for at my hands Thus the Beams of Majesty had an influence upon every branch and leaf of the Kingdom by reflecting upon the Root their Representative Body every particular expecting what fruit this Sun-shine would produce striving as much to insinuate into him as he did into the general so that there was a Reciprocal Harmony between the King and the People because they courted one another But when the Kings Bounty contracted it self into private Favourites as it did afterwards bestowing the affection he promised the whole people upon one man when the golden showers they gaped for dropt into some few chanels their passions flew higher than their hopes The Kings aims were to unite the two Kingdoms so that the one might corroborate the other to make good that part of his Speech by this intermixtion wherein he divides England and Scotland into halves But the English stumbled at that partition thinking it an unequal division and fearing that the Scots creeping into English Lordships and English Ladies Beds in both which already they began to be active might quickly make their least half the predominant part But he was Proclaimed King of Great Britain England must be no more a Name the Scotish Coyns are made currant and our Ships must have Saint Georges and Saint Andrews Crosses quartered together in their Flags all outward Ensigns of Amity But those English that had suckt in none of the sweets of this pleasant Stream of Bounty repined to see the Scots advanced from blew Bonnets to costly Beavers wearing instead of Wadmeal Velvet and Satin as divers Pasquils written in that Age Satyrically taunted at Which is not set down here to vilifie the Scots being most of them Gentlemen that had deserved well of their Master but to shew how cross to the publick Appetite the Hony-comb is that another man eats But the King like a wise Pilot guided the Helm with so even an hand that these small gusts were not felt It behoved him to play his Master-prize in the Beginning which he did to the life for he had divers opinions humours and affections to grapple with as well as Nations and 't is a very calm Sea when no billow rises The Romanists bogled that he said in his Speech They were unsufferable in the Kingdom as long as they maintained the Pope to be their Spiritual Head and He to have power to dethrone Princes The Separatists as the King called them were offended at that Expression wherein he professed willingly if the Papists would lay down King-killing and some other gross errors he would be content to meet them half way So that every one grounded his hopes or his fears upon the shallows of his own fancy not knowng yet what course the King would steer But these sores being tenderly dealt with did not suddenly fester but were skinned over The King desirous of the Title Pacificus did not only close with his own Subjects but healed up also that old wound that had bled long in the sides of England and Spain both being weary of the pain both willing to be cured The King of Spain sent the Constable of Castile with a mighty Train of smooth-handed Spaniards to close up the wound on this side where the old Enmity being well mortified they were received with singular Respect and Civility The King of England sent his High Admiral the Earl of Notingham with as splendid a Retinue of English to close it on that Who being Personages of Quality accoutred with all Ornaments suitable were the more admired by the Spaniards for beauty and excellency by how much the Iesuits had made impressions in the vulgar opinion That since the English left the Roman Religion they were transformed into strange horrid shapes with Heads and Tails like Beasts and Monsters So easie it is for those Iuglers when they have once bound up the Conscience to tye up the Vnderstanding also EARL OF NOTTINGHAM GEORGE CAREW EARL OF TOTNES And to satisfie the Kings desires about an Vnion betwixt England and Scotland the Parliament made an Act to authorise certain Commissioners viz. Thomas Lord Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord Treasurer of England Charles Earl of Notingham Lord High Admiral of England Henry Earl of Southampton William Earl of Pembroke Henry Earl of Northampton Richard Bishop of London Tobie Bishop of Duresme Anthony Bishop of Saint Davids Robert Lord Cecil Principal Secretary Edward Lord Zouch Lord President of Wales William Lord Mounteagle Ralph Lord Eure Edmund Lord Sheffeild Lord President of the Council in the North Lords of the Higher House of Parliament And Thomas Lord Clinton Robert Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Hastings Knight Sir Iohn Stanhope Knight Vice-Chamberlain to his Majesty Sir Iohn Herbert Knight second Secretary to his Majesty Sir George Carew Knight Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen Sir Thomas Strickland Knight Sir Edward Stafford Knight Sir Henry Nevill of Berk-shire Knight Sir Richard Bukley Knight Sir Henry Billingsley Knight Sir Daniel Dun Knight Dean of the Arches Sir Edward Hobby Knight Sir Iohn Savile Knight Sir Robert Wroth Knight Sir Thomas Chaloner Knight Sir Robert Maunsel Knight Sir Thomas Ridgeway Knight Sir Thomas Holcroft Knight Sir Thomas Hesketh Knight Atturney of the Court of Wards Sir Francis Bacon Knight Sir Lawrence Tanfield Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Henry Hubberd Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Iohn Bennet Doctor of the Laws Sir Henry Withrington Sir Ralph Grey and Sir Thomas Lake Knights Robert Askwith Thomas Iames and Henry Chapman Merchants Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons or any eight of the said Lords and twenty of the said Commons Which Commissioners shall have power to assemble meet treat and consult with certain select Commissioners to be nominated and authorised by Authority of the Parliament of Scotland concerning such Matters Causes and things as they in their Wisdoms shall think and deem convenient and necessary for the honour of the King and common good of both Kingdoms Yet the good intentions of this Vnion took no effect as will follow in the sequel of this History But there were a great many good Laws made which are too voluminous for this place having a proper Sphere of their own to move in Thus the King sate triumphing as it were upon a Throne of his Peoples Affections and his beginnings had some settlement for being loth to be troubled he sought Peace every-where But our inbred distempers lay upon the Lee intermixt with other gross dregs that the Princes lenity and the Peoples luxury produced For the King minding his sports many riotous demeanours crept into the Kingdom the Sun-shine of Peace being apt for such a production upon the slime of the late War The Sword and Buckler trade being now out of date one corruption producing another the City of London being always a fit Receptacle for such whose prodigalities and wastes made them Instruments of Debaucheries divers Sects of vitious Persons going under the
Doublet was Cloth of Gold imbroidered so thick that it could not be discerned and a white Beaver-hat suitable Brim-full of imbroidery both above and below This is presented as an Essay for one of the meanest he wore so that if this Relation should last longer than his old cloaths the Reader might well think it a Romance favouring rather of Fancy than Reality But this kind of Vanity had been long active in England For the last Parliament it was moved by some well-affected to Reformation of the Abuses of excess in Apparel that there might be a Regulation of this kind of Gallantry to the distinguishing of men one from another For it was said some of means Fortunes wore Garments fitter for Princes than Subjects and many Gentry of antient descent had wasted and impoverished themselves and their Posterities with this extravagancy so that it was very requisite to give some stop to this redundant humor To which was answered That if those of mean Fortunes went so richly attired and came not honestly by their ornaments they would be quickly found out and there were good Laws enough for such Transgressors But as there is no perpetuity of Being on Earth so there is a continual vicissitude and revolution in all sublunary things some are advanced and some decline God pulleth down one and setteth up another If any Noble or antiently descended Family will be so mad and foolish to beggar themselves and their Posterities with this or any other excess 't is very probable that some man of more wisdom and merit will injoy that which the other hath so idlely and prodigally mispent for to set such limitations will damp the spirits of Industry So the motion was declined But to return to the Lord Hayes Thus accoutred and accomplished he went into France and a day for Audience being prefixed all the argument and dispute betwixt him and his gallant Train which took up some time was how they should go to the Court Coaches like Curtains would eclipse their splendor riding on horsback in Boots would make them look like Travellers not Courtiers and not having all Foot-cloaths it would be an unsuitable mixture Those that brought rich trappings for their Horses were willing to have them seen so it was concluded for the Foot-cloth and those that have none to their bitter cost must furnish themselves This preparation begot expectation and that filled all the Windows Balcones and Streets of Paris as they passed with a multitude of Spectators Six Trumpeters and two Marshals in Tawny Velvet Liveries compleatly Suited laced all over with Gold richly and closely laid led the way the Ambassador followed with a great Train of Pages and Footmen in the same rich Livery incircling his Horse and the rest of his Retinue according to their Qualities and Degrees in as much bravery as they could devise or procure followed in couples to the wonderment of the beholders And some said how truly I cannot assert the Ambassadors Horse was shod with Silver-shooes lightly tackt on and when he came to a place where Persons or Beauties of eminency were his very Horse prancing and curveting in humble reverence flung his shooes away which the greedy understanders scrambled for and he was content to be gazed on and admired till a Farrier or rather the Argentier in one of his rich Liveries among his train of Footmen out of a Tawny Velvet bag took others and tackt them on which lasted till he came to the next troop of Grandies And thus with much ado he reached the Louure All Complements and outward Ceremonies of State being performed the Lord Ambassador made his business known by more private addresses which in appearance was well resented but indeed not intended and came to no effect For the Duke of Savoy had anticipated the young Ladies affection for the Prince of Pâ—emont his Son The Savoyan Agents bringing more Gold in their hands than on their backs had so smoothed the way that not only those about the Princess but the great ones themselves were made workers for him After the Ambassador had been feasted magnificently with all his gallant Train in several places to shew the Grandure of France he came over into England and practised it here making many times upon several occasions such stupendious Feasts and heaped Banquets as if all the Creatures had contributed to his excess I know not what limits or bounds are set to the glories of Princes Courts or Nobles minds We see the Sea it self and all his tributary Rivers do ebb and flow but if they swell so high to overflow that Bank that Reason hath prescribed to keep them in what Inundations of sad mischief follow Experience shews CHRISTINE DE FRANCE DVCHESSE DE SAVOYE Balt. Moncornet ex CAROLVS EMANVEL DVC DE SAVOYE ET PRINCE DE PIEDMONT Therefore to humble him more he is brought on his knees at the Council Table and three other Ingredients added to the Dose of a more active operation First He is charged That when he was the Kings Attorney in the beginning of his Reign he concealed a Statute of twelve thousand pounds due to the King from the late Lord Chancellor Hatton wherein he deceived the trust reposed in him Secondly That he uttered words of very high contempt as he sate in the seat of Iustice saying the Common Law of England would be overthrown and the light of it obscured reflecting upon the King And thirdly His uncivil and indiscreet carriage before His Majesty being assisted by his Privy Council and Judges in the Case of Commendams The last he contest and humbly craved his Majesties Pardon The other two he palliated with some colourable excuses which were not so well set off but they left such a tincture behind that he was commanded to a private life And to expiate the Kings anger he was injoyned in that leisurely retirement to review his Books of Reports which the King was informed had many extravagant opinions published for positive and good Law which must be corrected and brought to his Majesty to be perused But the Title of the Books wherein he stiles himself Lord Chief Iustice of England was to be expunged being but Lord Chief Iustice of the Kings Bench. And at his departure from the Council Table where he humbly acknowledged his Majesties mercy and their Lordships justice the Lord Treasurer gave him a wipe for suffering his Coachman to ride bare before him in the streets which fault he strove to cover by telling his Lordship his Coachman did it for his own ease But not long after the Lord Treasurer came under his lash in the Star-Chamber and he requited him for it Vera Effigies Viri clariss EDOARDI COKE Equitis aurati nuper Capitalis Iusticiarij ad Placita coram Rege tenenda assignati R White sculpsit Truly he was a Man of excellent parts but not without his frailties for as he was a Storehouse and Magazine of the Common Law for the present times
in that manner So that Cottington's business was quite perverted for whereas he came to complain of the wrongs his Lordship had received he was now driven to excuse the Error he had committed So that the Duke of Lerma left him in his old House a day or two to consider well of it and then the Conde de Salazar one of the King 's Major Domos was sent to accompany him to the Court These were the Glories of the Spanish entertainments the Honour they gave the English and the ground work of that Union betwixt the Nations whereon they built up some great formalities which like Royal shadows vanished in the end and came to nothing As the Lord Digby is sent into Spain to smooth the way over the Pyrene so Gage is sent to Rome to make the Alpes accessible for the Dispensation must be had from thence for the Marriage That Man of sin is the Primum mobile he turns about all inferiour Orbs at his pleasure usurping a Terrene Deity and holds it by the chains of conscience even now when the light of Learning and Knowledge with a marvelous influence shines over the Christian World At home the Prisons are set open Priests and Iesuits walk about at noon day to deceive And Gondemar vaunts of four thousand Recusants that his intercession had released either to make his service the more acceptable to his Master or to let him see how willing Our King is to do any thing to advance that Match that they never intend Who is not so nice but that he can stay for a Dispensation from Rome to expedite which he writes to some of the activest Cardinals there and receives answers from them by Gage his Agent full of alluring Hopes And that he might give some more publick Testimony of his indulgence He commands Dr. Williams Bishop of Lincoln then Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England to pass Writs under the great Seal to require the Iudges of every Circuit to enlarge all such Papists as were imprisoned for Recusancy Whereupon the Lord Keeper issued out these Writs and to let the Iudges see how well he was pleased with this command he Corroborates their Authority with this Letter signed with his own hand AFter my hearty commendations to you His Majesty having resolved out of deep reasons of State and in expectations of like Correspondence from foreign Princes to the Professors of our Religion to grant some Grace and Connivence to the imprisoned Papists of this Kingdom hath commanded me to pass some Writs under the broad Seal to that purpose Requiring the Judges of every Circuit to enlarge the said Prisoners according to the tenor and effect of the same I am to give you to understand from his Majesty how his Majestie 's Royal pleasure is that upon Receipt of these Writs you shall make no niceness or difficulty to extend that his Princely favour to all such Papists as you shall find prisoners in the Goals of your Circuits for any Church Recusancy whatsoever or refusing the Oath of Supremacy or dispersing Popish Books or hearing saying of Mass or any other point of Recusancy which doth touch or concern Religion only and not Matters of State And so I bid you farewel Your loving friend JO. LINCOLN Westminster Coll. 2 Aug. 1622. This Bishop succeeded the Lord Verulam not as Chancellor but Keeper of the great Seal he having been by Buckingham's means made Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Lincoln upon Neils remove to Durham and for a long time had very gracious acceptance with the Countess of Buckingham who was a great means to smooth his passage to all these places and the Marquess her Son was the rather induced to it because he was his creature and could mould him as he thought to serve his own turn though when he had sifted and tried him he found some Pharisaical leaven in him and afterwards in the next King's Reign threw him by For though he were composed of many grains of good Learning yet the Height of his Spirit I will not say Pride made him odious even to those that raised him happily because they could not attain to those Ends by him that they required of him For great and good Officers ought to be just to their own principles and not deviate from them for any wordly Respects William Arch-B of Canterbury Primate of all England etc. But that which heightned him most in the Opinion of those that knew him best was his bountiful Mind to Men in Want being a great Patron to support where there was Merit that wanted supply Among the rest Monsieur de Molin a very famous Minister of France in the persecution there driven into England for Refuge The Bishop hearing of him spoke to Doctor Hacket his Chaplain to make him a Visit from him And because saith he I think the Man may be in Want in a strange Country carry him some Money not naming the Sum because he would sound the depths of his Chaplain's mind Doctor Hacket finding the Bishop nominate no proportion told him he could not give him less than twenty pound I did demur upon the Sum said the Bishop to try you Is twenty pound a fit gift for me to give a man of his parts and deserts Take a hundred pounds and present it from me and tell him he shall not want and I will come shortly and visit him my self Which he after performed and made good his Promise in supplying him during his abode in England But these great Actions were not publickly visible those were more apparent that were looked on with an Envious rather than an Emulous Eye For the close and intimate Correspondence that was betwixt this Bishop and the old Countess set many scurrilous tongues and Pens a work though he was as I have been assured Eunuchus ad Utero which shews that nothing can prevent Malice but such an innocence as it cannot lay hold on For it hath ever been accounted a crime not to endeavour to prevent the voice of Calumny His breach with Land Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the disgraces put upon him by the Court will not fall in here nor his closing again and Strugling when he saw the Axe laid to the Root of Episcopacy But by this man's Actions as in a Mirror may be seen that a great Estate which besides his bounty his places procured him is a liquorish Temptation to make a Proteus-like vary from one shape to another and to shape no direct course but to go still as the wind blows Not long before this that Reverend Prelate George Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a man of a holy and unblamable life medling with edged Tools that he used not to handle in his Study by a sad accident killed a keeper with a forked arrow as he was shooting at a Dear This was a great perplexity to the good man and a heavy Knell to his Aged Spirit which he petitioned the King might ring a
by the Text of Scripture free both the Doctrine and the Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either adversary especially where the Auditory is Suspected to be tainted with the One or the other infection 6. Lastly that the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath good cause to blame for this former remissness be more wary and choice in their licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licences in this kind And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom of England a new Body severed from the ancient Clergy as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be licensed henceforward in the Court of Faculties but only from a Recommendation of the Party from the Bishop of the Diocess under his hand and seal with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Confirmation under the great Seal of England And that such as do transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocess or in his default by the Arch-Bishop of the Province ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day until his Majesty by the advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further punishment The Directions the Archbishop recommended to his several Diocesans that they might be put in execution with caution And then may be observed that the King's affections tended to the peaceable comportment of his people that both Papist and Puritan might have a quiet being which preponderation of His puts them in Aequi-librio nay the Papist was in the prime Scale But this new thing called a Lecturer he could by no means endure unless he past through all the Briers of his several Courts to the Broad Seal which was a kind of pungent Ordeal Tryal to which he must put his Teste me ipso and then it was Orthodox so that though Lecturers were not absolutely forbidden yet the charge and trouble to come to it made the way inaccessible Preachers by an Order of Star-chamber in Heaven were first licensed with an Ite praedicate before Henry the Eighth's time and certainly they have a great Seal from thence for what they do Therefore it behoves them to take heed what they say left that Spirit they receive Directions from bind them not up But this Animosity of the King 's against Puritans was thought to be fomented by the Papists whose Agent Bishop Laud was suspected to be though in Religion he had a Motley form by himself and would never as a Priest told me plainly in Flanders bring his neck under the obedience of the Roman Yoak though he might stickle for the grandure of the Clergy And now he began to be Buckingham's Confessor as he expresseth in his own Notes and wore the Court Livery though the King had a sufficient character of him and was pleased with Asseveration to protest his incentive Spirit should be kept under that the flame should not break out by any Preferment from him But that was now forgotten and he crept so into favour that he was thought to be the Bellows that blew these Fires For the Papists used all the Artifices they could to make a breach between the King and his People that they might enter at the same for their own Ends which to accomplish they slily close with the chief ministers of State to put the King upon all his Projects and Monopolies displeasing to the people that they might the more Alienate their Affections from him Sowing their seeds of Division also betwixt Puritan and Protestant so that like the second Commandment they quite exclude the Protestant For all those were Puritans with this high-grown-Arminian-popish party that held in judgment the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches or in practice live according to the Doctrine publickly taught in the Church of England And they attribute the name of Protestant 1. To such Papists as either out of policy or by popish indulgence hold outward Communion with the Church of England 2. To such Protestants as were either tainted with or inclinable to their opinions 3. To indifferent Men who imbrace always that Religion that shall be commanded by Authority Or 4. To such Neutrals as care for no Religion but such as stands with their own liking so that they allow the Church of England the Refuse both of their Religion and Ours Then they strive to make a Division of Regians and Republicans The Regians are the great Dependents upon the Crown both in Church and State who swell up the Prerogative preaching and distilling into the King the Almightiness of his power That all that the People hath is the King 's and that it is by his mercy they have a bare empty Being And this hoisting up of the King they knew would stir up the Republicans to oppose him in his Designs by which they pinch as the King thinks his Prerogative feeding a strife betwixt Law and Prerogative whereby they escape the Dint of both and hope the fire they kindle will break out at last to consume their Adversaries That these things were acted and fomented by Papists was very probable for they were great Sticklers about the Court and Council-Table But it was too apparent that some of the Clergy to make their way the smoother to their wished end began so to adore the King that he could not be named but more reverence was done to it than to the Name of God And the Iudges in their itinerant Circuits the more to enslave the people to Obedience being to speak of the King would give him such Sacred and Oraculous Titles as if their advancement to higher places must necessarily be laid upon the foundation of the peoples debasement On the other side The well affected to Religion that knew no other inclination than the Dictates of their own Reason experiences of former times and the constant practices of the Romanists for propagating their own designs did by their writings and discourses strive to warm the King 's cold temper and put fresh spirits into his chilled veins shewing the Tyranny of the incroaching Monarchy of the House of Austria who was Rome's great Factor and how just and secure the opposing of such a growing power will be That no Sword is so sharp nor Arm 's so strong as those that are cemented with true Religion The security of Conscience grounded upon the Word of Truth being not only a Bulwark to defend but the best Engin to oppose Idolatry and Ambition Thus stood the Kingdom divided in it self But as the King strove after this Rupture betwixt him and the Parliament to settle things at home and keep his people in obedience so he was as active abroad to keep up his own Reputation For he made a full account to salve up all these miscarriages by the intended Match with Spain that his people might see he could discern further into the intrinsical matters of State than they and so make the
good Gardiners you pluck up the weeds that will choak your labours and the greatest weeds among you are jealousies root them out for my Actions I dare avow them before God but jealousies are of a strange depth I am the husband and you the wife and it is subject to the wife to be jealous of her husband Let this be far from you It hath been talked of my remisness in maintainance of Religion and suspicion of a toleration but as God shall judge me I never thought nor meant or ever in word expressed any thing that savored of it It is true that at times best known to my self I did not so fully put those lawes in execution but did wink and Connive at some things which might have hindred more weighty Affaires But I never in all my Treaties agreed to any thing to the overthrow or disagreeing of those Lawes But in all I had a chief regard to the preservation of that Truth which I have ever professed And in that respect as I have a Charitable conceit of you I would have you have the like of me also in which I did not transgress For it is a good Horseman's part not alwayes to use the Spur nor keep streight the Reign but sometimes to use the Spur and sometimes to suffer the Reign more remiss So it is the part of a Wise King and my Age and experience have informed me sometimes to quicken the Laws with strict Execution and at other times upon just Occasion to be more remiss And I would also remove from your thoughts all jealousies that I might or ever did question or infringe any of your lawful liberties or privileges But I protest before God I ever intended you should injoy the fulness of all those that from antient times give good Warrant and Testimony of which if need be I will inlarge and amplifie Therefore I would have you as I have in this place heretofore told you as Saint Paul did Timothy avoid Genealogies and curious questions and quirks and jerks of Law and idle innovations and if you minister me no just Occasion I never yet was nor ever will be curious or captious to quarrel with you But I desire you to avoid all doubts and hindrances and to compose your selves speedily and quietly to this weighty affair Carry your selves modestly and my Prayers shall be to God for you and my love shall be alwayes with you that a happy Conclusion may attend this Parliament God is my Judge I speak it as a Christian King never any way faring Man in the burning drie and sandy Desarts more thirsted for water to quench his thirst than I thirst and long for the happy success of this Parliament that the good issue of this may expiate and aâ—quit the fruitless issue of the former And I pray God your Counsels may advance Religion the publick weal and the good of me and my Children When the King had thus ended the Lord Keeper Williams Bishop of Lincoln and Speaker to the House of Peers who uses always to make the King's mind further known if there because told the Parliament That after the Eloquent speech of his Majesty he would not say anything for as one of the Spartan Kings being asked whether he would not willingly hear a man that counterfeited the voice of the Nightingale to the life made answer He had heard the Nightingale So for him to repeat or rehearse what the King had said was according to the Latine Proverb to enamel a Golden Ring with studs of iron He doubted not but that the King's Speech had like Aeschines Orations left in their minds a sting And as an Historian said of Nerva that having adopted Trajan he was immediately taken away Nepost divinum et immortale factum aliquid mortale faceret So he would not dare after his Majesties Divinum et immortale dictum mortale aliquid addere HONORATISS et REUERENDISS Dê° IOHANES WILIAMES EPISC. LINC et MAG SIGILL ANG 〈◊〉 The right Honourable and right-reverend father in god Iohn Lorde Bishop of Lincolne Lord keeper of the greate Seale of England and one of his Ma.ties most hon ble princes Counsell But the Parliament though they knew there was an intention of a Toleration of Popery upon the close of the Spanish match sealed up as it were their lips and would not see the light that discovered it self through this cloud that the King cast before it though some of the Commons had much ado to hold which he takes notice of at the next Interview and thanks them for but they went on directly to his Business making it their own forgetting all former miscarriages And upon the 24. of this moneth the Duke of Buckingham accompanied with the Prince as his Remembrancer made a long Relation of all the transactions in Spain to both Houses with all the advantage he could to make good his own Actions some of the Particulars whereof are already related And he took the first Discovery of the intention of the King of Spain not to deal fairly with Our King touching the Restitution of the Palatinate from the Arch-dutchess jugling in the Treaty at Bruxels which was managed by Sir Richard Weston our King's Ambassadour there who urged for a Cessation of Armes in the Palatinate the Arch-Dutchess pretending Power to draw off the Spanish Forces if Our King would first draw off his it came to an Agreement but in the close after some Delayes she confessed she had no Power to admit of a Cessation till she had more particular warrant for it out of Spain That these shufflings made Our King send Porter into Spain for a more resolute answer in relation to the Match and the Palatinate and assigned him but ten dayes to stay there In which time Bristol fed him with Hopes which he found very Empty ones whereupon Porter went boldly to Olivares who in an open-hearted way told him plainly that Spain meant neither the Match nor Restitution of the Palatinate Bristol seeing Porter would return with this answer persuaded him to speak with Olivares again who coming to Olivares found him much incensed for relating the private intimation he gave him to Bristol the Publick minister and denyed to speak with Porter anymore Bristol still puffs up Our King with an assurance both of the Match and restitution of the Palatinate but they proceeding slowly the Prince desired that he might go himself into Spain which Buckingham first broke to the King who with Reasons laid down for it was drawn to it When the Prince came there the Match at first was absolutely denied unless he would be converted which Bristol perswaded the Prince unto at least in shew to expedite his Business Then the Spanish Ministers urged for a Toleration of Religion in England which they hoped as some of them expressed would cause a Rebellion and they offered the Prince an Army to Assist him for the Suppression of the same But the Prince finding the Spanish did
acted Overtly the other Covertly in dark Corners and she and her Agents find fit Ministers for both The Earl of Northampton resenting his Nieces grievances makes the King acquainted with her Maiden bashfulness how loth she is to divulge her Husbands infirmities and how long it is since her Marriage and yet she hath not enjoyed the happiness of a Wife that her Husbands inability must needs be an unnatural conjunction such as neither Law nor Reason can admit of and that there was a great affection betwixt the Viscount and her so as there seemed to be a more excellent sympathy and sweet composition of Soul in them more suitable Reason and Nature than in the state she was in Which was seconded by the Viscounts humble submissions to the Kings great wisdom who he acknowledged had not only raised him to what he is but may yet make him more happy by uniting him to a Lady of so much honour and vertue The King that took delight to compleat the happiness of them he loved commanded the Bishops to sue out a Divorce between the Earl of Essex and his Lady that the Viscount might marry her For he had been practised formerly in Scotland in his minority with the like experiment Elizabeth Daughter to the Earl of Athol being married to the Earl of March under pretence of impotency but meerly for lust as the Author reports was Divorsed from her Husband and married to the Earl of Arran the Kings Favourite who had been before a Partner in her Adulterous Sheets so current is the Parallel and so equally are lust and ambition yoked together that they both with full violence draw one and the same way The Bishops and others having a Commission under the great Seal of England to convent the Earl of Essex and his Countess before them sent out their Summons and they made their appearance accordingly But before they proceeded they caused a Iury of twelve discreet Matrons to be impannelled to search the Countess whether she were as she pretended to be and was reputed a Maid still for if she were a Maid they could fasten upon a Nullity and so separate them for the more honour of her Virginity The Countess being ashamed and bashful to come to such a Tryal would not expose her face to the light but being to appear before the Matrons under a Veil another young Gentlewoman that had less offended was fobbed into the place and she passed in the opinion both of Iury and Iudges to be a Virgin Then the Articles were drawn up where she accused her Husband of impotency and that he was hindred with a perpetual and incurable impediment whereby he is unable to have carnal copulation with her with frigiditas quoad hâ—nc often reiterated c. The good Earl willing to be rid of so horrid a mischief did acknowledge he had attempted to enjoy her many times but he never did nor could carnally know her and believed he never should Upon these Grounds the Iudges proceed to a Divorce Declaring That Robert Earl of Essex and the Lady Frances Howard contracted by shew of Marriage did cohabit in one House and lie together in one Bed Nudum cum Nuda Solus cum Sola and that the said Lady Frances did shew her self prompt and ready to be known of him and that the said Earl neither did nor could have knowledg of her although he did think himself able to have knowledg of other Women And that the said Lady Frances by inspection of her Body by Midwives expert in matter of Marriage was proved to be apt for carnal copulation with Man and yet a Virgin Therefore we the said Iudges deputed in the Cause first invocating the Name of Christ and setting God before our eye do pronounce decree and declare That the Earl of Essex for some secret incurable binding impediment did never carnally know or was or is able carnally to know the Lady Frances Howard And therefore we do pronounce have decreed and do declare the pretended Marriage so contracted and solemnized de facto between them to have been and to be utterly void and to no effect and that they did want and ought to want the strength of the Law And that the Lady Frances was and is and so ought to be free and at liberty from any Bond of such pretended Marriage de facto contracted and solemnized And we do pronounce that she ought to be Divorsed and so we do free and Divorce her leaving them as touching other Marriages to their Conscience in the Lord. Which our Definitive Sentence and Decree we ratifie and publish Thomas Wint. Lancel Elie. Rich. Coven Lichfield Iohn Roffe Bishops Iulius Caesar Thomas Parry Daniel Dun Knights These Bishops and the rest of the Judges could not be ignorant what scandalous reports of this Ladies actions flew up and down from lip to lip which however sweetned by the Partakers carried an ill savour with them in every honest understanding who were not blinded with wilfulness or deafned with prejudice which made the Bishops of Canterbury and London decline the business though nominated in the Patent But Kings will never want fit Ministers in corrupted Times both in Church and Common-wealth as long as there are Degrees and Places of Ascent to clime to And though these things floated awhile upon the Stream of Greatness yet there is One above that moves the Waters who did not only see what passed in the Bishops Palace but in the closest Prison which he discovered to the shame and ruin of the Actors For while this Wheel was turning at Lambeth the other Wheel had its motion in the Tower Mrs. Turner the Mistriss of the Work had lost both her supporters Forman her first prop dropt away suddenly by death and Gresham another rotten Engin that succeeded him did not hold long She must now bear up all her self But she wrought in a Mine of inexhaustible Treasure therefore she may buy instruments at any rate One Weston is thought on for this Vnder-work who was sometime Doctor Turners her Husbands man and hath a little experience in the nature of poysonous Drugs This venomous Plant is sent for out of the Country to be transplanted here and two hundred pounds promised to disperse his Venom so as it may be killing Sir Thomas Monson is made by the Countess to recommend him to Sir Iervis Ellowis and he to Sir Thomas Overbury to wait on him where he goes under the character of a right honest man making it good with a sober and fair outside the true vizard of Hypocrisie a fit Pipe for such corrupted Waters to run through which must be provided by one Franklin a swarthy sallow crooked-backt fellow who was to be the Fountain whence these bitter waters came THE Portracture of Sir THOMAS OVERBURY Knight AETAT 32 But these lingring operations do not suit with the Countesses implacable humor Weston is chid by Mrs. Turner for being so
well cleared on both sides their Design which was the Prince's Perversion might mature and ripen For the Earl of Bristol confessed afterwards That it was a general received Opinion in the Spanish Court that the Prince came thither with intention to be a Roman Catholike And Gondemar pressed Bristol not to hinder so pious a work assuring him they had the Duke of Buckingham's assistance therein And it was evident enough their hopes were great by the Pope's letter to the Bishop of Conchen Inquisitor general in Spain Wherein he excites him not to slip the Opportunity providence had put into his hand of extending his Piety to the outtermost Nations The Prince of England being now in the Court of Spain that glorious Temple as it were that hath been a Bulwark to the Pontifical Authority and an Academy for propogation of Religion he desires he may not stay there in vain but that some of the impressions of the Piety of so many Catholick Kings as have lived there may be imprinted on him that he may be won with all sweetness as many of his noble Ancestors have been who have submitted their Crowned heads and Imperiall power to the Roman Obedience And to his glorious Victory and Eternal GREGORIVS XV alexander Luaouisuis Bononien creat die 9. Februarâ— an 1621. Sedit an 2. me â—s S. Obâ—t die 8. Iulij an 1623 Vac Triumph of Celestial Beatitudes the Treasures of Kings and Legions of Souldiers cannot contribute but the Weapons of Light that must come from Heaven whose Splendor inlightning the Prince's Eyes shall dazleâ— his Errors and establish his mind in meekness And he charges the Bishop and all his Fraternity to use the best strength and industry they can to this purpose So that the Prince was continually laid at by the insinuating Orations of cunning Iesuits the fained and cousening Miracles of reclused Holiness the Splendid and Specious Solemnities of their Formal Processions the rare and admirable Pictures of their reputed Saints besides many other painted devices and subtle Artifices brooded among them And the Pope used all the Rhetorick of his Cabalistical Consistory and Holy Chair to charm him to his Obedience as may be seen by this Letter which he writ to him himself MOst Noble Prince Health and Light of Divine Grace For asmuch as Great Britain hath always been fruitful in Vertues and Men of Merit having filled the one and the other World with the Glory of Her Renown She doth also very often attract the thoughts of the Holy Apostolical Chair to the consideration of her praises And indeed the Church was but then in her Infancy when the King of Kings did choose her for his Inheritance and so affectionately that it is thought the Roman Eagles prevailed not so much as the Banner of the Cross. Besides that many of her Kings instructed in the Knowledg of the true Salvation have preferred the Cross before the Royal Scepter and the Discipline of Religion before Covetousness leaving Examples of Piety to other Nations and to the Ages yet to come so as having Merited the principal and chief Places of Blessedness in Heaven they have obtained on Earth the Triumphant Ornaments of true Holiness And although now the State of the English Church be altered yet we see the Court of Great Britain adorned and furnished with Moral Vertues which might serve to support the Charity that We bear unto Her and be an Ornament to the name of Christianity if withal She could have for her defence and Protection the Orthodox and Catholike Truth Wherefore by how much the Glory of your most Noble Father and the apprehension of your Royal Disposition delights Us with so much more Zeal We desire that the Gates of the Heavenly Kingdom might be opened unto you and that you might purchase to your self the Love of the Universal Church Moreover it being Certain that Gregory the Great of most blessed Memory hath introduced to the English people and taught their Kings the law of the Gospel and the respect to Apostolical Authority We as inferior to him in Holiness and Virtue but equal in Name and Degree of Dignity it is very reasonable that We following his blessed Steps should endeavour the Salvation of those Provinces especially at this time when your Happy Design most Noble Prince elevates Us to the Hope of an extraordinary advantage And as you have taken a Iourney into Spain to the Catholike King with desire to allye your Self to the House of Austria so We do commend your Design and indeed do testifie openly in this present Business That you are he that takes principal Care of our Prelacy For seeing that you desire to take in Marriage the Daughter of Spain We may easily from thence conjecture That the ancient seeds of Christian Piety which have so happily flourished in the Hearts of the Kings of Great Britain May God prospering them revive again in your Soul And indeed it is not to be believed that he that loves such an alliance should hate the Catholike Religion and delight to oppress the Holy Chair To that purpose We have commanded to make continually most humble Prayers to the Father of Lights That he would be pleased to put you as a fair Flower of Christendom and the onely Hope of Great Britain in possession of that most noble Heritage that your Ancestors have purchased for you to defend the Authority of the Soveraign High Priest and to sight against the Monsters of Heresie Remember the dayes of old enquire of your Fathers and they will tell you the Way that leads to Heaven and what way Temporal Princes have taken to gain an Eternal Kingdom Behold the Gates of Heaven opened the most holy Kings of England who came from England to Rome accompanied with Angels did come to Honour and do Homage to the Lord of Lords and to the Prince of the Apostles in the Apostolical Chair their Actions and Examples being as so many Voices of God speaking and exhorting you to follow the course of the Lives of those to whose Empire you shall one day attain Great Brittaine is thy Birth right but the Earth Liâ—e then and conquer till victorious warre stoopes to the Vertues which exceede thy Birth Make thy Rule endles as thy Vertues are This Letter of the Pope's expresses not only the sleek and smooth waies that Soul-merchant takes to purchase his Proselytes but the end he proposes to himself which is to bring them under the Roman Obedience otherwise whatsoever they do or profess is Heresie And to build up the Towers of this great Babel the name of the most High God is brought down among them and used as a Master Builder Every Profession layes that name as a Foundation though the Superstructure be but straw and stubble of Hypocrisie which a whirl-wind shall scatter and the time is coming that her Lovers shall be destroyed and fiery-cloven tongues shall confound their Language The Prince was not slack in answering this