more Masculine Spirit than to acquiesce in the forementioned dishonorable Conditions and because it was a Crown that the Duke of York chiefly affected She caused his Head to be cut off set upon a Pole and Crowned with Paper but the death and disgrace of the Father Edward Earl of March his Eldest Son doth speedily revenge to the utter ruine of the Lancastrian party Nor will this Edward as did his Father await anothers leasure and prove expectant of a Crown in reversion but immediately assumes it by the actual deposing of King Henry whom he takes Prisoner and commits to safe custody in the Tower of London But there was an accident which had well-nigh nipped the white Rose in the bud and restored the red Rose to its pristine vigour Edward the fourth late Earl of March now King of England sends his great General the Earl of Warwick to treat a Match between him and the Lady Bona Sister to the Queen of France But our youthful King in the mean time consulting only his own affections takes to Wife the fair Lady Gray Widdow of Sir Iohn Gray of Groby which so inceses warwick that he Rebels against his Master beats him not only out of the Field but also out of the Kingdom delivers King Henry from his Prison and reseats him in his Throne but all this is but as Lightning before Death Edward returns from beyond Seas fights with defeats and kills the Earl of warwick routs also Queen Margaret newly landed and the relicts of her Lancastrian Associates takes her and her Son Edward Prisoners which last is stabbed by Richard Duke of Glocester King Edwards Brother and not long it is but the Father Henry is dispatched by the same hand in the Tower of London whither he was remanded by King Edward after this fortunate and victorious successe The cruelty of Richard Duke of Glocester whose nature was more crooked than his body did not terminate in the blood of the Enemies but begins to practise on his Friends and nearest Relations For perceiving that King Edward by reason of his incontinency whereunto no English Prince was ever more subject was not long liv'd he secretly plots the attaining of the Crown for himself And for the more expedite compassing this ambitious design he first incenses King Edward against their common Brother George Duke of Clarence not only exaggerating the hainousaesse of his former disobedience which had been pardoned but insinuating a blind Prophecy that one whose name began with the letter G. should prove fatal to Edwards posterity Hereupon the Duke of Clarence is committed to the Tower and there by Richard drowned in a Butt of Malmsey however it was given out that he dyed of a discontented passion But the Ominous G. which the King so much dreaded was found in the sequele to appertain to Glocester himself who was the Contriver of this mischief and Butcher of Edwards innocent Sons of whom after the Kings decease he was made Protector The young Prince Edward the fifth was at Ludlow when his Father Edward the fourth dyed from whence his Mother was over desirous to have him forthwith conveyed to London But his Unkle the Duke of Glocester meets him by the way at Stony-Stratford and having secured all his faithful Attendants and Kindred by the Mothers side takes into custody the person of the young King which was the game that this mighty hunter did mainly intend Yet was there one obstacle to his aspiring ends still behind to wit Richard Duke of York the Kings Brother in Sanctuary with his Mother at Westminster whom to allure thence for to do it by Violence was accounted Religion in those days he imploys the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to perswade the Mother and in case she proves obstinate to interpose his Authority to part with her Son under colour that he might be a companion and great lenitive of the Melancholy disposition of his disconsolate Brother Glocester having thus compassed the Wardship of both his Nephews makes shew as if he would proceed to the Coronation of the Elder but whilst the Lords of the Councel are debaring of the time and manner of it he arrests and on a sudden makes shorter by the Head the Lord Chamberla in Hastings whom though he had used as a forward Coadjuter in depressing of the Queens Relations yet knew him to be altogether averse from yielding any Countenance to the disinheriting of his Masters King Edwards Children Hastings thus removed the Duke of Buckingham who had received several disgusts from his Brother-in-law Edward the fourth is pitched upon as the fittest agent to carry on this Devilish attempt who having prepared the Mayor and Citizens of London comes in their name pretending Bastardy and insufficiency of Edwards race to make a tender of the Crown to Protector Richard and in case of refusal with threats to elect some other worthy and deserving Person Richard in seeming amazednesse makes strange at first of this by himself-devised proposal but after some importunity grants his forfooth unwilling consent not without a dissembled regret of his Nephews condition whose murder in the Tower doth immediately ensue Buckingham supposed not privy to the making away of the harmlesse Princes upon this and other distasts retires from Court to his Castle of Brecknock where with his prisoner Morton Bishop of Ely he contrives the Match between Henry Earl of Richmond and Elizabeth Daughter of Edward the fourth which proves Richards downfall and the union of the Yorkish and Lancastrian line Henry Earl of Rickmond was the Son of Margaret Daughter of Iohn Duke of Somerset Son of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster by Katherine Swineford relict of Sir Ores Swineford and though this Iohn and other Children were born before espousals yet was the issue made legitimate by Act of Parliament and confirmed by a Bull from Rome Of this Henry there goes a tradition for current that in the heat of the Civil Wars between the House of York and Lancaster Henry the sixth having espied him in the presence laid his hand upon his head and in a Prophetick manner said Behold this youth who is to enjoy that for which we now contend Which his Mother observing and treasuring up in her heart sent him into Britany in France as into a safe Harbour to be there educated and preserved till the sury of the tempest were over which then did so terribly rage throughout the Land Richard the third earnestly Solicites the Duke of Britany to deliver up Richmonds person to him which was well-nigh effected by the treachery of Peter Landoys the Dakes especial Favourite But Richmond having timely notice of this Clandestine negotiation flyes to the French Kings Court for at that time the Dukedom of 〈◊〉 was a distinct Principality from whence having sworn to consummate the projected marriage with the Lady Elizabeth he hastens to redeem poor England from the jaws of an usurping Tyrant Richmond Lands at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire where he was heartily
any Prince besides this day in the Christian world For proof whereof we appea I to such of our Chronicles only as are undoubted and beyond exception Passing by therefore the Catalogue of British Kings from Brute to Cassibeline not as altogether untrue but as very uncertain passing by those likewise we find mentioned during the Romans abode here whose custom it was to permit native Kings indeed in their Conquer'd Provinces but only as instruments of Tyranny and wholsy depending on the authority of the Empire and its Prefers We shall take our rise from the Saxons rule and especially at that time when from a multiplyed Estate it grew towards an Union And yet we cannot omit one passage we find Recorded of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severn who at his death prophesied that his Race should recover the Dominion of this Isle again which was fulfilled in the dayes of King Henry the seventh and more compleatly of King James as will appear when the series and progresse of the Story doth bring us thereunto The Saxons as hath been already hinted made a sevenfold partition of the Land they had wrested from the Britains but the Kingdom of the West-Saxons whose first stone was laid by Cerdic did so increase in superstructure that in the end it overtopped all the rest Ina the fifth descendent of Cerdic was the first advancer of it to this prel emenency but he dyed without issue and the due order of the succession was somewhat disturbed by the intrusion of four or five one after another of the Blood-Royal indeed but not in such a propinquity as was Egbert Nephew but once removed from Ina of whose right and promising forwardnesse Britric the last of the Usurpers had so quick a sense that he contrived the destruction of young Egbert Which to avoid he was enforced to retire unto the Court of Offa King of Mercia Or Middle England but finding small security there in regard his Enemy had married Offas daughter he escapes thence into France whence after the Tyrants death he returns to the enjoyment of that Kingdome which had been so long and so unjustly detained from him This Prince which we the rather note because of the affinity he hath with the Condition of our Sovereign that now is had by an exiles experience attained such a measure of prudence and all other perfections that he much improved the West-Saxon Empire which was now well near arrived to its Meridian and heighth when it suffered a most terrible Ecclipse by the interposition of the Danes who made their first irruption in his predecessors dayes and though they were valiantly resisted and frequently repulsed by him and his Successors yet did they never after cease from afflicting one part or other till they had reduced the whole to their subjection in which posture they held it but a little while as hath before been intimated and shall be more amply shewed in its due and proper place Egbert being dead Aethewolph his Son of a Bishop became a Prince and though his Education and Profession had rendred him a greater Votary than Warriour yet did he give the Danes a most memorable overthrow He had four Sons who were all Kings in their turns but the glory of the rest was Alfred the youngest no lesse famous for Arts than Armes in the first his Son Edward surnamed the Elder is reported to have been inferiour but in the last did equal if not exceed his renowned Father This Edward often worsted but could not totally extirpate the Danes who rcruited with fresh supplies from their own Comntry made daily more and more encroachments upon the already-tired English Nation whose case at that time especialy required some strong prop or stay to sustain and keep up its declining and tottering estate And upon this account it was that Athelftane Edwards bastard Son being at full maturity and ripenesse was preferred before his legitimate one Edmond then in minority the reason also that some succeeding Princes were for some time laid aside but Edmond being now come to Age after his Brother Athelstanes death the noblenesse of whose life recompenced the blemish of his birth was admitted to his Fathers Throne which he did wisely and couragiously manage but was too soon deprived of it and his life together by a villanous Affassinate in his own house at a festival whilst he went about to rescue his Sewer from the violence of that barbarous hand The more than ordinary hopes conceived of this brave Prince being thus untimely nipped in the bud his no-lesse-deserving Brother Eldred was elected King notwithstanding Edmond had left two Sons behind whose tender years in those troublesome times were thought uncapable of so weighty an imployment But upon the death of Eldred the Scepter which is a thing to be taken notice of in precedent and subseqent ruptures of this nature reverted to the right Heirs viz. the Sons of Edmond And first to Edwin the eldest whose dissolute and degenerate courses made sudden room for Edgar the youngest who matched any of his Predecessors in worth and excelled them all in power for he quieted and kept under Danes Welsh Scots insomuch as he is accounted at least from the Saxons entrance the first absolute Monarch of this entire Island In a word he was happy in his life and Reign but most unhappy in his Issue for having two Sons Edward and Ethelred by several venters the Step-mother Elfred made Edward a Saint to make her own Son Etheldred a King and though now by this removal of his Brother whereunto possibly he might not be privy none had any nearer title to the Crown than himself yet did that innocent blood lye heavy upon him and his seed nor could it according to St. Dunstans predictions be expiated but by a long avengement In promoting of which divine justice the Danes were the principal instruments who had layn still under Edgar but taking advantage of Ethelreds unsettled condition who by reason of this fore-stalling the Crown was termed the unready forced him first to purchase an ill-kept peace and then to relinquish his ill-gotten Kingdom of which death only prevented Swayn his expeller to take actual possession and accumulate this to the Danish Crown But Cnute the Son of Swayn perfected his Fathers design and afforded Ethelred now returned out of Normandy whither to avoid the storm he had betook himself so sharp an entertainment that oppressed with grief for his bad successe he quitted this and made another world his second place of refuge leaving his Son Edmond Inheritor of little else but the miseries of an unfortunate house Yet did Edmond for his valour and hardinesse in War surnamed Ironside hew himself out with his Sword the moiety of a Kingdom For after the effusion of much blood on both sides and to stop the shedding of more it was agreed between the two Competitors Cnute and Edmond to try their right by single combate in proper person and the
welcomed and readily assisted by the Welsh from whose Princes he was descened as being the Son of Edmond of Haddam the Son of Owen Ap Teudor who could in a direct line derive his pedigree from the Noble Race of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severne as hath been before touched though a modern Writer more for the jest sake than out of reality sayes he was a Gentleman of no extraordinary lineage but lineaments which he makes to be the motive that induced Katherine of France Dowager of England after the death of Henry the fifth to take him for her second Husband Richmond having much increased his Army among his Country-men marches forward as far as Bosworth in Leicestershire where King Richard meets him and there the great controversy is finally decided in Battail Richard is slain and Richmond by a kind of military election saluted and in a manner Crowned King in the Field Henry the seventh for so must we now call him that was but lately Earl of Richmond sensible that the tumultuary approbation of Souldiers did of it self give him neither just or durable possession knowing likewise the weaknesse of the Lancastrian plea in opposition to that of York maries according to his solemn preingagement Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the fourth which brought security to his estate and happinesse to the Kingdom the two Roses whose divisions had put the English to much expence of blood being thereby concorporated and for ever after linked in a most firm and indissolvable knot But as in a body that hath been troubled with a Cronique Disease though recovered yet are there still some peccant humours to be purged out so notwithstanding this Union and Recorciliation there remains dregs of discontents whereof the Queen Mother was the supposed Parent and Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy the known Nurse the first because she thought her Daughter not sufficiently respected for King Henry is not accused to have been over uxorious or indulgent to his wife the other being Sister of Edward the fourth bore an endlesse hatred to any of the Lancastrian Race The first Spirit they raised to disturb King Henryes quiet was one Lambert Symnell a stripling but so instructed by Simon a Priest who had higher directors that he could well personate the young Earl of Warwick Son of George Duke of Clarence whom the credulous Irish greedily entertain and acknowledge for their King And when Henry to detect the forgery had publickly shown in London the very Earl of Warwick whom he kept his Prisoner they retort the fiction upon himself and give out he had suborned a counterfeit on purpose to delude the simple multitude But this Pageantry quickly vanished the Conspirators are dispersed and Lambert taken who had the honour to be first made a Turn-spit in the Kings Kitchen but was afterwards preferred to be one of the Kings Falconers This was but the Prologue as it were to a more deep contrived Comi-Tragaedy that was to follow whereof the restlessâ— Dutchesse of Burgundy was the Inventer and one Perkin Wâ—rbeke the principal Actor But the Name and Scene is somewhat altered His Cue assigned him is to play the part of Richard Duke of York second Son of Edward the fourth who is feigned to have miraculously escaped the hands of his bloody Unckle Perkin was so good a proficient and had learned and could repeat his lesson so exactly that not the silly Iriâ—h alone but the French and Scotish Kings with many of the Nobility and Gentry of England were or would be deceived Nay Sir William Stanly himself Lord Chamberlain the Kings especial favorite is so far trâ—panned as to utter this improvident Speech which was construed high Treason that if he certainly knew that the young man was the undoubted Son and Heir of King Edward the fourth he would never fight or bear Arms against him for which he became headlesse though he had been the chief help and setter of the Crown upon King Henryes head Perkin at length is taken and committed to the Tower where soliciting the Earl of Warwick to make an escape he hastens both his own merited and that poor Earls undeserved execution Henry having thus composed his affairs at home seeks honourable matches for his children abâ—oad and marries his eldest Daughter Margaret to the Scotish King providently foreseeing that in case his issue Male failed this conjunction might be a means to associate the separated Kingdoms as his own had the Roses and so remedy the inconveniences of two distinct estates in one single Island Arthur his eldest Son Prince of Wales was espoused to Katherine Infanta of Spain but he dying before consummation we mean as to conjugal duty his brother Henry by dispensation from the Pope takes her to wife who on the wedding day was aâ—tired all in white in token that she was a pure and spotlesse Virgin It is conceived that the young Prince who henceforward is to be styled Henry the eighth had never any great fancy to the Lady as somwhat his Superiour in years but did raâ—â—â—r comply with his Fathers will than his own iâ—clinations However for a long time he lived with her in an outward loving seeming respectful manner But at length satiated with her company whom from the beginning he had not truly affected he meditates a divorce and hopes by money and Cardinal Woolseys interest in the Court of Rome with speed to effect the same Woolsey who by his obsequiousnesse to the Kings pleasure in all things had from a mean condition mounted to the highest degree of favour and power that a Subject is capable of is reported to be the first that injected the scruple into the Kings head touching the unlawfullnesse of his marriage with his Brothers Wife which once in could not in haste be put out again But in the prosecution the King and Woolsey had different ends Woolsey to revenge himself of Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany and Nephew to Katherine who had been a back-Friend to Woolsey in his attempted advancement to the Popedom and by proposing a match to the King out of France he thought to ingratiate with that Crown which might be more auspitious in promoting his towring designs But the King had another though not so deep a reach which more concerned his own private satisfaction than policy or reason of State For he desired to be unyoked from his old Queen that he might make a new one of one of her maids of honour Anne of Bolen with whom he was desperately in love which the Cardinal smelling out proves cold in the businesse delays to exercise his legantine power instigates the Pope to recall the cause to himself and proceeds slowly therein all which is performed accordingly but it concludes with the ruine of Woolsey's and the Popes Authority For impatient of these procrastinations Henry discards the one and renounces the other rejects Katherine marries Anne grows weary of her of incest with her own Brother cuts off
her head in whose room the very next day succeeds Jane Seymour who dies in Child-birth And so he continues shifting and putting away or to death his Wives as well as other Subjects till his own appointed time came a little before which it is recorded that in great Agony he should say unto Arch-Bishop Cranmer Is there any mercy for him who never spared man in his wrath nor woman in his lust In his life he little regarded but rather endeavoured to defeat by Parliament the titles of his Daughters Mary by Katherine of Spain and Elizabeth by Anne of Bolen with both whose Mothers he had been grievously displeased and seemed more inclinable to the off-spring of his youngest Sister Mary Dowager of France by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk but at his death by his last Will and Testament he constituted his Son Edward by Jane Seymour his next immediate heir and then in case they dyed issulesse the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to succeed in their order Henry the eighth being dead Edward the 6th of that name his Son is at nine years of age proclaimed King and Edward Duke of Sommerset by the Mothers side ordained his Protector whose candid nature exposed him to the cunning wiles of Dudley Duke of Northumberland which at last brought Sommerset his Brother Thomas Marquesse of Hertford Admiral of England and even the King himself to their untimely ends The Fox Northumberland observing the differencee between the Protector and the Admiral begun by th womanish emulation of their Wives doth underhand so soment it that the Admiral is brought to the block and the Protector not long after follows which renders the Pupill King more obnoxious to Northumberlands ambitious practices now that his two faithfull Uncles who should have supported him are removed out of the way Northumberland taking advantage of the Kings weaknesse of mind and body where unto he is shrewdly suspected to have contributed advises him to make a Will wherein the King declaring that he was past his minority thoughot above sixteen years of age and that it appertained to him to dispose of the Kingdome as he pleased doth disinherlt his Sisters Mary and Elizabeth as Persons of whose legitimation there was a question as likewise the issue of his eldest Aunt Sister Margaret married to the Scotish King as foreiners and aliens bequeathing the Crown to his Cousen Jane Grand-daughter to the Dutchesse of Suffolk the youngest Sister of his Father King Henry the eighth Gutlford Duke Dudleys Son was husband to this Lady Jane who upon the death of Edward was proclaimed Queen but Mary the eldest Daughter of King Henry by the assistance of the Norsolk and Suffolk Gentry recovered that which both by birth and her Fathers appointment was her undoubted though for a small time detained right Notwithstanding Mary by the Protestants aid attained the Crown yet her Education in the contrary profession and the memory that for her Mothers sake it suffered its first detriment obliged her to recall the Catholick Religion that had been banished in her Predecessors days keeping as one wittily observes the Kingdom by pater noster which she had gained by Our Father which are in Heaven Her zeal and over-ardent desire to extinguish that which she thought Heresy kindled many fires in this land for which she hears ill among the vulgar to this day and bears the brand of tyranny though of her self she was of a mild and merciful disposition Among other passages her severity to her Sister Elizabeth is much taxed of whose sincere devotion though outwardly conformable to the Romish Church the Queen much doubted and fearing a relapse of things after her own death could have been content that her Sister Elizabeth though the youngest had had the Precedency therein But Philip King of Spain Queen Maryes husband had other thoughts of and intentions towards Elizabeth whom he preserved from her Sisters violence and designed for his second we would say third wise for he was a Widdower when he married Mary by whom he now begins to despair of issue and by reason of her Dropsy perceives she was in no wise immortal here Queen Elizabeth at her first entrance makes shew as if she would tread in her Sister Marys steps whereby she so charmed the Catholick Clergy and Nobility that they created her no disturbance And she did further so temporize with King Philip that he was a great favourer of her admission hoping shortly to be a Copartner with her both in Bed and Kingdom But the lancy which Philip though no Babe had builded in his brain quickly appears to be but an aerial Castle for Elizabeth soon undeceives him and other Romanist who had promised themselves other matters by declining Marriage disowing the Popes Jurisdiction and reducing Ecclesiastical Affairs to the same state and condition lier Father and Brother had left them in The aversenesse of this Queen to Matrimonial Bondage as she accounted it gave occasion to that great and by her alwayes disliked dispute about the Succession That it belonged of right to Mary Queen of Seets Daughter of James the fifthe Son of Margaret eldest Daughter to King Henry the seventh none could reasonably deny but Maâ—y say the State Politicians of thosetimes will prove another Mary and our Religion will be depressed if she be advanced to the English Throne Her own Subjects have expelled her upon that account and shall we accept of her for our Princesse whom we have so much disobliged by detaining so long a Prisoner For this unfortunate Queen having been educated in France did after the decease of her first Husband the Dolphin return into Scotland of whose fashions by reason of her forein breeding being somewhat ignorant she could not consequently but be guilty of some miscarriages which her Enemies so aggravate that they stir up the people to a sedition seize upon her Person force her to resign to her Son James by Henry Lord Darly Son of the Duke of Lenox not full eighteen Months old of whom Earl Murray her Bastard Brother is made Regent who was the beginning and continuer of all her troubles Mary late and by right still Queen of Scots after this extorted and therefore invalid resignation fearing further attempts against her life escapes out of the loathsom Gaol where she was secured and betakes her self into England for succour sending news to her Cozen Queen Elizabeth imploring not only present protection but also such convenient aides as might restore her to her Kingdom of which she had been forceably deprived by her Mutinous and Rebellious Subjects Elizabeth at first gives good words and sends her large attendance which were yet but in the quality of an honourable Guard but afterwards more and more abridges her liberty at which hard and unworthy usage of a suppliant and Heir apparent of the Crown some English Lords and Gentlemen conceiving a just disdain project and propose to her means of deliverance whereunto she as all other living
creatures are most greedy of natural freedom doth readily assent but these are prevented and her Actions interpreted as yet tending to the destruction of Queen Elizabeth for which she is tryed by certain delegated Commissioners who much resembled a late thing called an High Court of Justice is by them found guilty and shortly after beheaded at Fotheringham Castle in Northamtonshire but the true cause why she suffered was expressed to her self by the Earl of Kent one of her Judges a little before her reputed Martydom Madam says he if you live our Religion is in danger of which words she desired the Auditors to take special notice that confessedly it was not Treason but Religion for which she was to dye Iames the 6th King of Scotland Son of the late executed Mary now come to years of discretion expostulates with Queen Elizabeth about his Mothers death but the Queen puts it off upon the precipitation of her Secretary Davison intimating that if he stirred in the least manner to revenge it would irrecoverably hazard his hopes of the Succession of which yet she gives him but a very saint assurance But in her declining age some about her who had been shie before to intermeddle with so ticlish and unpleasing a point grow more peremptory and presse her to a positive declaration to whom her answer was It is the King of Scots due and let him have it Conform whereunto Iames King of Scotland immediately after her death is proclaimed King of England both which he converts into the name of Great Britany and now is Cadwalladers Prophecy before remembred exactly compleated that his Race should recover the sole Dominion of this Island for King Iames besides his direct descent from King Henry the seventh brought another but higher title if the former had not been sufficient from Banco a Nobleman of Scotland whose Son Fleance fled from the tyranny of Macheth the Usurper into wales and there married the Prince his Daughter by whom he had walter the first of the renowned Family of the Stewards but for the particulars of that conjunction we referre you to the British and and Scotish Historians King Iames arose in this our Horizon with much clearnesse notwithstanding Rawleighs mist and the smoak of the Gun-power-plot which were soon dispell'd but his setting was obscured by a little Cloud which shortly did overspread the whole Land He had married his eldest Daughter Elizabeth to Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhene who unadvisedly gaping after the Kingdom of Behemia lost not only it but his own patrimonial possession King Iames who had more of Solomon than David in him sollicites restitution rather by Treaty than Arms and as the most conducing means to his peaceable ends entertains an overture of a match betwixt his Son Charles Prince of Wales and the Infanta of Spayn to whose King the Palatinate was by the Emperour configned over But the English Parliament takes exception at this intended Spanish affinity and as if Religion were at the Stake declaims against it Notwithstanding the King sends his Son into Spain who returns thence without a wife yet in his passage thither had an accidental sight of her in France who was by Heaven his designed Spouse As soon as Iames was dead Charles his Son is proclaimed King who immediately marries Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter to Henry the great King of France of whom as was just now hinted he had a transient view in his voiage to Spain which when this Princesse understood she is reported to have said That he needed not to have gone so far for a wife But now the seed of discontent which had been sowed in his Fathers time did begin to bud forth Scotland yields the first-fruits which also too much thrives in the English Plantation The Scotish Nobility enter into Combination against Episcopacy and the Service-book which they allege to be obtruded upon them For redresse of these imaginary grievances the Scots with swords in their hand approach his Majesty to present a Petition as is given out A Parliament in England is called to compose differences which rather increases them for which it is soon dissolved The Scots Invasion continues but at length a Pacification is made another Parliament is convened which working so far upon the Kings necessities extorts from him an inseparable jewel of his Prerogrative to wit a privilege not before asked or granted not to be discharged without their own consent In strength of this concession they proceed to other unseasonable demands which together with the tumults of the City occasioned the King to retire Northward and being denyed entrance into Hull for which Sir Iohn Hotham did afterwards receive his reward from those that imployed him he repairs to Nottingham where understanding that an Army was formed under the Earl of Essex at London and then on their March to bring him back as it was given out to his Parliament he sets up his Standard Royal but the appearance not answering expectation he directs his course towards Shrewsbury where by the confluence of the loyal Welsh his small forces are so increased that he is able to confront the Earl of Essex then at Worcester who retreats into Warwickshire and is overtaken at Edge-hill by his Majesty where the first signal battail is sought in which both sides were great losers and yet both sides assume the victory to themselves The war continues doubtful for three years but the Battail at Naseby in Northamptonshire proves fatal to the Kings affairs for after that succeeds little else but the ruine of his party in all places and surrender of most of his Garrisons till he was necessitated in disguise to leave Oxford his prime and well-nigh alone remaining hold then in a manner beleaguered and betake himself for Protection to the Scotish Army The Scots though they had received all possible satisfaction as to their own concernments yet could not refrain from intermeddling in the English distempers and were at that time besieging Newark upon Trent They at first received the King with all seeming promises of security as to his Person but having carried him with them to Newcastle do there barter him with the English for 200000 l. a price which as the French Embassador observed did far exceed that which Iudas received for betraying of our Saviour From Newcastle his bought and sold Majesty is conveyed by Commissioners deputed for that purpose from the Parliament of England to his house at Holdenby in Northamtonshire perhaps that he might be within prospect of that uncomfortable place Naseby where was given him his irreparable overthrow there to reside during the pleasure of the two Houses But not long it was ere Cromwel whose pulse at that time says a then pen-man began to beat a Lordly pace by his instrument Ioyce surprizes him in his bed and when Ioyce told Cromwel that he had the King in his Custody then quoth Cromwel I have the Parliament in my pocket Cromwels end in seizing on the
his Mothers claim who was the true descendent of the long-rejected but now restored Saxon linage He took to wise Elenor the repudiate of Lewis the seventh King of France by whom he had large Dominions in that Kingdom but notwithstanding it augmented his estate yet was it the occasion of much trouble and vexation to him For the French King jealous of his growing fortunes and his own Queen of his fidelity to his marriage-bed incited his Sons Herry Richard Jeffrey and John to frequent rebellions to whom neverthelesse upon their submissions he was entirely reconciled Henry Sans issue departed this life before his Father Richard succeeded in the Throne but dyed childlesse also Jeffrey though extinct himself before it came to his turn had yet left a Son in being Arthur Duke of Britany who ought to have been considered of but him John prevented more too by power favour of the Nobles than by any colour of Justice â—ad whilst the young Prince endeavours the recovery of his right he is taken prisoner as he besieged the Castle of Mirabell in France conveyed to the Tower of Roan and there killed if not by the hands yet at least by the command of his inhumane Uncle However the course taken to be thus rid of a Competitor was utterly unlawfull yet being gon Iohn becomes the lawful proprietor of the Crown but pays dear for the manner of this his amisse procured purchase For the Pope excommunicates him his Subjects for sake him the French King invades him and bereavs him not only of his large Territories in France but also of the greatest part of his Kingdome of England and he dyes miserably not without suspicion of Poyson a just judgment upon him for his enormous Acts especialy the murder of his innocent Nephew Now though God shewed himself a severe inquisitor for blood yet did he seem appeased with the punishment of the person that was guilty of it For he so disposed the hearts of the English Nation that they generally withdrew themselves from the French party and notwithstanding the iniquity of the Father most willingly embrace the Son then a minor as naturally inclined says my Author to love and obey their Princes Such this Prince Henry the third found his Subjects at his first admission whilst he was governed by a wise and faithfull Councel but afterwards suffering himself to be ruled by strangers that more intended their own than the publick good he so alienated the English affections as they were earnest at first to promote his interest To the former he adds new grievances to wit reiterated breach of Charters granted by his Predecessors and himself whence such discontents are engendred that at length there is begotten between the King and his people an actual commonly known by the name of the Barons war Hereof Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester on the Barons side was head who in a set Battail takes King Henry and his Son Edward prisoners but Edward escapes collects an Army defeats and kills Leicester and redeems his Father the beginning of whose reign was overcast with a French mist the middle was very tempestous by reason of the Barons commotions but the Catastrophe or latter part was serence and concluded in a perfect Calm Edward the first of that name since the Norman conquest having proved the deliverer of his Father from captivity makes an expedition into the Holy-land to perform the like office to the Christians there that were grievously afflicted under the Turkish servitude but the news of his Fathers death quickly recalls him from further prosecution of that honourable enterprize wherein he had no lesse honourably demeaned himself And as he had encreased his own and Countries reputation abroad so doth he likewise enlarge their power and jurisdiction at home by subduing most of Scotland and totally reducing of Wales of which last because it was then first annexed to this Crown it will not be impertinent to afford the Reader a brief and summary relation Wales the small remnant of this Island that was left to the Britains the antient possessors of the whole had hitherto though not without much difficulty and struggling continned under their own proper Princes But the fatal period of their liberty which they had so long so stoutly maintained against so potent a Kingdome as this is now arrived Llewellin the then Prince of that Cnutry being summoned to our Kings Coronation refused to appear saying He too well remembers the end of his Father Gryffin who came in safety to London but never returned thence This neglect Edward makes the ground of a quarrel enters into hostility against Llewellin forces him to a submission whereof he soon repents flyes out again is overcome and slain in fight his head cut off and that Merlins Prophecy might be fulfilled or eluded which as he interpreted had promised him the Diadem of Brute it is Crowned with Ivy and set upon the Tower of London After the death of Llewellin and his brother David whose head was shortly sent to accompany the others in the same place Edward contrives the perpetual union of these two too long divided Nations And though he found the Welsh Nobles very cautious how they brought their necks under a Forein yoke yet doth he accomplish his ends by this neat and Artificial devise He conveys secretly into the Castle of Carnarvon his Queen great with Child whom when he understood to be delivered of a boy he Assembles the Welsh Nobles and proposeth to them whether they would accept of a Prince of his Nomination that was born in their own Country could speak nere a word of English and against whom for Life or Conversation no objection could be made Whereunto when they had assented he produces his own little Son Edward to whom the aforesaid qualifications did exactly agree Hence the custom took its original of investing our Kings eldest Sons in the Principality of Wales but because there may here seem to have been a mixture of force and fraud we shall indeavour when order brings us to it to find out a more unexceptionable Title whereby our Kings lay claim to that Dominion Edward the second called Edward of Carnarvon for the cause but even now rehearsed much degenerated from his Fathers Noblenesse and lost not only Scotland which his Father had well-nigh gained but ever England it self being deposed by his own Wife Isabel having only this comfort left him that his Son Edward was to succeed in the Throne Edward the third of that name Son of the late deposed and shortly after murdered King was when he came to years of Discretion Gods Instrument to revenge his Fathers death even upon his own Mother the Queen and her Minion Mortymer who was the Author and Procurer of the same But the chiefeft passage of this Princes Reign and that of nearest Alliance to our Subject in hand which is to declare the Titles our Kings have to the Kingdoms they possesse or challenge was his
any of Olivers Iuntos that is they would not suffer themselves to be over-ruled by the dictates of an Imperious Army whereat the Great Officers took much offence first Remonstrating against and then compelling Richard to dismiss that comparatively honourable Assembly But Richard's own Obsequies as to his mock-dignity immediately attended this their funeral Pile and the Relicts of the long and long forgotten Parliament were conjured out of the Grave whither Oliver had sent them packing to be as it were his Administrators whom all thought so surely dead and safely buried that there had been no danger of this no less unlooked for than unwelcome Resurrection This Skeleton or Carcase of a rotten Parliament did so stink in the nostrils of all people that there was a general inclination to be rid of it but the good intentions for that purpose were in most Counties blasted before they were ripe for execution onely in Cheshire as hath been hinted a competent Party embodied themselves against whom Lambert was sent with treble their force whose puny Conquest over a few forlorn Gentlemen disheartened through the disappointment of Friends in other places was termed by one of Lambert's Parasiticall Officers in his own presence A Crowning Mercy alluding to Cromwel's expression which he used in his letter to the Speaker after Worcester business This being passed over by Lambert with a kind of an assenting silence compared with antecedent and ensuing Actions did clearely evidence that he had the like a spiring project in his pate and that he accounted not the thousand pound bestowed on him to by him a jewel by his Masters in which capacity he was resolved they should not long abide a sufficient reward for the great paines he had taken in gaining this in it self little and abating the consequences inconsiderable victory But General Monck Commander in cheif of Scotland had far other and more generous Resolutions which found a success answerable to the prudence wherewithall they were managed for making it the Ground of his proceedings to restore the now a second time ejected Rump-Parliament and afterwards to complete their imperfect number by re-admitting the long ago secluded members he doth first by Independent assistance dissipate the Anabaptisticall and fanaticall Crew and then by Presbyterian concurrence overthrow the Independents themselvs dexteriously applying the several factions in their order to one anothers ruine till at last by an inverted Method as it were he reduces us to that most happy posture we were in before the begining of this causeless and unnaturall Rebellion And now this Hydra-Parliament which had been once before legally by the King's death and twice violently by tumultuous Souldiery is now at last finally dissolved by themselves a priviledge they had long before extorted though till now unwilling to make use thereof and a better chosen in their stead who at the time appointed notwithstanding Lamberts flash in the interval which proved but as lightning before death convened and according to their duty did forthwith proclaim their undoubted Sovereign and sent Commissioners to invite him home to the Exercise of his Regal Government which hath filled our mouths with laughter and our hearts with mirth and occasioned the composing of this little Treatise the Author having no other mite whereby he might testifie his particular contentment in the midst of so publick and universal rejoycing But the Reader is to be advertised that this unfortunate Embrio conceived between His Majesty's being voted and coming in laboured far longer under the Press than under the Pen and when with much a do it had been produced it was so deformed and mis-shapen that a resolution was once taken to have stifled it in the birth and never to have permitted such a disfigured brat to have seen the light but upon second thoughts it hath liberty to wander abroad not out of any foolish fancy that it will finde acceptance but out of a consideration that it will be no greater cruelty to expose it to the wide world than to suffer it to perish in a private Study And yet to make some satisfaction for former errors and delay we shall now add what hath hitherto been wholly omitted or but superficially glanced at to wit His Majesty's extraction from the Scotish and what is chiefest from the Brittish Race that of the Saxon and Norman having been the principal if not sole subject of the precedent discourse The Scots according to their best Historians came originally out of Ireland about 300 years before the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour under the conduct of Fergus the first who was also King there which if so then hath our King lineally descended from that Fergus a better Title than that of bare modern Conquest even unto that Kingdome and possessed themselves of the North-western parts of Brittany And it is remarkable that notwithstanding a Custome begun in the very Infancy of their State and continued about a thousand years that if the Son which frequently happened were under age at the Fathers death the next of the blood-Royal should be not Guardian but King not only during the minority of the Orphan but even during his own natural life whereby these Tenants pur vie had too fair or rather too foul opportunities to change their manner of hold into fee-simple yet did the true Proprietor though for a while disseised still recover his patrimonial right as may be made evident out of Buchanan himself who was yet a greater friend to an Elective than Hereditary succession Kenneth the third and Malcolm the second were the first Alterers of this suspicious Custome Ordaining that from thence-forward Children should succeed their Parents immediately and have only Governors such as the Parents in their life time should appoint to oversee them and their Kingdome until they attained their maturity whence it came to pass that for the future interruptions were much rarer the regular course of Nature more duly observed and a greater restraint put into the Practisers of aspiring and ambitious kindred Nevertheless Machbeth Grandson to Malcolme the second though but by his youngest Daughter invaded the Sovereignty and having murthered the lawful King Donald related to the said Malcolm in an equal propinquity and that by the eldest Daughter Beatrice did for a while usurp but he was expelled and slain by Macduffe Thane or Earl of Fife and Malcolm the third Son of Donald installed in his Fathers Throne This is that Malcolm who as he found refuge in the English Court under the Protection of Edward the Confessor when he was forced to withdraw himself from Macbeth's persecution so did he afford the like succour in the Scotish to the Confessor's Nephew Edgar Etheling when he was driven out of his Countrey by William the Conqueror and took his Sister and Heir Margaret to Wife by whom he had a Daughter named Maud who being married to Henry the Conquerors Son was as hath been before declared the Bond whereby the Saxon and Norman Line were connected