THE SECOND PART OF THE CONFUTATION OF THE Ballancing Letter CONTAINING AN Occasional Discourse In Vindication of Magna Charta LONDON Printed for A. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane M. DCC The PREFACE I Have seen several Objections published against the Former Part wherein if that Author could have shewn me any one Fault I would have thank'd him and mended it but I do not write Books for such as after a long search to find a Knot in a Bullrush make one That I may not give him nor any body else any Offence by my false Inferences cloudy Reasonings Mistakes or Misapplications whatsoever I shall barely set down two or three Quotations which are able to speak dispute argue and answer for Themselves The first is to shew that for a King of England to have standing Forces or Men at Arms is contrary to the English Constitution or else Mr. Bacon who has given us an excellent Book of it collected out of Mr. Selden's Manuscript Notes has strangely mistaken it For his own words upon Henry the Seventh's instituting a Guard of 50 Archers are these Bacon of the Laws and Government of England Part 2. p. 114. That Guard of his Person he only pretended as a Ceremony of State brought from the French Court and yet it is strange that it went so well down with a free People For that Prince that will keep Guards about his Person in the midst of his own People may as well double them into the pitch of an Army whensoever he pleases to be fearful and so turn the Royal Power of Law into Force of Arms. But it was the French Fashion and the King 's good hope to have all taken in the best sense This is so well known that the very Author himself of the Ballancing Letter has these words Page 3. lin 15. Any Man who would pretend to give a Iealousy of the Nation to the King and suggest that he could not be safe among them without he were environ'd with Guards and Troops as it was in the late Reigns ought to be abhorred by every true English man by every Man who loves Liberty and his Country My other Quotations are about an incidental Point which fell into my former Discourse concerning the Admission of Foreigners into England This according to the sense of all Antiquity is giving them our Country The words in K. John's Charter at Runningmead concerning them are these M. P. p. 261. Et nos amovebimus omnes alienigenas à terra Parentes omnes Girardi de Athies Engelardum scilicet Andream Petrum Gyonem de Chanceles Gyonem de Cigvini uxorem praedicti Girardi cum omnibus liberis suis Gaufridum de Martenni fratres ejus Philippum Marc fratres ejus G. nepotem ejus Falconem Flandrenses omnes ruptarios qui sunt ad nocumentum Regni Here K. John is to amo ve Aliens out of the Land both all and some as a Nusance to the Realm And to conclude my last Quotation is one of the Statutes made at Oxford 42 H. 3. founded upon K. John's Charter Knyghton Col. 2445. l. 50. and in pursuance of it Statuerunt etiam Quod omnes alienigenae cujuscunque conditionis existerent seu nationis confestim repatriarent sub poena membrorum vitae That all Aliens of whatsoever Condition they were or Nation should forthwith repair home under the penalty of Life and Limb. The Act is General but no body can say that it is an Act for a General Naturalization A VINDICATION OF Magna Charta IN order to this I shall first shew That Magna Charta is much elder than King Iohn's time and consequently that its Birth cannot be blemished with any thing that was done in his time tho his Confirmation of it had been really extorted by Rebellion Secondly That the Confirmations which were had and procured to it in King Iohn's and H. 3. time were far from being gained by Rebellion First of all The Contents of Magna Charta is the undoubted Inheritance of England being their Antient and Approved Laws so antient that they seem to be of the same standing with the Nation and so well approved De Laud. Leg. Aug. that Fortescue applauding our Laws triumphs in this That they passed thro all the British Roman Danish Saxon and Norman times with little or no alteration in the main Now says he if they had not been liked by these People they would have been altered Accordingly in this last Norman Revolution King William the First falsely and flatteringly called the Conqueror swore to the inviolable Observation of them under this Title of the Good Antient and Approved Laws of the Realm and particularly and by name K. Edward's Laws So antient is the Matter and Substance of Magna Charta Secondly Nor was the manner and form of granting these Laws by Charter or under Hand and Seal with the Confirmation of an Oath over and above the Coronation Oath any new Invention or Innovation at all for as William 1. began it so I am sure that H. 1. and K. Stephen and H. 2. did the same before And therefore if the obscure Birth of M. Charta was in K. Iohn's time it was then born with a grey Beard for it was in being in his Great Grandfather's Reign For thirdly That very Charter of his Great Grandfather H. 1. was the Ground and Reason of the Parliament's insisting upon having the like Confirmation of their Liberties by K. Iohn and was the Copy by which they went A. D. 1213. Reg. 15. For tho K. Iohn at his Absolution at Winchester from the Pope's Sentence and Excommunication had solemnly sworn to restore the good Laws of his Predecessors and particularly those of K. Edward and tho presently after at a Parliament at St. Albans the Laws of K. H. 1. were ordained to be observed throughout all England and all bad Laws to be abolished yet contrary to both these late Engagements he was marching an Army in all haste to fall upon several of his Barons who had lately failed in following him in an intended Expedition into France But the Archbishop stopt him in this Career by following him to Northampton and there telling him that it would be a breach of his Oath at his late Absolution to make war upon his Subjects without Judgment in Parliament The King huft him and told him That this was Lay business and that he would not delay the Business of the Kingdom for him and by break of day next morning marches hastily towards Nottingham The Archbishop still follows him assuring him that he would excommunicate all his followers if they proceeded any further in this hostile way and never left him till he had set a day for a Parliament that the Barons might there answer it This Parliament was held at London at St. Paul's Church where before it ended the Archbishop took some of the Lords apart and put them in mind how he made the King swear at
Winchester to restore the good Laws of K. Edward and cause them to be observed by all the Realm And now says he there is likewise found a certain Charter of H. 1 King of England by which if you please you may be able to restore your long lost Liberties to their former state and condition and producing the Charter he caused it to be read all over in their hearing Which the Lords having heard and understood were overjoy'd and swore in the presence of the Archbishop That when they saw it convenient for these Liberties if need were they would spend their Lives The Archbishop for his part promised them his most faithful aid and assistance to the utmost of his power and after this Association was thus entred into the Parliament broke up There had past but 113 years since the Grant of H. 1. Charter and though there were then made as many Charters as there were Shires directed to the Sheriff of every County to proclaim them for this is directed to Hugh de Bocland Sheriff of Herefordshire and by the King 's express Order were to be laid up in the Abbys of the several Counties for a Monument yet because the thing was beyond the memory of Man and that Age not very conversant with Book-learning or Records it seems not to be known to them and the Archbishop says Inventa est quoque nunc Charta quaedam H. 1. But when the Lords had once seen it they were so fond of it that they got it away from the Archbishop and the next year about Michaelmas when the King was returning out of France the Earls and Barons met at St. Edmondsbury it might be thought for Devotion but it was to consult about their Liberties and there the Charter of H. 1. which contained their Laws and Liberties was again produced and treated of amongst them After which they all went to the High Altar and there swore in order beginning at the Greatest That if the King should refuse to confirm by his Charter the said Laws and Liberties being the Rights of the Kingdom they would make War upon him till he did And likewise at last by common consent they came to this Resolution That they would all go together to the King after Christmas and desire him to confirm the said Liberties And in the mean time that they would make such provision of Horses and Arms that in case the King should start from his late Oath wherein he promised it which they had too much reason to believe because of his doubleness they might then compel him to performance by seizing his Castles Accordingly after Christmas they came to the King in a gay military Habit and desired the Confirmation of their antient Liberties as they were contained in writing in the Charter H. 1. and the Laws of K. Edward They affirmed likewise that by his Oath at Winchester he had promised those Laws and Liberties and that he was already bound to keep them by his own Oath The King seeing the Constancy and Resolution of the Barons in their Demand did not think fit to deny them but desired respite and time to consider of it being a weighty business till after Easter and after several Proposals on both sides the King very unwillingly set a day and the Archbishop Bishop of Ely and Lord Marshal were his Sureties that then they should all of them have satisfaction given them in reason Upon this the Lords went home But the King in the mean time by way of precaution caused all the whole Realm to swear fealty to him alone against all Men and to renew their Homages And as a farther Security and Protection more than out of Devotion at Candlemas following he took upon him the Cross. In Easter-week the forementioned Lords met at Stanford who now had drawn together in favour of them almost all the Nobility and principal Gentry of England So that they amounted to a numerous Army and the sooner because K. Iohn had rendered himself universally hated In this Retinue were 2000 Knights besides all others of lower rank Horse and Foot diversly armed The King was then at Oxford expecting the coming of the Parliament On the Monday following these associated Barons came to Brackley which when the King understood he sent to them the Arch-Bishop the Lord Marshal E. of Pembroke and several other sage Persons to know what were the Laws and Liberties they required which they presently delivered in a Schedule to those that came from the King affirming that if he would not forthwith confirm them under his Seal they would compel him by seizing his Castles Lands and Possessions till he gave them competent satisfaction in the Premises Then the Arch-Bishop with the rest of his Company carrying this Schedule to the King rehearsed all the Chapters or Heads of it before him memoritè But when the King understood the Purport of it he laugh'd and said with the utmost Indignation and Scorn And why do not the Barons together with these unjust Demands demand my Kingdom The things they ask said he are idle and superstitious and not supported by any tittle or pretence of Reason And at length in a great rage he affirm'd with an Oath That he would never grant them such Liberties whereby he himself should be made a Servant When therefore the Arch-Bishop and Earl of Pembroke could in no wise gain the King's Consent to these Liberties by his command they returned to the Barons and there reported just what the King had said in order Whereupon the Barons presently chose them a General and flew to their Arms and marcht directly to Northampton to seize that Castle But having spent 15 days in that fruitless Attempt having no Petards nor other warlike Instruments to carry on a Siege somewhat abashed with this Disappointment they marcht to Bedford where they were kindly received and by Messengers sent to them from the principal Citizens were invited to London When they were come thither they sent Letters to all the Earls Barons and Knights that as yet seemed to adhere to the King tho it were but feignedly That as they tender'd their Estates they should leave a perjur'd King and come and join them and effectually engage with them for the Liberties and Peace of the Realm otherwise they threatned to treat them as publick Enemies Upon which most of the Lords who had not as yet sworn to the said Liberties wholly leaving the King came to London and there associated with the Barons King Iohn seeing himself thus generally forsaken so that he had hardly seven Knights remaining with him and fearing lest the Barons should insult his Camp which they might easily have done without opposition he betook himself to fraud and dissembling pretending Peace when he had immortal War in his Heart resolving hereafter to oppress the Barons singly whom he could not all at once He therefore sends to them the E. of Pembroke and other Persons of Credit with this Message That for the Benefit
Writer's Pen So that it is not to be expected we shall hear any more of the Welsh And yet the same Summer when they baffled the King's Expedition against them he rejoices that their Martial Business prospered in their hands For he says that their Cause seemed to be a just Cause even to their Enemies And that which heartned them most was this that they were resolutely fighting for their antient Laws and Liberties like the Trojans from whom they were descended and with an original Constancy P. 952. Wo to the wretched English that are trampled upon by every Foreigner and suffer their antient Liberties of the Realm to be pufft out and extinguished and are not ashamed of this when they are taught better by the Example of the Welsh O England thou art justly reputed the Bondwoman of other Countries and beneath them all What thy Natives earn hardly Aliens snatch away and carry off It is impossible for an honest Man ever to hate his Country but if it will suffer it self to be oppressed it justly becomes at once both the pity and scorn of every understanding Man and of them chiefly that love it best But as we cannot hate our Country so for the same reason we cannot but hate such a Generation of Men as for their own little ends are willing to enslave it to all posterity wherein they are worse than Esau for he only sold his own Birthright for a mess of Pottage but not other Folk's too In the year 1258 a Parliament was called to London the day after Hoke Tuesday for great and weighty Affairs for the King had engaged and entangled himself in great and amazing Debts to the Pope about the Kingdom of Apulia and he was likewise sick of his Welsh War But when the King was very urgent for an Aid of Mony the Parliament resolutely and unanimously answered him That they neither would nor could bear such Extortions any longer Hereupon he betakes himself to his shifts to draw in the rich Abbys to be bound for him for Sums of Mony but though it was well managed he failed in it And that Parliament was prolonged and spent in Altercations between the King and the great Men till the week after Ascension day For the Complaints against the King were so multiplied daily and the Grievances were so many by the breach of M. Charta and the Insolence of the Foreigners P. 968. that M. Paris says it would require special Treatises to reckon up the King's Miscarriages And the King being reproved for them and being convinced of the justness of the Reproof bethought and humbled himself tho it were late first and said That he had been too often bewitcht by wicked Counsel but he promised which he likewise confirmed by an Oath taken upon the Altar and Shrine of St. Edward That he would plainly and punctually correct his former Errors and graciously comply with his natural born Subjects But his former frequent breach of Oath rendered him incredible and neither fit to be believed nor trusted And because the great Men knew not as yet how to hold fast their Proteus which was a hard and difficult business to do the Parliament was put off to Barnaby day to be held without fail at Oxford In the mean time the chief Men of England namely the Earls of Glocester Leicester and Hereford the Earl Marshal and other eminent Men out of a provident Precaution for themselves associated and because they were vehemently afraid of the Treachery of the Foreigners and much suspected the little Plots of the King they came armed and with a good Retinue to Oxford There the great Men in the very beginning of the Parliament confirmed their former Purpose and immutable Resolution to have the Charter of the Liberties of England faithfully kept and observed P 970. which the King had often granted and sworn and had caused all the Bishops of England to excommunicate in a horrible manner all the Breakers of it and he himself was one of the Excommunicators They demanded likewise to have a Justiciar that should do equal Justice and some other publick things which were for the common Profit of the King and Realm and tended to the Peace and Honour of them both And they frequently and urgently asked and advised the King to follow their Counsels and the necessary Provisions they had drawn up swearing with pledging their Faiths and giving one another their hands That they would not cease to pursue what they had propounded for the loss either of Mony or Lands or for the Life or Death of Themselves or Theirs Which when the King understood he solemnly swore That he would comply with their Counsels and agree to them And Prince Edward took the same Oath But Iohn Earl of Warren was refractory and refused it and the King 's half Brothers William of Valence and others Then the Sea-ports were order'd to be strictly guarded and the Gates of London to be close kept anights for fear the Foreigners should surprize it And when they had spent some days in deliberating what was to be done in so weighty an Affair as repairing the State of a broken shattered Kingdom was they confirmed their purpose with renewing their Covenants and Oaths That neither for Death nor Life nor Free-hold for Hatred or Affection or any other way they would be biass'd or slackned from purging the Realm of which they and their Progenitors before them were the native Offspring and clearing it of an Alien-born Brood nor from the procuring and obtaining good and commendable Laws And if any man whoever he be should be refractory and oppose this they would compel him to join with them whether he would or no. And tho the King and Prince Edward had both sworn before yet Prince Edward as he could refused this Oath and so did Iohn Earl of Warren But Henry Son to Richard King of the Romans was doubtful and unresolved saying That he could not take such an Oath unless it were with his Father's Leave and Advice To whom the Barons publickly made answer That if his Father himself would not agree to it he should not hold one Furrow of Land in England The Kings half Brothers were very positive and swore bloodily that they would never part with any of the Castles Revenues and Wards which their Brother had freely given them as long as they breathed But while they were asserting this and multiplying Oaths not fit to be rehearsed the Earl of Leicester made answer to William de Valence who was more swoln and haughty than the rest Know for certain that either you shall give up the Castles which you have from the King or you shall lose your Head And the other Earls and Barons firmly attested the same The Poitovins therefore were in a great Fright not knowing what to do For if they should retire to some Castle wanting Provisions they would soon be starved out Universitas enim Regni popularis etsi non
Realm and not the Realm for the King And I can shew a hundred places in Antiquity where the Body of this Nation is called a Republick as for instance where Bracton says Laws are made communi reipublicae sponsione tho I confess in relation to a King it oftner goes by the prouder name of Realm But this Constitution of State and Regal Government which is the Constitution of England cannot be so well understood by any other one Book as by my Lord Chancellour Fortescue's which was a Book writ for the Nonce and to instruct the Prince into what sort of Government he was like to succeed As directly opposite to this Government he has painted the French Government Fortescue p. 79. made up of Men at Arms and Edicts The Prince in the conclusion of it P. 130. does not doubt but this Discourse of the Chancellor's will be profitable to the Kings of England which hereafter shall be and I am satisfied that no wise King after he has read that little Book would change Governments with the Grand Seignior And as the Prince has recommended the usefulness of this Discourse to all future Kings so I heartily recommend it to the careful perusal of all Englishmen who having seen a Succession of bad Reigns think there is somewhat in the Mill and that the English Form of Government is amiss whereas the Fault lies only in the Male administration or if there should happen to be any flaw or defect in any of the occasional Laws it may easily and ought to be rectified every Parliament that sits down as the Book says P. 129. I never heard of any that disliked the English Government but some of the Princes Progenitours Kings of England who thinking themselves shackled and manacled by the English Laws endeavoured to throw off this State Yoke P. 78. Moliti sunt hoc jugum politicum abjicere that they might rule or rather rage over their Subjects in Regal wise only not considering that to govern the People by the Laws of the State is not a Yoke but Liberty and the greatest Security not only to the Subject but to the King himself and in great measure ridds him of Care But the same Author p. 88. tells us the Success of his Attempt Qui sic politicum regimen abjicere satagerunt these Progenitours of the Prince who thus endeavoured with might and main to be rid of this State Government not only could not compass that larger Power which they grasp'd at but risqu'd both themselves and their Kingdom As we our selves have likewise seen in the late K. Iames. Or on the other side perhaps it is disliked by some who have seen no other effects of it but what have proceeded from the Scotch King-Craft which is worse than no Government at all and have imputed those Corruptions and Disorders to the English Frame of Government or at least think that it has no Remedy provided against them and so have fallen into the waking Dreams of Oceana's and I know not what for want of understanding the True of the English Government But I can assure these Persons that upon further search they will find it quite otherwise and that the English Frame of Government cannot be mended and the old Land-marks better plac'd than we could have laid them with our own hands and withal that all new Projects come a Thousand Years too late For England has been so long conformed to its own Laws and its Laws to it that we are all of a piece and both in point of Gratitude to our Ancestors who have spent their Lives to transmit them to us and out of love to Posterity to convey them a thing more valuable than their Lives we cannot think much at any time to venture our own I am clearly of Sir Rob. Phillips's mind in the Parliament 4 to Caroli Nothing so endangers us with his Majesty as that Opinion that we are Antimonarchically affected whereas such is and ever hath been our Loyalty if we were to chuse a Government we should Chuse this Monarchy of England above all Governments in the World Which we lately have Actually done when no body could Claim it for they could only Claim under a Forfeited Title and at a time when too much occasion had been given to the whole Nation to be out of conceit with Kings As for the remaining part of the Pope's Trash it is not worth answering That the Barons reduced K. John to those streights that what they dared to ask he dared not to deny For they asked him nothing but their Own which he ought not to have denied them nor have put them to the trouble of coming so hardly by it Nor was the Granting of Magna Charta a foul and dishonourable Composition but Just and Honourable and therefore Honourable because it was Just. As for the Compulsion there was in it a man that must be made to be honest cannot complain of that himself nor any body for him In this whole Affair the Pope's Apostolical Authority went farther than his Arguments It is the lasting Honour of Magna Charta and the Barons that they were run down by a Pope and a General Council which were the first that established Transubstantiation Lateran sub Innocent 3. and the deposing of Kings for Heresy either their own or even that of their Subjects if they suffered them in their Dominions in which case the Pope was to absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance to set up a Crusado against them and to dispose of their Kingdoms to Catholick Free-booters This was a powerful transforming Metamorphosing Council but they that could turn a bit of Bread into a God might more easily turn better Christians than themselves into Saracens I take the Decrees of that General Council to be a standing Declaration of War yea a Holy War against all Protestant Princes and States to the end of the World whereby all Papists are the publick and declared Enemies of that part of Mankind whom they have been pleased to call Hereticks for it is the established Doctrine of their Church Having disprov'd Laud's first Charge against M. Charta That it had an obscure Birth as if it had been base born illegitimate or upstart I proceed to the second That it was foster'd by an Ill Nurse In answer to which it would be sufficient to say that it was fostered by a Succession of Kings and above thirty Parliaments and if that be an ill Nurse let all the World find a better But I shall be somewhat more particular and shew what great care was taken of it in After Ages In Edw. 1. time after it had been continued three times ordered to be twice a year read in Churches was sealed with the Bishops and Barons Seals as well as the King 's own and sworn to by the Barons and others * Knyghton Col. 2523. Et ad ejus observationem consilium sinum auxilium fidele praestabunt in perpetuum