of Picts in the which attempt he was drowned and left unto Alpine that which he before had so nobly refused who making use of the former raised an Army beat the Picts in many signall Victories but at last was slain by them leaving his name to the place of his death and the Kingdome to his son Kenneth This man seeing the People broken with the late War and unwilling to fight drew on by this subtilty invites the Nobility to dinner and after plying them with drink till midnight leaves them sleeping on the floor as the manner was and then hanging Fish-skins about the wals of the Chamber and making one speak through a trunk and call them to Warre they waking and half asleep supposed something of Divinity to be in it and the next morning not onely consented to War but so strange is deluded imagination with unspeakable courage fell upon the Enemy and put them to the rout which being confirmed by other great Victories utterly ruined the Pictish Name This man may be added to the two Ferguses and truly may be said to be the Founder of the Scots Empire not onely in making that the middle of his Dominion which was once the bounds But in confirming his acquests with good Laws having opportunitie of a long peace which was Sixteen years his whole time of Government being Twenty This was he that placed that Stone famous for that illusory Prophesie Ni fallat fatum c. which first was brought our of Spain and Ireland and from thence to Argyle at Scown where he put it in a Chair in which all his Successours till Edward the First brought it away were crowned and since that all the Kings of England till the happinesse of our Common-wealth made it uselesse His Brother Donald was his Successour a man made up of extreamities of virtues and vices no man had more bravery in the field nor more vice at home which increasing with his years the Nobility put him in prison where either for fear or scorn he put an end to his dayes leaving behind him his brother Constantine a man wanting nothing of him but his vices who struggling with a potent Enemy for the Picts had called in the Danes and driving them much into despair a bravery that hath not seldome ruin'd many excellent Captains was taken by them put into a little Cave and there slain He was succeeded by Ethus his brother who had all his eldest brothers vices and none of his seconds virtues Nature it seems making two extremes and a middle in the three Brethren This man voluptuous and cowardly was forced to resigne or as others say died of wounds received in a Duell from his Successour who was Gregory son of Dongal who was not onely an excellent man but an excellent Prince that both recovered what the others had lost and victoriously traversed the Nothern Counties of England and a great part of Ireland whose King a Minor and in his power he generously made no advantage of but setled his Countrey and provided faithfull and able Guardians for him These things justly yield him the name of Great Donald son of Constantine the second by his recommendation succeeded in his power and virtues notwithstanding some say he was removed by poyson Next was Constantine the third son of Ethus an unstable person who assisted the Danes which none of his Predecessours would do and after they had deserted him basely yet yielded them succours consisting of the chief of the Scots Nobility which with the whole Danish Army were routed by the Saxons this struck him so that he retired amongst the Culdys which were as the Greek Caloyers or Romish Monks at this day and there buried himself alive After him was Milcom son of Donald the third who though a good Prince and well skill'd in the arts of peace was slain by a Conspiracy of those to whom his virtue was burthensome His Successour was Judulf by what title I find not who fighting with the Danes that with a Navy unexpectedly came into the Frith was slain Duffe his son succeeds famous for an accident which if it be true seems nearly distant from a fable He was suddenly afflicted by a sweating disease by which he painfully languish'd yet no body could find the cause till at last a Girl that had scattered some words after torments confessed that her mother and some other women had made an Image of wax which as it wasted the King should waste by sweating much the place being diligently searched it was found accordingly so the Image being broke he instantly recovered That which disturbed his five years Reign was the turbulency of the Northern people whom when he had reduced and taken with intent to make exemplary punishment Donald the Commander of the Castle of Forresse where he then lay interceded for some of them but being repulst and exasperated by his wife after he had made all his servants drunken flew him in his bed and buried him under a little bridge lest the cutting of turfs might bewray a grave near Kilross Abbey though others say he turned aside a River and after he had buried him suffered it to take its former Channel Culen the son of Induffe by the Election of Parliament or Convention of People succeeded good onely in this one Action of inquiring and punishing his Predecessours death but after by the neglect of Discipline and the exquisitnesse of his vices became a monster and so continued three years till being weakned and exhausted in his body and vext with perpetuall diseases he was summoned by the Parliament and in the way was slain by a Thane so they then called Lieutenants of Counties whose daughter he had ravished Then came Kenneth brother to Duff though the forepart of his Keign was totally unlike his who being invaded by the Danes beat them in that famous battel which was won by three Hays husbandmen from whom all the Hays now give three shields gules who with their Sythes reinforced the lost battel but in his latter time he lost this reputation by poysoning Milcolm sonne of Duff to preserve the Crown for a son of his name though of lesse merit for sayes Bucanan They use to choose the fittest not the nearest which being done he got ordained in a Parliament that the Succession should be lineall the Son should inherit and be called Prince of Scots and if he were a minor be governed by some wise man here comes the pretence of Succession whereas before it was clearly Elective and at fifteen he should choose his Guardian himself But the Divine vengeance which seldome even in this life passes by murther overtook him for he was insnared by a Lady whose son he had caused to be executed and slain by an arrow out of an ambush she had laid Constantine the son of Culen notwithstanding all the artifice of Kenneth by his reasoning against the Act perswaded most of the Nobility to make him King to that Milcolm the son of Kenneth
and he made up two factions which tore the Kingdome till at length Milcoms Bastard Brother himself being in Englaend assisting the Danes fought him routed his Army and with the losse of his own life took away his they dying of mutuall wounds Grime of whose birth they do not certainly agree was chosen by the Constantinians who made a good party but at intercession of Forard an accounted Rabbi of the times they at last agreed Grime being to enjoy the Kingdome for his life after which Milcolumb should succeed his fathers Law standing in force but he after declining into lewdnesse cruelty and spoil as Princes drunk with greatnesse and prosperity use to do the people called back Milcolumb who rather receiving battel then giving it for it was upon Ascention day his principall Holy-day routed his Forces wounded himself took him pulled out his eyes which altogether made an end of his life all factions and humours being reconciled Milcolumb who with various Fortune fought many signall Battels with the Danes who under their King Sueno had invaded in his latter end he grew to such Covetousness and Oppression that all Authours agree he was murthered though they disagree of the manner some say by Confederacy with his servants some by his Kinsmen and Competitours some by the friends of a maid whom he had ravished Donald his Grandchild succeeded a good natur'd and unactive Prince who with a stratagem of sleepy drink destroyed a Danish Army that had invaded and distressed him but at last being insnared by his Kinsman Mackbeth who was pricked forward by Ambition and a former vision of three women of a Sour-humane shape whereof one saluted him Thane of Angus another of Murray the third King he was beheaded The severity and cruelty of Mackbeth was so known that both the sons of the murthered King were forced to retire and yield to the times whilest he courted the Nobility with largesses The first ten years he spent virtuously but the remainder was so savage and Tyrannicall that Macduff Thone of Fife fled into England to Milcolm son of Donald who by his perswasions and the assistance of the King of England enterd Scotland where he found such great accessions to his party that Mackbeth was forced to fly his death is hid in a such a mist of Fables that it is not certainly known Milcolumb the third of that name now being quietly seated was the first that brought in those gay inventions and distinctions of Honours Dukes Marquesses that now are become so ayery that some carry them from places to which they have as little relation as any as Island in America and other from Cottages and Dovecoats his first trouble was Forfar Mackbeths son who claimed the Crown but was soon after cut off some war he had with that William whom we call falsly the Conquerour some with his own People which by the Intercession of the Bishops were taken up At length quarrelling with our William the second he laid Siege to Alnwick Castle which being forced to extremity a Knight came out with the Keys on a Spear as to present them to him and yield the Castle but he not with due heed receving them was runne through the eye and slain some from hence derive the name of Piercy how truly I know not his sonne and Successour Edward following his revenge too hotly received some wounds of which within a few dayes he died Donald Bane that is white who had fled into the Isles for fear of Mackbeth promised them to the Kings of Norway if he would procure him to be King which was done with ease as the times then stood but this Usurper being hated by the People who generally loved the memory of Milcomb they set Duncan Milcombs Bastard against him who forced him to retire to his Isles Duncan a Military man shewed himself unfit for Government so Donald waiting all advantages caused him to be beheaded and restored himself but his Reign was so turbulent the Islanders and English invading on both sides that they called in Edgar sonne of Milcolmb then in England who with small assistances possest himself all men deserting Donald who being taken and brought to the King died in Prison Edgar secure by his virtues and strengthened by the English alliance spent nine years virtuously and peaceably and gave the People leave to breathe and rest after so much trouble and bloudshed His Brother Alexander sirnamed Acer or the fierce succeeded the beginning of whose Reign being disturbed by a Rebellion he speedily met them at the Spay which being a swift River and the Enemy on the other side he offered himself to foard on horse-back but Alexander Car taking the imployment from him foarded the River with such courage that the Enemy fled and were quiet The rest of his Reign some say he had the name of Acer for that some Conspiratours being by the fraud of Chamberlain admitted into his Chamber he casually waking first slew the Chamberlain and after six of the Conspiratours not ceasing to pursue the rest till he had slain most of them with his own hands this with the building of some Abbeys and seventeen years Reign is all we know of him His Brother David succeeded one whose profuse prodigality upon the Abbeys brought the revenew of the Crown so prevalent was the superstition of those dayes almost to nothing he had many battels with our Stephen about the title of Maud the Empresse and having lost his excellent wife and hopefull Sonne in the flower of their dayes he left the Kingdome to his Grandchildren the eldest whereof was David a simple King baffled and led up and down into France by our Henry the second which brought them to such contempt that he was vext by frequent Insurrections especially them of Murray whom he almost extirpated the latter part of his Reign was spent in building of Monasteries he himself tyed by a Vow of Chastity would never marry but left his Successor his brother William who expostulating for the Earldom of Northumberland gave occasion for a War in which he was surprized and taken but afterwards releast upon his doing Homage for the Kingdom of Scotland to King Henry of whom he acknowledged to hold it and puting in Caution the Castles of Roxborough once strong now nothing but ruins Barwick Edinburgh Sterling all which notwithstanding was after released by Richard Ceur de Lyon who was then upon an expedition to the Holy War from whence returning both he and David Earl of Huntington brother to the King of Scots were taken Prisoners the rest of his Reign saving the rebuilding of Saint Johnstone which had been destroyed by the waters whereby he lost his eldest Son and some Treaties with our King John was little worth the memory only you will wonder that a Scottish King could Reign fourty nine years and dye in peace Alexander his sonne succeeded famous for little save some Expeditions against our King John some Insurrections and a Reign two years
longer then his Fathers His sonne was the third of that name a boy of eight years old whose Minority was infested with the turbulent Cumins who at riper age being called to accompt not onely refused but surprized him at Sterling governing him at their pleasure but soon after he was awaked by a furious Invasion of Acho King of Norway under the pretence of some Islands given him by Mackbeth whom he forced to accept a Peace and spent the latter part amidst the turbulencies of the Priests drunk at that time with their wealth and ease and at last having seen the continued funerals of his Sons David Alexander his wife and his daughter he himself with a fall from his horse broke his neck leaving of all his race onely a Grand-childe by his daughter which dyed soon after This mans family being extinguished they were forced to run to to another Line which that we may see how happy expedient immediate Succession is for the Peace of the Kingdom and what miseries it prevents I shall as briefly and as pertinently as I can set down David brother to King William had three daughters Margaret marryed to Allan Lord of Galloway Isabell marryed to Robert Bruce Lord of Annadale and Cleveland Ada marryed to Henry Hastings Earl of Huntington now Allan begot on his wife Dornadilla married to John Baliall after King of Scotland and other two daughters Bruce on his wife Robert Bruce Earle of Carick having married the heretrix thereof as for Huntington he desisted his claime The question is whether Balial in right of the eldest daughter or Bruce being come of the second but a man should have the Crown he being in the same degree and of the more worthy sex the Controversie being tost up and down at last was referred to Edward the first of that name of England he thinking to fish in these troubled waters stirs up eight other Competitors the more to entangle the business and with twenty four Councellors half English half Scots and abundance of Lawyers fit enough to perplex the matter so handled the business after cunning delayes that at length he secretly tampers with Bruce who was then conceived to have the better right of the businesse that if he would acknowledge the Crown of him he would adjudge it for him but he generously answering that he valued a Crown at a less rate then for it to put his Countrey under a Forraign yoke he made the same motion to Baliall who accepted it and so we have a King again by what right we all see but it is good reason to think that Kings come they by their power never so unjustly may justly keep it Baliall having thus got a Crown as unhappily kept it for no sooner was he Crowned and had done honage to Edward but the Abernethys having slain Macduffe Earl of Fife he not onely pardoned them but gave them a peice of land in controversie whereupon Macduffs brother complainis against him to Edward who makes him rise from his seat at Parliament and go to the bar he hereupon enraged denyes Edward assistance against the French and renounses his homage Edward hereupon comes to Berwick takes and kils seaven thosand most of the Nobility of Fife and Lowthian and after gave them a great defeat at Dunbar whose Castle instantly surrendred After this he marched to Montrosse where Baliall resined himself and Crown all the Nobility giving Homage to Edward Baliall is sent prisoner to London and from thence after a years detention into France Whilest Edward was possest of all Scotland one William Wallace arose who being a private man bestirred himself in the Calamity of his Countrey and gave the English severall notable foyles Edward coming again with an Army beat him that was overcome with envy and emulation as well as power upon which he laid by his Command and never acted after but slight Incursions but the English being beaten at Roslin Edward comes in again takes Sterling and makes them all render homage but at length Bruce seeing all his promises nothing but smoak enters into League with Cumen to get the Kingdome but being betrayed by him to Edward he stabbed Cumen at Drumfreis and made himself King This man though he came with disadvantage yet wanted neither patience courage nor conduct so that after he had miserably lurk'd in the mountains he came down and gathering together some force gave our Edward the second such a defeat near Sterling as Scotland never gave the like to our Nation and continued war with various fortune with the Third till at last age and Leprosie brought him to his grave His son David a Boy of eight years inherited that which he with so much danger obtained and wisdom kept In his minority he was governed by Thomas Randolf Earl of Murray whose severity in punishing was no lesse dreaded then His valor had been honoured but he soon after dying of poyson and Edward Balial son of John coming with a Fleet and strengthend with the assistance of the English and some Robbers the Governour the Earl of Mar was put to the rout so that Balial makes himself King and David was glad to retire into France Amidst these parties Edward the third backing Balial was Scotland pitifully torn and the Bruces in a manner extinguished till Robert after King with them of Argyle and his own Familie and Friends begin to renew the Claim and bring it into a War again which was carried on by Andrew Murray the Governour and after by himself that David after nine years banishment durst return where making often Incursions he at length in the fourth year of his return march'd into England and in the Bishoprick of Durham was routed fled to an obscure Bridge shewed to this day by the Inhabitants where he was by Iohn Copland taken prisoner where he continued nine years and in the thirty ninth yeare of his Reigne died Robert his sisters son whom he had intended to put by succeeds and first brought the Stewarts which at this day are a plague to the Nation into play This man after he was King whether it were age or sloth did little but his Lieutenants and the English were perpetually in Action he left his Kingdom to John his Bastard Son by the Lady More his Concubine whom he married either to Legittimate the three Children as the manner was then he had by her or else for old acquaintance his Wife and her Husband dying much about a time this John would be Crowned by the name of Robert his own they say being unhappie for Kings a wretched unactive Prince lame and onely governed by his brother Walter who having David the Prince upon the complaint of some exorbitancies delivered to him to take care of made him to be starv'd upon which the King intending to send his Son James into France the Boy was taken at Flamburgh and kept by our Henry the Fourth upon the hearing of which his Father swounded and soon after died His reign
own bed and lyes in the House with him and at length when the Designe was ripe causes him one Sunday night with his servant to be strangled thrown out of the window and the House blown up with Gun-powder her own rich bed having been before secretly conveyed away This and other performances made her favour upon Bothwel so hot that she must marry him the onely obstacle was he had a Wife already but she was compell'd to sue for a Divorce which so great Persons being concern'd it was a wonder was in granting so long as ten dayes Well she marries but the more honest nobilitie amazed at those exorbitances gather together and with arms in hands begin to expostulate The new-married people are forc'd to make back Southwards where finding but slender assistances and the Queen foolishly coming from Dunbar to Leith was glad at last to delay a parley till her Dear was escaped and then clad in an old tottered coat to yield her self a prisoner Being brought to Edenburgh and used rather with hate of her former enormities then pity of her fortune she received a message that she must either resign the Crown to her son James that was born in the time of her marriage with Darnby or else they would proceed to another Election and was forc'd to obey So the Child then in his Cradle was acknowledged James the Sixth better known afterwards by the Title of Great Brittain The wretched mother flying after into England was entertained though with a Guard by Queen Elizabeth but after that being suborned by the Papists and exasperated by the Guizes she entered into plots and machinations so inconsistent with the safety of England that by an Act of Parliament she was condemned to death which she after received by an hatchet at Fothering-gay Castle The infancy of her son was attended with those Domestick evils that accompany minority of Kings In his youth he took to wife the Daughter of Denmark a woman I hear little of saving that Character Salust gives Sempronia she could saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae with whom he supposing the Earl Gowry too much in League caused him and his brother to be slain at their own House whither he was invited he giving out that they had an intent to murther him and that by miracle and the assistance of some men whom he had instructed for that purpose and taught their tale he escap'd For this Deliverance or to say better assasination he Blasphemed God with a solemne Thanksgiving once a year all the remainder of his life Happy had it been for us if our fore fathers had laid hold of that happy opportunity of Elizabeths death in which the Teuthors took a period to have performed that which perchance in due punishment hath cost us so much blood and sweat and not have bowed under the sway of a Stranger disdained by the most generous and wise at that time and onely supported by the Faction of some and sloth of others who brought but a slender title and however the assentation of the times cryed him up a Solomo weak commendations for such an advancement The Former stood thus Margaret eldest daughter to Henry the Seventh was married to James the Fourth whole Son James the Fifth had Mary the Mother of James the Sixth Margaret after her first Husbands death martyrs Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus who upon her begot Margaret wife of Matthew Earl of Lenox and Mother of that Henry Darnly whose Tragical end we just now mentioned Now upon this slender Title and our internal dissentions for the Cecilians and Essezians for several ends made perpetual applications got Jammy from a Revenew of 30000. li. to one of almost two Millions though there were others that had as fair pretences what else can any of them make the Statute of 25. Ed. 3 expresly excluding Forreigners from the Crown and so the Children of Charls Brandon by Mary the Second Daughter Dowager of France being next to come in And the Lady Arbella being sprung from a third Husband the Lord Stewart of the said Margaret and by a Male Lyne carried surely a formidable pretention it should seem that even that iniquitie which was personally inherent to her made her dayes very unhappy and most part captive and her death 't is thought somewhat too early so cruel are the Persecutions of cowardly minds even against the weakest and most unprotected innocence And indeed his right to the Crown was so satisfactorie even to the most judicious of those days that Tobie Matthew having a suit about some priviledges which he claimed to his Bishoprick which was then Durham wherein the King opposed him having one day stated the Case before some of his friends and they seeming to approve of it yes sayes he I could wish he had but half so good a Title to the Crown and 't is known that some speeches of Sir Walter Rawley too generous and English for the times was that which brought him to Trial and Condemnation for a feigned crime and afterwards so facilitated that barbarous design of Gundamar to cut of his head for a crime for which he was condemned fourteen years before and which by the Commissions he after received according to the opinion of the then Lord Chancellour and the greatest Lawyars was in Law pardoned This may besides our purpose but we could not sever this Consideration unless we would draw him with an half face and leave as much in umbrage as we expressed That which most solemnized his Person was first the consideration of his adhering to the Protestant Religion whereas we are to consider that those slieght velitations he had with Bellarmine and the Romanists tended rather to make his own Authoritie more intrinsecally intense and venerable then to confute any thing they said for he had before shakt them off as to Forreign Jurisdiction and for matter of Poperie it appeared in his latter time that he was no such enemie to it both by his own Compliances with the Spanish Ambassadours the design of the Spanish Match in which his Son was personally imbarkt and the slow assistances sent to his Daughter in whose safetie and protectiod Protestantism was at that time so much concerned For his knowledge he had some glancings and niblings which the severitie of the excellent Buchanan forc'd into him in his younger time and after conversatian somewhat polisht but though I bear not so great a contempt to his other works as Ben. Johnson did to his Poetrie yet if they among many others were a going to the fire they would not be one of the first I should rescue as possibly expecting more severe and refin'd judgement in many other And knowing that he that had so many able Wits at command might easily give their their Oracles through his mouth but suppose the things generous and fit to live as I am not yet convinced yet what commendations is this to a King who should have other ausinesse then spinning and
weaving fine Theories and engaging in School Ciquaneries which was well understood by Henry the fourth who hearing some men celebrate him with these Attributes yea answers he very tartly He is a fine King and writes little Books 'T is true he was a good droll and possibly after Greek Wine somewhat factious But for substantiall and Heroick Wisdome I have not heard any great instances he himself used to brag of his kingcraft which was not to felicifie his People and prosecute the ends of a good King but to scrue up the Prerogative divert Parliaments from the due disquisition and prosecution of their freedoms and to break them up at pleasure and indeed his rendition of the Cautionary Towns of the Low Countreys and that for so small a sum shewed him a person not so quick-sighted and unfit to be overreach'd For his peaceable Reigne Honourable and just Quarrels he wanted not but sloth and cowardize withheld him and indeed the ease and luxury of those times fomented and nourished those lurking and pestilent humours which afterwards so dangerously broke out in his Sons Reign We shall not trouble his ashes with the mention of his Personall faults onely if we may compare Gods Judgements with apparant sinnes we may find the latter end of his life neither fortunate nor comfortable unto him His wife distasted by him and some say languishing of a foul disease his eldest son dying Nimis apertis indiciis of Poyson and that as is feared by a hand too much allied His second with whom he ever had a secret Antipathy scarce returned from a mad and dangerous voyage His daughter all that was left of that sex banish'd with her numerous issue out of her husbands Dominion and living in miserable exile and lastly himself dying of a violent death by poyson in which his Son was more then suspected to have an hand as may be infer'd by Buckinghams Plea that he did it by the Command of the then Prince his own dissolution of the Parliament that took in hand to examine it and lastly his indifferency at Buckinghams death though he pretended all love to him alive as glad to be rid of so dangerous and so considerable a Partner of his guilt yet the Mitred Parasites of those times could say one went to Heaven in Noahs Ark the other in Elisha's chariot he dying of a pretended Feaver she as they said of a dropsie Charles having now obtain'd his Brothers inheritance carried himself in managing of it like one that gain'd it as he did The first of his Acts was that glorious attempt upon the Isle of Rhee The next that Noble and Christianly betraying of Rochell and consequently in a manner the whole Protestant interest in France The middle of his Reign was heightening of Prerogative and Prelacy and conforming our Churches to the pattern of Rome till at last just indignation brought in his Subjects of Scotland into England and so forc'd him to call a Parliament which though he shamelesly say in the first line of the Book call'd his was out of his own inclination to Parliaments yet how well he lik'd them may appear by his first tampering with his own Army in the North to surprize and dissolve them then the Scots who at that time were Court-proof then raising up the Irish Rebellion which hath wasted Millions of lives and lastly open secession from Westminster and hostility against the two Houses which maintain'd a first and second sharp War which had almost ruined the Nation had not Providence in a manner immediately interposed and rescued us to liberty and made us such signall Instruments of his vengeance that all wicked Kings may tremble at the example In a word never was man so resolute and obstinate in a Tyrannie never people more strangely besotted with it to paint the Image of David with his face and Blasphemously paralel him with Christ would make one at first thought think him a Saint But to compare his Protestations and actions his actions of the day his actions of the night his Protestant Religion and his Courting of Pope and obedience to his wife we may justly say he was one of the most consummate in the Arts of Tyranny that ever was And it could be no other then Gods hand that arrested him in the heighth of his Designs and greatnesse and cut off him and his Familie making good his own Imprecations upon his own head Our Scene is again in Scotland who hath accepted his Son whom for distinction sake we will be content to call Charls the Second Certainly these People were strangely blind as to Gods judgement perpetually poured out upon a Familie or else to their own interest to admit the spray of such a stock one that hath so little to commend him and so great improbabilitie for their designs and happiness a Popish or very near it education if not Religion too however for the present he may seem to dissemble it France the Jesuites and his Mother good means of such improvement the dangerous Maxims of his Father besides the revenge he ows his death of which he will never totally acquit the Scots his hate to the whole Nation his sence of Montrosse his death his backwardnesse to come to them till all other means failed both his Forreign begg'd Assistances his Propositions to the Pope and Commissions to Montrosse and lastly his late running away to his old friends in the North so that any man may see this his Compliance to be but Histrionical and forc'd and that as soon as he hath led them into the snare and got power into his own hands so as he may appear in his own visage he will be a scourge upon them for their gross hypocrisie and leave them a sad instance to all Nations how dangerous it is to espouse such an interest which God with so visible and severe a hand fights against carried on by and for the support of a Tyrannizing Nobilitie and Clergie and wherein the poor People are blindly led on by those affrighting but false and ungrounded pretensions of perfidy and perjury and made instrumentall with their own estates and bloud for the enslaving and ruining themselves FINIS