Abatement of his writ Nor shall any Nobleman of any other Nation hold plea in England by his name of dignity but only by his name of baptisme and Sùrname Cook 7. part Nay though he mary in England and have issue here the Father dying his Son shall not bear titles of his Fathers Honour because the title had original by a forein Prince and not by English Peerage Nay a more strange case A Postnatus of Scotland or Ireland who is a natural Subject of this Land be he the Heir of a Nobleman yet he is none of the Nobility of England But if the King summon him by writ to Parliament and therein stiled by that foraign Title then from thenceforth he is a Peer of England 39 Edw. 3 36. But more and worthy observance A Knight of any foreign Nation shall be so named in all our Courts of Pleas for the highest and lowest dignities are universal 26 Edward 4 39 Edward 3. And so shall any foraign King be sued here by his Title otherwise the writ shall abate for observe the person of a foraign King shall be here impleaded for debt or trespass of life so an Ambassadour Pardon this digression and now we return to Scotland The King grants a Commissiâ—n to certain persons to see conditions performed by the Popish Lords in reference of their obedience to the Church and for them also to subscribe to conditions for peace and quietness to the King and Country under caution of 20000. And in particular for Huntley to be advised by some Lords assigned to counsel him especially concerning the Kings service But to prevent the Kings publick intentions comes over from foraign parts one Iames Gourdon with designes of Treason and to deterr Huntley from subscribing against him was publisht a Proclamation and a thousand Crowns to apprehend him At which time there was discovered a practiâ—e of surprizeing the Isle of Elsay in the West Seas for receiving forces resolved upon by the Spaniard to be sent thither The contrivâ—r of this design was Barklay the Laird of Ladyland who had escaped out of Glascow prison last year and now returned from Spain and was secretly gotten to this Isle being a high rock four miles compass and thereon an invincible Tower somewhat ruinate of difficult access which he meant to victual But was sodainly surprized by one Knox who landing on the shore Barklay was walking down the Hill to take view of the Company not mistrusting to be known And finding that he was thus betrayed ran into the sea and drownded himself The news whereof comming to the Popish Lords made them the sooner conform which they did forthwith The King thus inabled to command ordains several Commissioners to reduce such families in the North that were in fewds particularly these between Huntley and Murray as you have heard Huntley and Forbes Arrol and Ladwhern Drum Frendraught men of considerable fortunes and fewds so that the North was cleared and quiet And now the King reminds the late behaviour of the Malapart Minister Blake who was couvented before Commissioners at Saint Andrews his Church concerning his Treasonable speeches in his former Sermon whereof he had been convicted before the Council and was now further accused as wondrous factious and so condemned and turn'd out of all And thus visitations being made through all Churches and Presbyteries a strange reformation followed both there and in the University and not only Inquisition of their Doctrines and behaviour therein but also concerning the Managment of Lectures Offices Revenues Rents all out of order untill this blessed way of altering all for good But more especially in the Colledges in place of divinity Readings Politick questions were raised whether the Election or succession of Kings were the better Government How farr the regall power extended whether Kings may not be censured for abusing the same and deposed by the people The King therefore prescribes the professors their Theam The first Master to read the common places to the Students with the Law and History of the Bible The second Master to read the New Testament The third the Prophets Ecâ—lesiastes and Canticles The fourth the Hebrew Grammer with the Psalms Proverbs and the book of Iob. A Council appointed for the Universitie and that for their better improvement and studies the Doctors Professors and Regents not being pastors should be exempted from Church-meetings Sessions Presbyteries and Assemblies these Orders and Articles assented and sworn unto in presence of the King And being Northward where pittifull ignorance possesses the common people Amongst many one Margeret Attkin apprehended upon suspition of witchcraft and threatned with Torture confessed her trade and discovering her associates to purge the Country of all if she might have but pardon she gave her reason to be assured of their guilt all of that sort having a secret mark in their eyes by which she could certainly discover them to be witches and had by deceipt the Devil also assisting gotten credit and belief and so carried through the Country for discovery of others and divers innocent women by her asseveration at Glasgow through the ignorant simplicitie of Master Iohn Cooper Minister were put to death But some wiser than the rest altered the women into other habits whom she would then acquit and so she was sent back to Fife her first aboad and then hanged But belying her self in what she had confessed she was by some supposed not guilty and the King was moved to recall the Commission which authorized proceedings against such seducers And yet the fearfull abounding of these detestable slaves to the Divel moved the King to dispatch hastily a Treatise to the press of Doemonologie in form of a Dialogue and devided into three books 1. The discription of Magi in special 2. The discription of sorceries and witchâ—raft in special 3. The discription of all these kind of spirits that trouble men or women and the conclusion Against the damnable opinions of two principally in that age One Scot an English man who denies in print such a thing as witchcraft and so maintains the old error of the Saduces in denying of spirits The other of Wierus a Germain Physitian in his publick Apologie for all witchcraft discovering thereby himself to have been one of them The Kings indeavour is to prove two things That there have been and are such devilish Arts and secondly what exact tryal and severe punishment they merit And reasoning upon Genus he leaves species differentia to be comprehended therein for example In the first book Chap. 6. speaking of the power of Magicians He saies that they can suddenly by their spirits cause to be brought all kinds of delicacies since as a thief he delights to steal and as a spirit subtilly transports them under which Genus all particulars may be comprehended as bringing wine out of a wall c. proved by reasons of the general In the second bookâ— Chap. 5
and himself brought in the Lords at Sterlin and put his brother Captain Iames Stewart from Court which now he repented and would this way assist him to revenge Stewart not confident in the man discovers all to the King and Thirlston complains to the Councel which Gray denies and Sir William justifies and more accuses him of abuse in his late Ambassie into England and treacherously consenting to the death of the Kings Mother But these accusations referring to truth and a leasurely Tryal they were both committed Which came again to examination and further accusation of Gray for letters to the French King and Duke of Guise not to assist Scotland in revenge of Queen Maries death unless the King would tollerate Catholiks which Gray could not deny but begged mercy ingenuously confessing that he finding Queen Elizabeths resolution advised to put her to death rather in private than in forms of Justice and acknowledged those words mortui non mordent to be his and so meant and not as they were detorted And so craving the Kings gracious favour was condemned and banished A rule of the Kings clemency never to ruine whom he had affected The King now twenty one yeers compleat and more calls a Parliament in Iuly at Edenburgh and for preparation summons the Noblemens whom he reconciled from all controversie and feasts them all at Court And being the better whittled they went hand in hand by couples to the Market-cross A rare sight to the people if it would last He hoped to do as much with the Churchmen Ministers and Prelates But soft they are not in charity with the King himself for the committing of their brethren Gibson and Cooper which was an offence to the Godly and for the admitting Montgomery by the Kings desire who was excommunicate It must not be but by sparing some of his punishments in case the King release Cooper so nothing done for either And being now up in spiritual Arms they petition the Parliament That the Prelates might be removed from sitting among the Estates as having no authority from the Church no function nor charge at all But the Abbot of Kinlass made answer That the Ministers had disorderly shut them out of their Churches and now would turn them out of their places in Parliament And indeed do what the King could to the contrary there passed an Act for annexing the Temporality of Benefices to the Crown upon pretext of bettring the patrimony and to leav the honor of Estate without Taxe on the people but to the utter decay of the spiritual Priors and Abotts being turned temporal Lords which the King afterwards finding inconvenient advises his son in his Basilicon Doron to anull That vile and pernicious Act as he calls it The Borderers were up taking advantage of any quarrel now make incursions upon England with fire and sword beginning the revenge for their Queen Mother as they termed it Hereupon Hunsdon Governor of Barwick gets audience of the King all others before being refused urging the most of Walsinghams reasons before mentioned as a hazard to his succession to raise war with England and satisfies the King with a Declaration of the Judges and the sentence of Davison in Star-Chamber as if all had been done without Queen Elizabeths knowledge and so the Borderers were commanded to be qniet An Ambassadour Patrick Vaus of Barnborough from Denmark accompanied Peter Yong the Kings Almoner who had been sent to Treat of the Marriage in May last return now in August with the conclusion and that in the spring a Nobleman should be directed to accomplish the Ceremony in Denmark and bring home the Bride But the death of King Frederick her father in Aprill delayed the business for certain moneths after To end this yeer comes over divers Jesuits and Priests to deal with the Catholicke Lords in Scotland to assist the next yeers invasion of England in hope to find friendship if they should be forced on their Coast and outwardly made it their business of revenge for his Mothers death promising to conquer the Crown for his sake that was sure otherwise to wear it but the King hastely returns them home again and proclaims against them and their Abetters And the Church-men taking fire though all fear was quenched they Assemble Lords and Laicks and in a confused multitude beset the Kings resolutions to do of himself what they so earnestly desired And therefore in great choler sends them word That they meant to boast him with their power and force the execution of their demands and admitting some of the number they confer with the Kings Councel and so a good course was concluded against the Catholicks and the Ministers bidden to depart Nay now they are up allay them who can for ere they disband the grievances of the Church must be rectified Iames Gibson heretofore censured for his misdemeanour against the King and had liberty upon promise of his Recantation and Submission in the Pulpit but the man had a new Light and told the People that out of infirmity he had confessed a Fault but his conscience now was otherwise revealed that his actions heretofore were innocent The Chancellour hath the opinion of the Assembly whether To call the King Persecutor of the Church and threaten him to be the last of his Race were well done and this to the People out of the Pulpit Much ado in dispute to finde error in so godly a man the major Votes made it offensive and in the afternoon he was to appear for defining the Censure but in the mean time Gibson gets away and was excused being in fear of the King so great an Adversary and this endured a long debate in behalf of him ere the Kings Advocates could plead a distinction between his Majesty and their Ministery and all that could be gotten for the King was the man to be suspended during the pleasure of the Assembly which lasted but the next meeting in August where Gibson gives his Reasons of not appearing before for fear that the affairs of the Church might be hindered by disturbance if his person had then suffered in presence of the People Upon this deep Declaration without asking leave of the King he is purged of his contumacy which so incensed the King who taking upon him to be some-body the Fellow was forced to fly to the factious Brethren in England who were labouring to bring in the holy Discipline into that Church also For the infection of Schisms had spread abroad in England greater Injuries and more impudent Contempts than had been known before upon the Temporal and Ecclesiastical Magistrates by the Puritans as one calls them of those days and Queen Elizabeth Semper eadem not enduring Innovation as impugning directly or obliquely the Royal Prerogative The Zealots for the Geneve Discipline railing at the English Hierarchy with scurrilous non-sense Libells by names of Martin-Mar-Prelate The
whom adjoyn the Clanchattons and Dunbars Huntley advertised that Murray and Athol were to confederate with those Glamis in Forres intends to dissolve that knot ere it were hard bound but before he came they fever themselves and Murray returns to Huntley's way lay by the House and some of his men braving thereabout they within discharge some Shot which killed Gordon and for which Huntley invades the other with Forces and Murray assisted by Arroll his Cosin prepare to defend These tidings came to the King whose command separates each one to his own home which served the turn for a time but brake out in disorder after Another of the same nature an antient emulation of the Kers the one of Cesfords Family the other of Farnherst for the Wardenry of the Middle Marches and the Provostry of Iedbury which the Heir of Farnherst William Ker a young Spark maintains to the death and in a Trial of Theft before the Council for English Goods stollen it was taken as done in spleen and derogate to the honour of Sir Robert Ker of Cesford the Fellow being his follower The lady Cesford of an haughty heart never ceased peuling until her Son had basely murthered the other These were men of good repute wise and of great courage and of much loss to the Borders the one dead the other undone who fled for his life until he made a large satisfaction for maintenance of the fatherless children and by Marriage with the Chancellours Niece came again to his Family and into favour We have hinted heretofore of the Northern Nations much inclining to Witchcraft and in Scotland those of great Families this Winter produced many Examinations Agnes Simson the wife of Kieth a Matron of a grave and settled behaviour she declared that her Familiar appeared in a visible form and resolved her doubts concerning the Life or Death of any she used to call him Holla Master Ho la in Spanish Who is there as he directed her and confessed that Bothwell bid her inquire of the Kings Reign Life and Death whom the Devil undertook to destroy but failing confessed to her not to be in his power speaking words in French which she understood not but could repeat them Il est homme de Dieu Another one Richard Graham confessed the like against Bothwell which was the cause of his Commitment out of which he escapes by corrupting his Keeper and so far guilty hath his Doom of Forfeiture and is denounced Traitor the Proclamation speaks That he being tender in bloud to the King and further advanced in Honors and Offices above his Birth having heretofore in an unnatural humor committed Slaughters raised Arms against his Majesty and practised with strangers against the Religion and whereof his Conviction in May 1589. was superseded in hope of amendment but since heaping Treasons he concluded with the consult of Witches against the Kings Life as by confession of sundry persons appears and for all being committed he hath broken Prison and thereby taken these Crimes upon him which concludes him a Traitor But he enters band with the Lord Hume and others and being forsaken flies into England his secret Harbours till next year The Archbishop of St. Andrews lies Bed-rid and fallen into some wants by mis-government the Presbyters like Crows about Carrion the common way of the Romish Catholicks to procure Proselytes labour him to leave some Lines under hand his opinion of matters of Discipline they form his words That he did not trouble himself then with thoughts of that nature and had never allowed of any other Bishop of the Church but St. Paul ' s Bishop to which he would sign And so Articles were drawn framed to their Design which he subscribed but whether in truth he did so or some for him or that their charity seldom upon better terms wrought upon his necessity or weakness of his spirits the Recantation came forth in publick of which injury he complained and committing his cause to Gods justice died the end of this year and accounted a man of some scale in Learning as they seldom want to account of themselves one commending another if he dies a Proselyte to them But presently that Church falls into Schism several Assemblies to compose Dissentions set up several Superintendents in one Presbytery or Popedom the Lay Parishioners siding with each Faction and coming to the question most Voyces pretended best interest but the other had gotten a new Paradox Quod suffragia essent ponder anda non numeranda and yet to end strife they part stakes and divide the Presbytery the one to sit at Cowper the other at St. Andrews I mention this for a Note That of all men none could worse endure parity and loved more to command than these which introduced it into the Church We have had to do with Secretary Walsingham of England and may not forget to take our leave of him also that lived not out this year He was industrious wise and religious a searcher in the secrets and mysteries of all States he had an art in past imitation to dive into mens dispositions and something for polite service screw simple Proselytes beyond common danger his Preferment no higher than Secretary and Chancellour of the Duchy of Lancaster and with Honour of the Garter his profuse expence for Intelligence abroad and at home kept him under compass during life and dying so poor that they buried him by dark in Paul's Quier Another of the same Sir Thomas Randolph so near in time that Death might do it with one Dart He was bred a Civilian and taken from Pembroke College in Oxford to Court from thence his Imployments were forein Embassies thrice to the Peers in Scotland and thrice to the Queen seven times to King James and thrice to Basilides Emperour of Russia once to Charls the Ninth of France and again to Henry the Third he was advanced to the Office of Chamberlain in the Exchequer and to be Master of the Ports the first formerly of great profit the later not so till these last times of ours which we make of immense gain but he was rich of children and therefore in my Lord Bacons opinion poor in Purse he had leave to retire some time before his Death to which his advice to Walsingham to leave the Tricks of a Secretary as himself would the deceis of an Ambassadour Sir Henry Wootton afterwards observed as much who could example with the most Hoc tandem didici says he animas sapientiores â—ieri quiescendo To accompany these of the Gown died that gallant man at Arms George Talbot created Earls by Henry the Sixth and he the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury who in Queen Maries Reign with three thousand Foot in the Scotish Wars rescued the Earl of Northumberland at Lowick he was of the appointed Guard of that Queen whilest here in Prison and succeeded the Duke of Norfolk and Marshal of England and in much honour
Law Act for a New-River-water to be cut from Chadwell and Amwell springs in Hartfordshire to London And the King grants the People a General Pardon with the usual Exceptions And now also was framed a form of Oath called an Oath of Alleageance for distinction of good Subjects in General from unfaithfull Traytors but especially to make separation of the Popishly affected yet with Natural duty unto Sovereignty And the Oath was thus in effect That King James is lawfull King of this Realm That the Pope may not depose him or dispose of his Nor authorise any other Prince to invade him or to discharge any of his Subjects their Alleageance or to beare Arms against him And that notwithstanding any Act by the Pope or other authority he will bear faith and alleageance to his Majesty and will disclose all Treasons and Conspiracies against him and doth abhor as impious that any Prince deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered That the Pope nor any other hath power to absolve this Oath and renounces all pardon to the contrary without any equivocation or mental reservation whatsoever so help him God c. And accordingly sundry both Priests and Laiks did freely take the same when suddenly comes over a Breve from Pope Paulus quintus Inhibiting utterly all Papists from taking the same rather to endure all Torments nay death it self Rome October 1606. And the next year another Breve confirming this September 1607. And accompanied with a Letter of Cardinal Bellarmine unto George Blackwell the Arch-Priest of the English being then in some bonds whom therefore the Cardinal suspected would take the same as he did To all these the King most learnedly gives answer and in six days compiles and publishes in print an Apologie for that Oath and in a week sets out a Monitory Preface to that Apologie and solemnly presents it by Ambassy to the Emperour and to every King and State in Christendom as a peculiar concernment to all and each of them in the due temporal Obedience of their Subjects And herein the King instances Examples of several Emperours requiring Obedience from Popes Creation of Popes ordaining their Seat and Dignities and of all Bishops with Anathema against all such as disobeyed their Sentence as also deposing of Popes Hereupon the Venetians maintained that doctrine in their writings and put it in Execution The Sorbons did the like in France And those writers of their own that opposed it were so over-lashed as that they were corrected and castigated by Men of their Religion Becanus his book corrected by the Cardinals of Rome Bellarmines book burnt at Paris Suares his answer burnt also in France Certainly by this his Majesties premonition Kings and Princes had a more perfect discovery into the injury offered to them by the Pope in the points of their temporal power and it followed to be throughly disputed in Christendom by this occasion of the King This the King did for the present But there was a swarm of busie-heads that measured the mysteries of State by the rule of their own conceited wisdomes gave Arguments to suppress the Popish practises by Executing all their Priests The reasons may be gleaned out of their rash opinions That a dead Man bites not that mercies offered for a desperate Malefactor do but enlarge his adventures against King and Countrey That a hard hand suddainly remitted is seldom by the rude people interpreted to the best sence No hope of reformation where there 's no confession of the fault and to banish them may be supposed a meer shift to rid the Prisons of those whom Conscience could not condemn of Crime whilst Justice seems to sleep the time serves to raise factions for fearfull Spirits by sufferance grow insolent and cruel And to the Exceptions of their small Number it was argued that Union in a prepared conspiracie prevailes more than Number If that the Oath of Supremacie heretofore choked not their presumptuous imagination nor now can the temporal power of the King contained in the Oath of Alleageance preserve us or deter them A Popish Priest his Character is a disloyal Renegado Delinquents in lesser degrees may challenge easier punishments and so be incouraged The penalty to be executed on them they scandall by pretending the conversion from the Kings Exchequer to Our private purse That being restrained will prove like Bonner and Gardner in the time of Queen Mary seeing most men write good turns in Sand and bad in the Marble That the Jesuits divide the English into four Sects Themselves first and assume a full fourth part to their property and of that part they subdivide into two portions viz. The rigid non-Conformists and the Church-Papists The Second they allot to the Protestants who detain say they some of their Relicks The third and largest was left to the Puritans The last to the Politician senza diâ— senza anima The first then being assuredly theirs the last we will afford them also and therefore the safest way to prevent Combination is to make them hop headless The Presbyter indeed would hang them all but this Counsel most unchristian To answer them it was urged That although death be the end of Temporal misery it is not the grave of memory Justice may execute the person but his opinion made publick it is not subject to the sword where poyson is diffused through the veins of good and bad blood Evacuation is better than Incision Clemencie is divine and works supernaturall effects though they merit by suffering and though Bellarmine Parsons provoke them to thrust their finger into the fire by refusing the Oath of Alleageance yet the wisest of them had rather see others act then themselves feel the smart That Garnet lamented that he should not be inrolled as a Martyr because no matter of Religion was objected yet he would gladly have survived that Glory if any such hopes had remained The English exceed the Romans in zeal of Papistry and are naturally better fortifyed to indure death If so that terror prevails not Religion and Conscience less Visne muliebre Consilium said Livia to Augustus let severity sleep and try what the pardoning of Cinna will produce That death of Priests assures more to their Sect then ever their words could perswade and though such are but counterfeit Martyrs yet will they be otherwise so reputed by those that lay their Soules in pawn unto their doctrine with whom multitude of voices cry down our contraries for the Gate of their Church is wide and many enter therein And as uncharitable are these that would imprison them perpetually and that the means to catch them was to have good Intelligence beyond Sea and at home Sir Francis Walsingham had of his so active that an English Seminary could not stir out of Rome Spain or Flanders their several Nurseries without his privity and so forewarn'd they may be catcht at our ports and removed to prisons and
name and set the Lieutenant of the Tower is called and brings his Prisoner into the Court to the Bar the High Steward then declares to the People the cause why the King hath assembled those Lords and the Prisoner and perswades him to answer without fear freely and commands the Clerk of the Crown to reade the Indictment unto him and to ask him if he be guilty or not to which he usually answers Not guilty and to be tried by God and his Peers Then the Kings Attorney and Serjeants at Law give Evidence against him whereto when he hath given answer the Lieutenant of the Tower is commanded to return with the Prisoner from the Bar whilest the Lords do secretly confer in the Court together and then the Lords rise out of their places and consult among themselves and what they affirm shall be done upon their Honour without Oath And being so agreed or the greatest number they return and take their places again in Court and the High Steward demands of the youngest Lord first if he that is arreigned be guilty or not and so the next in order and the rest each one answering I or No. Then the Prisoner is sent for to the Bar to whom the High Steward recites the Verdict of the Peers and doth give Iudgment accordingly Stanford Pleas del Coronae lib. 3. Poult 188. The antiquity of this kinde of Trial by their opinion is grounded from Magna Charta but others take it to be more ancient though there inserted Henry 3. but was brought in by the Conquerour being answerable to the Norman and French Laws and agreeable with the Customes Feudal where almost all controversies arising between the Sovereign and his Vassals are tried per judicium parvum suorum And if a Peer upon his Arreignment of Treason do stand mute Iudgment shall be given upon his Indictment and yet shall not be pressed to death but saves the forfeiture of his Lands Statut. Westm. Edw. 4. Dier 205. But if upon Indictment of Felony he may be mute The reason of Magna Charta aforesaid is there expressed where he is indicted at the Kings Suit of Treason or Felony the words being Nec super eum ibimus we will not pass or sit in judgment upon him but by his Peers but if an Appeal of Murther or other Felony be sued by any common person against a Peer he shall be tried by common persons and not by Peers Stan. Pleas lib. 3. Brook Trial 142. But yet this Privilege hath some restraint For an Arch-bishop or Bishop though Lords of Parliament in such cases shall be tried by a Iury of Knights and other substantial persons upon their Oaths because Ecclesiasticks cannot pass in like cases upon Trial of other Peers for they are forbidden by the Common and Ecclesiastick Laws to be Iudges of Life and Death You see the great regard the Law hath to the word of a Peer heretofore upon his honour and yet how many ordinarily break their Oaths in common And thus premised we come to the case of Somerset and his Countess First therefore Sir Thomas Overbury for a time was known to have great interest and strait friendship with the Earl of Somerset both in his meaner fortunes and after in so much that he was in a kinde of oracle of direction unto him and if you will believe his own vaunt being indeed of an insolent and Thrasonical disposition he took upon him that the fortunes reputation and understanding of this Gentleman who is well known to have an able Teacher proceeded from his company and counsel and this friendship rested not onely in conversation and business at Court but likewise in communication of business of State for my Lord of Somerset exercising at that time by his Majesties special favour and trust the Office of Secretary did not forbear to acquaint Overbury with the Kings Packets and Dispatches from all parts of Spain France and the Low-countreys and this not by glympses or now and then rounding in the ear for a favour but in a settled manner Packets were sent sometimes opened by my Lord sometimes unbrokened unto Overbury who perused them copied them registred them made Table-talk of them as he thought good so the time was when Overbury knew more of the secrets of State than the Council-table did nay they were grown to such inwardness as they made a play of all the world besides themselves so as they had cyphers and Iurgons for the King and Queen and great men of the Realm things seldom used but either by Princes or their confederates or at the Court or at the least by such as practice and work against or at least upon Princes But as it is a Principle in Nature that the best things are in their corruption the worst and the sweetest Wine makes the sowrest Vineger so it fell out with them that this excess as I may say of friendship ended in mortal hatred on my Lord of Somerset's part It hath been said that Frost and Fraud ends foul and I may add a third and that is the frienâ—ship of ill men which is truly said to be conspiracy and not friendship for it happened that the Earl of Somerset fell into an unlawfull love towards that unfortunate Lady the Countess of Essex and to proceed to a Marriage with her this Marriage and purpose did Overbury mainly impugn under pretence to do the true part of a Friend for that he accounted her an unworthy woman but the truth is Overbury who to speak plainly had little that was solid for Religion or moral virtue but was wholly possest with ambition and vain-glory was loath to have any partners in the favour of my Lord of Somerset and especially not any of the House of Howards against whom he had professed hatred and opposition And that this is no sinister construction will appear when you shall hear that Overbury made his brags that he had won him the love of the Lady by his Letters and industry so far was he from cases of conscience in this point And certainly howsoever the tragical misery of that poor Gentleman Overbury might somewhat obliterate his faults yet because we are not upon point of civility but to discover the face of Truth for that it is material to the true understanding of the state of this cause Overbury was naught and corrupt in his commendation the Ballads must be mended for that point which paint him out other and partiality must be blamed which now a days favour him in malice to the memory of the ministers of these Times But to proceed when Overbury saw that he was like to be dispossessed of my Lords grace which he had possessed so long and by whose greatness he had promised himself to do wonders and being a man of an unbounded and impudent spirit he began not onely to disswade but to deter him from the love of that Lady and finding him fixed thought to finde a strong Remedy and supposing that
This Redemption I crave not as to my own person but with your benesits once given nor do I assume them very deep for I have voluntarily departed from the hopes of my Pension Place Office I onely cleave to that which is so little as that it will suffer no paring or diminution And as in my former Letters so by this I humbly crave of your Majesty not to let the practices of Court work upon your Son the Prince not fearing the sufferance of my loss in that particular so much for I cannot lose it but willingly all with it as for to take off the stage that which in the attempt may prove inconvenient And consider I pray your Majesty that my hope in desiring to pass these bad times was to be restored to my fortunes others are made unhappy by me if otherwise and then I lose my end I speak of impairing of changing or supplying as of any other way all such alterations and ruine are alike without I be worthy of your gift and that I can be worthy of all that Law can permit you to give or cast upon your Majesty by a more nearer Title as it doth by this I shall account them equal evils that leave nothing or a patched and proportioned one changed or translated from one thing to another But if your Majesty have any respects to move you to suspend your good towards me let that which is mine rest in your own hands till that you finde all opposite humours conformed to your purpose I have done wrong to my self thus to entertain such a doubt of your Majesty but the unrelenting of adversaries which when you will have them will sooner alter and that all this while I have received nothing of present notice for direction or to comfort me from your Majesty hath made me to expostulate with my self thus hardly for God is my Iudg Sir I can never be worthy to be if I have these marks put upon me of a Traitor as that tumbling and disordering of that estate would declare the divorce from your presence laies too much upon me and this would upon both I will say no further neither in that which your Majesty doubted my aptness to fall into for my cause nor my confidence is not in that distress as for to use that mean of intercession nor of any thing besides but to remember your Majesty that I am the workmanship of your hands and bear your stamp deeply imprinted in all the characters of favour that I was the first Plant ingrafted by your Majesties hand in this place therefore not to be unrootod by the same hand lest it should taint all the same kinde with the touch of that fatalness and that I was even the Son of a Father whose Services are registred in the first Honours and impressions I took of your Majesties favour and laid there as a Foundation-stone of that building These and your Majesties goodness for to receive them is that I rely upon praying for your Majesties prosperity I am in all humbleness Your Majesties loyal Servant and Creature R. Somerset I should not trouble you with the Marriage of the Lady Arabella Stuart and Sir William St Maure or Seymer both of kin to the Crown she by the Earl of Lenox in Scotland as I have before said 1577. and he Grandchilde to the third Son and the Heir of the Earl of Hartford created by Henry 8. whose Sister he married 1537. and by Edward 6. made Duke of Somerset and his Protector who stiled himself Edward by the grace of God Duke of Somerset Earl of Hartford Viscount Beauchamp Lord Seymer Uncle to the Kings Highness of England Governour of the Kings Person Protector of all his Realms Dominions and Subjects Lieutenant General of his Majesties Armies both by Sea and Land Lord high Treasurer and Earl Marshal of England Governour of the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and Knight of the most honourable Order of the Garter and bears Gules two Wings conjoyned in Fess Or. Yet all these Honours rather helped him forwards to hop headless for Felony His third Son Edward was restored to the Earldom I Eliz. and this William his Heir And thus near the Crown in all Sovereignties are needfull to be narrowly lookt into for Marriage Queen Elizabeth did so at a farther distance of danger and her Father made it Treason in his time I say I should forbear more mention but that our Detractor begins at her Death in the Tower where she was imprisoned though her Husband escaped and says That it set mens tongues and fears a work that she went the same way having almost in his last words before told the story of Overbury impoysoned in the Tower by which he now enforces belief That her Death was so done for the Kings interest when in truth she died a year before in September 1615. There happened occasion at Common Pleas to dispute the Kings power in Commendams The Church being void and in his gift whether he might give a Commendam to a Bishop either before or after his Consecration during life or for years It was argued by Serjeant Chibborn against the King That the translation of Bishops was against the Common Law his Text was the Canons of the Council of Sardis That the King had no power to grant Commendams but necessitate That there would be no necessity because no need of augmentation of Livings No man being bound to be more hospitable than his means afforded And much more argument tending to overthrow the Kings Prerogative in cases of Commendams This case was to be farther argued in the Kings absence by all the Judges which he thought to protract untill they consulted with him and so commanded his Attourney General to signifie by Letters his pleasure to all the Judges The Judges notwithstanding at the day argue the Case and return answer by Letter to the King That they held those Letters to be contrary to Law and such as they could not obey by Oath and therefore had proceeded at the day appointed setting down the Case to be upon construction of two Acts of Parliament 25 Edward 3. and of 25 Henry 8. and now between Subjects for private interest and Inheritance That their Oath is That in case any Letter come to them contrary to Law they are not to obey them but to proceed to Iustice. And so they did the last Term 27. April 1616. The Judges subsign Cook Hobert Tansield Warburton Snâ—g Altham Bromley Crook Winch Dodderidg Nicols and Houghton The King returns them answer by Letter Reporting himself to their own knowledg his princely care for justice to be duly administred to his Subjects with all expedition and how far he was from crossing or delaying the interests of private persons But on the other side where the case concerned the high Powers and Prerogatives of his Crown he would not indure to have them wounded through the sides of a private person admonishing them of an
to make up out of Adventurers purses for Gold-Mettal from a Mine in Guiana one of the Countreys of America upon no other ground to win belief but a pound of the Ore which he had from thence by the hands of Capt. Kemish his ancient Servant The King wondering at this man why to hazard his future fortune upon the nice dispute with the King of Spain whose Territory he must invade at his own perill of success but yet gave him leave with his liberty so be that he broke not the Kings bands of Amity which he had strickt rules and order to observe The French Lieger had been very earnest for his inlargement with much affection to his deserts and some design of Policy against Spain wherein they two waded so far as that the discovery came to the Kings ears not without intrenching by the by upon his Majesties honour and several commissions from France presented to him to fit him to that purpose wherein he was warily watcht till it should ripen for further tryal and at the worst back-friends were to be put aboard to bring him back again And having got Commission and thereupon a company of his own Countrymen they imbarque with him in a Voyage thither with a compleat Fleet of twelve sail and landed at St. Tomazo a Town of the Spaniards killed five hundred men sacked and burnt it of five of their Fleet it may be said as of the old saying They went up the River and so came down again for rhe Design being the River Oremque in Guiana to discover the Mine at the foot of a Mountain up in the Countrey they were opposed by the Inhabitants Spaniards and Natives and so returned to their company This expedition was grounded at the first only upon Kemish information the Miscarriages that might happen was alwaies cunningly resolved to light upon him for satisfaction of the Adventurers To answer it to the King his intent was never to return but by his own mannagement and the obedience of his Company over whom he had commission of Life and Death he dreamed of nothing less then of a prosperous journey And now to frighten Kemish Raleigh threatens him with the Kings displeasure which to avoid sayes the Storian The poor man pistols himself and so no tales could be truly told He dead the most minded forced their own and his return home which he intended any where else and so some of their scattered ships with him more like a Prisoner than Commander came safe to Kingsale in Ireland from thence to Plymouth where no sooner on shore but he is taken into custody of Sir Lewis Stukely Vice-Admiral of Devon and conveyed to London and so to the Tower with whom he deals for a sum of money presently delivered to him to escape with him into France Stukely yields to all accompanies him by Water where by the way to Gravesend the Design of Stukelyes treachery in that and so it prospered with him being hanged afterwards for clipping Gold they were seized and he brought into the Tower and not many daies after commanded to the Kings-Bench-bar at Westminster before the Lord Chief Iustice Mountague where he was questioned upon the Records of his former Arraignment at the City of Winchester and in answer to that he was asked what he had to say to his Sentence to dy like a Traytor His short defence was Of being lately intrusted by the Kings commission over the Lives of some of his Liege people was soon replyed unto as insufficient and he had judgement to dy the next day by the favour of the Ax which he said smilingly touching it Was a sharp Medicine but a sound Cure of all diseases as it proved to him then in his Ague sit in the Palace yard at Westminster Octob. 1618. It was indeed common discourse then that Raleigh knew of no Mine nor was Kemish assured that the pretended Mine was of Gold but that the piece of Ore which he presented Raleigh in the Tower was falsifyed by dissolving some Gold therin and he a better Chymist than Kemish for that purpose That both of them designed it so to be thereby cozening the world to get credit and afterwards to deceive the King to purchase his liberty But when Kemish came safe from the supposed Mountain without any Mine whom Raleigh expected should miscarry in the way and none but he could discover the deceit then was he destroyed by death but by whose hand it may be suspected not by himself And truly these reports were more then a false visard to out-face the truth of his merit in that action and thereby to weigh down Raleighs miscarriage At his death he endeavoured to cleer some points which he knew lay on the Deck against him His disloyal words of the K. undutiful language from Subjects of Sovereigns take deeper root than the memory of evil Deeds so did the Marshal Byron which cost him his head Essex once told Queen Elizabeth That her conditions were as crooked as her carcase Manebat alta mento repostum He said his Accuser was a base runagate Frenchman and perfidious being sworn to secrecy yet he betrayed Secondly To have had often plots with France He confessed That he had been often solicited from thence and that he endeavoured to escape thither at twice and the last time being got as far as Woolwich Thirdly That the French Agent came often to him with Commissions from his Master but it was not accepted Much he said of these as to the publick and of more things as to private which he did not deny but traversed So then there were other businesses of a second charge and confederacy which made him lyable to a new Tryal for Treason is so comprehensible as to take in even circumstances and out of them to make such conclusions as the jealousie of State shall interprete either for safety or Revenge But the prudence of the King would not hazard more having sufficient upon the old score and because he could not in Law be judicially called to accompt for his last actions his former Attainder being the highest and the last work of the Law whereby he was Civiliter Mortuus The King was inforced except Attainders should become Privileges for all subsequent offences to execute him upon the former And concerning Sir Walters recovery of Queen Anns infirmity for which he should beg a Boon viz. the re-examination of the Lord Cobham by four Earls and three Counsellors It being urged by an Author in the innocency of his cause and ingratitude of the King I shall answer as to my knowledge by the relation of some Ladies of her Bed-chamber and of her Surgeons and Physicians now living That she was never cured of her disease but by death that ends all Maladies We are told That Sir Walter set out his design to the King who discovered it to the Spanish Lieger Gondamore the Countrey Town Men Ships
Honoured Lord and Father to give concurrence to so laudable a design for it doth not a little grieve him to see that great Evil grows from Division of Princes Christian which if this Marriage between the Infanta of Spain and my Self may procure I shall the rather conclude my happiness therein For as I have been far from incouraging Novelties or to be a Partisan in any Factions against the Catholique Religion so shall I seek occasion to take away suspitions that I desire but One Religion and One Faith seeing We all believe in One Iesus Christ Having resolved in my self to spare nothing that I have in the World my Estate and Life for a thing so pleasing unto God whom I implore to give your Holiness health and happiness Charles Stuart A fatal Letter saies one whether this profession of the Prince did not rest upon him at his death was it such a sin in the Prince to wish and endeavour unity of faith and profession in Christ Iesus But thus he carps at every clause and descants on each syllable adding the words Apostolick Roman for Catholique Religion as shews he took time and leasure to leave his Book large and which inforces my Replies to this bigness of a Bulk And now arrives the Dispensation from Rome and thereupon the Articles signed by that King and Our Prince were sent over to England for our King and Council to consider When Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury in suspension of his function as you have heard and not comming to the Council Table somewhat factious to foment errours of State Our Author saies had the badge of a puritan clapt upon him and undertakes to join with the jealousie of fools That hereupon a Toleration must needs follow and so as a chief Stickler having no Office nor much esteem to hazard undertakes a long Letter to the King which perhaps was penned to please his Disciples with copies to publish in print after his decease we never heard tidings of it till now our last daies for Abbot Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England was the first Man that signed to the Post-script which attested those Articles of the mariage and so did all the Privy Council If not he than none at all O! but the good old man is excused Being much against his mind and swore with as little zeal to observe it such power saies he have Kings over Mens consciences And I can tell him that there were two other Bishops Iohn Bishop of Lincoln and Lancelot Bishop of Winchester Men of far greater merit and high esteem and evener Conscience that subsigned with him These Articles were concluded with a sumptuous Feast at White-Hall and the Spanish Ambassadours invited that day to Dinner but what to do That after Dinner they might take a private Oath of the King For what Marry in favour of Papists for free exercise of their Religion in all his Dominions and that the Parliament should confirm that Oath T is strange That the Oath never came to light but is it lost Nay for the Author had the Articles in keeping but not the Oath Hereupon he saies followed disputes of Religion frequent Doctor White and Featly against Fisher and Sweet and sets down thirteen points of Popery which they are not able to prove And that presently thereupon a Chamber-floor at Black-Fryers fell down flat with the weight of the Auditory three hundred at a Popish Sermon and a hundred killed out-right besides many maimed as the immediate hand of God a great Iudgement or an unfortunate Mishap through their wilful stupidity Abating his numerous Hearers also there was indeed fifty found dead and dying It was in truth a miserable Spectacle for doctrine and use to all Not as the fall of the Tower of Shilo was apprehended of such as mistook the Justice of God as peculiar only to those that suffered but ought to be example to all to amend their lives also yet see our Hypocrites charity to himself and censure of otheâ—s In this while the Articles signed are sent to Spain and some outward preparations here anent the Infanta's entertainment if she should come A Chappel new built adjoining to Saint Iames the place for her Court In Spain she was wantonly stiled Princess of England and more frequent Meetings afforded Her Suiter In an inâ—tant Pope Gregory dyes so that the dispensation not made use of as yet was invalid and a new License must now refer to Urban that succeeds to the Chair Winter quarter was come the weather foul unfit to travail and might indanger the Princes Return by rough Seas and therefore was invited to stay till after Christmass and so to take his Consort with him The Prince and his Council doubting more delaies sent word to England for the Kings consent to return speedily and had accordingly warrant by the next Expresse to take leave of Spain This news so sudden startled that State to have the Sister of so great a Monarch and the best born in Europe to be left by her Lover with much regret that they had gone thus far forward which Olivares took upon him to quarrel and in heat of discourse hereabout with the Duke urged their sudden resolve of parting to be hastened by him without the Princes intention And Sennor Duca saies he you have not done well with us to represent our affairs to your Master in evil sense Buckingham told him His information came far but wished the Intelligencer there present It cannot be denyed saies Olivares It is false said the Duke The other starts back in mighty passion seeks for the Prince and tells him all And had this Answer He might not believe it without just cause given or otherwise much mistaken The Condies choler not abated he finds out an English Gallant Sir George Goring and in Language of a Challenge complains That did not his own sense of suffering come in competition with his Masters honour the Duke should know the danger of the Ly. But he was told the others temper Whom no threats could ever make afraid and since your Grace seeks me out for the honour I shall do your â—rrand and bring the Dukes Answer Which was That he had the like regret by being a Guest but had rather to suffer under the power of the others Sword than to injure truth withconsent to a contrary sense But the King made them Friends This great Favourite was named Gasper de Gusman a third Brother born in Rome and upon the fall of his Predecessour-Favourite and his Family the Duke of Lerma under Philip the third This Man crept into esteem with the Prince at that Kings death he mannaged all and was in hasty time created Conde-Duke de Olivares an excellent Minister of State with much zeal and passion to agrandize his Master and His Dominions So that the excess became his vice to his loss of the affections of the Princes Nobility and People