fourth of France being informed of this congratulation and conceiving it to be a step to unite England and Scotland in one Government Elizabeth waxing old sent a Letter of incouragement to King James to joyn with him in revenge of his Mothers death who replied as the true Copy expressed that he would not fall at difference with Elizabeth since he was now more secure in his Throne then in his Mothers time intimating he was not sorry for her amovall for her life might have procured his ruine Elizabeth after fourty yeers Reign was moved by her privy Council to settle King Iames for successor who said she would not erect a Monument in her life for a follower to expect her end She was a Lady adorned with Majesty Learning Languages Wisdom and Piety yet fearful of death for she hated any word tended to it as shall be manifest by Roger Lord North when carving one Day at Dinner the Queen asked what that covered dish was he lifting up the cover replied Madam it is a Coffin a word moved the Queen to anger And are you such a fool said she to give a Pie such a name This gave warning to the Courtiers not to use any word mentioned her death But this prudent Prince died after fourty four yeers compleat and king James was proclaimed about the last of March 1602. king of England by his privy Council assisted by the Lord Mayor of London Sir Robert Lee. In May after he entered met with many Nobles and Gentlemen the Sheriffs attending him in every County from Berwick so that there was a general applause and Royal entertainment at his entrance into the Charter-house in London yet ominously attended with a great Plague of three thousand dying in a week in the City This Union gave a grand expectation of tranquillity to both kingdoms To effect this better he called a Parliament lasted seven yeers and raised many Subsidies with great sums left by his Predecessor which vast treasure was all bestowed on the needy Scots who like Horse-leeches sucked the Exchequer dry so that Honour and Offices were set to sale to fill the Scots purses and empty the kingdoms treasure This caused a by-word That the Exchequer reached from London to Edinburgh This was not sufficient to gorge their insatiable requests but many Monopolies likewise were erected my self after reporting thirty two Patents to the Parliament in decimo octavo Iacobi The Queen deprived of the nightly Company of a husband turned her delight to the Prince whom she respected above her other children finding him too serious diverted him from so much intensiveness to an amorous gesture in which the English Court took great pride To that purpose she initiated him in the Court of Cupid as one night she shut him under lock and key in a chamber with a beautiful young Lady now dead which shewed her love to the sport indeed morelikea Bawd than a discreet Mother who is bound to season her children in vertue while young that they may hold the taste in age whose example in vertue or vice might draw a world to follow the pattern But after Prince Henry fell mortally sick of a supposed Fever but not without suspition of poyson A Prince whom all Europe expected to be the promoter of some great and famous action because his inclination was bent to the Martial art above his yeers and also excelled in matters of State both in discourse and choice of ablest company which he much delighted in for advice and counsel This ripeness in judgement and dexterity in Souldiery to form Models of any sort of Battels stirred up king Iames to suspect the Prince might depose him especially knowing he was not begot of his body This caused the Lord Saintcleare then Ambassadour in Denmark not to be ashamed to challenge Prince Henry to be his own son to English and Scots there arrived so that by some Pill or other the Prince came to his end This was plainly shewed when he was cut up to be imbalmed his brain was Liver-hued and putrefied an argument of poison as was affirmed by a most learned Physician Butler of Cambridge Now king Iames more addicted to love males then females though for complement he visited Queen Anne yet never lodged with her a night for many yeers Whereupon Gundamore observing how king Iames was addicted told him that the Lady Hatton would not suffer the Lord Cook her husband to come into her fore-door nor he himself to come into her back-door Hatton and Ely houses joyning together where they dwelt she denying him a passage backward to take air Now that the fruit of Mortality might declare humane frailty Queen Anne who had trod so many stately footings in masks of Court Beauty fading strength faling and youth metamorphosed to yeers health to sickness being haunted with a lingering sickness which contracted her end For Doctor Upton at his death not long afore the Queen's declared a Skeleton being in her womb proves she was with childe and that Physick had destroyed it and so the Skeleton remained which was laboured to be purged away but all in vain rotted in her Of this Docter there was a jealousie of revealing it for which his passage was made to another world as his tongue to me at his death uttered who married my neer kinswoman The Queen departed the King sold his affections to Sir George Villiers whom he would tumble and kiss as a Mistress This favourite had erected many Monopolies who finding Parliaments hindered his profit caused his Master to dissolve those Patents and break up the Parliament of decimo octavo raising a number of Privy Seals which were borrowed and never paid And to adde to the iniquity of the times divers Incests were then pardoned insomuch as two Gentlemen who married two sisters one after another got License at Newmarket not to be molested in the High-Commission But above all a godly Minister in Lincolnshire was barbarously murthered by one Cartwright whom King Iames pardoned The reason of this murther was for rebuking him of swearing drunkenness and whoring At this time were many pious Divines silenced by the Bishops who inhibited preaching in the afternoon divers Exercises in several Towns commanded downe an occasion bred much prophaness in England king lames allowing dancing about May-poles and so winked at breaking the Sabbath a vice God curseth everywhere in Scripture What shall I say more All impiety was incouraged in such a sort that lawful Mariages were divorced or nullified as namely the Countess of Essex from the Earl of Essex late General for the Parliament alledging the Lord had a defect and was not able to perform the act of generation although the contrary was after proved to make a gap for Somerset's adultery by a Nullity which Bishop Bilson devised a nick-name being given for this to his son who was rewarded with Knighthood and therefore stiled by the people Sir Nullity Bilson This Bishop maintained Christs personal descention into hell an
opinion disavowed by all Orthodox Divines And many other false opinions were maintained in that age as that Solomon was damned an Amanuenses of the Scripture The second example is the Lord Riches Lady named Penelope who was divorced to make way for the Lo. Montjoy's lust Earl of Devonshire What shall I say more Did not king Iames his minions and favorites rule the kingdom in the person of the king who were five in number since his approach upon English ground to wit Sir George Humes Earl of Dunbar Sir Philip Herbert after Earl of Montgomery and Pembrook Sir Iames Hayes Earl of Carlile and Sir Robert Car Earl of Sommerset who defiled his hands in Overbury's death that wicked divorce ushering the murther This Sommerset being elected of the Council furnished his Library onely with twenty Play-books and wanton Romances and had no other in his Study A Lord very like to give wise counsel This Lord with his Lady were questioned for the murther and the Lieutenant of the Tower Sir George Elloways was hanged but for concealing of it king Iames being willing with this accusation to make passage for another favorite which was Sir George Villiers after Duke of Buckingham who by his greatness vitiated many gentile and noble virgins in birth though vitious for yeelding to his lust whose greatness opened the door to allure them more To please this favorite King Iames gave way for the Duke to entice others to his will Two examples I will recite first the King entertained Sir Iohn Crafts and his Daughter a beautiful lass at Newmarket to sit at the Table with the King This he did then to procure Buckingham the easier to vitiate her Secondly Mrs Dorothy Gamay being a rare creature King Iames carried Buckingham to Gulford to have his will on that Beauty but Sir Nicholas Bacon's Sons conveyed her out of a window into a private chamber over the leads and so disappointed the Duke of his wicked purpose In which cleanly conveyance the Author had a hand with the Knights Sons Truly that day a sober man was hard to be seen in King Prince and Nobles Moreover it was an art King Iames used for these favourites to be skreens to decline the hatred of his People when complained of in Parliament and when questioned they were spunges to be squeezed to to fill his Coffers One story I wil relate more remarkable then the rest the king very timerous of death from the contrivings of Pope and Spaine wrote a Letter to the Pope that he would tolerate Popery when he brought affaires to his bent in Great Britaine The Letter discovered by a lucky chance to the seven yeers Parliament and complained of in the Remonstrance to the king he made the Scotish Secretary own this act and affirm it was his and not the kings promising him to take him off at last with advancement but contrary it occasioned the Secretaries ruine Here by the way I must play the Cook to lard three several occurrences not impertinent to the matter in hand The first was that Secretary Winnode took a bribe of 20000 pound to redeliver the four Cautionary Townes in Holland to the Dutch which we now may see might have curbed the States from prejudicing England Another was king Iames his weakness to give way to Gundamore to take away Sir Walter Rawliegh's life who might have vexed Philip the second of Spaine A third was to sell Iron Ordnance discover the art of their Carriages which all the world was ignorant of This last favourite George Duke of Buckingham advanced to such power with his Mother rewarded the king with poyson by a poysoning water and a plaister made of the Oyle of Toads This Duke from a private Gentleman with an annuity of thirty pound a yeer for life was raised to such a mount of glory and power to be Master of Horse Master of the Wards Liveries Admiral of England and Lord Warden of the Cinq-ports A Lord tall of stature amiable countenance who like a ravenous kyte ingrossed all into his hands to inrich and advance his kindred and to place and displace whom he listed so that this Lord was grown so potent his Master stood in awe of him in such sort that when the king was sick of the Gout he would remove him from place to place at pleasure against the kings will who to work his ends wrought into favour with the rifing Phebus king Charles The king prying into this way of his Successor set a bold Courtier Doctor Turner a float to bring the Earl of Bristol then out to launch into favou but the Duke complying with Turner perceived the plot against him wrought by a countermine by Charles the chief Engineer but the Dukes drift was after king Iames his death to make himself king of Ireland and therefore he was stiled Prince of Typeraria an appendix to that Throne This made the Duke swell like a Toad to such a monstrous proportion of greatness in vast thoughts as muitiplying to an ocean from the rivers of pride power and ambition he sate as a Gyant on the shoulders of king Iames and drowned his power limiting no bounds to his overflowing will whose vertue and good nature being corrupted by so wicked a life turned love into hatred obedience into rule for after he had dispatched the Duke of Richmond Marquess Hamilton the Earl of Southampton and his son by poyson as by Doctor Eglestons relation plainly appeared to the Parliament whom he caused to be killed in forrâ—ine parts for discovering the villany Thus filled with venome of greatness he made no bones to send his Master packing to another world as appeared plainly in Parliament by the witness of divers Physitians especially Doctor Ramsey in full hearing at a Committee Wherefore for this other crimes he was impeached in the beginning of King Charles his Government and though King Charles was bound to prosecute King Iames and the other Lords death committed contrary to all the laws of God and Nations yet King Charles to save the Duke dissolved the Parliament and never after had the truth tryed to clear himself from confederacy or the Duke from so hainous a scandal Now let all the world judge of Charles his carriage whether he were not guilty of conniving at so foul a sin though not of the death so that covering his Lyon-like disposition with appearance of a Lamb he proved like Nero the Tyrant that in the Parliament of the Petition of right shewing himself in his lively colours for displaying the Banner of Tyranny he put an end to the meeting imprisoned divers members so that Sir Iohn Elliot dyed and the rest remained in durance because they had been faithful to their Countrey and to add to cruelty he sent Sergeant Glanvile Sir Peter Hayman and Colonel Purify into forraine parts to consume their fortunes and hazard their lives calling not a Parliament long after By this time Sycophants so inlarged the Monarchy without bounds
which meanes the Clergy were the eyes eares hands legs and above all the braine to support the Kings insupportable Tyranny To this head I will reduce their Idolatrous cringing to the altar bowing at the name of Jesus and making Churches Idolatrous usually kneeling and praying in them when no service of God was used and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reverence at the Eucharist was to no other purpose but to support Antichristian Episcopacy what honour was done in the Church was placed on them transferring the honour done from the place to the persons administring service a cause made King Charles take them into his intimacy to support his absolute Monarchy to do what he pleased with Subjects property real personal and vital as also finding the Papacy conduced more to Regality he favoured them more then Protestants for when the Justices in all parts persecuted the Papists upon the Statutes they were disgraced and removed and the Protestant persecuted and punished and the Priests delivered out of Prison In which rout amongst others was Secretary Windebank a principal Agent to get in favour with Queen Mary insomuch that I knew divers Papists brought out of Newgate and their pursuers punished This last-recited Secretary was a Creature to Laud both brothers in iniquity to accomplish such matters Did not king Charles his Letter written in Spain to the Pope shew his Inclination to set up Popery if the Pope would grant him a dispensation to marry the Infanta yea certainly it cannot be denied by any rational man if he considers fully the bent of those times he must be convinced by a truth I shall utter When the king came from Greenwich with the Queen on a Tuesday morning a little afore the last Parliament she landing at Sommerset-House where she lodged the king arriving at Whitehall a day he used to hear a Sermon the Queen drew him from the Sermon to Sommerset-House insomuch as a Lord to whom I gave a visit told me when he came not to the preaching at twelve of the clock long expected in anger that the king was then at Mass and reconciled to the Pope and so this Lord in haste went after Mass-time to Sommerset-house and there dined It is therefore no marvel why the Almighty sent so much misery upon these three Kingdomes and wrought such a fatal Catastrophe to turn the spoakes of the Wheel upside down raising the humble out of the dust and abasing the proud and high-minded By this as by a prospective glass we may behold how king Charles erected the Fabrick of his potency or rather the structure of his ill government For it will appear plainly that king Charles negotiated with the Pope to reduce England to Popery privately therefore it is known to all that king Charles entertained three Nuncio's from the Pope Gregorio Pansano Signeur Con and another under pretence to regulate the Popish Clergy under the Bishop of Calcedon appointed by Barbareno the Popes Nephew protector of the English Catholicks when the purpose was to reduce to any union the Protestant Clergy with the Roman And was not Arthur Bret appointed to go Embassador to Rome from king Charles who dyed by the way and after there was sent Sir Iames Hambleton of the House of Abercorn To make a step further I will inform the Reader After Buckingham's death the Earl of Holland was highest in favour with king Charles who bestowed on him neer one hundred and fifty thousand pound in few yeers and he was no less esteemed of the Queen being her Agent to receive moneys forfeited and compositions given her by her consort as namely to free Sir Giles Alington's punishment for marrying his neece twelve thousand pound was paid to Holland for the use of the Queen they sharing money and delights together This made the Kings love of Holland not alwayes firm for a suspition arose as a Devil to be the bane of friendship which thus happened such was the intirety twixt the Queen and this Lord she having sent Letters into France to one Monsieur de Ierre then in prison she inclosed a Letter unsealed in Hollands Letter sealed which was intercepted by the Ambassador the Lord Ierome Weston resident in Franc and sent to his Father the Lord Treasurer by whom it was shewn to the king a matter made him so passionately jealous of Holland as he was confined to Kensington Whereupon the Queen was so discontented as she bedded not with the King some nights and was so inraged for Hollands confinement as till the king released him she would not entertaine him to her bed But as Nature is frail so she flying imbraces made the husband more earnest to persue her fruition so that at last Hollands enemies are chid and he brought into favour These are the devices of cunning Dames when silly men being horn-beaten oftentimes are cured without a plaister he had better have put them into his pocket After this the Queen advertized of Charles his lubricity with divers Ladies his Mistresses which appeared because he was jealous of a Lord handing a Countess he dearly loved through the court of Whitehall at which he shewed much indignation for a great time In the mean time there were not people wanting who nourished each in suspition so that both seeing themselves peccant one had freedome of Mistresses and the other of Servants Now I must crave your pardon if I have not observed so punctually the times this being rather a Rhapsody then a continued History and therefore I am constrained to patch up the post with the prior faults being all of one batch of Tyranny as Ben. Volington Wist Stroud and Eliot Mr. Hambden Sir Iohn Corbet Sir Iohn Hevingham were confined for being faithfull in Parliament Moreover for discovering the designe of a thousand German horse the Earl of Sommerset the Earl of Clare dead Sir Robbert Cotton dead my Lord Saint Iohn Mr. Selden and Mr. Iames were sent to the Tower The occasion was this as I remember Pickerni Master-Falconer found the written project in the kings Cabinet it being open who took it out and brought it to Sommerset and so it came to the hands of Sir Robert and the other four usually meeting but Sir Robert had a man would take his cups freely and at a Taverne told it to a false brother who betrayed them all for which cause the five were brought aurium tenus into the Star-chamber because it was discovered afore it was acted But it is more memorable how king Charles was angry with the Parliament of the petitions of Right as he was so far from punishing Sir Richard Plumly for pulling a Knight Hubard out of a Coach and beating him so that he dyed and to shew his hatred to Hubard who was one of them held the then Speaker of the Parliament Sir Iohn Finch in the Chair that he advanced this Plumly to be Admiral of the Irish Seas and made him a Knight for his service for killing Hubard when justly he
The Divine Catastrophe OF The KINGLY Family Of the House of STVARTS OR A SHORT HISTORY OF THE Rise Reign and Ruine Thereof Wherein the most secret and Chamber-abominations of the two last Kings are discovered Divine Justice in King Charles his overthrow vindicated and the Parliaments proceedings against him clearly justified By Sir Edward Peyton Knight and Baronet a diligent observer of Those Times London Printed for Giles Calvert at the black Spread-Eagle at the west-end of Pauls 1652. TO THE Supreme Authoritie of this Nation Assembled in this present PARLIAMENT Right honorable Senators WAndering in the Circumference of my contemplations to finde out what was most sutable to present to the Supremacy of Parliament under such a Divine revolution as God hath brought to pass instrumentally by your wisdom and direction and his heavenly Providence in this wide field the Omnipotent guided my thoughts to dedicate a Discourse to your honourable hands concerning the fatal Catastrophe of the last House had Superintendencie over us to the time the Almighty put the Stern of this Commonwealth into a Parliamentary Power which I most humbly wish our celestial Creator to continue till a Snail be able to creep over the whole Globe of the earth In the mean while I crave your pardon that I have not so distinctly in order laid down many remarkable passages worthy recite my Papers being remote a great distance from me yet by Gods grace I have composed a little Enchiridion of divers remarkable events have happened out to prove Gods just revenging hand on the Family of the Kingly Stuarts of Scotland and justified your proceedings and proved that the heavie weight of sin hath given a downfal justly imposed by Providence from above my Observations reaching no higher then from the King of Scots being taken prisoner at Muscleborough-field in Edward the sixth his Reign Now therefore I thrice humbly desire your Patronage especially finding by experience the composition and stile of this present Narrative will incur the displeasure and hatred of most in this State yet I value it not being prompt by a higher power then that of Man which points out by a Divine finger the overthrow of all men exalted above all that is called God whose ruine will be the bridge to let into the Stage of the world the heavenly Government of Christ which shall continue for ever maugre the malice of the Universe Wherefore I most humbly implore the thrice honourable Parliament to accept of This as a testimony of my fidelity to the present Government which I pray God to bless and maintain to advance his glory and bring the whole Nation to a most happie condition which now the present symptomes thereof shew plainly a new approach of a great tranquillity not onely to this but to the three Nations in general Edw. Peyton THE Rise Reign and Ruine OF THE Kingly Family Of the STUARTS SInce Great Britain hath been elevated all along the stems of Plantagenet Theodor or Tedor and Stuart to so high a Tree of Tyranny as she was afore the late wars the Princes had designes proportionable to a way of making themselves absolute Governours which overture hath appeared more or less according to the humour of times and inclination of the Guiders of the Stern for some indued with ability and craftiness necessary to settle an usurped ambition whilst the people were willing to beare the load of that burden have made a progress so politickly to bring their aims to the mark shot at that they have so subtilly dissembled the enterprise as no notice or scandal arrived at their doors nor impatience to the three Countreys of England Ireland and since the access of the Family of the Stuarts to Scotland until King James for hatred of his Mothers death plotted the ruine of Parliaments which ratified Queen Maries execution and left it as his Testament for his successor to follow dictating not long afore his death to Williams Arch-Bishop of York the course he should steer to bring his counsel to conclusion This devillish advice thrust on this wilful Prince with an inconsiderate fury and inflamed with that fire to settle to himself and his successors an unbridled power of dominion which hurried him on with the whirlwinde of passion to discover the mystery which ought to have been concealed till the designe should be accomplished Wherefore of this number in our days was Charles the first who from the beginning of his Government blaming the moderation of his predecessors resolved to go a way contrary to the stream of a pious Rule and the command of God and act during his time that which God would not suffer to be done in many ages past And because the pretention is always encumbed when the object cannot be attained by wicked advice perceiving he had not so well marched to accomplish his drifts with the just power of Parliaments which might found a Trumpet in the behalf of a Commonwealth by advice of his Antecedent and his wicked adherents laboured to raze out the memory breaking up two Parliaments and not satified therewith to practise Tyranny kept the Nation neer fourteen yeers without such most lawful Assemblies where the Rights of the Nation might be discovered and true Liberty appear This he did that the power of Law and property of the Subjects estates might be inclosed in his sole Arbitrary brest To that purpose he made his Sycophants of the Council-Table Judges of the Right of his people the Star-Chamber the Executioners of his unbridled will and the High-Commission the destroyers of Piery and Religion which three though he revoked by Acts yet being angry with himself for so doing he raised a War to make abortive all he had done by an armed power although he seemed willing to affect it afore therefore pursuing the former series of his will for a Law Charles quarrels first with the Gentry and People about Coat Conduct and Ship-money and plotted with his wicked Council that a thousand Germane Horse in the nature of Trayle Battoun should take every one denied to give him money or that would not subscribe to his endless will and easeless power to be hurried to Prison there to end their days some of them being so barbarously used This unjust resolution he took upon him unless they yeelded to his unsatiable desires by which means the eyes of many of the triple Nations were sealed as pigeons are used for traines to devouring Hawks to plume and prey on This struck such a Pannick fear that they imagined all power consisted in the Diadem to be at his mercy because they were ignorant of their Rights which were usually discovered in Parliaments by some practised in the Records But behold God raised up some Heroes within the doors of the Representative and without to awaken the people from a dead sleep or rather to cure them of a disease of lethargy who rouzing like Lions let loose out of a Den opposed this most wicked Oppression by which
the Queen with his voice made her think there was no happiness but in his approach into her Cabinet a place wherein she continually resided but from thence the Lord Darnel was banished above nine months divorced from her in joy although he sought divers means in vaine At last for a medicine to remedy his discontent one Dowglas administred Physick for his cure to amove Ritsoe from the Queen and put the Lord her husband into her armes So violent was the Ingredience that Ritsoe was taken from this Princess by twelve arrived Lords and their retinue who put her into the Lords armes killing Ritsoe laid his dead body on the same trunk was his bed the first night he arrived to the Queens service But there was much adoe afore this Tragedy was acted To understand this better this Dowglas an Agent for the twelve banished Lords out of Scotland to return could not effect it unless the Lord Darnel undertook the accomplishment upon the former condition to dispatch Ritsoe from Court But they being jealous of Darnels promise not fixt in other Puntilio's would not believe him till pricking his fingers he wrote an assurance under his hand with blood in a paper really to effect it which was acted when the Queen leaned on Ritsoes shoulder at the game of Primero with the Earl of Morton Chancellor of Scotland who cherished this unlawfull familiarity a verity justified on Oath by Darnel and one of the twelve Lords the Lord Ruthin at his execution on the Scaffold a place where dying men speak true This Lady very sorrowful retiring to Sterlin Castle shortly after was brought abed of King James but took no delight in her husbands company for the Lord Bothwel became a new Corrival in her affection who both consented as Germanicus wife with Sejanus after she had been lascivious with him to blow up her husbands body with Gun-powder who was cast dead on a tree next morning a spectacle made Scotland amazed at so fearful a murder By this most wicked designe she grew so contemptible to her Realm that she was fain to flee to Queen Elizabeth for succour but lo some yeers afore severall Treasons were here discovered that this Mary set the Traytors awork to take away our late Queens life who were afore condemned for Traytors and suffered death for this Mary was the next pretender to the Crown from Henry the seventh but God prevented it by her Privy Council counted the wisest of all Europe who counselled Elizabeth to condemn her to free England from Treasons against her Person But the sage Princess conjectured if the death should be by her Edict it might raise the hatred of forraine Princes against her and therefore caused the sentence onely to be ratified by Act of Parliament the Vote of the whole Realm insomuch that a mock-Secretary called Davison was chosen to go to Fotheringham where she was rewarded with a Hatchet a just Judgement of God on her After this King James being about sixteen yeers old was crowned and had for Tutor one Bohannon called amongst us Buchanan a learned Divine and wise to train up young Princes whose Books are famous through this part of the world This prudent Schoolmaster observing the young Prince's facility to signe any Grant for his Servants without reading by which means he had pardoned many murthers and passed other Instruments of damnable consequence to the Commonwealth in which this Tutor imitated Theodosius's godly fraud to discerne the hearts of his Courtiers soundness in Religion who having taken great pains with the King from his childhood desired a boon which King Iame was willing to grant therefore one morning the king going out early a hunting Buchanan brought an absolute resignation of his kingdom with all Immunities to it which was signed without aspect At night returning from field-sports retiring usually afore supper to read some profitable Author which his Schoolmaster chose all shut out of the Cmhaber Buchanan sate down in the kings Chair and told him that he was king giving him the writing to peruse which reading he shed tears for his folly yet Buchanan after comforted him and charged his Scholar not to signe any Grant but what was just and so threw the Grant of all Scotland into the fire About this time Queen Anne was brought out of Denmark for a match a Lady of a goodly presence beautiful eyes and strong to be joyned with a Prince young and weak in constitution an union unsutable for a Virago to couple with a Spiny and thin Creature a course made her fancy work as a Fat for to further a female content and placed in her delight one Master Stuart of the house the Earle of Murry His haunting her Chamber too sedulously bred such a jealousie in King Iames for to impart his thoughts to Marquess Huntly and get dispatched this Stuart out of the way burning his house and himself in it After whose death the Queen found others to satisfie her unruly appetite as namely the Earle of Gowry a Lord of a comly visage good stature and of an attracting allurement who upon King Iames suspition of often society with the Queen converted to the Poyson of hatred the friendship and love of the Earl causing Ramsey after Earl of Holderness with others to murther Gowry in his own house giving it out for a stale that the Earl with others would have killed him And to make his falshood appear odious in shape of truth appointed the fifth of August a solemne day of Thanksgiving for his supposed delivery and in this mocked the God of Heaven After this the Queen entertained into her service one Mr. Beely a Dane to whom she bore an affection this Gentleman came with her into England and grew more entire in her thoughts with whom I had a familiarity to be a Commissioner for him in a Grant his Mistress procured for him of King Iames of felons goods in divers Counties who in great secrecie discovered to me he was naturall Father of King Charls but waxing old the Queen took two proper Gentlemen of the House of Bohannon to her service these being partners in her affection fell out in a Duell and killed one another for priority in her love Not long after Gowries death Prince Henry was born at Edinburgh whereupon Queen Elizabeth sent the Earl of Sussex Ambassadour to congratulate this birth and be Godfather with a gallant retinue but Scotland being poor and the king wanting money to discharge the glory of such a Royal entertainment the Earl of Orkney a Bastard of the former king's pawned his Estate in the Islands of Scotland to raise a great sum to discharge the Christening Behold how King James did not onely not disengage this Morgage but suffered this Earle to die in Prison at Blackness neer Edinburgh-Castle an ingratitude indelible for after-ages to detest I omit the Murders Inchantments Witcheries committed by his Predecessors of weight enough without more to pull down that House But Henry the
should have questioned him for his life And to sound King Charles his heart it is probable King Charles was in his heart a Papist by the Queens perswasion and her mother for after going from the Parliament he sent Pardons for divers Priests condemned who ingeniously finding this would make a rupture 'twixt King and Parliament the Prisoners petitioned the Houses sending the Pardons to the House and desired rather then there should be a breach between them to suffer death for which prudence the Parliament would not let them die In both these kings times swearing was in such esteem principally from king Iames his example cursing the People with all the plagues of Egypt though king Charles granted twelve pence an Oath through the Kingdome to Robin Lashly which was observed more to get money then suppress swearing for such a negligence was in the Magistrates seeing the great Courtiers garnished their mouthes with God-dammees as if they desired Damnation rather then Salvation Bribery the nurse of Justice was so rife in those days that right was not distributed to the owner a vice augmented by Knights of the Post very frequent in City and Country And Lawyers would take sees and never plead for their Clients and sometimes on both sides insomuch as in a Suit depending 'twixt my self and my Son we gave fees to one and the fame person Wherefore on these times God hath brought on us a lamentable war Now let all the world behold how king Charles violated the rights of Parliaments coming into the House with great power to carry away the five members To prove how great a breach of priviledge of Parliament this was the Author hereof wrote a discourse against it affixing his hand it being taken in his Waggon at Banbury by the kings party for which he was condemned to die by Sir Robert Heath and his Estate given away I will not repeat how much he hath suffered for being faithful to Parliaments both afore since the access of this onely I will rehearse that being taken Prisoner by the Cavaliers he lost four hundred pounds in money apparel waggon and fourty horses and likewise in Wiltshire at Broad Choak in houshold-stuff four hundred pounds which was carried into Langford after a Garrison taken by Colonel Ludlow for the Parliament which he had never restored although he often petitioned Another wrong long since he had when Sir Robert Heath had inclosed two thousand acres of Common as Lord of Soham one named Anne Dobbs was kept with bread and wain Cambridge Castle by a Justice of Peace a Creature of Sir Roberts to confess the Author of this Discourse counselled her with others to pull down the Enclosure taken from the Common by that means to take away his life as a Rebel when it was well known he had no hand in it but then was sitting in Parliament as a member By this it appeares the king chose good Judges and Justices which were so corrupt The reason was that the Author being condemned he might forfeit a Mannor next adjacent This Justice of Peace was a mortal enemy of his Sir Robert Heath having bought four hundred pound a yeer of the Justice where the accused was Lord that Sir Robert might beg it of the king And if we examine the king of Denmark brother of Queen Anne the first time he was entertained into England what debauchedness was exercised in his welcome to king Iames to add punishment to the family who both were so drunk at Theobalds as our king was carried in the armes of the Courtiers when one cheated another of the Bed-chamber for getting a grant from king James for that he would give him the best Jewel in England for a Jewel of a hundred pound he promised him and so put king Iames in his arms and carryed him to his lodging and defrauded the Bed-chamber-man who had much ado to get the king into his Bed And Denmark was so disguised as he would have lain with the Countess of Nottingham making horns in derision at her husband the high Admiral of England which caused a deep discontent between them And generally the Courtiers were then so debauched in that beastly sin as at that time in the wayters chamber at supper a Courtier was found dead on the Table the wine foaming out of his mouth a horrid sight to behold And it is worthy of observation to consider the carriage of the king of Denmark and his Son usually in his own Country for at my being there I saw the old king as his custome was to call for the Master of his houshold when he made a voyage or progress wrote on a Pastboard what he should doe and so took the waggon to go to his Boares houses and eat Martlemas Beef powdred pork bacon or such like as they had ready and after repast took for a collation the handsomest daughter kinswoman or servant in the house al her kindred adorning her with all sorts of wearing ornaments whom the King carried to one of his Guest-houses where he had not above three or four Lodgings and a Kitchen and solaced himself with this jewel so long as he pleased and after brought her home A fruition made her in much esteem with her friends after so adulterous a fact Likewise it was the custome of his Son to ride on a Sled drawn with horses bells fastned to them which tingled as he passed through the Townes the noise caused the women to run out of doors the Prince beholding one more amiable then the rest beckning to her with his finger presently she came to the Sled and accompanied him to some Hostery till he had satisfied fully his lust Also their usual course is to prophane the Sabbath in such sort as all the Carpenters in the Kingdom that day work gratis to make the Kings ships and the people go to Church in their worst cloaths making no difference 'twixt the Lords day and other daies who in stead of Godly exercises use much prophaness Give me leave to repeat that this King ordinarily would be drunk and namely one time Sir Iohn Peoly being his Servant after an Inhabiter at Wroungay in Norfolk he commanded Pooly to ask any gift to the value of half his Kingdome and he should have it But he finding his Master so beastly out of tune demanded a great pair of Stags hornes for which after so moderate a request the king bestowed on him three thousand Dollars Is it not known to all Germany that his drinking out of reason with his Commanders lost many battels to the Emperous General Wallestine which proved a disaster to the united Protestant Princes so that he was faine to submit to the Emperour with much loss and disgrace to the prejudice of the cause of God In which war his brother king Iames proved a Coward to back a religious cause for he would not raise men nor money yet the Parliament incited and urged him thereto to whom he made this answer He would
Parliament to ruine the people the remainder in the house were the Representative to adjourn the Parliament from day to day for otherwise it had been sine die and ipso facto dissolved the Parliament then had the whole Nation remained slaves and vassals for ever at the kings mercy And therefore it was most to subdue and put king Charles to death as a mortal enemy who laboured to destroy the Common-wealth with all his power for if a member who hath an inclusive right ought to have sentence of death much more a king who hath an impositive care from God ought to have sentence of death for kings now are not the anointed of God as David was but by the Scripture every Saint is annointed which by the Popish Clergy was usurped to them and after by their policy attributed fasely to kings to maintaine their Hierarchy Whrefore we may justly argue that the Author of spirits had a long time continued patient in suffering three several families to be Superintendents over three kingdoms five hundred yeers when he raised the several houses to the Throne to make an essay of their behaviour to bring up the people in the fear of God whose time was long spent in Idolatry and after reduced to a prophanness and then to a peece and little part of a reformed way and not to a total partly serving Baal and partly God which caused Gods arrows at last to flie abroad and shot the last Prince with a mortal blow for it is manifest a king could not make a war with his Parliament till it were ended and the king passed an Act not to end it till all the three Estates were agreed and when it ended all he could do should be to indict them by a Jury to finde them guilty but by making a War he leaves them at liberty to defend themselves so that what he did amiss should be complained of in the next Parliament after In the war the kings purpose could not be to make them obedient which is too harsh a way for in so doing he becomes their enemy and then they are out of his protection Or if the subjects war with the king and he oppose they are not subjects A king is not a king when he makes a war against his subjects but he is a Tyrant and they are not Rebels no more then when a king treateth with his subiects are they not subjects by such a war he ratifieth them to have a right and power to contest with him as the fifteen Provinces were made by the king of Spaine in a Negotiation a free State much more the reason holds in a war How many times did the Parliament court the king yea humbly petition him and treated with him by Commissioners to do divers things most necessary for the good of the then kingdom and he remained obdurate If he were so obstinate when he was under the power of the Parliament as in the Isle of Wight how averse would he be or rather domineer over and ruine them when they were in his clutches As if a Partridge being neer to a Faulcon intangled with his varvels might peck and tach her yet would not she yeeld to smal a bird what could the Faulcon do when he had her trussed surely plume on her and at last wring off her head How many times have the people in this Nation assumed the power to themselves for kings over-flowing the rules of moderation as in the times of Henry the third Edward the second Richard the second Henry the sixth and after upon good behaviour they resigned the keyes of Soveraignity to the intrusted keepers as namely in choosing the supream Officers which of right be longed to the Parliament and a long time since by intrusion kept in the hands of the Diadem but in a Parliamentary orbe wherein when the great Officers were fixed they kept their course from Retrogradation by their Aromatical influence upon the good of the people but after they were at the devotion of the chief by that derivation they wronged the people and augmented the power of invassalage as who in name of the Upper insulted over the Inferiour that all the English world was conformed to an incompatible subjection and submission too unjustly imposed Therefore it was impossible that Charles which had his hands in the blood of hundred thousands by his instruments should after that carriage be free from Cruelty Indignation and Injustice no more then a Leper can be made pure or a Blackamore white or a Leopard clear from spots Therefore I will justly conclude the cup of Gods vengeance was filled to the blim for king Charles his family to drink the dregs Now if the war of France and Germany were just especially the last when the Emperour transgressed the laws of the Empire to make the united Princes to raise an Host to defend themselves and rectifie what was amiss by ingrafting another Cion in the Empire which continued too long in one house of Austria much more just is that of the Parliament which hath Legislative power and authority to draw Acts for the good of the Subject to which the king is alwayes injoyned not to end the Assembly till he had signed such Acts and reformed all abuses complained of If the king should retire from the great Counsel and not signe Bils of Right twelve of the Lords and twenty four of the others were to repaire to him to know the cause of his absence and urge the king to signe such bils and remove grievances If he did not sign nor come in the space of fourty days they ought to chuse a Protector And if he did persist in his absence they might justly depose him as appears in the book of the manner and fashion of holding Parliaments And this was the reason of the former kings removal If a master of a Family who hath wife children servants stock and cattel in a madness should go away from his house and bring a force to destroy his family kill his children take away his cattel off his own ground and burn his house he were a mad man and fitter for Bridewell then to be a master of a family as likewise a Protector who ought to protect his people if he would destroy them because they would have a pious and vertuous government he is to be accounted a destroyer no protector But some will say The king had a number of his subjects and the better part But they were such as supported a Power would take away the property of their real personal and vital estates which the King might do if he conquered if there were not Parliaments a check on the Soveraigne to protect inferiours such kingly power would grow to such a height as no moderation might be 'twixt Mercy and Tyranny I have often heard the Cavaliers say They meant not to take away Parliaments knowing they were for their good and benefit But if the King had prevailed by their means they should