Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	duke_n	earl_n	york_n	4,500	5	9.8623	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96861	Anglo-tyrannus, or the idea of a Norman monarch, represented in the paralell reignes of Henrie the Third and Charles kings of England, wherein the whole management of affairs under the Norman kings is manifested, together with the real ground, and rise of all those former, and these latter contestations between the princes, and people of this nation, upon the score of prerogative and liberty. And the impious, abusive, and delusive practises are in short discovered, by which the English have been bobbed of their freedome, and the Norman tyrannie founded and continued over them. / By G.W. of Lincolnes Inne.	Walker, George, of Lincoln's Inn.	1650 (1650)	Wing W340; Thomason E619_1; ESTC R203987	46,665	64

Walker To the Reader HE must rise betimes saith the proverb who will please all which may cease our wonder that the Common-wealth is so displeasant to some which hath gotten up so late yet better late than never But though some dotarts square all by antiquity supposing none so wise which are not so old and guesse at the understanding by the gray hairs which in truth are rather a badge of imperfection and the declension of nature and which came into the world at the back doore being a part of that fatall offspring begot between the Serpents craft and our first Parents disobedience I speak not this in scorn of age which I honour when found in the way of righteousnesse and truth nor in deniall of its advantage over youth by experience but to oppose that errour spred amongst many that all wisdome deceased with their Grandsires and they are onely to travell in their tracks an opinion more agreeable to a pack horse than a man endued with a rationall soul which is not to lie idle and which indeed the word of God and universall experience which even make fools wise contradicts the one infallibly declaring that in the latter dayes the Spirit of Truth shall more abundantly be poured forth into earthen vessels the other visibly informing us of the daily advantages we have above our ancestors to attain Knowledge for admit they were such G●y ants in understanding yet we poore dwarfes being upon their shoulders may see further than they but I say though some doe thus yet the sons of reason measure by another standard as knowing that if worth should be prised by antiquity the rotten would becom of more value than the ripe to such therefore do I present this Discourse who judge by reason not passion which so often makes the Crow seem white the Bells to tink as the fools do think and in confidence Reader that thy ingenuity is such that no byas of interest will wheel thee narrow and thy capacity able to draw thee from running wide of reason the only mark men in civil games should bowl at I have taken the pains to present thee with a map of Englands condition under her Monarchs wherein thou mayst view how justly Magna Charta is cast in our Governours teeths to beget a belief of their being more tyrannous than our Kings were admit it be not observed in every tittle now what are we the worse when some fresher and more apposite remedy is applyed to heal us let us consider that it was constituted under another Government and so cannot square to the present and that the makers of it were but men nay and such as had not that roome to act in as we have and so could not foresee or at best provide for all that now providence hath wrought amongst us but I shall not detain thee with a long Preface from the Book wherein an ingenuous and rationall spirit will discern that if our present Governours had been bound up to former rules we could never have attained that estate which now by Gods mercy and their prudence we enjoy and may so still if our own perversnesse hinder us not Truly that Fahle in Pliny of certain monstrous people in Africk which had one foot and that so big that they covered and shaded with it their whole body may be a perfect embleme of our Kingly Government which being at first instituted for a firm basis and prop to the body politick what by the fatall sloath and stupidity of the people and the industrious craft and activity of Monarchs was turned topsie turvie and had got so between heaven and us that it wholly deprived us of that free light and happinesse which God and nature held forth unto us and thus in stead of a support was become a burden under the weight of which the whole groaned nay was almost pressed to death but thou being a member and sound canst not but be as sensible of this as I and for dead slesh and rotten limbs corrosives and cuttings are onely proper it will be weaknesse in me therefore to doubt of the plaudit to the Common wealth so farewell till we meet in the book Anglo-Tyrannus Or the Idea of a Norman MONARCH c. FAtall and Bloody have Crowns and Scepters been in generall to all Nations in particular to this in England and that not only in regard of the strife between competitours who in pnrple gore deeply dyed their regall roabs and by the slaughtered carcasses of their Rivals and partakers ascended the Imperiall throne but in respect of the iterated contests between Prerogative and Liberty the Kings aiming at uncontrolable absolutenes the people claming their Native Freedome The verity of this assertion we may see deeply imprinted in bloody Characters throughout the whole series of English history yea so deeply that it may even create an envy in us of the Turkish happinesse and beget a wish after their bondage who though they go for absolute slaves yet cannot shew such dire effects of tyranny as we and our ancestors have felt and groaned under That policy of State impious and inhumane enough of destroying the younger Brothers of the Ottoman line though decried by us and all who write Christians yet compared with our Monarches politick arts and actings may seem to have been founded on the advice of their own and mankinds better genius to prevent the efusion of blood and deliver millions from the shambles there a few males of his own Family fall a victime to their Tyrant when whole Hecatombs can scarse appease the thirsty ambition of an English pretender ther one house suffers here none escapes as but to instance in one contest between Henry the sixth and Edward the fourth wherein was fought ten bloody battles besides all lesser scirmishes thousands of Lords Gentlemen and Commons slaine and one halfe of the Nation destroyed to set up a King to trample upon the other for in that quarrell between the Houses of Lancaster and Yorke fell 80998. persons 2. Kings 1. Prince 10. Dukes 2. Marquesses 21. Earls 2. Viscounts 27. Lords 1. Prior 1. Iudge 1 39. Knights 441. Esquiers this hath been the happiness and peace which a successive and hereditary Monarchy hath afforded England For our liberty we can indeed shew many of our Kings large and good deeds but few or none of their actions their hands alwaies having been too hard for their Seals Parchments and Charters we purchased of them with the price of Millions both in Blood and Treasure but let us but pass by their promises and view their performances and we may set aside Turkie and term England the slave and this appears in our Chronicles where though in the Theorie and System the English Government hath been limited and bounded by good and distinguishing lawes yet in the exercise and practic part of every Kings raign we shall find it deserve as bad a name as others who are called most absolute The Poets fable of Tantalus

The Lords netled with this Prelats peremptorinesse which the King bore him out in depart with more indignation vowing to spend their Lives in this cause concerning their liberties so much hereupon the K. sends for whole Legions of Poictovins then summons them to appear in the Parl. called on purpose to intrap them but they were so wise as to avoid the snare so resolute as to send him word That unles he would mend his manners by the common Counsel of the kingdom they would expell both him and his evil Councellors the Land But all this avayled them not for upon their refusall to repair to him at Glocester the King without the judgment of his Court or their Peers causes them to be proclamed Out-Laws seizes upon all their Lands which he divides among his Poictovins the Panisaries that guarded and boulstered out this Grand Sultan and his Visier Basha Winchester in their tyrannies and directs out Writs to attach their Bodie But now give me leave a little to digresse and shew how our bloud-hounds have run counter on the same foile have acted the most of this scene in our dayes For thus though our King wanted not so great a stock of strangers to set up with there being so many base spirited Englishmen which would be instrumentall in enslaving their Countrey a thing our noble and generous Ancestors abhorred to do yet German horse were to have bin brought over to help to improve the Trade and lye for factourage of Tyranny in every County Thus the Earl of Straffora tels the King he had an Army in Ireland which might be brought over to bring England under the yoak a Counsel which cost the Giver his Head Thus were Swedes Danes French Scots Irish and Dutch sent for over and invited by the King to help him Thus the Members were illegally proceeded against the Lords summoned to York and the Parliament commanded to Oxford and all that refused handled without mittens their Estates being conferred on those who would engage for Tyranny and themselves proclamed Traytors and Rebels indeed these things considered it was no marvell God was so often called to witnesse that Tyranny was not intended and impiety used to create credulity God mocked that men might be abused sith no reason could be given to gain our belief and make us give our own eyes the lye The Lords though much weakned by the revolt of some of themselves the King having won the Earl of Cornwall and Winchester with a thousand marks bought the Earls of Chester and Lincoln to his party repair into Wales at that time very sensible of their oppression and the Earl of Kent to cry quittance with the K. and make amends for his former faults breaks prison and joyns with them hereupon the K. in person marches against them but he is beaten and forced to retreat with dishonor to Glocester his Foraigners also being again sent against them runne the same chance their Generall and thousands of them being slain on the place being frustrated therefore in his design of force the King employes a Fryer to cajole the Earl of Pembroke General of the Forces raised by the Barons but all the flatteries promises and threats of that crafty instrument could not shake the constancy of that Noble Lord who gallantly told him That he feared no danger nor would ever yeeld to the Kings will which was guided by no reason that he should give an evill example to relinquish the justice of his Cause to obey that will which wrought all injustire whereby it might appeare he loved worldly possessions more than Right and Honour Thus the promise of restauration of his former estate with the addition of great Lands in Herefordshire nothing prevailed with him in whose heroik Mind Honour and his Conntryes good were Commanders in chief No way therefore now being left but that the King tryes what may be done by Treachery and takes a truce with them in the mean while seizing all those great possessions which were left the Earl in Ireland by his famous Ancestor the Earl Strongbow that thereby he might draw the Earl over thither this design takes effect and the Earl endeavouring to regain his livelihood lost his life circumvented by treachery Thus noblest souls are soonest intrapt who measuring others their own thoughts are the least suspicious but his death wrought such effects as caused the King to disown the businesse and lay the load upon his Counsellors shoulders In a Parl. at Westminst. the King being plainly told his own the Bishops threatning to proceed by Ecclesiasticall censure both against him and his Counsellors and seeing no way to subsist and get his ends but by temporizing consents to them calls home the Lords removes the strangers and brings his new officers to account now the storm fals so violently that Winchester with his Bastard are forced for shelter to take Sanctuary untill by large Fines the King was appeased who to get money was very ready to doe any thing Escuage is granted toward the marriage of his Sister whom he bestowed on the Emperour with 30000 marks for a Dowry besides an Imperiall Crown and other Ornaments to a great value The King marries Elianor Daughter to the Earl of Provence a match which beside the distance of the place was infinitely disadvantagious having no Dowry getting a poor kindred which must needs draw means from this kingdome A Parliament also is assembled at London which the King would have held in the Tower but that the Lords refused to come in which Sheriffs were removed for corruption and the new ones sworn to take no bribes Now the King endeavours to change his officers and to take the Seale from the Chancellor the Bishop of Chichester who refuses to deliver it which he had by the Common Councell of the kingdom without assent of the same and having carryed himself unblamably in his office is much favoured by the people Also he receives some old cast officers into favour such was his levity and irresolution moved with any Engine to doe and undo and all out of time and order wherein he ever loses ground and goes about by the Popes Authority to revoke his former Grants which addes to the already conceived displeasure of the people In another Parliament or the same adjourned the King demands relief and upon promise to confirm the Charters and not seek to infringe them upon any pretence as want of the Popes confirmation c. a thirtieth part of all moveables is granted yet upon condition that it should be gathered by four Knights in every shire and laid up in Abbies or Castles that if the King performed not his promise it might be returned that he should leave the Counsell of Aliens and use only that of his Naturall Subjects Which being done and to make shew on his part some old Counsellors suddenly removed and others chosen which were sworn to give him good and faithfull advice yet I hope he