Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	daughter_n	henry_n	king_n	17,788	5	4.5034	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70678	Some notes concerning the life of Edward Lord North, Baron of Kirtling, 1658 by Sir Dudley North Lord North.	North, Dudley North, Baron, 1602-1677.	1682 (1682)	Wing N1286A; ESTC R678	21,672	50

such points of belief as had small relation to that competition for power But to return to our business the person whose Life we endeavour to describe soon found a difference between his old Master King Henry who already had gratified most of those which had shewed themselves active in his service and the Duke of Somerset newly made Protector of the King's person for this man that he may advance to places of honour and power those persons who have their dependance upon him must either find or force a way for the effecting of it with them who are in possession of those dignities And King Edward had not reigned two years before Richard Sackvill Esq had the Chancellourship of the Augmentations in his eye and with all so great an interest in the Protector as to engage him strongly in the pursuit For the Protector soon caused the business to be proposed to the person whom it chiefly concerned and he finding himself too weak to wrestle with a man that did little less than govern the whole Kingdom in those days thought fit so far to give way as to bring the matter to a treaty wherein he carried himself so like his arts Master though the Protector in person was witness to most of it as he parted with the place upon terms very considerable for honour security and profit and yet ordered the business in such a manner as the Protector could not but take himself to be obliged in it as may appear by the articles of agreement between Sackvill and him and by other writings under Seal belonging to that business where the expressions seem to lay all the weight upon the Lord Protector who is therein styled Mr. Sackvill's good Lord. Thus by his wisedom he not only prevented a mischief which might have befallen him in the opposition and preserved himself in the dignity of a Privy Counsellor but gained a fresh interest in the Duke of Somerset that might have made him great returns But it pleased God to dispose of matters otherwise for the Protector soon lost not only his power but his life being supplanted by the subtile practices of John afterwards Duke of Northumberland who though he assumed not the other's title of Protector yet bare no less sway in the government and demeaned himself with much greater insolence than Somerset About this time Sir Edward North finding way made upon him concerning his great office thought good to strengthen himself by alliance matching his eldest Son with the Lady Winifride Daughter to Richard Lord Rich then Lord Chancellor of England and Widow to Henry Dudley eldest Son to the said Duke of Northumberland but neither that alliance nor any of his other dependencies gave him encouragement to seek farther advancement during the reign of King Edward so as then he endeavoured as it seems only to make good his former station waiting for better opportunity In the mean time as appears by an account of his houshold expences he shewed himself worthy of greater honour by living in a way of more eminency than hath been usual with persons of his condition in those and the following times and then also his wisedom prompted him to have an eye to the Princess Mary next in succession to the Crown for he forgot not to put her in mind of him by presents This had been worthy of commendation if he had done it only as a testimony of gratitude to her Father but he may well be thought to have carried on a farther design in it for we find not any such thing done in relation to the Princess Elizabeth the other Sister and whether or no he did then discern some declination in the health of King Edward who is said to have died of a Consumption it is not easie to unfold Yet such was the iniquity of those times as his great foresight could not prevent his being involved together with the rest of the Privy-Council all the great officers and most of the eminent persons in and near the Court and City of London in a danger even by way of opposition to the said Princess Mary which in probability would have swallowed up any small number of them if they had been severed For the Duke of Northumberland foreseeing the certainty of the King's death had so wrought upon his tender age and weakness as to make him as far as in him lay to disinherit both his Sisters and to establish the Succession in the Lady Jane Grey his near kinswoman then joined in Matrimony to the Lord Guilford Dudley one of the Duke's Sons This was done by Testament and because there was an Act of Parliament to the contrary the Duke thought it not of sufficient validity without the concurrence and confirmation of all those who were then in power wherefore he caused a Subscription to be tendered to every one of them and so apprehensive were they of his displeasure with the consequences of it as there is no refusal recorded but that of Sergeant Hales one of the puney Judges for it seems that all the rest subscribed This action of his may seem to question both the Integrity and wisedom of our Progenitor and to vindicate him in it will require a digression of some length To plead infirmity as a defence is not worthy of a person so eminent for wisedom though Metus qui potest cadere in virum fortem doth very much excuse and though it may very well become a Statesman to prevent a present danger with the hazard of a much greater in the future for as the Italians say Chi ha tempo ha vita He who hath time hath life which consideration made the then chief Justice of the King's Bench upon this very occasion when his Brother of the Common Pleas told him that they might both of them be hanged twenty years after if they should subscribe the Testament to return this Answer That it was most true but yet as true that if they subscribed it not the Duke of Northumberland might chance to hang them presently But in my opinion it is not much to be doubted but Sir Edward North had for his security a better reserve which is this a knowing that the Princess Mary had received assurances from him to be faithfull to her and to her interests in the way of allegiance next to her Brother's person and Posterity if any should be which made her notwithstanding this Subscription not only to continue him in his former dignity but to advance him a degree higher in the very first year of her reign And this course of his to hold himself in power with an intention to serve his lawfull Sovereign who knew that intention could not but be very serviceable to her and being so how could it give any great offence in a thing so generally done And as for his own concernments it cannot well be doubted but they would prompt him to his then compliance self preservation at that very time being conceived necessary by so many persons

well anihilate such gifts already made as prevent them for Dedication seemeth to consist rather in the declared intention of the giver than in the approbation of Governours either Ecclesiastical or Temporal Neither shall I define how little subjects are blamable for executing the decrees of their supreme Magistracy though unjust or seeming irreligious albeit it were an obstruction scarcely recoverable in a State if subordinate Ministers should be obliged to dispute the rectitude or obliquity of every decree But certainly it can be no other than a high presumption to apply the judgments of the Almighty with too much strictness to such and such a particular cause for as the judgments are evident and exposed to the view of all so their grounds lie concealed in the clouds and darkness which are said to encompass the Deity and many times those who are crushed under a punishment do no more exceed their fellows in guiltiness than they in the Gospel on whom the Tower of Siloah fell But to leave this digression Sir Edward North now stood so high in the favour of his Prince as he put him into the roll of Privy-Counsellours and made frequent grants of Land as a testimony of his favour and of the good acceptance of the services done by him These were great encouragements and could not but carry with them as great a satisfaction to the receiver but it was so usual with this King to throw down those whom he had raised as it made his great ones Stare sempre in cervello as the Italians term it or to be watchfull carrying still in their minds the instability of the ground whereon they stood And to give some tast how dangerous a Master he served and how apprehensive he was of a change in the way of displeasure I shall here insert a relation which came to me though not immediately from one who being himself an Attendant in his Bed-chamber then when the matter passed was an eye and ear Witness of it and this it is That once early in the morning there came from the King to Charterhouse then the Mansion house of Sir Edward North a Messenger known to be no friend of his to command his immediate repair to Court which message was also delivered with some harshness This was so terrible in the suddainness and other circumstances as he observed his Master to tremble at the delivery of it who yet finding it dangerous to use the least delay hasted thither and was admitted speedily to the King's presence with this his Servant attending on him The King was then walking and continued doing so with great earnestness and ever now and then cast an angry eye upon him which was received with a very still and sober carriage At last the King brake out into these words We are informed that you have cheated us of certain Lands in Middlesex whereunto having received no other than a plain and humble negation after some little space he replyed How was it then did We give those Lands to you whereunto Sir Edward answered yes Sir Your Majesty was pleased so to doe Whereupon having paused a little the King put on a milder countenance and called him to a Cupboard conferring privately with him a long time whereby said this Servant I saw that the King could not spare my Master's service as yet but whether or no the cause lay in the King's occasions or in the other's humble behaviour and answers it must be left to judgment for as Solomon saith A soft answer turneth away wrath But to pursue the Series of our discourse King Henry after a long and strange prosperity in all his undertakings which were extraordinary and full of hazard came to breath his last in the year of Grace 1546 and as a full and final testimony of his confidence in the integrity of Sir Edward North he constituted him one of his Executors leaving unto divers others of his Council persons of more eminent condition the title of Overseers of his Testament a character of higher honour but of lest trust And seeing that this King was so great a benefactour to the person who is the occasion of this tractate I shall adventure to borrow so much time of the Reader as to say thus much more of him I know that many things are laid to his charge as that he was burthensom to his Subjects and yet a waster That he was Sanguinary and Voluptuous almost to the height As I will not go about to absolve him concerning these so I shall leave it to others who may conceive themselves more proper for it to set him out in such colours but thus much I shall take upon me to say on his behalf That he was endued with very great and royal abilities and that of all the governours of our Nation he is the only Prince meriting to be styled Arbiter of the most important affairs of Christendom or the Ballancer as Guicchiardin calls him and this he did by assistance constantly but variously given in the Wars between Charles the 5th Emperour of Germany and Francis the first of France still supporting the weaker and opposing the stronger by which means he kept those Princes still in play one against the other and so established his own security and in that respect was very fitly honoured with this Motto Cui adhereo praeest And I think that the bitterest of his enemies must give him this testimony That he was no less bountifull in his Rewards than severe in his Punishments that he maintained the honour of the Nation with Foreign Princes in point of power and that he carried on the worst of his actions relating to the publick with a concurrence of his Parliaments which howsoever his heart was disposed yet sheweth a very great dexterity of Brain But that which leaveth him the greatest glory is this That he laid the ground-work of a Reformation in the Church of England which afterwards grew to that perfection as justly to be deemed by judicious persons the best tempered of any in the Christian World And now upon his death the Scene is wholly changed for in stead of an active King who for the most part governed his own affairs the Crown is fallen to a Prince who by reason of his Nonage being not able to govern himself and much less two so potent Nations falleth under the tuition of his Servants whose nature is such as they seldom fail to be guided by their own ambition rather than the improvement of their Master's interests And this renders the providence of God the more conspicuous for in this King's days the Reformation of the Church was exalted almost to the height and in a way of more Purity than before for King Henry seemed rather to seek the abolition of Papal authority which so far restrained his Regal power than any other change in the Articles of the then received Faith but during the reign of King Edward there was an aim at the establishment of Truth even in