his Mothers claim who was the true descendent of the long-rejected but now restored Saxon linage He took to wise Elenor the repudiate of Lewis the seventh King of France by whom he had large Dominions in that Kingdom but notwithstanding it augmented his estate yet was it the occasion of much trouble and vexation to him For the French King jealous of his growing fortunes and his own Queen of his fidelity to his marriage-bed incited his Sons Herry Richard Jeffrey and John to frequent rebellions to whom neverthelesse upon their submissions he was entirely reconciled Henry Sans issue departed this life before his Father Richard succeeded in the Throne but dyed childlesse also Jeffrey though extinct himself before it came to his turn had yet left a Son in being Arthur Duke of Britany who ought to have been considered of but him John prevented more too by power favour of the Nobles than by any colour of Justice â—ad whilst the young Prince endeavours the recovery of his right he is taken prisoner as he besieged the Castle of Mirabell in France conveyed to the Tower of Roan and there killed if not by the hands yet at least by the command of his inhumane Uncle However the course taken to be thus rid of a Competitor was utterly unlawfull yet being gon Iohn becomes the lawful proprietor of the Crown but pays dear for the manner of this his amisse procured purchase For the Pope excommunicates him his Subjects for sake him the French King invades him and bereavs him not only of his large Territories in France but also of the greatest part of his Kingdome of England and he dyes miserably not without suspicion of Poyson a just judgment upon him for his enormous Acts especialy the murder of his innocent Nephew Now though God shewed himself a severe inquisitor for blood yet did he seem appeased with the punishment of the person that was guilty of it For he so disposed the hearts of the English Nation that they generally withdrew themselves from the French party and notwithstanding the iniquity of the Father most willingly embrace the Son then a minor as naturally inclined says my Author to love and obey their Princes Such this Prince Henry the third found his Subjects at his first admission whilst he was governed by a wise and faithfull Councel but afterwards suffering himself to be ruled by strangers that more intended their own than the publick good he so alienated the English affections as they were earnest at first to promote his interest To the former he adds new grievances to wit reiterated breach of Charters granted by his Predecessors and himself whence such discontents are engendred that at length there is begotten between the King and his people an actual commonly known by the name of the Barons war Hereof Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester on the Barons side was head who in a set Battail takes King Henry and his Son Edward prisoners but Edward escapes collects an Army defeats and kills Leicester and redeems his Father the beginning of whose reign was overcast with a French mist the middle was very tempestous by reason of the Barons commotions but the Catastrophe or latter part was serence and concluded in a perfect Calm Edward the first of that name since the Norman conquest having proved the deliverer of his Father from captivity makes an expedition into the Holy-land to perform the like office to the Christians there that were grievously afflicted under the Turkish servitude but the news of his Fathers death quickly recalls him from further prosecution of that honourable enterprize wherein he had no lesse honourably demeaned himself And as he had encreased his own and Countries reputation abroad so doth he likewise enlarge their power and jurisdiction at home by subduing most of Scotland and totally reducing of Wales of which last because it was then first annexed to this Crown it will not be impertinent to afford the Reader a brief and summary relation Wales the small remnant of this Island that was left to the Britains the antient possessors of the whole had hitherto though not without much difficulty and struggling continned under their own proper Princes But the fatal period of their liberty which they had so long so stoutly maintained against so potent a Kingdome as this is now arrived Llewellin the then Prince of that Cnutry being summoned to our Kings Coronation refused to appear saying He too well remembers the end of his Father Gryffin who came in safety to London but never returned thence This neglect Edward makes the ground of a quarrel enters into hostility against Llewellin forces him to a submission whereof he soon repents flyes out again is overcome and slain in fight his head cut off and that Merlins Prophecy might be fulfilled or eluded which as he interpreted had promised him the Diadem of Brute it is Crowned with Ivy and set upon the Tower of London After the death of Llewellin and his brother David whose head was shortly sent to accompany the others in the same place Edward contrives the perpetual union of these two too long divided Nations And though he found the Welsh Nobles very cautious how they brought their necks under a Forein yoke yet doth he accomplish his ends by this neat and Artificial devise He conveys secretly into the Castle of Carnarvon his Queen great with Child whom when he understood to be delivered of a boy he Assembles the Welsh Nobles and proposeth to them whether they would accept of a Prince of his Nomination that was born in their own Country could speak nere a word of English and against whom for Life or Conversation no objection could be made Whereunto when they had assented he produces his own little Son Edward to whom the aforesaid qualifications did exactly agree Hence the custom took its original of investing our Kings eldest Sons in the Principality of Wales but because there may here seem to have been a mixture of force and fraud we shall indeavour when order brings us to it to find out a more unexceptionable Title whereby our Kings lay claim to that Dominion Edward the second called Edward of Carnarvon for the cause but even now rehearsed much degenerated from his Fathers Noblenesse and lost not only Scotland which his Father had well-nigh gained but ever England it self being deposed by his own Wife Isabel having only this comfort left him that his Son Edward was to succeed in the Throne Edward the third of that name Son of the late deposed and shortly after murdered King was when he came to years of Discretion Gods Instrument to revenge his Fathers death even upon his own Mother the Queen and her Minion Mortymer who was the Author and Procurer of the same But the chiefeft passage of this Princes Reign and that of nearest Alliance to our Subject in hand which is to declare the Titles our Kings have to the Kingdoms they possesse or challenge was his
had took upon him the Crosse and according to the Custom of those days warred in the Holyland Thus appears the invalidity of Henryes claim whether from the Father as unsound or the Mother as suspitious and deceitful or from King Richard receding as extorted by force in restraint and so of no force or of consent of the many there being no Custom in the English Nation for popular elections or by Conquest which in a Subject against his Soveraign is Insurrection and Victory high Treason as was well observed by the Bishop of Carlile in his speech in that very Parliament where this business was agitated and transacted Nay further there is a tradition that Iohn of Gaunt Father of this Henry was not at all the Son of King Edward but that the Queen being deliver'd of a female child knowing how unacceptable it would be to her Husband exchanged it for a boy with a Dutch woman who had been brought to bed about the same hour This the Queen at her death confessed to William of Wickman Bishop of Winchester who acquainted none with it but Iohn of Gaunt himself and that when he perceived Iohn to affect the Crown in which case the Mother had left the Bishop free But this being but a report and grounded on uncertainties would have been no bar to Henry's title had it been clear in all other respects Henry as he had injuriously obtained a Kingdom so doth he laboriously preserve the same for the manifold conspiracies against him testifie that quiet is not a Concomitant of usurped greatnesse and was in a manner bereaved of his Crown before he was of his life For he being seized upon by a deep fit of the Apoplexy his Son Henry seized upon the Crown whereof when the Father reviving demanded the reason his answer was That in his and all mens judgement there present he was dead and then says he I being next Heir apparent to the same took it as my indubitat right Well said the King and sighed Son what right I had to it God knoweth but saith the Prince If you dye King I doubt not to hold it as you have done against all opposers Which expression this incomparable King Henry the fifth did make good even to supererogation for abandoning his youthfull extravagancies whereof he is severely taxed he embraces more solid courses and to vent any discontented humours at home which by standing still might corrupt and gather putrefaction he meditates a war with France and awakens the English title to it which had lyen dormant ever since his great Grand-Fathers days But whilst he is in preparation for this great affair he either makes or discovers a plot against his life by Richard Earl of Cambridge who had married Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Mortimer Earl of March before remembred who was the true heir of the Crown and was the true cause of Earl Richards execution for it cannot be imagined that money alone would induce so noble a person to so foul an undertaking And the event shews that there was somwhat more than Bribery in this attempt when we shall find the Son of this late executed Earl dispossessing his Son who was the Author of his Fathers Tragedy Henry having thus eased himself of a great Pretender proceeds to his intended design on France where he so prosperously speeds that he is constituted Regent declared Heir apparent of the doting French King whose Daughter Katherine he marries by her hath a Son named Henry of whom the King is said to have thus prophesyed I Henry born at Monmouth shall small time reign and much get and Henry born at Windsor shall long reign and lose all And so indeed it came to passe through the secret operation of all-disposing Providence which is seldome propitious to the owners how good in themselves soever they be of ill gained inheritances beyond the third succession And hereof our present Henry the sixth is a great example who was the meekest and most religious of all our Kings that had been before and yet for no other transgression that we know of than the original Sin of his Grand-Father Henry the fourth medling with the forbidden fruit of a Crown his ere it was ripe for him is he chased out of the terrestial Paradise of all his Kingdoms and sent to be a partaker of a Celestial one somwhat more early than the due course of nature had designed him for it For that covert fire which had a long time burned in the breasts of many to see the Lancastrian race enioy anothers right doth now break forth into open combustion of which Richard Duke of York is the prime incendiary the Son of Richard Earl of Cambridge who was beheaded in King Henry the fifths reign for supposed Treason the Son of Edmond Duke of York the fifth Son of King Edward the third But Duke Richard waves all pretensions by the Fathers side as not being ignorant that Iohn of Gaunt from whom our present Henry is directly descended was elder brother to his Grandsire Edmond and therefore in Parliament only produceth his title by the Mother as being the Son and Heir of Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Son and Heir of Roger Mortymer Earl of March Son and Heir of Philippa the sole Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of Edward the third and elder Brother of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Father of the Usurper Henry the fourth Grand-Father of Henry the fifth who was Father to him who now says Richard untruly stileth himself King Henry the fixth Besides his holding forth his claim to the Crown in this demonstrative and undeniable manner which yet the judicious could only penetrate the Duke addeth many Rhetorical aggravations which were more suitable and intelligible to vulgar ears As that the King was simple and of weak capacity that he was Governed by the Queen a stranger and Woman of an unsufferable ambition that the Privy Counsellors were naught and corrupt through whose faithlessenesse and inabilities France was lost and England disquieted and that greater judgements were to be expected if the true Heir were any longer debarred from his lawful right The Duke by these plausible arguments had so engaged the multitude unto him that he is able to dispute his Title in the Field with the King whom he takes Prisoner and calling in his name a Parliament it is there concluded that King Henry during his life should retain the name and Honour of a King that the Duke of York should be Proclaimed Heir apparent to the Crown and Protector of the Kings Person and Dominions that if at any time King Henries Friends Allies or Favorites in his behalf should attempt the disannulling of this Act that then the Duke should have present possession of the Crowu But this was more than what his destiny had allotted for him for he was shortly after slain at the Battail of War field by Queen Margaret who was of a
welcomed and readily assisted by the Welsh from whose Princes he was descened as being the Son of Edmond of Haddam the Son of Owen Ap Teudor who could in a direct line derive his pedigree from the Noble Race of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severne as hath been before touched though a modern Writer more for the jest sake than out of reality sayes he was a Gentleman of no extraordinary lineage but lineaments which he makes to be the motive that induced Katherine of France Dowager of England after the death of Henry the fifth to take him for her second Husband Richmond having much increased his Army among his Country-men marches forward as far as Bosworth in Leicestershire where King Richard meets him and there the great controversy is finally decided in Battail Richard is slain and Richmond by a kind of military election saluted and in a manner Crowned King in the Field Henry the seventh for so must we now call him that was but lately Earl of Richmond sensible that the tumultuary approbation of Souldiers did of it self give him neither just or durable possession knowing likewise the weaknesse of the Lancastrian plea in opposition to that of York maries according to his solemn preingagement Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the fourth which brought security to his estate and happinesse to the Kingdom the two Roses whose divisions had put the English to much expence of blood being thereby concorporated and for ever after linked in a most firm and indissolvable knot But as in a body that hath been troubled with a Cronique Disease though recovered yet are there still some peccant humours to be purged out so notwithstanding this Union and Recorciliation there remains dregs of discontents whereof the Queen Mother was the supposed Parent and Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy the known Nurse the first because she thought her Daughter not sufficiently respected for King Henry is not accused to have been over uxorious or indulgent to his wife the other being Sister of Edward the fourth bore an endlesse hatred to any of the Lancastrian Race The first Spirit they raised to disturb King Henryes quiet was one Lambert Symnell a stripling but so instructed by Simon a Priest who had higher directors that he could well personate the young Earl of Warwick Son of George Duke of Clarence whom the credulous Irish greedily entertain and acknowledge for their King And when Henry to detect the forgery had publickly shown in London the very Earl of Warwick whom he kept his Prisoner they retort the fiction upon himself and give out he had suborned a counterfeit on purpose to delude the simple multitude But this Pageantry quickly vanished the Conspirators are dispersed and Lambert taken who had the honour to be first made a Turn-spit in the Kings Kitchen but was afterwards preferred to be one of the Kings Falconers This was but the Prologue as it were to a more deep contrived Comi-Tragaedy that was to follow whereof the restlessâ— Dutchesse of Burgundy was the Inventer and one Perkin Wâ—rbeke the principal Actor But the Name and Scene is somewhat altered His Cue assigned him is to play the part of Richard Duke of York second Son of Edward the fourth who is feigned to have miraculously escaped the hands of his bloody Unckle Perkin was so good a proficient and had learned and could repeat his lesson so exactly that not the silly Iriâ—h alone but the French and Scotish Kings with many of the Nobility and Gentry of England were or would be deceived Nay Sir William Stanly himself Lord Chamberlain the Kings especial favorite is so far trâ—panned as to utter this improvident Speech which was construed high Treason that if he certainly knew that the young man was the undoubted Son and Heir of King Edward the fourth he would never fight or bear Arms against him for which he became headlesse though he had been the chief help and setter of the Crown upon King Henryes head Perkin at length is taken and committed to the Tower where soliciting the Earl of Warwick to make an escape he hastens both his own merited and that poor Earls undeserved execution Henry having thus composed his affairs at home seeks honourable matches for his children abâ—oad and marries his eldest Daughter Margaret to the Scotish King providently foreseeing that in case his issue Male failed this conjunction might be a means to associate the separated Kingdoms as his own had the Roses and so remedy the inconveniences of two distinct estates in one single Island Arthur his eldest Son Prince of Wales was espoused to Katherine Infanta of Spain but he dying before consummation we mean as to conjugal duty his brother Henry by dispensation from the Pope takes her to wife who on the wedding day was aâ—tired all in white in token that she was a pure and spotlesse Virgin It is conceived that the young Prince who henceforward is to be styled Henry the eighth had never any great fancy to the Lady as somwhat his Superiour in years but did raâ—â—â—r comply with his Fathers will than his own iâ—clinations However for a long time he lived with her in an outward loving seeming respectful manner But at length satiated with her company whom from the beginning he had not truly affected he meditates a divorce and hopes by money and Cardinal Woolseys interest in the Court of Rome with speed to effect the same Woolsey who by his obsequiousnesse to the Kings pleasure in all things had from a mean condition mounted to the highest degree of favour and power that a Subject is capable of is reported to be the first that injected the scruple into the Kings head touching the unlawfullnesse of his marriage with his Brothers Wife which once in could not in haste be put out again But in the prosecution the King and Woolsey had different ends Woolsey to revenge himself of Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany and Nephew to Katherine who had been a back-Friend to Woolsey in his attempted advancement to the Popedom and by proposing a match to the King out of France he thought to ingratiate with that Crown which might be more auspitious in promoting his towring designs But the King had another though not so deep a reach which more concerned his own private satisfaction than policy or reason of State For he desired to be unyoked from his old Queen that he might make a new one of one of her maids of honour Anne of Bolen with whom he was desperately in love which the Cardinal smelling out proves cold in the businesse delays to exercise his legantine power instigates the Pope to recall the cause to himself and proceeds slowly therein all which is performed accordingly but it concludes with the ruine of Woolsey's and the Popes Authority For impatient of these procrastinations Henry discards the one and renounces the other rejects Katherine marries Anne grows weary of her of incest with her own Brother cuts off
Monarchiae Britannicae singularis Protectio OR A BRIEF Historicall Essay Tending to prove GOD's especial PROVIDENCE Over the BRITTISH MONARCHY AND More particularly over the Family that now enjoys the same By HAMLETT PVLESTON A. M. and Fellow of Jesus Colledge Oxon. LONDON Printed by R. D. for the Author 1661. Reader AMong the manifold Discouragements which have so long prorogued and had well nigh altogether stopped the Publication of this Treatise one is the multitude of Errata's too many for so small a Pamphlet it is accompanied withall most of which thou shalt find here amended and for the remainder as mis-placing or omitting of Comma's and some other few literal mistakes I leave them to thy Candid and favourable correction Pag. 2. line 30. for Normandy read Norway p. 6. l. 2. for Prince r. King p. 10. l. 27. dele and. p. 12. l. 23. dele too l. 24. for nad r. and. p. 13. l. 14. for my r. our p 22. l. 14. dele his p. 33. l 15. r. though not l. 19. dele Sister p. 35. l. 25. r. beginner p. 36. l. 11. for as yet r. as if p. 43. l. 23. for yet r. if p. 44. l. 21. dele been p. 46. l. 1. for by r. buy p. 48. l. 29. r. unto for Practisers r. Practises p. 51. l. 12. r. But Bruse urging l. 18. r. upon the Popes p. 53. l. 26. add Mary the Daughter and Heir of Iames the fifth p. 55. l. 10. for divert r. direct IT is observed by Edmond Howe 's a diligent Compiler of our Countries Annals That in this Island there hath happened five remarkable alterations and each of them alwayes about the period or revolution of five hundred years whereof in his Historical Preface he gives this insuing account 1. The first alteration sayes he was presently upon the death of Gorboduc seventeenth in descent from Brute Founder according to him of the British Monarchy This Gorboduc had caused his youngest Son Porrex to be joyntly crowned with his eldest Son Ferrex These two fall at difference among themselves the younger kills the elder him the Mother her the Multitude hence Civil Wars at length Malmutius Dunwallo Duke of Cornwall having subdued all Competitors translates the Kingdom to another line which continues without any memorable interruption untill 2. The second grand alteration in the Reign of Cassibeline forty fourth Successor of Malmutius begun by the invasion of Iulius Caesar General of the Romans in Gaule but not perfected before Claudius the Emperors time from which date the Aera or computation of the Romans absolute Dominion here is to commence whose departure recalled by their Domestick dissentions and Fore in inundations carrying with them also the ablest of the Britains was the occasion of 3. The third famous alteration for the Britains bereaved of their own proper strength and destitute of the accustomed aid of their Champions the Romans were necessitated to implore the asistance of the Saxons a people of Germany against the Picts and Scots who grie vously infested the Northern borders To these Saxons Vortigern the late elected King an Author of these Strangers imployment in contemplation of their service most improvidently allots first the Isle of Thannet then all Kent afterwards more to inhabit besides his marriage with Rowena the Daughter of Hengist one of their principal leaders gave them so firm a footing that they not only could not be removed but even forced their Landlords the Britains into the least most desart and most mountanous parts whilst these new intruding guests injoy the greatest the best and richest share which they portioned into an Heptarchy or seven petty Principalities who contending among themselves for superiority and wearying out one another with mutual discord administred opportunity unto 4. The fourth and indeed a twofold alteration but in regard of its immediate connexion is reckoned but as one first by the Danes a people likewise of Germany who after many conflicts obteined the Soveraignty but did not long retain the same But the second which took its original almost where the other determined and chiefest mutation both for its continnance and universality was that by the Normans a Nation primarily issued out of Normandy but then possessing the South of France who introdnced a general innovation in all things but Religion which also suffered its vicissitude or turn in 5. The fifth and last alteration under Henry the eighth who gave the first blow unto it by his with-drawing his obedience from the Romish Sea in whose communion England had persevered since its first conversion and by suppressing Monasteries who were the main Pillars and Supporters thereof But his Son Edward the sixth proceeds further to the abolition of the Rites and Doctrine of that Church which were yet again restored by his Sister Mary and again excluded by her Sister Elizabeth who was therein imitated by her Successour Iames conjoyner of the two separated Kingdoms England and Scotland which our Author makes a parcel of this last alteration and where he concludes his general History of the several revolutions of this Island from the first foundation of a Monarchy here untill the time wherein he wrote But since there hath happened another alteration no lesse if not in some respect more considerable than any of the former when not only the Person but the Office not only a King and that in an unparalleld manner but even Kingship it self was destroyed a design that was never so much as attempted by our Ancestors and instead thereof an unheard-of kind of Common-wealth erected which was soon suppressed by an insolent Usurper who thought under a different title to have established the whole power to him and his But by Gods providence and the perfidiousnesse of his own Relations his purpose was defeated his Son dethroned a shadow of a Common-wealth retrived once more dismissed again revived and finally dissolved the old Government renewed and lawfull Heir recalled and all this came to passe within the space of twelve years yea most of it within the circuit of one year whereof we can only say with the Psalmist This is the Lords doings it is marvelous in our eys And truly if we consider things impartially there is great cause of admiration that God should not only preserve among us for so many ages a Monarchy the best of Regiments in general and in particular most agreeble to the situation of this Country and constitution of the people but even continue it maugre all the Plots and policies of men to the contrary in that very blood and Family which as far as creditable Genealogy will extend hath been first known to have been invested there-withall For we may safely affirm that our present King Charles the second in whose posterity we trust it will remain as long as the Sun and Moon endures deduces his pedegree in an indisputable line from all that ever did or could pretend a title or interest to the Crown which we think can hardly be verified of
any Prince besides this day in the Christian world For proof whereof we appea I to such of our Chronicles only as are undoubted and beyond exception Passing by therefore the Catalogue of British Kings from Brute to Cassibeline not as altogether untrue but as very uncertain passing by those likewise we find mentioned during the Romans abode here whose custom it was to permit native Kings indeed in their Conquer'd Provinces but only as instruments of Tyranny and wholsy depending on the authority of the Empire and its Prefers We shall take our rise from the Saxons rule and especially at that time when from a multiplyed Estate it grew towards an Union And yet we cannot omit one passage we find Recorded of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severn who at his death prophesied that his Race should recover the Dominion of this Isle again which was fulfilled in the dayes of King Henry the seventh and more compleatly of King James as will appear when the series and progresse of the Story doth bring us thereunto The Saxons as hath been already hinted made a sevenfold partition of the Land they had wrested from the Britains but the Kingdom of the West-Saxons whose first stone was laid by Cerdic did so increase in superstructure that in the end it overtopped all the rest Ina the fifth descendent of Cerdic was the first advancer of it to this prel emenency but he dyed without issue and the due order of the succession was somewhat disturbed by the intrusion of four or five one after another of the Blood-Royal indeed but not in such a propinquity as was Egbert Nephew but once removed from Ina of whose right and promising forwardnesse Britric the last of the Usurpers had so quick a sense that he contrived the destruction of young Egbert Which to avoid he was enforced to retire unto the Court of Offa King of Mercia Or Middle England but finding small security there in regard his Enemy had married Offas daughter he escapes thence into France whence after the Tyrants death he returns to the enjoyment of that Kingdome which had been so long and so unjustly detained from him This Prince which we the rather note because of the affinity he hath with the Condition of our Sovereign that now is had by an exiles experience attained such a measure of prudence and all other perfections that he much improved the West-Saxon Empire which was now well near arrived to its Meridian and heighth when it suffered a most terrible Ecclipse by the interposition of the Danes who made their first irruption in his predecessors dayes and though they were valiantly resisted and frequently repulsed by him and his Successors yet did they never after cease from afflicting one part or other till they had reduced the whole to their subjection in which posture they held it but a little while as hath before been intimated and shall be more amply shewed in its due and proper place Egbert being dead Aethewolph his Son of a Bishop became a Prince and though his Education and Profession had rendred him a greater Votary than Warriour yet did he give the Danes a most memorable overthrow He had four Sons who were all Kings in their turns but the glory of the rest was Alfred the youngest no lesse famous for Arts than Armes in the first his Son Edward surnamed the Elder is reported to have been inferiour but in the last did equal if not exceed his renowned Father This Edward often worsted but could not totally extirpate the Danes who rcruited with fresh supplies from their own Comntry made daily more and more encroachments upon the already-tired English Nation whose case at that time especialy required some strong prop or stay to sustain and keep up its declining and tottering estate And upon this account it was that Athelftane Edwards bastard Son being at full maturity and ripenesse was preferred before his legitimate one Edmond then in minority the reason also that some succeeding Princes were for some time laid aside but Edmond being now come to Age after his Brother Athelstanes death the noblenesse of whose life recompenced the blemish of his birth was admitted to his Fathers Throne which he did wisely and couragiously manage but was too soon deprived of it and his life together by a villanous Affassinate in his own house at a festival whilst he went about to rescue his Sewer from the violence of that barbarous hand The more than ordinary hopes conceived of this brave Prince being thus untimely nipped in the bud his no-lesse-deserving Brother Eldred was elected King notwithstanding Edmond had left two Sons behind whose tender years in those troublesome times were thought uncapable of so weighty an imployment But upon the death of Eldred the Scepter which is a thing to be taken notice of in precedent and subseqent ruptures of this nature reverted to the right Heirs viz. the Sons of Edmond And first to Edwin the eldest whose dissolute and degenerate courses made sudden room for Edgar the youngest who matched any of his Predecessors in worth and excelled them all in power for he quieted and kept under Danes Welsh Scots insomuch as he is accounted at least from the Saxons entrance the first absolute Monarch of this entire Island In a word he was happy in his life and Reign but most unhappy in his Issue for having two Sons Edward and Ethelred by several venters the Step-mother Elfred made Edward a Saint to make her own Son Etheldred a King and though now by this removal of his Brother whereunto possibly he might not be privy none had any nearer title to the Crown than himself yet did that innocent blood lye heavy upon him and his seed nor could it according to St. Dunstans predictions be expiated but by a long avengement In promoting of which divine justice the Danes were the principal instruments who had layn still under Edgar but taking advantage of Ethelreds unsettled condition who by reason of this fore-stalling the Crown was termed the unready forced him first to purchase an ill-kept peace and then to relinquish his ill-gotten Kingdom of which death only prevented Swayn his expeller to take actual possession and accumulate this to the Danish Crown But Cnute the Son of Swayn perfected his Fathers design and afforded Ethelred now returned out of Normandy whither to avoid the storm he had betook himself so sharp an entertainment that oppressed with grief for his bad successe he quitted this and made another world his second place of refuge leaving his Son Edmond Inheritor of little else but the miseries of an unfortunate house Yet did Edmond for his valour and hardinesse in War surnamed Ironside hew himself out with his Sword the moiety of a Kingdom For after the effusion of much blood on both sides and to stop the shedding of more it was agreed between the two Competitors Cnute and Edmond to try their right by single combate in proper person and the
her head in whose room the very next day succeeds Jane Seymour who dies in Child-birth And so he continues shifting and putting away or to death his Wives as well as other Subjects till his own appointed time came a little before which it is recorded that in great Agony he should say unto Arch-Bishop Cranmer Is there any mercy for him who never spared man in his wrath nor woman in his lust In his life he little regarded but rather endeavoured to defeat by Parliament the titles of his Daughters Mary by Katherine of Spain and Elizabeth by Anne of Bolen with both whose Mothers he had been grievously displeased and seemed more inclinable to the off-spring of his youngest Sister Mary Dowager of France by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk but at his death by his last Will and Testament he constituted his Son Edward by Jane Seymour his next immediate heir and then in case they dyed issulesse the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to succeed in their order Henry the eighth being dead Edward the 6th of that name his Son is at nine years of age proclaimed King and Edward Duke of Sommerset by the Mothers side ordained his Protector whose candid nature exposed him to the cunning wiles of Dudley Duke of Northumberland which at last brought Sommerset his Brother Thomas Marquesse of Hertford Admiral of England and even the King himself to their untimely ends The Fox Northumberland observing the differencee between the Protector and the Admiral begun by th womanish emulation of their Wives doth underhand so soment it that the Admiral is brought to the block and the Protector not long after follows which renders the Pupill King more obnoxious to Northumberlands ambitious practices now that his two faithfull Uncles who should have supported him are removed out of the way Northumberland taking advantage of the Kings weaknesse of mind and body where unto he is shrewdly suspected to have contributed advises him to make a Will wherein the King declaring that he was past his minority thoughot above sixteen years of age and that it appertained to him to dispose of the Kingdome as he pleased doth disinherlt his Sisters Mary and Elizabeth as Persons of whose legitimation there was a question as likewise the issue of his eldest Aunt Sister Margaret married to the Scotish King as foreiners and aliens bequeathing the Crown to his Cousen Jane Grand-daughter to the Dutchesse of Suffolk the youngest Sister of his Father King Henry the eighth Gutlford Duke Dudleys Son was husband to this Lady Jane who upon the death of Edward was proclaimed Queen but Mary the eldest Daughter of King Henry by the assistance of the Norsolk and Suffolk Gentry recovered that which both by birth and her Fathers appointment was her undoubted though for a small time detained right Notwithstanding Mary by the Protestants aid attained the Crown yet her Education in the contrary profession and the memory that for her Mothers sake it suffered its first detriment obliged her to recall the Catholick Religion that had been banished in her Predecessors days keeping as one wittily observes the Kingdom by pater noster which she had gained by Our Father which are in Heaven Her zeal and over-ardent desire to extinguish that which she thought Heresy kindled many fires in this land for which she hears ill among the vulgar to this day and bears the brand of tyranny though of her self she was of a mild and merciful disposition Among other passages her severity to her Sister Elizabeth is much taxed of whose sincere devotion though outwardly conformable to the Romish Church the Queen much doubted and fearing a relapse of things after her own death could have been content that her Sister Elizabeth though the youngest had had the Precedency therein But Philip King of Spain Queen Maryes husband had other thoughts of and intentions towards Elizabeth whom he preserved from her Sisters violence and designed for his second we would say third wise for he was a Widdower when he married Mary by whom he now begins to despair of issue and by reason of her Dropsy perceives she was in no wise immortal here Queen Elizabeth at her first entrance makes shew as if she would tread in her Sister Marys steps whereby she so charmed the Catholick Clergy and Nobility that they created her no disturbance And she did further so temporize with King Philip that he was a great favourer of her admission hoping shortly to be a Copartner with her both in Bed and Kingdom But the lancy which Philip though no Babe had builded in his brain quickly appears to be but an aerial Castle for Elizabeth soon undeceives him and other Romanist who had promised themselves other matters by declining Marriage disowing the Popes Jurisdiction and reducing Ecclesiastical Affairs to the same state and condition lier Father and Brother had left them in The aversenesse of this Queen to Matrimonial Bondage as she accounted it gave occasion to that great and by her alwayes disliked dispute about the Succession That it belonged of right to Mary Queen of Seets Daughter of James the fifthe Son of Margaret eldest Daughter to King Henry the seventh none could reasonably deny but Maâ—y say the State Politicians of thosetimes will prove another Mary and our Religion will be depressed if she be advanced to the English Throne Her own Subjects have expelled her upon that account and shall we accept of her for our Princesse whom we have so much disobliged by detaining so long a Prisoner For this unfortunate Queen having been educated in France did after the decease of her first Husband the Dolphin return into Scotland of whose fashions by reason of her forein breeding being somewhat ignorant she could not consequently but be guilty of some miscarriages which her Enemies so aggravate that they stir up the people to a sedition seize upon her Person force her to resign to her Son James by Henry Lord Darly Son of the Duke of Lenox not full eighteen Months old of whom Earl Murray her Bastard Brother is made Regent who was the beginning and continuer of all her troubles Mary late and by right still Queen of Scots after this extorted and therefore invalid resignation fearing further attempts against her life escapes out of the loathsom Gaol where she was secured and betakes her self into England for succour sending news to her Cozen Queen Elizabeth imploring not only present protection but also such convenient aides as might restore her to her Kingdom of which she had been forceably deprived by her Mutinous and Rebellious Subjects Elizabeth at first gives good words and sends her large attendance which were yet but in the quality of an honourable Guard but afterwards more and more abridges her liberty at which hard and unworthy usage of a suppliant and Heir apparent of the Crown some English Lords and Gentlemen conceiving a just disdain project and propose to her means of deliverance whereunto she as all other living
Kings person was not only for countenance of his Independent proceedings against the opposite Presbyterian faction but after their depression the better to be enabled to destroy the King himself for his own advancement For having once entrapped this Royal Lyon he doth dayly more and more entangle him within his toyles and never thinks him fast enough till he had got him in his pit-fall of the Isle of Wight whether he had allured the good King who thought others as free from guile as he knew himself to be by setting before him the danger he was in while he remained at Hampton Court how he lay open and exposed to the wicked machinations of the Agitators of the Army who intended to Act that which he poor Soul did even tremble to utter But what the King hopes to find a temporary Sanctuary proves to him a constant prison from whence he is not to be delivered but in order to his Tryal and Execution the Barbarity of which fact as we cannot so neither need we aggravate the whole world both then and still detesting the Authors and Actors of that abominable Tragedy Charles the first being thus execrably murthered his eldest Son Charles the second ought to have succeeded but the wicked Regicides not only disavowed his Title but proceeded to abolish even Monarchical Government it self introducing in its place a Free-State or Commonwealth empty notions to delude the Vulgar and leaving no course unessayed to debar the Right Heir whom God Nature and the Law of the Land had designed to yea and the Peoples wishes notwithstanding the fore-mentioned popular pretences had already seated in his Fathers Throne And as they are careful to secure themselves at home so are they no less active to defeat His Majesties preparations abroad Cromwel is sent into Ireland who but too soon brings under that almost happily recovered Kingdom From thence he is recalled to invade Scotland where an Agreement such an one as it was had been made with His Majesty Thither Cromwel comes ere it was sufficiently provided to entertain so trouble some and unexpected a Guest This with some intestine feuds among the Scots themselves yielded Cromwel a cheap Victory at Dunbar and was the cause of the over-hasty rendition of the impregnable Castle of Edenburgh not without suspition of Treachery in the Governor thereby facilitating Cromwels passage into Fife which necessitated His Majesty before His Affairs were fully setled there to a disadvantageous March into England where coming as far as Worcester he was so surrounded that a Battel was imposed upon him upon most unequall terms there being no proportion between the multitude of the Rebels and paucity of the Royall Army Notwithstanding the loss of the Day numerousness of the Pursuers eagerness in the pursuit large promised Reward to the Taker or Discoverer great threatned punishment to the Harbourer or Concealer His Majesty most miraculously escapes which opened a Door of Hope to his Friends that he was not in vain thus wonderfully preserved but that there was some greater future Good intended to Him and these Nations than the present face of things did seem to promise or portend For though His Majesty's Person by His safe getting beyond Sea was somewhat more secure yet was there but small visible appearance of strength either forreign or domestick whereby He might be suddenly enabled to re-gain His lost Kingdoms nay those very slender presumptions which remained of better times did dayly more and more lessen and decrease till Divine Providence which is never wanting to afflicted innocency in its greatest extremity but alwaies maketh choice of such seasons to manifest its power and goodness in was pleased to interpose when all other means had failed and were vanished into nothing and bring that to pass by an unthought of Instrument which humane considerations had rendred improbable if not impossible to be effected It would be superfluous to dwell long upon particulars which are so fresh in all mens memories and the only Theme of all Tongues and Pens how cold a Reception after this great Deliverance His Majesty met withal in the Court of France how unworthily he was dismissed thence how not invited into the Spanish Territories till the breach with Cromwel was unavoidable and there rather afforded succour to them than procured any from them how His Well-wishers were totally subdued in Scotland and constantly upon every rising betrayed and suppressed in England All which misfortunes with many others being laid together to believe that His Majesty should so soon and so easily obtain the quiet possession of His Dominions required a greater portion of Faith than the World at that time for the Majority was stocked withall But among all the Wounds given to the Royal Cause none pierced deeper than that it received in Cheshire which though it might seeme but as a slight scar in regard of the small quantity of blood that was then drawn yet by reason of that far greater effusion that was feared would ensue it was concluded little lesse than mortall for it is not to be doubted that yet those mercilesse Empiricks who had once more undertaken the Cure of the Body Politick had continued in any longer practice they would have so exhausted the vitall spirits we meane the Nobility and Gentry of the Land who were for the most part engaged in the designe though not in the particular Action that it should have pined away in a most desperate Consumption and never have been able to have held up either head or hand again Matters being thus in a manner grown helpless and most men heartless it is high time for God himselfe to appear in the Bush which he doth but not in such a fire as he appeared in unto Moses in the Wilderness which consumed not the Bush but in such a fire as in Iothams Parable went out of the Bramble and devoured the Cedars of Lebanon that is God sent a spirit of division between Lambert and the rump-Parliament for by that contembtible appellation was it commonly called so that they are now no less earnest to destroy than they were lately zealous to build up each others fallen and decayed Interest For Cromwel had long ago cashiered that infamous Conventicle and though Lambert for a long while after remained an especiall Creature and favorite yet perceiving that that office of Protectorship which he out of hopes to have been old Nol's second had in its primitive institution been contrived elective was converted to hereditary he became discontented thereat and was discharged of all Civil and Military Imployment But Oliver being laid in the dust his son Richard like a Puppet set up in his room Lambert ful of indignation and ambition awaited but his first opportunity to pul downe this painted and Counterfeit Idol which opportunity soon offered it self in a Parliament of Richards calling where the Elections having been somewhat freer than formerly much more of the old English courage was to be discovered than in