at Cork in Ireland Anno 1381. EDMVND MORTIMER Earl of March had Issue Roger Mortimer Earl of March and Vlster Lord of Wigmor Trym Clare and Connaght who married Elianor Eldest Daughter and one of the Heirs of Thomas Holland Earl of Kent 1. Roger Mortimer died without Issue 2. Edmund Mortimer died without Issue 3. Anne Mortimer married to Richard Plantagenet Earl of Cambridge by whom she had Issue Richard Plantagenet Duke of York Earl of Cambridge March and Vlster Edward the IVth King of England and France and Lord of Ireland 1. Edward the Vth. King of England and France and Lord of Ireland murthered in the Tower left no Issue 2. Richard Plantagenet Duke of York murthered with his Brother King Edward left no Issue 3. Elizabeth eldest Daughter to Edward the IVth married to Henry the VIIth King of England and France and Lord of Ireland ELIZABETH eldest Daughter to King Edward the IVth by her Husband King Henry the VIIth had Issue 1. Arthur Prince of VVales died before his Father and left no Issue 2 Henry the VIIIth King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith 1. Edward the VIth King of England France and Ireladd died without Issue 2. Mary Q. of England France and Ireland died without Issue 3. Elizabeth Queen of England France and Ireland died without Issue 3. Margaret eldest Daughter to Henry the VIIth married to James the IVth King of Scotland by whom she had Issue James the Vth. King of Scotland Mary Queen of Scotland who was by her Subjects infected with Calvinism of which it is truly observed that it never entred into any Country but by Rebellion expelled her Kingdom and forced to fly for shelter into England where so implacable is Presbyterian Malice they never left persecuting her till they had brought her after eighteen years Imprisonment to end her dayes upon a Scaffold By her Husband Henry Lord Darnley Son to Mathew Stuart Earl of Lenox she had Issue James the VIth King of Scotland who after the Decease of Elizabeth Queen of England as next Heir enjoyed the Crown of this Realm whereof he was no sooner possest but he reassumed the Title of Great Britain 1. Henry Prince of Wales died before his Father and left no Issue 2. CHARLES the Ist King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith a Prince of incomparable Vertues and Endowments who was on the 30th of January 1648. barbarously and inhumanly murthered before the Gates of his own Royal Palace by a traitorous Crew of villanous Phanaticks so secure in their own Thoughts of having thereby extirpated Monarchy out of this Island that they insolently set up on the Royal Exchange in the place where his Statue which they maliciously decollated had been erected amongst those of his Predecessors this Inscription Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus 1. CHARLES the IId by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith now reigning Whō GOD long preserve 2. The Illustrious Prince James Duke of York and Albany 3. Mary Mother to the present Prince of Orange 4. Henrietta Mother to the present Queen of Spain 3. Elizaheth married to Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhine by whom she had a numerous Issue CHAP. X. Of the present Government of Great Britain in general OF Monarchies some are Hereditary the Crown descending either only to the Heirs Male as has long been practiced in France or to the next of Blood without Distinction of Sex as in Great Britain and Spain Others are Elective where upon the Death of every Prince another is chosen to succeed without any respect to the Heirs of the Predecessor as is used in Poland Of Hereditary Monarchies some are dependent holden of earthly Potentates to whom the Princes are obliged to do Homage for the same as is the Kingdom of Naples holden at this day of the Pope by the King of Spain Others are independent whose Princes acknowledge no Superior upon Earth but hold only of GOD and by their Sword Of this latter sort is the Empire of Great Britain being an Hereditary Monarchy consisting of two Provinces or Kingdoms governed by one Supreme Absolute Independent Undeposable and Unaccountable Head according to the known Laws and Customs of each Kingdom It is a Free Monarchy challenging above many other Europaean Kingdoms an Exemption from all Subjection to the Emperor or Laws of the Empi to which as the Northern Part of the Island or Kingdom of Scotland was never subject so the Southern part since called the Kingdom of England being abandoned by the Romans who had by force obtained the Dominion thereof the Right of Government by all manner of Laws reverted to the ancient Inhabitants to the last of whose Kings viz. Cadwalladar our present Sovereign is as appears by the precedent Genealogy by Lineal and Legitimate Descent the true and unquestionable Heir And as it is exempt from all forreign Jurisdiction and Dominion so likewise is it free from all Interregnum and many other Domestick Mischiefs whereunto Elective Kingdoms are ordinarily subject It is a Monarchy wherein the Grace and Bounty of its Princes rendring the subordinate Concurrence of the three Estates necessary to the making and repealing of all Statutes or Acts of Parliament in either Realm have afforded so much to the Industry Liberty and Happiness of the Subject and made the Yoak of Government so easy and its Burden so light that were it not for those malevolent and Fanatical Spirits which by sowing Jealousies amongst the People and raising Animosities in their Minds against their Prince endeavor to deprive us of the benefit of our Parliaments by rendring their Meetings unpracticable our Condition might well be envied by all other Nations of the Universe CHAP. XI Of the Monarch of Great Britain and therein of his Name Title Arms Dominions and Strength Of his Person Office Prerogative Soveraignty Divinity and Respect TO the Monarch of Great Britain is given in English which is the Language most generally spoken through his whole Dominions the Name King which hath its Original from the Saxon Word Koning and intimateth that Power and Knowledge wherewith every Soveraign should especially be invested The Modern Title used by the Monarch in all Treaties with forreign Princes and in all publick Affairs relating to his whole Dominions and stamped upon his Coin is By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith but in all Writs and other publick Instruments referring to the particular Concerns of either Kingdom of England or Scotland the two Kingdoms are distinctly named that Kingdom having the Precedency in such Instrument which is therein particularly concerned To the King alone belongs Dei Gratiâ taken simply and in the strictest sense as holding his Regal Dignity by the Favour of none but GOD the Archbishops and Bishops to whom that Title is also sometimes given must understand Dei Gratiâ Regis For tho their Character and
had of Proclamations appears by these Words of a Statute made in the one and thirtieth year of King Henry the VIIIth Forasmuch as the King by the Advice of his Councel hath set forth Proclamations which obstinate Persons have contemned not considering what a King by his Royal Power may do Considering that sudden Causes and Occasions fortune many times which do require speedy Remedies and thaâ— by abiding for a Parliament in the mean time might happen great prejudice to ensue to the Realm And weighing also that his Majesty which by the Kingly and Regal Power given him by GOD may do many things in such Cases should not be driven to extend the Liberties and Supremity of his Regal Power and Dignity by wilfulness of froward Subjects It is therefore thought fit that the King with the Advice of his Honorable Councel should set forth Proclamations for the good of the People and Defence of his Royal Dignity as necessity shall require The King only can give Patents in case of Losses by Fire or otherwise to receive the charitable Benevolences of the People without which none may ask it publickly The King by his Prerogative is Vltimus Haeres Regni and the Receptacle of all Estates when no Heir appears For this cause all Estates for want of Heirs or by Forfeiture escheat to the King All Spiritual Benefices for want of Presentation by the Bishop are lapsed at last to the King All Money Gold Silver Plate or Bullion found and the Owners thereof not known belong to the King and so do all Wayfs Strays Wrecks not granted away by him or any of his Predecessors All Wast Ground or Land recovered from the Sea all Land of Aliens dying before Naturalization all things the property whereof is not known and all Gold or Silver Mines in whose Ground soever they are found belong to the King In the Church the Kings Prerogative is very great He only hath the Patronage of all Bishopricks None can be elected Bishop but whom he hath first nominated None can be consecrated or take possession of the Revenues of any Bishoprick without his special Writ or Assent He is the Nursing-Father of the Church and hath Power to call a National or Provincial Synod and with the Advice and Consent thereof to make Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions relating to the Government and Polity of the Church wherein as it was affirmed by Christopher Wray Speaker of the House of Commons in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth the Princes Power is absolute The King has Power upon Causes only known to himself to dispence by Non Obstantes with General Laws made in Parliament and with the Penalties for transgressing them where such Penalty is appropriated to himself alone to mitigate the Rigor of the Laws where Equity and Conscience require Moderation to alter or suspend any particular Law that he judges hurtfull to the Commonwealth to pardon a Man legally condemned to grant special Priviledges to particular Persons Colledges and Corporations and if any Doubt arises concerning such Priviledges he only has Right to interpret them To him and the Judges constituted by him does it belong to interpret all Statutes and to determin and pass Sentence in Cases not defined by Law These are some Branches of that Jus Coronae of that Regal Prerogative of the name whereof however some persons are afraid yet may they assure themselves that the Case of Subjects would be desperately miserable without it since the Kings just Rights are the best Preserver of the Peoples Liberties being an impregnable Bulwark against all popular Invasions and illegal Powers Nor have there ever been found any greater Oppressors of the People than those who under pretence of asserting their Liberties have endeavored to lessen the Royal Authority Thus in the great Contest between Henry the IIId King of England and the Barons about the pretended Liberties of themselves and the People the King being forced at length to yield the Lords instead of that glorious Freedom which they promised the Nation ingrossed all Power into their own Hands under the Name of the twenty four Conservators of the Kingdom behaving themselves like so many Tyrants acting all in their own Names and in Juntoes of their own wholly neglecting or else over-ruling Parliaments But then not agreeing among themselves four of them viz. the Earls of Leicester Glocester Hereford and Spencer defeated the other twenty and drew the entire Management of Affairs into their own hands Yet it continued so not long Leicester getting all into his own Power who being slain in Battle the King recovered his Authority and the People their true Liberty Many of these Prerogatives those especially that concern Justice and Peace are so essential to Royalty that they cannot be separated from it but by the destruction of the Monarchy it self Not without reason therefore did the Estates of England assembled in Parliament in the Reign of King Edward the IIId declare that they could not tho the King himself should desire it assent to any thing which tended to the Disherison of the King and his Crown whereunto they were sworn The King therefore as he is by his Office Debitor Justitiae obliged to administer Justice to his People so is he in Conscience bound to maintain the Rights of the Crown in possession and to endeavour the recovery of those whereof it has been dispossest And how dismal the Effects have been whenever any King neglecting the religious observance of this part of his Duty has been prevailed upon to give way to the lessening of his Royal Prerogative we have a sad Example in his Majesties Father of Blessed Memory who parting tho but only Pro illa vice with his absolute Power of dissolving Parliaments and giving it to the two Houses they never ceased farther incroaching upon his Prerogatives till he himself was barbarously murthered the Government wholly subverted and all the Liberties of the People trampled under foot To him therefore that shall seriously consider the many fatal Mischiefs and Inconveniences which necessarily follow the Diminution of the Kings Prerogative it will seem no Paradox to affirm that it is the Subjects great Interest to be far more sollicitous that the King maintain and uphold his own Prerogative and Preeminence than their Rights and Liberties which as they had no other Original but the Grace and Bounty of the Prince so must they of necessity perish when he is no longer able to protect them It is not thefore to be wondred that a right Apprehension of such pernicious Consequences made his Sacred Majesty refuse his Royal Assent to a Bill presented him for the raising of the Militia tho it was if passed into an Act to have continued in force but six Weeks Because the Tendency of the Bill being to put out of his Possession the Posse Regni or absolute command over the Forces of the Realm he could not answer unto GOD by whom alone he is intrusted with his Regal Power
Vlpian for a Rule of the Civil Law Princeps Legibus solutus est The Prince is not bound by the Laws Agreeable whereunto is what is said in the Laws of England Potestas Principis non est inclusa Legibus The Power of the Prince is not included in the Laws Hence no doubt it was that Mr. Grivel in the Thirty first year of Queen Elizabeth said in Parliament That he wished not the making of many Laws since the more we make the less Liberty we have our selves Her Majesty not being bound by them Yet is not this so to be understood that Kings have hereby a right to do Injury but that it is Right for them to go unpunished by their People if they do it The King cannot be impleaded for any Crime No Action lieth against his Person For the Writ goeth forth in his Name and he cannot arrest himself If he should which God forbid violently seizâ— upon the Estate of any Subject having no Title by Law so to do the only Remedy is by Petitioning him to amend his Fault which if he shall refuse to do it will be Punishment sufficient for him to expect that GOD who has given him his Prerogative of being above all Laws for the good only of them that are under the Laws and for the Defence of his Peoples Liberties will severely avenge the Cause of oppressed Loyal Subjects But altho whatever the King shall do he is not questionable for it by his Subjects yet there are divers things which he cannot do Salvo Jure Salvo Juramento Salva Conscientia sua For by an Oath taken at his Coronation the King obliges himself and indeed without any Oath he is by the Law of Nature and Christianity as are all other Christian Kings obliged to procure the Safety and Welfare of his People to protect and defend them against their Enemies to maintain and preserve them in their Properties just Rights and Liberties to administer upright Justice with Discretion and Mercy and in order thereunto to consent to the enacting of good Laws and repealing of Bad. Thus the King can do nothing unjustly nor can he divest himself or his Successors of any part of his Regal Power Prerogative and Authority inherent in the Crown and necessary for the Government and Protection of his People Two things there are especially which having somewhat of Odium in them the King doth not usually do without the Consent of his Parliament that is make new Laws and impose new Taxes the one whereof seems and does but seem to infringe the Peoples Liberties and the other to entrench upon their Properties To take away therefore all Occasions of Disaffection to the Anointed of the Lord stiled in Holy Scripture the Breath of our Nostrils and the Light of our Eyes the Wisdom of our former Princes his Majesties Royal Ancestors has contrived that for both these there should Petitions first be made by the People to the King Tho these and divers other Prerogatives do rightfully belong unto and are enjoyed by the Monarch of Great Britain yet doth he ordinarily govern his people by the known Laws and Customs of his Kingdoms making use of his Royal Prerogative for the Benefit not Damage of his Subjects in some rare and extraordinary Cases only Hereunto may be added a singular and Miraculous Priviledge enjoyed by the Kings of Great Britain quatenus Kings conferred first by the Divine Benignity upon that Blessed King of England St. Edward the Confessor and ever since continued to his Successors which is by the Imposition of their Sacred Hands to drive away and cure that stubborn Disease called the Struma or Scrofula and by us commonly from this supernatural manner of its Cure the Kings Evil. Upon certain dayes almost every Week during the cold Seasons his Majesty graciously permits all that are afflicted with that Disease having been first carefully viewed and allowed by his Chirurgeons to be brought into his Royal Presence Where an appointed Form of Divine Service consisting of some short Prayers pertinent to the Occasion and two Portions of Holy Scripture taken out of the Gospel being read the King at the pronouncing of these Words They shall lay their hands upon the Sick and they shall recover gently draws both his Hands over the Sore of the sick person the same words being repeated at every Touch. And at these Words This was the true Light which enlightneth every Man that cometh into this World he putteth about the Neck of each Sick person a piece of Gold called from the Impression an Angel being in value about eleven Shillings Sterling This evident Cure is by many malignant Nonconformists those true Sons of Belial daily despising and speaking evil of Dignities ascribed to the Strength of Fancy and exalted Imagination but little do they reflect upon how many tender Infants no way capable of such Transports this stupendious Cure is effectually performed Respect In consideration of these and many other transcendent Excellencies to no Prince or other Potentate in Christendom is done more Honour Reverence or Respect than to the Monarch of Great Britain All his Subjects at their first Addresses kneel unto him At Table he is served on the knee All persons the Prince or other Heir apparent not excepted are bare-headed in his Presence In the Presence Chamber tho the King be not there all men are not only uncovered but do or ought to do Reverence to the Chair of State The Kings only Testimony of any thing done in his presence is of as high a Nature and Credit as any Record And in all Writs sent forth for the Dispatch of Justice hee useth no other Witness but himself viz. Teste meipso As the King of Great Britain is thus reverenced and respected at home so is he no less honored and esteemed abroad For if he be regarded solely as King of England we shall find that the Emperor was accounted Filius major Ecclesiae the King of France Filius minor and the King of England Filius adoptivus That in General Councels the King of France took place on the Emperors Right Hand the King of England on his Left the King of Scots having Precedency next before Castile And that tho since the time of the Emperor Charles the Vth. the Kings of Spain have challenged the Precedency of all Christian Princes which nevertheless they have within this twenty years yielded to France yet in the time of our King Henry the VIIth Pope Julius gave it to the English before the Spaniard But if looking upon him as succeeding to the ancient British Kings whose true and undoubted Heir he is by Lineal and unquestionable Descent we shall consider the Antiquity of his Predecessors either as Kings Reigning here above a thousand years before the coming in of the Romans His Majesty now regnant being from the first British Kings the hundred thirty nineth Monarch or as Christians this Island having not only shewn to the World the first Christian King
of Portugal Her Name Catharina Name originally Greek signifies a Woman of excelling Purity and Chastity She had for Father John the IVth Genealogy King of Portugal and is lineally descended from John of Gaunt King of Castile and Leon Duke of Lancaster and fourth Son to Edward the IIId King of England as here appeareth John of Gaunt besides several other Children had a Daughter named Philippa married to John the Ist tenth King of Portugal by whom she had Issue Edward the eleventh King of Portugal Alphonso the Vth. twelfth King of Portugal Emanuel second Son who Succeeded his Elder Brother John the IId dying Issueless and was the fourteenth King of Portugal Edward Infante sixth Son Catharina married to John Duke of Braganza and after the Death of her Uncle Henry the seventeenth King of Portugal true Heir to the Crown from which she was barred by the Arms of Philip the IId King of Spain Duke of Braganza John Duke of Braganza who in the year 1640. recovered his Inheritance and reigned over Portugal by the Name of John the IVth The Infanta Donna Catharina Queen Consort of Great Britain Her Majesties Mother was Donna Lucia Daughter of Don Gusman el Bueno a Spaniard Duke of Medina Sidonia lineally descended from Ferdinando de la Cerde and his Wife Blanche Daughter to St. Lewis King of France who relinquished to her his Right and Title to Spain derived to him by his Mother Blanche eldest Daughter and Heir of the Spanish King Alphonso She was a Lady of that admired Magnanimity and Prudence that the King her Husband trusted so much of the Reins of Government to her masculine and politick Spirit as occasioned a jesting Spaniard to say That it was not the Portugal Force but the Spanish Policy which kept that Kingdom from the Catholick King The Queen of Great Britain is the only Sister of Don Alphonso the VIth the two and twentieth King of Portugal born in the year 1642 and hath one Brother more named Don Pedro born 1648 and now called Prince Regent of Portugal Birth She was born the fourteenth of November 1638 at Villa Vicosa in Portugal her Father who tho right Heir to the Crown of Portugal was then only Duke of Braganza being the most potent Subject in Europe for a third part of Portugal was even at that time holden of him in vassallage Marriage Having been most carefully and piously educated by Mother she was at the Age of two and twenty desired in marriage by Charles the IId King of Great Britain And the Marriage not long after concluded by the Negotiation of Sir Richard Fanshaw Ambassador of his Majesty of Great Britain in the Court of Portugal and of Francesco de Melo Conde de Ponte Marquis de Sande Extraordinary Ambassador from the King of Portugal being solemnized at Lisbon on the twenty third of April 1662. being the Festival of St. George Patron both of England and Portugal she embarkt for England and was by his Excellency Edward Earl of Sandwich Vice-Admiral of England safely conducted by a Squadron of Ships to Portsmouth where being met by the King she was remarried to him From Portsmouth she was by his Majesty brought to Hampton-Court where she continued till the three and twentieth of August following when coming up thence by Water she was with great Pomp and Magnificence received at Chelsey by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London who waited on her thence by Water to Whitehal The Portion Portion brought by her Majesty was eight hundred Millions of Reas or two Millions of Crusadoes amounting to about three hundred thousand Pounds Sterling the City of Tangier on the Coast of Africk and the Isle of Bombaim nere Goa in the East-Indies together with a Priviledg that any Subjects of the King of Great Britain may trade freely in the East and West-India Plantations belonging to the Portugueses Her Jointure Jointure agreed upon by the Articles of Marriage is thirty thousand Pounds Sterling per Annum to which the King as a Testimony of his great Affection to her has added ten thousand Pounds per Annum more Arms. Her Arms as Daughter of Portugal are Argent five Scutcheons Azure Cross-wise each Scutcheon charged with five Besants Argent Salterwise with a Point Sable The Border Gules charged with seven Castles Or. This Coat was first worn by Don Alphonso the first King of Portugal as well in memory of a signal Victory obtained by him over five Kings of the Moores as in honour of the five Wounds of our blessed Lord and Saviour who just before the Battle appeared crucified unto him a voice being heard as once to Constantin the Great In hoc Signo vinces before which time the Portugal Arms were Argent a Crosse Azure Her Majesty is a Personage endowed with rare Perfections both of Mind and Body a Lady of transcendent Piety Modesty and Charity and many other eminent Vertues CHAP. XV. Of the present Princes and Princesses of the Royal Blood of Great Britain THe Glorious Martyr CHARLES the Ist King of Great Britain had by his Queen Henrietta Maria Daughter to the most Christian King Henry the IVth four Sons and five Daughters His Sons were 1. CHARLES-JAMES born at Greenwich on the thirteenth of May 1629. baptized immediately by Dr. Web one of his Majesties Chaplains then in attendance and afterwards a Bishop in Ireland lived not above two hours 2. CHARLES our present Soveraign whom GOD long preserve 3. JAMES now Duke of York and Albany 4. HENRY born at Oatlands on the twentieth of July 1640. declared by his Royal Father Duke of Glocester but not so Created till the thirteenth of May 1659. He lived till above Twenty and dyed unmarried the thirteenth of September 1660. almost four Months after His Majesties happy Restauration bereaving thereby these Nations of those fair Hopes which had been generally conceived from his Noble and Princely Endowments His Daughters were 1. MARY born the fourth of November 1631. married on the second of May 1641. to Count William of Nassau Eldest Son to Henry Prince of Orange to whom she was the February following conveyed by her Mother into Holland The Prince her Husband dyed in the beginning of November 1650. leaving her Great with child soon after whose Death she was delivered of a Son being the present Prince of Orange Coming into England to see her Brother whom the Divine Bounty had miraculously restored to his Throne she here ended her dayes the twenty-fourth of December 1660. being little above nine and twenty Years of Age. Her Loss was exceedingly bewailed by All who had the honour to know her as being a Lady of universal Goodness and Charity 2. ELIZABETH born on the eight and twentieth of December 1635. a Princess of incomparable Virtues and Abilities Dyed the eighth of September 1650 at Carisbrook in the Isle of Wight of Grief for the Murther of her Father 3. ANNE Born the seventeenth of March 1636. Dyed very
King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and our Posterities for ever And some years after it was by all the Judges of England expresly resolved in Calvins Case That King James his Title to the Crown was founded upon the Laws of Nature viz. by inherent Birth-right and Descent from the Blood-Royal of this Realm All Acts of Parliament then for excluding from the throne the next Heir of the Blood Royal on whom the Crown descends by the Laws of God and Nature by inherent Birthright and undoubted Succession being ipso facto null and void it is not to be wondred that his present Sacred Majesty so constantly declared that he would never consent to alter the Descent of the Crown in the right Line as not being willing by shewing his People a Method of disposing the Succession to shake at the same time the Title of his own Possession Since it is evident that the Heir apparent or next of Blood hath the same Right to enjoy the Crown after his Predecessors Death as the Actual Possessor hath to it during his Life and consequently that the People have no more Right to disinherit the one than to depose the other Nor can any man be blamed for apprehending that some such thing might be aimed at by the first Projectors of the Bill for excluding his Royal Highness from the Succession if it shall be considered that the chief Sticklers for that Bill insisted on the Deposition of Edward the IId contrived by a leacherous Queen and disloyal Parliament and that of Richard the IId who was for pretended Misgovernment removed from the Throne by a Parliament over-awed by an Army of fourty or fifty thousand men and Henry the IVth substituted in his stead that during the Heat of these debates the Answer to the Great and Weighty Considerations wherein besides many other treasonable Passages the Author has these express words I hope there are very few in this Nation that do not think it in the Power of the People to depose a Prince who really undertakes to alienate his Kingdom or give it up into the hands of another Soveraign Power or really acts the Destruction or general Calamity of his People was publickly sold before the very Doors of Parliament and that the same House of Commons which was with so much eagerness hurried on to the passing of that Bill was also prevailed upon to importune his Majesty in behalf of the publisher of that pernicious Appeal from the Country to the City which by affirming that No Government but Monarchy can in England ever support or favor Popery endeavors not only to destroy the King but even Kingship it self But well fare the noble Lords of England who with a Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari rejected that abominable Bill which tho it would if passed into an Act have been of no greater Force or Validity than the Wild Ordinances of the Rebellious Parliament of 1640. yet might it as they were be made use of to induce the deluded Multitude to hazard their Souls Bodies and Estates by a damnable Opposition of their Lawful Soveraign and to raise up a Contest in this Nation not unlike to the old Yorkish and Lancastrian Quarrel the Thoughts whereof every good man must certainly dread when he shall seriously consider how that War lasted about sixty years and cost the Kingdom its whole Treasure and the Lives of above two hundred thousand of the Commons besides several Kings and Princes and Nobles without number So sensible was the renowned Queen Elizabeth of those fatal Consequences which necessarily attend so unjust an Act as that of altering the Succession that altho for Reasons obvious enough and needless here to be mentioned she yeilded to pass an Act whereby it was made Treason to say that she and her Parliament could not dispose of the Crown yet could she never be brought to give her Consent to the actual disposing thereof tho the next Heir then alive was not only a Papist but her own Rival to the Throne Nay she was so averse to any such Act that as Camden tells us She never heard any thing more unwillingly than that the Title of Succession should be called into question And therefore she sent Mr. Thornton Reader of Law in Lincolns-Inn to the Tower because in his Reading he called in question the Queen of Scots Title to the Crown And when the Lord Keeper Bacon was accused by the Earl of Leicester for having intermedled against the Queen of Scots Right to the Succession and for being privy to a Book wherein Hales went about to derive the Title of the Crown of England in case the Queen should die without Issue to the House of Suffolk Hales was therefore committed to the Tower and Bacon tho denying it was not without great difficulty restored to favor So likewise when in the eighth year of her Reign Bell Mounson and a great Number of the House of Commons thought it their Right as Representatives of the whole Kingdom whereof they do not in reality represent the sixth part to decide settle the Succession the Queen by a Prince-like Speech in the Parliament-House speedily suppressed their Insolence In like manner when in the thirty fifth year of her Reign Mr. Peter Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley delivered a Petition to the Lord Keeper desiring the Lords of the Upper House to be Suppliants with them of the Lower to Her Majesty for entailing the Succession of the Crown for which they had a Bill ready drawn the Queen highly displeased hereat charged her Councel to call the Parties before them Whereupon Sir Thomas Henage sending for them commanded them to forbear the Parliament and not to go out of their several Lodgings They were after called before the Lord Treasurer Lord Buckhurst and Sir Thomas Henage by whom Wentworth was committed to the Tower Sir Henry Bromley and other Members of the House of Commons to whom he had imparted the matter being sent to the Fleet. So careful was this prudent Queen to keep the People from presuming to intermeddle with the Succession The same Consideration that the Altering or Diverting the Succession in an hereditary Monarchy where the Kings deriving their Royal Power from GOD Almighty alone do succeed lineally to the Crown according to the known Degrees of Proximity in Blood cannot be attempted without involving the Subjects in Perjury and Rebellion and exposing of them to all the Fatal and Dreadful Consequences of a Civil War not only caused the Estates of Scotland in their very last Sessions of Parliament from an hearty and sincere Sence of their Duty to recognize acknowledge and declare That the Right to the Imperial Crown of that Realm is by the Inherent Right and the Nature of the Monarchy as well as by the Fundamental and unalterable Laws of the Realm transmitted and devolved by a Lineal Succession according to the Proximity of Blood And that upon the Death of the
occasioned by the supine negligence of the Baker and his servants in whose house it began or by an Hellish combination of malicious Persons there having been executed the April before eight Fanatical Plotters who confest at Tyburn that they had so contrived that Fatal Scene that it could not miscarry their Prediction as to the Fire tho not as to the rest of their intended Tragedy proving true to a day he exposed his Person to a thousand Dangers to rescue it from Destruction breaking open Pipes and Conduits for Water reaching Buckets as nimbly as any of the common people clearing the Streets of the Crouds that hindred the people from carrying away their goods appointing his servants and Guards to conduct them to secure places and in fine for several nights and days with unwearied industry appearing in all parts giving necessary orders to prevent the farther spreading of the Conflagration In requital of which his never to be forgotten Pains and diligence for the suppressing of those Flames some ungrateful and audacious Villains have impudently dared to calumniate him as the Author of that dreadful Fire than which Hell it self cannot forge a falser or blacker Lye In the year 1672 he again in a second War against the Vnited Netherlands commanded the whole English Fleet behaving himself with such gallantry that notwithstanding the many notable disadvantages of wind and tide being at Anchor when set upon and the succeeding Mist he after a long and fierce encounter put the Dutch to flight though with exceeding great peril of his Life having in the heat or the engagement when Refitting would have lost the benefit of his Orders and Action changed Ships oftner than great Generals at Land have done their Horses Insomuch that De Ruiter himself acknowledged His Royal Highness to exceed all the Admirals in Christendom as much by His Bravery as by His Birth In the Year 1678. after the discovery of the Popish Plot some Sons of Belial that they might more freely vent their malice against the Royal Family impudently and falsly calumniated his Royal Highness not only as having publickly profest the Romish Religion which yet is so palpable an Untruth that it needs no Confutation but also though in direct contradiction to the depositions of Oates and Bedlow the chief discoverers the last whereof even at his death acquitted him as the Author of the Plot which yet he was so earnest to have sifted to the Bottom that as the Earl of Danby in his Printed Case tells us It had never been brought upon the Stage but for the Dukes Importunity Yet were these Surmises how ridiculous and groundless soever so cunningly by seditious Boutefeus insinuated into the belief of the giddy Multitude that his Majesty at whom these envenomed Arrows tho seemingly shot at his Brother were directly aimed thought it convenient Because he would not leave the most malicious men room to say he had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence him towards Popish Counsels and that he might thereby discern whether Protestant Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom were as truly aimed at by others as they were really intended by himself to deprive himself of the Conversation of his Royal Highness by commanding him to depart the Kingdom To which Command the Duke paying an entire submission and obedience on the third of March 1679. took leave of his Majesty and after a short visit to his Daughter the Princess of Orange in Holland retired with his Family to Bruxels in Flanders Thence his Royal Highness having about the latter end of August following received the unwelcome News that the King his Brother was seized with a fit of sickness hastned over to Windsor to visit him protesting that altho his Loyalty and Fraternal Affection had obliged him to perform this Duty he was ready upon his Majesties first Command not only to return into Flanders but to go to the farthest part of the Earth On the Seventeenth of September He came with His Majesty by the infinite mercy of Heaven recovered from His sickness to London and on the Twenty-eighth of the same Month departed again for Flanders whence returning about the middle of October He took his journey by order of the King on the first of November for Scotland where by his prudent Conduct being by His Majesty constituted High Commissioner of that Kingdom He quieted the dangerous Commotions raised therein by certain furious and factious Zealots and restored it to full peace and Tranquillity Coming into England about the latter end of March 1682 He was by His Majesty then at Newmarket received with the greatest Testimonies of affection imaginable Returning again about the middle of May by Sea towards Scotland to fetch thence his Dutches He was by the singular Providence of Almighty GOD delivered from eminent danger of drowning The Glocester a Third Rate Fregate whereon he was imbarkt by the negligence of the Pilot striking on the sands and sinking under Him His Plate and whatever else was abord being lost several Persons of Quality who accompanied him and of his Servants and Seamen about two hundred Persons whose unparalleld affection and generous Loyalty when there was no hope of safety for themselves with shouts of joy gave thanks to Heaven for the preservation of His Royal Highness being swallowed up by the Waves So sensible were all the Loyal Engglish of the great damage that would have befallen these Kingdoms by the loss of so Heroick a Prince that several parts of this Nation have in their Addresses to the King since the return of their Royal Highnesses not only congratulated the happy deliverance of his only Brother but have also humbly supplicated their Soveraign that he would no more permit him who is next after his sacred Majesty their chief hope and comfort to be separated from his Royal Presence His Royal Highness had for His first VVife ANN eldest Daughter to Edward Late Earl of Clarendon and Lord High Chancellor of England She Dyed at St. Jameses on the one and Thiriteth of April 1671. having made him Father of a numerous Issue whereof are living 1. MARY Born the Thirtieth of April 1662 whose God-Father was Prince Rupert and God-Mothers the Dutchesses of Buckingham and Ormond On the fourth of November 1677. She was by Dr. Henry Compton Bishop of London and Brother to James late Earl of Northampton married to William of Nassaw Prince of Orange 2. ANNE born in February 1664 whose God-Father was Dr. Gilbert Sheldon late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury her God-Mothers being her Sister the young Lady Mary and the Dutches of Monmouth In November 1673 His Royal Highness was by Dr. Nathanael Crew Bishop of Durham and Son to John Lord Crew secondly married to JOSEPHA-MARIA d'Este Daughter of Alphonso the IIId late and Sister to Francis present Duke of Modena her Mother being Laura Martinozza the present Dutchess Dowager By her he hath had several Children of which is living one only Daughter named CHARLOTTA