over-commer to take all But there proving equality in the fitght there was likewise made equality in the command between them yet did not Edmona long enjoy his share being circumvented by the practice of Edric Earl of Stratton the Arch-Traytor of those times whose falshood had ruined the Father and now his ambirion destroys the Son for which Cnute invents a suitable reward causing his head to be set upon the highest place of the Tower of London therein performing his promise of advancing him above any Lord of the Land which was the mark that this faithlesse wretch aimed at and now attained but in a far different sence from that which he had vainly proposed to himself Cnute being thus rid of a Rival denied copartnership to the Sons of Edmond as pretending the whole to appertain to the Survivor and for fear they might prove thorns in his side he sent them far enough out of the way into Swedeland say some there to be murthered but they were mercifully preserved and conveyed to the Court of Hungary where Edmond dyed without issue but Edward had by Agatha Daughter to Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany a Son named Edgar and a Daughter called Margaret who was the cause as hereafter shall be shewed that the Saxon stem which now seemed withered doth once more reflourish though inocculated we confesse upon another stock Notwithstanding this transportation of Edmonds Sons yet did not Cnute hold himself sufficiently assured of his new accquired Kingdom till he had married Emma widdow of Ethelred whereby he gained the love of the English but the promise he made in marriage that the Children begotten on her should succeed was for some time frustrated by the preoccupation of Harold sirr named Harefoot the eldest son of Cnute by a Concubine but his reign was brief as likewise was that of his Brother Hardi Canute the lawfull Son of Cnute and Emma with whom expired the Danish Dominion here which had been but of a short duration though their incursions and molestations had continued for a longer space Edward styled the Confessor to distinguish him from Edward the Elder and Edward the Saint was next King being the Son of Emma also but by her first Husband Ethelred the Unready and did in some sort restore the Saxon blood For in truth there was a nearer relation to the Crown extant though not so near at hand for the present to wit Edward surnamed by reason of his Forein education the Outlaw the Son of Edmond Ironside the eldest Son by his first Wife of the above mentioned Ethelred the Unready who ought by the Law of Nature and Nations to have preceded Yet did the Confessor wanting Issue himself do his Nephew the Outlaw so much right as to recall him with his Children out of their Banishment in Hungary and designed him his Successor but the Outlaws death before the Confessors prevented that determination Neverthelesse the Confessor without delay pronounced Edgar the Outlaws Son and his own Grand Nephew Heir apparent and gave him the surname of Etheling which in those dayes were only peculiar to such as were inhopes and possibility of a Kingdome And more than so this poor Etheling never was For first he was debarred by his own Guardian Harold the Son of Goodwin Earl of Kent who disdaining the title of Regent which he was only constituted assumed that of King Afterwards by William Duke of Normandy who though he pulled down Harold yet did he not set up Edgar laying claim himself to the Crown by virtue of a pretended Donation from his Cosen Edward the Confessor which had been too weak a plea had it not been justified by a long sword which hath ever since given him the appellation of William the Conquerour Robert the eldest Son of the Conquerour should by right of primogeniture have succeeded his Father in all his Dominions but having proved a Rebel at the French Kings instigation he had only the Dukedom of Normandy assigned to him and the Crown of England was bequeathed to his Brother William surnamed Rufus who dying without any legitimate off-spring and Robert being absent in the Holy-land Henry the youngest Son of the Conquerour as Duke of Normandy but eldest as King of England seized upon it and to ingratiate himself with the Natives and to corroborate his Title he Married Maud Daughter of Margaret by Malcolme King of Scots Sister to Edgar Etheling Son of Edward the Outlaw Son of Edmond Ironside Son of Ethelred the Unready Son of Edgar the peaceable Son of Edmond Son of Edward Senior Son of Alfred and by which means the Royal seed of the Saxons became to be replanted in the English Soil For this Henry the first had not to mention his Son William who perished by water whilst he was young by the foresaid Maud a Daughter of the same name whom he first espoused to Henry the fifth Emperour of Germany afterwards to Ieffrey Plantagenet Earl of Aniou by whom she had a Son called Henry in whom did fully concur the Norman and Saxon Race But the true hereditary succession was some what intercepted by Stephen Earl of Bologne Son of Adela the Conquerours Daughter from whom he could derive but a slender title For had the Conquerours line Masculine failed then ought Theobald Earl of Bloys Stephens Eldest Brother by the same Adela to have been prelated And therefore his surest Tenure proceeded from his Election by the Nobility who notwithstanding their natural Allegiance and twice repeated Oath and among them Stephen himself is reckoned to be one that had sworn Fealty to Maud and her Heirs in the Reign of her Father Henry admitted this stranger and that for no other reason though other were alleged as that Maud was a woman and consequently uncapable of anointing that she was married out of the Realm without the consent thereof which if of any moment should before their solemn engagement have been taken into consideration than that he being a Creature of their own erecting was more obliged to them and would upon all occasions be more ready to gratifie their aspiring humour Yet wanted not the Empresse and her Son adherents both within and without the Kingdom to assert their right who raised such a cloud of trouble to Stephen that he could not dispel it during his whole reign so that at length he came to a composition and his own Son Eustace whom he had designed his Successour being already dead he adopts Henry fitz-Empresse and proclaims him heir apparent with this Proviso That he himself should enjoy the Crown as long as he lived which was not a full year after this peaceable agreement Henry the second of that name is now possessed of the Throne in processe of time adding the Lordship of Ireland to it and that upon a treble account First by vertue of the late Treaty with King Stephen Secondly by title of conquest as being great Grand-Child to William the Norman but Thirdly and chiefly by the equity of
had took upon him the Crosse and according to the Custom of those days warred in the Holyland Thus appears the invalidity of Henryes claim whether from the Father as unsound or the Mother as suspitious and deceitful or from King Richard receding as extorted by force in restraint and so of no force or of consent of the many there being no Custom in the English Nation for popular elections or by Conquest which in a Subject against his Soveraign is Insurrection and Victory high Treason as was well observed by the Bishop of Carlile in his speech in that very Parliament where this business was agitated and transacted Nay further there is a tradition that Iohn of Gaunt Father of this Henry was not at all the Son of King Edward but that the Queen being deliver'd of a female child knowing how unacceptable it would be to her Husband exchanged it for a boy with a Dutch woman who had been brought to bed about the same hour This the Queen at her death confessed to William of Wickman Bishop of Winchester who acquainted none with it but Iohn of Gaunt himself and that when he perceived Iohn to affect the Crown in which case the Mother had left the Bishop free But this being but a report and grounded on uncertainties would have been no bar to Henry's title had it been clear in all other respects Henry as he had injuriously obtained a Kingdom so doth he laboriously preserve the same for the manifold conspiracies against him testifie that quiet is not a Concomitant of usurped greatnesse and was in a manner bereaved of his Crown before he was of his life For he being seized upon by a deep fit of the Apoplexy his Son Henry seized upon the Crown whereof when the Father reviving demanded the reason his answer was That in his and all mens judgement there present he was dead and then says he I being next Heir apparent to the same took it as my indubitat right Well said the King and sighed Son what right I had to it God knoweth but saith the Prince If you dye King I doubt not to hold it as you have done against all opposers Which expression this incomparable King Henry the fifth did make good even to supererogation for abandoning his youthfull extravagancies whereof he is severely taxed he embraces more solid courses and to vent any discontented humours at home which by standing still might corrupt and gather putrefaction he meditates a war with France and awakens the English title to it which had lyen dormant ever since his great Grand-Fathers days But whilst he is in preparation for this great affair he either makes or discovers a plot against his life by Richard Earl of Cambridge who had married Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Mortimer Earl of March before remembred who was the true heir of the Crown and was the true cause of Earl Richards execution for it cannot be imagined that money alone would induce so noble a person to so foul an undertaking And the event shews that there was somwhat more than Bribery in this attempt when we shall find the Son of this late executed Earl dispossessing his Son who was the Author of his Fathers Tragedy Henry having thus eased himself of a great Pretender proceeds to his intended design on France where he so prosperously speeds that he is constituted Regent declared Heir apparent of the doting French King whose Daughter Katherine he marries by her hath a Son named Henry of whom the King is said to have thus prophesyed I Henry born at Monmouth shall small time reign and much get and Henry born at Windsor shall long reign and lose all And so indeed it came to passe through the secret operation of all-disposing Providence which is seldome propitious to the owners how good in themselves soever they be of ill gained inheritances beyond the third succession And hereof our present Henry the sixth is a great example who was the meekest and most religious of all our Kings that had been before and yet for no other transgression that we know of than the original Sin of his Grand-Father Henry the fourth medling with the forbidden fruit of a Crown his ere it was ripe for him is he chased out of the terrestial Paradise of all his Kingdoms and sent to be a partaker of a Celestial one somwhat more early than the due course of nature had designed him for it For that covert fire which had a long time burned in the breasts of many to see the Lancastrian race enioy anothers right doth now break forth into open combustion of which Richard Duke of York is the prime incendiary the Son of Richard Earl of Cambridge who was beheaded in King Henry the fifths reign for supposed Treason the Son of Edmond Duke of York the fifth Son of King Edward the third But Duke Richard waves all pretensions by the Fathers side as not being ignorant that Iohn of Gaunt from whom our present Henry is directly descended was elder brother to his Grandsire Edmond and therefore in Parliament only produceth his title by the Mother as being the Son and Heir of Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Son and Heir of Roger Mortymer Earl of March Son and Heir of Philippa the sole Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of Edward the third and elder Brother of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Father of the Usurper Henry the fourth Grand-Father of Henry the fifth who was Father to him who now says Richard untruly stileth himself King Henry the fixth Besides his holding forth his claim to the Crown in this demonstrative and undeniable manner which yet the judicious could only penetrate the Duke addeth many Rhetorical aggravations which were more suitable and intelligible to vulgar ears As that the King was simple and of weak capacity that he was Governed by the Queen a stranger and Woman of an unsufferable ambition that the Privy Counsellors were naught and corrupt through whose faithlessenesse and inabilities France was lost and England disquieted and that greater judgements were to be expected if the true Heir were any longer debarred from his lawful right The Duke by these plausible arguments had so engaged the multitude unto him that he is able to dispute his Title in the Field with the King whom he takes Prisoner and calling in his name a Parliament it is there concluded that King Henry during his life should retain the name and Honour of a King that the Duke of York should be Proclaimed Heir apparent to the Crown and Protector of the Kings Person and Dominions that if at any time King Henries Friends Allies or Favorites in his behalf should attempt the disannulling of this Act that then the Duke should have present possession of the Crowu But this was more than what his destiny had allotted for him for he was shortly after slain at the Battail of War field by Queen Margaret who was of a
welcomed and readily assisted by the Welsh from whose Princes he was descened as being the Son of Edmond of Haddam the Son of Owen Ap Teudor who could in a direct line derive his pedigree from the Noble Race of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severne as hath been before touched though a modern Writer more for the jest sake than out of reality sayes he was a Gentleman of no extraordinary lineage but lineaments which he makes to be the motive that induced Katherine of France Dowager of England after the death of Henry the fifth to take him for her second Husband Richmond having much increased his Army among his Country-men marches forward as far as Bosworth in Leicestershire where King Richard meets him and there the great controversy is finally decided in Battail Richard is slain and Richmond by a kind of military election saluted and in a manner Crowned King in the Field Henry the seventh for so must we now call him that was but lately Earl of Richmond sensible that the tumultuary approbation of Souldiers did of it self give him neither just or durable possession knowing likewise the weaknesse of the Lancastrian plea in opposition to that of York maries according to his solemn preingagement Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the fourth which brought security to his estate and happinesse to the Kingdom the two Roses whose divisions had put the English to much expence of blood being thereby concorporated and for ever after linked in a most firm and indissolvable knot But as in a body that hath been troubled with a Cronique Disease though recovered yet are there still some peccant humours to be purged out so notwithstanding this Union and Recorciliation there remains dregs of discontents whereof the Queen Mother was the supposed Parent and Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy the known Nurse the first because she thought her Daughter not sufficiently respected for King Henry is not accused to have been over uxorious or indulgent to his wife the other being Sister of Edward the fourth bore an endlesse hatred to any of the Lancastrian Race The first Spirit they raised to disturb King Henryes quiet was one Lambert Symnell a stripling but so instructed by Simon a Priest who had higher directors that he could well personate the young Earl of Warwick Son of George Duke of Clarence whom the credulous Irish greedily entertain and acknowledge for their King And when Henry to detect the forgery had publickly shown in London the very Earl of Warwick whom he kept his Prisoner they retort the fiction upon himself and give out he had suborned a counterfeit on purpose to delude the simple multitude But this Pageantry quickly vanished the Conspirators are dispersed and Lambert taken who had the honour to be first made a Turn-spit in the Kings Kitchen but was afterwards preferred to be one of the Kings Falconers This was but the Prologue as it were to a more deep contrived Comi-Tragaedy that was to follow whereof the restlessâ— Dutchesse of Burgundy was the Inventer and one Perkin Wâ—rbeke the principal Actor But the Name and Scene is somewhat altered His Cue assigned him is to play the part of Richard Duke of York second Son of Edward the fourth who is feigned to have miraculously escaped the hands of his bloody Unckle Perkin was so good a proficient and had learned and could repeat his lesson so exactly that not the silly Iriâ—h alone but the French and Scotish Kings with many of the Nobility and Gentry of England were or would be deceived Nay Sir William Stanly himself Lord Chamberlain the Kings especial favorite is so far trâ—panned as to utter this improvident Speech which was construed high Treason that if he certainly knew that the young man was the undoubted Son and Heir of King Edward the fourth he would never fight or bear Arms against him for which he became headlesse though he had been the chief help and setter of the Crown upon King Henryes head Perkin at length is taken and committed to the Tower where soliciting the Earl of Warwick to make an escape he hastens both his own merited and that poor Earls undeserved execution Henry having thus composed his affairs at home seeks honourable matches for his children abâ—oad and marries his eldest Daughter Margaret to the Scotish King providently foreseeing that in case his issue Male failed this conjunction might be a means to associate the separated Kingdoms as his own had the Roses and so remedy the inconveniences of two distinct estates in one single Island Arthur his eldest Son Prince of Wales was espoused to Katherine Infanta of Spain but he dying before consummation we mean as to conjugal duty his brother Henry by dispensation from the Pope takes her to wife who on the wedding day was aâ—tired all in white in token that she was a pure and spotlesse Virgin It is conceived that the young Prince who henceforward is to be styled Henry the eighth had never any great fancy to the Lady as somwhat his Superiour in years but did raâ—â—â—r comply with his Fathers will than his own iâ—clinations However for a long time he lived with her in an outward loving seeming respectful manner But at length satiated with her company whom from the beginning he had not truly affected he meditates a divorce and hopes by money and Cardinal Woolseys interest in the Court of Rome with speed to effect the same Woolsey who by his obsequiousnesse to the Kings pleasure in all things had from a mean condition mounted to the highest degree of favour and power that a Subject is capable of is reported to be the first that injected the scruple into the Kings head touching the unlawfullnesse of his marriage with his Brothers Wife which once in could not in haste be put out again But in the prosecution the King and Woolsey had different ends Woolsey to revenge himself of Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany and Nephew to Katherine who had been a back-Friend to Woolsey in his attempted advancement to the Popedom and by proposing a match to the King out of France he thought to ingratiate with that Crown which might be more auspitious in promoting his towring designs But the King had another though not so deep a reach which more concerned his own private satisfaction than policy or reason of State For he desired to be unyoked from his old Queen that he might make a new one of one of her maids of honour Anne of Bolen with whom he was desperately in love which the Cardinal smelling out proves cold in the businesse delays to exercise his legantine power instigates the Pope to recall the cause to himself and proceeds slowly therein all which is performed accordingly but it concludes with the ruine of Woolsey's and the Popes Authority For impatient of these procrastinations Henry discards the one and renounces the other rejects Katherine marries Anne grows weary of her of incest with her own Brother cuts off
her head in whose room the very next day succeeds Jane Seymour who dies in Child-birth And so he continues shifting and putting away or to death his Wives as well as other Subjects till his own appointed time came a little before which it is recorded that in great Agony he should say unto Arch-Bishop Cranmer Is there any mercy for him who never spared man in his wrath nor woman in his lust In his life he little regarded but rather endeavoured to defeat by Parliament the titles of his Daughters Mary by Katherine of Spain and Elizabeth by Anne of Bolen with both whose Mothers he had been grievously displeased and seemed more inclinable to the off-spring of his youngest Sister Mary Dowager of France by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk but at his death by his last Will and Testament he constituted his Son Edward by Jane Seymour his next immediate heir and then in case they dyed issulesse the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to succeed in their order Henry the eighth being dead Edward the 6th of that name his Son is at nine years of age proclaimed King and Edward Duke of Sommerset by the Mothers side ordained his Protector whose candid nature exposed him to the cunning wiles of Dudley Duke of Northumberland which at last brought Sommerset his Brother Thomas Marquesse of Hertford Admiral of England and even the King himself to their untimely ends The Fox Northumberland observing the differencee between the Protector and the Admiral begun by th womanish emulation of their Wives doth underhand so soment it that the Admiral is brought to the block and the Protector not long after follows which renders the Pupill King more obnoxious to Northumberlands ambitious practices now that his two faithfull Uncles who should have supported him are removed out of the way Northumberland taking advantage of the Kings weaknesse of mind and body where unto he is shrewdly suspected to have contributed advises him to make a Will wherein the King declaring that he was past his minority thoughot above sixteen years of age and that it appertained to him to dispose of the Kingdome as he pleased doth disinherlt his Sisters Mary and Elizabeth as Persons of whose legitimation there was a question as likewise the issue of his eldest Aunt Sister Margaret married to the Scotish King as foreiners and aliens bequeathing the Crown to his Cousen Jane Grand-daughter to the Dutchesse of Suffolk the youngest Sister of his Father King Henry the eighth Gutlford Duke Dudleys Son was husband to this Lady Jane who upon the death of Edward was proclaimed Queen but Mary the eldest Daughter of King Henry by the assistance of the Norsolk and Suffolk Gentry recovered that which both by birth and her Fathers appointment was her undoubted though for a small time detained right Notwithstanding Mary by the Protestants aid attained the Crown yet her Education in the contrary profession and the memory that for her Mothers sake it suffered its first detriment obliged her to recall the Catholick Religion that had been banished in her Predecessors days keeping as one wittily observes the Kingdom by pater noster which she had gained by Our Father which are in Heaven Her zeal and over-ardent desire to extinguish that which she thought Heresy kindled many fires in this land for which she hears ill among the vulgar to this day and bears the brand of tyranny though of her self she was of a mild and merciful disposition Among other passages her severity to her Sister Elizabeth is much taxed of whose sincere devotion though outwardly conformable to the Romish Church the Queen much doubted and fearing a relapse of things after her own death could have been content that her Sister Elizabeth though the youngest had had the Precedency therein But Philip King of Spain Queen Maryes husband had other thoughts of and intentions towards Elizabeth whom he preserved from her Sisters violence and designed for his second we would say third wise for he was a Widdower when he married Mary by whom he now begins to despair of issue and by reason of her Dropsy perceives she was in no wise immortal here Queen Elizabeth at her first entrance makes shew as if she would tread in her Sister Marys steps whereby she so charmed the Catholick Clergy and Nobility that they created her no disturbance And she did further so temporize with King Philip that he was a great favourer of her admission hoping shortly to be a Copartner with her both in Bed and Kingdom But the lancy which Philip though no Babe had builded in his brain quickly appears to be but an aerial Castle for Elizabeth soon undeceives him and other Romanist who had promised themselves other matters by declining Marriage disowing the Popes Jurisdiction and reducing Ecclesiastical Affairs to the same state and condition lier Father and Brother had left them in The aversenesse of this Queen to Matrimonial Bondage as she accounted it gave occasion to that great and by her alwayes disliked dispute about the Succession That it belonged of right to Mary Queen of Seets Daughter of James the fifthe Son of Margaret eldest Daughter to King Henry the seventh none could reasonably deny but Maâ—y say the State Politicians of thosetimes will prove another Mary and our Religion will be depressed if she be advanced to the English Throne Her own Subjects have expelled her upon that account and shall we accept of her for our Princesse whom we have so much disobliged by detaining so long a Prisoner For this unfortunate Queen having been educated in France did after the decease of her first Husband the Dolphin return into Scotland of whose fashions by reason of her forein breeding being somewhat ignorant she could not consequently but be guilty of some miscarriages which her Enemies so aggravate that they stir up the people to a sedition seize upon her Person force her to resign to her Son James by Henry Lord Darly Son of the Duke of Lenox not full eighteen Months old of whom Earl Murray her Bastard Brother is made Regent who was the beginning and continuer of all her troubles Mary late and by right still Queen of Scots after this extorted and therefore invalid resignation fearing further attempts against her life escapes out of the loathsom Gaol where she was secured and betakes her self into England for succour sending news to her Cozen Queen Elizabeth imploring not only present protection but also such convenient aides as might restore her to her Kingdom of which she had been forceably deprived by her Mutinous and Rebellious Subjects Elizabeth at first gives good words and sends her large attendance which were yet but in the quality of an honourable Guard but afterwards more and more abridges her liberty at which hard and unworthy usage of a suppliant and Heir apparent of the Crown some English Lords and Gentlemen conceiving a just disdain project and propose to her means of deliverance whereunto she as all other living
creatures are most greedy of natural freedom doth readily assent but these are prevented and her Actions interpreted as yet tending to the destruction of Queen Elizabeth for which she is tryed by certain delegated Commissioners who much resembled a late thing called an High Court of Justice is by them found guilty and shortly after beheaded at Fotheringham Castle in Northamtonshire but the true cause why she suffered was expressed to her self by the Earl of Kent one of her Judges a little before her reputed Martydom Madam says he if you live our Religion is in danger of which words she desired the Auditors to take special notice that confessedly it was not Treason but Religion for which she was to dye Iames the 6th King of Scotland Son of the late executed Mary now come to years of discretion expostulates with Queen Elizabeth about his Mothers death but the Queen puts it off upon the precipitation of her Secretary Davison intimating that if he stirred in the least manner to revenge it would irrecoverably hazard his hopes of the Succession of which yet she gives him but a very saint assurance But in her declining age some about her who had been shie before to intermeddle with so ticlish and unpleasing a point grow more peremptory and presse her to a positive declaration to whom her answer was It is the King of Scots due and let him have it Conform whereunto Iames King of Scotland immediately after her death is proclaimed King of England both which he converts into the name of Great Britany and now is Cadwalladers Prophecy before remembred exactly compleated that his Race should recover the sole Dominion of this Island for King Iames besides his direct descent from King Henry the seventh brought another but higher title if the former had not been sufficient from Banco a Nobleman of Scotland whose Son Fleance fled from the tyranny of Macheth the Usurper into wales and there married the Prince his Daughter by whom he had walter the first of the renowned Family of the Stewards but for the particulars of that conjunction we referre you to the British and and Scotish Historians King Iames arose in this our Horizon with much clearnesse notwithstanding Rawleighs mist and the smoak of the Gun-power-plot which were soon dispell'd but his setting was obscured by a little Cloud which shortly did overspread the whole Land He had married his eldest Daughter Elizabeth to Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhene who unadvisedly gaping after the Kingdom of Behemia lost not only it but his own patrimonial possession King Iames who had more of Solomon than David in him sollicites restitution rather by Treaty than Arms and as the most conducing means to his peaceable ends entertains an overture of a match betwixt his Son Charles Prince of Wales and the Infanta of Spayn to whose King the Palatinate was by the Emperour configned over But the English Parliament takes exception at this intended Spanish affinity and as if Religion were at the Stake declaims against it Notwithstanding the King sends his Son into Spain who returns thence without a wife yet in his passage thither had an accidental sight of her in France who was by Heaven his designed Spouse As soon as Iames was dead Charles his Son is proclaimed King who immediately marries Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter to Henry the great King of France of whom as was just now hinted he had a transient view in his voiage to Spain which when this Princesse understood she is reported to have said That he needed not to have gone so far for a wife But now the seed of discontent which had been sowed in his Fathers time did begin to bud forth Scotland yields the first-fruits which also too much thrives in the English Plantation The Scotish Nobility enter into Combination against Episcopacy and the Service-book which they allege to be obtruded upon them For redresse of these imaginary grievances the Scots with swords in their hand approach his Majesty to present a Petition as is given out A Parliament in England is called to compose differences which rather increases them for which it is soon dissolved The Scots Invasion continues but at length a Pacification is made another Parliament is convened which working so far upon the Kings necessities extorts from him an inseparable jewel of his Prerogrative to wit a privilege not before asked or granted not to be discharged without their own consent In strength of this concession they proceed to other unseasonable demands which together with the tumults of the City occasioned the King to retire Northward and being denyed entrance into Hull for which Sir Iohn Hotham did afterwards receive his reward from those that imployed him he repairs to Nottingham where understanding that an Army was formed under the Earl of Essex at London and then on their March to bring him back as it was given out to his Parliament he sets up his Standard Royal but the appearance not answering expectation he directs his course towards Shrewsbury where by the confluence of the loyal Welsh his small forces are so increased that he is able to confront the Earl of Essex then at Worcester who retreats into Warwickshire and is overtaken at Edge-hill by his Majesty where the first signal battail is sought in which both sides were great losers and yet both sides assume the victory to themselves The war continues doubtful for three years but the Battail at Naseby in Northamptonshire proves fatal to the Kings affairs for after that succeeds little else but the ruine of his party in all places and surrender of most of his Garrisons till he was necessitated in disguise to leave Oxford his prime and well-nigh alone remaining hold then in a manner beleaguered and betake himself for Protection to the Scotish Army The Scots though they had received all possible satisfaction as to their own concernments yet could not refrain from intermeddling in the English distempers and were at that time besieging Newark upon Trent They at first received the King with all seeming promises of security as to his Person but having carried him with them to Newcastle do there barter him with the English for 200000 l. a price which as the French Embassador observed did far exceed that which Iudas received for betraying of our Saviour From Newcastle his bought and sold Majesty is conveyed by Commissioners deputed for that purpose from the Parliament of England to his house at Holdenby in Northamtonshire perhaps that he might be within prospect of that uncomfortable place Naseby where was given him his irreparable overthrow there to reside during the pleasure of the two Houses But not long it was ere Cromwel whose pulse at that time says a then pen-man began to beat a Lordly pace by his instrument Ioyce surprizes him in his bed and when Ioyce told Cromwel that he had the King in his Custody then quoth Cromwel I have the Parliament in my pocket Cromwels end in seizing on the