so some things are not to be concealed for it derogates from the glory of God to have his Justice obscured his remarkable Dispensations smothered as if We were angry with what the Divne Power hath done who can debase the Spirits of Princes and is mighty among the Kings of the earth And though the Priests lips should keep knowledge yet as the Prophet saith he can make them contemptible and base before all the people And therefore why should we grudge and repine at God's Actions for his thoughts are not as our thoughts nor his wayes as our wayes His Judgments should teach us Wisdom and his glorious proceedings should learn us Righteousness that his Anger may be turned away from us And let them that stand take heed lest they fall For though God rewarded Jehu with the Kingdom for the good service he did him yet because he walked not with him God visited the house of Jehu and laid the blood of Jezreel which he was commanded to shed upon the head of his Posterity But all the Arguments of Men and Angels will neither penetrate nor make impression in some ill-composed Tempers till they are softned with the fire of Love and that holy Flame is best kindled with Patience by willingly submitting to the al-disposing Providence that orders every thing Before whose Altar waiting for the Season of Grace I will ever bring the best fruits of my Labours But if that which I intend should not come to Perfection the day of man's life being but as a Dawning and his time as a Span I will never be displeased with my Master in long and dangerous Labours for calling me away to rest before my work is done FINIS The Table An Index exactly pointing to the most material Passages in this HISTORY A CRuelty at Amboyna 281 Queen Ann an Enemy to Somerset 78 80. Her Death 129. and Character ibid. Anhalt the Prince thereof intimate with the Count Palatine persuades him to accept of the Crown of Bohemia 132. Is made General of the Bohemian Forces 135. His good Success at first in routing of Bucquoy's Army 140. Is overthrown afterwards by the Duke of Bavaria 141. Fliâ—s so doth Helloc his Lieutenant General ibid. and afterwards submits to the Emperor 142 Ansbach the Marquess thereof Commander in Chief of the Forces raised by the Protestant Princes of Germany in defence of the Palatinate 135. for slowes a fair advantage over Spinola 138. His Answer to the Earl of Essex ib. with Sir Vere's Reply thereunto 139 Lady Arabella dies 90 Arch-bishop Whitgift's Saying concerning King Iames at Hampton-Court Conference 8. his Character Dies when ibid. Arch-bishop Bancroft succeeds Whitgift in the See of Canterbury 8. Dies his Character 53 Arch-bishop Abbot accidentally kills a Kâ—eper 198. his Letter to the King against a Toleration in Religion 236. yet sets his hand as a Witness to the Articles of Marriage with the Infanta 237 Arch-bâ—shop of Spalato comes into England his Preferment here relapses to the Roman Church dies at Rome His manner of Burial 102 Arguments about the Union of England and Scotland 34. for and against a Toleration 237 Articles agreed on concerning the Marriage of the Infanta 212. Preamble and Post-script to the Articles 238. Private Article sworn to by the King 240 Arundel and Lord Spencer quarrel 163. Arundel thereupon commited to the Tower his Submission ibid. August the fifth made Holy-day 12. B Bacon's Speech in Star-Chamber against Hollis Wentworth and Lumsden 84 He is made Lord Chancellour 97. is questioned 158. His humble Submission and Supplication 159. His Censure 160. The Misery he was brought to his Description and his Character ibid. Bancroft succeeds Whitgift in the Archbishoprick of Canterbury 8. dies Character 53 Barnevelt opposes the Prince of Orange 125. Is seized on together with his Complices 127. his Sentence and Death ib. His imployments 128 Baronets a new order made 76 Battail of Fleury 217 Benevolence required but opposed 78 Bishops in Scotland to injoy their temporal Estates 8 Black-Friers the downful there 241 Blazing-Star 128 Bounty of King Iames 76 Boy of Bilson his Impostures discovery very and confession 107 c. Bristol forbid to deliver the Procuration for Espousals 254. Hath Instructions to demand the Palatinate and Electoral dignity 155. without the restitution of which the Treaty for the Match should proceed no further 256. Bristol sent to the Tower but gains his liberty by submission 272 Brunswick loses his Arm 217. raises a gallant Army 142. and is defeated 145 Buckingham made Marquess Master o the Horse and High Admiral 147. Rules all ibid. His Kindred advanced ib. A lover of Ladies 149. Marries the Earl of Rutland's Daughter ib. over-ruled by his Mother ibid. Gondemar writes merrily concerning her into Spain ib. Buckingham's Medicine to cure the King 's Melancholy 218. made Duke 229. He and Olivarez quarrel 249. Goes to the Fleet sent from England to attend the Prince home 250. His Relation to the Parliament of the transactions in Spain 263. He is highly commended by the People 264. accused of Treason by the Spanish Ambassadour 272 New Buildings within two mile of the City of London forbid by Proclamation 48 Bergben ap Zome besieged 216. The Siege raised 218 Breda besieged 28 Butler a Mountebank his story 287 C Car. a Favourite and the occasion thereof 54. made Viscount Rochester and soon after Knight of the Garter 55. opposed by Prince Henry ib. rules all after the death of Prince Henry and Salisbury 65. Is assisted by Overbury 66. with Northampton plots Overbury's death and why ib. created Earl of Somerset and married to the Divorced Countess of Essex 72. both Feasted at Merchant-Tailors Hall ib. Vid. Somerset Cecil holds correspondence with the King of Scotland 2. His put-off to the Queen his secret conveyances being like to be discovered ib. proclaims the late Queens Will ibid. made Earl of Salisbury 7. vid. Salisbury Ceremonie Sermon against them 11 Chelsey College 53 Commissioners for an Union betwixt England and Scotland 27 High-Commission a Grievance 46 House of Commons their Declaration 164. Their Remonstrance 167. House of Commons discontent 188 their Protestation ibid. Conference at Hampton-Court 7. where the King puts an end to the business 8 Conwey and Weston sent Ambassadors into Bohemia 133. Their Characters ib. Their Return 142 Cook Lord Chief Justice blamed 89 90. a breach betwixt him and the Lord Chancellor why 74. brought on his Knees at the Council-Table 95. his Censure 96. his faults ib. his Character 97. Is again in disgrace 191 D Denmark's King comes into England his Entertainment 33. His second coming 76 Diet at Ratisbone where an agitation concerning the Electoral Dignity 220. The result thereof 224 Digby sent Leidger Ambassador into Spain to Treat of a Marriage between the Prince of Wales and the Infanta of Spain 143. made Baron of Sherborn 144. Sent to the Emperor for a punctual answer concerning the Palatinate 154. His Return and Relation to the
acted Overtly the other Covertly in dark Corners and she and her Agents find fit Ministers for both The Earl of Northampton resenting his Nieces grievances makes the King acquainted with her Maiden bashfulness how loth she is to divulge her Husbands infirmities and how long it is since her Marriage and yet she hath not enjoyed the happiness of a Wife that her Husbands inability must needs be an unnatural conjunction such as neither Law nor Reason can admit of and that there was a great affection betwixt the Viscount and her so as there seemed to be a more excellent sympathy and sweet composition of Soul in them more suitable Reason and Nature than in the state she was in Which was seconded by the Viscounts humble submissions to the Kings great wisdom who he acknowledged had not only raised him to what he is but may yet make him more happy by uniting him to a Lady of so much honour and vertue The King that took delight to compleat the happiness of them he loved commanded the Bishops to sue out a Divorce between the Earl of Essex and his Lady that the Viscount might marry her For he had been practised formerly in Scotland in his minority with the like experiment Elizabeth Daughter to the Earl of Athol being married to the Earl of March under pretence of impotency but meerly for lust as the Author reports was Divorsed from her Husband and married to the Earl of Arran the Kings Favourite who had been before a Partner in her Adulterous Sheets so current is the Parallel and so equally are lust and ambition yoked together that they both with full violence draw one and the same way The Bishops and others having a Commission under the great Seal of England to convent the Earl of Essex and his Countess before them sent out their Summons and they made their appearance accordingly But before they proceeded they caused a Iury of twelve discreet Matrons to be impannelled to search the Countess whether she were as she pretended to be and was reputed a Maid still for if she were a Maid they could fasten upon a Nullity and so separate them for the more honour of her Virginity The Countess being ashamed and bashful to come to such a Tryal would not expose her face to the light but being to appear before the Matrons under a Veil another young Gentlewoman that had less offended was fobbed into the place and she passed in the opinion both of Iury and Iudges to be a Virgin Then the Articles were drawn up where she accused her Husband of impotency and that he was hindred with a perpetual and incurable impediment whereby he is unable to have carnal copulation with her with frigiditas quoad hâ—nc often reiterated c. The good Earl willing to be rid of so horrid a mischief did acknowledge he had attempted to enjoy her many times but he never did nor could carnally know her and believed he never should Upon these Grounds the Iudges proceed to a Divorce Declaring That Robert Earl of Essex and the Lady Frances Howard contracted by shew of Marriage did cohabit in one House and lie together in one Bed Nudum cum Nuda Solus cum Sola and that the said Lady Frances did shew her self prompt and ready to be known of him and that the said Earl neither did nor could have knowledg of her although he did think himself able to have knowledg of other Women And that the said Lady Frances by inspection of her Body by Midwives expert in matter of Marriage was proved to be apt for carnal copulation with Man and yet a Virgin Therefore we the said Iudges deputed in the Cause first invocating the Name of Christ and setting God before our eye do pronounce decree and declare That the Earl of Essex for some secret incurable binding impediment did never carnally know or was or is able carnally to know the Lady Frances Howard And therefore we do pronounce have decreed and do declare the pretended Marriage so contracted and solemnized de facto between them to have been and to be utterly void and to no effect and that they did want and ought to want the strength of the Law And that the Lady Frances was and is and so ought to be free and at liberty from any Bond of such pretended Marriage de facto contracted and solemnized And we do pronounce that she ought to be Divorsed and so we do free and Divorce her leaving them as touching other Marriages to their Conscience in the Lord. Which our Definitive Sentence and Decree we ratifie and publish Thomas Wint. Lancel Elie. Rich. Coven Lichfield Iohn Roffe Bishops Iulius Caesar Thomas Parry Daniel Dun Knights These Bishops and the rest of the Judges could not be ignorant what scandalous reports of this Ladies actions flew up and down from lip to lip which however sweetned by the Partakers carried an ill savour with them in every honest understanding who were not blinded with wilfulness or deafned with prejudice which made the Bishops of Canterbury and London decline the business though nominated in the Patent But Kings will never want fit Ministers in corrupted Times both in Church and Common-wealth as long as there are Degrees and Places of Ascent to clime to And though these things floated awhile upon the Stream of Greatness yet there is One above that moves the Waters who did not only see what passed in the Bishops Palace but in the closest Prison which he discovered to the shame and ruin of the Actors For while this Wheel was turning at Lambeth the other Wheel had its motion in the Tower Mrs. Turner the Mistriss of the Work had lost both her supporters Forman her first prop dropt away suddenly by death and Gresham another rotten Engin that succeeded him did not hold long She must now bear up all her self But she wrought in a Mine of inexhaustible Treasure therefore she may buy instruments at any rate One Weston is thought on for this Vnder-work who was sometime Doctor Turners her Husbands man and hath a little experience in the nature of poysonous Drugs This venomous Plant is sent for out of the Country to be transplanted here and two hundred pounds promised to disperse his Venom so as it may be killing Sir Thomas Monson is made by the Countess to recommend him to Sir Iervis Ellowis and he to Sir Thomas Overbury to wait on him where he goes under the character of a right honest man making it good with a sober and fair outside the true vizard of Hypocrisie a fit Pipe for such corrupted Waters to run through which must be provided by one Franklin a swarthy sallow crooked-backt fellow who was to be the Fountain whence these bitter waters came THE Portracture of Sir THOMAS OVERBURY Knight AETAT 32 But these lingring operations do not suit with the Countesses implacable humor Weston is chid by Mrs. Turner for being so
this the passage to his entertainment The King strucken suddenly with such heaps asked the Treasurer what this money was for who told him he had received his Majesties Commands to give so much to the Viscount Rochester The King that either carelesly thought five thousand pound to be no more than the noise so much makes in Scotland which doth not amount to above five hundred pounds or cunningly if he knew the value knew also the Treasurers meaning said it was too much for one man and made him be contented with less than the half And now the King casts his thoughts towards Peterborough where his Mother lay whom he caused to be translated to a Magnificent Tomb at Westminster And somewhat suitable to her mind when she was living she had a translucent passage in the night through the City of London by multitudes of Torches The Tapers placed by the Tomb and the Altar in the Cathedral smoaking with them like an Offertory with all the Ceremonies and Voices their Quires and Copes could express attended by many Prelates and Nobles who payd this last Tribute to her memory This was accounted a Piaculous action of the Kings by many though some have not stuck to say That as Queen Elizabeth was willing to be rid of the Queen of Scots yet would not have it her action and being it could not be done without her command when it was done she renounced her own act So though the King was angry when he heard his Mother was taken away by a violent death recalling his Ambassador threatning War and making a great noise which was after calmed and closed up with a large Pension from the Queen yet he might well enough be pleased that such a spirit was layd as might have conjured up three Kingdoms against him For Patrick Grey that the King sent to disswade Queen Elizabeth from taking away his Mothers life was the greatest Instrument to perswade her to it Distilling always into her this Sentence Mortua non mordet When she is dead she cannot bite But the Love that tends to self-preservation is an adjunct of Nature more powerful than Filial duty and therefore there will be no great strife where there are not adequate operations This time was also presented unto us in a various dress and the event shewed though some years after there was more cause of Mourning than Rejoycing though the latter got the predominance For the Prince Elector Palatine came over into England to Marry the Kings only Daughter and Death deprived us of the Kings eldest Son A Prince as eminent in Nobleness as in Blood and having a spirit too full of life and splendour to be long shrouded in a cloud of flesh If that which gave life to his life had been less he might happily have lived longer Not that there was too much Oyl or that concurrent Natural Balsamum in this fair and well-composed Lamp to extinguish it self but the light that came from it might cast so radiant a lustre as by darkning others it came to lose the benefit of its own glory Iealousie is like fire that burns all before it and that fire is hot enough to dissolve all Bonds that tends to the diminution of a Crown The Prince of Spain his contemporary Son to Philip the second not long before this like a young Phaeton wished himself but one day in his Fathers Throne and he fell not long after into the hard hand of an immature fate before he could step into the Chariot So dangerous are the paths of Greatness that the tongue many times rouling aside makes men tread awry Strange Rumors are raised upon this sudden expiration of our Prince the disease being so violent that the combate with Nature in the strength of youth being almost nineteen years of age lasted not above five days Some say he was poysoned with a bunch of Grapes others attribute it to the venemous scent of a pair of Gloves presented to him the distemper lying for the most part in the head They that knew neither of these are strucken with fear and amazement as if they had tasted or felt the effects of those violences Private whisperings and suspicions of some new designs a foot broaching Prophetical terrors That a black CARLO D'AVSTRIA PRINCIPE DI SPAGNA Christmas would produce a bloody Lent For the Spaniard who opposed the marriage of the Prince Palatine and saw their ruin growing up in Prince Henries towardly Spirit were reputed vulgarly the Mint-masters of some horrid practices and that a Ship of Pocket Pistols was come out of Spain fit Instruments for a Massacre And these Trepidations were not only in the lower Region but wrought upwards so high that Proclamations were sent abroad to forbid the making or carrying of Pistols under a foot long in the Barrel And all Papists are not only dis-armed being ever esteemed Vassals to the Catholick King but their Actions with caution pried into In such dark clouds as these the whole Kingdom was at a loss all ordinary Transitions of Nature are imputed to prodigious Omens the greater the fears are the more blazing is the Meteor that arises from them Some that knew the bickerings betwixt the Prince and the Viscount muttered out dark Sentences that durst not look into the light especially Sir Iames Elphington who observing the Prince one day to be discontented with the Viscount offered to kill him but the Prince reproved him with a gallant Spirit saying If there were Cause he would do it himself Now whether these rumors begot a further scrutiny or whether it be the Court-trick to daub and slubber over things that may be perspicuous I know not But the Physicians about the Prince gave it under their hands which was spread abroad in several copies that he died of a strong malignant Feaver so are all violent dissolutions where Nature hath power of resistance that his Liver was pale and livid lead-like the Gall had no Gall but was full of wind the Spleen was unnaturally black and the Lungs in many places spotted with much corruption the Midriff or Diaphragma blackish and the Head in some places full of blood and in some places full of clear water Thus was he Anatomized to amuze the World and clear the suspicion of poyson as if no venoms could produce these effects He died the sixth of November and was carried on a Hearse Triumphing even in Death to Westminster the seventh of December following the pomp of the Funeral being fully compleated with the People tears and Lamentations But the King though he could not but be troubled to lose so near a part of himself looked over all these Mists and like the Sun dispelled all these Clouds and Vapours commanding no man should appear in the Court in mourning he would have nothing in his Eye to bring so sad a Message to his Heart The jollity feasting and magnificence of Christmas must not be laid down There were Princes and Nobles
flood of Books that almost tended to an inundation overspread the World and was her great disease Besides the drunken Dropsie witness their monstrous swelling tuns and vessel In lieu of books War brings in barbarism which is the first-born before Plague or Famine These do not always kill but rectifie Full bodies are apt to fall sick and then they must be drawn very low often-times before they come to perfect health These Iudgments have faln heavy upon England we drink the dregs of the Cup one sin is not to be pointed at but all and though it hath been bitter to the taste yet He that knows the nature of the Ingredients may make it wholsom unto those that love him One thing both pitiful and remarkable that hapned in the Palatinate was almost omitted There was a Gentleman whose name was Duncomb that was a Soldier in the Earl of Oxford's company This young man left a Gentlewoman behind him in England to whom he had vowed his heart and promise of marriage but her fortune being not fit for his Father's humor he threatned to dis-inherit him if he married her and the better to alienate him from her he sent him so long a journey hoping time and absence might wear out those impressions that the present fancy had fixed upon him charging him at his departure never to think of her more lest with the thoughts of her he lost him for ever The young man being now long absent from her and having his heart full with the remembrance of her could not contain himself but let her know that no threats or anger of Parents should ever blot her memory out of his thoughts which was illustrated with many expressions of love and affection But the careless man writing at the same time to his Father superscribed his Father's Letter to his Mistris wherein he renounces her and his Mistresses Letter to his Father wherein he admires her The Father swoln with rage and anger against the Son sent him a bitter Letter back again full of menaces and whether that or shame for the mistake that she should see he renounced her whom he profest to love did overcome his Reason is not known but he killed himself to the great grief of all the English there And by this example Parents that are too rigid to their children may see what Murderers they are For it was not the young man's hand but the old man's hard heart that killed him CAROLVS ALBERTVS DE LONGVEVAL COMES DE BVQVOY ET DE GRATZEN BARO DE VAVX ET DE ROSEN BERGHE COMIT HANNONLAE GVBERNATOR B. Moucornet CXCII This was a fair Spring-time the Battail being fought upon the tenth of March and might have inhanced the hopes of a good Autumn But in November following when the Princes of the Union and Spinola were hunting one another among the frosty Hills in the Palatinate the Duke of Bavaria coming with a great Army towards Prague and joyning Bucquoy and Tillie with all their Forces together like cruel Hunters meant either to catch a Prey or be a Prey Anhalt then had not so closed with Count Mansfeldt as to bring him up to him being pufft up with his last Victory and some of his Soldiers being discontented for want of Pay it abated the edge of their Courage yet he got with his Army betwixt the Imperialists and Prague and stood upon the advantage of Ground but all would not do a Hand went out that gave a Period to that Royalty for the Enemy breaking through them forced his way and put the Bohemians into such confusion that happy was he that could escape with his life The Prince of Anhalt and his Lieutenant General Holloc were the first that fled and brought the news of the defeat to the King at Prague who with his Queen astonished with the danger being in a City not very defensible among a wavering People and a Conquering Enemy in the Field took time by the fore-top and in this hurly burly the next morning being the 9 of Nov. left Prague taking with them their most portable things having load enough within them But the Queen the more Gallant and Royal Spirit carried it with most undauntedness the King suffered doubly as he went being blamed for keeping his Soldiers without pay having such a masse of money by him which he was forced to leave behind to his Enemies and the imputation stuck upon him but flying upon the Wings of common Fame I shall not lure it into this Relation as a known Truth But by a sad Accident that some years after happened to this unfortunate King it was obvious that he left not all behind him for going to visit the Bankers of Amsterdam where his Treasure lay brooding and passing in the night over Harlem mere the winds and darkness in a conspiracy made a cross Hoigh to run against the King's and bulged it in the Sea but before it sunk the King and others got to the Mastring Vessel and saved themselves But the Prince his Son being of a pregnant hopeful puberty with too severe a fate was left to the broken Boat which they durst not approach again though they heard his cries so that he was abandoned to be tormented to death which was more grievous than death it self for the Waters being shallow and the Hoigh sinking not far the next day they found him frozen to the Mast embracing it as his last Refuge his Body half above half under the water This Story melting with Pity is here inserted because the glory of this King expires And since there will be occasion to mention him no more because his Actions afterwards never mounted up one Story high Take this brief Character of him He was a comely Personage for body of a good stature his complexion of a duskish melancholy the constitution of his mind rather fitted for those little besoignes of Accounts and Reckonings than any vigorous or masculine heat to solder up the crackt Title of a Crown He was a handsom well-built but slight Edifice set on an ill Foundation that could not stand long The King of great Britain that the Bohemians built upon was not of so firm a temper as to support a Fortress weakly made that must endure the Rigorous Shock of War which made it at the first or second Assault thus totter and fall The two English Ambassadors Weston and Conwey which our King sent to mediate for the Bohemians could make little use of their Oratory being scattered with the rest in the Cloud of this Confusion But they brought the King and Queen to Limburgh the first days journey and after they were gone towards the Netherlands the Ambassadors procured a safe Conduct from the Duke of Bavaria to return to Prague But there they could find no words so prevalent and penetrable as the steel of a Conquering Enemy and so they returned home re infecta no wiser than they went out This Defeat coming to