the Royal Line of the Plantagenets were left to be Competitors with him yet his Succession could not be Hereditary for his Grand-mother under whom his Father claim'd out-lived her Son and so Henry the Eighth could not claim from her Yet this is observable That as his Father Henry the Seventh entailed the Succession of the Crown of England upon the Heirs of his Body so by Act of Parliament 28 Hen. 8. Henry the Eighth might dispose of the Succession of the Crown by his Will for want of Issue of his Body so little was the inheritable Succession of the Crown of England regarded by these Kings of the British Race It seems the Council in Edward the Sixth's Reign had as little an Opinion of the Hereditary Succession of the Crown as the Parliament had in the Reign of Henry the Eighth for by the Advice of Edward's Council he by his Will disposed of the Succession to his Cousen the Lady Jane Gray Grand-daughter to Edward's Aunt Mary Queen of France contrary to the Will of his Father Henry the Eighth which ordained his Daughter Mary to succeed Edward in case he died without Issue I say that by the Law of Inheritance in England Queen Mary could not inherit the Crown from Edward she being but of half-Blood to him and by the same Reason Queen Elizabeth could not inherit to Queen Mary but Mary the Daughter of James the fifth of Scotland being of the whole Blood to Edward and descended from the elder Daughter of Henry the Seventh could For the Opinion of the Judges after King James came in that the Succession of the Crown of England differs from that of the Inheritance of Subjects in regard of an Alien born and those of half Blood may inherit the Crown it 's Gratis dictum and said to please the King for there never was any such usage in England nor any such Act of Parliament to warrant their Opinion But admit the Crown of England were inheritable from Henry the Seventh and Half-Blood no Bar to the Succession yet Mary and Elizabeth could not both succeed for one of them was Illegitimate Elizabeth being born in the Life of Katherine Queen Mary's Mother If the Parliament in the Reign of Henry the 8th had little or no Opinion of the Inheritable Succession of the Crown of England and therefore impowered the King to dispose of it by Will The Parliament in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth had less and therefore often petitioned her and that with Importunity to declare her Successor without Consent in Parliament and declared it 13 Eliz. Cap. 1. to be High Treason to affirm that the Crown of England might not be disposed of by Act of Parliament in her Life and a Premunire after her Death Here I make these Remarks upon the Race of the Plantagenets and the Succession of the British Line that as the Plantagenets inherited the Name from Jeffery Duke of Anjou who was never King of England so Henry the 7th if he had any Title derived it from John of Gaunt by an Illegitimate Succession who never was King of England From England we step into Scotland and see how the Hereditary Succession was observed there after the Reign of Alexander the 3d in whom the direct Line of the Race of their Kings failed which was so near as I can compute about the Year 1278 and leave the Succession of their 93 Kings before to the Scrutiny of the Scotish Antiquaries and Heraulds The Scots if they be not clearer in the Genealogy of their 93 Kings before Alexander the 3d than my Author is of retrieving it after the Death of Margaret Daughter of Alexander the 3d do make but a blind Genealogy of their 93 Kings before however we 'll take it as we find it David Brother of William King of Scotland but whether William was Father Brother or Uncle to Alexander the 2d my Author says not and Earl of Huntingdon had Issue by Maud Daughter to the Earl of Chester three Daughters Margaret married to Allen of Galloway the second not named was married to Robert Bruce the third to Henry Hastings Earl of Huntingdon Allen of Galloway had a Grand-daughter named Dornagil married to John Baliol. Bruce was Great Grand-child to the second Daughter of David Earl of Huntingdon but being a Male pretended he was to be King before Dornagil a Female though a Degree nearer and descended from the elder Sister Henry Earl of Huntingdon made no claim So the Right between Baliol and Bruce was referred to the Determination of Edward the first King of England who adjudged the Right to be in Baliol and soon after Baliol by Dornagil had a Son named Edward so that Bruce's Pretension of Title as being Son vanished by the Birth of Edward Baliol being descended from the eldest Sister But The Scots or a prevailing Party not liking Baliol's Reign in the Year 1306 crowned Robert Bruce King In the Year 1310 Bruce by Acts of Parliament had the Crown of Scotland entailed upon him and his Heir-male and for want of Issue to his Brother Edward This Robert had Issue a Son named David and a Daughter married to Robert Stuart and by Act of Parliament settled the Crown upon his Son David and for want of Issue by him to Robert Stuart his Grand-child by his Daughter So here is the Succession of the Crown of Scotland twice differently settled by Parliament to the disinheriting of Edward Baliol. But in the Year 1332 Edward Baliol the right Heir was received and crowned King of Scotland After that David Bruce recovered the Kingdom of Scotland and afterwards was taken Prisoner by the Queen of England in the Absence of her Husband Edward the 3d in France and being released he died Ann. 1370. Robert Stuart Grand-son of Robert Bruce by his Daughter succeeded David who married Euphemia Daughter of the Earl of Ross but before he was King had Issue by Elizabeth Moor his Concubine two Sons John and Robert and by the Queen he had Issue Walter Earl of Athol and David Earl of Strathern yet by Act of Parliament the King disinherited his Legitimate Issue and settled the Crown upon his Issue by Elizabeth Moor from which Issue all the Kings of Scotland have since descended This was the most unaccountable Accident if we consider the Cause and Consequence I think that is recorded in any History That a King and Parliament by the Importunity of a Slut should disinherit his Legitimate Offspring from the Succession to the Crown of Scotland to advance her spurious Issue It 's true for some Reasons of State the right Heir is set aside as Edward Son of Ethelred after the Confessor being young and not a fit Match to oppose the Danes Edmund Ironside tho Illegitimate for his Strength and Courage was said to be chosen King as most likely to withstand the Danish Invasions so Edward the Confessor observing the heavy and slow Nature of Edgar the Grandson of Edmund Ironside not to be a fit
Ancre's Fate did not end with his Life for the next day after he was buried the Lacquies of the Court and Rabble of the City digged up his Coffin tore his Winding-Sheet and dragged his Body through the Gutters and hanged it upon the Gibbet he had prepared for others where they cut off his Nose Ears and Genitors which they sent to the Duke of Main Head of the Popish League the great Favourite of the Parisians and nailed his Ears to the Gates of Paris and burned the rest of his Body and hurled part of the Ashes into the River and part into the Air and his Wife soon after was condemned by the Parliament of Paris for a Witch for which she was beheaded In the Year 1618 a Blazon Comet appeared and the Marquess of Buckingham by the removal of my Lord Admiral Nottingham who was so in the famous Overthrow of the Spanish Armado in 1588. was made Lord Admiral being as well qualified for that Office as he was for being Prime Minister in State-Affairs It was no wonder that Lewis XIII th after the Death of the Marquess d' Ancre and his Wife should remove his Mother from State-Affairs and confine her to Blois to make room for Luynes to govern him more absolutely than the Marquess and his Wife had done his Mother for Lewis as he was of a feeble Constitution both of Body and Mind so Luynes was a kind of Governor to him appointed so by his Father Henry the 4th to humour him in all his Childish Toys and Pleasures So tho Rehoboam when forty Years old was governed by young Men not in Years but Understanding so neither was it any great wonder that Edward the 2d a young Man should be governed by Pierce Gaveston a Person of far more accomplished Parts than Buckingham for Gaveston was bred up with Edward and had so far by his Flatteries prevailed upon him that Edward could not enjoy any Pleasure in his Life without him But for an old King having been so for above fifty one Years to dote so upon a young Favourite scarce of Age yet younger in Understanding tho as old in Vices as any in his time and to commit the whole Ship of the Common-wealth both by Sea and Land to such a Phaeton is a Precedent without any Example But how much soever the Safety of the English Nation was endangered hereby yet the but mentioning any thing hereof was an Invasion of the King's Prerogative and meddling with State-Affairs which was above the Capacity of the Vulgar and even of the Parliament as you will soon hear But how absolute soever the King was at Home the face of Affairs Abroad stood quite contrary for the Dutch having retrieved their Cautionary Towns out of his Possession had the King in such Contempt that they neither regarded him nor his new Lord High Admiral and this Year says the Author of the Address to the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation in his second Preface f. 13 14. The Dutch never before fished upon the Coast of England till they had begged leave of the King or Governour of Scarborough Castle but this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it They had been formerly limited by our Kings both for the Number of their Vessels they should fish with and the time Now they resolve to be their own Carvers and in order to that denied the English the Sovereignty of the British Seas and as if this had not been enough drew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores Year by Year than they did in preceding Times without leaving any Bounds for the Country-People or Natives to fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended Possession and had driven some of their great Vessels through their Nets to deter others by like Violence from fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton January 21 1618. told Carleton the Dutch Ambassador And to justify all this they set out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain all this by Force But it was not Fish our new Lord Admiral cared for nor did he care for the King's Soveraignty of the British Seas so as he might be Lord High Admiral in Name The Sails of Buckingham's Ambition were not full swelled till to the Title of Lord High Admiral the Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports was added to it tho he regarded the guarding the Coasts of England as little as he did the Soveraignty of the British Seas Nor did the accumulated Honours to himself alone satisfy his Ambition but a new Strain his Mother tho a professed Papist must be pullied up with him in a concurring Title of the same Honour by being created Countess of Buckingham And being thus exalted she forsook her Husband's Bed which she sanctified by being converted to the Church of Rome and as her Son governed the King so she governed her Son so that as Mr. Wilson observes fol. 149. tho her Son acted in appearance in all Removes and Advancements yet she wrought them in effect for her Hand was in all Actions both in Church and State and she must needs know the Disposition of all things when she had a feeling of every Man's Pulse for all Addresses were made to her first and by her conveyed to her Son for he looked more after Pleasure than Profit which made Gundamor who was well skill'd in Court Holy-Water among his other witty Pranks write merrily in his Dispatches to Spain that there were never more hopes of England ' s Conversion to Rome than now For there were more Oblations offered here to the Mother than to the Son Then he tells the Marquess's Behaviour to attain his Ends of Ladies how he married the Earl of Rutland's only Daughter the greatest Fortune in England but being a Papist how she was converted by Dr. White tho the Bishop of Litchfield attributes her Conversion to Dr. Williams Dean of Westminster but was brought back to the Church of Rome by the Countess of Buckingkam The next Year if you begin at January Queen Ann died the 22d of March but this is but a beginning of the King's Sorrows at least of his Troubles But this no way troubled our young Favourite but to encrease the Honour of his Family by Sir George's second Brood in June following he had his eldest Brother John created Baron Stroke and Viscount Purbeck tho I do not find he ever gave him one Penny to maintain these Titles Such disgust the King had taken at the Commons representing the Grievances to him in the last Parliament that in his Cups and among his Familiars upon all Occasions he would inveigh against Parliaments saying God is my Judg I can have no Joy of any Parliament in England and that he was but one King and there were alove five hundred in the House of Commons So as if he could have helped it he never would have been troubled with another but
Gaunt's elder Brother So that of the Succession of 14 Kings after the Conqueror there were but four viz. Richard the First Edward the First and Second and Richard the Second which succeeded as Heirs to the Conqueror or his Heirs Admit Edward the 4th succeeded right as Heir to Phillippa Daughter of the Duke of Clarence yet if it be true which Richard the 3d says and which is confirmed by the Authority of the Act of Parliament 1 Rich. 3. that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before he married Elizabeth then did not Edward the 5th if it may be called a Succession succeed right nor could Henry the 7th claim any Right to the Crown of England in Right of his Wife Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth But whether it be true or not that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before his Marriage yet Richard the 3d succeeded not as Heir Edward Earl of Warwick the Son of George Duke of Richard's elder Brother being then alive Of all the Kings of England that succeeded the Conqueror Henry the 7th had the least Pretension to any Title to the Crown for tho he were supposed to have been descended from John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster yet it was the Duke's Paramour Katherine Swinford whose Issue by the Duke tho by Act of Parliament they were legitimated to all other purposes yet were not capacitated to succeed to the Crown of England but if the Title of Lancaster had been preferable to that of York and Henry had been of the legitimate Line yet could not he have succeeded as Heir his Mother under whom he claimed being then alive and out-lived her Son Nor did the King's Marriage with Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the 4th improve his Title to his Succession the Marriage being subsequent to it and before it the Crown by Act of Parliament was entailed upon Henry the 7th and the Heirs of his Body and after Marriage he never used her Name in calling any Parliament or in any Proclamation or the Coin or passing any Act of Parliament and as he reigned without her before Marriage so he did after her Death for he out-lived her tho she left two Sons Arthur and Henry after Henry the Eighth and two Daughters Elizabeth Queen of Scotland and Mary after Queen of France It seems to me that Ferdinand King of Castile and Arragon had the same Opinion which Richard the 3d and the Parliament had that the Issue of Edward the 4th were not legitimate for he would not assent to the Marriage of his Daughter Katherine with Arthur Prince of Wales so long as the Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence lived and there a fine Trick was found out to put the poor Prince to Death for endeavouring to make his Escape out of the Tower with Perkin Warbeck and in him ended the Masculine Line of the Race of the Plantagenets who had governed the English Nation after Stephen to Henry the 7th above 340 Years So that from the Conqueror to Henry the 8th scarce one of four of the Kings of England succeeded in a right Line as Heirs to the Conqueror As the Saxon Dynasty ended in Edward the Confessor and the Norman began in the Conqueror so it seems to me that the Norman ended in Richard the 3d and another of the British was erected in Henry the 7th who was the Son of Edmund of Hadham the Son of Owen Tudor by Katherine Daughter of Charles the 6th of France Wife of Henry the 5th of England and Mother of Henry the 6th So that Henry the 7th's Title to the Crown of France was better than that to the Crown of England for that of England was from a Maternal Ancestor Margaret Countess of Richmond no otherwise related to the Crown of England than descended from John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford his Paramour Tho I do not find that Henry the 7th or any of his Descendants ever assumed the Sirname of Tudor So that tho the Crown of England neither in the Saxon nor Norman Race of Kings was always Hereditary so neither was the Succession to the Crown elective For in elective Kingdoms after the Death of one King there is an Establishment of the manner of Elections and in the mean time there are Custodes Regni appointed whose Power ceases upon the Election of a King but neither of these were ever heard of in either of the Saxon or Norman Race and tho sometimes it 's said the Kings were chosen as of Edward the Son of Alfred by the Nobles and so of Athelstan and so in the Norman Race Henry the First was said to be chosen for that he promised to abrogate all the Oppressions and Errors brought into the Government by his Father and Brother tho his eldest Brother Robert was then alive and restore the good Laws of Edward the Confessor and Stephen was chosen by the Clergy and Londoners yet this was rather a form of Speaking in those days than any formal Election and the manner differed according to the different Humours of the Times Nor do we read that ever the Parliament meddled with the Succession of the Crown before Henry the Fourth for tho the first Parliament of Edward the Third renounced their Allegiance to Edward the Second and are said to have chosen Edward the Third yet they went no further and such an Election was no more than a Declaration of their Submission as when the Council declared James the Second King But whether the Crown of England was Hereditary in the Saxon and Norman Race it 's evident it was not so in this British Race for as it began in Henry the Seventh so it was entailed by Act of Parment upon him and Heirs of his Body before his Marriage with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth So the inheritable Right of Edward's Issue and all the Norman Race was barred by this Act. Before we proceed in the Succession of the British Race we 'll take a view of the Genealogy of it John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford had Issue John created Earl of Somerset who had Issue John created Duke of Somerset who had Issue Margaret After the Death of Henry the Fifth Katherine his Wife Sister of Charles the Sixth of France married Owen Tudor a Welch Gentleman who had Issue Edmund of Hadham created Earl of Richmond who married Margaret Daughter and Heir of John Duke of Somerset who had Issue Henry the Seventh Henry the Eighth succeeded his Father without any Contradiction for the Wars between the houses of York and Lancaster had destroyed the whole legitimate Lancastrian Line and Richard the Third after the Murder of his Brother Clarence and Death of Edward the Fourth had murdered his two Nephews Edward and Richard Sons of Edward the Fourth and himself was killed in the Fight in Bosworth-fields and after that Henry the Seventh had put Edward Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence to Death none of all
by a Military Profession His Birth sorted with his Desires his Family being of great Antiquity and he no stranger to the Royal Blood one of his Maternal Ancestors being a Daughter but not Legitimate of Edward the Fourth At the Age of Seventeen Years he served King Charles the First in the unfortunate Expedition to Cadiz And at the Age of Eighteen he served in the more unfortunate Expedition to the Isle of Rhee yet was not his Courage daunted by these Misfortunes but he followed the Earl of Oxford General of the English in the Low-Country Wars against the Spaniard until the Civil Wars began to break out in England between the King and Parliament And the Irish Rebellion first breaking out he took a Commission from the Earl of Leicester agreed to be Lieutenant in Ireland by the King and Parliament against the Irish But the King and Parliament after falling out the King sent the Earl of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland and Monk took a Commission from him to serve against the Irish When the Scots came with an Army into England to assist the Parliament the King made a Cessation of Arms with the Irish and recalled the English sent to subdue the Irish to assist him against the English and Scots these in which Monk's Regiment was included were utterly defeated by Sir Thomas Fairfax joined with Sir William Brereton Gell Middleton and Mitton and Monk taken Prisoner and sent to the Tower where he continued near 4 Years In this time he fell into great Poverty and Want but was relieved by a near Kinsman of mine Sir R. C. then a Prisoner in the Tower with him and whilst he was a Prisoner did conform to the Prayers and Liturgy of the Church When the Parliament made the self-denying Ordinance thereby to depose the Earls of Essex and Manchester from their Commands as being more inclined to a Pacification with the King than the Parliament were willing they should be Cromwel knowing the Worth of Monk sent to him to take a Command in the Army to be new modelled under Fairfax and him which Monk accepted The Bishop of Ely who was Prisoner in the Tower with Monk told me that after he had accepted a Commission and was released from his Imprisonment Monk before he went out of the Tower went to visit the Bishop and beg his Blessing which after the Bishop had given him he said Now Colonel you have changed Sides we expect neither to see nor hear from you more the Colonel then protested He would never wear a Sword against the King It seems he did not think Fighting against the Irish and Scots was wearing a Sword against the King for he did not only wear but draw his Sword against them And tho he changed Sides he did not his good Nature to Sir R. C. For on the first opportunity after he came out of the Tower he took a Journey into the Country to visit Sir R. C. who was released out of the Tower a little before and to thank him for his Favours when they were Prisoners But lest Cromwel ' s assuming the Supreme Authority of the Nation should too much savour of Selfishness he having no Authority but from himself therefore he summons a Company of Men so many to be chosen by each County but not of like Number and others to be chosen by such Towns as he named to meet the 3d of September 1654 at Westminster He upon their Meeting and before he permitted them to enter the House told them That some Years ago none would have thought of such a Door of Hope That he knew there were yet many Humours and Interests and that Humours were above Interests That the Condition of the English was like Israel in the Wilderness That this was an Healing-Day There was neither Nobleman Gentleman nor Yeoman before known by any Distinctions We had not any that bore Rule or Authority but a great Contempt of Magistracy and Christ's Ordinance That the Fifth Monarchy was highly cry'd up by Persons who would assume the Government but that desired thing wanted greater Manifestation than appeared for such Men to change the Authority by He desired this Assembly to remedy all these Disorders shewed That the Wars with Portugal and France for yet he had not made Peace with it do and did eat up all the Assessments That Swarms of Jesuits are crept in to make Divisions which were grown so wide that nothing but Government could remedy them And let Men speak what they would he could speak it with Comfort before a greater than any of them Then he shewed what he had done during his Government First his Endeavours to reform the Laws next his filling the Benches with the ablest Lawyers then his Regulation of the Chancery and his Darling Ordinance for the Approbation of Ministers which hindred all that list from invading the Ministry by Men of both Perswasions Presbyterians and Independents c. And lastly his being instrumental in calling a Free Parliament which he valued and would keep it so above his Life But this Cant did little edify the greater part of the Members who again chuse Lenthal Speaker and fall upon a strict Enquiry into Cromwel's Instrument of Government which the Officer-Members oppose alledging That the Instrument was the Foundation of the Government by which they met and therefore could not be brought into Debate And Lambert said If the Parliament would not confirm them they would call another a Third and Fourth till 't was done Yet this frighted not the Republican Party who boldly said That the Government was usurped by Fraud and Force not procured by Right nor confirmed by the free Votes of the People that it laid Snares for the Liberty of the Common-wealth and made way for a most grievous Tyranny Nay one said Since we were so near approaching to Monarchy it were better to call one of the Royal Family to the Government than that Cromwel should usurp both Scepter and Crown These Debates nettled Cromwel to the quick so that in an unusual Heat he tells them these Debates would turn all things into Confusion and make them to return to their former Chaos And that they were to build upon the Foundation of the Instrument not to overturn it with a great deal more of such Stuff But if Admonition would not prevail he 'll try what may be done by Force so next Day he set a Guard upon the House who would let no Member enter but he who subscribed a Recognition To be faithful to the Protector and not to endeavour to change the Government of a single Person When many of the Republican Party refusing the Cromwellian Faction within Doors became near equal to the Republican The secluded Republicans rather exasperated than subdued by Cromwel's Repulse join with a Republican Party of the Army who consult how they might apprehend Cromwel and bring him to a Trial before the Parliament for his Treasons against the Common-wealth But Cromwel being quick-scented smelt
and shaken that the Legions which governed Britain were recalled by Ecius the Roman General under Honorius and Valentinian the 3d to make Head against Attila the poor Britains disarmed and only made use of to serve their imperious Masters and so utterly destitute of Martial Discipline easily became a Prey to the Picts and Scots not subject to the Romans who treated them more intolerably and tyrannically than the Romans had done For Redress whereof the Britains sought Succours from the English Saxons who came to their Relief in the Year 409 as Bede says lib. 1. cap. 15. of the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation but these Saxons used the poor Britains worst of all and expelled the whole Race of them out of that part of the Island now called England Tho the Saxons had their Wills of the Britains they were before the Heptarchy at continual Variance among themselves and so after that it is almost as unaccountable to give a History of the Succession of their Kings as it was of the Britains before Julius Caesar Egbert about the Year 800 viz. 391 Years after the Saxon Invasion was called the first of the Saxon Monarchs tho the Kingdom of the Mercians was not united to his Monarchy who by Merit as well as Birth obtained the Dignity and succeeded Brithric Ethelwolph succeeded Egbert in the Kingdom of Westsax but not to those of Kent Sussex and Eastsax or Essex these being given by Egbert to Egbert's younger Son Ethelwolph by his Will divided his Kingdoms between his two eldest Sons Ethelbald and Ethelbert to Ethelbald he gave the Kingdom of the West Saxons to Ethelbert the Kingdom of Kent and the Eastern Southern and middle Angles But there were two other Sons Ethelred and Alfred Ethelbert after the Death of Ethelbald succeeded him in the Kingdom of the West Saxons and after the Death of Ethelbert Ethelred succeeded in the whole viz. of the West Saxons and of the Kingdoms of Kent the Eastern Southern and Middle Angles Alfred after the Death of Ethelred by universal Applause the famous the youngest Son of Ethelwolph succeeded Edward Son of Alfred was chosen by the Nobles on Whit-sunday in 901. Athelstan after the Death of Alfred tho a Bastard was elected by the Nobles of whom 't was said there was nothing ignoble in him But Athelstan dying without Issue his younger Brother Edmund succeeded him without any Opposition and tho he left two Sons Edwy and Edgar yet Edmund's younger Brother succeeded him Edwy after Edred's Death Edred's elder Brother 's elder Son succeeded but being a vicious Prince the Mercians and Northumbrians chose Edgar his younger Brother King in the Life of Edwy and Edgar after the Death of Edwy became King of the whole Nation Edward Son of Edgar after his Death was chosen by the Bishops and Nobles by the Command of his Father Edgar but he being murdered by his Step-mother Edward's younger Brother Ethelred succeeded And after his Death the Saxon Monarchy being rent in pieces by the Danes and Saxons Edmund Ironside Son of Etheldred by an obscure mean Woman tho he had two half-legitimate younger Brothers Edward and Alfred born of Etheldred's Wife was chosen King by one part of the Nobility and Canutus the Dane by another Thus the whole legitimate Race of the Saxon Kings were excluded one part chusing Ironside a Bastard the other Canutus a Stranger to the Saxon Royal Race Edmund Ironside being treacherously murdered by his Brother-in-law Edric Edmund leaving two Sons Edwy and Edward Canutus the Dane became sole Monarch of the Saxon Monarchy So that this was the beginning of the Danish Dynasty which lasted not long Harold Son of Canutus succeeded him and Hardicanute his Brother succeeded Harold neither the Issue of Etheldred Edward or Alfred nor Edwy or Edward the Sons of Edmund Ironside so much as taken notice of with this Hardicanute ended the Danish Rule with the Slaughter and Expulsion of the Danes Edward Son of Etheldred called the Confessor Uncle to Edwy and Edward Sons of Edmund Ironside after Hardicanute was advanced to the Royal Dignity principally by means of Earl Goodwin a powerful and imperious Lord upon the account of Edward's marrying the Earl's Daughter so little was the Hereditary Succession of the Saxon Kings regarded And that Edward's Reign might be more secure this Earl Goodwin caused the Eyes of Alfred the King's Brother to be put out and some say took away his Life Edward the Confessor growing old having no Issue and the Family of the wicked Earl Goodwin growing not only insolent but intolerable to him declared Edward the Son of Edmund Ironside his Cousin his Heir And to the end he might better succeed the King sent to the King of Hungary to return his Nephew Edward whom the King of Hungary had married to his Niece Agatha Daughter to Henry Emperor of Germany which the King of Hungary did and upon Edward's return the Confessor declared that he or his Sons should succeed in his Hereditary Kingdom of England But the Confessor did not long hold in this Mind for his Nephew Edward soon after dying and leaving a Son Edgar unfit for Government either as to his Body or Courage he decreed that his Kinsman William Duke of Normandy tho a Bastard should succeed him in the Kingdom of England which came to pass and so a new Race of Kings have succeeded in England of the Norman Race whose original Title was from a Grant of a King of the Saxon Race and so the beginning creates little Title to an Hereditary Succession in the Norman Race And now we 'll see how an Hereditary Succession was observed in it yet as in the Saxon so in the Norman Kings none succeeded who was not of the Royal Blood as all the Kings of Judah were of the Family or Tribe of Judah William Rufus the second Son of the Conqueror succeeded his elder Brother Robert then alive So did Henry the First his elder Brother Robert living Stephen the Son of the Conqueror's Sister succeeded Henry tho Henry left a Daughter Maud or Matilda Henry the Second succeeded Henry's Mother yet living so his Succession was not Hereditary for Haeres non est viventis Richard the First succeeded Henry the Second John succeeded Richard Arthur the Son of John's elder Brother then alive Henry the Third succeeded Arthur's Sister then alive who was Heir before him So that of seven Successions after the Conqueror but one Richard the First succeeded as Heir to his Father or the Conqueror Admit Edward the First succeeded as Heir to Henry the 3d and Edward the 2d as Heir to Edward the First yet Edward the 3d did not succeed as Heir to Edward the 2d he being then alive Admit Richard the 2d was Heir to Edward the Black Prince eldest Son to Edward the 3d yet neither Henry the 4th 5th or 6th were Heirs from Edward the 3d but the Descendants of Phillippa the Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence John of
Match to oppose the turbulent aspiring Faction of Harold and his Family named William Duke of Normandy his Successor but none of these were Reasons for the Deposing the Earls of Athol and Strathern being for ought I find much better qualified to reign than either John or Robert the Issue of Elizabeth Moor for John was of a heavy and unactive Disposition not fit to govern which made the King his Father to constitute his younger Brother Robert Vice-Roy a Man of a violent and inveterate Disposition So that these three Dynasties viz. the Norman Bâ—itish and Scotish were all derived from spurious Originals and as Henry the 7th was descended from John of Gaunt who was never King by Catherine Swinford so is the Race of Scotland from Robert Stuart the first of that Name before he was King by Elizabeth Moor. But though the Parliament erected this Dynasty of the Kings of Scotland yet this did not cease their Power of altering the Succession of it in a right Line For James the 2d had two Sons James the 3d who succeeded him and Alexander Duke of Albany Alexander married two Wives the first was a Daughter of the Earl of Orkney by whom he had a Son named Alexander and after married a Daughter of the Earl of Bulloign by whom he had a Son named John yet in James the 5th his Reign John was by Parliament declared the second Person of the Kingdom and next Heir to James the Fifth notwithstanding the Claim and Protestation made by John's elder Brother against it And the Scots out of Parliament assumed a Power not only of altering the Succession of their Kings but of deposing them For in the Year 1567 they deposed Queen Mary the Daughter of K. James the 5th and set up King James the 6th after King James the 1st of England an Infant scarce 14 Months old in her stead and by this Title he reigned in Scotland twenty Years in his Mother's Life and to his dying Day owned this Title Yet this King and his Son and two Grandsons after him gloried in declaring their Titles to be by inherent Birth-right and that they were accountable only to God for all their Actions Here how truly let the Reader judg the Scene was laid upon which they played their designed Game which did not end so I do not account the Dynasty of the Kings of England in the Scotish Race since Queen Elizabeth to be new in the Succession of the Persons of the four last Kings I mean King James the 1st King Charles the 1st King Charles the 2d and King James the second yet I say it was new in the Exercise of it and such as none of the Saxon Danish or Norman Race since Henry the 3d or of the British Race ever pretended to claim But in regard it has put the Nation into such a Ferment for above 80 Years and which if God pleases not to put an end to may prove as fatal to these Nations as the Feuds between the Guelphs and Gibelines did for above 300 Years overwhelm Germany and Italy in most horrible Blood-shed and Devastation we are more particular in taking a View of the Original of it From the time of the King 's coming to London May the 7th to the 11th of January little more than eight Months Stow takes notice of twelve Proclamations and upon the 11th of January out comes another for calling a Parliament which though new for the manner yet more new for the Substance and such as never before was heard of in England And that we may the better take a view of the success of the Parliaments of England in this King's Reign from this we will stay a little and consider the Constitution of a Parliament and the principal Ends of its meeting The King is the Head Principle and End of the Parliament the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons which are made up of Knights of the Counties of England and Wales Citizens sent from Cities Burgesses sent from Corporations and Barons sent from the Cinque Ports which do not differ from Burgesses but only in Name are the Body the Temporal Nobility sit in Parliament in their personal Capacities but the Spiritual Nobility do not so but in right of their Bishopricks which they hold of the King by Barony and the Commons are said to be the Representative-Body of all the Commons in England not Noble by Birth or in their Politick Capacities as the Bishops are and in this Assembly resides the Supreme Authority of the Nation which as they make Laws for the publick Benefit for are they loose from them and are not obliged to them As the King is freed from the imputation of Tyranny in sanguinary Laws and of Oppression in taxing the Subjects for how can the Subjects complain of either when their Representatives in Parliament promote them So does a Parliament discharge the great Objection against Hereditary Monarchies that tho Princes see only with their own Eyes and hear with their own Ears as other Men do yet so as it is impossible without a true Representation of the State of their Subjects they can see or hear of the true State of them whereas Minions and Flatterers whose Interest is different from that of the Kingdom not only conceal the true State of the Nation but make false Representations of it to raise themselves tho out of the publick ruine but the Parliament is the Eye of the Nation which sees the Abuses which Flatterers by abusing the King's Name and making it subservient to their Interest impose upon it The great Ends of the Meetings of Parliament are first to redress the Grievances of the Nation if any be by representing them to the King Secondly to punish Men which are out of the reach of the ordinary Rules of Justice which either abuse the King's Name to attain their Ends or may prove dangerous to the Government Thirdly to make Laws against growing Evils and to repeal Laws which have been found inconvenient to the Nation And fourthly to supply the King upon extraordinary Occasions for Support of the Nation as Times and Accidents may happen Heretofore the Meetings of Parliament were so frequent that Sir John Thompson in his Preface to the Earl of Anglesey's Memoirs takes notice that from the first of Edward the 3d to the 14th of Henry the 4th which was but 85 Years there are 72 Original Writs for the Summons of Parliament so that if you allow forty Days from the Tests of the Writs to the Returns and but one Month for the Sittings of Parliament there will not be a Year's Interval between the Dissolution of one Parliament and the Summoning another and Mr. Johnson proves that they were annual and fixt to meet on the first or the Kalends of May which continued down to Edward the 1st how or whether discontinued by Edw. the 2d I cannot tell however there are two Laws yet in force for the annual Meeting of the King in Parliament
accordingly The Parliament met on Monday March the 19th and a Debate hapning in the House of Commons about the Return of the Election of Sir Francis Goodwin and Sir John Fortescue for Knight of the Shire for the County of Bucks the Commons Friday the 23d upon a full hearing determined Sir Francis to be lawfully elected and returned An. Reg. 2. An. Dom. 1604. Tuesday March the 26th The Lords by Sir Edward Coke and Dr. Hone sent a Message to the Commons that the former Committees may in a second Conference to be had have Authority to treat touching the Case of Sir Francis Goodwin the Knight of Bucks first of all before any other Matters were proceeded in The Commons returned Answer that they do conceive that it did not stand with the Honour of this House to give an Account of their Proceedings and Doings but if their Lordships have any Purpose to confer for the Reâ—due that then they will be ready at such time and place and such number as their Lordships shall think meet Sir Edward Coke c. delivered from the Lords that their Lordships taking notice in particular of the Return of the Sheriff of Bucks and acquainting his Majesty with it his Highness conceived himself engaged and touched in Honour that there might this be some Conference of it between the two Houses and to that end signified his Pleasure unto them and by them to House The Commons by their Speaker give their Reasons to the King why they cannot confer with the Lords The King in return charges the Commons to admit a Conference with the Judges the Commons give Reason and answer Objections why they cannot confer with the Judges and the 3d of April deliver them at the Council-Chamber by Sir Francis Bacon desiring that their Lordships would be Mediators in behalf of the House for his Majesty's satisfaction the King in return commanded as an Absolute King that there might be a Conference between the House and Judges The House upon return hereof resolved to confer with the King in presence of the King and Council and named a select Committee for the Conference but the Success being doubtful Sir Francis Goodwin fearing this might cause a Rupture between the King and the House and to remove all Impediments to the worthy and weighty Causes which might by this time have been in a good furtherance desired another Writ of Election for a Member in his stead Hereupon and other Accidents succeeding wherein the Commons supposing themselves aggrieved the Commons upon the 16th of June in an humble Apology to his Majesty represent their Privileges and wherein they conceive themselves aggrieved The Stubborness of the Commons for so the King would have it so dissonant from the Flatteries he had constantly sounding in his Ears and of being an Absolute King by Inherent Birth-right put the King so out of Conceit with Parliaments that in all his Life till the last Parliament of his Reign when necessity brought him to it he was never reconciled to them But that we may more clearly see what followed we will look back into the Reign of Queen Elizabeth There were three things which the Queen was impatient of being debated in Parliament the Succession of the Crown after her Death her Marriage and the making any Alterations in the Church as it was established in the first Year of her Reign But the Commons having a fearful Eye of a Relapse into Popery after the Nation had been freed from it and the Queen of Scots being zealously addicted to the Romish Religion and having not only assumed the Arms of England as next Heir to Queen Elizabeth but upon her Return from France into Scotland by many Embassies solicited Queen Elizabeth that she might be declared her Successor in case Queen Elizabeth died without Heirs of her Body To prevent this the Commons in manifold Addresses to the Queen petitioned her to marry and declare her Successor and after the Duke of Norfolk's Conspiracy and the Rebellion in the North under the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland wherein it appeared the Queen of Scots was privy and consenting in all the Parliaments I think from the 9th of Elizabeth to the Queen of Scotland's Death the Commons were importunate with the Queen to cut her off which you may read at large in the Journals of the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth set forth by Sir Simon D' Ewes The Queen fixed in these Resolutions did often forbid the Parliament upon their Allegiance to enter into Debates upon them yet some zealous Members the principal of which was one Mr. Peter Wentworth as well in the case of the Queen of Scots as for some Reformation in the Church did several times endeavour to have them debated upon which the Queen committed them to the Tower tho soon after they were discharged This the Commons in their Apology to the King take notice of and pray that this be no Precedent for the future but that their Debates in Parliament may be free but they shall find that this King 's little Finger and his Son 's after him shall be heavier upon them than Queen Elizabeth's Loins However this Apology of the Commons tended to a Rupture between the King and them within yet the King was resolved to have Peace without the Kingdom how inconsistible soever the Terms were and to that end upon the 18th of August following being the second Year of his Reign he concluded a firm Peace with Philip the 3d of Spain and Albert and Isabel Arch-Dukes of Austria c. and also a Treaty of Commerce which as it was the most beneficial to the English Nation so it was difficult if not impossible to observe the Peace the King as he had managed it made the Treaty of Commerce to be but little beneficial to the Nation For the Year before the King had renewed the Treaty of Alliance which Queen Elizabeth had made with the Dutch States where tho the King was not obliged to maintain such a number of Men for the Dutch Support against the Spaniards to be repaid at the end of the War whereby the Treaty with the Queen Anno 1598. the Dutch were not only to pay but to repay the Queen yearly 100000 l. till a Peace was made with Spain when they were to pay her two Millions of Money with the Interest of 10 per Cent. deducting the 100000 l. per Annum they were to pay yet by the fourth Article of the said Treaty it was agreed That neither the Kings of England nor Spain shall themselves give or shall consent to be given by any of their Vassals Subjects or Inhabitants Aid Favour or Counsel directly or indirectly on Sea Land or fresh Waters nor shall supply or minister or consent to be supplied or ministred by their said Vassals Inhabitants or Subjects unto the Enemies or Rebels of either Part of what Nature or Condition soever they be whether they shall invade the Countries and Dominions of either of them
in Christendom when he was putting it into an universal War all the Western Princes 〈◊〉 Christendom except King James were engaged in it against the House of Austria but it was so vast as in the Nature of things if Henry had been young as he was in the 57th Year of his Age he could not have lived to have accomplished it at his Death tho he lived but 13 Years after the Treaty of Vervins when he made Peace with Philip the 2d of Spain he had amassed such a Treasure as is incredible if so great an Historian as Messeray did not testify it especially if it be considered that before the Treaty at Vervins France had for forty Years before been imbroiled in a Civil War and with Spain and these Wars being in all the Parts of France France was never before in so poor and feeble a State and Henry himself after the Peace giving himself up to Venery and Gaming above any King of France before him or since Nor can it be imagined from whence such Treasures should arise for there are no Gold nor Silver Mines in France unless it were from the Trades which the English Dutch Dane Swede and Hamburghers drove into France However Henry was addicted to Women and Gaming yet otherwise he excelled all the Kings of the Age not only in Heroick Vertues but in Prudence Constancy and Secrecy in his Designs curious in Enquiry into the Qualities of Men whom he would prefer as Qualities merited and was pleasant and witty in his Conversation and always disposed to take the Impression of good Counsel He left his Son a Prince of weak Constitution both of Body and Mind at ten Years of Age and his Wife an imperious bigotted Italian to the Church of Rome Regent These overthrew all the Methods which Henry had laid for promoting the French Grandure and gave themselves up to be governed by Favourites yet in a different manner from those in England whereby they squandered away all that inestimable Treasure which Henry left in less than half the time Henry had been collecting it and put all France into Tumults and Wars whilst the English patiently submitted to the Exorbitances of King James his Favourites and by Proclamations were forbid to mention them or talk of their Government no not in Parliament And now 't is time to return to England and see what 's doing there If we begin this Year 1612 with January we shall find two Marriages in it to succeed the two Deaths of the two famous Henry's of England and France The first upon the 14th of February being Shrove-Sunday between Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine commonly called the Palsgrave and the Princess Elizabeth the King 's only Daughter and the Triumphs Pageant◠and other Gaieties upon the Thames in the City and Inns of Court far exceeded any before seen in England which you may read at large in Stow's Chronicle fol. 1004. so as the Tears for the Death of Prince Henry were overflowed by the excess of Joy for this Marriage However Northampton was not pleased with it nor the Emperor or King of Spain and from the same Causes viz. It would so far advance the Protestant Interest in Germany as to make it more formidable to the Popish Religion and 't is certain for I had it from good Authority that Queen Ann was averse to it and to put the Princess out of conceit of it would usually call her Daughter Goodwife Palsgrave to which the Princess would answer she would rather be the Palsgrave ' s Wife than the greatest Papist Queen in Christendom The Reason of the Queen's Aversion to this Marriage is not said but certain it is that these fading Joys for this Marriage were succeeded by fixt and real Calamities which the King took little Care to prevent and shall never live to see nor his Son after him an end of While the Preparations for solemnizing this Marriage were making a different sort was making for another between the Viscount Rochester and the Countess of Essex and to make the Way to it more passable two Rubs were to be removed one to take off Sir Thomas Overbury the other to procure a Divorce not only a Mensa Toro between the Earl and the Countess but a Nullity whereby the Countess should be free to marry as she pleased and she had agreed upon the Person To remove Sir Thomas it was agreed between the Earl of Northampton Rochester and the Countess that Sir Thomas should be sent Ambassador to the Great Duke or Emperor of Russia so that if Sir Thomas did accept of it he should be far enough out of the way to hinder this Design and if he did not to commit him to the Tower where they would do well enough with him The Business of the Embassy was no sooner propounded to the King but assented to by him and Sir Thomas was not unwilling to undertake it How harsh soever Rochester was to Sir Thomas when he disswaded Rochester from marrying the Countess yet now he becomes instant kind to Sir Thomas and tell him how much he relied upon his Integrity and Parts which in his Absence he should not only want but that thereby Sir Thomas would give Occasion to his Enemies which were many and upon Rochester's account to ruine him when as it would not be in Rochester's Power to prevent it but if Sir Thomas would refuse to undertake this Embassy Rochester would in a short time undertake to reconcile him to the King and Sir Thomas would in the mean time be at hand to assist him with his Counsel upon all Occasions This was all deep Dissimulation which Sir Thomas took to be in good earnest and so Sir Thomas excused his going on this Errand and this was what Rochester desired Hereupon Rochester possest the King that Sir Thomas was not only grown insolent and intolerable to him but to the King by contemning him in refusing to go on this Embassage The King becomes incensed hereat and the more as 't was commonly said Sir Thomas had vented some stinging Sarcasms upon the Court which came to the King 's hearing and so ordered him to be committed to the Tower Northampton and Rochester had prepared the Business so that Sir William Wade was removed from being Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir Jervis Elvis a Gentleman wholly depending upon them was made Lieutenant of it Upon Sir Thomas his Commitment Sir Jervis Elvis by Order from Northampton and Rochester confines him close Prisoner so that Sir Thomas his Father was not permitted to visit him nor any of his Servants tho one desired he might be confined with his Master The Countess that she might not be behind-hand with Rochester and Northampton had consulted with Mrs. Turner for a fit Instrument to practise what was designed upon Sir Thomas Mrs. Turner's Husband was an Apothecary and had a Servant named Richard Weston who since her Husband's Death was become very poor this Man was agreed by the
me more than any of his Predecessors and he may believe me that in any thing that shall concern him I will employ not only my Peoples Lives but my own Bravely spoken and like K. James and whosoever of his Subjects Lewis's shall rise against him either Catholicks or others shall find him James a Party for him Lewis 'T is true if he be provoked to infringe his Edicts he shall impart as much as in him lies by Counsel and Advice to prevent the Inconveniencies Who ever expected he should do more or ever did But Venus must not have the only Ascendant in this Treaty for the Cardinal will have Mars to be in Conjunction with her and 't was high time for at this time Monsieur Sobiez had provided a great Fleet of Men of War as Times went then with the French and had entered and surprised the Fort of Blavet in Bretaign and took and carried away six of the French great Men of War out of it and also taken the Isles of Rhe and Oleron which he began to fortify and being absolute Master of the Sea triumphantly with a Fleet of 75 Men of War of all sorts landed a considerable Force at Medoc near Bourdeaux The Court of France was never so alarmed as at this notwithstanding all the King's Victories over the Reformed by Land and therefore the Cardinal threw another Article into the Treaty That King James should lend the French a Fleet of Ships to repress Soubiez and in lieu thereof the French should permit Mansfield who had raised an Army of 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse in England to land at Calais where the French should join him with another Body of Horse and Foot for the Recovery of the Palatinate But see the French Faith and how well Lewis made good his Promise to King James to render him all Offices in his own Person whensoever King James should desire him for at this time the Army being shipt at Dover and put over to Calais where being denied Entrance and having no other Instructions and wanting Provisions they lay neglected at Sea and in this Distress a Pestilence raged among them so that they were forced to sail to Zealand where having no Orders they were denied Landing there and this being the most terrible Season of the Year in December what by Hunger Cold and Pestilence above two thirds of them perished before Leave could be obtained to land them in Holland so that they never did the King of Spain near so much Hurt as they had done in England before they were shipt living upon Plunder and Free-Quarter These were sad Presages of future Happiness from the designed Marriage yet these things no ways discomposed the quiet Repose of our pacifick King so as he might see his only Son married to a Daughter of France was all his Business no matter how The Thirst which God was his Judg and as he was a Christian King he had contracted equal to that of the wayfaring Man in the Desarts of Arabia and in danger of Death for want of Water for the good Success of the Parliament is now asswaged by the granting of three Subsidies and three Fifteenths Here 's no mention of marrying his only Son with the Tears of his only Daughter and he is still ready with the Lives of his Subjects and his own to assist the most High most Excellent and most Puissant Prince his most dear and most beloved Brother Cousin and antient Ally Lewis The Managers of this Treaty were Hay a Scots-man created Earl of Carlisle and the Lord Kensington for the more Honour of it created Earl of Holland two of the King's Favourites of the second Rate but who bare no proportion to the Sagacity Wisdom and Integrity of the Earl of Bristol Bristol was all Heare of Oak and would not bend to Buckingham's Pride and Ambition but they were Willows that were liable to every Nod and Wind of Buckingham's Breath But how comes Buckingham who must have an Oar in every Boat to be absent from this Treaty The Reason was tho he were not wise yet he was jealous lest King James in his Absence should hear Bristol against him as the King had promised as well as he had heard Buckingham against him which was so dangerous a Rock as our Land-Admiral would not venture to run against Notwithstanding all this Haste for consummating this desired Marriage the Thread of the King's Life was spun out before for upon the 27th of March Ann. 1625. he died at Theobalds in the 58th Year of his Age having reigned twenty two Years compleat Having had an Ague the Duke of Buckingham did upon Monday the 21st before when in the Judgment of the Physicians the Ague was in its Declination apply Plaisters to the Wrists and Belly of the King and also did deliver several quantities of Drink to the King tho some of the King's Physicians did disallow thereof and refused to meddle further with the King until the said Plaisters were removed and that the King found himself worse hereupon and that Droughts Raving Fainting and an intermitting Pulse followed hereupon and that the Drink was twice given by the Duke 's own hands and a third time refused and the Physicians to comfort him telling him that this second Impairment was from Cold taken or some other Cause No no said the King it is that which I had from Buckingham I confess this was but a Charge upon the Duke upon the Impeachment of the Commons as you may read in Rushworth fol. 355 356. yet it was next to positive Proof for King Charles rather than this Charge should come to an Issue dissolved the Parliament which was a Failure of Justice tho the Commons had voted him four Subsidies and four Fifteenths before it was passed into an Act. The Character of King James He was the first of that Name King of England and the first King of the whole Isle of Britain and the first King since Henry the first that was born out of the Allegiance to the King of England and was the first at least since Rich. 2. that affected and endeavoured to introduce an Arbitrary Power in England foreign to the Laws and Constitutions of it and in all his Reign was more governed by Flatterres and Favourites than by the Advice of his Parliament or a wise Council His Flatterers and Favourites seldom spake of him but under the Appellation of Most Sacred rarely I think or never before used to any of the Kings of England and of the Solomon of the Age though never were two Kings more unlike unless it were in their Sons Charles and Rehoboam for Solomon died the richest of all the Kings of the World King James the poorest Solomon was inspired above all other Kings with Wisdom and his Proverbs Divine Sentences for Improvement of Vertue and Morality whereas this King's Learning wherein he and his Flatterers so much boasted was a Scandal to his Crown for all his Writings against Bellarmine and
them with Men of War to guard their Fisheries and to do it whether he would or not A Prince that by his dissolute Life and prophane Conversation debauched and effeminated the Genius of the English Nation whereby it became more scandalized for Swearing and Drinking than in any Age before A Prince that broke all the Measures by which Hen. 8. and Queen Elizabeth were the Arbitrators of Christendom A Prince fearful of all his Enemies abroad while he was only great by exercising a Tyrannical Arbitrary Power over his Parliaments and Subjects who could only have made him great abroad and honoured at home whereby he became little beloved at home and suffered the Dutch to redeem their Cautionary Towns upon their own Terms and to dispossess the English at Amboyna and their other Factories in the East-Indies and Africa He only stood still looking on while the French upon the Matter supprest the Reformed in France and suffered Ferdinand the 2d to over-run and near subdue the Protestant Princes in Germany as well as his own Son-in-law And tho he were the 6th of that Name King of Scotland from John alias Robert Stuart the Son of Robert Stuart by his Paramour Elizabeth Moor yet if Sir James Melvil says true that Cardinal Bethoun poisoned James the 5th he was the first of that Name who died a natural Death if he did so for James the first was murdered by his Uncle the Earl of Athol his Grand-father's legitimate Son in his Queen's Arms with eight and twenty Wounds the Queen receiving two to defend him This was in the Year 1436. James the II. was killed by the breaking of a Piece of Cannon while he besieged the Castle of Roxburgh the 3d of Aug. 1460. James the III. having his Army routed by an Army headed by his Son James was killed at Bannoch-Burn by the Lord Gray and Robert Sterling of Ker after Sir Andrew Brothick a Priest had shriven him This was in 1488. James the IV. was killed the 9th of December 1514 at Flowdenfield by the English commanded by the Earl of Surrey and his Body never found and if James the 5th was poisoned then none of these Jameses died a natural Death neither did King James his Mother being put to death Ann. 1587 for conspiring the Death of Queen Elizabeth After the Dissolution of the Spanish Match the King as greedily prosecuted the French and tho he lived not to see it settled yet he saw the Army raised under Count Mansfield for the Recovery of the Palatinate ruined by trusting to the French Faith in this very Treaty When he died he not only left an empty Exchequer but a vast Debt upon the Crown yet was engaged in a foreingn War and the Monies given by the Parliament for carrying it on were squandred away in carrying on the French Treaty and the Nation imbroiled in intestine Feuds and Disorders At his Death he left a Son and Heir and one Daughter Before he died he saw his Son over-ruled by his Favourite against his determinate Will and Pleasure and the Prince's own Honour and Interest which was a great Mortification to him and which he often complained of but had not Courage to redress and so strongly was 〈◊〉 Favourite possessed of his Power over his Son in the King's Life that the Prince little regarded his Father's Precepts or the Counsels of any else after his Death whereby he encreased the Internal Feuds Jealousies and Discords of the Nation which ended in a sad Catastrophe both of the Favourite and the King At the King's Death his Daughter with her Husband and her many Children were driven into Exile and Poverty in the Dominion of the Dutch States where they were more relieved by the States the Prince of Orange and some Bishops and Noblemen of England than by either of the Kings Father or Son A DETECTION OF THE Court and State of England During the Reign of King CHARLES I. c. BOOK II. CHAP. I. This Reign detected to the Dissolution of the Parliament Tertio Car. 'T WAS a strange Reign this As this King's Father's Reign was introduced with a horrible Plague so was this King's with a greater and such as no Records of any Times before mention the like The first 15 Years of his Reign were perfectly French and such as never before were seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and Destruction upon the King whenas it was not in the Power of those which first raised the War against him to save his Life which they would have done Baptista Nani in the sixth Book of the History of Venice An. 1625 f. 221 observes That after the Marriage of King Charles with the Daughter of France the Interest of State or rather the Passion of Favourites converted the Bonds of Affection into Causes of Hatred Europe in those times reckoned it amidst its unhappy Destiny that the Government of it fell upon three young Kings yet in the Flower of their Age Princes of great Power desirous of Glory and in Interest contrary but in this alone by Genius agreeing that they committed the Burden of Affairs to the Will of their Ministers for with equal Independency France was governed by Richlieu Spain by Olivares and Great-Britain by Buckingham confounding Affections with Interest as well publick as private Betwixt the Cardinal and Buckingham open Animosities discovered themselves for Causes so much more unadvised as they were more hard to be known When King James died the Nation was rent into four Parties viz. The Prerogative which exalted the King's divided Will from the Laws and Constitutions above his Royal and Legal Will The Country or Legal Party which stood for the Legal Establishment of Church and State and the Puritan and Popish Parties After the Treaties of Marriage between the Prince and the Daughters of Spain and France the Popish and Prerogative Parties joined for carrying on the Court-Designs and were opposed by the Country and Puritan Parties and as the Prerogative and Popish Factions grew more insolent so the Puritan Party gathered Strength and Reputation among the Vulgar or ordinary People insomuch that in Number they became more than all the other three We shall take a better View of this Reign if we look a little back into the former After the Treaty of the Match with Spain was broken off King James was perplext what to do he had neither Money nor Courage to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate and the Wounds which he had given the last Parliament by Imprisoning their Members for advising him to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate were yet fresh and bleeding and yet Buckingham whom he durst not offend not content to satisfy his Spite against Olivares by breaking off the Match was notwithstanding all Difficulties nay Impossibility of Success still pushing on the King to declare War against the King of Spain The King
Exchequer where he pleaded and the King's Counsel demurring the Point in Law came to be argued on both sides Mr. Whitlock has a remarkable Passage of Judg Croke concerning his Opinion in the Case of which he speaks knowingly viz. that the Judg was resolved to give his Judgment for the King and to that end had prepared his Argument yet a few Days before he was to argue upon some Discourse with some of his nearest Relations and most serious Thoughts of the Business and being heartned thereto by his Lady who was a good and pious Woman told her Husband upon this Occasion That she hoped he would do nothing against his Conscience for fear of any Danger or Prejudice to him or his Family and that she was content to suffer Want or any Misery with him rather than be an Occasion for him to do or say any thing against his Conscience or Judgment Upon these and many the like Incouragements but chiefly upon better thoughts he suddenly altered his Purpose and Arguments and when it came to his turn contrary to Expectation he argued and declared his Opinion against the King and so did Judg Hutton after however the rest of the Judges gave their Opinions against Mr. Hambden However the King this Year to sweeten the Judges Opinion for levying Ship-Money set out a Navy of sixty Men of War to disturb the Dutch Fishing on the Coasts of England and Scotland under the Command of the Earl of Northumberland who seized and sunk several of the Dutch Busses whereupon they sued to the King for leave to fish promising to pay an Acknowledgment of 30000 l. per Annum But this ill agreed with the King's Reason for levying Ship-Money which was that Pirats infested our Coasts to the indangering the Safety of the Nation See William de Britaine f. 16 17. But if the Dutch were thus bold upon our Coasts by the Liberty granted them by Hugo Grotius they were much bolder in the East-Indies where they stile themselves Soveraigns of all the Seas in the World for Anno 1620 they seized upon two Ships of the English called the Bear and the Star in the Straits of Mallaca going to China and confiscated Ships and Goods valued at 150000 l. I suppose Grotius could not give a like Instance of any Dutch Ships so used for passing through the Channel and last Year viz. 1635 an English Ship called the Bona Esperanza going towards China by the Straits of Mallaca was violently assaulted by three Dutch Men of War the Master and many of the Men killed and the Ship brought into Mallaca and there the Ship and Goods were confiscate valued at 150000 l. and this very Year the Dragon and Katherine two English Ships of Sir William Courten valued at 300000 l. besides the Commanders and others who had great Estates in them were set upon by seven Dutch Men of War as they past the Straits of Mallaca from China and by them taken the Men tied back to back and thrown over-board the Goods taken out of the Ships which were sunk and seized for the State The State and Church of England thus established in Doctrine and Discipline the Arch-bishop's next Care was to have the same in Scotland and herein he was so absolute that the King told the Marquess Hamilton when he was his Commissioner in Scotland that the Arch-bishop was the only English-man he entrusted in the Ecclesiastical Affairs in Scotland and no Care need be had of the Church of Ireland since my Lord Viscount Wentworth was Lieutenant there who to all Intents pursued the Arch-bishop's Instructions Here let 's see how the Church stood in Scotland before the Arch-bishop undertook to reform it James the 5th of Scotland died the 13th of December 1542 leaving only one Daughter Mary but five Days old by Mary of Lorain his Wife Sister to Francis Duke of Guise and Charles Cardinal of Lorain two the most powerful Princes in France after King Henry the 2d and the most zealously addicted to the Popish Religion After the King's Death Cardinal Beaton got a Priest Henry Balfour to forge the King's Will whereby the Cardinal the Earls of Huntley Argile and Murray were to have the Government during the Queen's Minority but the Nobility not believing it chose the Earl of Arran Governour and Henry the King of England desiring to unite the Kingdoms by marrying his Son Edward with the Infant-Queen sent a solemn Embassy to the Governour and Council of Scotland to consent to this Marriage which was done only the Queen Dowager and the Cardinal dissenting and this was confirm'd by the Parliament convened at Edinburgh the 13th of March following Yet the Queen-Mother and Cardinal got the Queen to be married to Francis the Dauphin Son of Henry the 2d of France In this Parliament the Scots were permitted to read the Scripture in the English Tongue till the Prelates should publish one more correct But in the Year 1559 the Scots began their Reformation in Religion at Perth the intervening Accidents of the Scots Endeavours to reform and the Opposition by the Regent the Cardinal and the Prelates you may read in Bishop Spotswood's History of the Church of Scotland and Sir Melvil's Memoirs To suppress the Progress of this Reformation the Queen-Mother who was Regent calls in an Army and Navy of French to oppose them The Reformers call in an Army and Navy of English the English Fleet fire the French Ships in their Harbour and compel the French to leave Scotland and in 1560 the Queen Regent died leaving Scotland in a kind of Interregnum In August following a Parliament convened at Edinburgh by a Warrant from the King and Queen wherein the Mass and Popery were suppressed and the Reformation of the Kirk of Scotland in Doctrine and Discipline established but the King and Queen now of France as well as Scotland refused to confirm either nor was this Kirk-Doctrine and Discipline confirmed till the Queen was deposed and Murray made Regent in 1567. The Reformation was purely after the Mode of Calvin and Church of Geneva a Common-Prayer was ordained not strictly to be observed but as a Pattern of Prayer In it were ordained four sorts of Assemblies viz. National Provincial Weekly Meetings of Ministers and the Eldership of every Parish Superintendents were likewise established whose Office was to visit the Kirk within limited Places these had Power to cite and deprive Ministers but must be assisted by some grave Ministers next adjoining as also to ordain Ministers But the Hierarchy of the Church of Scotland as they were esteemed one of the States in Parliament was not then nor after taken away by Parliament nor their Power of Ordination and Visiting within their Diocesses yet in Visitation and Ordination the Superintendents had a concurring Power with the Bishops and the Bishops were subject to be cited and proceeded against for Scandal neglect of their Office Symony c. by the General Assemblies This Reformation viz. 1581 was subscribed by
ensue upon such tumultuous Concourse of Men. And why was not this a reasonable Excuse for the King to leave the Parliament and City when they countenanced these Tumults and the King had not Power to suppress them Mr. May goes on and says Vpon this ground twelve Bishops at that time absenting themselves entred a Protestation against all Laws Votes and Orders as Null which in their Absence should pass by reason they durst not for fear of their Lives come to perform their Duties in the House having been rudely menaced and assaulted And why might not the Bishops enter such Protestation for if it be a Maxim in all Assemblies that Plus valet contemptus unius quam consensus omnium then does the Contempt and Affront of a whole Order of Men who have a Right of Suffrage much more render the Actions of the rest invalid However Mr. May goes on and says Whereupon it was agreed by both Lords and Commons that this Protestation of the Bishops was of dangerous Consequence and deeply entrenched upon the Privilege and Being of Parliaments they were therefore accused of High-Treason apprehended and committed Prisoners to the Tower And I say a time shall come when in Parliament these Men who run thus high against the Bishops and established Church of England shall be prosecuted by a contrary Extream and the Church by Law exalted higher than it was before Mr. May goes on and says Thus was the Parliament daily troubled with ill Work whereby the Relief of Ireland was hindred If they were thus troubled they may thank themselves for beginning these Troubles as well by the Commons Remonstrance against the King and Lords as by their countenancing the Tumults By this time things were so envenom'd as would admit of no Lenitives especially by the Commons and the King went from London to Hampton-Court and sent a Message to the Parliament and advises them To digest into one Body all the Grievances of the Kingdom and send them to him promising his favourable Assent to those Means which should be found most effectual for Redress wherein he would not only equal but excel the most indulgent Princes The Parliament thank'd him but nothing but having the Militia at their Disposal would secure their Fears and Jealousies This was as new in England as the perpetuating the sitting of the Parliament and if the King should grant it it would be a total Subversion of the Monarchy For the Parliament being perpetual and having the Power of the Militia the Government must be either a Commonwealth or an Oligarchy and the King insignificant in it yet have it the Parliament would notwithstanding other Grievances and the deplorable State of Ireland And therefore upon the 26th of February they tell the King plainly That the settling the Business of the Militia will admit no more Delay and if his Majesty shall still refuse to agree with his two Houses of Parliament in that Business and shall not be pleased upon their humble Advice to do what they desire therein that then for the Safety of his Majesty of Themselves and the whole Kingdom and to preserve the Peace thereof and to prevent future Fears and Jealousies they shall be constrained of themselves without his Majesty to settle that necessary Business of the Militia See Whit. M. f. 54. a. Here 't is observable That as the King feigned a Necessity to raise Ship-money for the Good and Safety of the Kingdom in general when the whole Kingdom is in danger the Judges gave their Opinion That the King may by his Writ under the Broad Seal of England command all his Subjects of this Kingdom to provide and furnish such Number of Ships with Men Victuals and Ammunition and for such time as the King shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from such Peril and Danger and that by Law the King may compel the doing thereof in Case of Refusal and Refractoriness and that in such Case the King is sole Judg both of the Danger and when and how the same may be prevented and avoided So now the Parliament pretending a Necessity for the Safety of the King and of Themselves and the whole Kingdom and to preserve the Peace thereof will tear the Militia from him In this State things could not stand long at a Stay Mr. May p. 47. will have the Queen 's going into Holland with her Daughter and carrying with her the Crown-Jewels of England and pawning them there whereby she bought Arms for the War which ensued that it was then designed by the King against the Parliament but if Mr. May had been sincere he should have told too as Mr. Whitlock does f. 59. a. how the Parliament took 100000 l. of the 400000 l. they voted to be raised for Ireland and whether this was not for the War which ensued in England Mr. May p. 48. recites three Votes of Parliament 1. That the King's Absence so far remote being then at York from his Parliament is not only an Obstruction but may be a Destruction to the Affairs in Ireland 2. That when the Lords and Commons in Parliament shall declare what the Law of the Land is to have this not only questioned and controverted but contradicted and a Command that it should not be obeyed is a high Breach of the Privilege of Parliament 3. That they who advised the King to absent himself from the Parliament are Enemies to the Peace of this Kingdom and justly to be suspected to be Favourites of the Rebellion in Ireland But Mr. May should have added that it is not the King's Presence in London or any other Place but his assenting to Bills presented to him which he may do by Commission as well as Personally that enacts them into Laws and that the King after he went from London passed the Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament and that no Clergy-Man should exercise any Temporal Jurisdiction which the King did with remorse enough and only to humour and appease the Temporal Lords and Commons in Parliament and the Bishops in Parliament are one of the 3 States of England The King moreover in his Absence upon a Motion by the Parliament put Sir John Byron from being Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir John Conniers to succeed him and refers the Consideration of the Government and Liturgy of the Church wholly to the two Houses see Whitlock's M. f. 53. b. But nothing less than the King 's parting with the Militia would satisfy the Parliament which the King would not part from so now it 's left fair for indifferent Men to judg whether the King or Parliament or both designed the ensuing War And to proceed to set forth who began it I have said in the first Page of this King's Reign or p. 153 That the first Fifteen Years of it were perfectly French and such as were never before seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the Three
Successes Sir Marmaduke Langdale about the Beginning of March routed a great Body of the Parliamentarians in Yorkshire and defeated the Army commanded by my Lord Fairfax which besieg'd Pomfret-Castle and from thence marched into Leicestershire and defeated a great Body of the Parliament's Forces commanded by Colonel Rossiter Anno Reg. 21. Dom. 1645. We begin this Year with the Self-denying Ordinance tho Mr. Whitlock and Sir Richard Baker differ a little in point of time Sir Richard Baker says it was this Year Mr. Whitlock 1644. But the Lords refused to concur with the Commons herein so as this Ordinance began with a Rupture between the two Houses so you 'll see it shall be the Ruin of the Parliament's as well as the King's Designs Mr. Whitlock made a fine and learned Speech against this Ordinance which you may read at large fol. 114 115. of his Memoirs The pretended Reason for this Ordinance was the Thinness of the House which by Employment in the War would render them much thinner To which Mr. Whitlock answered It might be supplied by filling up the Commons by new Elections He objected against the Ordinance the Examples of the Grecians and Romans who had the greatest Offices both of War and Peace conferred upon their Senators because they having greater Interests than others were more capable to do them the greatest Services and that by passing this Ordinance they would lay aside the General Essex the Earls of Warwick Denbigh and Manchester the Lords Willoughby and Roberts and of their own Members the Lords Grey of Growby and Fairfax Sir William Waller Cromwel Mr. Hollis Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Brereton and Sir John Meyrick Tho the Commons passed the Self-denying Ordinance yet they dispensed with it in reference to Cromwel Skippon and Ireton and Sir William Waller Hereupon the Earls of Essex Denbigh and Manchester lay down their Commissions Here it 's observable That the Earl of Essex as he was the first which headed an Army against the King and whose Authority was so great that 't was believed if he had not done it the Parliament could not have rais'd an Army is now the first discarded by the Commons without giving any Reason In this new Establishment of the English Army Sir Thomas Fairfax was made General Cromwel Lieutenant-General and Skippon Major-General The Royalists conceived Mountains of Advantages to follow and that not improbably from the Divisions in the Parliament's Army which succeeded quite contrary For upon the 3d of April Fairfax having gathered his Army together at Windsor sent Cromwel with a Brigade of Horse and Dragoons to intercept a Convoy of Horse which Prince Rupert had sent from Worcester to fetch off the King from Oxford with a Train of Artillery to take the Field which Cromwel met at Islip and routed them took divers Prisoners and 200 Horse and from thence Cromwel march'd and took Bletchingdon-House commanded by Colonel Windebank Sir Francis's own Son by Surrender upon the first Summons for which Windebank was sentenced by a Court-Martial and shot to Death But Cromwel had not so good Success at Faringdon which he assaulted and was beaten off with the loss of 200 of his Men. The King understanding that Fairfax had a Design to besiege Oxford sent to Prince Rupert and General Goring to fetch him off which they did about the beginning of May and the King marched towards the Relief of Chester then besieged by the Parliament's Forces and Fairfax lays close Siege to Oxford The King relieved Chester and in his Return takes Leicester by Storm This put Fairfax to his Trumps so that if he continued the Siege of Oxford he would leave all the mid-land parts of England to the Mercy of the King So he raises his Siege and marches to fight the King's Army My Lord Astley was Lieutenant-General of the King's Foot whose Nephew was Sir Isaac Astley my Lord's eldest Brother's eldest Son who married a Cousin-German of mine and after the War was over my Lord Astley being at his Nephew 's in Discourse of the Wars my Lord told him That upon the Approach of the Parliament's Army the King called a Council of War where by the Advice of my Lord Astley it was resolved to march Northwards and destroy the Country Provisions and leave the Parliament's Army at their Election whether they would follow the King or besiege Leicester But next Morning quite contrary to the Order of Council Orders were given to prepare to fight the Parliament's Army when there was little time to draw up the Army so inconstant and irresolute was the King in this as of almost all his other Actions and so forward was the King herein that he marched to meet Fairfax's Army near Naseby in Northamptonshire This was upon Saturday June the 14th And if the Resolution to fight was inconsiderate and rash so was the Fight for Prince Rupert who commanded the right Wing of the King's Horse charged the left Wing of the Parliament's commanded by Ireton and routed them and wounded Ireton in the Thigh and as before at Edg-hill and Marston-Moor he pursued the Enemy so far that he left the rest of the Army exposed to the Assaults of the Enemy so here he followed the Chase almost to Naseby leaving the left Wing of the King's Army commanded by Sir Marmaduke Langdale open to be charged by Cromwel That which compleated the Parliament's Victory and the King 's utter Overthrow in this Fight was the not observing the Orders the Day before of the King's Retreat for Yorkshire being opprest by the Parliament's Forces Sir Marmaduke had Expectation of relieving the King's Party there which being cross'd by the Resolution of this Day 's Fight his Brigade as well as himself grew discontented so as he no ways answered the Gallant Actions which before he had atchieved And Cromwel having forced Sir Marmaduke to retreat joining with Fairfax charged the King's Foot who had beaten the Parliament's and got Possession of their Ordnance and thought themselves certain of the Victory but being in Confusion and out of Order and having no Horse to support them were easily over-born by Fairfax and Cromwel and so Fairfax's Army obtain'd a most absolute Victory over the King 's We hear no more of Prince Rupert in this Fight who 't was believed was the first Mover of it till of his Arrival at Bristol In this Fight the Earl of Lindsey the Lord Astley and Colonel Russel were wounded and 20 Colonels Knights and Officers of Note and 600 common Soldiers were slain on the King's side and 6 Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels 18 Majors 70 Captains 80 Lieutenants 200 Ensigns and other Officers and 4500 common Soldiers were taken Prisoners 12 Pieces of Cannon 8000 Arms 40 Barrels of Powder 200 Carriages with all their Bag and Baggage with store of rich Pillage 3000 Horse one of the King's Coaches with his Cabinets of Letters and Papers And the King fled towards Wales If the King were unfortunate in the
Articles of Agreement were agreed upon between the supposed Conspirators and the Cardinal in April 1658 but here Cromwel was at greater Charge for his Fleet than Mazarine for his Army and Cromwel had out-bid Mazarine for the Bargain but little Money was to be paid before the Town was surrendred The Agreement being made upon the 14th of May 1658 the Fleet appeared before Ostend and the Garison in the Fort permitted the French to pass and land but the Governour fearing if the English Fleet should enter they might endanger the Town with his own Hands pulled down the white Flag and set up the bloody Flag but before the English Fleet could tack about it was sore galled by the Artillery planted upon the Fort before it could get out of their reach and the French which landed were killed or taken every Mother's Son to the number of 1500 the Marshal was of the number of the Prisoners This Story is pleasantly and particularly printed in Spanish by one of the Agents translated into English under the Title of Harm watch Harm catch Mazarine with much ado got his Men again which were not killed but how shall Cromwel get his Money again of which he had more need than Mazarine had of his Men nor would Mazarine part with one Groat he had been out of Pocket too much to redeem the French By this time Cromwel was in ill Plight hated of all Factions as much as of the Royalists he had nothing to trust to but a Mercenary Army which he could not pay and above half of these would have been content to have his Throat cut His Means would not pay for the Intelligence he was forced to buy at home and abroad to discover the Practices which were every day hatching against him So as he had no Security but in the general Fear which all the Factions as well as he had that their Discords might give an Occasion of restoring the King to the ruine of them all Nor were their Fears without Ground for at this time there was an Inclination of the Royalists in all parts of England to rise and the Marquess of Ormond was sent by the King to encourage it having gotten a Company of Men together beyond Sea under the Command of General Marsin to assist them But Cromwel had his Spies every where who betray'd all the principal of these Spies was Sir Richard Willis who was always upon his Discovery of these Plots one of the first committed to the Tower and one Corker who had served King Charles the First and was one who assisted in killing Rainsborough at Doncaster so as Cromwel nipp'd all in the Bud before they moved Yet notwithstanding all his Diligence Ormond made his Escape only to give the King an Account of the Discovery and Ruine of his Design Though the Royalists could draw no Blood from Cromwel yet he resolved to take some from them yet would not do it by Juries having had such ill Luck with them but by a Court of Justice of his own Creatures and Nomination headed by Lisle Before these were haled my Lord Mordant Sir Henry Slingsby Dr. Hewet the two Staleys Woodcock Mallery Rivers Dike and many others Dr. Hewet denied their Jurisdiction and was condemned for Contumacy Sir Henry Slingsby pleaded yet was condemned my Lord Mordant was acquitted by the Majority of one Vote when â—ride came in who if he had been there had turned the Scales and Woodcock behaved himself so well as he was acquitted The rest were condemned yet some for Money got their Pardons and others who had not so much Money for somewhat less and swearing themselves out of the Plot saved their Lives Sir Henry Slingsby and Dr. Hewet were beheaded others hanged and quartered Yet this good Success gave little Comfort to Cromwel for to all his former Disturbances were added the Disorders of his own Family his Son-in-law Fleetwood and Brother-in-law Desborough caballing with the Republicans and Dissenting Officers so as they rarely visited him tho Cromwel to sweeten Fleetwood promised to name him his Successor and to these Lambert since his Discarding joined Cromwel having so little Dependance on his Army sets up another of Voluntiers to have Eight â—ounds a Year apiece to be ready to serve him These were a Company of Fellows who as their Pay was little so were their Horses Jades and lean and a Troop of any Army-Horse would beat ten of them yet they served Cromwel so far as to seize Malignants whenever he sent them and were Spies over all suspected Persons and to inform him of their Demeanour All the Joy Cromwel had in these Anxieties and Inquietudes was in his beloved Daughter Cleypole who even to his Heart-breaking died the 6th of August 1658 and upon the third of September following he himself followed her in a terrible Storm of Wind a day upon which at Dâ—nbar in Scotland and Worcester in England he had sent so many thousands before for which he then was to give an Account However Cromwel lived yet when he died all the Flattering Poets strained their Wits to that Pitch to celebrate his Encomiums so as that they could never after arrive to it The Good Deeds of Oliver Cromwel THUS in some measure and in Epitome you have seen if not the Life yet the Rage of Cromwel in his Usurpation in which as I have said nothing of him for Spite having never done me any Wrong but what was common to all the Nation so I think in Justice I ought to do him Right wherein as I conceive he deserved well of the Nation 1. By Blake he more humbled and subdued the Algerine Tripoli and Tunis Pirates than ever any before or since did 2. Westminster-Hall was never replenished with more learned and upright Judges than by him nor was Justice either in Law or Equity in Civil Cases more equally distributed where he was not a Party 3. When the Norway Traders represented to him the Mischief and Inconveniences the Act of Navigation brought upon the Nation which may be at large said elsewhere Cromwel during his time dispensed with it and permitted the English to trade to Norway for Timber Masts Pitch Tar and Iron as before the Act And by a Law made in Cromwel's Third Parliament in June 1657 which was but five Years after the Rump's Act of Navigation Licence is given to transport Fish in Foreign Bottoms See Whitlock's Memoirs f. 661. a. So little then was the Act of Navigation regarded 4. Tho Cromwel play'd the Fool in making War upon Spain and Peace with France yet he made a more advantageous Treaty of Commerce for the English to France than before they had I have not seen it but had this from our English Merchants who traded to France 5. Tho Cromwel joined Forces with the French against the Spaniard yet he reserved the Sea-Towns conquered from the Spaniard to himself so had Dunkirk and Mardike delivered up to him and would have had Ostend if the Garison
partake with him in any part of his Authority over it And now Monk with a better Authority and more Applause than Cromwel had might have set up himself for Protector or what he pleas'd but he saw the Genius of the Nation lay another way and that 't was more secure to follow it than to set up himself against it He held therefore private Intelligence with the Heads of the Secluded Members about their Restoration on certain Conditions The Secluded Members were zealously disposed to out the Rump upon any Terms whatever came of it they had more to say against the Rump than the Rump had against the Officers of the Army who had twice deposed them and the Rump began the Game with the Secluded Members before the Officers began with them So upon Feb. 21. Monk gave the Command of the Guard to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper after Earl of Shaftsbury to permit the Secluded Members to enter the House the first whereof was W. Prynn tied to a great Basket-hilted Sword yet the Rumpers were not excluded nor did the Secluded Members care for it being four to one And so the Rumpers left the House and fell into a Relapse of their Convulsion out of which they never recovered nor did Barebone's Rabble afford them any Relief Thus you see the Rump and Secluded Members were like Virginal-Jacks too when one was up the other was down for the Secluded Members who before would not have the Nation or themselves safe unless they were an Undissolvable Parliament now to be revenged on the Rump are content to meet only to do Monk some Journey-work and then dissolve themselves The Secluded Members after they were in repeal their own Exclusion then vote Monk General of all the Forces in England Scotland and Ireland Mountague Admiral of the Fleet set Sir George Booth and those in Prison upon that account at liberty and soon after sent Lambert in his room and grant a Tax for Payment of the Army which now no Man disputed But Monk ' s Cares did not end here the Army without were more than fivefold to his within the City he therefore sent Letters to all the other Regiments of the Armies in England and Ireland To certify the Reason of the re-admission of the Secluded Members that without it there was no way to satisfy the Nation or raise Money to pay the Army and with large Assurances of their Constancy in their old Profession and Principles The Souldiers in general were glad to be out of their starving and wandring state and therefore in shoals submitted to Monk who yet would not receive them unless they would swear to be true to this Parliament as 't was called which he could but little trust to they having so often forswore themselves before yet these at present serv'd his turn and those who refus'd he cashier'd Now had horrible Dread overwhelm'd the Rumpers especially the Regicides they saw themselves hated by almost all the Nation yet at irreconcilable Variance one with another the Body of the Army which had raised them turned now against them they knew the Secluded Members had but a limited time to sit and then to dissolve themselves to make room for another which would certainly bring in the King to their utter Destruction In this Consternation Lambert escap'd out of the Tower and Col. Rich refused to submit Lambert posts to Warwick where he met Axtel Okey Cobbet Creed and some other disbanded Officers to whom many disbanded Soldiers joined which made up a little Army Colonel Streater a Confident of Monk's from Northampton gives Monk an Account of this whereupon the Council of State settled by the Secluded Members proclaim Lambert and all his Adherents Traitors and Monk sent Col. Rich. Ingoldsby a Gentleman of more true Courage than 20 of these sniveling Fellows who was before cashier'd for adhering to Ric. Cromwel when the Officers depos'd him with a strong Squadron of Horse to join Streater's Foot against them When these were joined upon Easter-day near Daventry both Armies came within sight of one another when Lambert made an Overture to Ingoldsby to restore Ric. Cromwel but Ingoldsby knew this Game was lost and that Lambert did not mean sincerely and so they fought Ingoldsby charged home and Lambert's Men could not sustain the Shock but fled and Ingoldsby it 's said took Lambert Prisoner with his own hands Lambert crying Quarter good my Lord for Ingoldsby was one of Oliver's Lords of the other House spare my Life With Lambert Cobbet and Creed were taken Prisoners Okey and Axtel escaped now but could not escape a greater Punishment than befel Lambert Cobbet or Creed for they were hang'd and quarter'd for having been K. Charles's Judges Nor was Rich's Fate much better than Lambert's for Col. Ingoldsby at Bury in Suffolk cashier'd him it 's said at the Head of his Regiment and disbanded it This was the End of that Invincible Army subdu'd by not one 6th part of it self for Monk when he came from Scotland had but 4 Regiments of Horse and 6 of Foot and I believe not 10 Men killed in their Defence and not one in the Reduction of the invincible Armado And now 't is time to see what followed the Secluded Members with much ado having dissolved themselves upon Mar. 17. issued out Writs for another to meet yet in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberties of the Commonwealth of England upon Apr. 25. the Elections to be as they were before the Year 1640. The gazing World eagerly expected the Success of this wondrous Revolution If we look abroad we shall see Mazarine after Cromwel's Death not foreseeing wherein the Confusions and Disorders in England would end unless in the Restoring the King which by Monsieur Bourdeaux the French Ambassador in England he diligently used his utmost Endeavours to prevent now sets up a Treaty of Peace with Spain and to forward it propounds a Marriage between the French King and the eldest Infanta of Spain the younger was after married to the now Emperor Leopold and the now King of Spain not born This Treaty was called The Pyrenaean Treaty But as this Treaty was made in deepest Dissimulation and Treachery so were the Preparations to it for at the same time the War continuing between Spain and Portugal the French King made an offensive League with Portugal for 10 Years not to treat with Spain unless the Portuguese were entirely satisfied in all their exorbitant Demands of Spain in which 't was agreed That all the Harbours the Portuguese should take in Spain either upon the one or other side of the Sea shall be put into the Power of France which you may read in the most excellent Treatise of the truly honourable and learned Statesman the Baron d' Isola Of the Buckler of State and Justice Chap. 1. And in regard there is so great a Connexion of the Pyrenaean Treaty with that of the Life of King Charles II. we 'll be more particular in it before we
before we will lay to the Charge of Cardinal Mazarine We will therefore see if the French King was not as little a Slave to his Word in this League as Mazarine was in any before and you 'll see that in all the Leagues this King after made he was as little a Slave to his Word as in this Treaty We have in the former Book set down particularly the Article whereby the French King upon his Honour and the Faith and Word of a King did promise neither directly nor indirectly to assist Portugal against Spain yet at the beginning of the Treaty they secretly conveyed Troops into Portugal in several Bodies And when upon Complaint of the Marquess de la Fuente they sent publick Orders to the Governours of their Ports not to suffer any Souldiers to embark for Portugal they did not abstain by Connivance under-hand to let them pass Nay when Marshal Turene made publick Levies to assist Portugal it being complained of by the Marquess de la Fuente they answered it was a particular Act of the Marshal and the Court of France had no Hand in it And also continually supplied Portugal with Corn and all sorts of Ammunition And France also fomented the Obstinacy of Portugal to continue the War when Spain offered them advantagious Terms of Peace This and much more you may read in the second Article of The Buckler of State and Justice Nor did the French King stay here but being become the dearest Confident with his Brother of England almost as soon as the King was settled the French sent Monsieur Courtin to move the King not to abandon Portugal nor did he yet stay here but Mazarine dying much about the latter end of Summer having a Stone in his Heart so the French Pasquils said in September or beginning of October the Queen-Mother came over seemingly to treat with her Son for a Marriage between Monsieur of France and her fair Daughter Henrietta Maria the King 's beloved Sister Yet it seems to me the Marriage of the King with the Infanta of Portugal was not less designed than that with Monsieur And besides these you will soon hear of something else which brought the Queen-Mother into England As the Designs of the Queen's coming over were dark so I acknowledg I have not seen any of the Treaties or Transactions concerning them but must take Measures by what followed and so far as I had Light from what went before yet in all of them it seems evident to me that the Queen shewed her self to be more affectionate to her Daughter than Son and to be more a Daughter of France than Queen of England But before I proceed it will be convenient to take notice of the deplorable State of Spain which their Ambition in seeking so many Foreign Dominions and a Tyrannical Government had brought it to For before the Accession of their American Dominions which they acquired by unjust War and unheard-of Cruelties in all the ten Years War between Ferdinand and Isabella with the Moors who had seven hundred Years been possessed of the Kingdoms of Granada Murcia and a great part of Andaluzia every Year the Moors and Christians brought near a hundred thousand Men into the Field to fight one with another yet the Kingdoms of Arragon Navar and Portugal were Neutral in all the War Whereas now all the Kingdoms of Spain except that of Portugal were united under this King Philip the Fourth yet out of them all he could not raise an Army to fight the Portuguese but trusting to the French Faith in the Pyrenaean Treaty sent the Army in Flanders under the Command of the Marquess Caracene to do it The King imbraced the Overtures of both Marriages and now the French King doubly if not trebly assured of his Brother of England as well by the Treaties of these Marriages as by his Message by Courtin no longer acts covertly in assisting the Prince Regent of Portugal against Spain but bare-fac'd sent Marshal Schomberg with an Army and Fleet to their Assistance yet this Army was not sufficient to make an Offensive War against Spain but Portugal stood only upon the Defensive The Want of Money a little retarded the Marriage of the Princess with Monsieur but this might be easily help'd if the King would give up Dunkirk to the French whereby he might pay 200000 l. for his Sister's Portion which was more than his Father had with his Mother and also receive 200000 l. more for himself Nor was this all he might save the Charges of maintaining a Garison there yet the Parliament in the Hereditary Excise allowed him 60000 l. per Annum for the Support of it I do not find this mentioned in the Body of the Act yet several Members assured me it was so intended in the passing the Act. All this the King agreed to and so Dunkirk and Mardike Fort were given up to the French against all the Laws of Humanity Justice and Prudence I say it was against all the Laws of Humanity for the Spaniard entertained and relieved the King when the French had expelled him and joined with Oliver the Usurper of all his Dominions It was against Justice for the Soveraignty of Dunkirk was of Right and Justice the Spaniards And against the Rules of Policy and Prudence the French Nation being the Natural Enemies of the English and the next Neighbour to it and of all Nations the most formidable It had been happier for the poor Spaniard and the English Nation if the Unkindness of the King to the Spaniard had ended in his giving up Dunkirk to the French but it ended not here for the King imployed the Army which should have kept Dunkirk against the Spaniard in Portugal and with these and another Band of the disbanded English Army joined to them the French Portuguese and English or rather the English without them routed the whole united Army of the Spaniard at the Fight of Elvas So as now the French had a new Inlet into Flanders and the Spaniard no Army to defend it This was a foul Blot in the Spanish Politicks by their King 's trusting to the Faith of his Brethren of England and France But this will not stay here as hereafter you will see Here I take leave so well as I can to vindicate the Memory of my Lord Chancellor Hide from two Aspersions as I conceive cast upon him one That he was the Adviser of the giving up Dunkirk to the French The other That he was the Procurer of the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal For the first I was assured by a credible Person tho a Confident of my Lord Chancellor's that he was so far from advising the King to give up Dunkirk to the French that only he and my Lord Treasurer Southampton upon whose Honour my Lord Chancellor relied more than any other of all the Council entred their Protestations against it The Truth of this may be resolved by inspecting the Privy-Council's Books It 's true
sit out a greater Fleet of Men of War than ever any French King did before Nor were the Dutch behind-hand but made proportionable Advances not doubting but the King would make good his Proportion according to the League so lately made between the King and them in case the French King made any Attempt upon them Upon the 24th of October 1670 the Parliament met again and notwithstanding all the Aids granted the King in April before my Lord-Keeper Bridgman told the Parliament the great Care his Majesty had of them and the Kingdom since their last Recess and that besides the triple Alliance he had made many advantagious Alliances both for Security and Profit of Trade with the Swede Dane Spaniard and Duke of Savoy But since the Dutch and French made such vast Naval Preparations it was necessary for the Safety and Honour of the Nation that the King should at least keep equal Pace with them which could not be done without great Supplies which must be speedily granted for the King intended to put an End of this Session before Christmas but the Success of this Speech so ill agreeing with the Premises it was not permitted to be printed yet you may read it at large in Mr. Marvel's Growth of Popery But whatever Treaties of Commerce were made with other Princes the Keeper finds none with France where neither the advantagious Treaty made by Oliver was observed nor any new one made but the French King did use the English with all imaginable Oppressions without any Redress from the King However this Speech wrought so pathetically with the Parliament that they gave the King one Shilling in the Pound of the real Value of all the Lands of England for one Year and an Additional Excise upon Beer and Ale for six Years and the Law-Bill for nine Years which three Bills were computed at two Millions and a half And now this dark Design founded in such deep Dissimulation Hypocrisy and Perfidiousness as Oliver Cromwel would have been ashamed of and blush'd at begins to receive Light For the Parliament having granted the King the Aids were in Consequence prorogued and did not meet to act till the fourth of February 167 1 2. But in regard that not only the extirpating the Protestant Religion but the Subversion of the Western Parts of Europe was now designed which extended as far as the Baltick Sea and the Bounds of the Turkish and Tartar Empires we will be a little particular in it But what is most amazing is that the King in appearance a Protestant and a free independent King so used by the French King in his Exile and since his Restoration should be so forward in joining with a Faithless and Boundless Ambitious Neighbouring Prince which if his Design had succeeded had involved the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland in the same Condition with the rest of Christendom The Vizard-Mask under which the Popish Party covered their Hypocrisy in propagating their Catholick Cause for plain-dealing must never be expected in it in King Charles the First 's time was Arminianism which then had the Ascendant in Laud's Regency but since the King's Restoration the Protestant Dissenters being so fiercely prosecuted by the Parliament it was judged that the dispensing with Penal Laws against Dissenters from the Church of England would conjoin the Protestant Dissenters Interest with the Popish and this not only appeared by Practice but by Design in Coleman's Letters to Father Ferier and La Chaise the French King's Confessors As before the first Dutch War the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence for dispensing with the Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs in the Interval of the sitting of the Parliament so did he before the second War It seems to me that the Designers of this War got some secret Oath or Promise from the King that he should not do the like again for the King told the House of Commons he would stand by his Declaration of Indulgence and sure nothing but Queen Money would have got him off However these Conspirators were more zealous than politick for before the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence in England upon the 26th of February 1671 he issued out his Proclamation in Ireland wherein he granted general Licence to all Papists to live in Corporations exercise Trades there and enjoy the same Privileges as other Subjects ought to do which was a greater Privilege than his Protestant Subjects had for by their Charter all who were not free of the Corporations could not have the Benefit of their Privileges But that the Catholick Design might take deeper Root and Continuance the Duke of York's Sons being dead and the Princesses his Daughters being bred up in the Protestant Religion Care must be taken to establish the Popish for the time to come for which it was expedient the Duke should marry some Popish Princess and to this end the Arch-Dutchess of Inspruck was propounded and a Treaty entred into upon it But tho the Princess's Religion pleased the French King yet the Interest this Marriage would bring with it did not So that tho the Treaty were far advanced yet the French King who ruled all the Roast propounded the Princess of Modena the Daughter of a little Italian Prince and a Dependant of the French King's yet had a great Interest in the Court of Rome and this against all Endeavours of the Parliament and to the Dishonour of the Treaty with the Arch-Dutchess prevailed the French King having adopted her a Daughter of France and given her a Portion But while these Designs are laid in the dark here in England the French King bare-faced by his Ambassador at Vienna in a solemn Speech declared that his Master had undertaken the War against Holland for propagating the Catholick Cause and that all good Christians were bound to join with him to extirpate Heresy and that he would restore all his Conquests to re-establish the true Worship banish'd out of the Holland's meaning the Vnited Netherlands Territories which you may read more at large in Mr. Secretary Trevor's Appeal c. Now let 's see how agreeable these Mens Morals were to their Religious Pretences in laying the Scene for this designed Dutch War The Treasury since the Death of my Lord Treasurer Southampton was managed by Commissioners and if the Aids granted by the Parliament were not sufficient for carrying on the King's Designs the French King is to supply him further but things were not ripe enough yet for these Monies to be returned into the Exchequer lest they might give cause of Suspicion and therefore between six and seven hundred thousand Pounds were received by Mr. Chiffins he to have two Pence in the Pound to be disposed of as the King shall order If you doubt this you may examine Mr. Chiffins's Accounts when he was advised to pass them and take his Quietus out of the Exchequer Tho by the Defensive League between the King and States when the Triple League
and thereupon the King told the Prince That for his Lands there he would charge himself that the Prince should enjoy them as safe under France as under Spain or if the Prince would part with them the King would undertake to get him what Price he would value them at to which the Prince generously reply'd That he would not trouble himself nor the Peace about that matter and that he would be content to lose all his Lands there to get one good Town more for the Spaniard upon the Frontier of Flanders So here the King and Prince agreed But then another Debate arose between the King and Prince one pretending France would never be brought to this Scheme the other that Spain would never be brought to it but at last it was agreed that the Peace should be made upon these Terms All to be restored by France to the Emperor and Empire that had been taken in the War and the Dutchy of Lorain to the Duke and all on both sides between France and Holland and to Spain the Towns of Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Courtray Tournay Conde Valenciennes St. Gillain and Binch which were nine Towns that the King shall endeavour to procure the Consent of France and the Prince of Spain And to this purpose the King should send some Person immediately over with the Proposition who should be instructed to enter into no Reasoning upon it but demand a positive Answer in two Days and after that term immediately return And then the King ordered Sir William within two Days to make himself ready to go and acquaint the French with it At this Agreement between the King and Prince none were present besides the Duke my Lord Treasurer and Sir William Temple so as the French Ambassador was as much surprized in it as before he was at the Marriage of the Prince but this could not be longer conceal'd from him than when it began to be put in Practice yet it seems to me he was acquainted with it before and that the King had taken other Resolutions than what was agreed upon but the Day before For Sir William having prepared all things in a Readiness to go the Evening before he met the King in the Park St. James's who call'd to him and told him he had been thinking upon Sir William's Errand and how unwelcome he should be in France as well as the Message and that having a Mind to gain Peace he was unwilling to anger them more than needs besides the thing being not to be debated or reasoned any Body else would serve the Turn as well as he whom he had other use of Sir William was very glad of it knowing how ungrateful a Messenger he should be upon this Account Then the King asked Sir William what he thought of my Lord Duras a French-man and a great Favourite of the Duke's and since Earl of Feversham It seems the King asked Sir William's Opinion only for Form and Fashion sake for the thing was the Morning before agreed upon at the Desire of the Duke upon pretence that France would accept of the Terms and that he had a Mind to have the Honour of it by sending a Servant of his own So my Lord Duras went immediately after with the Orders and some few Days after the Prince and Princess embarked for Holland where Affairs pressed his Return beyond the Hopes of my Lord Duras from France the King assuring the Prince he would never part with the least part of the Scheme sent over and would enter into a War with France if they refused it But pudet haec you 'll soon see another Face of Affairs after the Prince was gone nay before he went it was a great Mortification to him to see the Parliament prorogued till the next Spring which the French Ambassador had gained of the King to make up some good Meen with France after the Prince's Marriage and before the Dispatch of the Terms of a Peace to that Court I should not have ventured to say this if that honourable Gentleman Sir William Temple in his second Memoirs which are printed fol. 302. had not said it before But how honourable and sincere soever the Prince's Actions were in the Management of this whole Affair the outward Face of things had another Appearance which caused great Jealousies of him not only among the Amsterdamers and Common People in Holland but even among the Consederates for the Prince sending Monsieur Bentink privately over into England about the beginning of June and Sir William Temple so soon after following and the Prince's raising the Siege before Charlâ—râ—y the next day after my Lord Ossory came to his Camp and the Prince's going in September following into England these things thus concurring passed not without many Reflections not only in Holland but among the Allies as if there were Intelligences between the King and him which were heightned by the Marriage the main Business of the Treaty made by the King and Prince about the Peace being yet in Embrio so as the Prince and Princess were coldly received in Holland upon the Prince's Return and these Jealousies encreased more upon the Transactions between the English Court and France But sacred Truth and the Integrity of the Prince shall vindicate his Honour even among those who most suspected him and were so jealous of his Actions The Noise of a Peace with France so soon after the proroguing the Parliament raised a Ferment in the Nation of some Design of the Court as dangerous to the Nation as the Dutch Jealousies that their Liberties were in by the Prince's Treaty and Marriage with a Daughter of England And now the Prince was gone and out of Sight he was out of Mind too by the King in respect to the Terms of Peace agreed to and the solemn Promise the King made to the Prince upon his Departure that he would never parâ— with the least Point in the Scheme sent into France and make War upon it if it were refused For upon my Lord Duras's Arrival at Paris the Court were surprized at least seemed so both at the thing and more upon the manner of it yet made good Meen upon it took it gently and said The King of England knew very well he might be always Master of the Peace but some few Towns in Flanders seemed very hard especially Tournay upon whose Fortifications such vast Treasure had been expended and that they would take some short time to consider of the Offer But my Lord Duras told them he was tied to two Days stay but when that was out was prevailed upon to stay some few Days longer which he durst not have done without secret Orders from our Court contrary to his Instructions and at last came away without any positive Answer Hereupon the King instead of declaring War against France as he so solemnly promised the Prince entred into a Treaty with the French Ambassador at London which by French Artifice was so spun out in length without any
be kept with Hereticks which he esteemed all others in England but those of his own Romish Faction to be Could the King believe that the Duke's Succession could be any Security to the Protestant Religion as the King calls it which the Duke esteemed Heresy and to be rooted out by Fire and Sword or that any other but the Duke's Faction could be protected by him when he esteemed them Hereticks Schismaticks Church-Robbers and no Christians It 's true at this time the King of Portugal was made a Prisoner to restrain him from his immoral and wicked Actions whilst his Brother in his Imprisonment acted as Regent of Portugal in his Brother's Name But upon the Duke's Succession how could a Regent act when the King was not a Minor but of full Age double and at large in the King's Name and contrary to his Will and Pleasure and this to consist with the Security of the Protestant Religion or Laws In the Debates in the House of Commons many Expedients were propounded how the established Government in Church and State could be preserved and none could be found in case the Duke succeeded so the Country Party moved that the Court Party would propound Expedients herein but either they could not or had no Instructions from the Court to warrant such Expedients as they should propound But if the due and legal Descent of the Crown must be preserved though to the Destruction of the Church and State they who advised the King to be so positive herein should have done well to have declared what Law in England declares the Descent of the Crown of England or how this becomes due I am sure the Act of the first of Henry the IV intailed the Crown upon the King and the Heirs of his Body and so did that of the first of Henry VII before he married the Lady Elizabeth Edward the Fourth's Daughter and if Henry the seventh's Title to the Crown had been good by inherent Birth-right yet he had been an Usurper For his Mother under whom he claimed lived all his Reign and so she did some time after Henry the VIII became King as you may read in Stow's History p. 487. And how was the due and Legal Succession of the Crown of England observed in the Reign of Henry the VIII when by his Will he might name what Successor he pleased as has been said or in Queen Elizabeth's Reign when it was in Parliament declared Treason to affirm the Parliament might not dispose of the Succession of the Crown in her Reign and a Premunire at this Day And let any Man shew that ever there were three Kings before these of the Scotish Race in the Saxon Danish or Norman Race which succeeded successively by inherent Birth-right I will submit that all I have said is not true and why then must such a Stress be put for the preserving the Descent of the Crown in its due and legal Course without declaring what is that due and legal Course to endanger the Subversion of the Church and State of England Then the King recommends to the Parliament a Strict Enquiry into the Popish Plot and that the Lords in the Tower be brought to a speedy Trial without which he did not think himself or the Parliament safe The constant Vogue was That the King dissolved the two last Parliaments to preserve the Lords in the Tower from being brought to Trial and I am sure that you will soon hear that the King did not believe his and the Nation 's Safety did consist in the Trial of the Lords in the Tower Then the King tells the Parliament what Danger Tangier was in and what vast Expence he must be at to keep it And the Commons last Parliament drew up an Act to settle it upon the Imperial Crown of England and that they who did advise the King to part with Tangier to any Foreign Prince or State or were instrumental therein ought to be accounted Enemies to the King and Kingdom And what Care the King took to keep it will soon appear tho 't was said the Parliament I think it was out of the Chimney-Bill gave him 40000 l. per Annum towards the Preservation of it to the Crown of England The King goes on and says That above all the Treasure in the World which he was sure would give him greater Strength both at home and abroad than any Treasure can do is a perfect Union among our selves yet says not wherein we should unite Truth and Unity are one and consist in intire Parts but Falshood and Discord are infinite What Truth or Unity could be in the King 's loose and irregular Actions so confounding and every day varying from what he had promised before Or how is it possible for the Nation to unite under Terms which are inconsistible and impossible viz. Unite to preserve the Constitutions of the Kingdom and yet be at no Discord with the King who they were morally certain would make it his Business to subvert them If we should be so unhappy the King says as to fall into such Misunderstanding among our selves as would render our Friendship unsafe to trust to it will not be wondred at if our Allies shall begin to take up new Resolutions and perhaps such as may be fatal to us and advised them not to gratify our Enemies and dishearten our Friends by any unreasonable Disputes viz. to take all by an implicit Faith I do not understand what the King means by Misunderstanding among our selves which may render our Friendship to our or his Allies unsafe nor does he say wherein such Misunderstanding consists I 'm sure the Parliament misunderstood him when they gave him 1200000 l. to enter into an actual War against the French King in the Defence of these Allies and when he had got the Money to make a separate Peace with a Faction of the Dutch to the Ruine of his Allies and take French Money for it and to get the Parliament twice over to disband this Army for fear he should turn it against them and the Nation and now 't was disbanded to give Money to raise another upon Pretence of assisting these Allies now they were forced to such a dishonourable Peace with the French or that our Allies as the King calls them would ever trust to any more of his Alliances If any should so happen the King says the World will see it is no Fault of his for he had done all that was possible for him to do to keep us in Peace while he lived and to leave us so when he died Can any Man believe the King believed himself herein Or that any Man will be his Voucher for it Even my Lord C. F. out of the Field of his sweet lisping Eloquence could not gather one Rhetorical Flower to make a Flourish upon this Speech nor assure the Parliament upon his Veracity that Now Now was the time to secure their Religion and Properties nay the Commons gave so little Credit to this
Forfeitures by Papists would be insignificant viz. remitted this intended Act did ordain that such Fines and Forfeitures one half should be to the Informers the other to charitable Uses But this Act being so contrary to the Duke's Design the Committee of Religion was discharged from meeting again and another short Act was brought into Parliament ratifying all former Acts for securing the Protestant Religion so that in this first Act the Duke pursued not his Instructions but went contrary to them and to the Custom of Scotland At the passing this Act the Earl of Argyle proposed that all Acts against Popery might be added which was opposed by the King's Advocate and some of the Clergy yet seconded by Sir George Lockhart and the President of the Sessions it passed without a Vote but such was the Jealousy of the Parliament that this did not secure the established Religion that several of the Members desired other Additions and Acts which the Duke in open Parliament promised when Time and Opportunity offered should pass but when at any time this was proposed the Test was obtruded If the Parliament were so zealous to secure the established Religion the Duke was not less to secure the Succession of the Crown of Scotland shrewdly struck at in England in the very Person of the Duke and to that end a Bill was brought in and passed wherein it was declared High Treason to affirm that the Succession of the Crown of Scotland can be altered from the next of Proximity of Blood but how agreeable this was to the Title of the Bruces and Stuarts who had no Title to the Succession of the Crown of Scotland but by Act of Parliament has already been shewed and how disagreeable this Act was to the Duke's Grandfather's Succession to the Crown of Scotland without any Act of Parliament let any Man judg This Act was not only thus contrary to the Laws and Usages of Scotland but the Act is equivocal if not contradictory to the Duke's Design for there is a difference between the next Heir and the next in Proximity of Blood as if a Man had several Sons and the eldest has a Son or Daughter his Father living and after his Father dies his eldest Son's Son is Heir and his other Sons and Daughters are next in Proximity of Blood the Heir being a degree in Blood further removed from the common Ancestor than his Uncles or Aunts and this was the case of Richard II. of England Son of the Black Prince Edward the Third's Eldest Son who succeeded to the Crown of England though his Uncles the Dukes of Clarence Lancaster York and Cambridg were nearer of Blood to Edward the Third This Act for the Succession of the Crown of Scotland was succeeded by another called the Test as contradictory to it self as contrary to the Act of Succession to be taken by all Persons in publick Trust in Scotland wherein they solemnly Swear in the Presence of the Eternal God whom they invoke as Judg and Witness of their sincere Intention of this their Oath That they own and profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith recorded in the first Parliament of King James the Sixth and believe the same to be founded on and agreeable to the Written Word of God That they will adhere thereto and endeavour to educate their Children therein and never consent to any Change or Alteration contrary thereto and renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith And by this their solemn Oath they Swear That King Charles the Second is the only Supream Governour of this Realm over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and renounce all Foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope or any other Person and promise to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the King his Heirs and Lawful Successors and to their Power to defend all their Rights and Prerogatives And by this their solemn Oath they Swear They judg it unlawful for Subjects upon pretence of Reformation or any Pretence whatsoever to enter into any Covenants or Leagues or to convene c. in any Council to treat of any Matter of State Ecclesiastical or Civil without his Majesty's special Command or express Licence or to take up Arms against the King or those commissionated by him That they will never rise in Arms or enter into such Covenants or Assemblies That there lies no Obligation upon them by the National Covenant or the solemn League or Covenant or any other way to endeavour any Change or Alteration of the Government either of Church or State as by Law established and promise and swear to the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Jurisdiction against all deadly and as they shall answer it before God and that they took this Oath in the true and genuine Sense and Meaning of the Words without any Equivocation Mental Reservation or Evasion and never to accept of any Dispensation from any Creature So God help them By these two Acts you may observe the Scotish Temper whether it were natural or in contradiction to the Kirk-Party I will not say nor how much higher it flew than the Tory in England but because of the extraordinariness of these two Acts it 's fit to make some Reflections upon them Such another Law as that of the Succession was made the twenty first of Richard the Second in the Case of Roger Mortimer which lasted not longer than the next Year after when the Law was not only repealed but Henry the Fourth succeeded contrary to it whereas this Law continued for above eight Years after when it not only lost its Force but another Face appeared in Scotland and so continues in spight of this Law Now from this treasonable Law let us make some Remarks upon this ranting swearing Law called the Test We have said elsewhere that all Oaths are assertory of the Truth of Things Speech and Actions in time past or promissory to do or forbear to do some Act in time to come and now let 's consider what is Truth and the End of an assertory Oath Truth is proper to intellectual and reasonable Creatures and is either the apprehension of intelligible Beings as God a Law the Soul Time c. which can never be the Objects of Sense and of the Causes and Consequences of Intentions Speech and Action for Sense is not of Futurity but of present Things and Actions the Consequence or Inference will be whether good or bad just or unjust c. However all intelligible Beings and the Causes of Things and Actions are ever assumed not sworn to and if another does not nor will assent to them swearing to the Truth of them will be to no purpose So it is of the Consequence of Speech and Actions if another be not convinced from the Reason of such Consequence or Inference swearing it to be so will never do it But though sensible Things Speech and Actions
488. His Success against the French 492 495. Fights the French at Mount Cassel 505 513. Comes into England 507 515. Opposes a separate Peace 507 508 511. Advises concerning the Lady Mary 509. His brave Resolution against the King's Answer at which he 's much disgusted 515. Is married 516. Treats of a Peace with France 516 517. Is suspected by the Confederates and why 518 520. but afterwards clear'd 525. Routs the French before Mons 528. His generous Design to save these Nations from Ruin 648. Orleans Dutchess see Dover Ormond Marquess makes Peace with the Irish 343. His Design for the Prince defeated 402. Ossery Lord his Friendship with the Prince of Orange 508. Overbury Sir Tho. his Story is destroy'd by the King's Favourites 62 64 68 70. His Advice to Rochester 64. His Murder discover'd and how 77 79. Overton Col. conspires against Monk 396. Oxford Parliament see Parliament Treaty there broke off and why 314. P. PApists to be tolerated 674 675. see Popish Parliaments their Constitution Ends c. 48. Ought to be Annual 49. Vsed to redress Grievances before they gave Money 49 97 616. Never dissolved in Anger till the Stuarts 205 267. Endeavour'd to be overthrown by Char. II. 614 630. Parliament in 1640 redress the Nation 's Grievances 276. Enter into a Protestation 277. Charg'd with beginning the War 280 286 296. Take the Militia from the King 293 294. Seize the Fleet 295. Raise an Army 296. Their ill Success the two first Years 296 298. Treat with the Scots for Assistance 298 Take their Covenant 299. Place no Trust in the King 315. Send an Army into Ireland 317. Their Affairs inverted by the Army 319 320. Order the King to London 321. Send Propositions to him 322. Their warm Votes concerning no further Treaty with him 324. See Commons Parliament of Char. II. their first Acts 430 431 439. Address against the King's Indulgence 447. Their Severity to Dissenters 448 458. Prohibit the Importation of Irish Cattle 462. Grant a Tax for the War against Holland 467. for the Triple League 473. for a War against France 475. Pass a Bill against Papists enjoying Places 491. See Commons at Oxford Lords petition against its meeting there 559 560. Sits but 7 days their Proceedings 564 566. K. James's pack'd one 615 616. Scarce deserv'd the Name 616 617 619. Their Acts 617 618. The Commons Address concerning Popish Recusants 628. Remarks upon it 628 629. Passive Obedience unknown to our Fathers 206. It s Inconsistence 531. Peers Jurisdictions in Appeals question'd by the Commons 502 504. Penruddock Col. beheaded after Articles granted him 386. Pensioners in Parliament 490 500. Pentland Scots rise there but are terribly routed 458. Petition of Right oppos'd by Buckingham c. defended by Williams c. 207. The Lords Saving to it oppos'd by the Commons 208 209. Is passed 210 216. but broken by the King 218 227 228 236. Is printed by the King with his Answer to it 228. Philip III. of Spain his Character 36. Philips Sir Rob. against the Court 174 180 229. Plague a great one in 1 Jac. I. 37. A greater in 1 Car. I. 153. A yet greater in II's Reign 458. Pontfract Castle surrendred to the Parliament 327. Popery some of its Antichristian Doctrines 149 150. Is promoted by K. James 642. Pope's Nuncio heads a Rebellion in Ireland 277 343. His Despotick Tyranny there 343. One arrives in England 642. Popish Party conceive great hopes of England from the Match with Moderna 499 500. Have Commissions for raising Souldiers 535. Are favour'd by K. James see James II. Plot the Parliament's Votes concerning it 535 557 587. The Evidence in it justified 539 540. Some Account of it 540 541. It s Discovery supprest and how 546 547. Ports excellent ones in England 658. Portsmouth surrendred to the Parliament 296. Dutchess who she was 474. Prague see Frederick Presbyterians join with the Royalists 409. Printers petition against Laud 231. Privileges of Parliament discust 552 554. Proclamations against talking of State-Affairs 96 97. Prorogations of Parliament not used till Hen. 8. Account of one in Char. 2d's time 520 521 533. Protestants in France suffer by James I. 96. and by Charles I. see Char. I. and Rochel Puritans increase 154. Oppos'd by Laud c. 122 157 227. Persecuted by him 258. Pyrenean Treaty 421 422. Broke by the French K. 427 428 471. Q. QVeen proclaim'd Traitor by the Parliament 298. Arrives in England on some dark Designs 428. Quo Warranto see Charter R. RAcking Men declar'd to be against Law 227. Raleigh Sir Walter his Story 82 85. Is beheaded the he had been pardoned 85. Rents whence their Fall 463. Republicans conspire against Cromwel 386 399. Restore the Rump 408. Revenue of Q. Elizabeth 32. of James II. which see Richlieu some Account of him 141 142 176. Is parallel'd with Laud 239 240. Promotes the Contentions in England and Scotland 265 272 279. Engag'd in the Irish Massacre 277 343. Rochel Fleet subdued by the French English and Dutch 174. Not reliev'd by the English as promis'd 225. Miserably reduc'd 226. Roman Empire the Causes of its Ruin 17 24. Rothes Earl Commissioner in Scotland 454. Rump Parliament their Votes concerning the King with Remarks 332 333. Erect High Courts of Justice one of which takes off the King 333 346 347. Abolish Monarchy 342. Their prodigious Acts ib. Their Success in Ireland 343 344. in Scotland c. 345 347 350. against the Dutch 351 353 356. Propose a Coalition with them 350. Their Demands of them ib. 353. Their Answer to the Dutch Excuses 352 353. Their Letter to the States of Holland 357. to the States General 358. Are turn'd out by Cromwel 362. Their Character c. 363 364. Are restored by the Republicans 408. Turn out Lambert c. and constitute a Council of War 409. Are turn'd out again 410. and put in again by Fleetwood 416. Send to Monk ib. Rupert Prince lost several Battels by his Rashness 297 307 311. Forc'd into France 327. Saves the King's Life at Windsor 541. Rushworth commended 8. Russel Lord murder'd 601. S. SAndwich Earl affronted by the Duke of York is slain 480 481. Scotland Account of its Church-state 260 263 440 441. It s Alteration endeavour'd see Laud. Great Persecution there see Lauderdale Scots oppose Common-Prayer c. and enter into a solemn Covenant against it 263. Vp in Arms propose an Accommodation 265. Declare against Episcopacy 270. Declar'd Traitors enter England 271. Keep not the Articles of Pacification 280 281. Began the War 280 286. Break their Word with the King and join the Parliament 300 331. Murder in cold Blood 316. Sell the King 317. Their Government not lik'd in England ib. Are routed by Cromwel which see Their Government chang'd by the Rump 347. Have four Citadels built to curb them 410. Their happy State under Monk ib. Parliament appoint May 29. an Anniversary Thanksgiving 443 444. Their other Acts abolish Presbytery 444 447. Grant