Iames the fifth had the fortune to dye of a naturall death but as to his onely Daughter Queen Mary and mother 〈◊〉 King Iames the sixt it is manifestly knowne that she caused Henry Lord Darnley her second Husband to be cruelly murthered and only to make way to her third Marriage with Earl Bothwell her Paramour whom the States banished and shortly after call'd her to accompt for her Husbands murther and for that fact and other conspiracies against the State by the Votes of the major part of the Peeres and Commons in Parliament she was adjudged to die whereupon she fled into England where contriving sundry plots with the Papists and the Duke of Norfolke against Queen Elizabeth and restlesse in her ambitious contrivements to dispossesse the Queen Regnant of the Crowne you know to what end she came at Fodringay where we may safely believe that Gods just judgments overtook her when she little dream't to have dyed at the block what since became of her only Sonne King Iames and his two sonnes Prince Henry and our last King Charls though the manner of the two first deathes are still held in dispute yet we all know to what a fatall end the last came even at his own Gates and in the same place where the first blood was spilt by his own servants the Cavaleers pardon me then If I present you with an opinion of my own which I am confident is an infallible verity that allmighty God in his justice suffers not any man to come to a prodigious end but for such sinnes by him committed as are equivalent to that sin for which he suffered it is Gods own Oracle an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and he that kils by the Sword by the same weapon or the like he shal surely dye for a conclusion take this as a knowne truth to all the Nation that both the late Kings as they were naturall Scots very rarely loved an English man sure we are not the Nation in generall and that very seldome either of them admitted any of the English into their Bed-chambers for generally they were all Scots neither took they any of the English Buckingham excepted into their secrets and as their privadoes untill Strafford was taken into our last Kings favour but no otherwise than as a meer States-man and a bold instrument to act any thing conducible his Masters designs and such projects which were suitable to his endeavours and inclinations otherwise I never knew any that were fit servants for him and it is most certaine that both the Father and the Sonne laid more subtill and cunning snares to insnare the English Nation than all of the Norman race before them the Father to have laid the foundation and the Sonne to build up the whole fabrick of absolute Soveraignty as insensibly at first and from the beginning of their reigns as possibly their designs could permit but King Charls towards his last and long before the Warres began openly and shortly thereupon in hostility and with morter tempered with more English blood than ever hath been so wilfully and profusely spilt by any one Tyrant in the World and for what cause and on what grounds I beseech you tell me more than for the Nug◠and idle fictions of a divine prerogative and to rule alone without other Law than his owne Will and without accompt to any but to God alone they are both the Fathers and the Sonnes owne Maxims just Tyrant-like quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem and yet which is the mystery and the wonder of the times is this wilfull King cryed up by his many partizans for the onely paragon of Princes and that which is of more admiration his Protestations in the common belief preferred and credited before his visible actions and Cabinet Letters which if men were not besotted I am sure best of all other evidences layes open the most hidden secrets of the heart But it is most certaine that before and a long space after the battle at Edgehill he refused all overtures of Peace though t is confest he made many motions for Peace to the Parliament but ever no other than on such disadvantagious terms as were utterly unfit for the Parliaments embrasure and the Kingdomrs security for we find them evermore accompanied with such restrictions reservations and ambignous conditions howsoever gilded over with plausible pretences that the Parliament at length durst not either trust him or any of his specious Declarations as in the observations on the Reliquiae Carolinae are manifested for it is most true that as soon as he had attracted a very considerable Army to his assistance by his artifices and the severall visits and the orations he made to the respective Sheriffes and Gentry before and after the setting up of his Standerd of the Counties of Yorke Lincolne Nottingham Leicester Chester Stafford Denby Flint Salop Oxford and Berks wherein he neither spared any pains or travel or lost a minute of time both to deceive and win the people to his cause and 't is evident that he had not onely written his particular Letters to most of the prime Gentlemen of the Kingdome to side with him but had sent his peremptory commands to most of the Colonells of the Parliaments Army sent into Ireland for the assistance of the distressed Protestants to repair to his ayde against the Parliament a treachery and a testimony beyond all others of the falsenesse of his heart considered as hereafter it shall be made more apparent unto you with the seeming zeal and care he pretended to bear to those poor Irish Protestants It is worth your further observation that this most unfortunate Prince having so often accustomed himselfe to fraud and dissimulation that it came at last to this sad issue that all his after Messages and Overtures made to the Parliament in the declination of his power and after he was a Prisoner though happily more really intended than formerly and atested with exceeding specious plausible Protestations some of them confirmed with his wonted Imprecations were not beleeved but suspected for fallacious so long had this most unhappy King like the Flie that playes with the flame which comes in the end to burn himself out of his own fury such power had his will and naturall inclinations over his reason where you may take an instance or two in the way for a proofe thereof When he first raised his Army at York for which he endeavours to flam off the Parliament that those forces were onely raised as a guard for the security of his Person and to confirme this he caused divers of the Fugitive Lords then attending him shamefully to attest that he had no intent thereby to levy War against the Parliament when immediately thereupon he began to march and to run from place to place as before is noted to raise more force and that which is most perfidious after he had erected his Standard at Nottingham he continued
play for raising of Treasure without consent of Parliament by arbitrary projects whereof amongst many which followed he begins with that of Knighthood and calls to account under colour of an old obsolete Law all such Gentlemen and others within the limitation of that Statute as attended not his Coronation though by his own Proclamation he had before forbidden their attendance Shortly after comes in to his service Sir Thomas VVentworth who to shew what he would be and how serviceable to the Kings designes he might be was imployed into the North where he rigorously levyed a very considerable summe on the Gentlemen and Yeomen of those parts VVeston another of these Arbitrary beagles as an overseer to the Earle of Pembroke and other Commissioners was imployed into the West the treasure which was by this lawlesse project raised being come together was a very vast sum but it was as soon issued as levyed and served not to defray the moity of the Court expences insomuch as being still necessitated very shortly thereupon another Parliament was thought fit to be summoned this was no sooner assembled but the House of Commons on the tenth of May 1626. Charged the Duke of Buckingham with the late Kings death and sent up their Charge to the Lords the King being well acquainted therewith comes into the Peers House and tels them that he could be a witnesse to clear the Duke in evry particular of that charge and thereupon in terrour to the lower House by his Warrant under his hand attacheth and sendeth to prison Sir Dudly Diggs and Sir John Elliot as those which had the managery of that affair notwithstanding the House of Commons having the proofes and examinations in preparation against the Duke the King to make all sure and in arrest of farther proceedings against his chief privado the 15 of Iune following in a great rage dissolves that Parliament and on dis-robing himself said in a very stern comportment That it should be the last time he would ever put them on And here we may take into observation the lamentable effects of that innated duritie that naturall obstinacy and perversnesse of the violent will of this most unhappy Prince who in affront and despight of the Iustice of a Court of Parliament would not suffer his own Fathers death to be called to accompt or any further examination thereof to be taken for clearing the Duke But Gods Iudgments may not be arested and it is he that mauger the teeths of all humane powers will in his own good time bring to light and to Iudgment that crying sinne of Blood and have we not seen this verified to our amazement the Duke shortly thereupon to have dyed by the stab of a knife with no other words or prayers in his mouth than Gods wounds I am slaine and this most unhappy Prince to have ended his dayes at his own Gates by the axe of Gods just judgment and as we may say in fear and trembling to have taken his leave and last farewell of this world with no other acknowledgment of his faults and of those crying sinnes of bloodshed throughout the three Kingdomes but that of a Pharasaicall justifying of himself and his innocency insisting to his last without any repentance or sensibilitie of so much innocent blood spilt through his only willfulnesse but only of one wicked mans having throughout the whole course of the late and lamentable contest between him and the Parliament evermore covered over that stubbornnesse of his naturall inclination with those false colours and delusive umbrages of his Conscience Constancy and Reason as if his Conscience by divine appointment had been the Master Conscience of all the Kingdom and his Reason that ipse dixit that must overballance and regulate the sense and Iudgment of a Court of Parliament And have we not seen those bold and principall instruments of his whom he imployed in all his arbitrary projects the Earl of Strafford and the Archbishop of Canterbury for the enslaving of the three Kingdoms condemned to the block as misleaders of their incorrigible Master and to have taken their leaves of the world in the same pharasaicall way of justifying their innocency and without so much as one word of the repentant Publican God be mercifull to me a sinner and yet all of them by the seduced Malignant party held still in a kind of veneration and I know not by what strange delusion reputed for innocents and martyrs would they but look upon them as they were the actors and known fomenters of all the miseries we have suffered yea the only ingines and instruments whereby to have wound up soveraignty to the highest pitch of Tyranny and to make their Master instead of a King over Gentlemen and Freemen a Tyrant over slaves But having brought the King and his young Queen neere to the metropolis of the Kingdom and the sicknesse decreasing I shall in a short narration describe the after deportmeut of this most unfortunate prince Instead of Prayers and humiliations to God for his great mercy in the miraculous stay of that raging pestilence whereby 3. 4. and 5000 weekly died that summer only in London the Court notwithstanding was instantly in Iolity Masques Dancings Playes and Banquets all in expencefull and sumptuous ostentations were the frequent and assiduall exercises of the Court on the one side as to devotion the Queene had her Masse and Masse-Priests on the other side the King with his Laodicean luke-warme and fawning Prelates in a meer formality in shew of Godlinesse God knowes without the power thereof and in as neer a complyance one to the other as possibly their different devotion could permit And here I must not omit neither exempt out of the scene that part which the Bishops and Prelates acted in this interlude Comicall we may call it as to the beginning thereof but God knowes tragicall enough in the close The Bishops which in the former reigne had for divers reasons of State been admitted to the old Kings privacies and had speciall Influence on his Counsells were likewise transmitted to the favour and indulgency of this King but more especially in reference to the Presbytery of Scotland so averse to absolute Soveraignty so much affected by either King A Generation of Vipers which on any terms would have eaten the way to preferment through the entrayls of either Church or State these were the men the better to ingratiate themselves into the Kings favour that spared not to insinuat how dangerous the Puritan party here in England was as of a fraternity with the Presbyterians of Scotland would be if not timely lookt unto to the advance of Soveraignty apprehensions which as they soon took fire with the father so as much if not more with the sonne hence it was that the most active of them were admitted either to his favour or Councel of State but especially Doctor Laud the Bishop of London after Archbishop of Canterbury a person of a very
the subject adulterate the true Protestant Religion with the superstitious mixture of Popery as it manifestly appeared by his admittance of a Jesuiticall crew into his own Court Cappuchins at Somerset-house with large maintenance even in the face of the Court and eye of the Kingdom with a generall connivence amounting to a tacite toleration to all Papists together with idolatrous Masses both in his own house permitted andused throughout the Kingdom in most Papists houses without controule in imitation of Solomon after that by his Wives he was turn'd Idolater to set up the abomination of Ashteroth even in the face of Jerusalem And as to his invading of the Libertyes of the people with his many other oppressions and irregularities we all know and have good cause to remember them The Breviary of his Life and unfortunate Reigne manifestly declares as to his intent of suppressing of Parliaments and future oppression of the people the observations I intend to send you with his own Letters sufficiently demonstrates by whose motion and Counsels those exorbitances were first by his own Fathers Instructions pursued found in his Cabinet at Theobalds immediately after his departure and whereof one was to quit himself by degrees of all Parliaments as too bold Co-partners in the Government with their Kings to run the future course of his government answerable to that of France and to verifie this I shall point you to King James his own Speech in open Parliament 1609. March 21. Where you may see what preparations he had provided for his Successor to rule by parallelling himself with God who he saith Hath power to create or destroy make or un make at his pleasure to give life or send death to judge all and to be judged or to be accomptable to none to raise low things and to make high things low at pleasure and to God are both Soul and Body due the like power saith this King have Kings they make and unmake their Subjects they have power of raising and casting down of life and death Iudges over all their Subjects and in all causes and yet accomptable to none but God alone they have power to exalt low things and abase high things and to make of their Subjects like men at Chess a pawn to take a Bishop or a Knight and to cry up and down their Subjects as they doe their money Whence you may observe this Kings Principles which in the Speech it selfe every where extant you may find that even this King whom the world stiled the Platonicall King and was reputed a pious Prince took the hint of his tyrannicall principles from a Bishop who in the very face and audience of a Court of Parliament preacht all these fine arbitrary doctrines and yet in the Speech it self fol. quarto you shall find the King defends him Hence you way perceive by whose counsells the late King steered all the course of his government after his accession to the Crown with the reason of his seldome calling of Parliaments and his often dissolving of such as he did call without their due effects I shall now faithfully relate the whole progresse of the War and by what female advice he was directed to the reducing of all the three Kingdomes under his absolute power and for your better satisfaction shall by the way present you with the orignall cause of his hatred against this Parl. and by what strange means it was summoned and at a time when all wise men had given all Parliaments for lost which although long since and by many more able pens than mine have been sufficiently manifested to the world yet for your sake I shall adventure to present them a new as having little more in addition to the elabourate pains of others than in some particulars which I find not as yet produced to the light of the world Briefly then It is a knowne truth that the King in that his unnecessary raising of a warre against the SCOTS and through the prodigality of the Court especially the petulancy and lavishnesse of the Queens side had so exceedingly exhausted both his Exchequer and Credit and reduced himself to that extreme Indigence that he knew not whither to turn himself neither as in the Breviary of his Reigne is exactly laid down could that great head-piece the grand Master for carrying on of all his Arbitrary work shew him how to dis-intangle himselfe out of that harle wherein his owne wilfull Inclinations had incumbred him We all know that the King on the entrance of the Scots at Newborne in August 1640. took a posting journey Northward to his Army Strafford being Commissioned Generall in the room of the Earl of Northumberland whither they were no sooner arrived but they found the Souldiery in little better than mutiny for want of their pay the whole army then lying on Free-quarter on the County of York and the King without so much money as would pay halfe a Regiment the Scots possest of the Town of Newcastle the Nobility having been exhausted in their attendance the Summer before yet to shew their loyalty they again repair to York amongst the rest the Earls of Hartford and Essex in their journey take an occasion by the way to addresse themselves to the Queen to whom they declare the sad condition wherein both the King and Kingdome were then reduced and that they saw no possible means other then a Parliament whereby to repair the State relieve the King and peece up the rents and breaches between both Nations on this expostulation they prevailed with the Queen to write her Letters to his Majesty to move him to condescend to the summons of this Parliament the mention whereof they very well knew without such a mediatrix would be very displeasing unto him these Lords being thus provided with her Majesties Letters repair to Yorke and presented them to the King and upon consultation with the rest of the Lords then attending his Majesty five and twenty of them joyn in a Petition to that purpose The Scots likewise and 200 Gentlemen of the County of York concurring in the same sute for a present summons of a Parliament Thus was his Majesty as I may say beleaguered on all hands not anyone but Strafford dissenting in the end what between the Kings urgent necessities and a concurrency of Petitions together with the Queens Letters which weigh'd most with the King was this Parliament contrary to the expectation of all men produced to the admiration of the Kingdom though against the Kings expresse vow taken at the putting off his robes as before is mentioned when he dissolved his second Parliament and in a contemptuous deportment threw them from him protesting that it should be the last time of their putting off or on Hence we may discern through what difficulties and streights this Parliament took it's beginning we may well say by Gods speciall providence and by hers principally as the instrumentall cause thereof which