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A40878
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A trve relation of that memorable Parliament which wrought wonders begun at Westminster, in the tenth yeare of the reigne of K. Richard the second : whereunto is added an abstract of those memorable matters, before and since the said kings reigne, done by Parliament : together with a character of the said amiable, but unhappy King, and a briefe story of his life and lamentable death.; Historia sive narracio de modo et forma mirabilis Parliamenti apud Westmonasterium anno Domini millesimo CCCLXXXVI. English
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Fannant, Thomas.
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1641
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Wing F416; ESTC R592
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22,223
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53
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RICHARDUS II ANGLIAE ET FRANCIAE REX DOMINUS HIBERNIAE ETC. The true pourtraieture of Richard the 2. King of England and France Lord of Ireland and Prince of Chester he raigned 22 yeres was deposed and murther'd at Pomfraict Cast at the age of 33 yeares Buried first at Langley and 14 yeares after by K Henry the â—th 〈◊〉 to Westminster and their was honourably interred A TRVE RELATION OF THAT MEMORABLE PARLIAMENT which wrought Wonders Begun at Westminster in the tenth yeare of the Reigne of K. RICHARD the second Whereunto is added an Abstract of those Memorable matters before and since the said Kings Reigne done by Parliaments TOGETHER With a Character of the said amiable but unhappy King and a briefe Story of his Life and lamentable Death Printed in the Yeare 1641. AN HISTOIRCAL NARRATION of that Memorable Parliament begun at Westminster 1386 in the tenth year of the Reigne of King RICHARD the Second THis present occasion so opportunely be fitting me I am resolved to treat of that which hath beene omitted and slipped out of memory long since concerning divers and sundry changes and alterations in England in former times Nor will it be any way burthensome to write of that whereby every good and carefull Reader may learne to avoid diversities of miseries and the danger and feare of cruell death I will therefore speake of that which hath laine hid in the darksome shade of forgetfulnesse concerning men who have been led away by the deceitfull path of Covetousnesse and have come to a most shamefull and ignominious death a famous example to deter all men from practising those or the like courses ABout the yeere of Christ 1386 at such time as Richard the second of that name then in prime of his youth swayed the Imperiall Scepter of our Realme there flourished famous in his Court certain Peeres though some of them not of any honourable descent yet favoured by fortune by name Alexander Nevill Archbishop of Yorke Robert Vere D. of Ireland Michael de la Pool Earle of Suffolk then Lord Chancelor Robert Tresilian Lord Chiefe Justice of England and Nicholas Brambre sometimes Major of London These men being raised from meane estates by the speciall favour of the King and advanced to the degree of Privie Counsellors were the men who had the onely rule of the Common-wealth which they under the King governed for some small space with careful diligence meriting thereby deserved commendations But not long did they thus steere the Ship of the Kingdome for many of them being of inferiour ranke by birth not having their veines dignified with the streams of noble blood they were the sooner enticed with the libidinous baits of voluptuousnesse and infected with insatiable itch of avarice insomuch that despising the authority of the King and neglecting the commoditie of the Realme but onely desiring to keepe up the Revenues of the Kingdome so wrought that by their policie the King is impoverished the Treasure exhausted the Commons murmure at the multiplicity of Tenths Levies and Subsidies the Peeres repine to see themselves disgraced and their inferiors honoured and in a word the whole Kingdome endures an universall miserie The nobility seeing the miserable estate wherein the Kingdome lay bleeding as it were to death urged their King to summon a Parliament which was done shortly after In which amongst many other acts the afore-named Michaell de la Poole is dismist of his Chancelourship and being accused of divers and many points of injustice as briberie Extortion and the like he was sone after cast into the Castle of Windsor and all his Lands which were of no small Revenue were confiscated to the King Neither did the Parliament here give over but provided further for the whole state by the mutuall consent of the King and Prelates Barons and Commons with an unanimous conjunction they constitute and give plenarie and absolute power to certain Commissioners as well of the Spiritualty as of the Temporalty for the ordering and disposing of the publique affaires according as shall seeme best and most necessary for the desperate estate of the Commonwealth to depresse civill dissentions and to pacifie and appease the grudgings of the people Of the Spiritualty were chosen the Arch Bishop of Canterbury the afore-named Bishop of Yorke the Bishop of Ely lately made Chancelor of England the Bishop of Winchester Bishop of Hereford Lord Treasurer Bishop of Exeter Abbot of Waleham and the Lord John of Waltham Of the Layty were elected the Duke of Yorke the Earle of Arundel the Lord Coltham the Lord scroope and John Devoureux Knight these as men eminent in vertue were chosen by the generall Suffrage and sworne to carry themselves as dutifull and obedient subjects in all their actions And it was further enacted That if any should refuse or disobey the Ordinances so made for publique good the punishment of his first offence should be the confiscation of his goods and for the second the losse of life Thus disposing all things for the best the Parliament being dissolved every man returned to his own house Soone after the afore-named Chancelor with others of their Confederates being moved with implacable fury against the Statute of the late Parliament they buzzed into the Kings eares That the Statutes lately enacted were very prejudiciall to the honour of his Crowne and much derogatory to his Princely Prerogative insomuch that he should not have power without the consent of the new appointed Commissioners to doe any thing befitting a King no not so much as to bestow a Largesse a principal means to gain the peoples love upon any though never so well deserving By these and other the like impious instigations with which the Devil as never unmindfull of the end of those who by their lives doe prove themselves did continually supply them they practised to annihilate and disanull these Acts of the Parliament which seemed any wayes to abbreviate or curbe their usurped authority And first by their serpentine tongues ambitious projects flattery painted out with glosing discourses and covered over with the shadow of vigilancie for the good of the Kingdome they so bewitched the Noble inclination of the youthfull King whom they induced to beleeve that all the ill they did was a generall good that hee began to distaste and at last to abhorre the last passed Acts as treacherous Plots and most wicked Devices Next they studied how to ingrosse all or the most part of the Wealth and Riches of the Kingdome into their owne Coffers and to the same end dealt so cunningly yet pleasingly with the King that hee gave to the D. of Ireland John of Bloys the Heire of the Duchie of Britaine and his Ransome to others Townes to others Cities to others Lands to others Mony amounting to the summe of 100000 Marks to the great impoverishment both of King and Kingdome Neither did these King-eaters and Realme-devourers any thing regard it but setting unskilfull and insufficient Captaines and
Saham three thousand markes Robert Lithbury Master of the Râ—lls one thousand markes Roger Leicester one thousand markes Henry Bray Escheater and Judge for the Jewes one thousand markes But Sir Adam Stratton chiefe Baron of the Exchequer was fined in foure and thirty thousand markes These fines as the Rate of money goes now amount to neere three hundred thousand markes a mighty treasure to be gotten out of the hands of so few men which how they could a masse in those dayes when litigation and Law had not spred it selfe into those infiuit wreathings of contention as since it hath may seeme strange even to our greater-getting times In the Parliament Anno 2. of Edward the third held at Nottingham that great aspirer Mortimer was accused and condemned and sent up to London and drawne and hanged at the Common Gallowes at the Elmes now called Tiburne In the 50. yeare of the raigne of Edward the third Anno Dom. 1376 was held a Parliament at Westminster which was called the great Parliament where were divers complaints exhibited by the Parliament charging the Kings Officers with Fraud and humbly craving that the Duke of Lancaster the Lord Latimer then Lord Chamberlaine Dame Alice Peirce the Kings Concubine and one Sir Richard Sturry might be removed from Court their complaints desires are so vehemently urged by their Speaker Sir Peter la Moore that all these persons were presently put from Court By Parliaments all the wholesome fundamentall Lawes of this Land were and are established and confirmed By Act of Parliament the Popes power and Supremacie and all superstition and Idolatry and abrogated abolished and banished out of this Land By Act of Parliament Gods true Religion worship and service are maintained and established By Act of Parliament the two famous Vniversities of Cambridge and Oxford have many wholesome and helpfull Immunities By Parliament one Pierce Gaveston a great favorite and notable misleader of K. Edw. 2. was removed banished and afterwards by the Lords executed So were Hugh Spencer the Father and Hugh the Sonne By Parliament Empson and Dudley two notorious polers of the Common-wealth by exacting penall Lawes on the subjects were discovered and afterwards executed By Parliament the damnable Gun-pouder Treason hatched in Hell is recorded to bee had in eternall Infamie By Parliament one Sir Giles Mompesson a Moderne Caterpiller and poler of the Common-wealth by exacting upon Inholders c. was discovered degraded from Knighthood and banished by Proclamation By Parliament Sir Francis Bacon made by King James Baron Veralam and Viscount St. Albanes and Lord Chancellor of England very grievous to the Common-wealth by bribery was discovered and displaced By Parliament Sir John Bennit Judge of the Prerogative Court pernicious to the Commonwealth in his place was discovered and displaced By Parliament Lyonell Cranfield sometimes a Merchant of London made by K. James Earle of Middlesex and Lord Treasurer of England hurtfull in his place to the Common-wealth was discovered and displaced By Parliament one Sir Francis Mitchell a jolly Justice of Peace for Middlesex in the Suburbes of London another notable Canker-worme of the Common-wealth by corruption in exacting the penall Lawes upon poore Alehouse-keepers and Victuallers c. was discovered degraded from Knighthood and utterly disabled for being Iustice of Peace By Parliament Spaines late fraud was discovered and by Act the two Treaties with that perfidious Nation for the match of the Prince our now gracious King and restitution of the Palatinate were dissolved and annihilated both which had cost the King and his Subjects much monie and much blood We may remember that that sage Counceller of State Sir William Cecill Lord Burleigh and Lord Treasurer of England was ofttimes heard to say Hee knew not what an Act of Parliament might not doe which sage saying was approved by King James and by his Majestie alleaged in one of his published speeches Which being so now the face of Christendome being at this present so torne and miserably 〈◊〉 and the Christian World distracted the Gospell in all places almost persecuted both Church Common-wealth where the Gospell is professed in all places beyond the Seas lying a bleeding as we may say and we our selves at home not without feare and danger To conclude what good may we not hope and pray for by this present and other ensuing Parliaments the onely meanes to rectifie and remedy matters in Church and Common-wealth much amisse The Character RIchard Son of the valiant and vidorious Edward the blacke Prince was borne at Burdeaux and grand-child to King Edward the third being â—1 yeeres old began his Reigne the 21. day of June in the yeare of our Lord 1377. and was crowned King at Westminster the 16. of July In beauty bounty and liberality he â—aâ—re passed all his Progenitors but was overmuch given to ease and quietnesse little regarding Military matters of Armes and being young was most ruled by youâ—g Counsell regarding little the Counsell of the sage wise men of the Realmâ— which thing turned this Land to great trouble and himselfe to extreame misery For being first disgraced by his Cousin Henry of Bullingbroke Duke of Hereford son of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster he was at length by him with the generall consent of the whole Parliament deposed from his Crown and Kingdome the 29. of September 1399. and committed to prison and afterwards wickedly murdered For being sent to Pomfret Castle to be safely kept and Princely maintained he was shortly after by King Henries direction and commandment who feared lest his estate might be shaken whiles King Richard liv'd wickedly assaulted in his lodging by Sir Piers of Exton and 8. other armed men from one of which with a Princely courage he wrested a â—rown Bill and therewith slew 4. of them fought with all the rest untill comming by his owne Chaire in which the base cowardly Knight himselfe stood for his owne safety he was by him stricken with a Pole-Axe in the hinder part of his head that presently hee fell downe and dyed when he had raigned 22. yeares 14 weekes and 2 dayes More Memorable things done by Parliaments BY Parliament Richard Montague since made Bishop of Chichester and now Bishop of Norwich his pernicious Booke entituled Apello Caesarem First confuted by Doctor Carlton then B. of Chichester and divers other Reverend Orthodox Divines was displayed and by Proclamation dated 1628. the booke was called in and prohibited and he the said Montague was discovered to be a notable unorthodox man c. By Parliament Roger Manwayring D. of Divinity Parson of St. Giles in the Fields and the Kings Chaplaine was discovered to be an unorthodox man and brought on his knees to the Bar of the Honourable House of Parliament and the booke of his two seditious Printed Sermons against Parliaments entituled Religion and Allegeance was by Proclamation called in and prohibited and he the said Manwayring was censured and deprived of his Livings not to come neere the Court nor to exercise or use any Ministeriall Office c. But notwithstanding soone after the fatall dissolution of that Parliament 1629. He the said Manwayring by the power of a little great Prelate was not onely restored to his former Livings but soone after hee was preferred and made Deane of Worcester afterwards a Bishop and is now Bishop of St. Davids the first Bishoprick in Wales And in as much as so many Memorable things have bin done by Parliaments somewhereof in former Times have indeed done no lesse than write Wonders for Reformation of Corruptions and Grievances exemplary Executions in the State and Common-wealth And seeing th'other day viz. 22. of February there was that correspondence and happy agreement betwixt his sacred Majesty and both the houses of Parliament now sitting which made the Evening of that Day crowned with Bone-fires and Bells-ringing for joy Let us not cease to pray and beseech the Lord of Hosts still so to unite the heart of the Kings Majesty to the Parliament his great Counsell that the Upper and Lower Houses may unanimously agree and be reciprocally united to the Kings that many matters now much amisse in Church and Common-wealth may be reformed and this Yeare may be accounted Annus Aureus and that this present Parliament begun this Yeare may be inscribed and engraven in Marble and in Letters of Gold By Parliament the Earle of Strafford Deputy of Ireland grievous to the Common-wealth was discovered and after an Honourable Tryaâ—l was attainted of high Treason for which hee suffered death May the twelfth 1641. SACRED TO MEMORY POSTERITY THE LONG EXPECTED HAPPY PARLIAMENT Begun MDC.XL Ended and made a Session Vivat Rex Floreat Regnum Bene valeat Parliamentum Hallelujah FINIS