was memorable for nothing but his breaking with George Earl of March to whose daughter upon the payment of a great part of her portion which he never would repay he had promised his Son David for an husband to take the Daughter of Douglas who had a greater which occasioned the Earl of March to make many in-rodes with our Henry Hot-spur and a famous Duel of three hundred men a piece whereof of the one side ten remained and of the other one which was the onely way to appease the deadly Feuds of two Families The Inter-reign was governed by Robert who enjoying the power he had too much coveted little minded the libertie of his Nephew onely he sent some Auxiliaries into France who they say behaved themselves worthily and his slothfull Son Mordac who making his Sons so bold with indulgence that one of them kill'd a Faulcon on his fist which he denied to give him he in revenge procured the Parliament to ransom the King who had been eighteen years prisoner This James was the first of that Name and though he was an excellent Prince yet had a troublesom Reign first in regard of a great Pension raised for his Ransome next for Domestick Commotions and lastly for raising of money which though the Revenue was exhausted was called Covetousnesse which having offended Robert Graham he conspired with the Earl of Athol slew him in his Chamber his Wife receiving two wounds endeavouring to defend him This James left the second a boy of six years whose infancy by the mis-guidance of the Governour made a miserable People and betrayed the Earl Douglas to death and almost all that great Family to ruine but being supplanted by another Earl Douglas the King in his just age suffered minority under him who upon displeasure rebelled and was kill'd by the Kings own hand afterwards having his middle years perpetually molested with Civill broils yet going to assist the Duke of York against Henry the Sixth he was diverted by an English Gentleman that counterfeited himself a Nuncio which I mention out of a Manuscript because I do not remember it in our Stories and broke up his Army soon after besieging Roxburgh he was slain by the bursting of a Cannon in the twenty ninth year of his Age James the Third left a Boy of seven years governed by his Mothe afterwards the Boyds through the perswasions of Astrologers and Witches to whom he was strongly addicted he declined to Cruelty which so inraged the Nobility that headed by his son they conspired against him routing his Forces near Sterling wherein he flying to a Mill and asking for a Confessor a Priest came who told him that though he was no good Priest yet he was a good Leech and with that stabb'd him to the heart A Parliament approved his death and ordered Indemnities to all that had sought against him James the Fourth a Boy of fifteen years is made King Governed by the murtherers of his Father a prodigall vain-glorious Prince slain at Floddon Field or as some suppose at Kelsey by the Humes which as the Manuscript alledges seems more probability in regard that the Iron Belt a Ring to which he added every year which he wore in repentance for the death of his Father was never found and there were many the day of the Battell habited like him His Successor was his son James the Fifth of that Name a Boy of not above two years of age under whose minority what by the Mis-government of Tutors what by the factions of the Nobility Scotland was wasted almost into famine and solitude yet in his just age he proved an industrious Prince but could not so satisfie the Nobility but he and they continued in a mutuall hate till that barbarous execution of young Hamilton so fill'd him with remorse he dream-that Hamilton came and cut off his Arms and threatned after to cut off his Head and displeased the people that he could not make his Army fight with the English then in Scotland whereupon he dyed of grief having heard the death of his two sons who dyed at the instant of his Dream and leaving a Daughter of five dayes old whom he never saw This was that Mary under whose minority by the weaknesse of the Governour and ambition of the Cardinall the Kingdome felt all those woes that are threatned to them whose King is a Child Till at length the prevalency of the English Arms awakes for her Cause brought the great designe of sending her into France to perfection so at five years old she was tâ—ansported and at fifteen married to the Daulphin Francis after King whilest her mother daughter of the Guise in her Regency exercised all Rage against the Professours of the pure Religion then in the dawn who after two years left her a childlesse Widow so that at eighteen she returned into Scotland to succeed her Mother then newly dead in her exorbitoncies This young Couple in the transport of their Nuptiall solemnities took the Arms and Title of England which indiscreet Ambition we may suppose first quickned the jealousie of Elizabeth against her which after kindled so great a flame In Scotland she shewed what a strange influence loose education hath upon youth and that weaker Sex all the French effeminacies came over with her the Court lost that little severity which was left David Rize was the onely Favourite and it too much feared had those enjoyments which no woman can give but she that gives away her honour and chastity But a little after Henry Lord Darnly coming with Matthew Earl of Lenox his father into Scotland she cast an eye upon him and married him Whether it were to strengthen her pretension to England he being come of Henry the Sevenths Daughter as we shall tell anon or for to colour her Adulteries and hide the shame of an impregnation though some have whispered that she never conceived and that the son was supposititious or some Phrenzy of affection drew her that way certain it is she soon declined her affection to her husband and encreased it to David he being her perpetuall Companion at Board and managing all Affairs whilst the King with a contemptible train was sent away insomuch that some of the Nobility that could not digest this entred a Conspiracy which the king headed and slew him in her Chamber This turn'd all the neglect of her Husband into rage so that her chiefest businesse was to appease her Favorites Ghost with the slaughter of her Husband poyson was first attempted but it being it seems too weak or his youth overcoming it that expectation failed But the Devil and Bothwel furnish'd her with another that succeeded she intices him being so sick that they were forc'd to bring him in an horse-litter to Edenburgh where she cherisht him extreemly till the credulous young man began to lay aside suspition and hope better so she puts him in a ruinous House near the Palace from whence no news can be had brings in her
Scots and agreed that Fergus whose Uncle the last King was being then in banishment and of a Militari breeding and inclination should be chosen King with him the Danes maintained a long War with the Romanes and pulled down the Picts wall at last he and the King of Picts were in one day slain in a battell against them This mans access to Government was strange ignotus Rex ab ignoto populo accersitus and may be thought temerarious he having no Land for his People and the Roman Name inimicall yet founded he a Monarchy there having been Kings ever since and we are to note this is the first man that the sounder writers will allow to be reall and not fabulous Him succeded his son Engenius whose Grandfather Grahame had all the power a Warlike Prince whom some say slain some dead of a disease After him his Brother Dongard who after the spending of five superstitious years left the Crown as they call it to his youngest Brother Constantine who from a good private man turned a lew Prince and was slain by a Nobleman whose daughter he had ravished he was succeeded by Congall Constantines son who came a tolerable good Prince to a loose people and having spent some two and twenty years in slight excursions against the Saxons left the rule to his Brother Goran who notwithstanding he made a good League against the Brittains which much conduced to his and the Peoples settlement yet they in requital after thirty four years made away with him which brought in Eugenius the third of that name the son of Congall who was strongly suspected to have a hand in his death insomuch that Gorans widow was forced to flie into Ireland with her children This man in thirty three years time did nothing but Reign and make short incursions upon the Borders he left the rule to his Brother Congall a Monastical Superstitious and unactive Prince who Reigned ten years Kynnatell his Brother was designed for Successor but Aydan the son of Goran laid his claime but was content to suspend in respect of the age and diseases of Kynnatell which after fourteen moneths took him out of the world and cleared the Controversie and Aydan by the consent of Columba a Priest that Governed all in those dayes came to be King a man that after thirty four years turbulently spent being beaten by the Saxons and struck with the death of Columba dyed of grief After him was chosen Kenneth who hath left nothing behinde him but his name Then came Eugenius the fourth son of Aydan so irregular is the Scots succession that we see it inverted by usurpation or cross elections in every two or three Generations this man left an ambiguous fame for Hector sayes he was peaceable the Manuscript implacably severe he Reigned sixteen years and left his sonne Ferchard Successour who endeavouring to heighten the Prerogative by the dissentions of the Nobility was on the contrary impeached by them and called to an account which he denying was clapt in Prison where he himself saved the Executioner a labour So that his Brother Donald succeeded who being taken up with the Piety of those dayes left nothing memorable save that he in Person interpreted Scots Sermons unto the Saxons He was followed by his Nephew Ferchard sonne of the first of that name a thing like a King in nothing but his exorbitancies who in hunting was wounded by a Wolf which cast him into a Feaver wherein he not observing the imposed Temperance brought upon himself the lowsie disease upon which discomforted he was by the perswasion of Colman a Religious man brought out in his bed covered with Hair-cloth where he made a publick acknowledgement to the People and soon after died Maldwin Donalds son followed who after a twenty years ignoble Reign was strangled by his Wife Eugenius the Fift succeed son they say of King Dongard though the Chronologie seem to refute it This man spent five years in slight incursions and was succeeded by Eugenius the Sixt son of Ferchard This man is famous for a little learning as the times went and the prodigie of raining of bloud seven dayes all Lacticinia turning into bloud Amberkelleth nephew to Eugenius the Fift succeeded this rude Prince while he was discharging the burden of Nature was slain by an arrow from an unknown hand Eugenius the Seventh followed who being attempted by Conspiratours had his new-married Wife slain in bed beside him for which he being accused produced the murderers before his triall and was acquitted and so ended the rest of his 17. years in peace recommending unto the People Mordack son of Amberkelleth who continuing a blank raigne or it may be a happy one in regard it was peaceable left it to Etfyn son of Eugenius the seventh the first part of his reigne was peaceable but Age obliging him to put the Government into the hands of four of his servants it hapned to him as it doth to other Princes whose fortunes decay commonly with their strength that it was very unhappy and turbulent Which miseries Eugenius the Eighth son of Mordack restrained but he it seems having a nature fitter to appease tumults then to enjoy rest at the first enjoyment of peace broke into such lewdnesse that the Nobility at a meeting stabb'd him and made way for Fergus the sonne of Etfyn one like his Predecessour in manner death and continuance of reigne which was three years the onely dissimilitude was that the latter's Wife brought his death for which others being impeached she stept in and confessed it and to elude punishment punished her self with a knife Soluath son of Eugenius the Eighth followed him who though his gout made him of lesse Action yet it made his prudence more visible and himself not illaudable his death brought in Achaius the son of Etfyn whose reign was innobled with an Irish War and many learned men besides the assistance lent Hungus to fight against the Northumbrians whom he beat in famous battell which if I may mention the matter was presignified to Hungus in a dream Saint Andrew appearing to him and assuring him of it and in the time of the battell a white Crosse that which the Heraulds call a Saltier and we see commonly in the Scots Banners appeared in the Sky and this I think to have been the occasion of that bearing and an order of Knights of Saint Andrew sometimes in reputation in Scotland but extinguished for ought I can perceive before the time of James the Sixth though the Collar and Pendent of it are at this day worn about the Scots Arms To this man Congal his Cousin succeeded who left nothing behind him but five years to stretch out the account of time Dongal the son of Soluath came next who being of a nature fierce and insupportable there was an endeavour to set up Alpine son of Achaius which designe by Alpine himself was frustrated which made the King willinger to assist Alpine in his pretension to the Kingdome
Writer till Four hundred years after Christ No we shall no more envy these old Heroes unto them then their placing the red Lion in the Dexter point of their Eschutcheon But though we might in justice reject them as Fabulous and Monkish yet since themselves acknowledge them and they equally make against them we shall run them over like veritable History The first of this blessed race was Fergus first Generall and afterward got himself made King but no sooner cast away on the coast of Ireland but a contention arises about the validity of their Oath to him and Uncles are appointed to succeed which argues it Elective so Feritharis Brother to Fergus is King but his Nephew enters a Conspiracy against him forces him to resigne and flie to the Isles where he died Foritharis dying soon after was suspected to be poisoned after him comes in Main Fergus second sonne who with his sonne Dornadilla reigned quietly fifty seven years But Reuther his sonne not being of age the people make his Uncle Nothat take the Government but he misruling Reuther by the help of one Doualus raised a party against him and beheads him makes himself King with the indignation of the People that he was not elected so that by the kindred of Nothat he is fought with taken and displaced but afterward makes a party and regains His son Thereus was too young so that his Brother Rhoutha succeeded but after seventeen years was glad to resigne Well Thereus reigns but after six years declines to such lewdnesse that they force him to flie and govern by a Prorex after his death Josina his Brother and his Son Finan are Kings and quietly die so But then comes Durst one who slaies all the Nobility at a Banquet and is by the People slain after his death the validity of the Oath to Fergus is called in question and the elective power vindicated but at length Even his brother is admitted who though he ruled valiantly and well yet he had Gillus a bastard Son Vaser Regni Cupidus The next of the line are two Twins Docham and Dorgall sons of Durst they while they disputed of priority of age are by the artifice of Gillus slain in a tumult who makes a strong party and seizing of a Hold sayes he was made Supervisor by his Father and so becomes King cuts off all the race of Durst but is after forc'd out of the Kingdom and taken by Even the second his Successor who was chosen by the People and by him put to death in Ireland after Even comes Eder after Eder his son Even the third who for making a Law that the Nobility should have the enjoyment of all new married women before they were touched by their husbands was doomed to prison during his life there strangled his Successor was his Kinsman Metellan after whom was elected Caratac whom his brother Corbret succeeded but then came Dardan whom the Lords made take on him the Government by reason of the nonage of Corbrets son who for his lewdness was taken by the People and beheaded After him Corbret the second whose Son Luctac for his lewdness was by the People put to death then was elected Mogald who following his vitious Predecessors steps found his death like theirs violent His Son Conar one of the Conspirators against him succeeded but mis-governing was clapt in Prison and there dyed Ethodius his Sisters son succeded who was slain in the night in his Chamber by his Piper His Son being a Minor Satrael his brother was accepted who seeking to place the succession in his own line grew so hatefull to the People that not daring to come abroad he was strangled in the night by his own servants which made way for the youngest Brother Donald who out-did the others vices by contrary vertues and had a happy raign of one and twenty years Ethodiis the second Son of the first of that name was next a dull un-active Prince Familiarum tumultu occisus His Son Athirco promised fair but deceived their expectations with most horrid lewdness and at length vitiated the daughters of Nathaloc a Nobleman and caused them to be whipt before his eyes but seeing himself surrounded by Conspirators eluded their fury with his own sword his Brother and Children being forced to flie to the Picts Nathaloc turning his injury into ambition made himself King and governed answerably for he made most of the Nobility to be strangled under the pretence of calling them to Councell and was after slain by his own servants After his death Athirco's children were called back and Findor his son being of excellent hopes accepted who made good what his youth promised he beat in sundry Battels Donald the Islander who seeing he could not prevail by force sent two as Renegadoes to the King who being not accepted conspire with his Brother by whose means one of them slew him with a hunting spear when he was a hunting His brother Donald succeeds the youngest of the three who about to revenge his Brothers death hears the Islander is entred Murray whom he encountring with unequal forces is taken prisoner with thirty of the Nobility and whether of grief or his wounds dyes in Prison The Islander that had before assumed the name now assumed the power the Nobles by reason of their kindred prisoners being overawed this man wanting nothing of an exquisite Tyrant was after twelve years Butcheries slain by Cratherinth son of Findor who under a disguise found address and opportunity The brave Tyrannicide was universally accepted and gave no cause of repentance his Raign is famous for a War begun between the Scots and Picts about a Dog as that between the Trojans and Italians for a white Hart and the defect on of Carausius from Dioclesian which happened in his time His Kinsman Fyncormach succeeded worthy of memory for little but the piety of the Culdys an order of Religious men of that time overborn by others succeeding hee being dead three sonnes of his three brothers contended Romach as the eldest strengthned by his alliance with the Picts with their assistance seized on it forcing others to fly but proving cruell the Nobility conspired and slew him Angusian another pretender succeeds who being assailed by Nectam King of the Picts who came to revenge Romach routed his Army in a pitcht battel but Nectham coming again he was routed and both he and Nectham slaine Tethelmac the third pretender came next who beating the Picts and wasting their fields Hergust when he saw there could be no advantage by the sword suborned two Picts to murther him who drawing to conspiracy the Piper that lay in his Chamber as the manner was then he at the appointed time admitted them and there slew him The next was Even son of Fincormac who was slain in a Battell with the Picts to the almost extirpation and banishment of the Scots but at the last the Picts taking distaste at the Romans entred into a secret League with the
of Picts in the which attempt he was drowned and left unto Alpine that which he before had so nobly refused who making use of the former raised an Army beat the Picts in many signall Victories but at last was slain by them leaving his name to the place of his death and the Kingdome to his son Kenneth This man seeing the People broken with the late War and unwilling to fight drew on by this subtilty invites the Nobility to dinner and after plying them with drink till midnight leaves them sleeping on the floor as the manner was and then hanging Fish-skins about the wals of the Chamber and making one speak through a trunk and call them to Warre they waking and half asleep supposed something of Divinity to be in it and the next morning not onely consented to War but so strange is deluded imagination with unspeakable courage fell upon the Enemy and put them to the rout which being confirmed by other great Victories utterly ruined the Pictish Name This man may be added to the two Ferguses and truly may be said to be the Founder of the Scots Empire not onely in making that the middle of his Dominion which was once the bounds But in confirming his acquests with good Laws having opportunitie of a long peace which was Sixteen years his whole time of Government being Twenty This was he that placed that Stone famous for that illusory Prophesie Ni fallat fatum c. which first was brought our of Spain and Ireland and from thence to Argyle at Scown where he put it in a Chair in which all his Successours till Edward the First brought it away were crowned and since that all the Kings of England till the happinesse of our Common-wealth made it uselesse His Brother Donald was his Successour a man made up of extreamities of virtues and vices no man had more bravery in the field nor more vice at home which increasing with his years the Nobility put him in prison where either for fear or scorn he put an end to his dayes leaving behind him his brother Constantine a man wanting nothing of him but his vices who struggling with a potent Enemy for the Picts had called in the Danes and driving them much into despair a bravery that hath not seldome ruin'd many excellent Captains was taken by them put into a little Cave and there slain He was succeeded by Ethus his brother who had all his eldest brothers vices and none of his seconds virtues Nature it seems making two extremes and a middle in the three Brethren This man voluptuous and cowardly was forced to resigne or as others say died of wounds received in a Duell from his Successour who was Gregory son of Dongal who was not onely an excellent man but an excellent Prince that both recovered what the others had lost and victoriously traversed the Nothern Counties of England and a great part of Ireland whose King a Minor and in his power he generously made no advantage of but setled his Countrey and provided faithfull and able Guardians for him These things justly yield him the name of Great Donald son of Constantine the second by his recommendation succeeded in his power and virtues notwithstanding some say he was removed by poyson Next was Constantine the third son of Ethus an unstable person who assisted the Danes which none of his Predecessours would do and after they had deserted him basely yet yielded them succours consisting of the chief of the Scots Nobility which with the whole Danish Army were routed by the Saxons this struck him so that he retired amongst the Culdys which were as the Greek Caloyers or Romish Monks at this day and there buried himself alive After him was Milcom son of Donald the third who though a good Prince and well skill'd in the arts of peace was slain by a Conspiracy of those to whom his virtue was burthensome His Successour was Judulf by what title I find not who fighting with the Danes that with a Navy unexpectedly came into the Frith was slain Duffe his son succeeds famous for an accident which if it be true seems nearly distant from a fable He was suddenly afflicted by a sweating disease by which he painfully languish'd yet no body could find the cause till at last a Girl that had scattered some words after torments confessed that her mother and some other women had made an Image of wax which as it wasted the King should waste by sweating much the place being diligently searched it was found accordingly so the Image being broke he instantly recovered That which disturbed his five years Reign was the turbulency of the Northern people whom when he had reduced and taken with intent to make exemplary punishment Donald the Commander of the Castle of Forresse where he then lay interceded for some of them but being repulst and exasperated by his wife after he had made all his servants drunken flew him in his bed and buried him under a little bridge lest the cutting of turfs might bewray a grave near Kilross Abbey though others say he turned aside a River and after he had buried him suffered it to take its former Channel Culen the son of Induffe by the Election of Parliament or Convention of People succeeded good onely in this one Action of inquiring and punishing his Predecessours death but after by the neglect of Discipline and the exquisitnesse of his vices became a monster and so continued three years till being weakned and exhausted in his body and vext with perpetuall diseases he was summoned by the Parliament and in the way was slain by a Thane so they then called Lieutenants of Counties whose daughter he had ravished Then came Kenneth brother to Duff though the forepart of his Keign was totally unlike his who being invaded by the Danes beat them in that famous battel which was won by three Hays husbandmen from whom all the Hays now give three shields gules who with their Sythes reinforced the lost battel but in his latter time he lost this reputation by poysoning Milcolm sonne of Duff to preserve the Crown for a son of his name though of lesse merit for sayes Bucanan They use to choose the fittest not the nearest which being done he got ordained in a Parliament that the Succession should be lineall the Son should inherit and be called Prince of Scots and if he were a minor be governed by some wise man here comes the pretence of Succession whereas before it was clearly Elective and at fifteen he should choose his Guardian himself But the Divine vengeance which seldome even in this life passes by murther overtook him for he was insnared by a Lady whose son he had caused to be executed and slain by an arrow out of an ambush she had laid Constantine the son of Culen notwithstanding all the artifice of Kenneth by his reasoning against the Act perswaded most of the Nobility to make him King to that Milcolm the son of Kenneth
own bed and lyes in the House with him and at length when the Designe was ripe causes him one Sunday night with his servant to be strangled thrown out of the window and the House blown up with Gun-powder her own rich bed having been before secretly conveyed away This and other performances made her favour upon Bothwel so hot that she must marry him the onely obstacle was he had a Wife already but she was compell'd to sue for a Divorce which so great Persons being concern'd it was a wonder was in granting so long as ten dayes Well she marries but the more honest nobilitie amazed at those exorbitances gather together and with arms in hands begin to expostulate The new-married people are forc'd to make back Southwards where finding but slender assistances and the Queen foolishly coming from Dunbar to Leith was glad at last to delay a parley till her Dear was escaped and then clad in an old tottered coat to yield her self a prisoner Being brought to Edenburgh and used rather with hate of her former enormities then pity of her fortune she received a message that she must either resign the Crown to her son James that was born in the time of her marriage with Darnby or else they would proceed to another Election and was forc'd to obey So the Child then in his Cradle was acknowledged James the Sixth better known afterwards by the Title of Great Brittain The wretched mother flying after into England was entertained though with a Guard by Queen Elizabeth but after that being suborned by the Papists and exasperated by the Guizes she entered into plots and machinations so inconsistent with the safety of England that by an Act of Parliament she was condemned to death which she after received by an hatchet at Fothering-gay Castle The infancy of her son was attended with those Domestick evils that accompany minority of Kings In his youth he took to wife the Daughter of Denmark a woman I hear little of saving that Character Salust gives Sempronia she could saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae with whom he supposing the Earl Gowry too much in League caused him and his brother to be slain at their own House whither he was invited he giving out that they had an intent to murther him and that by miracle and the assistance of some men whom he had instructed for that purpose and taught their tale he escap'd For this Deliverance or to say better assasination he Blasphemed God with a solemne Thanksgiving once a year all the remainder of his life Happy had it been for us if our fore fathers had laid hold of that happy opportunity of Elizabeths death in which the Teuthors took a period to have performed that which perchance in due punishment hath cost us so much blood and sweat and not have bowed under the sway of a Stranger disdained by the most generous and wise at that time and onely supported by the Faction of some and sloth of others who brought but a slender title and however the assentation of the times cryed him up a Solomo weak commendations for such an advancement The Former stood thus Margaret eldest daughter to Henry the Seventh was married to James the Fourth whole Son James the Fifth had Mary the Mother of James the Sixth Margaret after her first Husbands death martyrs Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus who upon her begot Margaret wife of Matthew Earl of Lenox and Mother of that Henry Darnly whose Tragical end we just now mentioned Now upon this slender Title and our internal dissentions for the Cecilians and Essezians for several ends made perpetual applications got Jammy from a Revenew of 30000. li. to one of almost two Millions though there were others that had as fair pretences what else can any of them make the Statute of 25. Ed. 3 expresly excluding Forreigners from the Crown and so the Children of Charls Brandon by Mary the Second Daughter Dowager of France being next to come in And the Lady Arbella being sprung from a third Husband the Lord Stewart of the said Margaret and by a Male Lyne carried surely a formidable pretention it should seem that even that iniquitie which was personally inherent to her made her dayes very unhappy and most part captive and her death 't is thought somewhat too early so cruel are the Persecutions of cowardly minds even against the weakest and most unprotected innocence And indeed his right to the Crown was so satisfactorie even to the most judicious of those days that Tobie Matthew having a suit about some priviledges which he claimed to his Bishoprick which was then Durham wherein the King opposed him having one day stated the Case before some of his friends and they seeming to approve of it yes sayes he I could wish he had but half so good a Title to the Crown and 't is known that some speeches of Sir Walter Rawley too generous and English for the times was that which brought him to Trial and Condemnation for a feigned crime and afterwards so facilitated that barbarous design of Gundamar to cut of his head for a crime for which he was condemned fourteen years before and which by the Commissions he after received according to the opinion of the then Lord Chancellour and the greatest Lawyars was in Law pardoned This may besides our purpose but we could not sever this Consideration unless we would draw him with an half face and leave as much in umbrage as we expressed That which most solemnized his Person was first the consideration of his adhering to the Protestant Religion whereas we are to consider that those slieght velitations he had with Bellarmine and the Romanists tended rather to make his own Authoritie more intrinsecally intense and venerable then to confute any thing they said for he had before shakt them off as to Forreign Jurisdiction and for matter of Poperie it appeared in his latter time that he was no such enemie to it both by his own Compliances with the Spanish Ambassadours the design of the Spanish Match in which his Son was personally imbarkt and the slow assistances sent to his Daughter in whose safetie and protectiod Protestantism was at that time so much concerned For his knowledge he had some glancings and niblings which the severitie of the excellent Buchanan forc'd into him in his younger time and after conversatian somewhat polisht but though I bear not so great a contempt to his other works as Ben. Johnson did to his Poetrie yet if they among many others were a going to the fire they would not be one of the first I should rescue as possibly expecting more severe and refin'd judgement in many other And knowing that he that had so many able Wits at command might easily give their their Oracles through his mouth but suppose the things generous and fit to live as I am not yet convinced yet what commendations is this to a King who should have other ausinesse then spinning and
weaving fine Theories and engaging in School Ciquaneries which was well understood by Henry the fourth who hearing some men celebrate him with these Attributes yea answers he very tartly He is a fine King and writes little Books 'T is true he was a good droll and possibly after Greek Wine somewhat factious But for substantiall and Heroick Wisdome I have not heard any great instances he himself used to brag of his kingcraft which was not to felicifie his People and prosecute the ends of a good King but to scrue up the Prerogative divert Parliaments from the due disquisition and prosecution of their freedoms and to break them up at pleasure and indeed his rendition of the Cautionary Towns of the Low Countreys and that for so small a sum shewed him a person not so quick-sighted and unfit to be overreach'd For his peaceable Reigne Honourable and just Quarrels he wanted not but sloth and cowardize withheld him and indeed the ease and luxury of those times fomented and nourished those lurking and pestilent humours which afterwards so dangerously broke out in his Sons Reign We shall not trouble his ashes with the mention of his Personall faults onely if we may compare Gods Judgements with apparant sinnes we may find the latter end of his life neither fortunate nor comfortable unto him His wife distasted by him and some say languishing of a foul disease his eldest son dying Nimis apertis indiciis of Poyson and that as is feared by a hand too much allied His second with whom he ever had a secret Antipathy scarce returned from a mad and dangerous voyage His daughter all that was left of that sex banish'd with her numerous issue out of her husbands Dominion and living in miserable exile and lastly himself dying of a violent death by poyson in which his Son was more then suspected to have an hand as may be infer'd by Buckinghams Plea that he did it by the Command of the then Prince his own dissolution of the Parliament that took in hand to examine it and lastly his indifferency at Buckinghams death though he pretended all love to him alive as glad to be rid of so dangerous and so considerable a Partner of his guilt yet the Mitred Parasites of those times could say one went to Heaven in Noahs Ark the other in Elisha's chariot he dying of a pretended Feaver she as they said of a dropsie Charles having now obtain'd his Brothers inheritance carried himself in managing of it like one that gain'd it as he did The first of his Acts was that glorious attempt upon the Isle of Rhee The next that Noble and Christianly betraying of Rochell and consequently in a manner the whole Protestant interest in France The middle of his Reign was heightening of Prerogative and Prelacy and conforming our Churches to the pattern of Rome till at last just indignation brought in his Subjects of Scotland into England and so forc'd him to call a Parliament which though he shamelesly say in the first line of the Book call'd his was out of his own inclination to Parliaments yet how well he lik'd them may appear by his first tampering with his own Army in the North to surprize and dissolve them then the Scots who at that time were Court-proof then raising up the Irish Rebellion which hath wasted Millions of lives and lastly open secession from Westminster and hostility against the two Houses which maintain'd a first and second sharp War which had almost ruined the Nation had not Providence in a manner immediately interposed and rescued us to liberty and made us such signall Instruments of his vengeance that all wicked Kings may tremble at the example In a word never was man so resolute and obstinate in a Tyrannie never people more strangely besotted with it to paint the Image of David with his face and Blasphemously paralel him with Christ would make one at first thought think him a Saint But to compare his Protestations and actions his actions of the day his actions of the night his Protestant Religion and his Courting of Pope and obedience to his wife we may justly say he was one of the most consummate in the Arts of Tyranny that ever was And it could be no other then Gods hand that arrested him in the heighth of his Designs and greatnesse and cut off him and his Familie making good his own Imprecations upon his own head Our Scene is again in Scotland who hath accepted his Son whom for distinction sake we will be content to call Charls the Second Certainly these People were strangely blind as to Gods judgement perpetually poured out upon a Familie or else to their own interest to admit the spray of such a stock one that hath so little to commend him and so great improbabilitie for their designs and happiness a Popish or very near it education if not Religion too however for the present he may seem to dissemble it France the Jesuites and his Mother good means of such improvement the dangerous Maxims of his Father besides the revenge he ows his death of which he will never totally acquit the Scots his hate to the whole Nation his sence of Montrosse his death his backwardnesse to come to them till all other means failed both his Forreign begg'd Assistances his Propositions to the Pope and Commissions to Montrosse and lastly his late running away to his old friends in the North so that any man may see this his Compliance to be but Histrionical and forc'd and that as soon as he hath led them into the snare and got power into his own hands so as he may appear in his own visage he will be a scourge upon them for their gross hypocrisie and leave them a sad instance to all Nations how dangerous it is to espouse such an interest which God with so visible and severe a hand fights against carried on by and for the support of a Tyrannizing Nobilitie and Clergie and wherein the poor People are blindly led on by those affrighting but false and ungrounded pretensions of perfidy and perjury and made instrumentall with their own estates and bloud for the enslaving and ruining themselves FINIS