Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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B05979
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The Earle of Strafford, his speech in the Tower to the Lords, before hee went to execution. May the 12. day. 1641.
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Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of, 1593-1641.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing S5793; ESTC R184662
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5,727
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11
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THE EARLE OF STRAFFORD His Speech in the Tower to the Lords before hee went to execution May the 12. day 1641. Printed 1641. His Speech in the Tower to the Lords before hee went to Execution RIght honourable and the rest you are now come to convey me to my death I am willing to die which is a thing no more than all our Predecessours have done and a debt that our Posteritie must in their due time discharge which since it can be no way avoyded it ought the lesse to be feared for that which is common to all ought not to be intollerable to any It is the law of nature the tribute of the flesh a remedy from all worldly cares and troubles and to the truly penitent a perfect path to blessednesse And there is but one death though severall wayes unto it Mine is not naturall but enforced by the Law Justice It hath been said that the Lawes vex only the meaner sort of people but the mighty are able to withstand them It is not so with me for to the Law I submit my selfe and confesse that I receive nothing but Justice For he that politikly intendeth good to a Common-wealth may be called a just man but he that practiseth either for his owne profit or any other sinister ends may bee well tearmed a Delinquent person Neither is delay in punishment any priviledge for pardon And moreover I ingenuously confesse with Cicero that the death of the bad is the safety of the good that be alive Let no man trust either in the favour of his Prince the friendship and consanguinity of his Peeres much lesse in his owne wisedome knowledge of which I ingenuously confesse I have been too confident Kings as they are men before God so they are gods before men and I may say with a great man once in this Kingdome had I strived to obey my God as faithfully as I sought to honour my King diligently I had stood and not fallen Most happie and fortunate is that Prince who is as much for his justice feared as for his goodnesse beloved For the greater that Princes are in power above other the more they ought in vertue to excell other and such is the Royall Soveraigne whom I late served For my Peeres the correspondence that I had with them during my prosperitie was to me verie delightfull and pleasing and here they have commiserated my ruine I have plentifully found who for the most generous of them I may boldly say though they have detested the fact yet they have pitied the person delinquent The first in their loyalty the last in their charity Ingenuously confessing that never any subject or Peere of my ranke had ever that helpe of Counsell that benefit of time or a more free and legall tryall than I have had In the like whereof none of my predecessours hath had so much favour from his Prince so much sufferance from the people in which I comprehend the understanding Commons not the many headed monster Multitude But I have offended am sentenced must now suffer And for my too much confidence in my supposed wisedome and knowledge therein have beene the most deceived For hee is wise to himselfe that knowes by others faults to correct his own offences To be truely wise is to be Secretaries to ourselves For it is meere folly to reveale our intimate thoughts to strangers Wisedome is the most precious Gem with which the mind can be adorned and learning the most famous thing for which a man ought to bee esteemed and true wisedome teacheth us to doe well as to speake well In the first I have failed for the wisedome of man is foolishnesse with God For knowledge it is a thing indifferent both to good and evil but the best knowledge is for a man to know himselfe hee that doth so shall esteeme of himselfe but little for hee considereth from whence he came and whereto he must go he regardeth not the vaine pleasures of this life hee exalteth God and strives to live in his fear But he that knoweth not himselfe is wilfull in his owne wayes unprofitable in his life infortunate in his death and so am I. But the reason why I sought to attaine unto it was this I have read that he that knoweth not that which hee ought to know is a bruit beast amongst men Hee that knoweth more than he ought to know is a man amongst beasts But he that knoweth all that may be known is a God amongst men To this I much aspired in this I much failed Vanitie of vanities all is but vanitie I have heard the people clamour and cry out saying That through my occasion the times are bad I wish that when I am dead they may prove better Most true it is that there is at this time a great storme impending God in his mercie avert it And since it is my particular lot like Ionah to be cast into the sea I shall thinke my life well spent to appease Gods wrath and satisfie the peoples malice O what is eloquence more than aire fashioned with an articulate and distinct sound when it is a speciall vertue to speake little and well and silence is oft the best oratorie For fooles in their dumbnesse may bee accounted wise It hath power to make a good matter seeme bad and a bad cause appeare good But mine was to mee unprofitable and like the Cypresse trees which are great and tall but altogether without fruit What is honour but the first step to disquietnesse and power is still waited on by envie neither hath it any priviledge against in famie It is held to be the chiefe part of honour for a man to joyne to his office and calling curtisie and affabilitie commiseration and pitie For thereby he draweth to him with a kind of compulsion the hearts of the multitude But that was the least part of my studie which now makes mee call to minde that the greater the persons are in authority the sooner they are catcht in any delinquencie and the smallest crimes are thought to be capitall the smallest spot seemes great in the finest linnen and the least flaw is soonest found in the richest Diamond But high and noble spirits finding themselves wounded grieve not so much at their owne paine and perplexitie as at the derision and scofs of their enemy But for mine own part though I might have manie in my life I hope to finde none in my death Amongst other things which pollute and contaminate the mindes of great spirits there is none more hainous than ambition which is seldome unaccompanied with Avarice Such to possesse their ends care not to violate the Lawes of Religion and Reason and to breake the bonds of Modestie and equitie with the nearest tyes of Consanguinitie and Amitie Of which as I have beene guiltie so I crave at Gods hands forgivenesse It is a maxime in Philosophy that ambitious men can never bee good Counsellours to Princes The desire of
having more is common to great Lords and a desire of Rule a great cause of their ruine My Lords I am now the hopelesse President may I bee to you all an happy example For ambition devoureth gold and drinketh bloud and climbeth so high by other mens heads that at the length in the fall it breaketh its owne neck therefore it is better to live in humble content than in high care and trouble For more precious is want with honestie than wealth with infamy For what are wee but meere vapours which in a serene element ascend high and upon an instant like smoak vanish into nothing Or like ships without Pilots tost up down upon the seas by contrary winds and tempests But the good husbandman thinkes better of those eares of corne which bow downe and grow crooked than those which are streight and upright because he is assured to finde more store of grain in the one than in the other This all men know yet of this how few make use The defect whereof must bee now my paine May my suffering prove to others profit For what hath now the favour of my Prince the familiaritie with my Peeres the volubility of a tongue the strength of my memorie my learning or knowledge my honours or offices my power or potencie my riches and treasure all these the especiall gifts both of Nature and Fortune what have all these profited mee Blessings I acknowledge though by God bestowed upon man yet not all of them together upon many Yet by the divine providence the most of them met in me Of which had I made happie use I might still have flourisht who now am forc'd immaturely to fall I now could wish but that utinam is too late that God with his outward goodnesse towards me had so commixed his inward grace that I had chused the medium path neither inclining to the right hand nor deviating to the left but like Icarus with my waxen wings fearing by too low a flight to moysten them with the waves I soared too high and too neare the Sun by which they being melted I ayming at the highest am precipitated to the lowest and am made a wretched prey to the waters But I who before built my house upon the sand have now setled my hopes upon the Rocke my Saviour By whose only merites my sole trust is that whatsoever becomes of my bodie yet in this bosome my soule may bee Sanctuaried Nimrod would have built a Tower to reach up to heaven and cal'd it Babel but God turned it to the confusion of Languages and dissipation of the people Pharaoh kept the children of Israel in bondage and after having fred them in his great pride would have made them his prey but God gave them a drie and miraculous passage and Pharaoh and his hoast a watrie Sepulcher Belshazzer feasted his Princes and Prostitutes who drunke healths in the vessels taken from the Temple but the hand of God writ upon the wall Mene Tekel Phoras and that night before morning was both his Kingdome and life taken from him Thus God lets men goe on a great while in their owne devices but in the end it proved their own ruine destruction never suffering them to effect their desired purposes therefore let none presume upon his power glory in his greatnesse or be too confident in his riches These things were written for our Instruction of which the living may make use the dying cannot but wit and unfruitfull wisedome are the next nieghbours to folly There can bee no greater vanitie in the world than to esteeme the world which regardeth no man and to make slight account of God who greatly respecteth all men and there can be no greater folly in man than by much travell to increase his goods and pamper his body and in the Interim with vaine delights and pleasures to lose his soul It is a great folly in any man to attempt a bad beginning in hope of a good ending and to make that proper to one which was before common to all is meere indiscretion and the beginning of discord which I positively wish may end in this my punishment O how small a proportion of earth will containe my body when my high minde could not bee confined within the spacious compasse of two Kingdomes But my houre draweth on and I conclude with the Psalmist not aiming at any one man in particular but speaking for all in generall How long will you Iudges be corrupted how long will ye cease to give true Iudgement c Blessed is the man that doeth not walk in the Councell of the wicked nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornefull therefore they shall not stand in the Iudgement nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous c. About the houre of 12. a Clocke the aforesaid Lord of Strafford was conveyed to the Scaffold on Towre-Hill where was a court of Guard made by the severall Companies of Souldiers of the City of London and the Hamlets of the Tower on each side as he passed to the Scaffold before marched the Marshals men to make way then the Sheriffes of Londons Officers with their Halberds after them the Kings Guard or warders of the Tower Next came one of his Gentlemen bare headed in mourning habit the Lord Strafford following him clad in black cloath with divers others in the same habit which were his attendance then the Lord Bishop of Armach and other good Divines with the Sheriffes of London and divers honourable personages When hee came to the Scaffold he there shewed himselfe on each side in full view to all people and made this short speech with as much alacrity of Spirit as a mortall man could expresse viz. Then turning himselfe about he saluted all the Noblemen and tooke a solemne leave of all considerable persons on the Scaffold giving them his hand And after that he said Gentlemen I would say my prayers and I entreat you all to pray with me and for me then his Chaplaine laid the booke of Common prayer upon the chaire before him as hee kneeled down on which he prayed almost a quarter of an houre then he prayed as long or longer without a booke and ended with the Lords prayer then standing up hee spies his brother Sir George Wentworth and calls him to him and saith brother we must part remember me to my sister and to my wife and carry my blessing to my eldest Son and charge him from mee that he fear God and continue an obedient Sonne of the Church of England and that he should approve himselfe a faithfull subject to the King and tell him that he should not have any private grudge or revenge towards any concerning me and bid him beware that he meddle not with Church livings for that will prove a moath and canker to him in his estate and wish him to content himselfe to be a servant to his Countrey as a Justice of peace in his County and not aiming at higher preferments carry my blessing to my daughters Anne and Arrabella charge them to fear and serve God and he will blesse them not forgetting my little Infant that yet knowes neither good nor evill and cannot speak for it selfe God speak for it and blesse it then said hee now I have nigh done one stroke will make my wife husbandlesse my deare children fatherlesse and my poore servants masterlesse and seperat me from my deare brother and all my friends but let God be to you and them all in all After that going to take off his dublet and to make himselfe readie he said I thank God I am no more afraid of death nor daunted with any discouragements rising from any fears but do as chearfully put off my dublet at this time as ever I did when I went to bed Then he put off his dublet and wound up his haire with his hands and put on a white Cap. Then he called Where is the man that should do this last office meaning the Executioner call him to me When he came and askt him forgivenesse hee told him hee forgave him and all the world Then kneeling down by the block he went to prayer againe himself the Bishop of Armach kneeling on the one side and the Minister on the other to the which Minister after prayer he turned himselfe and spoke some few words softly having his hands lifted up this Minister closed his hands with his then bowing himselfe to the earth to lay his head on the block he told the Executioner that hee would first lay down his head to try the fitnesse of the block and take it up againe before he would lay it down for good and all and so he did and before hee laid it downe againe he told the Executioner that he would give him warning when to strike by stretching forth his hands and then laid down his neck on the block stretching out his hands the Executioner struck off his head at one blow then he tooke the head in his hand and shewed it unto all the people and said God save the King FINIS