Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	earl_n	lord_n	sir_n	21,670	5	6.9416	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67903	The five years of King Iames, or, The condition of the state of England, and the relation it had to other provinces. Written by Sr Foulk Grevill, late Lord Brook.; Five years of King James.	Greville, Fulke, Baron Brooke, 1554-1628.; Wilson, Arthur, 1595-1652, attributed name.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2887; ESTC R12332	56,301	91

in mortall feare A countenance pale a body leane deform'd with griefe I beare From all parts of the earth they brought me gold without constraint But now no gold nor precious stones nor friends can ease my plaint So variable Fortune is so nice to great attempts So subject and so doubtfull too so adverse in events That Atis with our name doth play as with a tennis ball For being lifted up with fame the greater is our fall Let this example be to such whom Fortune doth advan●e That they as I by Popedome fell may fall by like mischance For we cannot reade of any that ever was so great a Favourite as Somerset neither the Spencers with Edward the second nor the Earle of Warwick with Henry the sixth nor the Duke of Suffolke with Henry the eighth as this man was with the King neither was there any that ever came to so sodaine and unexpected a fall They therefore that do but rightly consider this Discourse shall find in it three things worthy observation First that neither honour nor wealth are any certaine inheritance but occasions unlesse God be mercifull unto us for the devill to pick a quarrell against us to bring us to infamie Secondly that God neuer leaves murther though never so closely carried unpunished Lastly that there was never knowne in so short a time so many great men dye with suspition of poyson and witchcraft viz. First my Lord Treasurer the Prince my Lord Harrington his sonne Overbury Northampton besides these which are no lesse then six other within three yeares and an halfe and the two Monsons which yet remaine untryed Sir Francis Bacon his Speech at the Arraignment of the Earle of Somerset IT may please your Grace my Lord High Steward of England and you my Lords the Peeres you have here before you Robert Earle to be tryed for his life concerning the procuring and consenting to the impoysonment of Sir Thomas Overbury then the Kings Prisoner in the Tower of London as an Accessary before the Fact I know your hopes connot behold this Noble man but you must remember the great favours which the King hath conferred on him and must be sensible that he is yet a member of your body and a Peere as you are so that you cannot cut him off from your body but with griefe and therefore you will expect from us that give in the Kings Evidence sound and sufficient matter of proofe to satisfie your Honours and consciences As for the manner o● the Evidence the King our Master who amongst other his vertues excelleth in that vertue of the Imperial Throne which is Justice hath given us command that wee should not expatiate nor make invectives but materially pursue the Evidence as it conduceth to the point in question A matter that though we are glad of so good a warrant yet we should have done of our selves for far be it from us by any strains or wit of Arts to seeke to play prizes or to bl●son our names in bloud or to carry the day otherwise then upon sure grounds wee shall carry the Lanthorne of Justice which is the Evidence before your eyes upright and to be able to salve it from being put out with any grounds of evasion or vaine defences that is our parts and within that we shall containe our selves not doubting at all but that the Evidence it selfe will carry that force as it shall need no advantage or aggravation First my Lords the course that I will hold in delivering of that which I shall say for I love order is this First I will speak somewhat of the nature and greatnesse of the offence which is now to be tryed not to weigh downe my Lord with the greatnesse of i● but rather contrariwise to shew that a great offence needs a good proofe And that the King howsoever he might esteeme this Gentleman heretofore as the Signet upon his finger to use the Scripture phrase yet in s●ch a case as this he was to put him off Secondly I will use some few words touching the nature of the proofes which in such a case are competent Thirdly I will state the proofes And lastly I will produce the proofes either out of examination and matters of writing or witnesses viva voce For the offence it selfe it is of crimes next unto high Treason the greatest it is the foulest of Felonies It hath three degrees of stages First it is murther by impoysonment Secondly it is murther committed upon the Kings prisoner in the Tower Thirdly I might say that it is murther under the colour of Friendship but that it is a circumstance morall and therefore I leave that to the Evidence it selfe For murther my Lords the first record of Justice which was in the world was judgement upon a murtherer in the person of Adams first borne Ca●●e and though it was not punished by death but with banishment and marke of ignominy in respect of the primogenitors or the population of the world yet there was a severe charge given that it should not go unpunished So it appeareth likewise in Scripture that the murther or Abner by Ioah though it were by David respited in respect of great services past or reason of State yet it was not forgotten But of this I will say no more because I will not discourse it was ever admitted and rancked in Gods owne Tables that murther is of offences betweene man and man next unto high Treason and disobedience to Authority which sometimes have been referred to the first Table because of the Lieutenancie of God in Princes the greatest For impoysonment I am sorry it should be heard of in our Kingdome It is not nostri generis nec sanguinis peccatum It is an Italian com●it for the Court of Rome where that person that intoxicateth the Kings of the earth is many times really and materially intoxicated and impoysoned himselfe But it hath three circumstances which makes it grievous beyond other matters The first is that it takes a man away in full peace in Gods and the Kings peace that thinks no harme but is comforting of nature with resection and food so that as the Scripture saith His table is made a snare The second is that it is easily committed and easily concealed and on the other side ha●dly prevented and hardly discovered for murther by violence Princes have Guards and private men have houses attendants and armes neither can such murther be committed but cum sonitu with some overt and apparant acts that may discover and trace the offenders but for poyson the cup it selfe of Princes wil scarse serve in regard of many poisons that neither discolour nor distaste It comes upon a man when he is carelesse and without respect and every day a man is within the gates of death And the last is because it concerneth not onely the destruction of the maliced man but of every man quis modo tutu● erit for many times the poyson is prepared for one and is

THE FIVE YEARES OF KING IAMES OR The Condition of the State of England and the Relation it had to other PROVINCES Written by Sr FOULK GREVILL late Lord Brook LONDON Printed for W. R. in the yeare 1643. The five yeares of King Iames or the Condition of the State of ENGLAND and the Relation it had to other Provinces HOwsoever every Kingdome and Common-wealth may be both well and uprightly governed and that good men may be the meanes to support it yet there can be no such Common-wealth but amongst the good there will be even some evill persons these whether by nature induced or through envie and ambition to the intent to satisfie their appetites perswaded doe oftentimes enter into actions repugnant unto the felicity of good Government and Common-wealths and by evill causers and perverse deeds doe secretly and underhand seeke to hasten and set forward the ruine and decay of the same These things because they happen contrary and beyond expectation are so much the more remarkable by how much they are suddaine and unexpected And from hence it cometh that no state of government can be said to be permanent but that oftentimes those are said to be good are by little and little converted unto those that be evill and oftentimes changed from worse to worse till they come to utter desolation Neither is this alone proper to our Common-wealth but to all nor to forraigne Kingdomes but to our owne for although His Majesty at His coming to the Crowne found us vexed with many defensive warres as that in Ireland that in the Low-countries and almost publique against Spaine auxiliarie in France and continually in millitarie imployments although he found it lacerate and torne with divers factions of Protestants Papists and others from amongst whom sprung some evill men that endeavoured to set into combustion the whole State yet neverthelesse he established a peace both honourable and profitable with all neighbour Princes and by relation through all Europe so that neither our friends nor our enemies might be either feared or suspected After this generall peace was concluded and the working heads of divers dangerous Papists were confin'd to a certaine course of life that is peace they now petition for ●olleration for releases of vexation to have liberty of conscience and forsooth because they cannot have these things amongst them they contrive a most horrible and devillish plot by gun-powder to blow up the Parliament even the whole State and command of this Kingdome and so at one puffe to conclude all this peace and by that meanes to procure an unruly and unseemly avarice of this setled government and this not so much to establish their owne Religion for which purpose they pretended it but to establish their owne power and preheminence and to raise some private Families to greatnesse and dignitie that so faction being nourished and that jurisdiction established they might with great facility suppresse whom they please and support their owne State Thus may wee see that setled governments doe cherish in themselves their owne destructions and their own subjects are oftentimes cause of their owne ruine unlesse God of his mercy prevent it Of the domestick affaires and of the lascivious course of such on whom the King had bestowed the honour of Knighthood THis evill being discovered by the Lord Mounteagle and overpassed divers discontents happened some betweene the Civilians and Common Lawyers concerning Prohibitions And for that there was one Doctor Cowell stood stifly against the Lord Cooke divers discontents were nourished betweene the Gentry and Commonaltie concerning Inclosure and it grew out into a petty Rebellion which by the same was conjectured not to happen so much for the thing it selfe as for to find how the people stood affected to the present State whereby divers private quarrells and secret combustions were dayly breaking out private families one sided against another and of these Protestants against Papists they thereby endavouring to get a head and from small beginnings to raise greater Rebellions and discontents shewed themselves heady and speakes publickly what durst not heretofore have beene spoken in corners in outward appearance Papists were favoured Masses almost publickly administred Protestants discountenanced dishonest men honoured those that were little lesse then Sorcerers and Witches preferred private quarrells nourished but especially betweene the Scottish and the English Duells in every secret maintained divers sects of vitious persons of particular Titles passe unpunished or unregarded as the sect of Roaring-boyes Boneventors Bravadors Guarterers and such like being persons prodigall and of great expence who having run themselves in debt were constrained to run into faction to defend them from danger of the Law these received maintenance from divers of the Nobility and not a little as was suspected from the Earle of Northampton which persons though of themselves they were not able to attempt any enterprize yet faith honesty and other good Arts being now little set by and Citizens through lasciviousnesse consuming their estates it was likely their number would rather increase then diminish And under these pretences they entered into many desperate enterprises and scarce any durst walke the streets with safety after nine at night So to conclude in outward shew there appeared no certaine affection no certaine obedience no certaine government amongst us Such persons on whom the King had bestowed particular honours either through pride of that or their owne prodigality lived at high rates and with their greatnesse brought in excesse of riot both in clothes and dyet So our ancient customes were abandoned and that strictnesse and severity that had wont to be amongst us the English scorned and contemned every one applauding strange or new things though never so costly and for the attaining o● them neither sparing purse nor credit that prices of all sorts of commodities are raysed and those ancient Gentlemen who had left their Inheritance whole and well furnished with goods and chattells having thereof kept good houses unto their sonnes lived to see part consumed in ryot and excesse and the rest in possibilitie to be utterly lost The holy estate of Matrimony most perfidiously broken and amongst many made but a may-game by which meanes divers private families hath beene subverted brothell-houses in abundance tollerated and even great persons prostituting their bodies to the intent to satisfie their appetites and consume their substance repairing to the City and to the intent to consume their virtues also lived dissolute lives And many of their Ladies and Daughters to the intent to maintaine themselves according to their dignities prostitute their bodies in shamefull manner ale-houses dy●ing-houses taverns and places of vice and iniquity beyond measure abounding in many places there being as much extortion for sinne as there is racking for Rents and as many wayes to spend money as are windings and turnings in townes and streets so that to outward appearance the evill seeme to over top the good and evill intentions and councells rather