to do it Yet this Adventure must be run because Buckingham would have it so so pur-blind nay stark-blind does Poverty and Covetousness make Man's Understanding and Reason But that we may take all before us let 's see in what Esteem King James was with the Spaniards which might encourage him to pursue this Adventure In their Comedies in Flanders they imitated Messengers bringing News in haste that the Palatinate was likely to have a numerous Army shortly on foot For the King of Denmark would shortly furnish them with a thousand Pickled-Herrings the Hollanders with one hundred thousand Butter-Boxes and England with one hundred thousand Ambassadors They pictured King James in one place with a Scabbard without a Sword in another with a Sword which no body could draw out tho divers Persons stood pulling at it In Brussels they painted him with his Pockets hanging out and not one Penny in them and his Purse turned upside down In Antwerp they pictured the Queen of Bohemia like a poor Irish Mantler with her Hair hanging about her Ears with her Child at her Back and the King James carrying the Cradle after her and every one of the Pictures had several Motto's expressing their Malice Such Scorns and Contempts were put upon the King James and in him the whole Nation See the Preface to the History of the first 14 Years of the Reign of King James and Wilson fol. 192. But tho Buckingham pursued this Match with such Eagerness yet when it came to his Management in Spain where the King's Proclamations forbidding Men to talk of State-Affairs had no effect he proceeded wrong in every step of it and to gratify his Ambition and Personal Disgusts was the first and principal Instrument to break it off but that we may not insist upon Generals 1. The Prince's coming to Spain and thereby putting himself into the King of Spain's Power brake all the Earl of Bristol's Measures whereupon the Negotiation and all the Particulars of the Marriage was settled and the Negotiation was put into a new Form See Rushw Collect. fol. 286. Objection This was but a Charge by the Earl of Bristol against the Duke who prosecuted the Earl of High Misdemeanors and therefore no Proof against the Duke Answer Yet the Honour of so great a Statesman and faithful a Counsellor as the Earl was who had so honourably served the King in seven foreign Embassies and had by the Expence of 10000 l. saved Heidelburg from falling into the Hands of the Spaniard and having upon the Dissolution of the last Parliament given the King 500 l. upon the Benevolence and never received a Check from the King in all his Negotiations but always honourable Testimonies from him for his faithful Services before Buckingham broke in upon him may go a great way But it seems to me to be a clear Proof upon Buckingham for Bristol twice answered Articles preferred against him without any Reply whereas rather than Buckingham should answer Bristol's Charge King Charles dissolved his second Parliament 2. Buckingham had not learned the Verse which is taught to every School-boy Quum fueris Romae Romano vivito more for being French bred he appeared in a French Garb most hateful to the Spaniards and by his Familiarity with the Prince he seemed rather the Prince's Guardian and Companion than Follower which disrelished the Court of Spain and the Spaniards in general who are grave sober and wary 3. He by contrary Methods opposed all the Earl of Bristol's Methods nay fell at odds with him tho without Comparison he was the ablest Statesman in all King James his Councils 4. Whereas all other Ambassadors and Statesmen in all great Affairs make their Court to the King's Council and prime Ministers of State to attain their Ends Buckingham fell at open Defiance with Olivares prime Minister of State in Spain and 't was generally said made his Court to the Countess which she acquainted her Husband with and instead of the Countess put a tainted Whore to Bed with him 5. The Earl of Bristol in the 9th Article of his Charge against him shews what a Scandal Buckingham gave by his Personal Behaviour in Spain and also employing his Power with the King of Spain for procuring Favours and Offices which he bestowed upon base and unworthy Persons for the Recompence and Hire of his Lust These things as fit neither for the Earl of Bristol to speak nor the Lords to hear he left to their Lordships Wisdom how far they please to have them examined It having been a great Infamy to this Nation that a Person of the Duke 's great Quality and Employments a Privy-Counsellor and Ambassador eminent in his Majesty's Favour and solely in Trust with the Prince should leave behind him in a Foreign Court so much Scandal as he did by his ill Behaviour 6. The Earl of Bristol's sixth Article against Buckingham is That his Behaviour in Spain was such that he thereby so incensed the King of Spain and his Ministers that they would admit of no Reconciliation nor farther Dealings with him Whereupon he seeing the said Match would be to his Prejudice he endeavoured to break it not for any Service to the Kingdom nor of the Match it self nor for that he had found as since he pretended the Spaniards did not really intend the said Match but out of his particular Ends and Indignation And the 7th Article says 7. That after he intended to cross the said Match he put in practice divers undue Courses as making use of the Prince's Letters to his own Ends and not as they were intended as likewise of concealing things of high Importance to the King James and thereby to overthrow the King's Purposes and advance his own Ends. Nor had my Lord Keeper Williams any better luck in this Adventure of Buckingham's than the Earl of Bristol or Olivares for tho the Prince's going into Spain was concealed from the Keeper as well as Council yet after the Duke was gone the Keeper's Letters followed him to Madrid wherein the Keeper advised him to be circumspect in all his Actions that no Offence might be taken at any of them by the King and Ministers of Spain and to be advised by the Earl of Bristol not only as a most able Statesman but above all others the most experienced in the Manners of the Spaniards and Court of Spain but this Buckingham took as ill Manners in the Keeper and was an occasion of his quarrelling with him as you may read in the Life of the Lord Keeper written by the Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry But neither the danger of the Prince in Spain nor the cross-grain'd going of the Match any way abated the King's Favour to his beloved Scholar and Disciple Buckingham but he sent after him the Patent of being created a Duke there being not another of England So that now he is become Duke Marquess and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villiers Baron of Whaddon Great Admiral of
Treasurers to receive the Money and a Council of War to disburse the same But the Commons having granted these Subsidies drew up a Petition against the Licence the Popish Party had taken during the Treaty with Spain He was so nettled at it that he called it a Stinging One and hearing the Commons were entring upon Grievances he could not endure it and upon the 29th of May adjourned the Parliament to the 2d of November 1624 and from thence to the 7th of April lest the King should hear of another stinging Petition or a Disturbance in the French Treaty but at this Adjournment he told them at their next Meeting they might handle Grievances so as they did not hunt after them nor present any but those of Importance yet I do not find the Parliament ever met again at least never did any thing However the King passed a General Pardon and the Parliament censured Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for Corruption in his Office 50000 l. to the King and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's Pleasure which was but three days after the Adjournment of the Parliament for upon the first of June he was set free Whilst these things were doing in Parliament the Earl of Bristol was recalled from his Embassy but before his Arrival the Duke dealt by all means that the Earl might be committed to the Tower before he should be admitted to the King's Presence But fearing the Marquiss Hamilton and my Lord Chamberlain would oppose him herein the Duke pressed them that they would concur in it vowing as Somerset did to Sir Thomas Overbury he intended the Earl no hurt but only feared that if he should be admitted to the King's Presence he would cross and disturb the Course of Affairs but neither of these Lords would condescend thereunto This was attested by my Lord Chamberlain before the House of Lords This Deâ—â—gn of the Duke's failing the Duke to terrify the Earl from returning into England writ to him that if he kept not himself where he was in Spain and laid hold of the great Offers which he heard were made unto him the Earl it should be the worse for him At Bourdeaux the Earl heard of the Aspersions cast upon him by the Duke in Parliament of which the Earl did boldly afterward in the House of Lords in the second Parliament of Car. 1. and in the Presence of the Duke affirm That there was scarce any one thing concerning him in the Declaration which was not contrary to or different from Truth From Bourdeaux the Earl took Post to get into England to vindicate himself from the Asperâ—ons which the Duke had cast upon him in Parliament but when he came to Calais tho he sent over to have one of the King's Ships allowed him and for which publick Orders were given and tho the King James had Ships which lay at Boloign which might have every day been with him in three Hours and the Wind fair yet none came tho the Earl waited for one eight Days so that he was forced to pass the Sea to Dover in a Boat and six Oars When the Earl was landed at Dover he was by a Letter from my Lord Conway a Creature of the Duke's commanded in the King's Name to retire to his House and not to come to Court or the King's Presence until he had answered to certain Questions which his Majesty would appoint some of the Council to ask him but this was not out of any ill meaning to him but for fear the Parliament should fall too violently upon him and this the Duke said to some of his Friends was the Reason of the Earl's Restraint Hereupon the Earl humbly petitioned the King he might be exposed to Parliament and that if he had not served the King honestly in all things he deserved no Favour but to be proceeded against with all Severity but received Answer from the King That there should be but few days past before he would put an end to his Affairs but the Parliament was adjourned before the few days passed nor did he ever put an end to them You may read the further Contrivances against him by the Duke in Rushw from fol. 259 to 265. After the Adjournment of the Parliament or if you will the Dissolution of it tho the Earl of Bristol could not obtain Admission into the King's Presence yet he obtained Leave to answer to all the Duke had in his Absence charged upon him in Parliament and withal wrote to the Duke that if he or any Man living was able to make Reply he would submit himself to any thing which should be demanded which tho the Duke presumptuously said That it is not an Assertion to be granted that the Earl of Bristol by his Answer had satisfied the King the Prince or himself of his Innocence yet it so satisfied the King that when the Duke after pressed the King that the Earl might submit and acknowledg his Fault the King answered I were to be accounted a Tyrant to engage an innocent Man to confess Faults of which he was not guilty Tho the Earl said he could prove this upon Oath yet the Duke wrote to him that the Conclusion of all that had been treated with his Majesty was that he the Earl should make the Acknowledgment as was set down in that Paper tho at that time the King sent him word that he would hear him against the Duke as well as he had heard the Duke concerning him and soon after the King died which Promise of the King 's the Earl prayed God did the King no hurt however the Earl obtained Leave of the King to come to London to follow his private Affairs Mr. Rushworth therefore errs a little in point of time where he says fol. 149. the Earl was committed to the Tower in King James his time for he was not committed till the 15th of January 1625. in the first Year of King Charles as you may see in Stow's Life of King Charles fol. 1042. We have now done with the Spanish Match at least during this King's Reign yet the King's Desires of seeing his Son married which he shall never see were as impatient as those of getting the Infanta's huge Portion and to that end before the Meeting of the Parliament and while the Treaty with the Infanta was yet breathing the King sent my Lord Kensington after Earl of Holland to feel the Pulse of the French Court how it beat towards an Alliance between the Prince and Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry IV. of France A serene Heaven appeared in France upon the Motion not a Cloud to be seen in all the French Horizon Lewis the King telling my Lord Kensington he took it for an Honour that he sought his Sister for the sole Son of so Illustrious a King his Neighbour and Ally only he desired he might send to Rome to have the Pope's Consent for the better Satisfaction of his Conscience And now you
See the Life of General Monk p. 23 24. written by his Chaplain Dr. Gumble The Parliament having recruited the Earl of Essex's Army he forced his Passage and relieved Glocester the King's Army retreat to Newbury where it was charged by Essex and worsted and in the Fight the Ornament of the Age the learned and most ingenious Lord Falkland tho weary of his Life and presaging his own Destiny was slain as were the Earls of Sunderland and Carnarven If the King's Army had such bad Success before Glocester my Lord of New-Castle had worse before Hull for lying in a moorish unhealthy place in a sickly season of the Year viz. September and October the whole Army fell into Fluxes and other Distempers so as they were forced to raise the Siege having done nothing considerable in it besides at this time Lyn-Regis in Norfolk a Place near as considerable as Hull was seized by the Gentry of Norfolk and might have been relieved if New-Castle had not been engaged in besieging Hull Tho the English and Scotish Parliament agreed in their Solemn League and Covenant yet so did not Sir John Hotham and his Son with the Preferment of Sir Thomas Fairfax and others in the North so that Sir John Hotham refused to serve under Fairfax Hereupon the Parliament intended to have displaced Hotham which when he heard of both he and his Son treated with the Marquess of New-Castle to deliver Hull to the King and the Parliament suspecting the Design sent Sir Matthew Bromton Sir John's Brother-in-law to seize both Father and Son which Sir John little suspecting till it was too late fled to Beverly where he was seized by his own Soldiers and carried to Hull from whence Sir Matthew sent both Father and Son to London where soon after both lost their Heads When the Parliament sent Commissioners to invite the Scots to come to their Assistance the King sent Letters to disswade them from it urging the manifold Grants he had given to them when he was in Scotland last which compleated all they could ask and their solemn Protestations to be for ever his Majesty's most obedient Subjects See the Act cited by Sir Rich. Baker fol. 514. That it should be detestable Treason in the highest degree for any of the Scots Nation conjunctly or singly to raise Arms or any military Force upon any Cause whatever without the King's Commission But now unprovoked by the King and against his express Command they in open Hostility enter England a second time against him so little Faith or Honour was to be trusted to from these Covenanters for the Scots having made their Market with the King resolve to improve it with the Parliament and besides their Pay or Wages of Iniquity will have the Covenant and Kirk-Government imposed upon the English as well as Scots Nation and tho the King's Letters were signed by 19 Lords the Scots ordered them to be burnt by the common Hangman and in order hereunto General Lesley now Earl of Leven upon the 16th of January enters into England again with an Army of above 20000 Scots The King to add Reputation to his Arms summoned the Members of Parliament which followed him to meet at Oxford upon the 22d of January where they voted the coming of the Scots to be Treason and Rebellion but because they would not come up to the King's Desire in Voting the Members at Westminster to be no Parliament the King in great Displeasure with them and in his Letters to the Queen calls them his mungrel Parliament such was the Kindness the King shewed those Noble Lords and Gentry for sacrificing their Lives and Fortunes for his Service And to oppose the Scots the King makes a Cessation of Arms with the Irish and draws back into England the English which he sent to oppose the Irish but these were every where beaten 1500 of them cast away by Sea and the greatest Body of them commanded by Sir Michael Ernley Major General Gibson Sir Francis Boteler and Colonel Monk who shall unravel all the Parliament and Scots were now weaving were totally routed and dispersed by Sir Thomas Fairfax joining with Sir William Brereton near Nantwich and all these with Colonel Gibs Harmon Sir Ralph Dawns with 14 Captains 26 Ensigns and other inferiour Officers and 1500 common Soldiers taken Prisoners with the loss of their Cannon and Baggage So that as Serjeant Whitlock observes f. 79. a. these Irish never did the King any considerable Service But to sweeten this Prince Rupert at the close of this Year beat Sir John Meldrum a Scot who besieged Newark and his Army surrendred up their Arms Upon which the Parliament-Garisons in Gainsborow Lincoln and Sleford quitted these Places to the King's Forces And here we will end the Year 1643. and take notice how Mr. Serjeant Whitlock f. 64. b. errs in point of Time where he says the Scots passed the Tyne in 1642 under General Lesley to assist the Parliament and f. 67. a. he says the Queen was brought to Bed at Exeter of the Princess Henrietta Maria which for ought appears was before the Queen landed from Holland for she was born the 20th of June 1644. See Sir Baker's Hist f. 434. a. Anno Reg. 20. Dom. 1644. The Wonders which succeeded these two Years in England will better appear if a View be taken of the present Posture of Affairs as they stood in the beginning of this Year England and Scotland are united in one Solemn League and Covenant in January last Lesley or Leven enter'd England with an Army of 18000 Foot and 3500 Horse and Dragoons and soon after the Earl of Calendar enter'd England with an Army of 10000 Scots more these commanded by old and experienced Officers and the English Parliament's Armies were commanded by as brave and resolute Commanders as were to be found in Europe The Fleet wholly at the Parliament's Devotion and so was the City of London So that if you look upon the Superstructure nothing could appear more strong and lasting And all this time you hear little of Oliver Cromwel more than that he was a Captain of Horse and being of a bold and active Spirit secured the Town of Cambridg for the Parliament and was very diligent in obstructing several Levies for the King in Cambridgshire Essex Suffolk and Norfolk For these Services he had a Commission to be a Colonel of Horse and having an insinuating and canting way of preaching and seeming very Godly raised such a Regiment of Horse as was no where to be found the Riders spirited with Zeal to the Cause yet not of the Scots mode and to secure them without Oliver took care to provide them able Horses and to be well arm'd and accoutred so as every one of them beside Sword and Pistol had Pot Back and Breast Musquet-proof He was Nephew to Sir Oliver Cromwel who had a very great Estate but his Father being a younger Brother had not above 300 l. per Annum as was said Their
ratifie and perform the same of that which shall be granted by you and under our Hand and Seal the Confederate Catholicks having by their Supplies testified their Zeal to Our Service And this shall be in each Particular to you a sufficient Warrant Given at Our Courtat Oxford the Twentieth Day of May 20 Car. Glamorgan had brought his Business to some Issue when State-Reasons enforced Ormond and Digby and the Council to imprison him but this gave Distaste to the Irish who thereupon suspected double Dealings and so neither sent over the promised 10000 Men nor any Aid to Westchester tho Glamorgan was quickly released upon the Bail of six or eight Irish Peers The Parliament hereupon was so incensed that they refused either to treat with the King or to admit him to come to London see Baker f. 473. or this Business to end here but rendred all the King 's subsequent Treaties with the Parliament suspected and the end of attaining the King's Propositions more difficult And here you may see how this King would prostitute his Honour and Christianity contrary to what he so often professed not only to the Parliament but also to the Duke of Ormond his own Party Now things every where go to wreck on the King's side Dartmouth was surrendred to Fairfax by Sir Hugh Pollard the Governor Sir William Vaughan with such Forces as he could get together marching to relieve Chester was utterly routed by the Parliament's Forces and Chester surrendred to Sir Will. Brereton Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire the Seat of the Earls of Rutland was surrendred to General Pointz by Sir Gervais Lucas the Governour my Lord Hopton is beaten by Fairfax in Devonshire whereupon Hopton accepted of Terms from Fairfax and disbanded his Army and went into France After which all the Garisons in Cornwal surrendred to Fairfax except Pendennis Castle and St. Michael's Mount Latham-House which the Countess of Derby bravely defended two Years against the Parliament was surrendred in December and Basing-House was taken by Storm And that which compleated the Ruin of all the King's Affairs in England was the Surprize and Defeat of my Lord Astley at Donnington near Stow on the Wold where he was taken Prisoner the 21st of March and when he was a Prisoner he told some of the Parliament Officers You have done your Work and may go play unless you fall out among you selves Anno Reg. 22. An. Dom. 1646. In this desperate State of the King's Affairs in England the King's Expectations in Scotland were much fallen too For after the Defeat of my Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale the Scots had little to do in the North so as General Lesley had leisure to march to Newark with his Foot to join M. G. Pointz who had block'd it up and David Lesley with the Horse to march into Scotland where Montross his Men after he had beaten Gen. Bailey at Philipshaugh being full of Plunder and being a Voluntier Army and not under regular Discipline disbanded in great Numbers and returned home when David Lesley set upon the Remainder and routed them and gave Quarter to the rest whom yet he murdered in cold Blood Here you may see the different Tempers of the English and Scots Nation for you find no such Acts done in England in the Heats of all the War In all the War in Scotland the Marquess of Huntley obstinately refused to join with Montross and after the Defeat of Montross's Foot Montross went in Person to entreat Huntley to join in their common Interest against the Kirk which Huntley not only refused but would not deign to see Montross yet this did Huntley no good for after Montross his Army was disbanded the Kirk-Party cut off his Head so as Montross was forced to retreat into the Highlands and act defensively Exeter upon the 13th of April surrenders to Fairfax which was followed by Barnstable Town and Fort St. Michael's Mount Dunstan Castle Woodstock and other Places of less Note Sir Thomas Glenham having honourably defended York and Carlisle the King thought no other so fit to be Governour of Oxford as he which being block'd up by the Parliament Forces the King thought himself in no Security in it for the Parliament refused to admit him to come to London unless he signed their Propositions Now the French Ambassador in the Scots Quarters advised the King to throw himself into the Scots Power herein you may observe that tho Richlieu were dead yet Mazarine continued the Correspondence between France and Scotland which yet were Pensioners to France This being Hobson's Choice the King only accompanied by one Hudson a Minister and Mr. John Ashburnham throws himself into the Power of the Scots then besieging Newark this was the fifth of May. Thus this poor Prince to avoid his present Condition seeks Protection from those which brought him into it which tho he got nothing by it yet the Scots instead of protecting him shall only make a Bargain and Sale of him for having him in their Power they resolve to make a double Market of him viz. To have him to order Montross to disband his Army and then to retire out of Scotland and then to sell him to the Parliament for so much as they could get that of Montross it was no sooner asked than granted but soon after he was gone the Covenanters seize Huntley and cut off his Head the Parliament too desire the King to give Order for the English Garisons to surrender which he granted so here we end the Wars in England and Scotland between the King and Parliament at present And now you 'll see how the ending of these Wars was the beginning of the Ruin of the Parliament and Scots Covenanters for the Scots having got their Ends by Montross his disbanding his Army yet the Bargain for the Sale of the King being a mighty Matter to the Scots required a longer time and the Scots would not lose one Scotish Pound they could get for him and therefore tho the King put himself into the Power of the Scots the 5th of May 1646 yet the Bargain was not concluded till January following and then the Scots flush of Money return home finding all things in Peace now Montross is gone and the Parliament having bought the King confine him to Holdenby-House a House of the King 's in Northamptonshire under the Guard of a select Company of Covenanters whereof Sir John Cooke Secretary Cooke's Son was one Thus this Prince who before had shifted the worthy Members of Parliament from one Prison to another that they might have no Benefit of their Corpus's and the Constables of Hertfordshire from one Messenger to another is himself shifted from one Place a Prisoner to another without any hope of an Habeas Corpus He that before by his absolute Will and Pleasure would without any Law seize his Subjects Goods and commit them to Prison cannot now enjoy his own Estate in his own House He that before arbitrarily raised Ship-Money
and sure never was there such a Generation who so impudently out-braved Truth and all that may be call'd Sacred If you could force a Belief into them they first told you they fought for King and Parliament then they declared for the King and People against the Parliament and now they have taken off the King if you will have any Benefit of their Protection you must engage to their Government without King or House of Lords and be content with a piece of the Commons call'd the Rump Not content with the Death of the King the Rump proceeds to abolish Monarchy and place the original Power of Government in the People whose Representatives they are if you 'll take their Word and voted it High Treason to restore Monarchy or to assist or pray for Charles Stuart or any of that Line overthrow the King's Statue with an Exit tyrannus Regum ultimus Nor are they satiated with the Blood of the King but erect another High Court of Injustice whereof one Lisle an ignorant Fellow was President who condemns the Marquess Hamilton Earl of Holland and Lord Capel for raising Arms against the Parliament which themselves had destroy'd But tho the Rump and Army were establish'd upon these strange Principles yet being the Instruments of Divine Vengeance like a Torrent broke loose from raging Seas in less than five Years time they overwhelm not only England but Ireland and Scotland almost pull'd the Dutch States up by the Roots and made France and Spain tremble But that we may observe what follow'd let 's see what went before The Scots were the first who invaded England against the King to impose their Solemn League and Covenant which was more against the English Laws and Constitutions than Laud's Service-Books Canons and High-Commission were against the Scotish In July last the Scots invaded England commanded by the Marquess Hamilton in August Cromwel routs and utterly overthrows this Army and takes Hamilton Prisoner So the Scots who began these Wars first are the first chastised by this English Army But this is but the Earnest of what shall follow The secluded Members who first join'd the Scots beginning first with an equivocal Protestation but after downright joined with the Scots in their Covenant are now not only turned out of the House by the Rump but kept in nasty Prisons till they became as little dangerous as The House of Lords The horrid Irish Massacre and Rebellion succeeded in the third place And now the Rump having established themselves by subduing of the Scots under Hamilton and deposing the secluded Members are laying Rods in Piss to scourge these abominable Irish But before we proceed let 's see how things stood in Ireland In October 1641. the Irish Massacre was which succeeded in a Rebellion in which Richlieu's Scarlet was as deep dyed as in the Scotish and English Commotions The Head of this accursed Crew was John Baptista Pennuncio the Pope's Nuncio who in his Passage through France threatned he would suffer no Man to live in Ireland that wished well to the King or to the English Affairs Thus you see how all the Factions conspired against the King the Laws and Constitutions of England But for these last seven Years viz. so long as the Distractions were continued in England the War was pursued but by halves in Ireland King Charles in his Life-time had made the Marquess of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland who in 1643 made a Truce with the Irish that the King might make use of the English in England But the Irish kept their Faith no better in it than the Scots had before with the King in the Peace in 1639. For on a sudden they rise against the Marquess now the English are sent into England and had surprized him if he had not been informed before and escaped into Dublin and being in no Condition to defend it but obliged to deliver it up either to the English sent by the Parliament or to the Irish he gave it up to the English who make Colonel Jones Governour and so Ormond leaves Ireland After the Marquess was withdrawn the Nuncio behaved himself like a Church-Man with such a Despotical Tyranny that he became intolerable even to the Irish themselves who being press'd by Jones Coot and Monk combine in a Body and send to the Queen and to the Prince of Wales for then the King was close Prisoner in the Isle of Wight to return the Marquess of Ormond and they would submit to his Authority and join to expel the Scots and Parliament's Forces The Nuncio taking this for an Affront to his Authority being that of the Apostolick See which is infallible threatens Excommunication to them who should not obey him but neither he nor his Excommunication were obey'd but was forced to Capitulate with the Irish themselves to procure his Departure which was as shameful as his Entrance was proud and insolent Upon the Marquess's Return he enter'd into most dishonourable Articles with the Irish which yet would not please Owen Ro Oneal who join'd with the Parliament's Forces and reliev'd Londonderry then besieg'd by the Lord Ardes After this Pacification with the Irish such as it was Ormond raises a numerous Army and by my Lord Inchiqueen routs a Party of Jones's going to Drogheda who takes the Town and Dundalk Green-Castle Newry and Trim and returns Victorious to the Marquess Hereupon the Marquess besieges Dublin but unfortunately sends my Lord Inchiqueen into Munster with if not the greatest the best part of the Army Jones falls upon the Remainder and utterly routs them This was in August 1649. And the same Month Cromwel lands at Dublin with an Army of 15000 old Soldiers Upon this Disaster the Irish no more to be reconciled to the English than the Scots Covenanters to Episcopacy quarrel with the Marquess which was never after composed So the Marquess left Ireland again leaving the Earl of Clanrickard Deputy Cromwel after his landing first storms Drogheda or Tredah with a most terrible Execution and after in less than one Year all Ireland upon the matter is reduced to the Obedience of the Rump who take dreadful Vengeance upon all the Irish who could be found to have had any hand in the Massacre of the English The King Charles II. having lost England and Ireland with all their Dependencies except the Isles of Guernsey Jersey Man and Scilly and the Plantations in America which shall soon follow set up for Scotland and makes the Marquess of Montross his Commissioner who having got together about 400 Swedes Danes Poles and Germans lands them at the Wick of Cathness in April 1650 and takes Dumbeath But Lesley having sent Major-General Straughan with 300 choice Horse he set upon this ill composed Body of Montross and utterly routs them Montross fled but was betrayed by the Laird of Aston who had formerly served him The Covenanters to shew their Clemency and Humility bind the Marquess in a Chair planted backwards on a Cart that all
Men might see him the Hangman with his Hat on riding before and upon the 28th of May 1650 by a Sentence pronounced the Day before by the Lord Lowden was hanged upon a Gibbet 30 Foot high at the Cross of Edinburg for three Hours after which he was quarter'd and his Head set upon the Talbooth and his Legs and Arms over the Gates of Sterlin Glasgow Dundee and Aberdeen But see the Piety and Commiseration of these humble People They order in the Sentence that if he repented so that his Excommunication should be taken off the Trunk of his Body should be buried in the Grey-Friars otherwise in the Burrough-Moor the Common Burial of Malefactors But Vengeance shall soon overtake these cruel Proceedings For the Kirk sore afflicted for their deposed Brethren in England now in nasty Prisons whereby Heresy Schism and Profaneness raged and the Throne of Presbytery was defaced but being unable of themselves to restore their Brethren before Montross's Death had agreed to have the King proclaimed King of Scotland England France and Ireland yet so as to take the Solemn League and Covenant to give Signs of Sorrow and Repentance for his Father and Mother's Sins and banish and turn out of his Court all who had not taken the Covenant or taken up Arms for his Father But the Kirk could not have found a Plant so unlikely to produce the Fruit of Repentance or to establish the Throne of Presbytery as this King However they 'll try what 's to be done and to this end send Commissioners to treat with the King at Jersey not yet reduced by the Rump and a Treaty is agreed to to be at Breda in Holland The King was perplex'd what to do for to be a King in Fact he desired above all things but to forsake his Mother and Father's Friends was grievous to him and to come to the Stool of Repentance was full sore against his Will Yet to be a King as a Man does for a Wife he forsakes Father Mother and his dearly beloved Friends and comes to Breda There the News comes of Montross's tragical Defeat and Execution which had like to have spoil'd all but over Shooes over Boots on he goes having submitted to all the rigid Terms the Kirk-men imposed upon him And in June 1650 arrives in Scotland to be anew instructed in the Discipline of the Kirk The Rump in the mean while were not idle you must think for having spued up Presbytery in England they scorn'd to chew the Cud of it from Scotland and therefore Fairfax having refused to command an Army against the Scots they send for Cromwel out of Ireland by this time is good as reduced by him and declared him General of all the Forces of England Scotland and Ireland who about the latter end of June 1650 enters Scotland with a well-disciplin'd rather than a numerous Army and having taken many Places of small moment and often beat the Scots in Skirmishes upon the 3d of September utterly overthrows the much more numerous Kirk-Army at Dumbar commanded by their old General Lesley 3000 Scots killed 9000 taken Prisoners all their Baggage and Ammunition and above 200 Colours which as Trophies were hung up in Westminster-Hall where the English and Scots had before taken such Pains and Care to unite both Nations in their Solemn League and Covenant Whilst these things were doing the Kirk at Edinburg were close at their Devotion hourly expecting the Feet of those which should bring the glad Tidings which were at hand when Lesley the same Day brings Tidings of their utter Overthrow Now was all their Joy turned to Lamentation and Wo and the Songs of Sion are like to be sung in a strange Land To augment these Miseries the King who could not submit to the rigid Discipline of the Kirk runs from Schole to the House of the Lord Dippon intending for the Highlands where he might go to School with more Liberty Now all is in a Hurlyburley After the King runs Montgomery from the Kirk promising the King if he would return the Kirk would remit part of their Discipline upon which the King returned to St. Johnstons The King thus returned did not please the Kirk-men for being beaten by the English they rail against those that called the King in too hastily before he had given Marks of his Repentance and Conversion to God and that it was not lawful for any who were truly Godly to take up Arms for him and for the Advancement of the Kirk made Kerr and Straughan Generals of the Kirk-Forces But Straughan runs to Cromwel and Kerr is utterly defeated wounded and taken by Lambert Whilst these things were thus doing in Scotland let 's see what was doing in England In January this Year the Rump erected a High Court of Justice whereof one Keeble an ignorant Petty-fogging Lawyer was President in Norfolk upon pretence of an intended Insurrection for bringing in of the King where 24 were condemned and 20 executed whereof one Mr. Hobbard Brother or near Kinsman to Sir John Hobbard who after married Cromwel's Niece and Widow of Col. Hammond was one And in March following the Rump erected another High Court of Justice which condemned Sir Henry Hide for taking the King's Commission to be his Ambassador at Constantinople The Kirk-Party now lose their Reputation they had nothing left but to preach and pray and rail and now the Parliament and General Assembly take in all who will take the Covenant but all to no purpose For Cromwel having taken Edinburgh Town and Castle Jedworth Reslan and Tantallon Castle sends Overton and Lambert in Boats over the Frith who rout Sir John Brown and Major General Holborn kill 2000 of their Men and take 1200 Prisoners and Brown himself with 42 Colours Now though Scotland were a cold Climate 't was too hot to hold the King and his Army and therefore with them he slips into England by the Way of Carlisle leaving the Kirk in Lamentations and Woes that Heresy and Schism had overspread the Beauty of Holiness now Profaneness and Superstition had left it Harrison and Lambert followed the King and Cromwel soon after who at Worcester that Day Twelve Month after he had routed the Scots at Dunbar utterly again routs the Scots and English kills 3550 with Duke Hamilton and General Forbes and takes 5000 Prisoners with the Earls of Rothes Kanwarth Kelly the Lord Sinclare and Montgomery General of the Ordnance and soon after David Lesley who fought not or but little in the Battel is routed by Lilburn and taken Prisoner with Lauderdale who held Correspondence in England with the Covenanting Scots and the Lords Kenmore and Middleton Yet the King by a Miracle escaped to be restored King Charles II. But the same Fate did not attend the Noble Earl of Derby who coming out of the Isle of Man with about 250 Foot and 60 Horse to have assisted the King which he joined with about 1200 raised Men in Lancashire where he was highly
was entred into the King and States were mutually engaged to supply each other with a certain Number of Men and Ships in case of any Foreign Invasion upon either yet now the King hath Subsides given him by the French King to join with him against Holland which by the Defensive Alliance the King was obliged to assist The King who was so great in the Love of his Subjects and Parliament for the Triple League and had received such vast Sums for it now at the Instance of the French King sends Mr. Henry Coventry to the Court of Sweden to dissolve it which he did so effectually that that King not only stood Neuter at the beginning of the War with the Dutch but in it joined with the French King against the Confederates and this Success Mr. Coventry had that for this Business which put all Christendom into a Flame he was by the King made principal Secretary of State and it may be presented with his fine Ranger's Place in Enfield-Chase too and that perhaps with thrice more by the French King Whereas Sir William Temple who was the principal Instrument in the Peace at Nimeguen lost 2200 l. by it and his only Recompence was to be Secretary of State in Mr. Conventry's Place if Sir William would give him 10000 l. for it The Triple League thus dissolved all Obstacles which might retard the Progress of this pious Work must be removed And now my Lord-keeper Bridgman having done by his Speech the Conspirators Work for Money has done his own too and is turn'd out of his Place and my Lord Ashley Cooper Chancellor of the Exchequer is made Lord Chancellor of England and Earl of Shaftsbury Mr. Clifford after Lord Clifford Lord High-Treasurer of England and my Lord Arlington Chamberlain to the King's Houshold and Prince Rupert the Duke of Ormond and Secretary Trevor discarded from the Committee of Foreign Affairs so as the CABAL viz. Clifford Ashley Buckingham Arlington and Lauderdale govern all The first Result of this sacred Conclave was the shutting up of the Exchequer wherein the Bankers who formerly had furnished the King with mighty Sums of Money at extorsive Interest had lodged between 13 and 1400000 l. of the Subjects Money this was in January 167 1 2. One would think these Monies added to the Aids granted in the last Session of Parliament with those received from France might have carried on the War against the Dutch on the King's Part but to make sure the Fleet for which the Parliament gave such vast Sums to be equal with the French or Dutch is set out under Sir Robert Holmes to surprize the Smirna-Fleet which he vainly attempted the thirteenth and fourteenth of March 167 1 2 and to sanctify so Herotick an Act at this very time the Declaration of Indulgence was printed and published the fifteenth The French King having gotten the King into his Net let 's see how he used him The French King openly declar'd that 't was none of his Quarrel and that he only engaged in it out of respect to his Person and therefore before any War was declared the King must first break the Peace by the Attempt upon the Smirna-Fleet The Dutch alarm'd at the Attempt upon their Smirna-Fleet and being in no Condition to resist both Kings sent Deputies to both to know upon what Terms they would agree to Peace Those sent to our King were denied Audience and kept at Hampton-Court till it were known what the French King's Pleasure was but those sent to the French King had Answer That what the King had was his own and what he should conquer should be his without an Equivalent and declared the States might deal with England as they pleased and come off as cheap as they could because by their Treaty they were not bound to procure them any Advantages Yet all this the King as patiently submitted to now as before he suffered one Marsilly to be broken on the Wheel at Paris without one word from him in his behalf for being his Agent to the Swiss to invite them to join in the Guaranty of Aix who upon the Scaffold had twenty Questions asked him in relation to his Majesty's Person and a strict Enquiry of the Particulars that passed between the King and him all which you may read at large in Mr. Secretary Trevor's Appeal And this pitiful Story you may find in a little Treatise termed Colbert's Ghost printed at Cologn 1684. I find little difference in the Causes of this War by these two Kings The French King 's was that the Dutch had acted in Diminution to his Glory but says not wherein The King of England's was the Dutch had not yielded him the Honour due to his Flag The Cabal sought for a fourfold Cause of this War the Insults upon the English in the East-India Trade the detaining the Engglish Planters in Surinam against the Treaty at Breda and horrid Pictures in Defamation of his Majesty and his Flag To this purpose the Committee for the East-India Company was summoned to shew Cause who answer'd and gave it under their Hands That since the Treaty at Breda they knew no Cause nor as yet the Dutch could pretend to no more than was granted by it they having not as yet assisted the young King of Bantam against his Father and made use of the young King's Name to expel the English Factories from the Pepper Trade as before they had the Spice Trade For detaining the English Planters in Surinam it was answer'd the Planters were not willing to forsake their Subsistence and be turned into the wild World to seek it and that the Dutch perform'd their Part with Mr. Secretary Trevor and therefore it was no fault of theirs if it were not observ'd nor did they hinder them when they were transplanted to repair the Ruin of the English Plantation in St. Christophers made by the French For the Pictures the Dutch answered they knew of none except one Medal which might be liable to any such Construction but so soon as they knew of it they caused the Stamp to be broken For that of the Flag the Case stood thus the Dutch having fitted up a Fleet of Men of War in jealousy of the French were riding near their own Coast when one of the King's Yachts discharged a Gun at the Admiral to strike Sail which the Admiral not doing was the cause of the Breach for the War tho the States disown'd the Refusal and offer'd to make any Satisfaction the King should require But it is the End which crowns the Work in every Act and therefore the Declaration concludes That notwithstanding this War the King will support the Treaty at Aix la Chapelle according to the Scope and Intent of it and preserve the Ends of it inviolable As if the getting the Swede out of it and joining with the French against the Dutch diametrically contrary to it were the Support of that Treaty or that the subduing Holland so that the French
and Tests against Dissenters was any ways intended in favour of the Protestants for notwithstanding the Slaughter Jeffries had made of them in the West the rest all over England were imprisoned and forced to give Security for their good Behaviour Nay my Lord D. of Albermarle who had done the K. so signal Service in keeping the Devonshire Men from joining with the D. of Monmouth must be sent out of England to Jamaica and the Earl of Pembroke and others who had been so active in suppressing Monmouth were scarce thanked and but coldly entertained at Court If things were acted with this indeed bare-fac'd dissimulation in England they were not less in Ireland for the King having revoked the Duke of Ormond from his Lieutenancy and given Talbot an independent Commission to make such a reform of the Army there as is aforesaid made my Lord Clarendon Deputy-Lieutenant and Sir Charles Porter Chancellour who arrived there the 10th of January 1685-86 with a Charge to declare that the King would preserve the Acts of Settlement and Explanation inviolable and to assure all his Subjects he would preserve these Acts as the Magna Charta of Ireland but this Declaration compared with Talbot's reforming the Army in Ireland seemed as strange as that the King 's dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests was in favour of the Protestant Dissenters in England In Scotland the King had so settled Affairs there when he was Commissioner that after the cutting off the Earl of Argyle he did not doubt to carry on his Designs more bare-fac'd there than in England or Ireland and therefore tho he did not call a Parliament till April 1686 yet in his Letter to them of the 12th he takes no Notice of the Protestant Dissenters but recommends to them his innocent Roman Catholick Subjects Who had with their Lives and Fortunes been always assistant to the Crown in the worst of Rebellions and Vsurpations tho they lay under Discouragements hardly to be named These he heartily recommended to their Care to the end that as they have given good Experience of their true Loyalty and peaceable Behaviour so by their Assistance they may have the Protection of his Laws and that Security under his Government which others of his Subjects had not suffering them to lie under Obligations which their Religion cannot admit of by doing whereof they will give a Demonstration of the Duty and Affection they had to him and do him most acceptable Service This Love he expected they would shew to their Brethren as they saw he was an indulgent Father to them all The King having settled his Prerogative in Westminster-Hall by dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests in the Beginning of the Year 1686 granted a Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs but it was not opened to act till the 3d of August following why it lay so long dormant I do not find but only guess that the King might the better settle his Dispensing Power in the Country by such Judges as he had made as well as in Westminster-Hall and that he might be more at leisure to carry on the Design for surrender of Charters wherein one Robert Brent a Roman Catholick was a prime Agent and great Care was taken that the beggarly Corporations might surrender their Charters and take new ones without paying Fees and if any should be so honest as to insist upon their Oaths and Trust reposed in them for Preservation of their Charters to be prosecuted as riotous and seditious Persons But in regard the Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs was not printed that I can find nor is in the State Tracts I thought fit to insert it here as I had it in Manuscript from a learned Hand JAMES the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To the most Reverend Father in God our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Counsellor William Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan and to Our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Counsellor George Lord Jeffries Lord Chancellour of England and to Our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor Lawrence Earl of Rochester Lord High Treasurer of England and to Our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor Robert Earl of Sunderland President of Our Council and Our Principal Secretary of State and to the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and well-beloved Counsellor Nathaniel Lord Bishop of Duresme and to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and well-beloved Thomas Lord Bishop of Rochester and to our Right Trusty and well-beloved Counsellor Sir Edward Herbert Knight Chief Justice of the Pleas before us to be holden assigned Greeting We for divers good weighty and necessary Causes and Considerations Us hereunto especially moving of our meer Motion and certain Knowledg by force and virtue of Our Supream Authority and Prerogative Royal do assign name and authorize by these our Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England you the said Arch Bp of Canterbury Lord Chancellor of England Lord High Treasurer of England Lord President of Our Council Lord Bishop of Duresme Lord Bishop of Rochester and our Chief Justice aforesaid or any three or more of you whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one from time to time and at all times during our Pleasure to exercise use occupy and execute under us all manner of Jurisdiction Privileges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions within this our Realm of England and Dominion of Wales and to visit reform redress order correct and amend all such Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever which by the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm can or may be lawfully reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the Pleasure of Almighty God and encrease of Vertue and the Conservation of the Peace and Unity of this Realm And we do hereby give and grant unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the said Lord Chancellor to be one thus by Us named assigned authorized and appointed by force of Our Supream Authority and Prerogative Royal full Power and Authority from time to time and at all times during Our Pleasure under us to exercise use and execute all the Premises according to the Tenour and Effect of these our Letters Patents any Matter or Cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And We do by these Presents give full Power and Authority unto you or any three or more of you as is aforesaid whereof you the Lord Chancellor to be one by all lawful Ways or Means from time to time hereafter during Our Pleasure to enquire of all Offences Contempts Transgressions and Misdemeanours done and commited contrary to the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Our Realm in any County City Borough or other Place or Places exempt or not exempt within this our Realm of England
have a Commission but by Law is utterly disabled and disarmed Will you exchange your Birth-right of English Laws and Liberties for Martial and Club-Law and help to destroy all others only to be eaten up at last your selves If I know you well as you are English Men you hate and scorn these things And therefore be not unequally yoked with idolatrous and bloody Papists Be valiant for the Truth and shew your selves Men. The same Considerations are likewise humbly offered to all English Seamen who have been the Bulwark of this Nation against Popery and Slavery ever since 88. The first Lightning which the dormant Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs produced fell upon the Bishop of London a Person of Exemplary Vertue and Loyalty and who besides the Nobility of his Birth had his Father slain in the late Civil Wars in defence of the King's Father's Cause and had himself and all his Brothers freely and valiantly exposed their Lives in defence of it The Crime alledged against him was that by the King's Letter he did not suspend Doctor Sharp then Dean of Norwich now Archbishop of York for preaching a Sermon against the Frauds and Corruptions of the Church of Rome by a Power as Arbitrary as that by which the Commissioners acted and for this these Commissioners suspended the Bishop tho every one understood the true Cause was the Bishop's Motion in the House of Lords to have debated the King's Speech Tantum Religio potuit swadere malorum I 'm perswaded King Charles the II. to make a Roman Hierarchy in Scotland made the Bishops out of the most obnoxious of the Clergy who besides their profligate Lives run the King's Prerogative there to a higher pitch than Laud in the King's Father's time did in England And that towards the latter end of his Reign he laid the same design here for the Bishopricks of Oxford York St. David's and Chester becoming void about the latter end of his Reign or beginning of King James's I 'll not name the Bishoprick of Litchfield and Coventry for the Petticoat governed in that Election Dr. Samuel Parker whom Mr. Marvel in his Rehearsal transposed calls Bays a Man of a virulent Disposition and who by railing against the Church got into Preferment and when he was in became a zealous Railer against them without was made Bishop of Oxford Dr. Cartright as high for the Prerogative as Parker was made Bishop of Chester and the Succession to these two Bishopricks was the more observable because Parker succeeded Dr. Fell and Cartright Dr. Peirson Men of Piety and Learning equal to any in their time and one Watson an obscure Man was made Bishop of St. David's but the Archbishoprick of York was reserved for a Person of another Temper whom these Bishops were making way for The Presidentship of Magdalen College in Oxford becoming void and the Fellows fearing a Mandamus would be imposed upon them for some Person not qualified by the Statutes and whom by their Oaths they could not submit to chose Dr. Hough for President a Person qualified by their Statutes for that Place As the Fellows feared so it came to pass for the King sent them a peremptory Mandamus to chuse the Bishop of Oxford Bays their President but he being a Person not qualified by the Statutes of their College which the Fellows were sworn to observe they in a humble Answer excused themselves as being otherways obliged as well by their Oath as Statutes I will not repeat the Anger the King express'd hereupon 't is in Print but sure such Language was never used by any Prince before But if the King 's harsh Language will not work the Fellows to his Will he will send the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs among them to turn them out of their Fellowships wherein they had as much Property as any other had to any real or personal Estate nor shall these Commissioners stay here but by a new strain of Tyranny never practised but by Absolute Tyrants they make the Fellows uncapable of any other Ecclesiastical Preferments The Fellows thus expelled the Statutes of the College are thrown out of Doors to make room for a Seminary of Jesuits and Popish Priests as much tending to the Subversion of the established Church of England as the Statutes of the College But see how God in his Providence blasted these things for the Bishop of Oxford had scarce taken possession of his thus new-acquired Presidentship when he died and you 'll soon see the Fellows restored again in spite of these Commissioners and Dr. Hough made Bishop of Oxford as well as President of Magdalen College If the King were zealous in advancing his Prerogative Royal both in the Church and State of England he will not be less in Scotland whereupon the 12th of February 1686-87 he issues out his Proclamation for Toleration of Religion which you may read in the State Tracts wherein he asserts his Absolute Power which he says his Subjects ought to obey without reserve But the Toleration which the King allows his Roman Catholick Subjects in Scotland he 'll scarce permit to his Protestant Subjects in Ireland for Tyrconnel for so has Talbot merited for his Service in Reforming the Army is not only made an Earl but Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the room of my Lord Clarendon and one Fitton made Sir Alexander an infamous Person detected for Forgery not only at Westminster but at Chester and fined in the House of Lords was brought out of the King's Bench in England to be Chancellor and Keeper of the King's Conscience in Ireland in place of Sir Charles Porter The first Proclamation which Tyrconnel issued out was dated Feb. 21. 1687. wherein he promised to defend the Laws Liberties and established Religion but leaves out the preservation of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation But tho at first he only left out the Acts of Settlement and Explanation being resolved first to out the Protestants and let the Irish into their forfeited Estates yet did he not stay here and Bishop King in his Treatise of the State of the Protestants in Ireland gives so particular and methodical an Account how he proceeded in the destroying the Church and State of Ireland as by Law established that I refer the Reader to it not intending to lessen it by taking parts of it When the Judges had been above a Year propagating the King's Power in Westminster-Hall and in their Circuits of dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests against Dissenters from the Church upon the 25th of April 1687 out comes the King's Declaration to all his Subjects for Liberty of Conscience wherein the King declares That it had been a long time his constant Sense and Opinion that Conscience ought not to be restrained nor People forced in Matters of meer Religion and that it was contrary to his Inclination as he thought it to be the disinterest of the Government by spoiling Trade and depopulating Countries c. Sure no Prince ever acted
Peace between England and Spain whereto both Kings were equally disposed more smooth and easy Yet Philip the 3d before he would openly seek it by an Ambassador from the Arch-Duke Albert Governor of Flanders felt the Pulse of the Court how it stood affected to a Peace with Spain which beat high towards it so as soon after it followed which as it was most beneficial to the English Nation so it had been to Spain if it had been as sincerely observed by King James as it was by Philip. Henry the 4th of France tho spited as 't was said that King James should not only come so peaceably but with universal Acclamations to the Crown of England whereas he laboured with such difficulty above seven Years to attain that of France and at last was forced to a dishonourable Submission to the Pope Clement VIII Yet being a Prince of great Prudence in Peace as well as fortunate and victorious in War sent Monsieur de Rosny Great Treasurer of France to renew the Treaty of Peace and Commerce formerly made between Queen Elizabeth and him which was without any difficulty done The King being thus at Peace Abroad and at Home not only in England but in Ireland as if the Wars expired there with Queen Elizabeth he not only pardoned the Earl of Tyrone the Head of that Rebellion but by Proclamation declar'd he was restor'd to the King's Favour and to be honourably used of all Men. But how pleasing soever the King 's coming to the Crown of England was to the English Nation it seems it was not so or something else to God for an horrible Plague greater than any since that in the Reign of Edward the 3d accompanied his coming in There were two Factions in England when the King came to the Crown distinguished by the Names of Puritans and Papists both dissenting from the Religion established in the Church of England the King hated those and wrote against these chiefly for their Doctrine of the Pope's Power of deposing Kings These received the King after different manners the Puritans had a huge Expectation of his Favour because he was bred up in their Doctrine and Discipline but were much deceived in it for he rarely mentioned them but with Detestation which he did not those of the Popish Religion However in January they obtained a Conference with the Church-Party at Hampton-Court where the King himself would be Moderator whilst most of the Nobility and Bishops were Spectators You need not doubt which Party prevail'd the Nobility and Bishops not only giving the King the Victory with the Epithets of The Solomon of the Age The most Learned but of being inspired But what Expectation soever the Puritans had of the King 's coming to the Crown the Papists had another Lesson taught them for tho the Popish Conspiracy against the Person of Queen Elizabeth ceased upon the Death of the Queen of Scots yet did not the Pope's Designs upon the Kingdom of England do so but Clement VIII in the Year 1600 sent Orders to his Emissaries in England that the Catholicks should admit none to succeed the Queen but one obedient to the Holy See and in Conformity hereunto Watson and Clark two Romish Priests joined in Cobhant's Conspiracy to have kept the King from coming to the Crown and were executed for it as Traitors but the Effects of the Pope's Instructions did not die with Clark and Watson as you 'll soon hear and upon the 24th of October 1603 a Proclamation was made for Quietness to be observed in Matters of Religion Notwithstanding the Rage of the Pestilence the first nine Months after the King 's coming to London all were Halcion-days Proclamations Pageants Feastings Creation of Lords and Knights Reception of Foreign Ambassadors erecting a Master of the Ceremonies after the Mode of France c. and in this time the Dignified Clergy and those who courted to be so with the Favourites at Court with whom the Civilians chimed in had so rooted their Doctrine of the King 's Absolute Power and that notwithstanding his Succession to the Crown of Scotland in the Life of his Mother he succeeded by inherent Birth-right and that Primogeniture is the Gift of God by the Law of Nature and that in his Person was reconciled all the Titles of our Saxon Danish and Norman Race of Kings that being propensly disposed to receive the Impressions they took such deep root in him that in all his Life after he would never with Patience hear any thing to the contrary however it was not long before he heard of it as you shall hear But we will stay a little and see how inconsistently these Flatterers jumbled an Absolute and Hereditary Monarchy together and how this King reconciled the Titles of the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles to the Crown For no Hereditary Monarch that ever reigned in this World but derived his Title from an Ancestor who had no Hereditary Right nor did ever any Hereditary King succeed but to govern by Laws and Constitutions which were established before he became King So however Absolute may be applicable to Conquerors yet it is inconsistent with Hereditary Kings especially in a Regular Monarchy as that of England is and those of old as of the Medes and Persians where the Will of the King alone could not alter the Laws and Constitutions of them And now let us see how King James came to claim his Crown by inherent Birth-right and how all the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles came to be reconciled in his Person It 's evident to me that tho only God can make an Heir and that tho Primogeniture be natural yet God in disposing Kingdoms is not obliged to it tho Grotius lib. 1. Tit. 11. de Jure Belli Pacis is pleased to say the Law of Nature is immutable by God himself but reserves unto himself the Prerogative of disposing Kingdoms without restraining the Succession of the King to Primogeniture or Hereditary Succession Here let us see in Epitome which you may read at large in Sir William Jones his History of the Succession of the Kings of England before and after the Conquest and the History of the Succession of the Crown of England from King Egbert to Henry the 8th printed in the Year 1690 where you will see that tho the Kings of England both before and after the Conquest succeeded in their Royal Families yet many more were not in the right Line than in it and tho before Caesar invaded Britain there was no other Government but Kingly yet Britain was divided into so many petty Kingdoms that tho it had not been barbarous it would have been as difficult to have wrote the History of the Succession of their Kings as to have wrote the History of the Succession of the Kings immediately after the Flood After the Roman Empire oppressed by its own Weight by the Division into Eastern and Western its intestine Jars and the over-flowing of barbarous Nations was so torn
Gaunt's elder Brother So that of the Succession of 14 Kings after the Conqueror there were but four viz. Richard the First Edward the First and Second and Richard the Second which succeeded as Heirs to the Conqueror or his Heirs Admit Edward the 4th succeeded right as Heir to Phillippa Daughter of the Duke of Clarence yet if it be true which Richard the 3d says and which is confirmed by the Authority of the Act of Parliament 1 Rich. 3. that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before he married Elizabeth then did not Edward the 5th if it may be called a Succession succeed right nor could Henry the 7th claim any Right to the Crown of England in Right of his Wife Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth But whether it be true or not that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before his Marriage yet Richard the 3d succeeded not as Heir Edward Earl of Warwick the Son of George Duke of Richard's elder Brother being then alive Of all the Kings of England that succeeded the Conqueror Henry the 7th had the least Pretension to any Title to the Crown for tho he were supposed to have been descended from John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster yet it was the Duke's Paramour Katherine Swinford whose Issue by the Duke tho by Act of Parliament they were legitimated to all other purposes yet were not capacitated to succeed to the Crown of England but if the Title of Lancaster had been preferable to that of York and Henry had been of the legitimate Line yet could not he have succeeded as Heir his Mother under whom he claimed being then alive and out-lived her Son Nor did the King's Marriage with Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the 4th improve his Title to his Succession the Marriage being subsequent to it and before it the Crown by Act of Parliament was entailed upon Henry the 7th and the Heirs of his Body and after Marriage he never used her Name in calling any Parliament or in any Proclamation or the Coin or passing any Act of Parliament and as he reigned without her before Marriage so he did after her Death for he out-lived her tho she left two Sons Arthur and Henry after Henry the Eighth and two Daughters Elizabeth Queen of Scotland and Mary after Queen of France It seems to me that Ferdinand King of Castile and Arragon had the same Opinion which Richard the 3d and the Parliament had that the Issue of Edward the 4th were not legitimate for he would not assent to the Marriage of his Daughter Katherine with Arthur Prince of Wales so long as the Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence lived and there a fine Trick was found out to put the poor Prince to Death for endeavouring to make his Escape out of the Tower with Perkin Warbeck and in him ended the Masculine Line of the Race of the Plantagenets who had governed the English Nation after Stephen to Henry the 7th above 340 Years So that from the Conqueror to Henry the 8th scarce one of four of the Kings of England succeeded in a right Line as Heirs to the Conqueror As the Saxon Dynasty ended in Edward the Confessor and the Norman began in the Conqueror so it seems to me that the Norman ended in Richard the 3d and another of the British was erected in Henry the 7th who was the Son of Edmund of Hadham the Son of Owen Tudor by Katherine Daughter of Charles the 6th of France Wife of Henry the 5th of England and Mother of Henry the 6th So that Henry the 7th's Title to the Crown of France was better than that to the Crown of England for that of England was from a Maternal Ancestor Margaret Countess of Richmond no otherwise related to the Crown of England than descended from John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford his Paramour Tho I do not find that Henry the 7th or any of his Descendants ever assumed the Sirname of Tudor So that tho the Crown of England neither in the Saxon nor Norman Race of Kings was always Hereditary so neither was the Succession to the Crown elective For in elective Kingdoms after the Death of one King there is an Establishment of the manner of Elections and in the mean time there are Custodes Regni appointed whose Power ceases upon the Election of a King but neither of these were ever heard of in either of the Saxon or Norman Race and tho sometimes it 's said the Kings were chosen as of Edward the Son of Alfred by the Nobles and so of Athelstan and so in the Norman Race Henry the First was said to be chosen for that he promised to abrogate all the Oppressions and Errors brought into the Government by his Father and Brother tho his eldest Brother Robert was then alive and restore the good Laws of Edward the Confessor and Stephen was chosen by the Clergy and Londoners yet this was rather a form of Speaking in those days than any formal Election and the manner differed according to the different Humours of the Times Nor do we read that ever the Parliament meddled with the Succession of the Crown before Henry the Fourth for tho the first Parliament of Edward the Third renounced their Allegiance to Edward the Second and are said to have chosen Edward the Third yet they went no further and such an Election was no more than a Declaration of their Submission as when the Council declared James the Second King But whether the Crown of England was Hereditary in the Saxon and Norman Race it 's evident it was not so in this British Race for as it began in Henry the Seventh so it was entailed by Act of Parment upon him and Heirs of his Body before his Marriage with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth So the inheritable Right of Edward's Issue and all the Norman Race was barred by this Act. Before we proceed in the Succession of the British Race we 'll take a view of the Genealogy of it John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford had Issue John created Earl of Somerset who had Issue John created Duke of Somerset who had Issue Margaret After the Death of Henry the Fifth Katherine his Wife Sister of Charles the Sixth of France married Owen Tudor a Welch Gentleman who had Issue Edmund of Hadham created Earl of Richmond who married Margaret Daughter and Heir of John Duke of Somerset who had Issue Henry the Seventh Henry the Eighth succeeded his Father without any Contradiction for the Wars between the houses of York and Lancaster had destroyed the whole legitimate Lancastrian Line and Richard the Third after the Murder of his Brother Clarence and Death of Edward the Fourth had murdered his two Nephews Edward and Richard Sons of Edward the Fourth and himself was killed in the Fight in Bosworth-fields and after that Henry the Seventh had put Edward Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence to Death none of all
the Royal Line of the Plantagenets were left to be Competitors with him yet his Succession could not be Hereditary for his Grand-mother under whom his Father claim'd out-lived her Son and so Henry the Eighth could not claim from her Yet this is observable That as his Father Henry the Seventh entailed the Succession of the Crown of England upon the Heirs of his Body so by Act of Parliament 28 Hen. 8. Henry the Eighth might dispose of the Succession of the Crown by his Will for want of Issue of his Body so little was the inheritable Succession of the Crown of England regarded by these Kings of the British Race It seems the Council in Edward the Sixth's Reign had as little an Opinion of the Hereditary Succession of the Crown as the Parliament had in the Reign of Henry the Eighth for by the Advice of Edward's Council he by his Will disposed of the Succession to his Cousen the Lady Jane Gray Grand-daughter to Edward's Aunt Mary Queen of France contrary to the Will of his Father Henry the Eighth which ordained his Daughter Mary to succeed Edward in case he died without Issue I say that by the Law of Inheritance in England Queen Mary could not inherit the Crown from Edward she being but of half-Blood to him and by the same Reason Queen Elizabeth could not inherit to Queen Mary but Mary the Daughter of James the fifth of Scotland being of the whole Blood to Edward and descended from the elder Daughter of Henry the Seventh could For the Opinion of the Judges after King James came in that the Succession of the Crown of England differs from that of the Inheritance of Subjects in regard of an Alien born and those of half Blood may inherit the Crown it 's Gratis dictum and said to please the King for there never was any such usage in England nor any such Act of Parliament to warrant their Opinion But admit the Crown of England were inheritable from Henry the Seventh and Half-Blood no Bar to the Succession yet Mary and Elizabeth could not both succeed for one of them was Illegitimate Elizabeth being born in the Life of Katherine Queen Mary's Mother If the Parliament in the Reign of Henry the 8th had little or no Opinion of the Inheritable Succession of the Crown of England and therefore impowered the King to dispose of it by Will The Parliament in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth had less and therefore often petitioned her and that with Importunity to declare her Successor without Consent in Parliament and declared it 13 Eliz. Cap. 1. to be High Treason to affirm that the Crown of England might not be disposed of by Act of Parliament in her Life and a Premunire after her Death Here I make these Remarks upon the Race of the Plantagenets and the Succession of the British Line that as the Plantagenets inherited the Name from Jeffery Duke of Anjou who was never King of England so Henry the 7th if he had any Title derived it from John of Gaunt by an Illegitimate Succession who never was King of England From England we step into Scotland and see how the Hereditary Succession was observed there after the Reign of Alexander the 3d in whom the direct Line of the Race of their Kings failed which was so near as I can compute about the Year 1278 and leave the Succession of their 93 Kings before to the Scrutiny of the Scotish Antiquaries and Heraulds The Scots if they be not clearer in the Genealogy of their 93 Kings before Alexander the 3d than my Author is of retrieving it after the Death of Margaret Daughter of Alexander the 3d do make but a blind Genealogy of their 93 Kings before however we 'll take it as we find it David Brother of William King of Scotland but whether William was Father Brother or Uncle to Alexander the 2d my Author says not and Earl of Huntingdon had Issue by Maud Daughter to the Earl of Chester three Daughters Margaret married to Allen of Galloway the second not named was married to Robert Bruce the third to Henry Hastings Earl of Huntingdon Allen of Galloway had a Grand-daughter named Dornagil married to John Baliol. Bruce was Great Grand-child to the second Daughter of David Earl of Huntingdon but being a Male pretended he was to be King before Dornagil a Female though a Degree nearer and descended from the elder Sister Henry Earl of Huntingdon made no claim So the Right between Baliol and Bruce was referred to the Determination of Edward the first King of England who adjudged the Right to be in Baliol and soon after Baliol by Dornagil had a Son named Edward so that Bruce's Pretension of Title as being Son vanished by the Birth of Edward Baliol being descended from the eldest Sister But The Scots or a prevailing Party not liking Baliol's Reign in the Year 1306 crowned Robert Bruce King In the Year 1310 Bruce by Acts of Parliament had the Crown of Scotland entailed upon him and his Heir-male and for want of Issue to his Brother Edward This Robert had Issue a Son named David and a Daughter married to Robert Stuart and by Act of Parliament settled the Crown upon his Son David and for want of Issue by him to Robert Stuart his Grand-child by his Daughter So here is the Succession of the Crown of Scotland twice differently settled by Parliament to the disinheriting of Edward Baliol. But in the Year 1332 Edward Baliol the right Heir was received and crowned King of Scotland After that David Bruce recovered the Kingdom of Scotland and afterwards was taken Prisoner by the Queen of England in the Absence of her Husband Edward the 3d in France and being released he died Ann. 1370. Robert Stuart Grand-son of Robert Bruce by his Daughter succeeded David who married Euphemia Daughter of the Earl of Ross but before he was King had Issue by Elizabeth Moor his Concubine two Sons John and Robert and by the Queen he had Issue Walter Earl of Athol and David Earl of Strathern yet by Act of Parliament the King disinherited his Legitimate Issue and settled the Crown upon his Issue by Elizabeth Moor from which Issue all the Kings of Scotland have since descended This was the most unaccountable Accident if we consider the Cause and Consequence I think that is recorded in any History That a King and Parliament by the Importunity of a Slut should disinherit his Legitimate Offspring from the Succession to the Crown of Scotland to advance her spurious Issue It 's true for some Reasons of State the right Heir is set aside as Edward Son of Ethelred after the Confessor being young and not a fit Match to oppose the Danes Edmund Ironside tho Illegitimate for his Strength and Courage was said to be chosen King as most likely to withstand the Danish Invasions so Edward the Confessor observing the heavy and slow Nature of Edgar the Grandson of Edmund Ironside not to be a fit
had the Ascendant of the King's Favour far transcending all other Favourites yet the King's Necessities were never so great and the Exchequer so poor and the King so much in debt so as he had so much less means to gratify his new Favourite as his Affections to him were more and here it will not be amiss to take some part of a View of the King's Prodigality or if you please Bounty to some of his former Favourites the Earl of Somerset had amassed if my Author of the Historical Narration of the first 14 Years of King James cap. 34. says true in Money Plate and Jewels two Hundred Thousand Pounds besides 19000 l. per Ann. The Earl of Salisbury but a younger Son of Treasurer Burleigh leâ—t an Estate besides the noble House and Seat of Hatfield equal nay superior to most of the other Nobility the Earl of Northampton a younger Brother of the Duke of Norfolk and born to little or no Estate built that noble Structure in the Strand now called Northumberland House and being unmarried left a very great Estate to the Earl of Arundel and others of his House the Earl of Suffolk youngest Son of the Duke of Norfolk who had no Estate but what he derived from the Crown besides his other Estates built Audley-Inn Palace the noblest Structure ever built by any Subject in England except Hampton-Court by Cardinal Woolsey which by reasonable Estimates cost above 190000 l. besides the Largesses given to the Duke of Lenox Sir Alexander Hays and other Scotish Favourites Sir Henry Rich and other English Favourites These had only themselves to take care for but this new Favourite had a Mother two Brothers and a Sister to pully up into Honours and Estates tho their Parts could not entitle them to any other than Court-Preferment but besides these I do not find he regarded any other of his Father's Family no more than they did him However until the Discovery of Overbury's Murder he contained himself within the Bounds of Modesty as well as Courtship Somerset till then being a kind of Check upon him However the King in his Poverty of Affairs gave him 1000 l. and upon the 23d of April made him one of the Gentlemen of his Bed-Chamber and next Day knighted him Sir Overbury's Murder had been about twenty Montâ— concealed when about the middle of August it was brought 〈◊〉 light but the Manner how was variously rumoured Some taâ—â—ed that Sir Thomas his Servant gave notice of it to Sir Edwarâ— Coke others that my Lord of Canterbury had got knowledge of it and made it known to Sir Ralph Winwood one of the Secretaries of State and that by searching in a certain Place he should find a Trunk wherein were Papers which would disclose the whole Business which Sir Ralph did and found it so The King at this time was gone to hunt at Royston and Somerset with him and when the King had been there about a Week next day he designed to proceed to New-Market and Somerset to return to London when Sir Ralph came to Royston and acquainted the King with what he had discovered about Sir Overbury's Murder the King was so surprised herewith that he posted away a Messenger to Sir Edward Coke to apprehend the Earl I speak this with Confidence because I had it from one of Sir Edward's Sons Sir Edward lay then at the Temple and measured out his time at regular Hours two whereof were to go to Bed at Nine a Clock and in the Morning to rise at Three At this time Sir Edward ' s Son and some others were in Sir Edward ' s Lodging but not in Bed when the Messenger about one in the Morning knockt at the Door where the Son met him and knew him Says he I come from the King and must immediately speak with your Father If you come from ten Kings he answered you shall not for I know my Father's Disposition to be such that if he be disturbed in his Sleep he will not be fit for any Business but if you will do as we do you shall be welcome and about two Hours hence my Father will rise and you then may do as you please to which he assented At three Sir Edward rung a little Bell to give notice to his Servant to come to him and then the Messenger went to him and gave him the King's Letter and Sir Edward immediately made a Warrant to apprehend Somerset and sent to the King that he would wait upon him that Day The Messenger went back Post to Royston and arrived there about Ten in the Morning the King had a loathsom way of lolling his Arms about his Favourites Necks and kissing them and in this Posture the Messenger found the King with Somerset saying When shall I see thee again Somerset then designing for London when he was arrested by Sir Edward's Warrant Somerset exclaimed that never such an Affront was offered to a Peer of England in the Presence of the King Nay Man said the King if Coke sends for me I must go and when he was gone Now the Deel go with thee said the King for I will never see thy Face any more About three in the Afternoon the Chief Justice came to Royâ—â—on and so soon as he had seen the King the King told him that 〈◊〉 was acquainted with the most wicked Murder by Somerset and 〈◊〉 Wife that was ever perpetrated upon Sir Thomas Overbury and that they had made him a Pimp to carry on their Bawdry and Murder and therefore commanded the Chief Justice with all the Scrutiny possible to search into the Bottom of the Conspiracy and to spare no Man how great soever concluding God's Curse be upon you and yours if you spare any of them and God's Curse be upon me and mine if I pardon any one of them The Chief Justice as well by his Place as the King's Command imprisons Weston Mrs. Turner Sir Jervis Elvis Franklin and Sir John Munson and examines them and also Munson's Servant Weston's Servant c. against them Whereupon they were all except Munson arraigned condemned and executed in the Months of October and November following all of them I say except Munson whom Justice Dodridg and Justice Hide as well as the Chief Justice declared to be as guilty of the Murder as any of the other You may read the Trials at large in the Narrative of the first fourteen Years of King James his Reign entituled Truth brought to light by time There was a general Rumour that the Chief Justice making a severe Inspection into Overbury's Murder found some Papers about the poisoning of Prince Henry and Sir Anthony Weldon in his History of the Reign of King James says That the Chief Justice had blabb'd abroad so much I am sure there was never any such Acquaintance between the Chief Justice and him that he should blab it out to Weldon whether this were true or false I cannot tell but sure the displacing Sir Edward Coke the
Ancre's Fate did not end with his Life for the next day after he was buried the Lacquies of the Court and Rabble of the City digged up his Coffin tore his Winding-Sheet and dragged his Body through the Gutters and hanged it upon the Gibbet he had prepared for others where they cut off his Nose Ears and Genitors which they sent to the Duke of Main Head of the Popish League the great Favourite of the Parisians and nailed his Ears to the Gates of Paris and burned the rest of his Body and hurled part of the Ashes into the River and part into the Air and his Wife soon after was condemned by the Parliament of Paris for a Witch for which she was beheaded In the Year 1618 a Blazon Comet appeared and the Marquess of Buckingham by the removal of my Lord Admiral Nottingham who was so in the famous Overthrow of the Spanish Armado in 1588. was made Lord Admiral being as well qualified for that Office as he was for being Prime Minister in State-Affairs It was no wonder that Lewis XIII th after the Death of the Marquess d' Ancre and his Wife should remove his Mother from State-Affairs and confine her to Blois to make room for Luynes to govern him more absolutely than the Marquess and his Wife had done his Mother for Lewis as he was of a feeble Constitution both of Body and Mind so Luynes was a kind of Governor to him appointed so by his Father Henry the 4th to humour him in all his Childish Toys and Pleasures So tho Rehoboam when forty Years old was governed by young Men not in Years but Understanding so neither was it any great wonder that Edward the 2d a young Man should be governed by Pierce Gaveston a Person of far more accomplished Parts than Buckingham for Gaveston was bred up with Edward and had so far by his Flatteries prevailed upon him that Edward could not enjoy any Pleasure in his Life without him But for an old King having been so for above fifty one Years to dote so upon a young Favourite scarce of Age yet younger in Understanding tho as old in Vices as any in his time and to commit the whole Ship of the Common-wealth both by Sea and Land to such a Phaeton is a Precedent without any Example But how much soever the Safety of the English Nation was endangered hereby yet the but mentioning any thing hereof was an Invasion of the King's Prerogative and meddling with State-Affairs which was above the Capacity of the Vulgar and even of the Parliament as you will soon hear But how absolute soever the King was at Home the face of Affairs Abroad stood quite contrary for the Dutch having retrieved their Cautionary Towns out of his Possession had the King in such Contempt that they neither regarded him nor his new Lord High Admiral and this Year says the Author of the Address to the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation in his second Preface f. 13 14. The Dutch never before fished upon the Coast of England till they had begged leave of the King or Governour of Scarborough Castle but this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it They had been formerly limited by our Kings both for the Number of their Vessels they should fish with and the time Now they resolve to be their own Carvers and in order to that denied the English the Sovereignty of the British Seas and as if this had not been enough drew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores Year by Year than they did in preceding Times without leaving any Bounds for the Country-People or Natives to fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended Possession and had driven some of their great Vessels through their Nets to deter others by like Violence from fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton January 21 1618. told Carleton the Dutch Ambassador And to justify all this they set out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain all this by Force But it was not Fish our new Lord Admiral cared for nor did he care for the King's Soveraignty of the British Seas so as he might be Lord High Admiral in Name The Sails of Buckingham's Ambition were not full swelled till to the Title of Lord High Admiral the Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports was added to it tho he regarded the guarding the Coasts of England as little as he did the Soveraignty of the British Seas Nor did the accumulated Honours to himself alone satisfy his Ambition but a new Strain his Mother tho a professed Papist must be pullied up with him in a concurring Title of the same Honour by being created Countess of Buckingham And being thus exalted she forsook her Husband's Bed which she sanctified by being converted to the Church of Rome and as her Son governed the King so she governed her Son so that as Mr. Wilson observes fol. 149. tho her Son acted in appearance in all Removes and Advancements yet she wrought them in effect for her Hand was in all Actions both in Church and State and she must needs know the Disposition of all things when she had a feeling of every Man's Pulse for all Addresses were made to her first and by her conveyed to her Son for he looked more after Pleasure than Profit which made Gundamor who was well skill'd in Court Holy-Water among his other witty Pranks write merrily in his Dispatches to Spain that there were never more hopes of England ' s Conversion to Rome than now For there were more Oblations offered here to the Mother than to the Son Then he tells the Marquess's Behaviour to attain his Ends of Ladies how he married the Earl of Rutland's only Daughter the greatest Fortune in England but being a Papist how she was converted by Dr. White tho the Bishop of Litchfield attributes her Conversion to Dr. Williams Dean of Westminster but was brought back to the Church of Rome by the Countess of Buckingkam The next Year if you begin at January Queen Ann died the 22d of March but this is but a beginning of the King's Sorrows at least of his Troubles But this no way troubled our young Favourite but to encrease the Honour of his Family by Sir George's second Brood in June following he had his eldest Brother John created Baron Stroke and Viscount Purbeck tho I do not find he ever gave him one Penny to maintain these Titles Such disgust the King had taken at the Commons representing the Grievances to him in the last Parliament that in his Cups and among his Familiars upon all Occasions he would inveigh against Parliaments saying God is my Judg I can have no Joy of any Parliament in England and that he was but one King and there were alove five hundred in the House of Commons So as if he could have helped it he never would have been troubled with another but
with all imaginable Esteem as a truly noble discreet and well-deserving Prince however the Prince himself had given them Cause sufficient to have detained him if the Prudence of Bristol had not been greater than Buckingham's Rashness and Zeal to break off the Match solemnly sworn to by the Prince and Buckingham himself and this upon the Day when the Prince parted from the King of Spain from the Escurial as you may see in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Dr. Williams and Rushworth fol. 284 285. For though the King of Spain and the Prince had solemnly sworn to accomplish the Marriage and to make the Espousals within ten Days after the Ratifications should come from Rome to which purpose the Prince made a Procuration to the King of Spain and Don Charles his Brother to make the Espousals in his Name and left it in the Earl of Bristol's hands yet he the Prince left in the Hands of one of the Duke's Creatures Mr. Edward Clarke a private Instrument with Instructions to the Earl of Bristol to stay the Delivery of the Proxies till farther Direction from him But when this private Instrument was delivered to Bristol he told Buckingham's Favourite that it must for a time be concealed lest the Spaniard coming to the knowledgâ— of it should give Order to stay the Prince So that the Duke left the Earl's Instrument as perplexed and confounded when he went out of Spain as he had made the Treaty of Marriage when he came into it The Temper and Dissimulation of the Duke is so strange at his taking leave of Olivares as is I believe without all Example and also without any Care of the Safety of the Prince for the Duke told him after he had delivered the Instrument to stay the Delivery of the Proxy That he was obliged to the King and Queen and Infanta in an eternal Tie of Gratitude and that he would be an everlasting Servant to them and endeavour to do the best Offices for concluding the Match and strengthning the Amity between the two Crowns but as for himself Olivares he had so disobliged him that he could not without Flattery make the least Profession of Friendship to him Nor was the Ingratitude and Dissimulation of the Prince less than that of Buckingham for when the King of Spain had brought the Prince to the Escurial where the Prince and Duke after the delivery of the Instrument for staying the Proxy solemnly swore the Treaty of Marriage as you may read in Rushworth fol. 285. and the King and Prince had sworn a perpetual League of Friendship as the Bishop of Litchfield says the King at their Departure declared the Obligation which the Prince had put upon him the King by putting himself into his Hands a thing unusual with Princes and protested he earnestly desired a nearer Conjunction of Brotherly Affection for the more intire Unity between them The Prince answered him magnifying the high Favour which he had found during his Stay in his Court and Presence which had begotten such an Estimation of his Worth that he knew not how to value it but would leave a Mediatrix to supply his own Defects if he the King would make him so happy as to continue him the Prince in the good Opinion of her his Dear Mistress Yet the Prince so soon as he came on Ship-board was observed to say That it was a great Weakness and Folly in the Spaniards after they had used him so ill to grant him a free Departure and soon you 'll see both the Prince and the Duke urge the King James to break off the Match so solemnly sworn by them all and make War upon the Spaniards which was so dangerous to the Parliament to mention Having thus taken a View of the Duke's Prudence and deep Insight in Mysteries of State in managing this Match where King James's Proclamation could not restrain Men from talking of State-Affairs We will now take a View of the Duke's Profession in Religion that another may better judg whether he were more eminent in Religion or State-policy and herein I will take the Earl of Bristol's Charge upon him to be a full Proof since the Earl answered the Duke's Charges against him twice first before King James and afterward in Parliament in the 2d of King Charles without any reply and King Charles his dissolving the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to a Tryal upon the Articles which the Earl exhibited against him 1. The Earl in the said Articles charges the Duke that he did secretly combine with the Conde of Gundamor Ambassador from the King of Spain Anno 1622 to carry the Prince into Spain to the end he might be informed in the Roman Religion and thereby have perverted the Prince and subverted the true Religion established in England 2. That Mr. Porter was made acquainted therewith and sent into Spain and such Messages at his Return framed as might serve for a Ground to set on foot this Conspiracy the which was done accordingly and thereby the King and Prince highly abused and their Consents thereby gotten for the said Journey viz. after the Return of the said Mr. Porter which was about the latter end of December or beginning of January 1622. whereas the Duke plotted it many Months before 3. That the Duke at his Arrival in Spain nourished the Spanish Ministers not only in the Belief of his being popishly affected but did both by absenting himself from all Exercises of Religion constantly used in the Earl of Bristol's House and frequented by all other Protestant English and by conforming himself to please the Spaniards in divers Rites of their Religion even so far as to kneel and adore the Sacrament from time to time give the Spaniards Hopes of the Prince's Conversion the which he endeavoured to procure by all means possible and thereby caused the Spanish Minister to propound far worse Conditions for Religion than had been propounded by the Earl and Sir Walter Ashton setled and signed under the K. and Prince's Hand with a clause of the K. of Spain's Answer Dec. 12. 1622 that they held the Articles agreed on sufficicient and such as ought to induce the Pope to grant the Dispensation 4. That the Duke having several times moved and pressed the King James at the Instance of the Conde of Gundamor in the presence of the Earl of Bristol to write a Letter to the Pope and to that purpose having once brought a Letter ready drawn wherewith the Earl of Bristol by his Majesty being made acquainted did so strongly oppose the writing any such Letter that during the Abode of the said Earl in England the Duke could never obtain it but not long after the Earl was gone he the Duke procured such a Letter to be written from the King James to the Pope and to have him stiled Sanctissime Pater 5. That the Pope being informed of the Duke's Inclination and Intention in point of Religion sent unto him a particular Bull
more but to tell me who is your Ingineer that struck these Sparks out of the Flint to light the Candle to find the Groat which was lost The Prince stood mute and the Duke vowed he knew not the Author Well said the King I have a good Nostril and will answer mine own Question my Keeper had the main finger in it I dare swear he bolted the Flower and made it up into Past Sir said the Prince I was precluded by my Promise not to reveal him but I never promised to tell a Lie for him your Majesty has hit the Man And God do him good for it says the King I need not tell you both what you owe him for this Service he has done himself this Right with me that I discern his Sufficiency more and more This you may read in the Keeper's Life Part 1. from fol. 195 to fol. 200. and much more of the Bishop but I think but little more of the Keeper And tho the Spanish Ambassador received a sore Rebuke here and was sent back into Spain the Bishop says he received no Frown nor Disfavour there Now let 's see how the Duke requited the Keeper for his Service which was but in May In the beginning of Michaelmas-Term following the Duke perswaded my Lord Chief Justice Hobart to tell the King or give it under his hand that my Lord Keeper was not fit for the Place and he would undertake to cast the Keeper out and put my Lord Hobart into his place but my Lord Hobart said Somewhat might have been said at first but he should do my Lord Keeper great wrong that said so now See fol. 201. However such was the Temper of the Times that both Houses chimed in with the Duke in his Narrative and justified him against the Spanish Ambassador who took great Offence at the Duke's Relation as reflecting upon his Master's Honour and demanded his Head for Satisfaction The King was so pleased with the Parliament's Justification of the Duke as we have shewed before that as he had been his Favourite Somerset's Advocate to plead his Cause against the Opinion of Archbishop Abbot to make the Countess of Essex to be virgo intacta and so a fit Wife for Somerset so now he becomes his Disciple Buckingham's Advocate to make him a Favourite to the Nation and because of the Excellency and veracity of his Speech which should dispose the Nation to it we 'll give it you verbatim as it is to be seen in Rushworth fol. 127. My Lords and Gentlemen I Might have nothing to speak in regard of the Person whereof you spake but in regard of your Motion it were not civil for if I be silent I shall neither wrong my self nor that Noble Man which you now spake of because he is well known to be such an one as stands in no need of a Prolocutor or Fideâ—ussor to undertake for his Fidelity or well carrying of the Business And indeed to send a Man upon so great an Errand whom I was not to trust for the Carriage thereof were a Fault in my Discretion scarce compatible to the Love and Trust I bear him It is an old Saying That he is a happy Man that serves a good Master and it is no less true That he is a happy Master that enjoys a faithful Servant The greatest Fault if it be a Fault or at leastwise the greatest Error I hope he shall ever commit against me was his desiring this Justification from you as if he had need of any Justification from others towards me and that for these Reasons First Because he being my Disciple and Scholar he may be assured he will trust his own Relation Secondly Because he made the same Relation to me which he did afterwards to both Houses so as I was formerly acquainted with the Matter and Manner thereof and if I should not trust him in the Carriage I was altogether unworthy of such a Servant He hath no Interest of his own in the Business He had ill Thoughts at home for his going thither with my Son altho it was my Command as I told you before and now he hath as little Thanks for his Relation on the other part he has the Thanks of the Parliament yet he that serves God and a good Master cannot miscarry for all this I have noted in the Negotiation these three remarkable things Faith Diligence and Discretion whereof my Son has born Record unto me yet I cannot deny That as he thought to do good Service to his Master he has given an ill Example to Ambassadors in time to come because he went this long Journey upon his own Charge This will prove an ill Example if many of my Ambassadors should take it for a Precedent He run his Head into the Yoke with the People here for undertaking the Journey and when he had spent there 40 or 50000 l. where should he have this Money never offered his Account nor made any Demand for the same nor ever will I hope other Ambassadors will do so no more I am a good Master that never doubted him for I know him to be so good a Scholar of mine that I say without Vanity he will not exceed his Master's Dictates and I trust the Report not the worst he made because it is approved by you all and I am glad he hath so well satisfied you and thank you heartily for taking it in so good part as I find you have done Did ever any old experienced King as he stiles himself so dote upon a young raw and unexperienced Gentleman bred up in no sort of Learning or Business and scarce before he became a Courtier unless in his Infancy breathed any other than French Air as in the face of the Nation to magnify an invidious Tale told by the Duke to the Offence not only of the Spanish Ambassador conversant in the whole Affair but also without hearing the Earl of Bristol who was the greatest Statesman of England if not in Europe and who had so honourably performed several Embassies to the Honour of the King so far as the thing would bear and so manifoldly owned by the King That this Scholar of the King 's unacquainted with the Treaty should break in upon the Earl and not only unravel all but quarrel with him and in another King's Court with the prime Minister of State by whom he might best have attained his End if he designed any However the Parliament address themselves to the King and represent to him That he cannot in Honour proceed in the Treaty of the Match with Spain nor the Palatinate and the Commons offer the King three Subsidies and three Fifteenths for carrying on the War for the Recovery of the Palatinate in case the King will break off the Treaties which the King accepted protesting to God a Penny of this Money should not be bestowed but upon this Work and by their own Committees and the Commons took him at his Word and appointed
they might But these were no Considerations where Buckingham and Laud govern'd all and those worthy and honourable Statesmen the Archbishop of Canterbury the Keeper Williams and the noble Earl of Bristol were not only discountenanc'd but disgrac'd and not permitted to come into the Council How unsuccessful soever the Expedition was yet another Fate attended that Fleet lent to the French for the Dutch joining a Fleet in conjunction with the French Fleet commanded by the Duke of Momerancy fought the Fleet of the Rochellers and utterly subdued it and then reduced the Isles of Rhee and Oleron to the French Power But tho the miserable Fate of the Reformed began here yet the Dishonour of the English Nation shall soon after follow it so that now Richlieu might write florebunt Lilia Ponto Tho the King dissolved the first Parliament to prevent their impeaching Buckingham yet it was not in Buckingham's Power to supply the King's Necessities but they put him upon the Necessity of calling another And here you may see the little Artifices the King 's grand Ministers of State put him upon for the attaining his Ends and how quite contrary they succeeded There were five Persons whom the Duke took to be his Enemies if they were not so he had given them Cause enough to be so two of them were Peers and three of them Commoners the Peers were the Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Lincoln the Commoners were Sir Edward Coke Sir Robert Phillips a Person whose Memory I revere and should be glad I knew any of his Descendants to whom I could acknowledg it and Sir Thomas Wentworth these Persons the Duke feared would be leading Men in both Houses and was resolved that to his Power he would keep them out He was sure the Earl and the Bishop as Peers of Common Right would have their Writs of Summons and was as sure the other three would be chosen Members of the House of Commons In looking a little back you 'll better see forward You have heard how by the Duke's Power in King James's Reign the Earl of Bristol was first kept back from coming into England and after he was come over was kept under Restraint and denied Admission into the King's Presence lest he should have spoiled the Duke's fine Tale in Parliament concerning the Spanish Match and also after he had answer'd every Particular of it without any Reply and that after King James had promised the Earl should be heard in Parliament against the Duke as well as the Duke had been against the Earl King James fell sick and died thereupon before the Parliament met again After King James's Death the Earl wrote a most humble Letter to King Charles imploring his Favour and desiring the Duke's Mediation which the Duke answered the 7th of May 1625 that the Resolution was to proceed against him without a plain and direct Confession of the Point which he the Duke had formerly required him to acknowledg and in a courtly manner told him That he would advise him to bethink himself in time what would be most for his good In the mean time the Earl received his Writ of Summons to the Parliament whereupon the Earl sent to the Duke that he would do nothing but what was most agreeable to his Majesty's Pleasure which the Duke answered I have acquainted his Majesty with your Requests towards him touching your Summons to the Parliament which he taketh very well and would have you rather make your Excuse for your Absence notwithstanding your Writ than to come your self in Person Hereupon the Earl desired a Letter of Leave under the King's Hand for his Warrant but instead thereof he received from the Lord Conway an absolute Prohibition and even to restrain and confine him as he had been in King James's time tho the Earl was freed from it by King James and in this Restraint the Earl continued three Quarters of a Year during which time he was remov'd from all his Offices and Places he held during that King's Life and tho he had laid out the greatest part of his Estate for their Majesties Service and by their particular Appointment he could never be admitted so much as to clear his Accounts yet hereof the Earl never made the least Complaint Upon the King's Coronation when Princes usually confer Acts of Grace and Favour the Earl addressed himself to the Duke and then became an humble Suitor to the King for his Grace and Favour to which he receiv'd an Answer so different from what the King's Father and the King himself had given him since the Earl's Return into England that the Earl knew not what Construction to make of it After the Writs of Summons for the meeting of this Parliament were out the Earl addressed himself to my Lord Keeper Coventry to be a Suitor to the King in his behalf that the Privilege which of right is due to every Peer might not be denied him which not taking effect the Earl petitioned the House of Peers to mediate to the King for his Writ which was granted but accompanied with a Letter from the Keeper not to take his Place in Parliament As Bristol was the worthiest Statesman in either of these King's Reigns and whose Integrity in all these Varieties of Employments none but Buckingham and Conway presumed at least that I can find or ever heard of so much as to carp at so Lincoln's quaint and excellent not pedantick Learning both in Divinity History the Civil and Canon Law and not a Stranger to our English excelled all others These were adorned with a lively and excellent Elocution and with a wonderful promptness and presence of Mind in giving Judgment in the most nice and subtile dark Points of State and accompanied with an indefatigable Industry in Prosecution of them These Parts were so well observed in him by King James that without any Solicitation of Buckingham or any other but whilst he solicited for another the King conferr'd the Lord Keeper's Place upon him as you may read in his Life fol. 52. tit 62. and after unsought for the King promised him the next Avoidance of the Arch-bishoprick of York or any other Ecclesiastical Preferment and so steddy stood he in King James's Favour that Buckingham's Attacks could no ways shake him in it In Chancery he mitigated the Fees and all Petitions from poor Men were granted gratis and was so far from prolonging Suits that in the first Year he ended more than in seven Years before yet with such Caution that he would have some of the Judges but principally Sir Henry Hubbard to be assisting so that notwithstanding his Celerity in Dispatch in all the five Years of his being Lord Keeper not one of his Orders neither by Parliament nor by the Court of Chancery were ever revers'd Cardinal Richlieu is much celebrated for the Speech he made in the Convention of Notables which you may read at large in Howel's Life of Richlieu f. 162 163 164. to excite
at the Duke of Buckingham and wonders what had altered their Affections to him when in the last Parliament of his Father's time he was their Instrument to break the Treaties for which they did so honour and respect him that all the Honour conferred upon him was too little He wot not what had chang'd their Minds but assures them that the Duke had not meddled with or done any thing concerning the Publick but by his special Directions and was so far from gaining any Estate thereby that he verily thinks the Duke rather impaired the fame He would have them hasten the Supplies or it will be the worse for them for if any Ill happens he thinks he shall be the last that shall feel it The Commons had yet fresh in Memory the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford about six Months before and what Trust there was to this King's Word for Redress of Grievances so as it was done in a dutiful and mannerly Way after they had given Money and therefore they little altered their Course from what they had done at Oxford yet more than Parliaments heretofore did to have Grievances first redress'd and then to give Supplies for they voted to proceed upon Grievances and to give the King three Subsidies and three Fifteenths This gave the Duke little Satisfaction so that the King himself became the Duke's Advocate and told the Commons in a Speech which you may read in Rushw fol. 225. that he came to inform the Commons of their Errors and unparliamentary Proceedings so that they might amend their Faults which was enlarged by my Lord Keeper Coventry who told them of the King's Necessities and his Patience in Expectation of Supplies and of the King's Promise of Redress of Grievances after Supplies were granted That the Enquiry upon sundry Articles against the Duke upon Câ—nanâ—n Fame was to wound the Honour and Government of his Majesty and of his renowned Father and therefore it was his Majesty's final and express Command that they yield Obedience to those Directions which they formerly receiv'd and cease their unparliamentary Proceedings against the Duke and leave to his Majesty's Care Wisdom and Justice the future Reformation of those things which they supposed to be otherwise than they should be and that the King took notice that they had suffered the greatest Council of State The Duke and Laud to be censured and traduced by Men whose Years and Education cannot attain to that Depth Why then were the old Members kept out of the House which could have better informed them and that the three Subsidies and three Fifteenths were no ways proportionable to supply the King's Necessities c. and concludes that his Majesty doubts not but after this Admonition they will observe and follow it which if they do his Majesty is most ready to forgive all that is past Then the King added that in his Father's time by their Perswasion he was their Instrument to break off those Treaties and that then no Body was in so great Favour with 'em as the Man they seem now to touch but indeed his Father's Government and his and that Parliaments are altogether in his Power for their Calling Sitting and Dissolution and as he finds the Fruits they are to continue or not to be But if the Commons Proceedings against the Duke were erroneous and unparliamentary and through the Duke's Sides wounded not only the King's Government but that of his renowned Father and that the young Men in this House of Commons had censured and traduced the King's highest Council of State you shall now hear of an old Statesman in the House of Lords which shall not only cease the Wonder which caused the Parliament in the 21st of King James so to applaud the Duke but shall wound the whole Story which begat that great Applause to the Duke You have heard before how the Earl of Bristol was stopp'd at Calais from coming over into England after his Return out of Spain and after he came to Dover when the Duke could not prevail upon Marquiss Hamilton and the Earl of Hertford to have the Earl sent to the Tower upon his Arrival in England how he was stopp'd by a Letter from the Lord Conway that he should not come to Court nor to the King's Presence till he had answered to some Queries which his Majesty would appoint some of the Lords of the Council to ask him which was not done till the Parliament was adjourned and never met more and how after King James's Death the Earl was not only kept from his Liberty and the King's Presence but removed from all his Offices and Employments and not suffered to come to an Account for the Moneys expended in the King's Service and not permitted to come to the Parliament which was dissolved at Oxford Upon the King's Summons of this Parliament the Earl petitions the King to have his Writ of Summons which was never denied to any Peer to assist in the House of Peers but he received an Answer by the Lord Conway That the King was no ways satisfied in it and propounded to the Earl Whether he would rather sit still and enjoy the Benefit of the late King's Pardon in Parliament or to wave it and put himself upon Trial for his Negotiation in Spain and one of these he must trust to and give a direct Answer The Earl in Answer said He had been already question'd upon 20 Articles by a Commission of the Lords and had given such Answers that their Lordships never met more about that Business and that he did not wave the Pardon granted by King James in Parliament These Letters you may read at large in Rushworth fol. 138 139 140. Hereupon the Earl petitions the House of Lords shewing that he being a Peer of this Realm had not received his Writ of Summons to Parliament and desires their Lordships to mediate with his Majesty that he may enjoy the Liberty of a Subject and the Privilege of his Peerage after almost two Years Restraint without any Trial brought against him and that if any Charge be brought against him he prays he may be try'd by Parliament Hereupon the Lords petition the King that not only the Earl of Bristol but all such other Lords whose Writs are stopt except such as are made uncapable to sit in Parliament by Judgment of Parliament or some other legal Judgment may be summoned This nettled the Duke to the quick so that he told the House the King had sent the Earl his Writ but withal deliver'd such a Letter which the King sent to the Earl which I care not to transcribe but you may read it in Rushworth fol. 241. wherein this great Statesman Buckingham would have the Earl judged and censured by the King without hearing the Earl and thereby forestal the Judgment of the Lords against the Earl It 's true indeed my Lord Keeper Coventry sent the Earl a Writ of Summons to attend in Parliament but withal signified by a Letter
Exchequer where he pleaded and the King's Counsel demurring the Point in Law came to be argued on both sides Mr. Whitlock has a remarkable Passage of Judg Croke concerning his Opinion in the Case of which he speaks knowingly viz. that the Judg was resolved to give his Judgment for the King and to that end had prepared his Argument yet a few Days before he was to argue upon some Discourse with some of his nearest Relations and most serious Thoughts of the Business and being heartned thereto by his Lady who was a good and pious Woman told her Husband upon this Occasion That she hoped he would do nothing against his Conscience for fear of any Danger or Prejudice to him or his Family and that she was content to suffer Want or any Misery with him rather than be an Occasion for him to do or say any thing against his Conscience or Judgment Upon these and many the like Incouragements but chiefly upon better thoughts he suddenly altered his Purpose and Arguments and when it came to his turn contrary to Expectation he argued and declared his Opinion against the King and so did Judg Hutton after however the rest of the Judges gave their Opinions against Mr. Hambden However the King this Year to sweeten the Judges Opinion for levying Ship-Money set out a Navy of sixty Men of War to disturb the Dutch Fishing on the Coasts of England and Scotland under the Command of the Earl of Northumberland who seized and sunk several of the Dutch Busses whereupon they sued to the King for leave to fish promising to pay an Acknowledgment of 30000 l. per Annum But this ill agreed with the King's Reason for levying Ship-Money which was that Pirats infested our Coasts to the indangering the Safety of the Nation See William de Britaine f. 16 17. But if the Dutch were thus bold upon our Coasts by the Liberty granted them by Hugo Grotius they were much bolder in the East-Indies where they stile themselves Soveraigns of all the Seas in the World for Anno 1620 they seized upon two Ships of the English called the Bear and the Star in the Straits of Mallaca going to China and confiscated Ships and Goods valued at 150000 l. I suppose Grotius could not give a like Instance of any Dutch Ships so used for passing through the Channel and last Year viz. 1635 an English Ship called the Bona Esperanza going towards China by the Straits of Mallaca was violently assaulted by three Dutch Men of War the Master and many of the Men killed and the Ship brought into Mallaca and there the Ship and Goods were confiscate valued at 150000 l. and this very Year the Dragon and Katherine two English Ships of Sir William Courten valued at 300000 l. besides the Commanders and others who had great Estates in them were set upon by seven Dutch Men of War as they past the Straits of Mallaca from China and by them taken the Men tied back to back and thrown over-board the Goods taken out of the Ships which were sunk and seized for the State The State and Church of England thus established in Doctrine and Discipline the Arch-bishop's next Care was to have the same in Scotland and herein he was so absolute that the King told the Marquess Hamilton when he was his Commissioner in Scotland that the Arch-bishop was the only English-man he entrusted in the Ecclesiastical Affairs in Scotland and no Care need be had of the Church of Ireland since my Lord Viscount Wentworth was Lieutenant there who to all Intents pursued the Arch-bishop's Instructions Here let 's see how the Church stood in Scotland before the Arch-bishop undertook to reform it James the 5th of Scotland died the 13th of December 1542 leaving only one Daughter Mary but five Days old by Mary of Lorain his Wife Sister to Francis Duke of Guise and Charles Cardinal of Lorain two the most powerful Princes in France after King Henry the 2d and the most zealously addicted to the Popish Religion After the King's Death Cardinal Beaton got a Priest Henry Balfour to forge the King's Will whereby the Cardinal the Earls of Huntley Argile and Murray were to have the Government during the Queen's Minority but the Nobility not believing it chose the Earl of Arran Governour and Henry the King of England desiring to unite the Kingdoms by marrying his Son Edward with the Infant-Queen sent a solemn Embassy to the Governour and Council of Scotland to consent to this Marriage which was done only the Queen Dowager and the Cardinal dissenting and this was confirm'd by the Parliament convened at Edinburgh the 13th of March following Yet the Queen-Mother and Cardinal got the Queen to be married to Francis the Dauphin Son of Henry the 2d of France In this Parliament the Scots were permitted to read the Scripture in the English Tongue till the Prelates should publish one more correct But in the Year 1559 the Scots began their Reformation in Religion at Perth the intervening Accidents of the Scots Endeavours to reform and the Opposition by the Regent the Cardinal and the Prelates you may read in Bishop Spotswood's History of the Church of Scotland and Sir Melvil's Memoirs To suppress the Progress of this Reformation the Queen-Mother who was Regent calls in an Army and Navy of French to oppose them The Reformers call in an Army and Navy of English the English Fleet fire the French Ships in their Harbour and compel the French to leave Scotland and in 1560 the Queen Regent died leaving Scotland in a kind of Interregnum In August following a Parliament convened at Edinburgh by a Warrant from the King and Queen wherein the Mass and Popery were suppressed and the Reformation of the Kirk of Scotland in Doctrine and Discipline established but the King and Queen now of France as well as Scotland refused to confirm either nor was this Kirk-Doctrine and Discipline confirmed till the Queen was deposed and Murray made Regent in 1567. The Reformation was purely after the Mode of Calvin and Church of Geneva a Common-Prayer was ordained not strictly to be observed but as a Pattern of Prayer In it were ordained four sorts of Assemblies viz. National Provincial Weekly Meetings of Ministers and the Eldership of every Parish Superintendents were likewise established whose Office was to visit the Kirk within limited Places these had Power to cite and deprive Ministers but must be assisted by some grave Ministers next adjoining as also to ordain Ministers But the Hierarchy of the Church of Scotland as they were esteemed one of the States in Parliament was not then nor after taken away by Parliament nor their Power of Ordination and Visiting within their Diocesses yet in Visitation and Ordination the Superintendents had a concurring Power with the Bishops and the Bishops were subject to be cited and proceeded against for Scandal neglect of their Office Symony c. by the General Assemblies This Reformation viz. 1581 was subscribed by
King was knowing of both one was to have delivered the Earl of Strafford out of the Tower but Sir William Balfour the Lieutenant would not consent to it Here note The King made Balfour a Scot Lieutenant of the Tower one of the greatest Places of Trust in England without any Complaint of the Parliament whenas the Parliament of Scotland in their second Demand made to the King would have no Stranger to command or inhabit in any Castles of the King 's without their Consent The other part of this Treason chief of all the rest But why all when but two Mr. May says was a Design to bring up the English Army which was in the North and not yet disbanded this Army they had dealt with to engage against the Parliament's sitting and as they alledg to maintain the King's Prerogative Episcopacy and other things against the Parliament it self This Charge is so false as well as partial as no Man who had any regard to Truth Honesty or Fairness would have so expos'd himself for if the King's Prerogative be not maintain'd he can neither govern his Subjects nor protect them from Foreign Enemies and Episcopacy is one of the Constitutions of the Nation and how the maintaining these can be against the Parliament had need of a wiser Head than Mr. May's to shew But these two are not all Mr. May says but there were other things against the Parliament if there had been other things I do not think Mr. May would in Modesty have conceal'd them but since Mr. May has not given the Causes of this chief Treason I will do it and not follow Sir Richard Baker nor Franklin lest they should be deemed to be partial to the King's Cause but Mr. Whitlock whom no Man believes to be so who fol. 44. b. says June 19th It was voted that the Scots should receive 100000 l. of the 300000 l. the Scots by a Paper pretended Necessity for 125000 l. in present the Parliament took off 10000 l. of 50000 l. which they had appointed for the English Army and order'd it for the Scots The Lord Piercy Commissary Wilmot and Ashburnham Members of Parliament sitting together and murmuring at it Wilmo◠stept up and said That if such Papers of the Scots could procure Monies he doubted not but the Officers of the English Army would soon do the like and this caused the English Army to say The Parliament had disobliged them The Officers put themselves into a Juncto of sworn Secrecy and drew up some Heads by way of Petition to the King and Parliament for Money for the Army and not to disband before the Scots to preserve the Bishops Votes and Functions and to settle the King's Revenue The Army tainted from hence met and drew up a Letter or Petition which was shewed to the King approv'd and signed by him with C. R. and a Direction to Captain Leg that none should see it but Sir Jacob Ashley it should have been Astly the main drift was That the Army might be call'd up to attend the Safety of the King's Person and Parliament's Security or that both Armies might be disbanded Where is this chief Treason lodg'd unless in Mr. May's Brain Or where is the King's Prerogative mention'd But as the Times then went Mr. May took liberty to say what he list to humour them the Scots must be obey'd in whatsoever they demand and it must be chief Treason in the English to petition Mr. May p. 32 33. will have the King 's going into Scotland to be a Design to raise War against the Parliament of England and to that end tells a Story of a Scots Writer that published that it was to engage the Scots against the Parliament of England with large Promises of Spoil and offering Jewels of great Value for Performance of it but he names not the Scot and leaves it uncertain for the Reader to judg by what fell out afterward But if he the King did it was a matter of great Falshood Mr. May says having as yet declar'd no Enmity against the English Parliament From the same Author he says it was to make sure of those Noblemen of that Kingdom he doubted of as not willing to serve his turn against England and true it is that about September Letters came to the standing Committee at Westminster that a Treasonable Plot was discovered there against the greatest Peers of the Kingdom but says not which Kingdom upon which the standing Committee fearing some Mischief from the same Spring placed strong Guards in divers Places of the City of London But in all this the Fox is the Finder and Mr. May as partial and false as in all he said before The truth was Jealousies and Fears were fomented by the Parliamentarians and even by the Members themselves against the King and Royalists But Mr. Whitlock tho of like Affection with Mr. May yet a much more impartial Representer of the Actions of those Times fol. 49. a. represents it thus The Marquesses of Hamilton and Argyle withdrew from the Parliament in Scotland upon Jealousy of some Design against their Persons but upon Examination of that matter by the Parliament there it was found to be a Misinformation yet the same took fire in our Parliament upon the Surmises of some whereupon the Parliament here appointed Guards for London and Westminster and some spake 〈◊〉 without Reflection upon the King The Royalists charge the Parliament at least the Commons with a Design to raise War against the King and to make him odious to the People after he had granted all the Parliament desired of him and given up those whom they call'd evil Counsellors to their Justice for their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom after the King's return out of Scotland which because of the Extraordinariness of it we will recite it verbatim as is said by Mr. Whitlock f. 49. b. The House of Commons prepared a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom wherein they mentioned All the Mistakes Misfortunes Illegalities and Defaults in Government since the King 's coming to the Crown the evil Counsels and Counsellors and a malignant Party that they have no hopes of settling the Distractions of this Kingdom for want of a Concurrence with the Lords This Remonstrance was somewhat roughly penn'd both for the Matter and Expressions in it and met with great Opposition in the House insomuch as the Debate of it lasted from three a Clock in the Afternoon till ten next Morning and the sitting up all Night caused many of the Members through Weakness or Weariness to leave the House and Sir B. R. I think he means Sir Benj. Rudyard to compare it to the Verdict of a starv'd Jury When the Vote was carried tho not by many to pass the Remonstrance Mr. Palmer and two or three more made their Protestation against this Remonstrance for which they were sent to the Tower This Remonstrance was presently printed and published by the Parliament contrary to the King's Desire
by a Military Profession His Birth sorted with his Desires his Family being of great Antiquity and he no stranger to the Royal Blood one of his Maternal Ancestors being a Daughter but not Legitimate of Edward the Fourth At the Age of Seventeen Years he served King Charles the First in the unfortunate Expedition to Cadiz And at the Age of Eighteen he served in the more unfortunate Expedition to the Isle of Rhee yet was not his Courage daunted by these Misfortunes but he followed the Earl of Oxford General of the English in the Low-Country Wars against the Spaniard until the Civil Wars began to break out in England between the King and Parliament And the Irish Rebellion first breaking out he took a Commission from the Earl of Leicester agreed to be Lieutenant in Ireland by the King and Parliament against the Irish But the King and Parliament after falling out the King sent the Earl of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland and Monk took a Commission from him to serve against the Irish When the Scots came with an Army into England to assist the Parliament the King made a Cessation of Arms with the Irish and recalled the English sent to subdue the Irish to assist him against the English and Scots these in which Monk's Regiment was included were utterly defeated by Sir Thomas Fairfax joined with Sir William Brereton Gell Middleton and Mitton and Monk taken Prisoner and sent to the Tower where he continued near 4 Years In this time he fell into great Poverty and Want but was relieved by a near Kinsman of mine Sir R. C. then a Prisoner in the Tower with him and whilst he was a Prisoner did conform to the Prayers and Liturgy of the Church When the Parliament made the self-denying Ordinance thereby to depose the Earls of Essex and Manchester from their Commands as being more inclined to a Pacification with the King than the Parliament were willing they should be Cromwel knowing the Worth of Monk sent to him to take a Command in the Army to be new modelled under Fairfax and him which Monk accepted The Bishop of Ely who was Prisoner in the Tower with Monk told me that after he had accepted a Commission and was released from his Imprisonment Monk before he went out of the Tower went to visit the Bishop and beg his Blessing which after the Bishop had given him he said Now Colonel you have changed Sides we expect neither to see nor hear from you more the Colonel then protested He would never wear a Sword against the King It seems he did not think Fighting against the Irish and Scots was wearing a Sword against the King for he did not only wear but draw his Sword against them And tho he changed Sides he did not his good Nature to Sir R. C. For on the first opportunity after he came out of the Tower he took a Journey into the Country to visit Sir R. C. who was released out of the Tower a little before and to thank him for his Favours when they were Prisoners But lest Cromwel ' s assuming the Supreme Authority of the Nation should too much savour of Selfishness he having no Authority but from himself therefore he summons a Company of Men so many to be chosen by each County but not of like Number and others to be chosen by such Towns as he named to meet the 3d of September 1654 at Westminster He upon their Meeting and before he permitted them to enter the House told them That some Years ago none would have thought of such a Door of Hope That he knew there were yet many Humours and Interests and that Humours were above Interests That the Condition of the English was like Israel in the Wilderness That this was an Healing-Day There was neither Nobleman Gentleman nor Yeoman before known by any Distinctions We had not any that bore Rule or Authority but a great Contempt of Magistracy and Christ's Ordinance That the Fifth Monarchy was highly cry'd up by Persons who would assume the Government but that desired thing wanted greater Manifestation than appeared for such Men to change the Authority by He desired this Assembly to remedy all these Disorders shewed That the Wars with Portugal and France for yet he had not made Peace with it do and did eat up all the Assessments That Swarms of Jesuits are crept in to make Divisions which were grown so wide that nothing but Government could remedy them And let Men speak what they would he could speak it with Comfort before a greater than any of them Then he shewed what he had done during his Government First his Endeavours to reform the Laws next his filling the Benches with the ablest Lawyers then his Regulation of the Chancery and his Darling Ordinance for the Approbation of Ministers which hindred all that list from invading the Ministry by Men of both Perswasions Presbyterians and Independents c. And lastly his being instrumental in calling a Free Parliament which he valued and would keep it so above his Life But this Cant did little edify the greater part of the Members who again chuse Lenthal Speaker and fall upon a strict Enquiry into Cromwel's Instrument of Government which the Officer-Members oppose alledging That the Instrument was the Foundation of the Government by which they met and therefore could not be brought into Debate And Lambert said If the Parliament would not confirm them they would call another a Third and Fourth till 't was done Yet this frighted not the Republican Party who boldly said That the Government was usurped by Fraud and Force not procured by Right nor confirmed by the free Votes of the People that it laid Snares for the Liberty of the Common-wealth and made way for a most grievous Tyranny Nay one said Since we were so near approaching to Monarchy it were better to call one of the Royal Family to the Government than that Cromwel should usurp both Scepter and Crown These Debates nettled Cromwel to the quick so that in an unusual Heat he tells them these Debates would turn all things into Confusion and make them to return to their former Chaos And that they were to build upon the Foundation of the Instrument not to overturn it with a great deal more of such Stuff But if Admonition would not prevail he 'll try what may be done by Force so next Day he set a Guard upon the House who would let no Member enter but he who subscribed a Recognition To be faithful to the Protector and not to endeavour to change the Government of a single Person When many of the Republican Party refusing the Cromwellian Faction within Doors became near equal to the Republican The secluded Republicans rather exasperated than subdued by Cromwel's Repulse join with a Republican Party of the Army who consult how they might apprehend Cromwel and bring him to a Trial before the Parliament for his Treasons against the Common-wealth But Cromwel being quick-scented smelt
of State of Scotland and as Runnagadoes from Christianity become the greatest Persecutors of Christians so was Lauderdale of the Kirk and Presbyterian Government However Lauderdale seemed zealous for calling a Parliament in Scotland and demolishing the Forts thaâ— bridled the Scots which Monk opposed and hereby Lauderdale became popular in Scotland so that all Applications to the King from thence was by Lauderdale In this state it was not easily determined who should be Commissioner in Scotland in case a Parliament should be called for Affairs were not yet ripe enough to make a Popish one nor would the Court trust a Presbyterian one and Lauderdale would not forsake his Post at Court where he govern'd all but continue it that all the Motions in Parliament might receive their Life from him At last it was agreed That Middleton who first served the Kirk against King Charles I. and after changing Sides made some Bustle in Scotland after the King left it should be created an Earl and made Commissioner and a Parliament should be called in Scotland The Nobility and Gentry of Scotland clearly saw there was no other way to redeem Scotland from being a conquered Nation and a Province to England but by an entire Submission to the King Lauderdale knew this as well as they and therefore resolved to make them pay dear for their Deliverance and now you shall see the Nobility and Gentry which with the Kirk united against King Charles I. divide under his Son and sacrifice the Kirk and all their Discipline to make an Atonement for themselves The first Act which was shewed herein was upon this Occasion The firy Zeal of the Kirk-men burnt up all Rules of Prudence or the Consideration of the present State of Scotland so that even in this state Crowns and Scepters must submit to the Kirk And that the King might know his Duty a Company of them met together and drew up a Supplication as they said but in nature of a Remonstrance to the King setting forth the Calamities they groaned under in the Time of the Usurpers by their impious Incroachments upon the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Liberties thereof which of themselves they were not able to suppress and overcome and the Danger of the Popish and Prelatical Party now beginning again to lift up their Head they press him to mind his â—aths and Covenant with God c. The Committee of Estates well knowing how ungrateful this would be to the King upon the 23d of August 1660. sent a Party and apprehended these Men whereof one Mr. James Guthry was the chief of whom you 'll hear more hereafter and committed them Prisoners to Edinburgh-Castle and from thence Guthry was sent Prisoner to Dundee for treasonable and seditious reflecting on his Majesty and on the Government of England and the Constitution of the Committee of State and tending to raise new Tumults and kindling a new Civil War among his Majesty's good Subjects This was the first Spark which soon burnt into such a Flame as totally consumed the whole Kirk-Party in Scotland and left them in a much worse plight than before when they suffered under the Usurpation as they called it of the English For during the late Usurpations the Kirk enjoyed a Liberty of Conscience but it 's the Nature of some Men that unless they may persecute other Men they 'll exclaim they are persecuted themselves and therefore since they were not able to do it themselves they minded the King of his Covenant with God to extirpate Heresy Schism and Profaneness and to remove the stumbling which the King had given them in admitting Prelacy Ceremonies and Service-Book in the King's Chappel and other Places of his Dominions But these Men were mistaken in their Measures for after the King was expelled from Scotland by Cromwel he little I may say never observed the Directory of Worship Confession of Faith and Catechisms in his Family according to the National and Solemn League and Covenant as he repeated in his Coronation-Oath and less the establishing Presbyterian Government in England and Ireland and least of all in Scotland For one of the first Acts of the first Sessions was an Anniversary Thanksgiving to be observed on every May 29 with this Proem The States of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland taking into their Consideration the sad Condition Slavery and Bondage this antient Kingdom has groaned under these twenty three Years the time when the Troubles arose in K. Charles the First 's Reign in which under very specious Pretences of Reformation a publick Rebellion has been by the Treachery of some and Misperswasion of others violently carried on against sacred Authority to the Ruin and Destruction so far as was possible of Religion this King's Majesty and his Royal Government the Laws Liberties and Property of the People and all the publick and private Interests of the Kingdom so that Religion it self hath been prostituted for the Warrant of all these treasonable Invasions made upon the Royal Authority and disloyal Limitations upon the Allegiance of the Subjects Therefore upon the 29th of May be set apart for an Holy Day c. Yet soon after the King's Restoration he wrote to the Presbytery of Edinburgh promising to countenance the Church as by Law established But Lauderdale knew his Mind better Here it 's observable That in 1638 when the Kirk were so zealous with lifted-up Hands in the Presence of the Eternal God to swear to establish their National Covenant there was not one of the Nobility but the Popish except the Marquess of Hamilton and the Earl of Traquair but joined with the Kirk expresly against the King's Command Traquair the Kirk-Party proceeded against as an Incendiary and after Hamilton secretly joined with the Covenanters for which King Charles I. made him Prisoner in Pendennis-Castle from whence he was discharged when Fairfax had it surrender'd And not one of the Nobility except Argile and Cassels but declare this and all the Kirk-Proceedings since Treasonable Rebellion against the Laws Liberties and Property of the People and Prostitution of Religion and this Declaration was celebrated with a double Sacrifice the Marquess of Argile being executed as a Traitor for holding Correspondence with Cromwel and his Head set where Montross's stood on the Monday before and Mr. Guthry on Saturday after for refusing to own the Jurisdiction of the Judges in Ecclesiastical Affairs had his Head set upon one of the Ports of Edinburgh This was a sad Presage to the Kirk of what followed For as they without the King would impose their Solemn League and Covenant upon England now by the King and Parliament an Oath of Allegiance in the very Nature if not the Words of the Oath of Supremacy in England is imposed upon them wherein they are to swear That the King is the supreme Governour over all Persons and in all Causes c. and That they will maintain defend and assist his Majesty's Jurisdiction aforesaid against all
into Terms about it he was sure it might be done and desired Sir William to make a short Turn to the Prince and try if he could perswade the Prince to it But Sir William excused it and desired Mr. Hide now Earl of Rochester who was then at Nimeguen might do it but I don't find any thing came of it About the latter End of September as before noted the Prince took his Journey for England and landed at Harwich and from thence came to New-Market where the Court then was where he was kindly received by the King and Duke who both invited him often into Discourse of Business which the Prince avoided industriously so as the King bid Sir William ask the Prince the Reason of it the Prince told him he was resolved to see the young Princess before he enter'd into that Affair and get to proceed in that before the other of Peace whereupon the King to humour him left New-market some Days sooner than he intended and came to London The Prince at first sight was so pleased with her Person and all those Signs of such a Humour as had been before described to him that he immediately made his Suit to the King and Duke which was well received and assented to but upon Condition the Terms of Peace abroad might be first agreed to between them The Prince excused himself and said he must end his first Business before the other The King and Duke were both positive otherwise that that of Peace should precede but the Prince continu'd resolute for the former and said His Allies were like to have hard Terms of Peace as things stood and would be apt to believe he had made this Match at their Cost and for his part he would never sell his Honour for a Wife But the King and Duke continued in their Resolution for three or four Days In the Obstinacy of these contrary Resolutions between the King Duke and Prince Sir William Temple chanced to go to the Prince one Evening after Supper and found him in the worst Humour he had ever seen him in and told Sir William he repented he ever came into England and resolved he would stay but two Days longer if the King continued in his Mind of treating upon the Peace before Marriage and that before he went the King must chuse how they must live hereafter for he was sure it must be like either the greatest Friends or the greatest Enemies and pressed Sir William to let the King know so next Morning and give him an Account what he should say upon it Next Morning Sir William told the King all the Prince had said to him and the ill Consequences of a Breach between them considering the ill Humours of so many of his Subjects upon our late Measures with France and the Invitations made to the Prince by several of them during the late War The King heard Sir William with great Attention and when he had done said Well I was never deceived in judging of a Man's Honesty by his Looks and if I am not deceived in the Prince's Face he is the honestest Man in the World and I will trust him and he shall have his Wife and you shall go immediately and tell my Brother so and that 't is a thing I am resolved on Sir William did so and the Duke at first seemed a little surpriz'd but when Sir William had done the Duke said the King shall be obey'd and I would be glad all his Subjects would learn of me to obey him From the Duke Sir William went to the Prince and told him all this Story At first the Prince seem'd diffident but soon embraced Sir William and told him he had made him a very happy Man and that unexpectedly and so he left the Prince to give the King an Account of what passed and in the Prince's Ante-Chamber met my Lord Treasurer who undertook to adjust all the rest between the King and the Prince which he did so well that the Match was declared that Evening at the Committee before any other in the Court knew any thing of it When the Match was known the Nation entertained it with an universal Joy yet the French Ambassador and my Lord Arlington were displeased at it the French Ambassador because he had not given his Master an Account of it and my Lord Arlington because nothing of near such moment had passed and he not acquainted with it and within two or three Days after the Marriage was consummate The Prince having so happily gained the first part of his Design in coming into England the Terms of Peace were agitated immediately and Sir William Temple was admitted to be present at the Debates The Prince insisted upon the Strength and Enlargement of a Frontier on both sides of Flanders otherwise he said France would end this War with the View of beginning another and carrying Flanders in one Campagn The King was content to leave that Business a little looser upon Confidence that France was so weary of the War that if they could get out of it with Honour they would never begin another in this Reign that the King was past his Youth and lazy and would turn to the Pleasures of the Court and Buildings and leave his Neighbours at quiet But the Prince thought France would not make a Peace now but to break the present Confederacy and to begin another War with more Advantage and Surprize that their Ambition would never end till they had all Flanders and Germany to the Rhine and thereby Holland in an absolute Dependance upon them and us in no good one and that Christendom could not be left safe by the Peace without a Frontier as he proposed for Flanders and the Restitution of Lorain as well as what the Emperour had lost in Alsatia Sir William Temple told the King that in the Course of his Life he had never observed Mens Natures alter by Age or Fortune but that a good Boy made a good Man a young Coxcomb an old Fool and a young Fripon an old Knave that quiet Spirits were so and unquiet would be so old as well as young that he believed the French King would have always some Bent or other sometimes War sometimes Love sometimes Building but was of the Prince's Opinion that he would ne'r make Peace but with a Design of a new War after he had fixed his Conquests by the last The King approved of what Sir William had said and the Points of Lorain and Alsatia were easily agreed to by the King and Duke but they would not hear of the Restitution of the County of Burgundy tho it were part of the Spanish Netherlands which the King was obliged to protect against France by the Treaty of Aix as what France would never be brought to yet the Prince insisted much upon it which the King imagined was by reason of the Prince's own Lands in that Country which are greater and more Seignurial than those of the Crown of Spain there
January and the same Day issued out Writs for a new one to meet at Westminster the 6th of March following which was just 40 Days between the Test and Return In this Interval the Blaze of the Parliament's Vote of their Apprehensions of a damnable and hellish Popish Plot had taken deep Impressions in the Minds of Men in general and the Whigs taking Advantage of it in this short Interval run down the Tories without Opposition nay even the King himself apprehended there could be no Hopes of attaining his Ends in the next Parliament but by seeming zealous in the prosecuting the Discovery of the Popish Plot and that he would not longer be governed by Favourites and single Councils There had been several Debates in the House of Commons of the dangerous Consequences in reference to the Duke of York's Succession to the Crown and that the Bottom of the Popish Plot centred in the Duke's being a Papist and the presumptive Heir to the Crown but I do not find they came to any Vote upon it yet resolved upon the 8th of November to make an Address to the King That the Duke might withdraw himself from his Person and Councils and in Conformity therewith the Duke went or was sent into Holland and upon the meeting of the Parliament the King acquainted them how great things he had already done for the preventing the Progress of the Popish Plot as the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament and the Execution of several Men upon the Score of the Plot as well as the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey but above all that he had commanded his Brother from him because he would not leave malicious Men room to say he had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence him toward Popish Counsels and tells That as he had not been slack in putting the present Laws in Execution against Papists so he was ready to join in making such further Laws as may be necessary for the securing the Kingdom against Popery and then demands a Supply and concludes with his Desires to have this a healing Parliament The House chose Mr. Seymour the Speaker of the last Parliament to be their Speaker in this but the King rejected him which was no good Presage of a healing Parliament and so the Commons chose Mr. Serjeant Gregory and the King accepted him The Commons began where the last Parliament left in prosecuting their Impeachments against the Earl of Danby and the Popish Lords in the Tower but who should be first tried and what were the Jurisdiction of the Bishops Right of Voting in their Impeachments and their Judgments in Cases of Blood run quite through this Sessions wherein the Lords and Commons seldom agreed There were two things which made the Earl of Danby's Case more favourably spoken of one That tho he was prosecuted several Weeks after the Popish Lords were committed yet the Commons would not proceed in their Impeachments against the Popish Lords before the Lords had given their Judgments upon the Earl's Plea The other was a Vote of the Commons upon the 9th of May That no Commoner whatsoever should presume to maintain the Validity of the Earl of Danby ' s Pardon without Leave of the House first obtained and that the Persons so doing shall be accounted Betrayers of England and there was no Nobleman a profest Lawyer so that tho the Earl's Plea upon his Pardon was Matter of Law yet no Commoner must presume to plead his Cause The King besides his sending the Duke of York beyond Sea that the World might now see how otherways he was become a new Man for the future upon the 20th of April 1679 made this Declaration in Council and in Parliament and after publish'd it to the whole Nation how sensible he was of the ill Posture of his Affairs and the great Dissatisfaction and Jealousies of his good Subjects whereby the Crown and Government were become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from his use of a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore professed his Resolution to lay them aside for the future and be advised by those whom he had then chosen for his Council in all his weighty and important Affairs together with the frequent Advice of his great Council in Parliament and indeed in this Council were many worthy Members my Lord of Shaftsbury was President of it and the then Sir Henry Capel and Sir William Temple Members of it But this Declaration of the King 's added to the sending the Duke of York into Holland had not the King 's desired Effect the Commons besides the Dread of the Popish Plot as well at present but more in consequence after the King had declared he would not alter the Succession of the Crown in the right Line were no ways satisfied with the Disbursements of the Money nor the disbanding the Army yet were resolved it should be done and voted another Sum of 26462 l. for it but it was not carried without some Difficulty that these Monies should be paid into the Exchequer but Chamber of London however the Commons carried That the Money so raised should be appropriated to that Use and to that End appointed Commissioners to disband the new-rais'd Army and so voted That the Continuance of any standing Forces in this Nation other than the Militia to be illegal and a great Grievance and Vexation to the People hereby meaning the King's Guards They also ordered a Bill to be brought in for annexing Tangier to the Imperial Crown of England and voted That those who did advise the King to part with Tangier to any foreign Prince or State or were instrumental therein ought to be accounted Enemies to the King and Kingdom But how jealous soever the Commons were of the King yet they conceived it was his Life which secured them from the Fears they dreaded of the Duke's coming to the Crown and therefore upon the 11th of May voted Nemine contradicente That in Defence of the King's Person and the Protestant Religion this House does declare that they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come to an untimely End which God forbid they will revenge it upon the Papists It seems the Commons had more Care of the King than he had of himself for he not only countenanced the Plotters but ridiculed the Plot. In his Speech at the opening this Parliament he told them he had not been idle in discovering the Plot and in the last he told Sir William Temple he was displeased with the Earl of Danby for bringing the Popish Plot into Parliament against his absolute Command Oliver's Professions and Actions never appeared so hypocritical and deceitful as this King 's and all this after the Parliament had voted there was a hellish Conspiracy by the Papists against his Life and this proved by a Cloud of Witnesses agreeing in the Manner and Circumstances of it as Oates
Man be asked his Opinion of any Law or Point in Law and he gives it according to the best of his skill shall this be taken for Treason and depraving of the Law and a Man be in danger of his Life for it This was the Earl's Case he was called upon by the Duke to take the Test with his Explanation before he did it and whereas Mackenzy says there was no Force upon the Earl I 'm sure if my Author says true the Earl refused to give in the Paper whereof he is indicted and proffered to lay down his Offices upon it till the Duke peremptorily commanded him to do it if this were not Force I would know what is I 'm sure there was no Force but Corruption and Bribery upon the Advocate to enter into this villanous Conspiracy against this Noble Earl to murder him under the Pretext of Justice which is to be esteemed sacred And let any Man read his whole Harangue and see if there be any thing in it but forced and strained Inferences or any one Proof against the Earl within the Act 60 Parl. 6. Mary or the 9 Act. Par. 20. Jac. 6. which makes it Treason to make false Construction of Laws to others with a Design to raise Sedition and Dissension among the King's Subjects so that some Overt Act or Speech to others with a Design to raise Sedition c. must be proved and not what is said in the Council or any Court of Judicature However as was the Advocate such were the Assizers whereof the Marquess of Montross the Earl's Father's most bitter Enemy was the Fore-Man and the rest of the Pack of the same Stamp who with one Voice found the Earl guilty of Treason Leasing-making and Leasing-telling but like conscientious Men having made the Earl to have forfeited his Life Honour and Estate by a Majority they find the Earl innocent of Perjury which they could get nothing by So that the Noble Lord Lorn is become the Forlorn late Earl of Argyle yet the Earl not to be wanting to himself in this deplorable State next day but one viz. December the 15th by a Friend humbly intreated to speak with the Duke who returned Answer It was not ordinary to speak with Criminals except with Rogues on some Plot where Discoveries might be expected By this you may see what Spirit governed this Prince and what might be expected from him if he became King The next Day after the Earl's Sentence viz. December the 14th the Council gave the King notice of it and expected his further Pleasure now the Work is done to his Hand but it seems his Highness was very impatient till he had the Earl's Blood for he said If the Express from the King came not timously he would take upon himself what was to be done by which you may see what an Ascendency the Duke had over the King However the Earl upon the sixteenth petitioned the Duke that he might send a Petition to the King which was refused Things brought to this Extremity and the Earl hearing that some Troops and a Regiment of Foot were to be brought down from the Castle to the Common Goal from which Criminals were usually brought to Execution he resolved to try to make his Escape and the rather because about seven at Night he had notice that new Orders were given for further securing him and that the Castle Guards were to be doubled and that none were suffered to go out without shewing their Faces and therefore a Friend advised him not to attempt it No said the Earl now is the Time and so he attempted it and it pleased God he escaped Hereupon the Lords of Assize upon the twenty third of December pronounced the Earl guilty of the Crimes of Treason Leasing-making and Leasing-telling for which being detained in the Castle of Edinburgh out of which since the Verdict having made his Escape therefore they adjudged the said Earl to be executed to Death and his Name Memory and Honours to be extinct and his Arms to be riven forth and delete out of the Book of Arms swa that his Posterity may never have Place nor be able hereafter to bruick or joyse any Honour Offices Titles or Dignities within this Realm iâ— time coming and to have forefaulted all his Lands and Tenements c. But tho the Earl be escaped out of Prison whereto shall he flee For Terras I 'am sure Britannicas Astraea reliquit he had some thoughts of casting himself at the King's Feet but those soon vanished for the same Counsel which governed in Scotland raged all England over and so privately he passed into Holland where for some time we leave him and see what 's doing in England Mr. Hawles in his Remarks upon Fitz-Harris's Trial F. 18. out of Tully's Offices lays this down for a Rule That nothing is profitable but what is honest for which Tully gives many Reasons but nothing so convincing as the Examples he brings in publick and private matters and tho the Empire was vast and he bore a great Figure in it and was very knowing in the Greek and Roman Histories yet was he not able to bring a hundredth Part of Examples to prove his Position as had been in this little Island in the space of eight Years And in his Preface gives six Reasons for the Disaffection to the late Government viz. Exorbitant Fines cruel and illegal Prosecutions outragious Damages dispensing with the Test and penal Laws and undue Prosecutions in criminal but more especially in capital Matters But these I take to be the Effects of those Councils which governed in England ever after the King's Restoration tho they did not so manifestly appear till the Duke was sent into Scotland and after the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford and for these first six Years after the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford the Tories in England as well as in Scotland were the Tools which the Popish Faction made use of for carrying on their Designs then they were laid by and the Whigs set up as they thought to finish the Work The Tories were so far from being suppressed by the Proceedings of the Commons against them last Westminster Parliament that they only so much more irritated them against the Whigs after the Dissolutions of the last Westminster and Oxford Parliaments and this was what the Popish Party desired The King's Declaration signed Francis Gwyn was not only obeyed by the Tories but entertained with unexpressible Joy and celebrated with manifold Returns of Thanks to his Majesty and now nothing but Halcyon Days were expected and an absolute Dominion over the Whigs and the King to gratify the Tories in their Jollity and after the Bill for repealing the Act of 35 Eliz. was taken out of the House of Lords before it was passed which little sorted with the King's Declarations of Indulgence has this Law now put in Force against the Dissenters and prosecuted with that Violence that many thousands of Families
the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoign and Guienne General Governor of the Seas and Ships of the Kingdom Master of the Horse to the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and of the Members of the same Constable of Dover-Castle Justice in Eyre of all the Forests and Chases on this side of Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Gentleman of his Majesty's Bed-Chamber one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council in his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter But tho all others worshipped this prodigious Favourite yet Arch-bishop Abbot a Prelate of Primitive Sanctity and Integrity would not flatter neither the King nor his Favourite in their Courses so dangerous to the Church and State and dishonourable to the King and tho in Disgrace he wrote this following Letter to the King which you may read in Rushworth fol. 85. May it please your Majesty M I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it has pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in But now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty and therefore freely to give me leave to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you to take into your Consideration what that Act is what the Consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up the most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How hateful will it be to God and grievous to your Subjects the Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath so often and learnedly disputed and written against those Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those wicked Doctrines which your Pen hath to the World and your Conscience tells your self are superstitious idolatrous and detestable and hereto I add what you have done by sending the Prince into Spain without the Consent of your Council the Privity or Approbation of your People and altho you have a Charge and Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet the People have a greater as Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty are their Eyes fixed and their Welfare depends and so tenderly is his going apprehended as I believe however his Return may be safe yet the Drawers of him into this Action so dangerous to himself so desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestion'd and unpunished Besides the Toleration which you endeavour to set up by your Proclamation cannot be without a Parliament unless your Majesty will let your Subjects see that you will take to your self the Ability to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dread Consequence these things may draw afterwards I beseech your Majesty to consider and above all lest by this Toleration and discountenancing the true Profession of the Gospel wherewith God hath blest us and this Kingdom hath so long flourished under it your Majesty doth not draw upon this Kingdom in general and your self in particular God's Wrath and Indignation I have heard my Father say that King James kept a Fool called Archy if he were not more Knave whom the Courtiers when the King was at any time thoughtful or serious would bring in with his antick Gestures and Sayings to put him out of it In one of these Modes of the King in comes Archy and tells the King he must change Caps with him Why says the King Why who replies Archy sent the Prince into Spain But what said the King wilt thou say if the Prince comes back again Why then said Archy I will take my Cap from thy Head and send it to the King of Spain which was said troubled the King sore But if we look back into Spain we shall see things of another Complection than when Buckingham came into it For now he is disgusted he put the Prince quite out of the Match as that tho all things were agreed upon the coming of the Dispensation from Rome so as King James said all the Devils in Hell could not break the Match yet his Disciple and Scholar could tho the Duke had certified the King the Match was brought to a happy Conclusion and the Match publickly declar'd in Spain and the Prince permitted Access to the Infanta in the Presence of the King and the Infanta was generally stiled the Princess of England and in England a Chappel was building for her at St. James's and the King had prepared a Fleet to fetch her into England which only proved to bring back his Son How things especially actuated by Love should stay here may seem strange yet such an Ascendant had Buckingham over the Prince that the Affront put upon him Buckingham must quite deface the Prince's vowed Love and Affection to the Infanta but how to prevail with King James to comply might have an appearance of some Difficulty since the King had set his Rest upon it and had quarelled with the Parliament and dissolv'd them in great Anger and Fury for but mentioning it After the Duke had gained the Prince to break or at least not to observe the Conditions of the Treaty of the Marriage with the Infanta so solemnly sworn to by both the Kings and the Prince let 's now see how he behaved himself to King James afterwards but this will be better understood if we look back and see how things stood before the Prince's and Duke's Arrival in Spain The Prince's going into Spain was not only kept secret from King James ' s Council but from my Lord Keeper Williams tho the King confided in his Abilities above all the other of his Council but when it had taken vent the King asked the Keeper what he thought Whether the Knight Errant's Pilgrimage meaning the Prince's would prove lucky to win the Spanish Lady and to convey her shortly into England Sir answered my Lord Keeper If my Lord Marquess will give Honour to Conde Duke Olivares and remember he is the Favourite of Spain or if Olivares will shew honourable Civility to my Lord Marquess remembring he is a Favourite of England the Wooing may be prosperous but if my Lord Marquess should forget where he is and not stoop to Olivares or if Olivares forgetting what Guest he hath received with the Prince bear himself haughtily and like a Castilian to my Lord Marquess the Provocation may be dangerous to cross your Majesty's good Intentions and I pray God that either one or both do not run into that Error The Answer of the Keeper took such Impression upon the King that he asked the Keeper if he had wrote to his Son and the