrain the Malice of Jesuits for Men must have some ingredient of Modesty to be convinc'd and silenc'd and kept within the bounds of natural Virtue yet it stopp'd their Hands for some time And when afterwards they began again upon the Example and Encouragement of the Holy League in France of which the Duke of Guise was Head and in virtue of which they had taken off their own King Henry the III d by the Hands of James Clement a Monk though Guise himself was first Assassinated and they had taken new heart upon the King of Spain's Founding a Seminary of English at Validolid and new Plots were contrived against the Queen It put them somewhat out of the way and they were at a loss where to find a Successor to the Crown for their purpose when Lopez and Patrick Cullen c. were to have Killed the Queen And they were forc'd to hunt after far-fetch'd Titles in the Infanta of Spain and farther for the Earl of Essex at Home the Son of the Queen of Scots being a Protestant and even at last they made but little of it The Queen remained in Peace and Safety and their Pretender Essex was himself Executed for Treason The