by the King and Prince was as followeth WE Ratifying and confirming the aforesaid Treaty and all and every Capitulation contained and specified in the same do approve applaud confirm and ratifie of our certain knowledge all and every of these things in as much as they concern our Selves our Heirs or our Successors And we promise by these presents in the word of a King to kéep fulfil and observe the same and to cause them to be kept fulfilled and observed inviolably firmly well and faithfully effectually Bona fide without all exception and contradiction And we confirm the same with an Oath upon the Holy Evangelists in the presence of the Illustrious and Noble John de Mendoza Charls de Colona Ambassadors of the most Gratious Catholick â—ing residing in our Court. In Testimony and Witness of all and every the premises we have caused our Great Seal to be put to those Articles subscribed by our Hands there in the presence of the most Reverend Father in Christ George Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and the Reverend Father in Christ John Bishop of Lincoln Lord Kéeper of the Great Seal of England Lionel Cranfield Cheif Treasurer of England Henry Uiscount Mandevil President of our Council Edward Earl of Worcester Kéeper of the Privy Seal Lewis Duke of Richmond and Lenox Lord Steward of our Houshold James Marquess Hamilton James Earl of Carlisle Thomas Earl of Kelly Oliver Uiscount Grandeson c. and George Calvert Knight one of our Cheif Secretaries of State and all of our Privy Council Given at our Palace of Westminster c. JACOBUS Rex After this the King did swear to certain private Articles in favor of Papists and for the advancement of the Roman Religion JAMES by the grace of God of Great Britain King Defender of the Faith c. To all to whom this present-writing shall come gréeting Inasmuch as among many other things which are contained within the Treaty of Marriage betwéen our most dear Son Charls Prince of Wales and the most renowned Lady Donna Maria Sister of the most renowned Prince and our welbeloved Brother Philip the Fourth King of Spain It is agréed That we by our Oath shall approve the Articles under-expressed to a word 1. That particular Laws made against Roman Catholicks under which other Vassals of our Realms are not comprehended and to whose observation all generally are not obliged as likewise general Laws under which all are equally comprised if so be they are such which are repugnant to the Romish religion shall not at any time hereafter by any means or chance whatsoever directly or indirectly be commanded to be put in execution against the said Roman Catholicks and we wil cause that our Council shall take the same Oath as far as it pertains to them and belongs to the execution which by the hands of them their Ministers is to be exercised 2. That no other Laws shall hereafter be made anew against the said Roman Catholicks but that there shall be a perpetual Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion within private houses throughout all our Realms and Dominions which we will have to be understood as well of our Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland as in England which shall be granted to them in manner and form as is capitulated decreed granted in the Article of the Treaty concerning the Marriage 3. That neither by us nor by any other interposed person whatsoever directly or indirectly privately or publikely will we treat or attempt any thing with the most renowned Lady Infanta Donna Maria which shall be repugnant to the Romish Catholick religion Neither will we by any means perswade her that she should ever renounce or relinquish the same in substance or form or that she should do any thing repugnant or contrary to those things which are contained in the Treaty of Matrimony 4. That We and the Prince of Wales will interpose our authority and will do as much as in us shall lie that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favor of the Roman Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage And that the said Parliament shall revoke and abrogate particular Laws made against the said Roman Catholicks to whose observance also the rest of our Subjects and Vassals are not obliged as likewise the general Laws under which all are equally comprehended to wit as to the Roman Catholicks if they be such as is aforesaid which are repugnant to the Roman Catholick Religion And that hereafter we will not consent that the said Parliament should ever at any time enact or write any other new Laws against Roman Catholicks MOreover I Charls Prince of Wales engage my self and promise that the most Illustrious King of Great Britain my most honored Lord and Father shall do the same both by word and writing That all those things which are contained in the foregoing Articles and concern as well the suspension as the abrogation of all Laws made against the Roman Catholicks shall within thrée years infallibly take effect and sooner if it be possible which we will have to lie upon our Conscience and Royal honor That I will intercede with the most illustrious King of G. Britain my father that the ten years of the education of the children which shall be born of this marriage with the most illustrious Lady Infanta their mother accorded in the 23 Art which term the Pope of Rome desires to have prorogued to twelve years may be lengthened to the said term And I promise fréely and of my own accord and swear That if it so happen that the entire power of disposing of this matter be dâ—volved to me I will also grant and approve the said term Furthermore I Prince of Wales oblige my self upon my faith to the Catholick King That as often as the most illustrious Lady Infanta shall require that I should give ear to Divines or others whom her Highness shall be pleased to employ in matter of the Roman Catholick religion I will hearken to them willingly without all difficulty and laying aside all excuse And for further caution in point of the frée exercise of the Catholick religion and the suspension of the Law above-named I Charls Prince of Wales promise and take upon me in the word of a King that the things above promised and treated concerning those matters shall take effect and be put in execution as well in the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland as of England The Privy-Councellors Oath was this I A.B. do swear That I will truly and fully observe as much as belongeth to me all and every of the Articles which are contained in the Treaty of Marriage betwéen the most gracious Charls Prince of Wales and the most gracious Lady Donna Maria Infanta of Spain Likewise I swear that I will neither commit to execution nor cause to be executed either by my self or by any inferior Officer serving me any
to be guided by ordinary Presidents In like manner the Lord Major and Commonalty of London petitioned the Council for an Abatement of the Twenty Ships rated upon them unto Ten Ships and two Pinnaces alleadging disability whereunto the Council gave this following Answer That the former Commandement was necessary the preservation of the State requiring it and that the charge imposed on them was moderate as not exceeding the value of many of their private estates That Petitions and Pleadings to this Command tend to the danger and prejudice of the Commonwealth and are not to be received That as the Commandment was given to all in general and every particular of the City so the State will require an accompt both of the City in general and of every particular And whereas they mention Presidents they might know that the Presidents of former times were Obedience not Direction and that Presidents were not wanting for the punishment of those that disobey his Majesties Commands signified by that Board which they hope shall have no occasion to let them more particularly understand Hereupon the Citizens were glad to submit and declared their consent to the Kings Demands and by Petition to the Council had the favor to nominate all the Officers of those Twenty Ships the Captains onely excepted the nomination of whom appertained to the Lord High Admiral of England Then there were likewise issued forth Privy Seals to several persons to others the way of Benevolence was proposed And because the late Parliament resolved to have given the King Four Subsidies and Three Fifteens the sums which the King required were according to that proportion And to prevent misunderstandings it was declared unto the Countrey That the Supplies now demanded were not the Subsidies and Fifteens intended to be given by the Parliament but meerly a free gift from the Subject to the Soveraign upon such weighty and pressing occasions of State The Justices of Peace in the several Counties were directed by the Privy Council to send for persons able to give and to deal with them singly by using the most prevailing perswasions Amidst these Preparations the Kingdom being exposed to dangers both Forein and Domestick a general Fast was observed on the Fifth of Iuly in the Cities of London and Westminster and places adjacent and on the Second of August throughout the Kingdom to implore a blessing upon the endeavors of the State and the diverting of those judgments which the sins of the Land deserve and threaten And for the defence of this Realm threatned with a powerful Invasion extraordinary Commissions were given to the Lords Lieutenants of the several Counties to Muster the Subjects of whatsoever degree or dignity that were apt for War and to try and array them and cause them to be armed according to their degrees and faculties as well Men of Arms as other Horsmen Archers and Footmen and to lead them against publick Enemies Rebels and Traytors and their adherents within the Counties of their Lieutenancy to repress slay and subdue them and to execute Martial Law sparing and putting to death according to discretion And in case of Invasions Insurrections Rebellions and Riots without the limits of their respective Counties to repair to the places of such Commotions and as need required to repress them by battel or any forcible means or otherwise either by the Law of this Realm or the Law Martial In like manner lest the deserting of the Coasts Ports and Sea Towns should expose those places to become a prey and invite the Enemy to an Invasion the Inhabitants and those that had withdrawn themselves to Inland places were required to return with their Families and Retinues and there to abide during those times of Hostility and Danger And for securing of the Coasts from Spain or Flanders some of the Kings Ships were employed in the River Elbe to prevent the furnishing of Spain from those parts with materials for shipping which occasioned a great discontent in those of Hamburgh for that their Neighbors of Lubeck and other Towns of the East Sea were free from this restraint insomuch that they resolved to force their passage by a Fleet of Fifty or threescore sail of Ships Whereupon the Lord Admiral informed the Council that his Majesties charge at Hamburgh was expended to little purpose except also the Sound could be shut up against all shipping that should carry prohibited Commodities especially since the Hamburgers send their Commodities by Land to Lubeck to be transported from thence into Spain and that the States and the King of Denmarks Ships are departed from the Elbe and have left the English alone Moreover the King prepared a Royal Fleet which was now at Portsmouth ready to put to Sea under the command of the Lord Willoughby and given out to be designed for Barbary The King of Denmark having put forth a Declaration of the Causes and Grounds wherefore he took up Arms against the Emperor declared one cause thereof to be FOrasmuch as the Elector Palatine by the procurement of the King of Great Britain and him the King of Denmark had offered his Submission to his Imperial Majesty and to crave Pardon and thereupon was in hopes to have his Patrimony with the Dignities of his Ancestors restored Yet notwithstanding the Emperor did still commit great spotles and acts of hostility in his Countrey giving no regard to the said Submission and had much damnified the Lower Saxony by the Forces which he had brought thither under Tilly. Whereupon he sayes the Princes of the Lower Saxony have desired the aid and assistance of him the King of Denmark to settle the Peace and Liberty of Germany who was resolved to take up Arms and with whom he was resolved for to joyn having the like assurance from the King of Great Britain who had déeply engaged to assist in this War for the restitution of the Elector Palatine Therefore the King of Denmark declares That séeing all Prayers Mediations and Accessions cannot prevail with his Imperial Majesty he will endeavor to procure a peace and settlement by force which he should have béen glad would have béen ordained unto him upon fair terms of Treaty In the beginning of the year divers Towns were taken by the King of Denmark and some retaken by Tilly but the Seven and twentieth of August decided the Controversie on which day the King of Denmark upon the approach of Tilly desiring to decline battel with the Emperors old Soldiers many of his own men being new levied Soldiers endeavored to make his retreat but Tilly followed so close his Rear-guard that he kept them in continual action till the King of Denmark saw no remedy but that he must either fight or lose the Rear of his Army and Train of Artillery Whereupon his Commanders advised him to resolve of a place of advantage and face about and give battel which accordingly they did and both Armies drew up near Luttern
well-beloved Sir VVilliam Balfoure Knight and Iohn Dolbier Esquire or either of them for levying and providing certain numbers of Horses with Armes for Horse and Foot to be brought over into this Kingdome for our service viz. for the levying and transporting of one thousand Horse fifteen thousand pounds for five thousand Muskets five thousand Corslets and five thousand Pikes ten thousand five hundred pounds and for one thousand Curaseers compleat two hundred Corslets and Carbines four thousand five hundred pounds amounting in the whole to the said summe of thirty thousand pounds And this our letter shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalf Given under our Privy Seal at our Palace of Westminster the 30th of Ianuary in the third year of our Reign Iune the seventh the King came to the Lords House and the House of Commons were sent for And the Lord Keeper presented the humble Petition of both Houses and said MAy it please your most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled taking into consideration that the good intelligence between your Majesty and your people doth much depend upon your Majesties answer unto their Petition of Right formerly presented With unanimous consent do now become most humble Suitors unto your Majesty that you would be pleased to give a clear and satisfactory answer thereunto in full Parliament Whereunto the King replyed The answer I have already given you was made with so good deliberation and approved by the judgements of so many wise men that I could not have imagined but it should have given you full satisfaction But to avoid all ambiguous interpretations and to shew you there is no doublenesse in my meaning I am willing to pleasure you as well in words as in substance read your Petition and you shall have an answer that I am sure will please you The Petition was read and this answer was returned Soit droit fait come il est desire C. R. This I am sure said his Majesty is full yet no more then I granted you in my first Answer for the meaning of that was to confirm your liberties knowing according to your own Protestations that ye neither meane nor can hurt my Prerogative And I assure you my Maxime is That the Peoples Liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties You see how ready I have shewed my self to satisfie your demands so that I have done my part Wherefore if this Parliament have not a happy conclusion the sin is yours I am free from it Whereupon the Commons returned to their own House with unspeakable joy and resolved so to proceed as to expresse their thankfulnesse and now frequent mention was made of proceeding with the Bill of subsidies of sending the Bills which were ready to the Lords of perfecting the Bill of Tunnage and Poundage and Sir Iohn Strangeâ—â—ies also expressed his joy at the answer and further added Let us perfect our Remonstrance King Iames was wont to say He knâ—w that by Parliaments which otherwise he could never have known After the granting of the Petition of Right the House ordered that the Grand Committees for Religion Trade Grievances and Courts of Justice to sit no longer but that the House proceed only in the consideration of Grievances of most moment And first they fell upon the Commission for Excise and sent to the Lord Keeper for the same who returned answer that he received Warrant at the Councel Table for the sealing thereof and when it was Sealed he carried it back to the Councel Table The Commission being sent it was read in the House viz. CHarles By the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To Sir Thomas Coventry Knight Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England To James Earl of Malburg Lord High Treasurer or England Henry Earl of Manchester Lord President of our Councel Edward Earl of Worcester Lord Keeper of our Privy Seal George Duke of Buckingham Lord high Admiral of England William E. of Pembrook Lord Steward of Our Houshold Philip Earl of Mountgomery Lord Chamberlain of Our Houshold Theophilus Earl of Suffolk Edward Earl of Dorset William Earl of Salisbury Thomas Earl of Exeter John Earl of Bridgwater James Earl of Carlisle Henry Earl of Holland William Earl of Denbigh George Earl of Totnes Sir George Hay Kt. Lord Chancellor of Scotland William Earl of Morton Thomas Earl of Kelley Thomas Earl of Mellers Edward Uiscount Conway one of our principal Secretaries of State Edward Uiscount Wimbleton Oliver Uiscount Grandison Henry Falkland Lord Deputy of Ireland To the Lord Bp. of Winchester Wil. Lord Bp. of Bath and Wells Fulk Lo. Brook Dudley Ash Lord Carlton Uice Chamberlain of Our Houshold Sir Thomas Edmonds Treasurer of our Houshold Sir John Savil Controler of Our Houshold Sir Robert Nanton Master of the Court of Wards Sir John Cook one of the principal Secretaries of State Sir Richard Weston Chancellour and under Treasurer of our Exchequer Julius Caesar Master of the Rolls and Sir Humphrey May Kt. Chancellour of Our Dutchy of Lancaster Greeting Whereas the presâ—nt Conjuncture of the general affairs of Christendom and our own particular interest in giving assistance unto our oppressed Allies and for providing for the defence and safety of our own Dominions and People do call upon Us to neglect nothing that may conduce to those good ends And because Monies the principal sinâ—ws of War and one of the first and chiefest movers in all great Preparations and Actions are necessary to be provided in the first place and We are carefull the same may be raised by such ways as may best stand with the State of Our Kingdoms and Subjects and yet may answer the pressing occasions of the present times We therefore out of the experience We have had and for the trust we repose in your wisdoms fidelities and dutifull care of your service And for the experience we have of all great Causes concerning us and our State both as they have relation to Foraine parts abroad and as to our Common-wealth and People at home Ye being persons called by us to be of Our Privy Councel have thought sit amongst those great and important matters which so much concern us in the first and chiefest place to recommend this to your special care and diligence And we do hereby authorise and appoint and strictly will and require you that speedily and seriously you enter into consideration of all the best and speediest ways and means ye can for raising of Monies for the most Important occasions aforesaid UUhich without extreamest hazard to Us our Dominions and People and to our Friends and Allies can admit of no long delay the same to be done by Impositions or othâ—rwise as in your wisdoms and best Iudgments ye shall find to be most convenient in a case of this inevitable necessity wherein Form â—nd
Historical Collections OF Private Passages of STATE OF Weighty Matters in LAW OF Remarkable Proceedings in Five Parliaments BEGINNING The Sixteenth Year of KING JAMES ANNO 1618. And ending the Fifth Year of KING CHARLS ANNO 1629. Digested in Order of TIME And now Published By JOHN RUSHWORTH of Lincolns-Inn Esq Prima est Historiae lex nè quid falsi dicere audeat deinde nè quid veri non audeat nè qua suspicio gratiae sit in scribendo nè qua simultatis M.T. Cicer. de Orat. London Printed by Tho. Newcomb for George Thomason at the Sign of the Rose and Crown in St Pauls Churchyard 1659. A. This Paw points out the Caledonian Iarres Sad Harbingers to our intestine Warres B. The Lion passant gardant wonders much The Paw should daâ— presume his Chiefe to touch C. Strange yâ— from Stooles at Scotish Prelates 〈◊〉 Bellona's dire Alarm's should rouze the World D. The Lion the Paw bent to engage Make Peace at Tweed so change the Scene Stage E The double-headed Eagle wide doth Spread Her Wings to fan the Coales yâ— seem'd as dead F. And makes yâ— Lionesseâ—n â—n Instrument To breake that Peace and a fourth Parl'ament G. The Paw invades yâ— Lion at Tine Flood They fight make Truce stop from shedding Blood H. The British Notes sound flat to those more sharp Divisions Eccho'd from the Irish Harp I. The Parl'ament conven'd the Lion try'd By Charging Five The Members to divide K. First Iustice next no Bishop Priviledge last Cry Multitudes who to the Houses haste L. The Lions third Roare prooving fatall drew Such Woes as rarely former Ages knew M T was a Curst Cow kickt down the Milk shee gaue Let us old Englands Lawes and Freedome hauâ— N. Caelestiall Manna thy Spirituall Food O.P. Fed Them with Peace Plenty all that's Good Q. A blazing Comet thy Backsliding showes R Predicteth Ruine presenteth woes S. The Faithfull build them Churches but are stopt By Papists who at th e Aurea Bulla mockt T. Great Caesar to yâ— Romans Crown doth 〈◊〉 His Stately Nephew and creates him King V Prague gives the Crown in Frederick 〈◊〉 His Sword to assert the Germans their 〈◊〉 W. Then from high Windowes vnnawares were 〈◊〉 The Emperors Councell ere the Charge was 〈◊〉 X.Y. The Blow neer Prague was struck The People 〈◊〉 Like Iehu out Warre â— sweet before 't is 〈◊〉 Z What Decollations then What Blood What 〈◊〉 Outacted Tragick Scenes ensu'd that 〈◊〉 TO HIS HIGHNESS RICHARD LORD PROTECTOR of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging May it please your Highness THe Poor Widow came far short of others in her offers into the Treasury and yet when she had given her two Mites she had given all she had I must fall short of her she gave of her own for the two Mites appear to have been so but such is the weakness of my condition and the nature of this ensuing Discourse that I neither can nor shall herein present to Your Highness any thing of my own The words actions and atchievements herein related belong all to other Persons and I can challenge but the bare Representation and the molding them into such a Body wherein they now appear A Body not of so compleat a shape or pourtraiture as may be worthy Your Highness Aspect It s not amiss for Princes to hear of and read the Actions or Miscarriages of Princes nay of lesser persons Indeed they can hardly set more useful Books before their Eyes It is hard for the Pilot to escape unless he hath first discovered those Shelves and Rocks upon which others have been split What is that we call Prudence or Policy but a Systeme of Observations and Experiences deducted from other Mens Principles Practises Purposes and Failings As to the matter contained in this Story relating to Arbitrary courses given way unto by former Princes I shall make bold to use the expression of an eminent person in his time spoken in full Parliament at the Tryal of the Earl Strafford who speaking of an endeavor that had been used to subvert the Laws and to introduce Arbitrary Government has among other Passages this Observation There is in this Crime a Seminary of all Evils hurtful to a State and if you consider the Reasons of it it must needs be so The Law is that which puts a difference betwixt Good and Evil betwixt just and unjust if you take away the Law all things will fall into a confusion every man will become a Law to himself which in the depraved condition of Humane Nature must needs produce many great enormities Lust will become a Law and Envy will become a Law Covetousness and Ambition will become Laws and what Dictates what Decisions such Laws will produce may easily be discerned The Law is the Safeguard the Custody of all private Interest your Honors your Lives your Liberties and Estates are all in the keeping of the Law without this every man hath a like right to every thing what can be more hurtful more pernicious then Arbitrary Power c. Thus far that Gentleman Your Highness will finde here the mention of a great Prince who was wont to say He was an old experienced King and to him belonged the Calling Sitting and Dissolving of Parliaments and he publickly said I speak in his own phrase That he had broke the neck of Three Parliaments yet at last he did comply with his last Parliament and said He saw he should be in love with Parliaments having understood many things by them which otherwise he should never have known Moreover here You will have in view a succeeding Prince who also broke Three Parliaments one after another and how fatal that was to him succeeding times have abundantly declared The Observation is not mine but of much more ancient date those Princes who did most consult with their People in Parliament that being the Common Council of the Nation have most prospered in their courses there being both Safety and Love gained from such Counsellors and Councils And Parliaments in the nature of them are good Physick to cure and redress the Diseases and Distempers of the Body Politick which mostly grow and overflow in the Intervals of them yet many think Parliaments are but an ill constant Dyet which certainly moved Queen Elizabeth of famous Memory who was well acquainted with the Constitution of the Body of this Nation to call Parliaments frequently but to continue none very long By this means she wrought her self into the good opinion of her People and by becoming the Mistress of their Affections she also became in some sort the Mistress of their Purses which were always opened unto her upon the just and urgent occasions of the Nation but the Help and Aid which comes from the People by strains contrary to the Laws of the Nation and Liberties of the People being drawn from them through fear wants the perfume of a
testimonia invictissimi unà cum Joanne fratre suo juniore in obsidione Francovalenti hic factâ eruptione arreptus ille ictu bombardae percussus occubuere Anno M.DC.XXI This Monument was erected by the Town of Frankendal in memory of those two Brothers who were Uncles to that Valiant Victorious and Self-denying General THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX late Commander in Chief of the Parliaments Armies in England In France the Marriage-Treaty was not so fair smooth and plausible in the progress as in the entrance King Iames admiring the Alliance of mighty Kings though of a Contrary Religion as also fearing the disgrace of another Breach desired the Match unmeasurably which the French well perceived and abated of their forwardness and enlarged their Demands in favor of Papists as the Spaniards had done before them and strained the King to the Concession of such Immunities as he had promised to his Parliament that he would never grant upon the mediation of Forein Princes The Cardinal Richlieu being in the infancie of his favor and appointed to the managing of the Treaty assured the Catholicks of Great Britain that the most Christian King remembring that he was born and raised up no less for the propagation of the Catholick Cause then for the enlarging of his own Dominions was resolved to obtain honorable Terms for Religion or never to conclude the Match And for his own part such was his compassion towards them that if he might work their deliverance or better their condition not only with Counsel interest and authority but with his life and blood he would gladly do it However this Treaty held fewer moneths then the years that were spent in that of Spain Indeed the Motion from England had a braver expression seeing a Wife was here considered as the only object of the Treaty whereas that of Spain was accompanied with a further expectation to wit the rendring of the Palatinate to King Iames his children In August the Match was concluded and in November the Articles were sworne unto by King Iames Prince Charls and the French King The Articles concerning Religion were not much short of those for the Spanish Match The Conclusion of the Treaty was seconded in France with many outward expressions of Joy as Bonfires and the like Whereupon the privy-Privy-Council sent to the Lord Mayor of London requiring the like to be done here This year Count Mansfield arrived in England whose reception was splendid and honorable He was entertained in the Prince his House in S. Iames's and served in great state by some of the Kings Officers A Press went through the Kingdom for the raising of Twelve thousand Foot with two Troops of Horse to go under his Command for the Recovery of the Palatinate These Forces were intended to pass through France into Germany the French having promised as well an Addition of Strength as a free passage In the mean while there were those that secretly sollicited the King to return into the way of Spain and raised suspitions of Mansfields Enterprise saying he was the Palsgraves Scout and Spy And if the Puritans desired a Kingdom they did not wish it to the most illustrious Prince Charls his Majesties best and true Heir but to the Palatine That it was the Dukes Plot and the Parliaments Fury to begin a War with Spain but it will be the glory of his Majesties blessed Reign that after many most happy years that Motto of his Blessed be the Peace-makers might even â—o the last be verified of him in the letter and be propounded for imitation to the most illustrious Prince and that the experience of his happy Government should carry the Prince in a connatural motion to the same Counsels of Peace And at the same time the more circumspect party in the Spanish Court held it fit to continue the state of things in a possibility of an Accommodation with the King of Great Britain and Gondomar was coming again for England to procure a Peace notwithstanding the Duke of Bavaria used all diligence to combine himself with that Crown offering to depend wholly thereon so that he may be thereby protected in his new acquired Dignity But in these Motions the Elector of Saxony with many Reasons advised the Emperor to apply himself to the setling of a Peace in Germany and with much instance besought him not to destroy that antient House of the Palatinate Count Mansfield was at this time in England and the Forces raised in the several parts of the Kingdom for the recovery of the Palatinate were put under his Command and Marching to their Rendezvous at Dover committed great Spoils and Rapines in their passage through the Counties At that Rendezvous the Colonels and Captains were assigned to receive their several Regiments and Companies from the Conductors employed by those several Counties where the Men were raised A List of some of the Regiments of Foot designed for that Expedition I. EArl of Lincoln Colonel Lieut. Col. Allen. Serjeant Major Bonithon Sir Edward Fleetwood Captain Wirley Capt. Reynolds Capt. Babbington Sir Matthew Carey Capt. Barlee Capt. Cromwel II. Viscount Doncaster Colonel Sir Iames Ramsey Lieut. Colonel Alexander Hamilton Serjeant Major Capt. Archibald Duglas Capt. Zouch Capt. Iohn Duglas Capt. Pell Capt. William Duglas Capt. George Kellwood Capt. Andrew Heatly III. Lord Cromwel Colonel Lieut. Col. Dutton Serjeant Major Gibson Capt. Basset Capt. Lane Capt. Vincent Wright Capt. Ienner Capt. Vaughan Capt. Owseley Capt. Crane IV. Sir Charles Rich Colonel Lieut. Col. Hopton Serjeant Major Killegrew Sir Warham St. Leiger Sir W. Waller Capt. Burton Capt. Francis Hammond Capt. Winter Capt. Goring Capt. Fowler V. Sir Andrew Grey Colonel Lieut. Col. Boswel Serjeant Major Coburne Capt. David Murray Capt. Murray Capt. Forbois Capt. Carew Capt. Ramsey Capt. Williams Capt. Beaton VI. Sir Iohn Borrough Colonel Lieut. Col. Bret. Serjeant Major Willoughby Capt. William Lake Capt. Roberts Capt. Webb Capt. Skipwith Capt. Thomas Woodhouse Capt. George Capt. Mostian The Duke of Buckingham Lord Admiral was required to employ those Ships that were now in the Narrow Seas or in the Havens ready bound for any Voyage for the Transporting this Army from Dover Count Mansfield received his Commission from King Iames bore date the Seventh of November One thousand six hundred twenty and four and was to this effect That his Majesty at the Request of the Prince Elector Palatine and the Kings Sister his Wife doth impower Count Mansfield to raise an Army for the recovering of the Estate and Dignity of the Prince Elector and appoints that the Forces so raised should be under the Government of the said Count Mansfield for the end aforesaid And his Majesty further declares by way of Negative That he doth not intend that the said Count shall commit any spoil upon the Countreys or Dominions of any of his Majesties Friends and Allies and more particularly He doth require the said Count not to make any invasion or do any act of War
done to Catholicks procure envy to us and thank to themselves then that some of our Countreymen Zealous of the Truth though differing from the Religion which we have suckek from our Infancy should have an honorable occasion of making their abode in the Court of Rome from whom your Holiness may be certainly informed of the state of our Affairs In this regard we recommend unto you the Bishop of Vazion who as he doth impute whatsoever increase of his condition to your Holiness alone so we are earnest Suitors that for our sake especially the honor of a Cardinals Cap may be added to his former advantages By this means the Calumnies of our Enemies will cease when such are present with you who may be able to assert the truth of our doings We do not desire any of our actions should be concealed from just Arbitrators for though we have been bred up in the truth of that Religion which we now profess yet we have always determined that there is nothing better and safer then piously and without ostentation to endeavor the promoting of those things which really belong to the glory of Gods Name and laying aside the goaâ—ds of Envy and applying the warmth and fomentation of Charity diligently to consider what belongeth not to the empty name of Religion but to the holy Symbol of true Piety But because we have discoursed more at large of these things with the bearer hereof a man not unlearned and indifferently well conversant in our Affairs we have thought best to be no more tedious by a long Letter Your Holiness most dutiful Son J. R. From Holy Rood 24 Sept. 1599. SUmma mandatorum Edwardi Drummond Jurisconsulti quem ad Pontificem Maximum Ducem Etruriae Ducem Sabaudiae caeterosque Principes Cardinales ablegamus Salutabis imprimis nostro nomine quà m potes officiosissimè Pontificiem Maximum caeterosque Principes Cardinales datisque nostris literis fiduciariis significabis Capere nos vehementer eum quem decet amoris benevolentiae modum cum iis conservare omnemque removere non suspicionem modo sed suspicionis levissimam quamcunque occasionem Quod quamvis in ea persistimus Religione quam à teneris hausimus annis non tamen ita esse Charitatis expertes quin de Christianis omnibus bene sentiamus modo in officio primum erga Deum Optimum Maximum deinde erga Magistratus quorum subsunt imperio permanserint Nullam nos unquam saevitiam contra quoscunque Catholicos Religionis ergo exercuisse Et quia plurimum interest nostra ut pari diligentia qua malevoli mentiuntur nos per amicos subditos veritatem possimus adstruere idcirco inniteris in hoc totis viribus ut Pontifex Maximus tam rogatu nostro quam precibus Illustrissimorum Principum quos per literas nostras ad hoc rogavimus ad hoc induci possit ut Episcopus Vazionensis in Cardinalium Collegium adsciscatur in quo si profeceris ut de eo redditi fuerimus certiores ulterius progrediemur Cavebis ne in hoc negotio ad Pontificem Maximum aut Illustrissimos Cardinales ulterius progrediaris nisi prius subsit certa spes optati eventus This Letter was conveyed by Edward Drummond the Lawyer whom the King sent to the Pope the Duke of Tuscany the Duke of Savoy and other Princes and Cardinals First You shall most respectively Salute in our Name the Pope and those other Princes and Cardinals and having delivered our Letters of Credence shall signifie That we exceedingly desire to reserve with them the measure of Love and good Will which is sitting to remove not onely all suspition but any thing that may be the cause of Suspition That although we persist in the Religion which we suck'd in from our Infancy yet we are not so void of Charity but to think well of all Christians if so be they continue in their duty first towards God and then towards the Magistrate whose Subjects they are That we never exercised any cruelty against the Catholicks for Religion sake And because it doth very much concern us that we may be able to assert the truth by our Friends and Subjects with the same diligence that slanderers lie therefore you shall endeavor to the utmost to perswade the Pope as well at our entreaty as for the desire of these most Illustrious Princes whom in our Letters we have sollicited in our behalf to make the Bishop of Vazion Cardinal wherein if you be successful as soon as we shall be certified thereof we will proceed further You must be cautelous not to proceed any further in this business either with the Pope or the most Illustrious Cardinals unless there be a certain hope of our wished event The High mighty Monarch Charles by the grace of God King of Great Brittaine France Ireland Defender of the Faith Historical Collections Primo CAROLI ON the same day when King Iames departed this life at Theobalds the Lord President of the Council and the Lord Marshal of England were immediately sent by the Body of the Council to Prince Charles who was then retired to his Chamber to give him notice of his Fathers decease and that they were all there ready to present themselves unto him if his pleasure were to admit them but he being in sadness wished them to forbear their coming till the next morning In the mean time the Privy-Counsellors assembled themselves drew up the form of a Proclamation to proclaim King Charles which was forthwith published at the Court-Gate at Theobalds which being done the King signified his pleasure that the Lord Keeper the Lord Treasurer the Lord President the Lord Chamberlain the Treasurer of the House and the Comptroller should attend him they all came and rendred up their Offices and Places to him which his Majesty presently restored to them again The Privy-Counsellors gave notice to the Lord Major of London that he and all the Aldermen should that day appear in their Robes at Ludgate whither the Lords and others would repair to proclaim King Charles Accordingly the Lords went from Theobalds to the Palace of Whitehall where the Nobility then about London were gathered together At Whitehall-Gate the King was proclaimed by sound of Trumpet all the Nobility Privy-Counsellors and Gentry being on Horse-back went thence and proclaimed the King at Charing-Cross Denmark-house Temple-Bar at the great Conduit in Fleetstreet and thence they rode up to Ludgate where the Lord Major and Aldermen were on Horse-back expecting within the Gates and the Lords and others entered and proclaimed him there and then they rode all to Cheapside-Cross where they proclaimed the King again and the Lords returning thence left order with the Lord Major to go on with the Proclamation in other parts of the City The same day King Charles removed from Theobalds and came to St Iames's in the Evening and the Corps of the deceased King remained at Theobalds
attended by all the Servants in Ordinary The day following the Privy-Counsellors to the late King with all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal then about London were in the Council Chamber at Whitehall by Eight of the Clock in the morning ready to go together and present themselves to his Majesty but there came in the mean a Commandment from the King by the Lord Conway and Sir Albertus Morton Principal Secretaries of State to the deceased King that the Lord Keeper of the Great-Seal should be sworn of his Majesties privy-Privy-Council and that he should give the Oath to the Lord President by whom all the rest of the late Kings Council should be sworn Counsellors to his present Majesty The Lord Keeper of the great Seal the Lord President the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord Treasurer of England the Lord Privy-Seal the Duke of Buckingham Lord Admiral of England the Earl of Pembrook Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Montgomery the Earl of Kellye the Earl of Arundel Earl Marshal of England the Lord Viscount Grandison the Lord Conwey the Lord Brook Mr Treasurer Mr Comptroller the Master of the Wards Mr Secretary Morton Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Master of the Rolls were this day sworn accordingly the Lord Keeper did take an Oath apart as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal the Lord Treasurer as Lord Treasurer of England the Lord President as Lord President of the Kings Privy-Council and the Lord Conwey and Sir Albertus Norton as principal Secretaries of State the Lords which were not of his Majesties Privy-Council repaired by themselves to St Iames's and presented themselves to the King and kissed his hand The Council sat immediately and advised of the most important and pressing matters to be offered to the King for his present service and resolved upon these particulars That a Commission be granted to authorize the Great-Seal Privy-Seal and Signet till new ones be prepared also Commissions for authorizng of Judges Justices of Peace Sheriffs and other such Officers for Government that there be a general Proclamation for continuation of Proceedings preservation of Peace and administration of Justice that Letters be prepared for the Ambassadors with foreign Princes to authorize their services to the King that special Messengers be sent unto foreign Princes that the like Proclamations to those of England be sent into Scotland that Commissions be renewed into Ireland to the Deputy and Officers there that the Mint for Coyning of money go on and all things be mannaged by the Officers as then they stood till the Kings pleasure be further known that a Parliament be summoned when the King shall appoint that the Kings pleasure be known concerning the time of his Fathers Funeral and where the Corps shall rest in the mean time as also the time of his Majesties Coronation This being done the whole Council attended the King at St Iames's where the Lord Keeper in the name of all the rest presented their humble thanks that it had pleased his Majesty to have affiance in those that had been Counsellors to his Father to receive them all to be of his Privy-Council the Lord President represented to the King the matters before mentioned which the King allowed and gave order that those of them which required speed should be put in execution and most of the powers he signed presently And first because by the death of the late King the Authorities and powers of the greatest number of Offices and places of Government did cease and fail by the failing of the Soveraign Person from whom the same were derived a Proclamation issued forth signifying his Majesties pleasure that all persons whatsoever who at the decease of the late King were invested in any Office or Place of Government Civil or Martial within the Realms of England and Ireland and namely Presidents Lieutenants Vice-Presidents Judges Justices Sheriffs Deputy Lieutenants Commissaries of Musters Justices of Peace shall continue in their several Offices till his Majesties pleasure were further known In another Proclamation of the same date the King took notice of his Fathers death and that he being his onely Son and undoubted Heir is invested and established in the Crown Imperial of this Realm and all other his Majesties Realms Dominions and Countries with all the Royalties Preeminencies Stiles Names Titles and Dignities to the same belonging and he declared That as he for his part shall by Gods grace shew himself a most benign and gracious Soveraign Lord to all his good Subjects in all their lawfull Suits and Causes so he mistrusteth not but that they on their parts will shew themselves unto him their natural Liege Lord most loving faithfull and obedient Subjects The Council resolved to move the King that his Fathers Funeral might be solemnized within five weeks and within a few dayes after the Ceremonial Nuptials in France and before the Parliament began in England These Resolves the Lord President represented unto the King who accepted of the advices and said he would follow them Moreover he summoned a Parliament to begin the seventeeth of May but by the advice of his Privy-Council Prorogued it to the one and thirtieth of May afterwards to the thirteenth of Iune and then to the eighteenth of the same moneth which Prorogations were occasioned by the Kings going to Dover to receive the Queen April 23. The Body and Herse of King Iames was brought from Theobalds to London being conducted by the Officers of the Guard of the Body all in Mourning every one having a Torch and attended by all the Lords of the Court and great numbers of other persons of quality and was placed in Denmark-House in the Hall of the deceased Queen Anne The seventh of May was the day of Burial the Body and Herse were taken from the said Hall of State and brought in great Pompe and Solemnity to Westminster where the Kings of England use to be interred The new King to shew his Piety towards his deceased Father was content to dispense with Majesty he followed in the Rear having at his right hand the Earl of Arundel at his left the Earl of Pembrook both Knights of the Garter his Train was born up by twelve Peers of the Realm So King Iames who lived in Peace and assumed the title of Peace-maker was peaceably laid in his Grave in the Abby at Westminster King Charles in his Fathers life time was linked to the Duke of Buckingham and now continued to receive him into an admired intimacy and dearness making him Partaker of all his Counsels and Cares and Chief Conductor of his Affairs an Example rare in this Nation to be the Favorite of two succeding Princes The Publick State of Religion and the steering of Church-matters had an early inspection and consultation in the Cabinet Council Bishop Laud who in King Iame's life time had delivered to the Duke a little book about Doctrinal Puritanism now also delivered to the Duke a
the Council That both the English and Dutch Ships designed to block up Dunkirk whilst our Fleet was gone to Spain were dispersed by a sudden storm and that Two and twenty Ships of Dunkirk Men of War having Four thousand Land-soldiers were at liberty to rove up and down and do mischief at Sea Hereupon the Council by their Letters to the Lords Lieutenants of the Counties upon the Seacoasts required that the Trained-Bands be in readiness with compleat Armor and other Furniture to march upon all Alarms to what place soever the necessary defence thereof shall require Also upon intelligence that these Two and Twenty Dunkirkers intended to land their Four thousand men in Ireland in case their design failed as to England Letters were expedited to the Lord Deputy of Ireland to guard those Sea-coasts for that it were alike mischievous if they should land in either Kingdom In the beginning of October the Fleet consisting of Eighty Ships great and small the Anne-Royal a Ship of Twelve hundred Tun being Admiral put forth from Plimouth for the Coasts of Spain with these Regiments aboard the Fleet according as we find it mentioned in an old List viz. The Duke of Buckingham's The Lord Wimbleton's Sir William St. Leger's Serjeant-Major-General and Colonel Burrough's Regiments were shipped in the Admirals Squadron which carried 2093 Seamen and 4032 Land-soldiers The Lord Valentia's Regiment The Earl of Essex's and Colonel Harwood's were shipped in the Vice-Admirals Squadron carrying 1765 Seamen and 3008 Land-soldiers The Earl of Essex was Vice-Admiral and commanded this Squadron Sir Charls Rich his Regiment Sir Edward Conway's and Colonel Regiments were shipped in the Rear-Admirals Squadron carrying 1833 Mariners 2998 Soldiers The Fleet after four days sail was encountred with a furious storm which so dissipated the Ships that of Fourscore no less then Fifty were missing for seven days Afterwards they all came together upon the Coasts of Spain where they found a Conquest ready the Spanish Shipping in the Bay of Cadez the taking whereof was granted feasible and easie and would have satisfied the Voyage both in point of honor and profit This was either neglected or attempted preposterously Then the Army landed and Sir Iohn Burroughs took a Fort from the Spaniard but the Soldiers finding good store of Spanish Wines abused themselves and hazarded the ruine of all had the Enemy known in what condition they were notwithstanding all Commands to the contrary So they were presently shipp'd again and the General putting to Sea intended to wait about Twenty days for the Plate-Fleet which was daily expected from the West-Indies But the evil condition of his Men by reason of a general Contagion enforced him to abandon the hopes of this great Prize So the English having effected nothing returned home with dishonor in November following It gave no small occasion of clamor That a Fleet so well provided and manned should land their men in an Enemies Country and return without some honorable Action But where the fault lay hath not been yet adjudged neither was any ever punished for failing in that duty The General for some time was not admitted into the Kings presence and some of the Colonels of his Army accused him and some Seamen aggravated the Accusation The General was examined before the Council and laid the fault on others in the Fleet who let the King of Spain's Ships pass without fighting them according to Order They on the other hand said they had no Order from their General to fight Thus was there fending and proving which contributed little to salve the dishonor which the Nation sustained by this unprofitable and ill-managed Design Upon the Fleets return to Plimouth in December and Consideration of the present use of the Soldiers therein imployed a Proclamation issued forth to command that no Soldiers of the Fleet should depart from their Colours or be discharged of their Service till the King shall signifie his pleasure how and when he will use their further Service So the Forces that returned from Cades were kept on foot and dispersed into several parts of the Kingdom There was also a strict Commandment That no Subject of this Realm of England shall have intercourse of Trade with any of the Dominions of the King of Spain or the Arch-Dutches of Flanders upon pain of Confiscation both of Ships and Goods that shall be found upon Voyage of Trade into any of the said Dominions Moreover in regard of the Subjects apparent danger and the encouragement of the Enemies of this State by putting Ships to Sea being weakly manned and ill furnished the King ordained that none should set forth any Ship or Pinnace of the burthen of Threescore Tuns or upwards unless they furnish the same with serviceable Muskets and Bandaliers sufficient for the arming of half the number of persons that sail therein together with a quantity of Ammunition answerable to the length of their intended Voyage Furthermore for the instructing and exercising of the Trained-Bands as well Officers as Soldiers by men experienced in Military Exercises The King gave Commandment that divers Low-Countrey Soldiers should be assigned to the several Counties and that the Trained-Bands should be ready at the times appointed for their Direction in their Postures and use of Arms. The Plague still continuing in London and Westminster and the places near adjoyning the King to prevent a general infection had adjourned a part of Michaelmas Term from the Utas thereof to the Fourth Return and afterwards to the Fifth and then the residue of the Term from the City of Westminster as also the Receipt of the Revenue from Richmond to the Town of Reading in Berkshire In which Term a Commission issued forth under the Great Seal for executing the Laws against Recusants according to the Petition of the late Parliament which was read in all the Courts of Judicature at Reading Which Commission together with Pricking of Sir Edward Cook and certain other Gentlemen Sheriffs who had appeared the last Parliament against the Duke and being Sheriffs could not be chosen Parliament-men gave occasion of discourse and hopes of a new Parliament At Hampton Court in December following this ensuing Order was made WHereas Four Articles concerning the Oath used to be taken by the High Sheriffs of Counties were this day presented unto the Board unto which Articles Sir Edward Cook Knight at this present High Sheriff of the County of Bucks Did upon tender of the Oath unto him take Exceptions and sent his Exceptions and the Reasons thereof in writing to Mr. Attorny General who by direction of the Board did attend all the Iudges of England to receive their Advice thereupon and the said Iudges having advised thereof did with one unanimous consent Resolve and so Report to the Lord Keeper That they found no cause to alter the said Oath but onely in one of the said Articles hereafter mentioned It is thereupon this day Ordered by their
Lordships according to the unanimous Advice of all the Iudges of England and his Majesties pleasure signified therein That the First Article propounded viz. You shall do all your pain and diligence to destroy and make to cease all manner of Heresies and Errors commonly called Lollaries within in your Bayliwick from time to time to all your power and assist and be helping to all Ordinaries and Commissioners of the Holy Church and favor and maintain them as oftentimes as you shall be required shall be left out in the Oath to be given to Sir Edward Cook and shall ever hereafter be left out in all Oaths to be given to the High Sheriffs of Counties hereafter And their Lordships do likewise Order according to the unanimous Advice of all the Iudges of England That the other thrée Articles doubted of shall stand in the said Oath to be ministred to the said Sir Edward Cook and to all other High Sheriffs as heretofore hath béen accustomed and that the Lord Keeper do give order to such Officers and Clerks in the Court of Chancery to whom it appertained to make out the Oath for the time to come according to present Order The expectation of a Parliament gave encouragement to the Bishop of Lincoln who yet retained the name of Lord Keeper notwithstanding his Sequestration several moneths before from the presence of the King the Council Table and the custody of the Seal to make an Address to his Majesty for a favorable interpretation of his actions But his carriage towards the Duke at the Parliament at Oxford was fresh in memory where the Bishop told the Duke in Christ-Church upon the Dukes rebuking him for siding against him That he was engaged with William Earl of Pembroke to labor the Redress of the Peoples Grievances and was resolved to stand upon his own Legs If that be your resolution said the Duke Look you stand fast and so they parted and shortly after that he was sequestred though the Seal was not disposed from him till the Thirtieth of October at which time it was given to Sir Thomas Coventry at Hampton-Court who was that day sworn of the Privy Council and sate there and sealed some Writs and afterwards came to the Term at Reading and sate there as Lord Keeper and heard Causes The King being pressed with his own Necessities and the Cry of the Nation against the Fruitless Voyage of Cadiz summoned a Parliament to meet in February and before the time of meeting his Majesty enjoyned the Archbishops and Bishops in both Provinces to proceed against Popish Recusants by Excommunication and other Censures of the Church and not to omit any lawful means of bringing them to Publick Justice especially he recommended to their vigilant care the unmasking and repressing of those who were not professed Papists yet disaffected to the true Religion and kept close their evil and dangerous affection and by secret means and slights did encourage and advance the growth of Popery This Command was seconded by a Proclamation requiring That all Convicted Papists should according to the Laws of this Realm remain confined to their dwelling places or within five miles thereof unless upon special Licences first obtained in Cases necessary Immediately before the Parliament Bishop Laud procured the Duke of Buckingham to sound the King concerning the Cause Books and Tenets of Mr. Richard Montague and understanding by what the Duke collected That the King had determined within himself to leave him to a Tryal in Parliament he said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God for his Mercy dissipate it About the same time the King declared his purpose to celebrate the Solemnity of his Coronation on Candlemas-day at the Palace of Westminster and required all persons who by reason of their Offices and Tenures were bound to perform any Duties at the Solemnitie to give their attendance and to be furnished in all respects answerable to an action of so high State according to their places and dignities Wherefore by a Commission under the Great Seal of England Sir Thomas Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Iames Lord Say High Treasurer of England Edward Earl of Worcester Keeper of the Privy Seal Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey Earl Marshal of England William Earl of Pembroke Lord High Chamberlain Edward Earl of Dorset and Sir Randol Crew Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas were authorised to receive and determine the Claims exhibited by any Person concerning Services to be performed at the approaching Coronation And the more to credit the Solemnity the King resolving to make certain of his Servants and other Subjects in regard of their Birth good Service and other Qualities Knights of the Bath Authorised Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey and Earl Marshal of England William Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to perform in his Majesties Name and behalf all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging thereto At the same time Writs were directed to all Sheriffs in the Realm of England and Dominions of Wales commanding them to make Proclamation That all such as had Forty pounds a year or more of Lands or Revenues in their own hands or the hands of Feoffees for their use for the space of Three years and are not yet Knights do at their perils prepare to present themselves in his Majesties Presence by the One and thirtieth of Ianuary to receive the Order of Knighthood Upon the asswaging of the great Pestilence through the Mercy and Goodness of God in withdrawing and almost removing the Scourge the King by His Royal Authority ordained a Publick and General Thanksgiving to be celebrated upon the Nine and twentieth of Ianuary being the Lords day in the Cities of London and Westminster and the places adjacent and on the Nineteenth of February in all other places of the Kingdom the manner and form whereof was prescribed by a Book composed by the Bishops according to his Majesties special Direction The Contagion ceasing the restraint enjoyned to the Citizens of London from resorting to Fairs for a time was taken off The number of those that died this year within and without the Walls of the City of London and in the Liberties and Nine out Parishes from the Sixteenth of December 24. to the Fifteenth of December 25. Was in Total Fifty four thousand two hundred sixty and five whereof of the Plague Thirty five thousand four hundred and seventeen On Candlemas-day King Charls was Crowned Bishop Laud had the cheif hand in compiling the Form of the Coronation and had the honor to perform this Solemnity instead of the late Lord Keeper Williams who through the Kings disfavor was sequestred from this Service which belonged to his place as he was Dean of Westminster Mr. Iohn Cosens as Master of the Ecclesiastical Ceremonies kneeled behinde the Bishop when the Prayers were read and directed the Quire when to answer The Ceremony in going to and all the
the Articles of several High Treasons and other great and enormous Crimes Offences and Contempts supposed to be committed by him against our late Soveraign Lord King James of Blessed Memory deceased and our Soveraign Lord the Kings Majesty that now is wherewith the said Earl is charged by his Majesties Attorney-General on his Majesties behalf in the most High and Honorable Court of Parliament before the King and the Lords there And not acknowledging any the supposed Treasons Crimes Offences and Contempts wherewith he is charged in and by the said Articles to be true and saving to himself all advantages benefit and exception to the Incertainty and Insufficiency of the said Articles and of the several Charges in them contained And humbly praying that his Cause may not suffer for want of Legal form whereunto he hath not been used but may be judged according to such real and effectual Grounds and Proofs as may be accepted from an Ambassador the ground of the Charge growing thence and that he may have leave to explain himself and his own meaning in any thing that may seem of a doubtful Construction For Answer saith as followeth I. THe First Article he denieth and because the Matters contained in the said Article consist of several parts viz. The loss of the said Palatinate and the Match with the said Lady of Spain and of the several Employments as of one Extraordinary Ambassage to the Emperor and another to the King of Spain in the years 1621.22 and 23. He humbly craves leave of this most Honorable Court to separate the businesses and distinguish the times And beginning with the Palatinate first to give an account of his Ambassage to the Emperor and so to make as brief a Deduction as he could of the whole carriage in that business from the beginning of his employment to the time he left it in his Ambassage to the Emperor he propounded all things faithfully according to his Instructions and the Answers which he returned to his late Majesty of Blessed Memory were the very same and no other then such as were given by the Emperor under his Hand and Imperial Seal the which according to his duty he faithfully sent unto his said Majesty and withal did honestly and truly advertise his said Majesty what he understood and thought then upon the place but was so far from giving to his Majesty any ill-grounded hopes in that behalf that he wrote unto the Lords of the Council here in England from Vienna 26 Iuly 1624. in such sort as followeth I Am further to move your Lordships That there may be a Dispatch made presently into Spain to his Majesties Ambassador and Mr. Cottington that they deal effectually for the repairing and ripening of the business against my coming that they use some plain and direct Language letting the Ministers there know That the late Letter sent by the King of Spain to the Emperor was colder and more reserved then his Master had reason to expect I shall conclude with telling your Lordships That although I dispair not of good success in that knotty business yet I hope his Majesty and your Lordships lay not aside the care of all fitting preparations for a War in case a Peace cannot be honorably had And amongst other things I most earnestly commend unto your Lordships by your Lordships unto his Majesty the continuing yet abroad for some small time of Sir Robert Mansels Fleet upon the Coasts of Spain which in case his Majesty should be ill used will prove the best Argument we can use for the Restitution of the Palatinate And this his Advice he saith was wholly intended by his Actions by being the cause as he returned homeward out of Germany to bring down Count Mansfield whereby the Town of Frankendale was relieved by supplying of his Majesties Army then in great distress with Moneys and Plate to the value of 10000 l. meerly out of his zeal and affection to the good of the King and his Children having no Warrant or Order but that his heart was ever really bent in effects more then in shews to serve the Kings Son-in-law and his cause as by the discourse of this business will appear And how acceptable these Services were will more appear by the Letters of the Queen of Bohemia in these words following My Lord HAving understood from Heidelburgh how you have shewed your affection to the King and me in all things and in the help of Money you have lent our Soldiers I cannot let so great Obligation pass without giving many thanks for it by these lines since I have no other means to shew my gratefulness unto you Howsoever assure your self that I will never be forgetful of the Testimonies you give me of your love which I intreat you to continue in doing the King and me all good Offices you can to his Majesty You have been an eye-witness of the miserable estate our Countreys are in I intreat you therefore to solicite his Majesty for our help you having given me an assurance of your affection I intreat you now to shew it in helping of us by your good endeavors to his Majesty and you shall ever binde me to continue as I am already Your very affectionate Friend ELIZABETH Which Letters were seconded with others about the same time both from the King of Bohemia and Council of Heidelburgh to the same effect And how much satisfaction his late Majesty received in that behalf and touching that business will plainly appear several ways and particularly by his Speech in Parliament And the said Earl likewise appealeth to both Houses of Parliament to whom by his late Majesties Order he gave a just and true accompt of that employment with what true zeal he proceeded and how he pressed that single Treaty and Promises no longer be relied on but that a fitting preparation for War might go along hand in hand with any Treaty of Accommodation And for a conclusion among many of his late Majesties approbations of his carriage in this employment he humbly desireth that a Letter of the Duke of Buckinghams under his own hand bearing date the Eleventh of October 1621. may be produced being as followeth My Lord I Am exceeding glad that your Lordship hath carried your self so well in this employment that his Majesty is infinitely pleased for your Service you have done for which he commanded me to give your Lordship thanks in his Name until he see you himself You of all men have cause to commend his Majesties choice of such a man that unless your heart had gone with the business you could never have brought it to so good a pass Amongst other things his Majesty liketh very well the care of clearing his Honor whereof he will advise further with your Lordship at your next coming over I hope you will not finde your Negotiation with the Infanta of such difficulty as you seem to fear in your Letter seeing my Brother Edward hath brought with him a Letter
the other Knight being Robert Clifford it was agreed in Parliament that he should have the voices of both because the other must of necessity be absent And they both amongst other things petitioned the Council that if the King in his Person should come on the Sea they might have such a liberty to wait upon him as they might make their Lieutenant during the time for the service of their places But the Council that allowed the rest or most of their demands answered to that Le Councel ne pent faire Then he estimated the nature of the offence by the consequences which follow the not guarding of the Seas viz. 1. The losses already shewed 2. The prevention of Trade which gives life to the wealth of the Kingdom 3. The weakning of the Naval strength the Merchants being thereby discouraged from building ships which they cannot use In 1 Rich. 2. the Commons opened the two chief and almost whole Causes of the weakning the Kingdom at that time the neglect of Chivalry and eminent vertue not regarded nor rewarded the decay of Trade since the Navy was grown weak besides all the loss of quiet possession of so large a Territory as the Seas of England and Ireland by the free use of which the ancient glory and greatness of the Crown of England hath so constantly subsisted Then he instanced in Michael de la Pool Lord Chancellor who in 9 Rich. 2. mis-spent Subsidies given pro salva custodia maris as appears in the Roll and was adjuged in Parliament though for other offences because some other Lords of the Council had been trusted with him and it was not fit to impeach him sans les companions they taking it for a crime without question fit to be complained of Secondly in William Duke of Suffolk who for the same fault being Admiral onely in the right of Henry Earl of Exeter his Ward was by the King extraordinarily commanded into banishment Then he brought examples of such who had been put to death and confiscated for not safe-guarding Towns and Castles and Forts which are of like nature with not safe-guarding the Seas and with losing the possession of the Crown To the Fifth he said The staying of the ship called the Peter of Newhaven and detaining part of the goods was against the Marine Laws of England against the Common Laws against the Laws of Merchants and consequently the Law of Nations By the Marine Laws agreeable to the Civil Laws sentence given by any Subject or other against the King may upon new proof be revoked but not without new proof He made by his Patent a Judge of all Maritine Causes as well as Keeper of the Seas his Jurisdiction was to be exercised juxta leges nostras civiles Maritimas and accordingly to hear all Causes and generally to proceed ex officio mero mixto promoto secundum leges nostras Civiles Maritimas Against the Common-Laws All Justices and all other deputed to do Law or Right are commanded by Act of Parliament to permit the course of ordinary Justice and although they be commanded to do the contrary that they do execution aright and according to justice as far as in them lies and so for any Letters of Commandment which may come unto them from us or from any other or by any other cause Against the Law of Nations Against what is agreed by the Leagues between us and Forain Nations That the Subjects of Nations in Amity with us shall be well used and permitted without Molestation for what cause or occasion soever according to the Laws and Customs of the places where they shall be Lastly against the Laws of Merchants which is to have Celerem justitiam The Consequences of this Offence are 1. Great damage to our English Merchants that have suffered by reason of it in Forain Parts as they alleadge 2. It is a discouragement to those that are Subjects to the Marine Jurisdiction 3. An example that may serve hereafter to justifie all absolute Authority in the Admiral without Law or Legal course over the ships and good of all Merchants whatsoever and so no security to Merchants Lastly He instanceth in the Duke of Suffolk who was adjudged in Parliament for Treason and among other offences it was laid to his charge that he took to his own use goods Piratically taken and expresly against the Order determined by the Lord Protector and the whole Council whereunto his hand had been for the restitution of them Next were read the Sixth Seventh and Eighth Articles viz. VI. Whereas the honor wealth and strength of this Realm of England is much increased by the Traffick chiefly of such Merchants as imploy and build great warlike Ships a consideration that should move all Counsellors of State especially the Lord Admiral to cherish and maintain such Merchants The said Duke abusing the Lords of the Parliament in the One and twentieth year of the late King Iames of famous memory with pretence of serving the State did oppress the East India Merchants and extorted from them Ten thousand pounds in the subtil and unlawfull manner following About February in the year aforesaid he the said Duke hearing some good success that those Merchants had at Ormus in the parts beyond the Seas by his Agents cunningly in or about the moneth aforesaid in the year of the said late King endeavored to draw from them some great sum of money which their poverty and no gain by that success at Ormus made those Merchants absolutely to deny whereupon he the said Duke perceiving that the said Merchants were then setting forth in the course of their Trade four Ships and two Pinaces laden with goods and merchandise of very great value like to lose their voyage if they they should not speedily depart The said Duke on the first of March then following in the said year of the said late King did move the Lords then assembled in the said Parliament whether he should make stay of any Ships which were then in the Ports as being high Admiral he might and namely those ships prepared for the East India voyage which were of great burthen and well furnished which motion being approved by their Lordships the Duke did stay those ships accordingly but the fifth of March following when the then Deputy of that Company with other of those Merchants did make suit to the said Duke for the release of those Ships and Pinaces he the said Duke said he had not been the occasion of their staying but that having heard the motion with much earnestness in the Lords House of Parliament he could do no less then give the order they had done and therefore he willed them to set down the reasons of their suit which he would acquaint the House withall yet in the mean time he gave them leave to let their said ships and Pinaces fall down as low as Tilbury And the tenth of March following an unusual joynt action was by his procurement entred
get them to a Rendevouz and when they were come to a Rendevouz and he ready to set sail with the whole Fleet the winds proved contrary But some of the chief Commanders when they came into England spake somwhat loudly of other miscarriages at Rhee pleading much on the behalf of the Council of War And now when the unfortunate Action of Rhee was known and published throughout the Nation the cry of the People was so great and the Kings necessities so pressing that it was in every mans mouth A Parliament must needs be summoned For we have now provoked two potent neigbor Kings and near Enemies our Coasts and Ports were unguarded our able Commanders worne away or not imployed The Mariners come in multitudes to the Court at Whitehall in great disorder and confusion crying out for Pay and much ado there was to appease them The Enemies come into our Harbors survey our Rivers and the Fishermen can scarce look out A vast number of our Ships have been lost and taken in the three years past and the Merchants cease to build more because they were prest for the Kings service at a low rate and not paid and the Mariners flee from their own imployment fearing to be prest again And our Enemies grow upon us especially in the Eastern Countries We give you here a brief Account of such Arrearages as were behind and unpaid for Freight of Ships Seamens Wages and Materials for Shipping in the Years 1625 1626 1627. FOr freight of Merchants and Newcastle-Ships imployed in his Majesties service and for several Bills of provisions yet unpaid in the years 1625 1626 according to the former Estimates Privy-seals passed for the same l. 60000 s. 00 d. 00 For the freight of sundry Merchants and Newcastle-ships imployed in his Majesties service to the Isle of Rhee and other places in the year 1627 19560 12 04 For Seamens wages in the same year 1627 ending the last of this moneth 61957 19 08 The repairing of the Hulls Masts of the said Ships to make them fit only for imployment in the Narrow-Seas together with repair and for setting forth of the Nostredame and Sea-waller two Prise-ships 05761 10 04 For repairing the said Ships mentioned in the margin for their Hulls Masts c. at 1000 marks apeece 08000 00 00 For supply of 700 Tuns of Cordage taken out of his Majesties Stores for furnishing to Sea of several Fleets at 26 l. 13 s. 4 d. per Tun being demanded upon several Estimates to be made good at the end of each service and yet unpaid 18666 13 04 Besides these Arrears there were Demands made by the Navy for supplying the Stores with Mast Timber Plank Deal Sales Ropes Tar Tallow Iron Anchors c. the Sum of 26000 00 00 The Rochellers after the Dukes arrival in England sent their Deputies to his Majesty for succor and relief in their distressed condition and presented their Desires in nature of a Remonstrance to the King and the Lords of the Council wherein they gave his Majesty most humble thanks for the great assistance and comfort they had received by the Fleet sent in Iuly last whereof the Duke of Buckingham was Admiral which would have been of greater assistance unto them had the season of the year permitted their stay longer there or that the supply of Victuals and Ammunition had come unto them which his Majesty had assigned That they are given to understand that there is application made to the King of Denmark to propound the making of a Peace between the two Crowns of England and France a thing to be wished if really intended But the Proceedings of France with the Reformed Churches there hath hitherto been such as when they spake most fair and nothing but Peace uttered nothing less was intended and great advantages thereby have been taken against the Reformed Churches But in case the Treaty do proceed they humbly prayed that then his Majesty will be pleased to insist upon the Capitulation which was made upon his mediation and for which he passed his word that the Reformed Churches should perform on their part which they kept inviolable till there were Forces placed and kept in Forts against them contrary to Capitulation and more Forces drawn down in order to the reduction of the Remonstrants and a Fleet unexpectedly come upon them to destroy their Navigation when nothing on their part was offered in violation of the Treaty They did further remonstrate That now the Forces of France are breaking down apace about them totally to block them up by Land and do intend to make a Barracado cross the Channel leaving a narrow passage for the flux and reflux of the Sea and by that means to stop all manner of Provisions by Sea which evidently remonstrates their further ruine if they with all expedition have not succor and help from his Majesty of Great Britain For their necessities and straits are very great already by reason their Magazines are consumed their monies spent and the Inhabitants reduced to small allowances And therefore do beseech his Majesty with all possible diligence to send them supply of all sorts of Provisions fit for a Siege and to succor them once more with the Navy-Royal to interrupt the blocking up of the River otherwise they are inevitably lost And lastly they did humbly beseech his Majesty and the Lords of his Council to have also so far pity of their indigencie and need as to permit a General Collection to be made in England and Scotland of such persons whom God shall move to contribute to their succor and relief And declare that they are resolved still to hold out hoping yet a Relief would come that might be of advantage unto them and they were assured thereof by the Duke of Buckingham at his departure that he would once more come in person to their assistance In this state of Affairs it is said Sir Robert Gotton being thereunto called presented his Advice to certain Lords of the Council in manner following AS soon as the House of Austria had incorporated it self with Spain and by their new Discoveries gotten to themselves the Wealth of the Indies They began to affect and have ever since pursued a Fifth Monarchy The Emperor Charls would lay the first Foundation of Italy by surprising Rome From this he was thrust by force and respect of Religion Hen. 8. being made Caput Foediris against him He then attempted High-Germany practising by faction and force to reduce them first to Petty States and so to his absolute power In this Hen. 8. again prevented him by laying the Lutheran Princes under this Confederacie and assistance His Son the Second Philip pursued the same Ambition in the Netherlands of Germany by reduction whereof he intended to make his way further into the others This the late Queen of England interrupted by siding with the afflicted people on the one part and making herself the Head of the
yet acknowledged that the seven Statutes urged by the House of Commons are in force yet said that some of them are in general words and therefore conclude nothing but are to be expounded by Precedents and some of them are applied to the suggestion of Subjects and not to the Kings command simply of its self and that per legem terrae in Magna Charta cannot be understood for process of Law and original Writs for that in Criminal proceedings no original Writ is usual at all but every Constable either for Felony or breach of the Peace or to prevent the breach of the Peace may commit without Process or original Writ it were very hard the King should not have the power of a Constable They also argued That the King was not bound to express the cause of Imprisonment because there may be in it matter of State not fit to be revealed for a time lest the confederates thereupon make means to escape the hands of Justice Besides that which the Commons do say that the party ought to be delivered or bailed is a contradiction in its self for bayling doth signifie a kinde of Imprisonment still Delivery is a total freeing And besides bayling is a grace or favor of a Court of Justice and they may refuse to do it To this it was replyed That the Statutes were direct in Point and though some of them speak of suggestions of the Subjects yet they are in equal reason a commitment by command of the King as when the King taketh notice of a thing himself And for the words per legem terrae original Writs onely are not intended but all other legal process which comprehendeth the whole proceedings of the Law upon Cause other then trial by Jury and the course of the Law is rendred by due process of the Law and no man ought to be imprisoned by special command without indictment or other due process to be made by the Law And whereas it is said there might be danger in revealing the Cause that may be avoided by declaring a general Cause as for Treason suspicion of Treason misprision of Treason Felony without expressing the particulars which can give no greater light to a confederate then will be conceived upon the very apprehension upon the imprisonment if nothing at all were expressed And as for the bayling of the party committed it hath ever been the discretion of the Judges to give so much respect to a commitment by the command of the King or the privy Councel which are ever intended to be done in just and weighty Cases that they will not presently set them free but bail them to answer what shall be objected against them on the Kings behalf but if any other inferior Officer do commit a man without shewing cause they do instantly deliver him as having no cause to expect their leasure so that Delivery is applyed to the imprisoned by command of some mean minister of Justice Bailing when it is done by command of the King or his Councel and though Bailing is a grace and favor of the Court in case of Felony and other crimes for that there is another way to discharge them in convenient time by their trial but where no cause of imprisonment is returned but the command of the King there is no way to deliver such persons by trial or otherwise but that of the Habeas Corpus and if they should be then remanded they might be perpetually imprisoned without any remedy at all and consequently a man that had committed no offence might be in a worse case then a greater offender for the latter should have an ordinary trial to discharge him the other should never be delivered MAster Selden of the Inner-Temple argued next first making this Introduction Your Lordships have heard from the Gentleman that last spake a great part of the grounds upon which the House of Commons upon mature deliberation proceeded to that clear resolution touching the right of liberty of their persons The many Acts of Parliament which are the written Laws of the Land and are expresly in the Point have bin read and opened and such Objections as have been by some made unto them and Objections also made out of another Act of Parliament have been cleared and answered It may seem now perhaps my Lords that little remains needful to be further added for the enforcement and maintenance of so fundamental and established a Right and Liberty belonging to every freeman of the Kingdom The House of Commons taking into consideration that in this question being of so high a nature that never any exceeded it in any Court of Justice whatsoever all the several ways of just examination of the Truth should be used have also most carefully informed themselves of all former Judgements or Precedents concerning this great Point either way and have been no less careful of the due preservation of his Majesties just Prerogative then of their own Rights The Precedents here are of two kinds either meerly matter of Record or else the former resolutions of the Judges after solemn debate in the Point This Point that concerns Precedents the House of Commons have commanded me to present to your Lordships which I shall as briefly as I may so I do it faithfully and perspicuously to that end my Lords before I come to the particulars of any of those Precedents I shall first remember to your Lordships that which will seem as a general key for the opening and true apprehension of all them of record without which key no man unless he be verst in the entries and course of the Kings Bench can possibly understand In all cases my Lords where any Right or Liberty belongs to the Subjects by any positive Law written or unwritten if there were not also a remedy by Law for enjoying or regaining of this Right or Liberty when it is violated or taken from him the positive Law were most vain and to no purpose and it were to no purpose for any man to have any right in any Land or other Inheritance if there were not a known remedy that is an Action or Writ by which in some Court of ordinary Justice he might recover it And in this case of Right of Liberty of Person if there were not a remedy in the Law for regaining it when it is restrained it were of no purpose to speak of Laws that ordain it should not be restrained The Writ of Habeas Corpus or Corpus cum causa is the highest remedy in Law for any man that is imprisoned and the onely remedy for him that is imprisoned by the special command of the King or the Lords of the pâ—ivy Councel without shewing cause of the commitment and if any mâ—n be so imprisoned by any such Command or otherwise whatsoever though England and desire by himself or any other in his behalf this Writ of Hab. Corp. for the purpose in the Court of Kings Bench that Writ is to be granted to him
special Charge and Direction so soon as the said Fleet or the greatest thereof shall be reassembled and joyned together then presently with the first opportunity of wind taking into his Charge also the Ships stayed and prepared at Portsmouth and Plimouth together with such fire Ships and other Vessels as shall be provided for this expedition to return to Rotchel with all possible diligence and do his best endevor to relieve the same Letting his Lordship know that order is taken for the victualling of the Fleet by Petty warrant so long as it remaineth in Harbor for the sparing and lengthening of the Sea victuals And if it so fall out that the Earl of Denbigh do set forward on his voyage towards Rotchel before the whole Fleet shall be joyned with him we pray your Grace to give him such Direction that he may leave order that the Ships which are behind shall follow him with all speed Monday 2 Iune The King came to the Parliament and spake thus in brief to both Houses Gentlemen I Am come hither to perform my duty I think no man can think it long since I have not taken so many days in answering the Petition as ye spent weeks in framing it And I am come hither to shew you that as well in formal things as in essential I desire to give you as much content as in me lies After this the Lord Keeper spake as followeth MY Lords and ye the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons his Majesty hath commanded me to say unto you That he takes it in good part that in consideration of setling your own Liberties ye have generally professed in both Houses that ye have no intention for to lessen or diminish his Majesties Prerogative wherein as ye have cleared your own intentions so now his Majesty comes to clear his and to subscribe a firm League with his People which is ever likely to be most constant and perpetual when the Conditions are equal and known to be so These cannot be in a more happy estate then when your Liberties shall be an ornament and a strength to his Majesties Prerogative and his Prerogative a defence of your Liberties in which his Majesty doubts not but both he and you shall take a mutual comfort hereafter and for his part he is resolved to give an example in the using of his power for the preservation of your Liberties that hereafter ye shall have no cause to complain This is the sum of that which I am to say to you from his Majesty And that which further remains is That you hear read your own Petition and his Majesties gracious Answer The Petition Exhibited to his Majesty by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled concerning divers Rights and Liberties of the Subjects with the Kings Majesties Royal Answer thereunto in full Parliament To the Kings most Excellent Majesty HUmbly shew unto our Soveraign Lord the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled That whereas it is Declared and Enacted by a Statute made in the time of the Reign of King Edward the first commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo That no Tallage or aide shall be laid or levied by the King or his Heirs in this Realm without the good will and assent of the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other the Freemen of the Commonalty of this Realm And by Authority of Parliament holden in the five and twentieth year of the Reign of King Edward the third it is Declared and Enacted That from thenceforth no person should be compelled to make any Loans to the King against his will because such Loans were against Reason and the Franchise of the Land and by other Laws of this Realm it is provided That none should be charged by any Charge or Imposition called a Benevolence nor by such like Charge by which the Statutes before mentioned and other the good Laws and Statutes of this Realm your Subjects have inherited this Freedom That they should not be compelled to contribute to any Tax Tallage Aid or other like Charge not set by common censent in Parliament Yet nevertheless of late divers Commssions directed to sundry Commissioners in several Counties with instructions have issued by means whereof your People have been in divers places assembled and required to lend certain sums of Money unto your Majesty and many of them upon their refusal so to do have had an Oath administred unto them not warrantable by the Laws or Statutes of this Realm and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and give attendance before your Privy Councel and in other places and others of them have been therefore Imprisoned Consined and sundry other ways molested and disquieted And divers other charges have been layed and levied upon your People in several Counties by Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Commissioners for Musters Iustices of Peace and others by command or direction from your Majesty or your Privy Councel against the Laws and free Customs of the Realm And where also by the Statute called The great Charter of the Liberties of England It is declared and enacted That no Freeman may be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his Freeholds or Liberties or his free Customs or be Outlawed or Exiled or in any manner destroyed but by the lawful Iudgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And in the eight and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the third it was declared and enacted by Authority of Parliament That no man of what Estate or condition that he be should be put out of his Land or Tenements nor taken nor imprisoned nor disherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law Nevertheless against the tenor of the said Statutes and other the good Laws Statutes of your Realm to that end provided divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed and when for their deliverance they were brought before your Iustices by your Majesties Writs of Habeas Corpus there to undergo and receive as the Court should order and their Keepers commanded to certifie the Causes of their detainer no cause was certified but that they were detained by your Majesties special Command signified by the Lords of your Privy Councel and yet were returned back to several Prisons without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to the Law And whereas of late great companies of Soldiers and Mariners have been dispersed into divers Counties of the Realm and the Inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses and there to suffer them to sojourn against the Laws and Customs of this Realm and to the great grievance and vexation of the people And whereas also by Authority of Parliament in the 25 year of the reign of King Edward the third
agreed in one that he ought not by the Law to be tortured by the Rack for no such punishment is known or allowed by our Law And this in case of Treason was brought into this Kingdom in the time of Henry 6. note Fortescue for this Point in his Book de laudibus legum Angliae see the preamble of the Act 28. H. 8. for the Trial of Fellony where Treasons are done upon the Sea and Statute 14. Edw. 3. Ch. 9. of Jaylours or Keepers who by duresse make the prisoners to be approvers Since the last Session of Parliament certain Merchant who traded in Wines had been committed to the Fleet for the non-payment of an Imposition of 20. s. the Tun and were now at liberty upon their entring into bond for the payment of that Imposition Moreover the King in full Councel declared his absolute will and pleasure to have the entry of 2. s. 2. d. the hundred upon all Currens to be satisfied equally with that of 3. s. 4. d. before the landing of that Commodity it being a duty laid by Queen Elizabeth who first gave being to the Levant Company and which had been paid both in his Fathers time and his own and that their Majesties were equally possessed of the whole summe of 5. s. 6. d. the hundred by a solemn and Legal Judgement in the Exchequer and he straightly charged his Councel to examine the great abuse in this point and to make a full reparation to his Honour by inflicting punishment as well upon Officers as Merchants that for the future they may beware of committing such contempts And Divers Merchants of London having forcibly Landed and endeavoured to carry away their Goods and Merchandises from the Custom-house Key without payment of duties were summoned to the Councel-table And the Councel was informed against them that they had caused great and unlawful assemblies of people to be gathered together to the breach of the Kings Peace and Mr. Chambers was committed to prison by the Lords of the Councel for some words spoken at that time Michaelmas 4. Car. Richard Chambers being in Prison in the Marshalsie Del hostel de Roy desired an Habeas Corpus and had it which being returable upon the 16. day of October the Marshall returned that he was committed to prison the 28. day of Septemb. last by command of the Lords of the Councel The Warrant verbatim was That he was committed for insolent behaviour and words spoken at the Councel-Table which was subscribed by the Lord Keeper and twelve others of the Councel The words were as information was given though not expressed in the Return That such great Customes and Impositions were required from the Merchants in England as were in no other place and that they were more screwed up then under the Turk And because it was not mentioned what the words were so as the Court might adjudge of them the Return was held insufficient and the Warden of the Prison advised to amend his Return and he was by Rule of the Court appointed to bring his prisoner by such a day without a new Habeas Corpus and the Prisoner was advised by the Court That in the mean time he should submit to the Lords and Petition them for his enlargement The Warden of the Prison bringing the Prisoner in again in Court the 23. day of October Then Mr. Iermin for the Prisoner moved That forasmuch as it appeared by the Return that he was not committed for Treason or Felony nor doth it appear what the words were whereto he might give answer he therefore prayed he might be dismissed or bailed But the Kings Attourney moved That he might have day untill the 25. of October to consider of the Return and be enformed of the words and that in the interim the Prisoner might attend the Councel-Table and Petition But the Prisoner affirmed that he oftentimes had assayed by Petition and could not prevail although he had not done it since the beginning of October and he prayed the Justice of the Law and the inheritance of a Subject Whereupon at his importunity the Court commanded him to be bailed and he was bound in a Recognizance of four hundred pounds and four good Merchants his Sureties were bound in Recognizance of one hundred pound a piece that he should appear here in Crastino animarum and in the interim should be of the good behaviour And advertized him they might for contemptuous words cause an Indictment or Information in this Court to be drawn against him if they would The Lords of the Councel were much dissatisfied with the Bailing of Chambers Whereupon the Judges were â—ent for to the Lord Keeper at Durham House where were present besides the Lord-Keeper the Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal and the Chancellor of the Dutchy And the Lord Keeper then declared unto them that the said enlargement of Chambers was without due regard had to the Privy Councel in not first acquainting them therewith To this the Judges answered that to keep a fair correspondency with their Lordships they had by the Lord Chief-Justice acquainted the Lord Keeper in private therewith before they baild the party And that what they had done as to the bailing of the prisoner was according to Law and Justice and the conscience of the Judges To this it was replied that it was necessary for the preservation of the State that the power and dignity of the Councel Table should be preserved and that it could not be done without correspondency from the Courts of Justice so they parted in very fair tearms On Thursday the 27. of November Felton was removed from the Tower to the Gate-house in order to his tryal and was the same day brought by the Sheriffs of London to the Kings-bench Bar and the indictment being read he was demanded whether he were guilty of the murder therein mentioned he answered he was guilty in killing the Duke of Buc. and further said that he did deserve death for the same though he did not do it out of malice to him So the Court passed sentence of death upon him whereupon he offered that hand to be cut off that did the fact but the Court could not upon his own offer inflict that further punishment upon him neverthelesse the King sent to the Judges to intimate his desire that his hand might be cut off before execution but the Court answered that it could not be for in all murthers the Judgement was the same unlesse when the Statute of 25. E. 3. did alter the nature of the offence and upon a several indictment as it was in Queen Elizabeths time when a Felon at the Bar flung a stone at a Judge upon the Bench for which he was indicted and his sentence was to have his hand cut off which was accordingly done and they also proceeded against him upon the other indictment for Felony for which he was found guilty and afterwards hanged and Felton was afterwards hung up
called to the Councel-board at Hampton Court about some things which were complained of in reference to the Customs did then and there in an insolent manner in the presence or hearing of the Lords and others of his Majesties Privy Council then sitting in Counsel utter these undutiful seditious and false words That the Merchants are in no part of the World so skrewed and wrung as in England That in Turky they have more incouragement By which words he the said Richard Chambers as the Information setteth forth did endeavor to alienate the good affection of his Majesties Subjects from his Majesty and to bring a slander upon his just Government and therefore the Kings Attorney prayed process against him To this Mr. Chambers made answer That having a Case of silk Grogerams brought from Bristol by a Carrier to London of the value of 400. l. the same were by some inferior Officers attending on the Custome-house seized without this Defendants consent notwithstanding he offered to give security to pay such Customs as should be due by Law and that he hath been otherwise grieved and damnified by the injurious dealing of the under-Officers of the Custome-house and mentioned the particulars wherein and that being called before the Lords of the Council he confesseth that out of the great sence which he had of the injuries done him by the said inferior Officers he did utter these words That the Merchants in England were more wrung and screwed then in forreign Parts Which words were onely spoken in the presence of the Privy-Council and not spoken abroad to stir up any discord among the people and not spoken with any disloyal thought at that time of his Majesties Government but onely intending by these words to introduce his just Complaint against the wrongs and injuries he had sustained by the inferiour Officers and that as soon as he heard a hard construction was given of his words he endeavoured by petition to the Lords of the Council humbly to explain his meaning that he had not the least evil thought as to his Majesties Government yet was not permitted to be heard but presently sent away prisoner to the Marshalsea and when he was there a prisoner he did again endeavour by petition to give satisfaction to the Lords of the Council but they would not be pleased to accept of his faithful explanation which he now makes unto this honourable Court upon his Oath and doth profess from the bottom of his heart That his speeches onely aimed at the abuses of the inferiour Officers who in many things dealt most cruelly with him and other Merchants There were two of the Clerks of the Privy-Council examined as Witnesses to prove the words notwithstanding the Defendant confessed the words in his Answer as aforesaid who proved the words as laid in the Information And on the sixth of May 1629. the Cause came to be heard in the Star-Chamber and the Court were of opinion that the words spoken were a comparing of his Majesties Government with the Government of the Turks intending thereby to make the people believe that his Majesties happy Government may be tearmed Turkish Tyranny and therefore the Court fined the said Mr. Chambers in the sum of 2000 l. to his Majesties use and to stand committed to the prison of the Fleet and to make submission for his great offence both at the Council-board in Court of Star-Chamber and at the Royal Exchange There was a great difference of opinion in the Court about the Fine and because it is a remarkable Case here followeth the names of each several person who gave sentence and the Fine they concluded upon viz. Sir Francis Cottington Chancellour of the Exchequer his opinion was for 500 l. Fine to the King and to acknowledge his offence at the Council-board the Star-Chamber-Bar and Exchange Sir Tho. Richardson Lord chief Justice of the common pleas 500 l. Fine to the King and to desire the Kings favour Sir Nicholas Hide Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench 500 l. and to desire the Kings favour Sir Iohn Cook Secretary of State 1000 l. Sir Humphry May Chancellour 1500 l. Sir Thomas Edmons 2000 l. Sir Edward Barret 2000 l. Doctor Neal Bishop of Winchester 3000 l. Doctor Laud Bishop of London 3000 l. Lord Carlton principal Secretary of State 3000 l. Lord Chancellour of Scotland 2000 l. Earl of Holland 1500 l. Earl of Doncaster 1500 l. Earl of Salisbury 1500 l. Earl of Dorset 3000 l. Earl of Suffolk 3000 l. Earl of Mountgomery Lord Chamberlain 1500 l. Earl of Arundel Lord High Marshal 3000 l. Lord Montague Lord Privy Seal 3000 l. Lord Connoway 2000 l. Lord Weston Lord Treasurer 3000 l. Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 1500 l. So the fine was setled to 2000 l. And all except the two Chief Justices concurred for a submission also to be made And accordingly the copy of the submission was sent to the Warden of the Fleet from Mr. Atturny General to shew the said Richard Chambers to perform and acknowledg it and was as followeth I Richard Chambers of London Merchant do humby acknowledge that whereas upon an Information exhibited against me by the Kings Atturney General I was in Easter Term last sentenced by the Honourable Court of Star-Chamber for that in September last 1628. being convented before the Lords and others of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council Board upon some speeches then used concerning the Merchants of this Kingdom and his Majesties well and gracious usage of them did then and there in insolent contemptuous and seditious manner falsly and maliciously say and affirm That they meaning the Merchants are in no parts of the world so skrewed and wrung as in England and that in Turky they have more incouragement And whereas by the sentence of that Honorable Court I was adjudged among other punishments justly imposed upon me to make my humble acknowledgment and submission of this great offence at this Honorable Board before I should be delivered out of the Prison of the Fleet whereto I was then committed as by the said Decree and Sentence of that Court among other things it doth and may appear Now I the said Richard Chambers in obedience to the Sentence of the said Honorable Court do humbly confess and acknowledg the speaking of these words aforesaid for the which I was so charged and am heartily sorry for the same and do humbly beseech your Lordships all to be Honorable intercessors for me to his Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to pardon that graet error and fault so committed by me When Mr. Chambers read this draught of submission he thus subscribed the same All the abovesaid Contents and Submission I Richard Chambers do utterly abhor and detest as most unjust and false and never to death will acknowledge any part thereof Rich. Chambers Also he under-writ these Texts of Scripture to the said Submission before he returned it That make a man an offender
the Land had little effect in their execution to the increase of Murders Robberies Perjuries and Insecurities of all men living to the loss of their Lands and Goods to the great displeasure of Almighty GOD It was ordained for Reformation of the Premises by Authority of the said Parliament That the Chancellour and Treasurer of England for the time being and the Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King or two of them calling to them one Bishop one Lord temporal of the most honourable Council of the Lord the King and two chief Justices of the Kings Bench and Common pleas for the time being or two other Justices in their absence by Bill or Information exhibited to the Chancellour for the King or any other against any person for any other ill behaviours aforesaid have Authority of calling before them by Writ or Privie-Seal such Malefactors and of examining them and others by their discretion and of punishing such as they finde defective therein according to their demerits according to the form and effect of the Statutes thereof made in the same manner and form as they might and ought to be punished if they were thereof convinced according to the due course of Law And by a certain other Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the eighth held in the one and twentieth year of his reign reciting the offences in the aforesaid Statute of the said late King Henry the seventh beforementioned by Authority of the said Parliament it was and is ordained and enacted That henceforward the Chancellour Treasurer of England and the President of the most honourable privy-Privy-Council of the King attending his most honourable person for the time being and the Lord Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King or two of them calling to them one Bishop and one temporal Lord of the most honourable Council of the Lord the King and two chief Justices of the Kings Bench and Common Pleas for the time being or two Justices in their absence by any Bill or Information then after to be exhibited to the Chancellour of England the Treasurer the President of the said most honourable Council of the Lord the King or the Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King for the time being for any misdemeanour in the aforesaid Statute of King Henry the seventh aforesaid before recited from henceforth have full power and authority of calling before them by Writ or by Privy-Seal such Malefactors of examining of them and others by their discretion and of punishing those that are found defective according to their demerits According to the form and effect of the said Statute of the aforesaid Lord King Henry the seventh and of all other Statutes thereupon made not revoked and expired in the same manner and form as they might and ought be punished if they were convicted according to the due order of the Laws of the said Lord the king And by the aforesaid Writ under the foot of the great Seal it manifesty appears that the said Fine was imposed by the Lord the king and his Council and not by the Legal Peers of the said Richard Chambers nor by the Law of the Land nor according to the manner of the pretended offence of the said Richard Chambers nor saving unto him his Merchandize nor for any offence mentioned in the said Statutes all and singular the which the said Richard Chambers is ready to verifie to the Court c. and demands judgment and that he be discharge of the said 2000 l. against the said Lord the now King and that as to the premises he may be dismissed from this Court Waterhouse With this Plea he annexed a Petition to the Lord Chief Baron and also to every one of the Barons humbly desiting the filing of the Plea with other Reasons in the manner of a motion at the Bar because he said Counsel would not move plead nor set hand to it as further appeareth The Copy of the Order upon Mr. Atturneys motion in the Exchequer the 17 Iuly 1629. after the Plea put in and order to file it Per the Lord Chief Baron TOuching the Plea put into this Court by Richard Chambers to discharge himself of a â—ine of 2000 l. set on him in the Star-Chamber Forasmuch as Sir Robert Heath Kniâ—â—â— his Majesties Atturney General informed this Court that the said Chambers in his said Plea recites divers Statutes and Magna Charta and what offences are punishable in the Star-Chamber and how the proceedings ought to be and upon the whole matter concludes That the said fine was imposed by the King and his Council and not by a Legal judgment of his Peers nor by the Laws of the Land nor according to the manner of his offence nor saving his Merchandize nor for any offence mentioned in the said Statutes Which Plea Mr. Atturny conceiving to be very frivolous and insufficient and derogatory to the honour and jurisdiction of the Court of Star-Chamber Humbly prayeth might not be allowed of nor filed It is therefore this day ordered That the said Plea shall be read on Saturday next and then upon hearing the Kings Counsel and the Counsel of the said Richard Chambers this Court will-declare their further order therein and in the mean time the said Plea is not to be filed nor delivered out In Michaelmas Term following Mr. Chambers was brought by a Habeas Corpus out of the Fleet and the Warden did return THat he was committed to the Fleet by vertue of a Decree in the Star-Chamber by reason of certain words he used at the Council Table viz. That the Merchants of England were skrewed up here in England more then in Turky And for these and other words of defamation of the Government he was censured to be committed to the Fleet and to be there imprisoned until he made his submission at the Council Table and to pay a fine of 2000. l. And now at the Bar he prayed to be delivered because this Sentence is not warranted by any Law or Statute For the Statute of 3 Henrici 7. which is the foundation of the Court of Star-Chamber doth not give them any authority to punish for words only But all the Court informed him That the Court of Star-Chamber was not erected by the Statute of 3 H. 7. but was a Court many years before and one of the most high and honourable Courts of Justice and to deliver one who was committed by the Decree of one of the Courts of Justice was not the usage of this Court and therefore he was remanded As a concurrant proof of these Proceedings concerning Mr. Chambers we shall insert here a Petition of his though out of time to the Long Parliament and afterwards renewed to the succeeding Parliament viz. To the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland The brief Remonstrance and humble Petition of Richard Chambers Merchant late Alderman and Sheriff of the City of
take up their Winter Quarters A Letter of the Duke of Buckinghams to Gondomar touching King Iames his bent to the German War Octob. 25. Frederick's Forces totally routed in the Battel at Prague His calamity joined with loss of Honor. An Order at the Council-Table for recovering the Palatinate The Spaniards flatter the King Private Instructions to the Spanish Ambassador into England The King calls a Parliament The Protestant Union declines in Germany The Palatine propounds a Peace to the Elector of Saxony The King puts forth a Proclamation forbidding discourse of State-affairs The Kings Speech to the Parliament * Buckingham The Lo. Digby sent Ambassador into Flanders and Mr. Gage to Rome The Palatine and his Princess go into Holland The Emperor proceeds severely with the Bohemians Imperial Protestant Towns reconcile themselves to the Emperor and intercede for the Palatine but in vain Grievances proposed in Parliament Sir Giles Mompesson imprisoned but escapes beyond Sea 19 Iac. An. 1621. The Kings Speech to the Lords Sentence given against Sir Giles Mompesson And Sir Francis Michel his Compartner in Projects Lord Chancellor Bacon accused and convicted of Bribery Sir Henry accused by the Commons Gondomar reviled and assaulted in London streets Sir Rob. Mansel sent into the Mediterranean Sea The Emperor calls in question the Authors of the Commotions in Bohemia The King intends to adjourn the Parliament The Commons take it not well The King resents it The Commons Declaration touching the Palatinate The King by Proclamation reforms the late grievances handled in Parliament Puts forth another Proclamation against Talking of State-affairs The King is sollicited from Spain to enlarge his favors towards Catholicks The chief heads of the Lord Digby's Embassie to the Emperor The Emperors Reply to those Demands The L. Digby's second Proposal to the Emperor The Emperors Answer The English Ambassador goes to the Duke of Bavaria The Emperors Letter to Don Baltazar de Zuniga The Parliament begins again Nov. 20. The Substance of the Lord Keepers Speech Lord Digby's Speech Lord Treasurer's Speech The Commons Petition and Remonstrance to the King At this time the Protestants are ill treated in France The Kings Letter to Sir Tho. Richardson The Commons send the Remonstrance accompanied with another Petition The Kings Answer to the later Petition The Lord Keepers judgment touching the Kings sharp Answer The Lo. Digby to the Peers The Commons Protestation The King takes the Protestation out of the Journal-book with his own hand In the mean time the King dissolves them Some Eminent Members of the Parliament in Prisoned Others sent for punishment into Ireland The Council write to Judges concerning such as speak of State Affairs The Palatine spoiled of his hereditary dominions The terms which King Iames desires the Emperor to accept in behalf of the Palatine The Emperors Answer to King Iames Ian. 14. 1621. King Iames to Philip the Fourth of Spain King Iames his Letter to the King of Spain Prince Charls to the King of Spain King Iames his Letter to the Lord Balthazar of Zuniga The Privy Council by the Kings command issue out an Order for raising Money for the defence of the Palatinate Archbishop Abbot not relished at Court an advantage taken against him Bishop Laud suspected to incline to Popish Tenents while he was of Oxford as appears by a notable passage The Arminians begin to be favored by the King by means of Bishop Laud. Favors shewed to Recusants by the Kings Order Iacobi 20. 1622. The Lord Keepers Letter excusing the Kings favor towards Papists The Kings Letter to the Archbishop for regulating the Clergy Directions concerning Preachers The new K. of Spain Philip the Fourth procures the Popes assent to the Match The Infanta cools in tâ—e Palsgraves business The pretended Obstacles of the Treaty removed Heidelburgh besieged New Conditions demanded of the King before the Pope gives a Dispensation The Kings Answer to the said Demands The King sends his Resolution to Digby in Spain now made Earl of Bristol Likewise a Letter was â—ent to â—ondomar 〈◊〉 recalleâ— into Spain The Answer to the Memorial presented by the Earl of Bristol to the Spanish King Bristol gives the King hope of the Match Heidelburgh taken The King provoked sends his former Resolutions with anew dispatch into Spain In the mean time Manheim is taken The Emperors Intentions to King Iames not good Nor the King of Spains witness his Letter to Conde Olivares Olivares Answer Bristols Answer from the King of Spain The Popes Demands signed by the King and Prince Frankendale block'd up by Papenheim The King writes to Bristol The Electorate conferred upon the Duke of Bavaria in the Diet at Ratisbone The Protestant Princes plead for the Palatine's restitution The Catholick Princes reply The Protestants reassume the argument The Emperor takes up the debate Sir Dudley Carlton Resident at the â—â—gue sends his judgment of the matter to the Marquis of Buckingham The Prince and the Marquis of Buckingham go to Spain Buckingham visits Olivares and by him is conducted to the King Orders for the Prince's entertainment The Prince sees the Infanta Is entertained honorably by the King Makes his entrance publiquely into Madrid The King sends the Prince two Golden Keys The Grandees are commanded to attend his Highness The Marquis of Buckingham made Duke The people talk that the Prince is come to change his Religion Endeavors to make the Prince change his Religion * Quare Apostoliâ—is literis hortamur Catholicam Majestatem ut eum Principem redigere suaviter conetur sub Romanae Ecclesiae ditionem cui veteres Magnae Britanniae Domini coronatum caput imperii fasces Coelo plaudente submiserunt Quare te monemus ut ad Catholicum Regem religiosus Consiliarius accedas easque rationes despicias quibus insigne aliquod beneficium Britanniae Regnis Romanae Ecclesiae in praesenti rerum opportunitate comparetur Res ipsa magna atque gravissima est quare eum verbis amplificare non debemus Regnum Coelorum Britanniae Principi patefacere Regnum Britanniae sedi Apostolicae restituere incipiet qui Regii istius Adoloscentis animum Catholicae Religionis studio inflamaverit atque haeriticae impietatis odio impleverit c. The Pope's Letter to the Prince of Wales There is another Copy of the Princes Letter to the Pope published by several hands somewhat different from this Allurements to make the Prince change his Religion The Prince stedfast in his Religion Is not well dealt with in his Address to the Infanta The Dispensation is at last procured The Dispensation comes clogged Olivares proposes ways of Accommodation The King of Spain proffers to engage himself on the behalf of the King of England and the Prince His Ghostly Fathers approve his intentions The Match is declared publickly The Archbishops Letter to the King against Toleration of Popery Articles sworn to by the King Prince and Privy Council The Oath Private Articles sworne to by the King in
Propositions from either side to give distaste and lessen the Friendship between the two Crowns The Duke returned answer that all assurance and satisfaction shall be given concerning this Alliance And after Sir Digby's arrival at the Court of Spain he protested to him solemnly that the King desired it and swore for himself that he desired nothing more Hereupon Digby debated with him That the remembrance of their former Demands was yet unpleasing in England the difference of Religion the Opinions of Divines and the Cases of Conscience were still the same insomuch that his Majesty and his Servants had just cause to cease for ever from all thoughts this way Nevertheless they did not slight nor disrelish an Alliance with Spain for many of the greatest eminency in England judge it equally valuable with any other of Christendom though it be esteemed a matter of infinite difficulty Here the subtil Spaniard might perceive our forwardness though our Ambassador seemed to speak aloof off and with reservation The debate had this result that the difficulties should be digested into certain Heads and select Persons appointed for Conference but the Intent thereof was that the Kings on either side should not be interessed nor their names therein used till by the clearing of particulars there should be great appearances that the business would take effect Now because the difference of Religion was supposed the onely difficulty of moment it was thought fit to break the matter to the Cardinal of Toledo and the Kings Confessor and one Father Frederick a learned Jesuite having the repute of a Moderate man Upon the review of these proceedings Sir Iohn Digby advised the King not to suffer his other resolutions to be interrupted by this Overture which might be set on foot as a meer device to stagger the French Treaty and to keep his Majesty from declaring himself opposite to Spain in the business of Cleves and Iuliers which still remained uncompounded nevertheless he might be pleased for a while to suspend the conclusion of the Match with France and entertain this motion and to this end he desired from him not a formal Commission to treat but onely a private Instruction for his Direction and Warrant Such remote Conferences made way for that solemn slow-paced Treaty of the many years following wherein the advantage lay on the Spaniards side who were indeed very formal and specious in it but no way vehement and vigorous if we might suppose them in any sort real But the King of England having a prevalent inclination this way when he was once drawn in and elevated with hope was so set upon it that he would grant all things possible rather then break it off and was impatient of dissembling his own eagerness The business was mainly carried on by Conde Gondomar who was exquisitely framed for it and by facetious wayes taking the King in his own humor prevailed mightily The King removes all blocks that lie in the way of this Darling Design and studies all the wayes of rendring himself acceptable to Spain The Wall of this Island the English Navy once the strongest of all Christendome now lyes at road unarmed and fit for ruine Gondomar as was the common voice bearing the King in hand that the furnishing of it would breed suspition in the King his Master and avert his minde from this alliance Moreover the Town of Flushing the Castle of Ramakins in Zealand and Brill in Holland which were held by way of caution from the united Provinces to insure their dependency upon England the King resolved to render up as being meerly cautionary and none of his Propriety He rid his hands of those places to prevent requests and Propositions from the King of Spain who claimed the propriety in them and Gondomar put hard for them being accounted the Keys of the Low Countries Such was the Kings care and contrivance to keep faith with those Confederates and not offend Spain And to render this a politick action it was urged that the advantage of those Holds was countervailed by the vast expence in keeping them Howbeit the power of the English Interest in that State was by this means cut off and taken away and the alienation between King Iames and the United Provinces which appeared in latter times and was nourished by Bernevelt the head of the Arminian Faction and a Pensioner of Spain is now increased by the discovery and observation of these late Spanish compliances But the King of Spain and his Ministers had given but slender proof of any great affection yea or of sincere intention and upright dealing in this great affair For Sir Iohn Digby received certain Articles in matter of Religion after a Consultation had with their Divines which appeared very unworthy and were utterly rejected by him Yet afterwards upon a private Conference between him and some others to whom the cause had been committed a Qualification was therein conceived though not delivered as a matter there approved And the same Speeches after his return into England proceeded between him and Gondomar and were brought to that Issue that the King thought fit to acquaint a select number of his Council therewith who having heard the report of the former proceeding delivered their opinion That they found very probable ground for him to enter into a publike Treaty with as much assurance of good success as in such a case might be expected whereupon Sir Iohn Digby by Commission under the Great Seal was authorized to treat and conclude the Marriage and because the matter of Religion was in chief debate those qualified Articles that were brought out of Spain were sent back signed with the Kings hand who added something to them by way of clearer explanation They were to this effect THat the Popes Dispensation be first obtained by the meer Act of the King of Spain That the Children of this Marriage be not constrained in matter of Religion nor their Title prejudiced in case they prove Catholikes That the Infanta's Family being Strangers may be Catholikes and shall have a decent place appointed for all Divine Service according to the use of the Church of Rome and the Ecclesiasticks and Religious persons may wear their proper Habits That the Marriage shall be celebrated in Spain by a Procurator according to the Instructions of the Council of Trent and after the Infanta's arrival in England such a solemnization shall be used as may make the Marriage valid according to the Laws of this Kingdome That she shall have a competent number of Chaplains and a Confessor being Strangers one whereof shall have power to govern the Family in Religious matters In the allowing of these Articles the King thus exprest himself Seing this Marriage is to be with a Lady of a different Religion from us it becometh us to be tender as on the one part to give them all satisfaction convenient so on the other to admit nothing that may blemish our Conscience or
under the Marquess Ansbach The Evangelicks were put to the worst by General Buquoy in several encounters and were much terrified by the Duke of Bavaria who marched with an Army of Fifteen thousand Horse and Foot and a Train of Artillery proportionable and they were weakned by a Cessation of Arms in Hungary between the Emperor and the Prince of Transylvania In Spain they make all possible preparations for this War onely the King of England will not take the Alarm abhorring War in general and distasting the Palsgraves cause as an ill president against Monarchy and fed with hopes of composing all differences by the success of the Spanish Treaty For which purpose Sir Walter Aston was then sent Ambassador into Spain and Gondomar returned into England there to abide till the long debated Match be fully effected The Articles of Religion for securing Liberty of Conscience to the Infanta and her Family were greatly inlarged by the Commissioners designed for the Treaty and were allowed by the King of England but without a dispensation from Rome the transactions between the two Kings were but Nullities And for this cause it was expected that our King should propound such conditions for the increase and great advantage of the Roman Catholick Religion that the Pope may deliberate whether they be of that nature as may perswade and merit the dispensation To this demand the King made answer in his Letter to the King of Spain That he had done as much in favor of the Catholicks as the times would bear and promised in the word of a King That no Roman Priest or other Catholick should thenceforth be condemned upon any capital Law And although he could not at present rescind the Laws inflicting onely pecuniary mulcts yet he would so mitigate them as to oblige his Catholick Subjects to him And if the Marriage took effect his Daughter in Law should finde him ready to indulge all favors which she should request for those of her Religion Herein the Spanish Council acknowledged great satisfaction given and a Paper was conceived and drawn up by a Iunto of Canonists Lawyers and Divines to perswade the Pope to act his part IN the mean while an Army of Thirty thousand was levying in Flanders under the command of Marquess Spinola The King of England sent to know the cause of so great preparations The Marquess gave answer That he received his Commission sealed up with a charge not to open it till his Army were compleated and brought together to a Rendevouz But the King had proof enough to assure him that this Army was intended for the Palatinate Yet no more then one Regiment under the Command of Sir Horatio Vere could be obtained from him though two more were promised When Spinola had his Rendevouz where he mustered Six and twenty thousand Foot and Four thousand Horse he opened his Commission which required him to make War against all those which should be confederate with the Bohemian Rebels and he communicated the same to the Ambassador of Great Brittain At the same time the English began their march as brave a Regiment as hath appeared in any age consisting most of Gentlemen under a most worthy Leader who was accompanied with the Earls of Oxford and Essex persons innobled as well by their own vertues as by their Progenitors Other Commanders in this Regiment were Sir Edward Sackvile Sir Gerard Herbert Sir Robert Knolles Captain Stafford Captain Wilmot Captain William Fairfax Sir Iohn Burlacy Cap. Burroughs Cap. Robert Knightly c. This handful of men reached the Palatinate with some difficulty by the aid and conduct of Henry Prince of Nassau The Imperial forces became exceeding numerous by large supplies from several Countreys and Provinces The States Protestant of the Upper and Lower Austria upon the approach of the Bavarian Army seeing nothing but manifest ruine renounce their Confederacy with the Bohemians and submit to the Emperor saving to themselves their Rights and Priviledges in Religion Whereupon the Bohemians and their King being but Twenty thousand strong besides an addition of Ten thousand Hungarians from Bethlem Gabor and fearing least Bavaria and Buquoy joyning their forces should fall into Bohemia thought it best to fortifie the Frontiers and to defend their Country which they conceived they might well do if the Elector of Saxony would continue in his Neutrality The Emperor sent to the said Elector to execute his Ban or Declaration of Treason against the Count Palatine and the Bohemian Rebels The Bohemians by their Ambassadors requested him if he would not own their Cause yet at least to remain Neutral The Duke of Saxony replied to King Frederick That he had often represented to him what ruine was like to follow him by taking an others Crown and for his own part being called upon by the Emperor to execute his Ban and chastise the Rebels he could not disobey that just command The Protestant Princes sent to him again and gave him notice of Spinola's advance to subdue the Palatinate but this did nothing move him He entred Lusatia with some forces and quickly reduced a part of that Province In the Palatinate Spinola having got the start of the English by means of a far shorter march had no sooner arived but he took in divers Towns and prevailed greatly over a spiritless people yet he warily declined the hazard of Battel with the Princes of the Union Neither was the Marquess Ansbach very forward to engage or to seek or take advantages The Dutch slowness was not excusable howbeit the great access of strength to the Emperors party and this slender aid from the King of Great Brittain to preserve his Childrens Patrimony must needs dishearten the German Princes and help to dissolve the Union After a while the season of the year drew them into their Winter Quarters the Princes retired into their several Countreys and the English Regiment was disposed into three principal Garisons Sir Horatio Vere commanded in Manheim Sir Gerard Herbert in Heidelborough and Captain Burroughs in Frankendale having onely power to preserve themselves within those Walls whilest the enemy ranged round about them A Letter written from the Marquess of Buckingham to Conde Gondomar discovered the bent of the Kings minde and will touching the German War That he was resolved to continue Neuter for Conscience Honor and Examples sake In regard of Conscience judging it unlawful to inthrone and dethrone Kings for Religions sake having a quarrel against the Jesuites for holding that opinion Besides he saw the World inclined to make this a War of Religion which he would never do In point of Honor for that when he sent his Ambassador into Germany to treat of Peace in the interim his Son in Law had taken the Crown upon him And for Example sake holding it a dangerous president against all Christian Princes to allow a sudden translation of Crowns by the Peoples Authority Nevertheless he could not sit still and
to this Crown for it will be a thing necessary for them to do so And those even against their own Religion will foment and assist the Hereticks for hatred to us Without doubt they will follow the other party onely to leave your Majesty with that blemish which never hath beâ—aln any King of these Dominions The King of England will remain offended and enraged seeing that neither interest nor helps do follow the Alliance with this Crown as likewise with Pretext of particular resentment for having suffered his Daughter and Grand-children to be ruined for respect of the said Alliance The Emperor though he be well-affected and obliged to us in making the Translation at this time as businesses now stands the Duke of Bavaria being possessed of all the Dominions although he would dispose all according to our Conveniencies it will not be in his power to do it as your Majesty and every body may judge and the Memorial that the Emperors Ambassador gave your Majesty yesterday makes it certain since in the List of the Soldiers that every one of our League is to pay he sheweth your Majesty that Bavaria for himself alone will pay more then all the rest joyned together the which doth shew his power and intention which is not to accommodate matters but to keep to himself the Superiority of all in this broken time the Emperor is now in the Dyet and the Translation is to be made in it The Proposition in this estate is by considering the means for a Conference which your Majesties Ministers will do with their Capacities Zeal and Wisdom and it is certain they will herein have enough to do For the difficulty consists to finde a way to make the present estate of affairs straight again which with lingring as it is said Both the power and time will be lost I suppose the Emperor as your Majesty knoweth by his Ambassador desires to marry his Daughter with the King of Englands Son I do not doubt but he will be likewise glad to marry his Second Daughter with the Palatines Son Then I propound that these two Marriages be made and that they be set on foot presently giving the King of England full satisfaction in all his Propositions for the more strict Union and Correspondency that he may agree to it I hold for certain that all the Conveniences that would have followed the Alliance with us will be as full in this and the Conveniencies in the great Engagement are more by this for it doth accommodate the matter of the Palatinate and Succession of his Grand-children with Honor and without drawing a Sword and wasting Treasure With this Interest the Emperor with the Conveniencies of the King of England and the Palatinate the onely means in my way of understanding to hinder those great dangers that do threaten may accommodate the business and not sever himself from the Conveniencies and Engagements of Bavaria and after I would reduce the Prince Elector that was an enemy to the obedience of the Church by breeding his Sons in the Emperors Court with Catholick Doctrine The Business is great the Difficulties greater perchance then have been in any other case I have found my self obliged to present this unto your Majesty and shall shew if you command me what I think fit for the disposing of the things and of the great Ministers which your Majesty hath I hope with the particular Notes of these things and all being helped with the good zeal of the Conde Gondomar it may be God will open a way to it a thing so much for his and your Majesties service Such Consultations had the Catholick King in his cabinet-Cabinet-Council whilst he pretended so much zeal to a Closure with England Insomuch that King Iames professed to have taken great contentment in the Dispatches of the Earl of Bristol as full and satisfactory And though the Order sent to the Archduchess for the Relief of Anheim arrived too late yet he acknowledged it to be an argument of that Kings sincere intentions But the Kings hopes were still deferred and these Delays were palliated by the stop of the Dispensation till the Pope were further satisfied in the time of the Childrens education under the Mothers government and the exemption of Ecclesiastical persons from all Secular jurisdiction And the Spaniards did not spare to stretch the Kings ductile spirit For he was willing to stand obliged by a private Letter that the Children should be kept under the Mothers wing till the age of Nine years but he desired for Honors sake that no more then Seven might be exprest in the Publique Articles But this Enlargement would not satisfie He must come up to the allowance of Ten years which was the lowest of all to be expected and so he was brought at length to wave his Honor and to insure this Concession by a Publique Ratification And for the Exemption of Ecclesiasticks from the Secular power thus far he yielded That the Ecclesiastical Superior do take notice of the offence that shall be committed and according to the merit thereof either by Degradation deliver him to Secular Justice or banish him the Kingdom Bristol's importunate Negotiation procured this Answer from the King of Spain First touching the Marriage being desirous to overcome all difficulties that might hinder this union he had endeavoured to conform himself with the Resolutions given by the King of Great Britain to the Popes Propositions and had dispatched a Post to Rome that his Holiness judging what hath been here concluded and held sufficient might grant the Dispensation which he engageth to procure within three or four moneths at the farthest And in the interim that no time be lost the remaining Temporal Articles shall be treated and concluded As touching the Palatinate by his late Dispatches into Flanders due course is taken to settle all things as may be desired But until it be known what effects the same hath wrought and what the Emperor will reply no Answer can be given in writing to the Particulars contained in the Ambassadors Memorial Moreover the Popes Demands to which King Iames took exceptions being now accommodated by the King of Spain were sent into England and presently signed by the King and Prince without the change of a word King Iames having strong assurance that the Dispensation must needs be granted speedily appointed his Agent Gage who was now again at Rome to present to the Pope and certain Cardinals those Letters which lay in his hand to be delivered at a fit season The Kings Letter to the Pope gave him the stile of Most Holy Father Likewise he directed the Earl of Bristol to proceed to the Temporal Articles and to consummate the whole business But while the King had so much zeal and confidence in his Applications to Spain and Rome the Palatinate is left at random upon the Spaniards loose and general promises For Colonel Papenheim had block'd up Frankendale the onely Hold whereby the Palsgrave
from others but the Graces vouchsafed to them from himself and they were now confident that such potent intercessions having been made with him and all civil jealousies removed he will not onely command a real performance of what is promised but according to his own Loyal heart will enlarge the benefit Furthermore he assured the King That such difficulties as were already spent and were yet to come have been laid hold on by the Cardinals neither to frustrate nor prolong this Treaty but ouâ— of an opinion that otherwise they could not secure their Consciences proceed upon a just and valuable ground and satisfie the judgments of such discreet persons as may in times to come understand the Passages of this great Business So the long solicited Dispensation came from Pope Gregory the Fifteenth to the Court of Spain But whereas it was expected full and absolute it came with a Clog a Clause thrust in of purpose to retard the proceedings That whereas there were certain Articles condiscended unto by the King of England in favor of the Roman Catholicks in his Dominions Caution should be given for the performance of those Concessions The King answered That he could give no other Caution then his own and the Princes Oath exemplified under the Great Seal of England But this would not satisfie unless some Sovereign Catholick Prince would stand engaged for them Hereupon the frame of things was like to fall a sunder and a rumor went that the Prince intended to get away covertly Amidst the heats of this dispute Olivares whither in a humor or good earnest propounded three ways of accomodation The first was That Prince Charls should become Catholick The second That the Infanta should be delivered to him upon the former security without further condition The third was to binde him as fast as they could and not trust him with any thing And of these three ways he said The two former were good but the last was a bad one At length the King of Spain proffered to engage himself by Oath on the behalf of the King and Prince for the performance of the Articles Provided That he first consult with his Ghostly Fathers whither he might do it with a safe Conscience This was a fair contrivance whereby that King might not onely oblige our King and Prince but lay the ground-plot of a fair pretence of War against England if the Roman Catholicks received not satisfaction in the enjoyment of the Freedom promised Besides he would form a party in these Dominions to a Dependance upon his Protection A Iuncto of Divines were called to determine upon the Case and they go very gravely and tediously to work and protract the time almost beyond the bounds of the Princes patience but they conclude at last Affirmatively And in case the King of England fail to execute what was stipulated the King of Spain was to vindicate his Oath and right himself by the Sword Then was the Match declared publickly and the Prince had frequent access to the Infanta yet always in a publick manner and in the Kings presence Whilest these things were forging in Spain there were not wanting such as warned the King and tendred safer Counsels The Archbishop of Canterbury was bold to press him close in this serious Letter May it please Your Majesty I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my silence I have neglected the duty of the place it hath pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in But now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my duty to your Majesty and therefore I beseech you freely to give me leave to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do with me what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you take into your consideration what your Act is what the consequence may be By your Act you labor to set up the most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How hateful it will be to God and grievous to your good Subjects the Professors of the Gospel That your Majesty who hath often disputed and learnedly written against those Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those wicked Doctrines which your Pen hath told the World and your Conscience tells your self are Superstitious Idolatrous and detestable And hereunto I adde what you have done in sending the Prince into Spain without consent of your Council the Privity and Approbation of your People And although you have a Charge and Interest in the Prince as Son of your Flesh yet have the people a greater as Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty are their Eyes fixed and welfare depends and so tenderly is his going apprehended as believe it however his return may be safe yet the drawers of him into this Action so dangerous to himself so desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestioned unpunished Besides this Toleration which you endeavor to set up by your Proclamation cannot be done without a Parliament unless your Majesty will let your Subjects see that you will take unto your self ability to throw down the Laws of your Land at your pleasure What dread consequence these things may draw afterward I beseech your Majesty to consider and above all lest by this Toleration and discountenancing of the true Profession of the Gospel wherewith God hath blessed us and this Kingdom hath so long flourished under it your Majesty do not draw upon this Kingdom in general and your self in particular Gods heavy wrath and indignation Thus in discharge of my duty towards God to your Majesty and the place of my Calling I have taken humble leave to deliver my Conscience Now Sir do what you please with me The King would not admit any Motion of drawing back but in going forward he would yield to all demands and was accordingly scrued up to the greatest height So at last the Difficulties in Rome and Spain were all surmounted and then these following Articles Stiled by the Cardinals Propositions for the right Augmentation and Weal of the Roman Catholick Religion were sworn unto by the King Prince and Privy Council I. THat the Marriage be made by Dispensation of the Pope but that to be procured by the endeavor of the King of Spain II. That the Marriage be once onely celebrated in Spain and ratified in England in form following In the Morning after the most Gratious Infanta hath ended her Devotions in the Chappel she and the most Excellent Prince Charls shall meet in the Kings Chappel or in some other Room of the Palace where it shall seem most expedient and there shall be read all the Procurations by vertue whereof the Marriage was celebrated in Spain and as well the most Excellent Prince as the most Excellent Infanta shall ratifie the said Marriage celebrated in Spain with all solemnity necessary for such an Act so
affair among so many grave Statesmen to the prejudice of so able a Minister as the Earl of Bristol who had laid the first stone in that building Whereupon his power was called in question and found imperfect in regard it was not confirmed by the Council of England Moreover the Duke lay open to some affront which inraged him sore against the Conde Olivares and things grew to that extremity between the Duke and that Kings Ministers that they did not stick to say That they would rather put the Infanta headlong into a Well then into his hands Nevertheless in the Prince himself they observed an extraordinary well staid temper and grave comportment In the present action Buckingham and Bristol ran different ways with great animosity Bristol had the advantage in Spain yea in the Court of England he had gained a great esteem and powerful party and had wrought himself into the Kings opinion by his strenuous Negotiation and pleasing Services As concerning the Dukes demeanor the opinions in England were very different By the people in general who loathed the Match he was favored for his care of his King Prince and Country but by the Court he was much maligned and censured as the occasion of those delays by diverting and changing the ways wherein they began to treat But the King himself was very reserved either still loving the Duke or over-awed by his intimacy and power with the Prince For in all occurrences the Prince closed with him and seemed to give him a large room in his heart Now the Dukes friends at Court pressed him to return speedily and by all means with the Prince and assured him That the longer he stayed there the stronger he made his enemies and himself the weaker And Buckingham well observed that he had little obligation to Spain and had reason to seek some surer props to uphold his greatness And to draw him further off the Secretary of the Prince Palatine coming to Madrid under pretence of praying the Duke to be God-father to one of his Masters Children labored to engage him against the Marriage For the Palatine could not relie on the new overture of Marriage between his Eldest Son and the Emperors yongest Daughter it being a labyrinth out of which no Thred would guide him were the Proposals already granted For being an act of so many various parts as the Pope the Emperor the King of Spain the Duke of Bavaria and divers others it must needs be full of tedious intricacies What Money or other conditions could be offered that were like to satisfie the honor humor and huge expence of the Bavarian for quitting his conquest to an irreconcileable Neighbor What Forein Alliance is able to perswade the Emperor who hath changed all Tenures of Election into Succession and shaken the antient Freedom of the German Princes that he should revive his Enemies dead forces to the prejudice of all that he enjoys or aspires unto Would the Pope be won to suffer Heidelburgh which he accounted the most dangerous Nest of Hereticks after Geneva to return to her former strength Besides the Education of the Palsgraves Son in the Emperors Court and the Sequestration of his Country during his Sons Nonage would be required as necessary to that Conjunction By this time the King must needs be full of jealousies and the Princes patience well nigh speâ—t by the Spaniards intricate proceedings for the Divines insisted stifly That the Consummation of the Marriage and the delivering of the Infanta should be deferred to the next year which seemed a rigorous Proposal Howbeit that King promised to abate the rigor and engaged himself to accomplish the Marriage at Christmas following iâ— the Prince would continue there so long But the resolution touching the delivering of the Infanta was unalterable The English Papists apprehending that a Rupture was like to follow were much perplexed A great Stickler Sir Toby Matthews by name did press his Catholick Majesty to give the Prince some foot of ground upon which he might be able to stand with honor in complying with that extraordinary affection which he beareth to the Infanta Moreover he protested to him That if the Catholicks of these Dominions should grow liable to persecution or affliction by the occasion of this breach through the disgust of the King and his Council or through the power which the Puritans assembled in Parliament will infallibly have with him that blood or misery may be partly required at their hands who have advised his Majesty not to accept those large Conditions which the King and Prince had condescended unto and that more then Moral security which they had offered for the performance thereof Now the Prince is thinking to leave the Court of Spain and they say he wrote to his Father a Letter of high Despair wherein was this passage You must now Sir look upon my Sister and her Children never thinking more of me and forgetting that ever you had such a Son Whereupon King Iames sent swift dispatches to hasten his return The King and Council of Spain seemed to be startled at these Resolutions and his Majesty importuned the Prince That having staid so many years for a wife he would stay some few moneths longer And if he pleased to give way that the Infanta's journey might be put off till the following Spring he would give him a Blank to write his own Conditions touching the surrender of the Palatinate But when his Highness urged Reasons for his departure they took the matter in debate afresh and consented upon Oath first given as well by his Catholick Majesty as by the Prince to accomplish the Marriage and to make the Espousals within ten days after the Ratification should come from Rome To which purpose the Prince made a Procuration to the King of Spain and Don Carlos his Brother to make the Espousals in his Name and left it in the Earl of Bristols hands Nevertheless he left in the hand of one of the Dukes Creatures a private Instrument with Instructions to be delivered to the Earl of Bristol to stay the delivery of the Proxies till further direction from him pretending That the Infanta might retire into a Cloister and defraud him of a Wife But these Instructions were to be concealed from the Earl till the Ratification came from Rome The Duke not regarding a Ceremonious Farewel at Court departed hastily a little before the Prince pretending to prepare the English Navy that lay at the Port of St. Andrew for the Princes transportation Olivares and he had but a harsh parting for he told Olivares That he was obliged to the King Queen and Infanta in an eternal tye of gratitude and that he would be an everlasting Servant to them and endeavor to do the best Offices for concluding the Match and strengthning the Amity between the Crowns But as for himself he had so far disobliged him that he could not without flattery make the least profession of
ours and the Honor his XXIII His sickness at the beginning more grievous then it seemed a sharp melancholy humor set on fire though ushered in by an ordinary Tertian Ague XXIV He was from the beginning of his sickness scarce out of an opinion that he should die and therefore did not suffer the great Affairs of Christendom to move him more then was fit for he thought of his end XXV His devout receiving of the Blessed Sacrament XXVI His Regal Censure of the Moderate Reformation of the Church of England and particularly for the care of retaining of Absolution the comfort of distressed Souls XXVII His continual calling for Prayers with an assured confidence in Christ. XXVIII His death as full of patience as could be found in so strong a death XXIX His Rest no question is in Abrahams Bosome and his Crown changed into a Crown of Glory Another writes thus of that King in the Book entituled the Reign of King Charles IN the stile of the Court he went for Great Britains Solomon nor is it any Excursion beyond the Precincts of Verity to say That neither Britain nor any other Kingdom whatsoever could ever since Solomons days glory in a King for recondite Learning and abstruse Knowledge so near a Match to Solomon as he And though he was an Universal Schollar yet did he make other Sciences their most proper employment but Drudges and Serviteurs to Divinity wherein he became so transcendently eminent as he notoriously foiled the greatest Clerks of the Roman See Nor did his Theological Abilities more advantage the Cause of Religion abroad then at home they keeping the new-fangled Clergy aloof and at distance as not daring to infuse into so solid a Judgment their upstart and erroneous Fancies no nor disquiet the Churches peace with Heterodox Opinions A stout Adversary he was to the Arminians and Semipelagians whom he called as Prosper before him The Enemies of Gods Grace And as slender a Friend to the Presbytery of whose Tyrannical and Antimonarchical Principles he had from his Cradle smart experience He was an excellent Speaker the Scheme of his Oratory being more stately then pedantick and the Expressions argued him both a King and a Schollar In his Apparel and Civil Garb he seemed naturally to affect a Majestick carelesness which was so Hectick so Habitual in him as even in Religious Exercises where the Extern Demeanor is a grand part of that Sacred Homage he was somewhat too incurious and irreverent He was indulgent a little to his Palate and had a smack of the Epicure in Pecuniary Dispensations to his Favorites he was excessive liberal yea though the exigence of his own wants pleaded Retension Studious he was of Peace somewhat overmuch for a King which many imputed to pusillanimity and for certain the thought of War was very terrible unto him whereof there needs no further demonstration then his management of the Cause of the Palatinate For had he had the least scintillation of Animosity or Majestick Indignation would he have so long endured his Son-in-Law exterminated from his Patrimony while the Austrian Faction to his great dishonor cajoled and kept him in delusory Chat with specious fallacies would he in those several Negotiations of Carlisle Bristol Belfast and Weston have trifled away so vast sums the Moity whereof had they been disposed in Military Levies would have Modelled an Army able when Heidelburgh Manheim and Frankendale defended themselves to have totally dissipated all the Forces of the Usurpers to have mastered the Imperious Eagle enforcing her to forego her Quarry and reestated the Palsgrave would he so shamefully have Courted the Alliance of Spain to the very great regret of his Subjects whom his Predecessors had so often baffled and whom England ever found a worse Friend then Enemy What stronger evidence can be given in of a wonderful defect of Courage As this lipothymie this faint-heartedness lost him the reputation and respects of his people so his heavy pressures upon them and undue Levies by Privy Seals and the like alienated their Affections especially considering how those Moneys were mis-employed indeed rather thrown away partly in the two dishonorable Treaties of Spain and Germany and the Consequential Entertainments and partly in Largesses upon his Minion Buckingham Between this disaffection and contempt in his people there was generated a general disposition to turbulent and boisterous Darings and Expostulations even against his Darling Prerogative And though those dismal calamities which befel his Son were doubtless ampliated by a superfetation of Causes yet was their first and main existency derivative from those seminalities Let Court-Pens extol the calmness of his Halcyonian Reign with all artifice of Rhetorick yet can they never deny but that admired Serenity had its set in a Cloud and that he left to his Successor both an empty Purse and a Crown of Thorns Sir Francis Bacon when King Iames was living gave this Character of him WHerefore representing Your Majesty many times unto my minde and beholding you not with the eye of Presumption to discover that which the Scripture tells me is inscrutable but with the observant eye of Duty and Admiration leaving aside the other parts of your Virtue and Fortune I have been touched yea and possessed with an extream wonder at these your Virtues and Faculties which the Philosophers call Intellectuals The largeness of your Capacity the faithfulness of your Memory the swiftness of your Apprehension the penetration of your Judgment and the facility and order of your Elocution And I have then thought that of all the persons living that I have known Your Majesty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion That all Knowledge is but Remembrance and that the Minde of Man by Nature knoweth all things and hath but her own Native and Original Notions which by the strangeness and darkness of the Tabernacles of the Body are sequestred again revived and restored Such a Light of Nature I have observed in your Majesty and such a readiness to take flame and blaze from the least occasion presented or the least spark of anothers Knowledge delivered And as the Scripture saith of the wisest King That his heart was as the Sand of the Sea which though it be one of the largest Bodies yet it consisteth of the smallest and finest Portions So hath God given your Majesty a composition of Understanding admirable being able to compass and comprehend the greatest Matters and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the least wherein it should seem an impossibility in Nature for the same Instrument to make it self fit for great and small Works And for your gift of Speech I call to minde what Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Caesar Augusto prosâ—uens quae Principem deceret Eloquentia fuit For if we mark it well Speech that is uttered with labor and difficulty or Speech that savoreth of the affectation of Arts and Precepts or Speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern
lending of the Ships and received fair Answers from them both But the King sent an express and strict Order to Pennington requiring him without delay to put his former Command in Execution for the consigning of the Ship called the Vantguard with all her furniture into the hands of the Marquess D' Effiat assuring the Officers of the Ships that he would provide for their Indempnity and further commanding him to require the Seven Merchants Ships in his name to put themselves into the Service of the French King and in case of backwardness or refusal to use all means to compel them thereunto even to their sinking Upon this Pennington went back to Deep and put the Vantguard into the absolute Power and Command of the French King to be employed in his Service at pleasure and commanded the rest of the Fleet to the like Surrender At the first the Captains Masters and owners refused to yield weighed Anchor and were making away but when Pennington shot they came in again but Sir Ferdinando Gorge came away with the Ship called the Neptune The Companies unanimously declined the Service and quitted the Ships all but one Man who was a Gunner and Pennington hasted to Oxford where the Parliament was Reassembled but as was voiced was there concealed till the Parliament was dissolved On the First of August the Parliament Reassembled at Oxford whether the news of the Ships lent to the French against the besieged Rochellers did quickly flie and exasperate the spirit of that great Assembly against the Duke of Buckingham The Grievances insisted upon were the mis-spending of the Publick Treasure the neglect of guarding the Seas insomuch that the Turks had leisure to land in the Western parts and carry away the Subjects Captives The Commons appointed a Committee to consider of secret Affairs and to examine the Disbursements of the Three Subsidies and the Three Fifteens given to King Iames for the Recovery of the Palatinate and they prepared to assault the Duke Also Mr. Richard Montague was summoned to appear according to the Condition of his Bond and a Committee was appointed to proceed in the further Examination of that business Mr. Montagues Cause was recommended to the Duke by the Bishops of Rochester Oxford and St. Davids as the Cause of the Church of England They shew that some of the Opinions which offended many were no other then the resolved Doctrine of this Church and some of them are curious Points disputed in the Schools and to be left to the liberty of Learned Men to abound in their own sense it being the great fault of the Council of Trent to require a Subscription to School Opinions and the approved Moderation of the Church of England to refuse the apparent Dangers and Errors of the Church of Rome but not to be over-busie with Scholastical Niceties Moreover in the present case they alleage that in the time of Henry the Eighth when the Clergy submitted to the Kings Supremacy the Submission was so resolved That in case of any difference in the Church the King and the Bishops were to determine the Matter in a National Synod and if any other Judge in Matters of Doctrine be now allowed we depart from the Ordinance of Christ and the continual practice of the Church Herewithal they intimated That if the Church be once brought down below her self even Majesty it self with soon be impeached They say further That King Iames in his rare wisdom and judgment approved all the Opinions in this Book and that most of the contrary Opinions were debated at Lambeth and ready to be published but were suppressed by Queen Elizabeth and so continued till of late they received countenance at the Synod of Dort which was a Synod of another Nation and to us no ways binding till received by Publick Authority And they affirm boldly That they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of External Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinions as some are which are opposite to those delivered by Mr. Montague be publickly taught and maintained Such was the Opinion of these forenamed Bishops but others of Eminent Learning were of a different Judgment At Oxford in a late Divinity Disputation held upon this Question Whether a Regenerate Man may totally and finally fall from Grace The Opponent urging the Appeal to Caesar the Doctor of the Chair handled the Appellator very roughly saying He was a meer Grammarian a Man that studied Phrases more then Matter That he understood neither Articles nor Homilies or at least perverted both That he attributed he knew not what vertue to the sign of the Cross Dignus Cruce qui asserit and concluded with an Admonition to the Juniors That they should be wary of reading that and the like Books On the Fourth of August the Lords and Commons were commanded to attend his Majesty in Christs-Church Hall in Oxford where he spake unto them in manner following MY Lords and you of the Commons We all remember that from your Desires and Advice my Father now with God brake off those two Treaties with Spain that were then in hand Well you then foresaw that as well for regaining my dispossessed Brothers Inheritance as home defence a War was likely to succeed and that as your Councils had led my Father into it so your assistance in a Parliamentary-way to pursue it should not be wanting That aid you gave him by Advice was for succor of his Allies the guarding of Ireland and the home part supply of Munition preparing and setting forth of his Navy A Council you thought of and appointed for the War and Treasurers for issuing of the Moneys And to begin this Work of your Advice you gave Three Subsidies and as many Fifteens which with speed were levied and by direction of that Council of War in which the preparation of this Navy was not the least disbursed It pleased God at the entrance of this Preparation by your Advice begun to call my Father to his Mercy whereby I entred as well to the care of your Design as his Crown I did not then as Princes do of Custom and Formality Reassemble you but that by your further Advice and Aid I might be able to proceed in that which by your Counsels my Father was engaged in Your love to me and forwardness to further those Affairs you expressed by a Grant of Two Subsidies yet ungathered although I must assure you by my self and others upon credit taken up and aforehand disbursed and far short as yet to set forth that Navy now preparing as I have lately the estimate of those of care and who are still employed about it whose particular of all expences about this preparation shall be given you when you please to take an accompt of it His Majesty having ended his Speech commanded the Lord Conway and Sir Iohn Cook more particularly to declare the present state of Affairs which
had good intelligence that the King of Spains eye was malitiously bent this way which had been pursued accordingly if the employment of the Low-Countrymen to the Bay of Todos los Santos had not diverted it Now for the Counsel which was used for sending out the Fleets I will refer you to the Relation of the Lord Conway who as well in this as other Resolutions can tell you That nothing was carried with single Councils And for my self I know that in all those actions no man can stand up against me to say that I ever did go with single Councils or made breach of any but have been an obedient Servant and Minister unto their Resolutions The proof whereof will appear in a Journal thereof which my Lord Conway keeps I confess all Councils were not ever as your selves would nor have wished they should if you had known them as my Master did in whom the former Affairs of State had bred such affections that the business being altered they were not to be trusted with the Change I will now give you an accompt of all my Negotiations since my being at Oxford both at home and abroad and because there it was charged that those things were carried with single Counsels I was more careful to advise the King to have his Counsel with him in the Country being to enter into War with an Active King And for my part I did diligently wait on the Council left all Recreations all personal occasions studying to serve my Master and to gain the good opinion of both Houses The Council of Woodstock generally advised the going out of the Fleet. And though it were objected that the Season were not fit yet the action shewed the contrary for they all arived in safety And for what was also objected that the Provision was not good experience tells you the contrary for the preparations were all good in quality and proportion And if the Success were not such as any honest man could wish I hope I shall not be blamed being not there in person though I made the greatest suit for it to my Master that ever I did for any thing But his Majesty thought my Service more useful in the Low-Countreys to comfort his Sister and to treat with the Kings oâ— Denmark Sweden and the States And though the Success as I said of the Fleet were not answerable to the desires of honest men yet it had these good effects first It put our Enemy to great charge in fortifying his Coasts secondly They took so many Ships as caused many of his Merchants to break whereby the Army in Flanders suffered much And lastly They could carry no Treasure out to pay their Forces in Flanders And for Omissions of what more might have been done I leave that to its proper place and time and let every man bear his own burden From Oxford the Council went to Southampton where the States Ambassadors did wait often on the King and Council and a League Offensive and Defensive betwixt us and them was thought fit to be resolved on whereof some Reasons I will express but not all First They are of our own Religion secondly They are our near Neighbors for situation so useful as when they are in distress it is policy in us to give them relief therefore the King thought fit to do it in such manner as might lay an Obligation on them which if it had not been done they had been pressed with a long War and such a Faction among themselves as if the King had not joyned and in a manner appeared their Protector they had broke among themselves And in this the Kings care was not onely of them but of all Christendom and of his own particular For as before he onely assisted them his Majesties care now used Arguments to draw them to Contribution so that they bear the fourth part of the charge of the War at Sea according to such Conditions as by the Lord Chamberlain you have heard This League being perfected betwixt the States and us his Majesty by Advice of his Council thought fit to send me to get such a League with the other Princes as I could The Rendezvous was in the Low-Countreys being in a manner the Centre for repair for England France and Germany I had Latitude of Commission to make the League with most advantage I could Now I had discovered from Monsieur B. The French Ambassador here that a League Offensive and Defensive would be refused and I found the King of Denmark shie and loth to enter into such a League against the King of Spain and so partly out of Necessity and partly out of Reason of State I was forced to conclude the League in general Terms for the restoring of the Liberty of Germany without naming the King of Spain or the Emperor that other Princes might come in and this to continue till every one had satisfaction and nothing to be treated of debated or concluded on but by consent of all parties It did appear that the Charge was so great that the Kingdom could not endure it and therefore I endeavored in the Low-Countreys to lessen it and so the Sea charge was helped and the Land assistance given unto them is to cease Six moneths hence which the Lord Conway said was to end in September next Also by this Treaty it is conditioned with the King of Denmark That when my Master shall by Diversion equal to this Contribution with his own Subjects enter into an Action then this Charge to cease Or if the King of France may be drawn in of which there is great hope though he hath now made peace in Italy for that the policy of France may not give way unto the greatness of the House of Austria and ambition of Spain whose Dominions do grasp him in on every side And if the business be well carried his Engagement to the King of Denmark may draw him in so there is great possibility of easing our Charge But all is in the discreet taking of the time for it not we may think the King of Denmark will take hold of those fair Conditions which are each day offered him and then the Enemies Army will fall upon the River of Elve and the Lord Conway added upon East-Friezland from whence they would make such progress as in my poor experience would ruine the Low-Countreys And thus I think I have satisfied all of you or at least given an account of my Negotiation in the Low-Countreys with the King of Denmark Sweden and the rest I should be glad before I end to say somewhat of my self but I shall request your favorable construction for I have been too long already but I fear I shall offend and therefore I will restrain my self to generals If in any of these employments my Errors may be shewed me I shall take him for my best friend that will manifest them in particulars I have bent all my thoughts on nothing but my Masters Honor the Service
Peace as they doubted he would not be brought to enter into War But Count Mansfield procured the King of France to Contract to receive our Troops with promise to enter into the War upon condition it might be regulated by the Council of the French King and England This favor to Count Mansfield That France agreed that his Armies should joyn with the Kings Troops wrought the Princes of Germany to believe that the King would enter into a War Thereupon the Imperialists left their Dyet and sent Tilly to Friezland and to take up the River of Embden which if he had obtained they would have trampled the Low-Countreys under foot and would have become Governors of the Sea Upon this the King of Denmark sent to our King and offered to raise an Army of Thirty thousand men if our King would allow Thirty thousand pounds a Moneth and said He would admit no time of respite for if Tilly had not been presently met and headed all had been lost Whereupon our King called a Counsel and appointed Commissioners and from that time all the Warrants for the issuing of the Moneys were all under the Kings own hand to the Council of War and from them to the Treasurers and the Warrants were from the Lords of the Council for the Levying of Men and for Coats and Conduct-Money A List whereof is hereunder specified Thereupon the Duke asked the Question Whether any thing was done by single Council To which the Lord Conway answered No. For the Treaty of Denmark Project of Count Mansfield Treaties with France and the business of the Navy were done all by the King himself and who can say it was done by single Council when King Iames commanded it whose Council every man ought to reverence especially in matters of War whereunto that King was not hasty The Total of Moneys paid by Warrants of the Treasurers of the Subsidy Money IN Toto for the Four Regiments of the Low-Countries from the Thirtieth of Iune 1624. till the One and twentieth of Iuly 1624. 99878 l. 00 s. 06 d. For the Navy from the Thirteenth of Iuly 1624. till the Three and twentieth of December 37530 l. 08 s. 04 d. For the Office of the Ordinance and Forts in England from the Twentieth of Iuly 1624. till the Fifteenth of Iune 1625. 47126 l. 05 s. 05 d. To defray Charges for Forts in Ireland about October 1624. 32295 l. 18 s. 04 d. For the Service under Count Mansfield for Provisions of Arms transporting of Soldiers from the Fourth of October 1624. till the Tenth of December 1624. 61666 l. 13 s. 04 d. Sum Total 278497 l. 04 s. 11 d. MEmorandum That over and above the several Services before specified and the several Sums issued and to be issued by our Warrants for the same We did long since resolve and order accordingly that out of the Moneys of the Second and third Subsidies these further Services should be performed and Moneys issued accordingly viz. In full of the Supply of all the Forts and Castles before-mentioned Surveyed per Sir Richard Morison Sir Iohn Ogle Sir Iohn Kay in September 1613. with all sorts of Munitions according to several Proportions and Warrants for the same 4973 l. In full for the Reparations of all the said Forts and Castles according to the said Survey 10650 l. 06s 08 d. But the said Subsidies being not like to afford means to perform these so necessary Works We humbly commend the supply of what shall be wanting for the same unto your Majesties Princely consideration Whilest the Commons were inquiring into Publick Grievances the Lords represented to the King a Grievance to their own Order in this following Petition To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The Petition of your ever Loyal Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal now in Parliament Assembled In all humility sheweth THat whereas the Péers and Nobility of this Your Kingdom of England have heretofore in Civility yeilded as to strangers Precedency according to their several degrées unto such Nobles of Scotland and Ireland as being in Titles above them have resorted hither Now divers of the natural born Subjects of those Kingdoms resident here with their Families and having their cheif Estates among us do by reason of some late created Dignities in those Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland claim Precedency of the Péers of this Realm which tends both to the disservice of Your Majesty and these Realms and to the great disparagement of the English Nobility as by these Reasons may appear I. It is a novelty without president that men should inherit Honors where they possess nothing else II. It is injurious to those Countreys from whence their Titles are derived that they should have a Uote in Parliament where they have not a foot of Land III. It is a grievance to the Country where they inhabite that men possessing very large Fortunes and Estates should by reason of Foreign Titles be exempted from those Services of Trust and Charge which through their default become greater pressures upon others who bear the burthen IV. It is a shame to Nobility that Persons dignified with the Titles of Barons Viscounts c. should be obnoxious and exposed to arrest they being in the view of the Law no more then méer Plebeians We therefore humbly beséech your Majesty That you will be pleased according to the examples of the best Princes and times upon consideration of these inconveniencis represented to Your Majesty by the nearest Body of Honor to Your Majesty that some course may be taken and an order timely setled therein by Your Princely Wisdom so as the inconvenience to Your Majesty may be prevented and the prejudice and disparagement of the Péers and Nobility of this Kingdom be redressed To this Petition the King gave Answer That he would take order therein The Earl of Bristol who continued under Restraint and was debarred Access to his Majesty ever since his return out of Spain had been examined touching his Negotiation there by a Committee of Lords appointed by the King Certain Propositions were tendred unto him in order to his Release and composing of that Affair concerning which he had written to the Lord Conway and about this time received the ensuing Letter from him The Lord Conway to the Earl of Bristol My Lord I Received a Letter from your Lordship dated the Fourth of this Moneth written in Answer to a former Letter which I directed to your Lordship by his Majesties Commandment This last Letter according to my duty I have shewed unto his Majesty who hath perused it and hath commanded me to write back to you again That he findes himself nothing satisfied therewith The Question propounded to your Lordship from his Majesty was plain and clear Whether you did rather chuse to sit still without being questioned for any Errors past in your Negotiation in Spain and enjoy the benefit of the late gratious Pardon granted in Parliament whereof you may have the benefit Or
and spun out two days time It was managed by Eight Members and Sixteen more as Assistants The Eight cheif managers were Sir Dudley Diggs Mr. Herbert Mr. Selden Mr. Glanvile Mr. Pym Mr. Sherâ—and Mr. Wandesford and Sir Iohn Elliot Sir Dudley Diggs by way of Prologue made this Speech My Lords THere are so many things of great importance to be said in very little time to day that I conceive it will not be unacceptable to your Lordships if setting by all Rhetorical Affectations I onely in plain Country Language humbly pray your Lordships favor to include many excuses necessary to my manifold infirmities in this one word I am Commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House to present to your Lordships their most affectionate thanks for your ready condescending to this Conference which out of confidence in your great Wisdoms and approved Justice for the service of his Majesty and the welfare of this Realm they desired upon this occasion The House of Commons by a fatal and universal Concurrence of Complaints from all the Sea-bordering parts of this Kingdom did finde a great and grievous interruption and stop of Trade and Traffick The base Pirates of Sally ignominiously infesting our Coasts taking our Ships and Goods and leading away the Subjects of this Kingdom into Barbarous captivity while to our shame and hindrance of Commerce our enemies did as it were besiege our Ports and block up our best Rivers mouths Our friends on slight pretences made Imbargoes of our Merchants Goods and every Nation upon the least occasion was ready to contemn and slights us So great was the apparent diminution of the antient Honor of this Crown and once strong Reputation of our Nation Wherewith the Commons were more troubled calling to remembrance how formerly in France in Spain in Holland and every where by Sea and Land the Valors of this Kingdom had been better valued and even in latter times within remembrance when we had no Alliance with France none in Denmark none in Germany no Friend in Italy Scotland to say no more ununited Ireland not setled in peace and much less security at home when Spain was as ambitious as it is now under a King Philip the Second they called their Wisest the House of Austria as great and potent and both strengthned with a malitious League in France of persons ill-affected when the Low-Countreys had no Being yet by constant Councils and old English ways even then that Spanish pride was cooled that greatness of the House of Austria so formidable to us now was well resisted and to the United Provinces of the Low-Countreys such a beginning growth and strength was given as gave us honor over all the Christian World The Commons therefore wondring at the Evils which they suffered debating of the Causes of them found they were many drawn like one Line to one Circumference of decay of Trade and strength of Honor and Reputation in this Kingdom which as in one Centre met in one great Man the cause of all whom I am here to name The Duke of Buckingham Here Sir Dudley Diggs made a little stop and afterwards read the Preamble to the Charge viz. The Commons Declaration and Impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham FOr the speedy Redress of great Evils and Mischeifs and of the cheif cause of these Evils and Mischeifs which this Kingdom of England now grievously suffereth and of late years hath suffered and to the honor and safety of our Soveraign Lord the King and of his Crown and Dignity and to the good and welfare of his people The Commons in this present Parliament by the Authority of our said Soveraign Lord the King assembled Do by this their Bill shew and declare against George Duke Marquess and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villers Baron of Whaddon Great Admiral of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and of the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoigne and Guienne General-Governor of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdom Lieutenant-General Admiral Captain-General and Governor of his Majesties Royal Fleet and Army lately set forth Master of the Horse of our Soveraign Lord the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and of the Members thereof Constable of Dover Castle Iustice in Eyre of all the Forests and Chases on this side the River Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Gentleman of his Majesties Bed-Chamber one of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Council in his Realms both in England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Honorable Order of the Garter The Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences Crimes and other Matters comprised in the Articles following and him the said Duke do accuse and impeach of the said Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes My Lords THis lofty Title of this Mighty Man methinks doth raise my spirits to speak with a Paulò Majora Canamus and let it not displease your Lordships if for Foundation I compare the beautiful structure and fair composition of this Monarchy wherein we live to the great work of God the World it self In which the solid Body of incorporated Earth and Sea as I conceive in regard of our Husbandry Manufactures and Commerce by Land and Sea may well resemble us the Commons And as it is incompassed with Air and Fire and Sphears Celestial of Planets and a Firmament of fixed Stars all which receive their heat light and life from one great glorious Sun even like the King our Soveraign So that Firmament of fixed Stars I take to be your Lordships those Planets the great Officers of the Kingdom that pure Element of Fire the most Religious Zealous and Pious Clergy and the Reverend Judges Magistrates and Ministers of Law and Justice the Air wherein we breathe All which encompass round with cherishing comfort this Body of the Commons who truly labor for them all and though they be the Foot stool and the lowest yet may well be said to be the setled Centre of the State Now my good Lords if that glorious Sun by his powerful Beams of Grace and Favor shall draw from the Bowels of this Earth an exhalation that shall take Fire and burn and shine out like a Star it needs not be marvelled at if the poor Commons gaze and wonder at the Comet and when they feel the effects impute all to the incorruptible matter of it But if such an imperfect mixture appear like that in the last age in the Chair of Cassiopeia among the sixed Stars themselves where Aristotle and the old Philosophers conceived there was no place for such corruption then as the Learned Mathematicians were troubled to observe the irregular motions the prodigious magnitude and the ominous prognosticks of that Meteor so the Commons when they see such a blazing Star in course so exorbitant in the Affairs of this Commonwealth cannot
said Drink or Potion to his said late Majesty who thereupon at the same times within the seasons in that behalf prohibited by his Majesties Physitians as aforesaid did by the means and procurement of the said Duke drink and take divers quantities of the said Drink or Potion After which said Plaisters and Drink or Potion applied and given unto and taken and received by his said Majesty as aforesaid great distempers and divers ill symptoms appeared upon his said Majesty insomuch That the said Physitians finding his Majesty the next morning much worse in the estate of his health and holding a Consultation thereabout did by joynt consent send to the said Duke praying him not to adventure to minister to his Majesty any more Physick without their allowance and approbation And his said Majesty himself finding himself much diseased and affected with pain and sickness after his then fit when by the course of his Disease he expected intermission and ease did attribute the cause of such his trouble unto the said Plaister and Drink which the said Duke had so given and caused to be administred unto him Which said adventrous act by a person obliged in duty and thankfulness done to the Person of so great a King after so ill success of the like formerly administred contrary to such Directions as aforesaid and accompanied with so unhappy event to the great grief and discomfort of all his Majesties Subjects in general is an Offence and Misdemeanor of so high a nature as may justly be called and is by the said Commons deemed to be an act of transcendent presumption and of dangerous consequence Mr. Wandesford deputed to enlarge and aggravate upon the Thirteenth Article commended the charity and providence of that Law which makes it penal for unskilful Empyricks and all others to exercise and practice Physick upon common persons without a lawful Calling and Approbation branding them that thus transgress as Improbos Ambitiosos Temerarios Audaces homines But he that without skill and calling shall direct a Medicine which upon the same person had wrought bad effects enough to have disswaded a second adventure and then when Physitians were present Physitians selected for Learning and Art prepared by their Office and Oaths without their consent nay even contrary to their Direction and in a time unseasonable He must needs said he be guilty albeit towards a common person of a precipitate and unadvised rashness much more towards his own Soveraign And so pious are our selves to put the Subjects in minde of their duty towards their Princes Persons so Sacred that in the attempt of a Madman upon the King his want of Reason which towards any of his fellow Subjects might have quit him of Felony shall not excuse him of Treason And how wary and advised our Ancestors have been not to apply things in this kinde to the Person of a King may appear by a President 32 Hen 6. where Iohn Arundel and others the Kings Physitians and Chirurgeons thought it not safe for them to administer any thing to the Kings Person without the assent of the Privy Council first obtained and express Licence under the Great Seal of England This Medicine found his Majesty in the declination of his desease and we all wish it had left him so but his better days were shortly turned into worse and instead of health and recovery we hear by good testimony that which troubles the poor and loyal Commons of England of great distempers as Droughts Raving Fainting an intermitting Pulse strange effects to follow upon the applying of a Treacle Plaister But the truth is Testimony tells us That this Plaister had a strange smell and an invective quality striking the malignity of the disease inward which Nature otherwise might have expelled outward Adde to this the Drink twice given to his Majesty by the Duke his own hands and a third time refused and the following Complaint of that blessed Prince the Physitians telling him to please him for the time That his second impairment was from cold taken or some other ordinary cause No no said his Majesty it is that which I had from Buckingham And though there be no President said he of an act offered to the Person of a King so insolent as this yet is it true that divers persons as great as this have been questioned and condemned for less offences against the Person of their Soveraign It was an Article amongst others laid against the Duke of Somerset for carrying Edward the Sixth away in the night time out of his own head but from Hampton Court to Windsor and yet he was trusted with the Protection of his person Presidents failing us in this point the Common Law will supply us The Law judgeth a deed done in the execution of an unlawful act Man-slaughter which otherwise would but have been Chance-medley and that this act was unlawful the House of Commons do believe as belonging to the Duty and Vocation of a sworn and experimented Physitian and not the unskilfulness of a yong Lord. And so pretious are the lives of men in the Eye of the Law that though Mr. Stanford saith If a Physitian take one into his Cure and he die under his hands it is not Felony because he did it not Feloniously Yet it is Mr. Bractons opinion That if one that is no Physitian or Chirurgeon undertake a Cure and the party die under his hands this is Felony And the Law goeth further making Physitians and Chirurgeons themselves accomptable for the Death of their Patients if it appear they have transgressed the Rules of their own Art that is by undertaking a thing wherein they have no experience or having yet failed in the care and diligence Lastly He said he was commanded by the House of Commons to desire their Lordships That seeing the Duke hath made himself a President in committing that which former Ages knew not their Lordships will out of their Wisdom and Justice make him an example for the time to come The several Articles being thus enlarged and aggravated by the said respective Members Sir Iohn Elliot was appointed to make the Epilogue to the Impeachment who spake thus My Lords YOur Lordships have heard in the Labors of these two days spent in this Service a Representation from the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament of their Apprehension of the present Evils and dangers of this Kingdom of the Causes of the same and of the Application of them to the Duke of Buckingham so clearly and fully as I presume your Lordships expect I should rather conclude then adde any thing to his charge Your Lordships have heard how his Ambition was expressed in procuring and getting into his hands the greatest Offices of strength and power of this Kingdom by what means he had attained them and how Money stood for Merit There needs no Argument to prove this but the common sense of the Miseries and Misfortunes which we suffer
for the continuance of that service and safety Which we cannot hope for and we beséech your most excellent Majesty graciously to receive this our humble and frée protestation That we cannot hope for it so long as we thus suffer under the pressures of the power and ambition of the said Duke and the divers and false Informations so given to your Majesty on his behalf and for his advantage especially when we observe also that in such his greatness he preventeth the giving of true Information to your Majesty in all things that may any ways reflect on his own misdoings to shew unto your Majesty the true state of your Subjects and Kingdoms otherwise then as it may be represented for his own ends And to that purpose also hath he procured so many persons depending on him either by alliance or advancement to places of eminencie near your Sacred person Through his misinformations of that kind also and power we have séen to our great grief both in the time of your Majesties Royal Father of blessed memory and of your Majesty divers Officers of the Kingdom so often by him displaced and altered that within these few years past since the beginning of his greatness more such displacings and alterations have by his means happened then in many years before them Neither was there in the time of your Royal Father of blessed memory any such Course held before it was by the practice of the said Duke thus induced And since that time divers Officers of the Crown not only in this your Kingdom of England but also in Ireland as they have béen made friends or adverse to the said Duke have béen either so commended or mispresented by him to his Soveraign and by his procurement so placed or displaced that he hath always herein as much as in him lay made his own ends and advantage the measure of the good or ill of your Majesties Kingdoms But now at length may it please your most excellent Majesty we have received from the Lords a Copy of the said Dukes Answer to our Charge transmitted against him whereunto we shall presently in such sort reply according to the Laws of Parliament that unless his power and practice again undermine our procéedings we do not doubt but we shall upon the same have Iudgment against him In the times also most gracious Soveraign of these Interruptions which came amongst us by reason of the procurement of two of our Members committed A gracious Message was formerly received from your Majesty wherein you had been pleased to let us know That if you had not a timely Supply your Majesty would betake your self to New Counsels which we cannot doubt were intended by your most excellent Majesty to be such as stood with Iustice and the Laws of this Realm But these words New Counsels were remembred in a Speech made amongst us by one of your Majesties privy-Privy-Council and lately a Member of us who in the same Speech told us He had often thought of those words New Counsels That in his consideration of them he remembred that there were such kinds of Parliaments antiently among other Nations as are now in England That in England he saw the Country-people live in happiness and plenty but in these other Nations he saw them poor both in persons and habit or to that effect Which state and condition happened as he said to them where such New Counsels were taken as that the use of their Parliaments ended This intimation may it please your Majesty was such as also gave us just cause to fear there were some ill Ministers near your Majesty that in behalf of the said Duke and together with him who is so strangely powerful were so much against the Parliamentary Course of this Kingdom as they might perhaps advise your most excellent Majesty such New Counsels as these that fell under the memory and consideration of that Privy-Counsellor And one especial reason among others hath increased that fear amongst us For that whereas the Subsidies of Tonnage and Poundage which determined upon the death of your most Royal Father our late Soveraign and were never payable to any of your Majesties Ancestors but only by a special Act of Parliament and ought not to be levied without such an Act yet ever since the beginning of your Majesties happy Reign over us the said Subsidies have béen levied by some of your Majesties ministers as if they were still due although also one Parliament hath béen since then begun and dissolved by procurement of the said Duke as is before shewed wherein no Act passed for the same Subsidies Which example is so much against the constant use of former times and the known Right and Liberty of your Subjects that it is an apparent effect of some new Counsels given against the antient setled Course of Government of this your Majesties Kingdom and chiefly against the Right of your Commons as if there might be any Subsidy Tax or Aid levied upon them without their consent in Parliament or contrary to the setled Laws of this Kingdom But if any such do so ill an office as by the misrepresentation of the state and right of your Majesties loyal Subjects advise any such new Counsels as the levying of any Aid Tax or Subsidy among your people contrary to the setled Laws of your Kingdom We cannot most gracious Soveraign but esteem them that so shall advise not only as Uipers but Pests to their King and Commonwealth as all such were to both Houses of Parliament expresly stiled by your most Royal Father but also Capital Enemies as well to your Crown and Dignity as to the Commonwealth And we shall for our parts in Parliament shew as occasion shall require and be ready to declare their offences of this kind such as that may be rewarded with the highest punishment as your Laws inflict on any Offenders These and some of these things amongst many other Most gracious Soveraign are those which have so much prevented a right understanding betwéen your Majesty and us and which have possessed the hearts of your people and loyal Commons with unspeakable sorrow and grief finding apparently all humble and hearty endeavors misinterpreted hindred and now at last almost frustrated utterly by the interposition of the excessive and abusive power of one man Against whom we have just cause to protest not only in regard of the particulars wherewith he hath béen charged which in Parliamentary way we are enforced to insist upon as matters which lie in our notice and proof but also because we apprehend him of so unbridled Ambition and so averse to the good and tranquillity of the Church and State that we verily believe him to be an Enemy to both And therefore unless we would betray our own duties to your Majesty and those for whom we are trusted We cannot but express our infinite grief that he should have so great power and interest in your Princely affections and under your Majesty wholly in
Protestant League with the Princes on the other part drawing in secret oâ— State the countenance of France to give the more reputation of assistance to them and security to it self Spain seeing his hopes thus fruitless by these Unions and streights began first to break if he might the Amity of France and England But finding the Common danger to be a fast tie he raiseth up a party in that Kingdom of his own by which the French King was so distressed that had not the English Council assisted and relieved him Spain had there removed that next and greatest Obstacle of his Ambition His Council now tells him from these examples That the way to his great work is impossible so long as England lay a let in his way And adviseth him that the remove of that Obstacle be the first of his intents This drew on those often secret practises against the person of the Queen and his open fury in Eighty Eight against the body of the State which she perceiving following the advice of a free Council would never after admit of a Peace winning thereby the hearts of a loving people who ever found hands and money for all occasions at home and keeping sacredly all her Alliances abroad securing to her Confederates all her time freedom from fear of Spanish slavery and so ended her old and happy days in glory Spain then by the wisdom and power of that great Lady despoiled so of his means to hurt though not of his desires makes up with her Peaceful Successor of happy memory that Golden League That disarming us at home by the opinion of Security and giving them a power in our Councils by believing their Friendships and pretended Marriage gave them way to cherish amongst us a Party of their own and benefit of power abroad to lead in Jealousie and some division between us and our Confederates By which we see they have swallowed up the Fortune of your Majesties Brother's Estate with the rest of the Imperial States distressed the King of Denmark by that quarrel diverted Sweden's assistance by the Wars with the Pole and moving them now with offer of the Danish Crown And now whether from the Plot of our Fatality hath cast such a bone between France and us as hath made themselves by our quarrel of Religion a fast Confederate and us a dangerous Enemy So as now we are left no other assurance against their malice and ambition but the Netherlands where the tie of mutual safety is weakned by daily discontents bred and fed between us by some ill-affected to both our securities that from the doubtfulness of friendship as we now stand we may rather suspect from our own domestick Faction if they grow too furious they will rather follow the example of Rome in her growing that held that equal safety honorable and more easie dare regnum then subjugare provinciam considering the power they have in their hands then to give any friendly assistance to save the present condition of a State You may therefore see in what terms we stand abroad and I fear we are at home for resistance in no better state There must be to withstand a Forein Invasion a proportion both of Sea and Land-Forces For to give an Enemy an easie passage and a Port to relieve him in is no less then to hazard all at one stake And it is to be considered That no March by Land can be of that speed to make head against the landing of an Enemy Then that follows That there is no such prevention as to be Master of the Sea To this point of Necessary Defence there can be no less then Two hundred and forty thousand pounds For the Land-Forces if it were for an Offensive War the men of less livelihood were the best spared and we used formerly to make such War Purgamenta reipub if we made no further purchase by it But for the safety of a Commonwealth the wisdom of all times did never intrust the Publick Cause to any other then to such as had a portion in the Publick Adventure And that we saw in Eighty Eight when the care of the Queen and of the Council did make the body of that large Army no other then of the Trained Bands which with the Auxiliaries of the whole Realm amounted to no less then Twenty four thousand men Neither were any of these drawn from forth their Country and proper habitations before the end of May that they might be no long grievance to the Publick such Discontentments being to us a more fatal Enemy then any Forein forces The careful distributing and directing of their Sea and Land-forces being more fitting for a Council of War then a private man to advise of I pass over yet shall ever be willing and ready when I shall be called humbly to offer up such Observations as I have gathered by the former like occasion in this Realm To make up this Preparation there are requisite two things Money and Affections for they cannot be properly severed It was well and wisely said of that great and grave Councellor the Lord Burleigh in the like case to the late Queen Win hearts and you have their hands and purses And I find that of late Diffidence hath been in the one and hath unhappily prevented the other In gathering then of Money for this present need there are three things requisite Speed Assurance and Satisfaction And the way to gather as in other like cases hath been done must be by the path-way formerly called Via regia being more secure and speedy For by unknown and untrodden ways it is both rough and tedious and never succeedeth well This last way although it took place as it were by a Supply at first and received no general denial yet since it hath drawn many to consult with themselves and others in the consequence as it is now conceived a pressure on their Liberties and against Law I much fear if that now again it be offered either in the same face or by Privy-seal it will be refused wholly Neither find I that the restraint of the Recusants hath produced any other effect then a stiff resolution in themselves and others to forbear Besides although it were at the first with some assurance yet when we consider the Commissions and other forms incident to such like services as that how long it hangs in hand and the many delays that are we may easily see that such a Sum granted by the Parliament is far sooner and easier levied If any will make the succession of times to produce an inevitable necessity to enforce it if denied whether in general by Excise or Imposition or in particular on some select persons which is the custom of some Countries and so conclude it as there for the Publick State suprema lege He must look for this to be told him That seeing Necessity must conclude always to gather Money 't is less speedy or assured then that by a Parliament The sucess
when the end may be the service of his Majesty and the good of the Commonweale But on the contrary when against a Parliament Law the Subject shall have taken from him his goods against his will and his liberty against the Laws of the Land shall it be accounted want of duty in us to stand upon our Priviledges hereditary to us and confirmed by so many Acts of Parliament In doing this we shall but tread the steps of our forefathers who ever preferred the Publick Interest before their own right nay before their own lives nor can it be any wrong to his Majesty to stand upon them so as thereby we may be the better enabled to do his Majesties service but it will be a wrong to us and our posterity and our consciences if we willingly forego that which belongs unto us by the Law of God and of the Land and this we shall do well to present to his Majesty we have no cause to doubt of his Majesties gracious acceptation This Debate said Sir Tho. Wentworth carries a double Aspect towards the Soveraign and the Subject though both be innocent both are injured and both to be cured Surely in the greatest humility I speak it these illegal ways are punishment and marks of indignation the raising of Loans strengthned by Commission with unheard of Instructions and Oathes the billetting of Soldiers by the Lieutenants and Deputy Lieutenants have been as if they could have perswaded Christian Princes yea worlds that the right of Empires had been to take away by strong hands and they have endeavored as far as possible for them to do it This hath not been done by the King under the pleasing shade of whose Crown I hope we shall ever gather the fruits of Justice but by Projectors who have extended the Prerogative of the King beyond the just Symetry which maketh a sweet harmony of the whole They have brought the Crown into greater want then ever by anticipating the Revenues And can the Shepherd be thus smitten and the Speep not scattered They have introduced a Privy-Council ravishing at once the Spheres of all ancient Government imprisoning us without either bail or bond they have taken from us what shall I say indeed what have they left us All means of supplying the King and ingratiating our selves with him taking up the root of all propriety which if it be not seasonably set again into the ground by his Majesties own hands we shall have insteed of beauty baldness To the making of those whole I shall apply my self and propound a Remedy to all these diseases By one and the same thing have King and People been hurt and by the same must they be cured to vindicate what new things no our ancient vital Liberties by reinforcing the ancient Laws made by our Ancestors by setting forth such a Character of them as no licentious spirit shall dare to enter upon them and shall we think this is a way to break a Parliament no our desires are modest and just I speak truly both for the interest of King and People if we injoy not these it will be impossible for to relieve him Therefore let us never fear they shall not be accepted by his goodness wherefore I shall shortly descend to my motions consisting of four parts two of which have relation to our persons two to the propriety of goods for our persons first the freedom of them from imprisonment secondly from imployment abroad contrary to the ancient Customs For our goods that no Levies be made but by Parliament secondly no billetting of Soldiers It is most necessary that these be resolved that the Subject may be secured in both Sir Benjamin Rudyard stands up as a Moderator and spake thus This is the Chrysis of Parliaments we shall know by this if Parliaments live or die the King will be valued by the success of us the Councils of this House will have opperations in all 't is sit we be wise his Majesty begins to us with affection proclaiming that he will relie on his peoples love preservation is natural we are not now on the bene esse but on the esse be sure England is ours and then prune it Is it no small matter that we have provoked two most Potent Kings we have united them and have betrayed our selves more then our enemies could Men and Brethren what shall we do is there no balm in Gilead if the King draw one way the Parliament another we must all sink I respect no particular I am not so wise to contemn what is determined by the major part one day tells another and one Parliament instructs another I desire this House to avoid all contestations the hearts of Kings are great 't is comely that Kings have the beter of their Subjects give the King leave to come off I believe his Majesty expects but the occasion 't is lawfull and our duty to advise his Majesty but the way is to take a right course to attain the right end which I think may be thus by trusting the King and to breed a trust in him by giving him a large Supply according to his wants by prostrating our Grievances humbly at his feet from thence they will have the best way to his heart that is done in duty to his Majesty And to say all at once Let us all labor to get the King on our side and this may be no hard matter considering the neer subsistence between the King and people Sir Edward Cook spake next Dum tempus habemus bonum operemur I am absolutely to give Supply to his Majesty yet with some caution To tell you of Forein dangers and inbred evils I will not do it the State is inclining to a consumption yet not incurable I fear not Forein Enemies God send us peace at home for this disease I will propound remedies I will seek nothing out of mine own head but from my heart and out of Acts of Parliament I am not able to fly at all Grievances but only at Loans Let us not flatter our selves who will give Subsidies if the King may impose what he will and if after Parliament the King may inhaunce what he pleaseth I know the king will not do it I know he is a Religious King free from personal vices but he deals with other mens hands and sees with other mens eyes will any give a Subsidy that may be taxed after Parliament at pleasure the King cannot tax any by way of Loans I differ from them who would have this of Loans go amongst Grievances but I would have it go alone I le begin with a noble Record it cheers me to think of it 25. E. 3. it is worthy to be written in letters of gold Loans against the will of the Subject are against reason and the Franchises of the Land and they desire restitution what a word is that Franchise The Lord may tax his Villain high or low but it is against the Franchises
bring in Popery and the professors of those opinions the common disturbers of the Protestant Churches and incendiaries in those States wherein they have gotten any head being Protestants in shew but Iesuites in opinion which caused your Royal Father with so much pious wisdom and ardent zeale to endeavour the suppressing of them as well at home as in the neighbour Countreys And your gracious Majesty imitating his most worthy example hath openly and by your Proclamation declared your mislike of those persons and of their opinions who notwithstanding are much favoured and advanced not wanting friends even of the Clergy near to your Majesty namely Doctor Neale Bishop of Winchester and Doctor Lawd Bishop of Bath and Wells who are justly suspected to be unsound in their opinions that way And it being now generally held the way to preferment and promotion in the Church many Schollars do bend the course of their Studies to maintain those Errors Their Books and opinions are suffered to be printed and published and â—n the other side the imprinting of such as are written against them and in defence of the Orthodox Church are hindred and prohibited and which is a boldnesse almost incredible this restraint of Orthodox Books is made under colour of your Majesties formerly mentioned Proclamation the intent and meaning wherof we know was quite contrary And further to encrease our feares concerning Innovation of Religion we finde that there hath been no smal laboring to remove that which is the most powerful means to strengthen and encrease our own Relgion and to oppose both those which is the diligent teaching and instruction of the people in the true knowledge and worship of Almighty God And therefore means have been sought out to depresse and discountenance pious and painful and Orthodox Preachers and how conformable soever and peaceable in their disposition and carriage they be yet the preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits and hardly permitted to Lecture And in those places where are no constant preaching Ministers whereby many of your good people whose souls in this case we beseech your Majesty to commiserate are kept in ignorance and are apt to be easily seduced to error and superstition It doth not a little also encrease our dangers and fears this way to understand the miserable condition of your Kingdome of Ireland where without controll the Popish Religion is openly confessed and practised in every part thereof Popish Iurisdiction being there generally exercised and avowed Monasteries Nunneries and other superstitious Houses newly erected re-edified and replenished with men and women of several Orders and in a plentiful manner maintained at Dublyn and most of the great Towns and divers other places of the Kingdome which of what ill consequence it may prove if not seasonably repressed we leave to your Majesties wisdome to Iudge But most humbly beseech you as we assure our selves you will to lay the serious consideration thereof to your royal and pious heart and that some speedy course may be taken for redresse therein And if now to all these your Majesty will be pleased to adde the consideration of the circumstances of time wherein these courses tending to the destruction of true Religion within these your Kingdomes have been taken here even then when the same is with open force and violence prosecuted in other Countreys and all the reformed Churches in Christendome either depressed or miserably distressed We do humbly appeal unto your Majesties Princely Iudgement whether there be not just ground of feare that there is some secret and strong co-operating here with the enemies of our Religion abroad for the utter extirpation thereof and whether if those courses be not speedily redressed and the profession of true Religion more encouraged we can expect any other but misery and ruine speedily to fall upon us especially if besides the visible and apparent dangers wherewith we are compassed about You would be pleased to remember the displeasure of Almighty God always bent against the neglect of his holy Religion the stroaks of whose divine Iustice we have already felt and do still feele with smart and sorrow in great measure And besides this feare of Innovation in Religion we do in like faithful of charge of our duties most humbly declare to your Majesty that the hearts of your people are full of feare of Innovation and change of Government and accordingly possessed with extreame griefe and sorrow Yet in this point by your Majesties late Answer to our Petition of Right touching our Liberties much comforted and raised againe out of that sadnesse and discontent which they generally had conceived throughout the whole Kingdome for the undue courses which were the last year taken for raising of moneys by loanes then which whatever your Majesty hath been informed to the contrary there were never any moneys demanded nor paid with greater grief and general dislike of all your faithful Subjects though many partly out of feare and partly out of other respects yet most unwillingly were drawn to yeeld to what was required The Billeting of Souldiers did much augment both their fears and grief wherein likewise they finde much comfort upon your gracious Answer to our petition of Right and to that we presented to your Majesty concerning this particular Yet we most humbly beseech your Majesty that we may informe you that the still continuance and late re-enforcing of those Souldiers the conditions of their persons many of them not being Natives of this Kingdome nor of the same but of an opposite Religion the placing of them upon the Sea Coast where making head amongst themselves they may unite with the Popish party at home if occasion serve and joyne with an invading enemy to do extreame mischief and that they are not yet dismissed doth still minister cause of Iealousie in your loving Subjects For that the Souldiers cannot be continued without exceeding great danger of the peace and safety of your Kingdom The report of the strange and dangerous purpose of bringing in German Horse and Riders would have turned our doubts into despaire and our feares into a certainty of confusion had not your Majesties gracious message for which we humbly give you thanks comforted us by the assurance of your Royal word that they neither are nor were intended by your Majesty for any service in England but that they were designed for some other forreigne employment Yet the sight of the Privy Seale by which it seemeth they were to be leavied the great summe of money which upon examinations we found to be paid for that purpose gave us just cause of feare That much about the same time there was a Commission under the Great Seal granted unto the Lords and others of the Privy Councel to consider of other ways for raising of moneys so particularly by impositions gave as just cause to suspect that whatsoever was your Majesties gracious intention yet there wanted not those
the security of the River wherefore the Regiments then remaining in several of the States Garrison Towns which were reformed out of four Regiments under the Command of Sir Charles Morgan and supposed to consist of two thousand men were designed for this employment But in regard that by the capitulations at the rendring of Stoade these souldiers were first to touch in England before they could engage in War against the Emperour they were appointed to come to Harwitch and to saile thence to Luckâ—â—aâ— under the command of their former General and by reason of the absence of the English Fleet upon the service of Rotchel the States and the Prince of Orange were desired to accommodate them with Ships of convoy in crossing the Seas But a while after the King considering that the six months wherein that Regiment was bound not to serve against the Emperour were near expiring and the Winter approaching which by foul weather and contrary winds might expose both men and Ships to great danger in their crossing the Seas to England and cause unnecessary charge commanded Sir Charles Morgan to forbear to touch at Harwitch but to shape his course by the nearest straightest way from Holland to Luckstat and to stay at the place of imbarquing so many days as with the time which will be taken up in their passage may accomplish the full six months Moreover these Reformed Regiments brought from Stoade being found upon their mustering fourteen hundred the King made a supply of six hundred more by borrowing six or eight men out of every Company serving in the States pay under the conduct of the Lord Vere the season of the year not permitting to rely upon new recruits from England for which he engaged his royal word to the States and the Prince of Orange that for every man they lent him he would send them two as soon as his forces return from Rochel Touching the Horse levied in Germany and intended as was said to be transported into England about the last Session of Parliament the Privy Councel now wrote to Dalbeere upon certain overtures made by the King of Sweden and the Duke of Savoy to receive them into their pay and service that he might dispose of the said Cavalry to those Princes being his Majesties friends and Allies with condition that his Majesty be no further charged with their pay transportation or entertainment in any manner whatsoever After the death of the Duke the King seemed to take none to favour so much as Dr. Laud Bishop of London to whom he sent many gracious messages and also writ unto him with his own hand the which contained much grace and favour and immediately afterwards none became so intimate with his Majesty as the said Bishop BY Orders from the Bishop there were then entred in the Docket Book several Conge D'esliers and Royal assents for Dr. May to be Bishop of Bath and Wells for Doctor Corbet to be Bishop of Oxford and for Samuel Harsenet then Bishop of Norwitch to be Arch-Bishop of York In the University of Oxford Bishop Laud bore the sway The Lord Chancellour VVilliam Earl of Pembrook commiting his power into his hands And this year he framed the Statutes for the reducing and limiting the free Election of Proctors which before as himself said were Factious and Tumultuary to the several Colledges by course The meeting of the Parliament appointed to be the 20. of Octob. was by Proclamation the first day of that moneth Prorogued to the 20. of Ianu. following VVhilst Felton remained a Prisoner at London great was the resort of people to see the man who had committed so bold a murder others came to understand what were the Motives and Inducements thereunto to which the man for the most part answered That he did acknowledge the Fact and condemned himself for the doing thereof Yet withall confessed he had long looked upon the Duke as an evil Instrument in the Common-wealth and that he was convinced thereof by the Remonstrance of Parliament VVhich considerations together with the instigation of the Evil One who is always ready to put sinfull motions into speedy Actions induced him to do that which he did He was a person of a little Stature of a stout and revengeful spirit who having once received an injury from a Gentleman he cut off a piece of his little finger and sent it with a challenge to the Gentleman to fight with him thereby to let him know that he valued not the exposing of his whole body to hazard so he might but have an opportunity to be revenged Afterwards Felton was called before the Councel where he confessed much of what is before mentioned concerning his Inducement to the Murder the Councel much pressed him to confesse who set him on work to do such a bloody act and if the Puritans had no hand therein he denyed they had and so he did to the last that no person whatsoever knew any thing of his intentions or purpose to kill the Duke that he revealed it to none living Dr. Laud Bishop of London being then at the Councel Table told him if he would not confess he must go to the rack Felton replyed if it must be so he could not tell whom he might nominate in the extremity of torture and if what he should say then must go for truth he could not tell whether his Lordship meaning the Bishop of London or which of their Lordships he might name for torture might draw unexpected things from him after this he was asked no more questions but sent back to prison The Council then fell into Debate whether by the Law of the Land they could justifie the putting him to the Rack The King being at Councel said before any such thing be done let the advice or the Judges be had therein whether it be Legal or no and afterwards his Majesty the 13. of Novemb. 4. Car. propounded the question to Sr. Tho. Richardson Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas to be propounded to all the Justices Viz. Felton now a prisoner in the Tower having confessed that he had killed the Duke of Buckingham and said he was induced to this partly for private displeasure and partly by reason of a Remonstrance in Parliament having also read some Books which he said defended that it was lawful to kill an Enemy to the Republique the question therefore is whether by the Law he might not be Racked and whether there were any Law against it for said the King if it might be done by Law he would not use his Prerogative in this Point and having put this Question to the Lord chief Justice the King commanded him to demand the resolution of all the Judges First the Justices of Serjeants Inn in Chancery Lane did meet and agree that the King may not in this case put the party to the Rack And the fourteenth of November all the Justices being assembled at Serjeants Inn in Fleetstreet
baylable And 33 Eliz. it was resolved by all the Iustices of England which I have viewed in chief Iustice Andersons Book under his own hand and it was produced in Parliament That all men committed by the Privy Councill are baylable if the commitment be not for high treason In all cases of commitment an accuser is understood Suppose that the accusation mentioned in Russel's case of sedition had been an accusation of treason then the Iudges ought not to have bayled him of right and no man will say but that the said accusation was a good cause to commit him But the discovery of the offence ought to be afterward in an Indictment Fourthly I come to the objections which have been made on the contrary 1 st It was objected That this was a case of great consequence I confesse it but this consequence is not to the King for if it be truly treason then they might have returned Treason and then the party was not to be bayled of right till there should be a failer of prosecution as was lately in Melvins case who was bailed for lack of prosecution the Return being for high treason 2 ly It was objected that there can be no conviction as this case is therefore there ought to be coercive power to restrain the prisoner This is strange newes to me that there shall be any offence for which a man cannot be convict And if there can be no conviction it hence followes that there is no offence and if there be no offence there ought by consequence to be no imprisonment 3 ly The case of 14 H. 7.8 hath been objected that a Iustice of Peace may commit Rioters without bayl I confesse it for this is by force of a Statute which ordains it 4 ly It hath been objected That if a house be on fire it is lawfull to pull down the neighbours house for the prevention of further mischief and the cases of 22 ass and 22 E. 4. that every man may justifie the coercion of a mad-man I answer That these cases are true for of necessity and no other evasion but here bayl is proffered which is body for body Fire is swift and cannot be punished and no caution can be obtained thereof But observe the true inference and consequence of this Argument If my house be on fire my neighbours house must be pulled down Mr Selden is seditious ergo Mr. Herbert his neighbour must be imprisoned 5 ly It hath been objected out of Br. Treason 24. 1 Mar. That the said Statute of 25 E. 3. is taken largely and that the detaining of a Castle or Fortresse is treason To this I answer That the bare detaining of a Castle is not treason unlesse it be with intention of the death of the King but the taking of a Castle is treason And the case there meant by Brook is Constables case Dy. 128. And I confesse 13 Eliz. Dy. 298. Doctor Story 's case that conspiracy to invade the Kingdom is treason for this cannot be without great danger of the death of the King for arma tenenti Omnia dat qui justa negat and all those Indictments were that they intended the death of the King but no such intention is expressed here 6 ly It hath been objected That this case is out of the Petition of Right because in this Return there is a cause shewed But the grievance whereupon the Petition of Right was framed was where no cause was returned It is true that the grievance goes no further but where no cause was returned for that was the grievance at that time But the words of the Petition of Right are further without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer by the Law which implies that such cause ought to be contained in the Return which being put into an Indictment the party may have his answer thereto 7 ly It was objected that the Return shall not be construed and expounded by fractions I answer That we need not make such an exposition for the joynt-construction thereof makes more for us then the severall as is shewed before 8 ly That a generall Return is sufficient and it need not have tearms of Art in it as an Indictment ought to have For answer I confesse it but I affirm as above that a Return ought to be so particular that the nature of the offence ought to appear out of it And it is not to be compared to generall Writs as Apostatâ capiendo Idiota examinando Leproso amovendo and the like for those Writs are good enough because they contain the very matter And although it hath been said that there are two kinds of Lepers yet I never heard but of one And the Writ de Haeretico comburendo is generall and good because it is but a Writ of Execution upon a Iudgment given by the Spirituall power But because they might not meddle with the blood of any man the execution is by the Secular power 9 ly It hath been objected out of 30 ass p. 19. that the King would have one drawn and hanged for bringing in into England the Buls of the Pope But the Book answers it self for he was not drawn and hanged 10 ly The Statute of Westm. 1. cap. 15. was objected But as oft as that Statute is objected I will alwaies cry out The Petition of Right the Petition of Right as the King of France cryed out nothing but France France when all the severall Dominions of the King of Spain were objected to him 11 ly A curious distinction hath been taken by Serjeant Davenport between stirring To sedition and stirring Up sedition for the first implies an inclination onely to do it the second implies an act done But this is too nice for if a man stir up sedition or to sedition if it be with intention of the death of the King the one and the other is treason 12 ly The opinion of Fortescue in 31 H. 6.10 b. hath been objected That for an offence done to the Court a man may be committed before conviction To this I answer 1 st That the Book does not say That he shall be committed without bayl 2 ly The offence being done in face of the Court the very view of the Court is a conviction in Law 13 ly There was objected the 24 of E. 3.23 Sir Fitchet's case who for going armed in the Palace was committed by this Court without bayl or mainprize which seems to be the strongest and hardest case that hath been objected But the answer to it is clear and undeniable for the Statute of 2 E. 3. c. 3. is That if any one come armed before the Iustices he shall forfeit his Armour and shall be imprisoned during the Kings pleasure so that by the expresse purview of the Statute such a man is not baylable So my conclusion remains firm notwithstanding any of those objections That the prisoner here being committed before conviction of any offence it being not possible to understand this
Articles of Marriage p. 86. The Oath taken by him p. 88. Swears to private Articles p. 88 89. And afterwards findes delays in Spain p. 102. Resolves to depart thence and leave a Proxy with Bristol p. 103. Feasts the Spanish Dons aboard his Ship p. 104. Arrives safe in England ibid. Left private Instructions with Bristol to contradict the Proxy ibid. Attests the Dukes Narrative in Parliament p. 119 Is Proclaimed King p. 169. New swears the old Privy Council ibid. Pursues their Advice p. 170. Puts forth a Proclamation of Government p. 171. Attends in person his Fathers Funeral ibid. Continues the Duke intimately in favor ibid. Levies Soldiers for the Palatinate p. 172. Signs the Articles of Marriage with France ibid. The Marriage solemnised in France p. 173. Sends the Duke of Buckingham into France to attend the Queen into England p. 174. And meets the Queen at Dover ibid. The Marriage consummated at Canterbury ibid. Brings her to London ibid. His first Speech in Parliament p. 175. The Lord Keepers Speech by his direction p. 176. Owns Montague as his servant p. 178. Adjourns the Parliament to Oxford ibid. His Ships employed against Rochel ibid. His Speech at the Parliament in Oxford p. 181. Seconded by the Lord Conway and Secretary Cook p. 182. He Answers the Commons Petition against Recusants p. 185. Sends a Message for supply p. 194. The Commons insisting still upon grievances he dissolves the Parliament p. 195. And follows his design of War ibid. Sends out Privy Seals for money p. 196. Disarms Recusants p. 198. Sends out his Fleet and Army under command of Viscount Wimbleton p. 198 199. Their unsuccessful Voyage p. 200. He now prohibites trade with Spain p. 201. Takes the Seal from Lord Keeper Williams p. 202. Calls a Parliament ibid. Prepares for his Coronation p. 203. Commands all of Forty pound per annum to appear and receive the Order of Knighthood ibid. The manner of his Coronation p. 204. The King is present at the opening of the second Parliament p. 206. And commands the Lord Keeper Coventry to speak what he intended himself to have said ibid. Forbids resort to hear Mass p. 216. The Kings Letter to the Commons to hasten supply p. 218. Seconds it with a Message p. 219. To which the Commons sent an Answer p. 220. The Kings Reply ibid. And sends another Message concerning Mr. Cook and Doctor Turner p. 222. Three Subsidies and three Fifteens Voted to be given him p. 225. And hot Debate against the Duke ibid. Whereupon the King speaks to the Parliament ibid. And refers to the Lord Keeper to speak further p. 225 226 c. And speaks again himself p. 229. His Speech explained by the Duke ibid. Receives a Petition touching Nobility p. 237. His Letter to Bristol p. 241. His Message concerning Bristol p. 243. Receives a Remonstrance from the Commons concerning the Duke p. 247. Adjourns the Parliament for a week p. 250. He is attended by some Bishops concerning the Duke p. 251. Leaves the House at liberty to present the matter concerning the Duke p. 252. His Message on behalf of the Duke against Bristol p. 260. His Speech on behalf of the Duke p. 361. Commits Sir Dudley Diggs and Sir John Elliot p. 362. Releases them p. 364. His Message concerning the Earl of Arundel p. 368. His Answer to the Lords Petition p. 371 372. His further Answer concerning the Earl of Arundel p. 373. Another Message from the King concerning the said Earl p. 374 375. The Earl of Arundel set at liberty p. 375. His Message to the Parliament that they hinder not the Election of the Duke as Chancellor of Cambridge p. 376 377. His Letter to that University on the Dukes behalf p. 378. His Letter to the Speaker concerning Supply p. 394. The Commons Petition him against Recusants p. 395. A Speech made to him by Sir Hennage Finch concerning the Duke p. 401. His Commission to dissolve the Parliament p. 403 The Parliaments Remonstrance to him p. 404 405 c. His Proclamation against the said Remonstrance p. 415. And another against disputing about Arminian Controtroversies p. 416. Causes an Information to be preferred against the Duke p. 417. Prohibites the Book of Bounty ibid. Takes the Forfeiture arising from Recusants ibid. Grants a Commission to compound with Recusants p. 418. His Proclamation to make his Revenue certain ibid. Sends to his Nobles to lend him money ibid. Demands of the City of London the Loan of One hundred thousand pounds p. 419. Requires Port Towns to furnish Ships ibid. Which the Ports in Dorsetshire dispute ibid. The City of London the like and are checked ibid. Issues forth Privy Seals p. 420. Requires inhabitants in Port Towns to repair to their Houses ibid. Sends Ships to the River Elbe ibid. Declares the King of Denmarks overthrow to be one ground of the Loan p. 422. Puts forth a Declaration concerning the Loan ibid. Gives private Instructions concerning the Loan ibid. Grants a Commission for Martial Law p. 423. Displaces Sir Randal Crew about the Loan and makes Sir Nicholas Hide Chief Iustice p. 424. Sends Six thousand English into the Netherlands pag. 425. Makes Sir Charles Morgan General of them ibid. Causes refusers of Loan money to be pressed for Soldiers p. 426. Dissatisfied with the French about the Queen p. 427. and dismisses them p. 428. His Declaration concerning a War with France p. 429. Makes the Duke of Buckingham Admiral and General and gives him a Commission ibid. Secures several Gentlemen for not paying the Loan money p. 433. Grant a Commission to sequester Archbishop Abbot p. 435. Appoints a supply to be sent to the Duke under the Earl of Holland p. 466. A List of the Debt the King owes for Fraights of Ships upon the two Expeditions to Cadize and Rhee p. 470. Calls a Parliament p. 476. Set at liberty the imprisoned Gentlemen about the Loan money p. 477. A List of those Gentry imprisoned by the King about Loan money ibid. His Commission for an Imposition in nature of an Excise considered of p. 478. His Privy Seal to pay Thirty thousand pound for raising of German Horse ibid. His Speech at the opening of the Third Parment p. 480. Lord Keepers Speech by his direction p. 481. The Speakers Speech to him p. 484. Petition to him for a Fast p. 494. His propositions for supply p. 502. His Propositions touching supply again mentioned p. 509. His Answer to the Petition against Recusants p. 511. His Propositions debated p. 525 526. His Message concerning words said to be spoken p. 529. Another Message to secure Liberties by Bill p. 530 531. Subsidies resolved to be presented unto him ibid. The Kings Answer concerning the same ibid. The Dukes Speech concerning the Commons liberal gift to the King ibid. A Message from him against a Recess at Easter p. 543. A Message from the King to hasten supply p. 544. The Speakers Speech unto him at the delivery of the Petition against Billeting
favor of Roman Catholicks A difficulty concerning the Popes title on the Kings part Another on the Ambassadors part concerning prayers in the Kings Chappel A titular Bishop of Calcedon sent into England Preparations for conducting the Infanta into England No mention made in the Capitulations of restoring the Palatine Mr. Allured his Letter to the Duke The French jealous of this conjunction Pope Vrban to K. Iames. Pope Vrbans Letter to Prince Charls The Treaty begins to tend to a rupture The Prohibition to the Judges and Bishops in behalf of the Catholicks suspended Some of the English in Spain dislike the Match and Religion The Duke disgusted in Spain Buckingham and Bristol run different ways The Palatine by his Secretary labors to engage the Prince against the Marriage The Spaniard continues new delays The English Papists perplexed The Prince ready to depart from the Court of Spain leaves a Proxy with the Earl of Bristâ—l The Duke and Olivares part not Friends The Prince universally â—steemed His departure solemn The Prince feasted the Dons aboard his Ship and bringing them back again to the shore a storm surprises them Expressions of joy for the Princes safe return into England Private Instructions delivered to Bristol contrary to the Proxy Bristol in a Letter gives the Prince a good account of the business King Iames falls off and for a Condition of the Mariage demands the Restitution of the Palatinate Bristol and Asâ—â—n demur upon the new Instructions Sir Walter Aston endeavors to reconcile the Dâ—ke to Spain Advice to the King touching the Duke The Earl of Bristol is commanded by the King to follow the new Instructions King Iames puts the Palatine in hope by Proposal of new terms The Palatines Answer to those Terms proposed by the King The Netherlands appear ready to embrace the antient Union with England The Ratifiâ—â—â—ication come from the new Popâ— and when all is ready for the E 〈◊〉 ls thâ—n is the Maâ—ch dasht by order from England Bristol sends his Apology to K. Iames for having demurred upon the new Instructions Olivares offers Bristol large Preferments in the Kings name when he was to take his leave Bristols Answer to those Profers The Spaniards prepare for a War with England The L. Kensington sent Ambassador into France to feel the pulse of that Court touching a Match renders an account of his acceptance The King advised to call a Parliament The Kings Speech to the Parliament The King approves Sir Tho. Crew for Speaker who made this Speech The Dukes Narrative Both Houses of Parliament justifie the Duke in his Narrative His Majesties Answer to that Justification Both Houses of Parliament concur that the King may not honorably proceed in tâ—e Treaty of the Prince's Marriage and the Palatinate The Kings Speech 〈◊〉 Parliament perswaâ—â—â—â— him to break off the two Treaties of the Match and of the Palatinate Sir Edw. Sackvile's Speech Sir Edw. Sackvile's Speech The Parliaments Answer to the Kings Speech The Parliament offers his Majesty Three Subsidies and Three Fifteens if he break off both Treaties His Majesties Reply The King declares his Resolution to dissolve the Treaties The King accepts the aid proffered him King Iames his Letter to Secretary Conway touching a Petition against the Papists The Petition His Majesties Answer to the Petition The Spanish Ambassadors accuse Buckingham to the King of matters of high concernment The issue of those Accusations The Earl of Bristol protests against the Dukes Narration is imprisoned in the Tower The Speakers and the Kings Speech at the Adjournment of the Parliament Kings Iames demands the Town of Frankendal deposited in the Archducâ—hess hands Spinola marches out of the Town and immediately Re-enters King Iames very desirous of a Match with France The Match with France concluded Count Mansfield arrrives in England 12000 Foot and 200 horse raised to go under his command Scarce the third part of Count Mansfields Army came safe to Land Richard Smith made Bishop of Calcedon and sent into England with Episcopal Jurisdiction * The Duke of Buckingham Instructions to Mr Drummond The Privy-Counsellors present themselves to King Charles King Charles proclaimed at Theobalds At Whitehall In London The old Privy-Council new sworn The Councils advice to the King Proclamation concerning Persons in Office c. Proclamation of Government Resolution taken by the King concerning King Iames Funeral and his own Marriage A Parlamenâ— summoned King Iames Funeral Duke of Buckingham continues Favorite to King Charles Religion considered A general Muster Souldiers levied for the Palatinate Proclamation against disorders committed by Souldiers Articles of the marriage with France signed by the King Private Articles in favor of the Catholicks The Marriage solemnized in France The Duke sent into France for the Queen A Royal Navy sent to Bolâ—ign to transport the Queen The Marriage consummated at Canterbury The Trained Bands of Kent commanded to attend the Queen The King and Queen come to London A Chappel built at Somerset-house for the Queen A great Plague in London The Parliament opened The Kings Speech in Parliament The Lord Keepers Speech in Parliament Sir Tho. Crew Speaker Debates in the House of Commons A Fast. Committees chosen Message to the King touching Religion and his Answer Mr. Montague brought to the Bar. The Arminian party assert his cause The King takes Montagues businâ—â—â— into his own hand Two Subsidies presented to the King The King accepts them and desires more A short Answer to the Petition touching Religion The Parliament adjourned to Oxford The Exchequer removed to Richmond The Vantguard and seven other Ships employed against Rochel The Parliament meets again at Oxford Grievances Mr. Montague Summoned to appear His Cause recommended by the Bishops to the Duke The Appeal to Caesar disputed The Kings Speech in Christ-Church Lord Conway and Secretary Cook by the Kings Command declare the present slate of Affairs Lord Treasurer proceeds in that subject Debates in the House of Commons touching the present state of Affairs Complaints against Papists favored notwithstanding the Kings Answer to the Petition against them The Petition concerning Religion together with his 〈…〉 The Duke renders an account to both Houses of the Fleet. He speaks by way of Objection and Answer * The Earl of Bristol The Dukes Relation accasioned variety of Opinions in Parliament The Kings Message to the Commons Debates upon the Kings Message The Commons Declaration The Parliament dissolved The King follows his Design of War The Kings Proclamation to recal home children of Recusants The Kings Letter to the Lieutenants for the Loan of Money upon Privy-Seals Privy-Seals issued forth to certain Persons Warrants for disarming Recusants Letters directed to Lords Recusants Concourse of Papists prevented Viscount Wimbleton Commander in Chief in the Voyage to Cadez Lord Cromwels Letter to the Duke touching the Fleet. The Earl of Warwick secures Langer-Point in Essex English and Dutch Fleet before Dunkirk dispersed by a storm The General examined before the Council The