dares not but give advice to follow where God leads apprehending the work of God in this and that of Hungary That by peece and peece the Kings of the Earth that gave their power to the Beast shall leave the Whore and make her desolate That he was satisfied in Conscience that the Bohemians had just cause to reject that proud and bloody man who had taken a course to make that Kingdom not Elective in taking it by the Donation of another The slighting of the Viscount Doncaster in his Ambassage gave cause of just displeasure and indignation Therefore let not a Noble Son be forsaken for their sakes who regard nothing but their own ends Our striking-in will comfort the Bohemians honor the Palsgrave strengthen the Princes of the Union draw on the United Provinces stir up the King of Denmark and the Palatines two Uncles the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Bouillon together with Tremouille a rich Prince in France to cast in their shares The Parliament is the old and honorable way for raising of Money and all that may be spared is to be turned this way And perhaps God provided the Iewels which were laid up in the Tower by the Mother for the preservation of the Daughter who like a Noble Princess hath professed that she will not leave her self one Iewel rather then not maintain so religious and righteous a Cause Certainly if countenance be given to this Action many brave Spirits will offer themselves Therefore let all our Spirits be gathered up to animate this business that the World may take notice that we are awake when God calls The Life and Zeal of these Expressions from a Person of such Eminency may discover the Judgment and Affection of the Anti-Spanish party in the Court of England But the King was engaged in those ways out of which he could not easily turn himself Besides it did not please him that his Son should snatch a Crown out of the Fire And he was used to say That the Bohemians made use of him as the Fox did of the Cats foot to pull the Apple out of the Fire for his own eating In the mean while before the King could answer the Palsgrave desiring advice in that behalf the Bohemians had wrought and prevailed with him to accept of their Election whereof he sent Advertisement into England excusing the suddenness of the Action for that the urgency of the cause would admit of no deliberation King Iames disavowed the Act and would never grace his Son in Law with the stile of his new Dignity But Sir Richard Weston and Sir Edward Conway were sent Ambassadors into Bohemia to close up the breach between the Emperor and the Elector Palatine The King being not a little troubled and jealous that the Palatines nearness to him might give cause of suspition to his Brother of Spain that this Election had been made by his procurement or correspondence with the German Protestants commands his Agent Cottington to give that King plenary Information of all proceedings As That his Ambassador being sent to compound the differences and to reduce the Bohemians to the quiet obedience of the Emperor instead of finding the Emperor so prepared and such a way made for his Mediation as was promised and expected received answer That the business was already referred to four of the Electors insomuch that no place was left for his Authority to interpose Of this exclusive answer as he had just cause to be sensible considering that he had entred into that Treaty meerly at the instance of the King of Spain and his Ministers so there followed a further inconvenience That the Bohemians having long expected the fruit and issue of this Mediation and finding little hope by this means did instantly as out of desperation Elect the Count Palatine for their King Wherefore being tender of his own honor and reputation especially in the opinion of the King of Spain he would not have it blemished by the least misunderstanding And for that end he tendred to his view such Letters as from time to time he had written to the Princes of the Union and to the Palatine himself whereby he might plainly see his dislike of the Bohemians engaging against their King and his industry to contain those Princes in peace and quietness and to make a fair Accord between the disagreeing parties Reply was made as touching the answer given to the Viscount Doncaster That he was admitted a Compounder in such form as was possible the Arbitration having been committed by the late Emperor into the hands of three of the Electors and the Duke of Bavaria that nevertheless he might have proceeded in the Negotiation and by his Masters Authority have over-ruled any difficulty which might have hapned on the Emperors side on whose behalf the reference was made if he had reduced the Bohemians to the acceptance of any reasonable conditions But he presently to the Emperors great disservice labored to suspend the Election of the King of the Romans till the Bohemian Controversie were first compounded which was absolutely to defeat King Ferdinand of that Crown and to disturb and put in danger his Election to the Empire This was the more confirmed by his desire to make Bonfires in Liege when the Count Palatine was made King of Bohemia As touching the Kings integrity in the whole business the satisfaction tendred was received with great applause and it was further said That it would gain the more authority and estimation if he should continue to disclaim that which had been done so contrary to his opinion and against his Friends and Allies as are all the Princes of the House of Austria But the Lot was cast in Germany and for the Palsgrave there was no going back forces pour in a main on both sides The King of Poland aided the Emperor in Hungary to bound and check the incursions of Prince Bethlem the Duke of Saxony did not brook his Fellow Electors advancement to Regal Majesty and condemned his joyning with Bethlem Gabor Who saith he came in with the Turks consent to make a desolution in the Empire King Frederick visited the several parts of his Kingdom to confirm the people to him and to receive the Oath of Fidelity And the Emperor published a Proscription against him wherein he proclaims him guilty of High Treason excludes him out of the publick peace and declares his resolution to prosecute him as the publick Enemy of the Empire and a contemner of his Imperial Majesty and absolves all his Subjects from their Oaths and Duties to him and commands all persons whatsoever to abandon him and his adherents Christian Prince of Anhalt was appointed Generalissimo of the Bohemian Forces and governed all affairs which was some eclipse and discontent to Thurne and Mansfet who had hitherto stood the shock of the Imperial Armies The Princes of the Union raised forces for the defence of the Palatinate and their own interest
and Doctor Stuart to inform him of the nature of this cause and the scandal that might arise thereupon and to certifie what the same may amount unto whither to an irregularity or otherwise and what means may be found for redress However this consultation was managed the Archbishop was not deprived but a Plant was growing up that over-topped him whilst he lived and after his decease obtained the Primacy Doctor Laud who was first chosen to the Bishoprick of St. Davids by the Mediation of the Lord Keeper Williams and was consecrated by the Bishops of London Worcester Chichester Ely Landaff and Oxon the Archbishop in the mean time was not thought irregular for the Casual Homicide This Bishop Doctor Laud was looked upon in those times as an Arminian and a fierce opposer of Puritans and while he lived in Oxford suspected to incline to Popish Tenents as may appear by his Letter of Complaint sent to his Patron Doctor Neal then Bishop of Lincoln against a Sermon preached by Robert Abbot Doctor of the Chair in Oxford in which Letter he inclosed this amongst other Passages of the Doctors Sermon viz. That men under pretence of Truth and Preaching against the Puritans strike at the heart and root of Faith and Religion now established among us That this Preaching against the Puritans was but the practice of Parsons and Campions counsel when they came into England to seduce yong Students And when many of them were afraid to lose their places if they should professedly be thus the counsel they then gave them was That they should speak freely against the Puritans and that should suffice And they cannot intend that they are accounted Papists because they speak against the Puritans But because they indeed are Papists they speak nothing against them If they do at any time speak against the Papists they do beat a little upon the Bush and that softly too for fear of troubling or disquieting the Birds that are in it I Came time enough saith Mr. Laud to be at the rehearsal of this Sermon upon much perswasion where I was fain to sit patiently and hear my self abused almost an hour together being pointed at as I sate For this present abuse I would have taken no notice of it but that the whole University apply it to me and my own Friends tell me I shall sink my credit if I answer not Dr. Abbot in his own Nevertheless in a business of this kinde I will not be swayed from a patient course onely I desire your Lordship to vouchsafe me some direction what to do c. The Arminian Sect opposed by King Iames and by his special concurrence lately broken in the Netherlands by the beheading of Barnevalt the cheif of them began in his latter times to spring up in England and was countenanced by the said Prelate who had newly obtained the opinion and favor of the Marquess of Buckingham The Kings main design then not suffering the suppressing of that way which in common judgment was inclined to Popery or he thought to recover all his losses and to salve all misfortunes by the Spanish Match And for this cause he released multitudes of Priests and Popish Recusants then imprisoned which the Spaniards professed to be a great demonstration of the Kings sincere affection to confirm the correspondence and amity between the Crowns And that this enlargement might be the more expedite and less chargeable the King gave directions to the Lord Keeper Williams Bishop of Lincoln THat whereas he had formerly given order for the release of Recusants by removing them from the several Goals of this Kingdom to be bailed before the Justices of his Bench And finding that this course will be troublesome to the poorer sort of them he doth now require that Writs be directed to the Justices of Assizes enabling and requiring them to enlarge such Recusants as they shall finde in their several Goals upon such conditions and securities as were required by the Judges of his Bench. Accordingly the Writs were issued forth under the Great Seal and the Lord Keeper wrote to the Judges on this manner THat the King having upon deep Reasons of State and in expectation of the like correspondence from Forein Princes to the Professors of our Religion resolved to grant some Grace to the imprisoned Papists had commanded him to pass some Writs under the Broad Seal for that purpose Wherefore it is his Majesties pleasure that they make no niceness or difficulty to extend his Princely favor to all such as they shall finde prisoners in the Gaols of their Circuits for any Church Recusancy or refusing the Oath of Supremacy or dispersing of Popish Books or any other point of Recusancy that shall concern Religion onely and not matters of State But a general offence was taken at this Indulgence to Papists and the Lord Keepers Letter to the Judges which how the Keeper endevored to renounce may be seen in his Letter written to a Person of Honor. AS the Sun in the Firmament appears unto us no bigger then a Platter and the Stars are but as so many Nails in the Pummel of a Saddle because of the enlargement and disproportion between our eye and the object So is there such an unmeasurable distance between the deep resolution of a Prince and the shallow apprehensions of common and ordinary people That as they will ever be judging and censuring so they must needs be obnoxious to error and mistaking The King is now a most Zealous Intercessor for some case and refreshment to all the Protestants in Europe which were unreasonable if he did now execute the rigor of his Laws against the Roman Catholicks Our Viperous Countrymen the English Iesuites in France had many moneths before this favor granted invited the French King by writing a malicious Book to put all the Statutes in execution against the Protestants in those parts which were Enacted in England against the Papists and as they falsly informed severely executed Besides these Papists are no otherwise out of prison then with their shackles about their heels sufficient Sureties and good Recognizances to present themselves at the next Assizes and their own demeanor and the success of his Majesties Negotiations must determine whether they shall continue in this Grace But to conclude from the favor done to the English Papists that the King savors the Romish Religion is a composition of Folly and Malice little deserved by a gratious Prince who by Word Writing Exercise of Religion and Acts of Parliament hath demonstrated himself so resolved a Protestant As for his own Letter to the Iudges he said it recited onely four kindes of Recusancy capable of the Kings clemency not so much to include them as to exclude many other Crimes bearing the name of Recusancy as using the Function of a Romish Priest seducing the Kings Leige-people from the established Religion aspersing the King Church or State or the present Government All which Offences being
Letter quickned the Pope whereupon there ensued a Congregation of Cardinals to determine the matter and afterwards the Popes assent And then the Court of Spain declared such an intire Agreement for the Alliance with England that King Iames was satisfied and could expect no further difficulty But his intelligence from Bruxels and all other parts of the World did quickly cool and almost quench his hopes Sir Richard Weston was a man approved by Gondomar who commended the Kings wisdom in the Election of so fit a Minister for the Treaty at Bruxels yet the man so well disposed and suited to the Kings designs wrote desperate Letters of the Infanta's cold and unworthy manner of Treating in that important business of restoring the Palsgrave Whilest the King of Englands proceedings were so just and clear the Count Palatine was retired to Sedan and there sojourned with his Uncle the Duke of Bouillon and his Partizans Duke Christian of Brunswick and Count Mansfield the pretended obstacles of the Treaty were removed and had taken another course Mansfield went for Holland where the States intended to use him for the raising of the siege of Bergen by cutting off the Convoys between Antwerp and the Spanish Leagure And King Iames had lately offered That in case the forces of Mansfield and Brunswick would not rest but still perturb the Treaty he would joyn with the Emperor and the Arch-Dutchess to quiet them And the English Companies in the Palatinate being penned up in Garrisons could not cause disturbance In the mean while that miserable Countrey was burnt and sacked in the sight of the English Ambassador And now the Imperial and Bavarian forces fall to the besieging of Heidelburgh When the Ambassador at Bruxels complained of these proceedings he received frivolous Answers mixed with Recriminations All that Weston obtained was onely Letters of intreaty from the Infanta to the Emperors Generals to proceed no further though she had before acknowledged a full power from the Emperor to conclude the desired Cessation But they pretended that they would restore all when all was taken For this cause Sir Richard Weston acquainted the Marquess of Buckingham that he could not discern how the weak Hopes given him at Bruxels could agree with those strong Assurances given by the Lord Digby from the Court of Spain Moreover to protract the Palsgraves business the Emperor takes occasion to appoint a Dyet at Ratisbone contrary to his own promise as himself acknowledged Mr. Gage returned from Rome with no better fruit of his Agency for the Dispensation cannot pass till the King give satisfaction to a number of new Conditions which before were never dreamed of and had this mischief in them to bring the King in jealousie with the greatest part of his Subjects A peece of Juggling was observed in this Negotiation For some points of larger Indulgence whereunto King Iames had yielded were concealed from the Pope by the Ministers of the King of Spain The Court then devised to put a good face upon an ill Game and good Sawce to an unsavory Dish For all the World expecting that Gage should bring the Dispensation at his first arival they made him give out That it was passed in Rome and sent from thence to Spain But the King made a close pursuit and resolved they should not escape him The Popes Demands superadded to the Articles of Marriage were taken in hand and Resolutions were given upon them in manner following To the Demand of a Publick Church in London besides a Domestick Chappel assigned to the Infanta and her Family the King made Reply That it was more then was assumed by himself or his Son the Prince That the Chappel allowed was not a private Oratory but in effect a Church where the World might take notice of the Religion which the Infanta professed in publick manner To another Demand That the Superior Minister having Ecclesiastical Authority be in Ordine Episcopali he answered That he would leave it to the King of Spain to appoint as he shall judge expedient But whereas the Pope required That the Ecclesiasticks be subject to no Laws but of their own Ecclesiastical Superiors his answer was That exemption seemed strange as not allowed in all States and Countreys that were of the Roman Religion As for the Education of the Children under the Mothers government Let the King of Spain judge indifferently said the King how unfit it were for us to declare to the World That we engaged our self to permit our Grand-children to be brought up unto years of Marriage in a Religion which we profess not and which is not publickly professed in our Kingdom And further then we have already assented in general to leave the Children under the Mothers tuition for a longer or shorter time according to their constitution and health which may possibly reach unto the time required by the Pope We can by no means condiscend unless the King of Spain think it fit to limit the time to a certainty And whereas the Pope expected some larger offers for the general good of the Roman Church the King shewed That the Articles of Religion agreed upon between himself and the late King of Spain were accounted so satisfactory in the judgment of the Learnedst and greatest Clergy of Spain That they declared their opinion that upon the offer of such Conditions the Pope ought not to withhold the Dispensation And he said further That the Pope was satisfied that he of his own Authority could not grant a general Liberty of exercising the Roman Religion And what is it that they would have For setting that aside he had in a manner done already all that was desired as all the Roman Catholicks have found out of his gratious Clemency towards them and will no doubt acknowledge This Resolution the King sent into Spain for he would not seem to Treat with Rome and therewith this Letter to the Lord Digby now made Earl of Bristol Right Trusty and Welbeloved OUr pleasure is that immediately you crave Audience of that King and represent unto him the merit that we may justly chalenge to our self for our sincere proceedings with the Emperor and him Notwithstanding the many Invitations and Temptations we have had to engage our self on our Son in Laws part That we have both from the Emperor and from him hopes given us from time to time of extraordinary respect howsoever our Son in Law had deserved which we have attended and expected even to the last with much patience and in despight as it were of all opposition which might shake our Resolution in that behalf If now when all impediments are removed and the way is so prepared as that the Emperor may give an end unto the War and make some present Demonstration of his respect towards us in leaving us the honor of holding those poor places which yet remain quietly and peaceably until the general Accommodation the same shall nevertheless be violently taken
of all such as should serve their Princes with the like loyalty had sent him a Blank signed by himself wherein he might set down his own Conditions both in point of Title and Fortune And this he did in no wise to oblige another Princes Subject but only to give encouragement to honest and faithful proceedings And therefore he would not make these offers in private but open and justifiable to all the world and would accompany all that he should do with a Declaration or Patent That what he had done for the Earl of Bristol was for the fidelity wherewith he had served his own Master Hereunto the Earl made answer That he was sorry and much afflicted to hear such language And desired that they should understand that neither this King nor Spain were beholding to him For whatsoever he had done he thought the same to be fittest for his Masters service and his own honor having no relation to Spain and that he served a Master from whom he was assured both of justice and due reward And nothing doubted but his own Innocencie would prevail against the wrong intended by his powerful Adversaries And were he sure to run into imminent danger he had rather go home and cast himself at his Masters feet and mercy and therein comply with the duty and honor of a faithful Subject though it should cost him his head then be Duke or Infantado of Spain And that with this resolution he would imploy the utmost of his power to maintain the Amity between the two Kings and their Crowns and to serve his Catholick Majesty After he had taken his leave and was ready to come away he had another Profer made unto him in private of Ten thousand Crowns to take with him in his purse to make his way and go through with his troubles if haply his own monies might be seised upon And it was told him no body should know it Yes said he one would know it who he was assured would reveal it to his Majesty viz. the Earl of Bristol himself and it would make him not so clear in his own heart as now he was and so he refused the offer The Match was now truly broken but as yet the breach was not declared nor the Treaty quite fallen to the ground but continued after a languishing manner in the hands of Sir Walter Aston The Spaniards by all Advertisements from England were advised to expect a War and accordingly they went seriously to work and prepared themselves for what might happen And Aston being there upon the place conceived it high time that King Iames should resolve upon some course to allay the storm arising or to go hand in hand with them in equal preparations All that was left alive of the Marriage-business was no more then that those Jewels which the Prince had left at his Farewel were not yet returned But if the Letter then expected from England brought no better Answer to their last Offer concerning the Palatinate then such as they had hither to received they will return the Jewels and declare the Marriage broken For by this time they had received intelligence of the Princes treating a Marriage with a Daughter of France the Lady Henrietta Maria. And so it was that King Iames had lately sent the Lord Kensington afterwards Earl of Holland to enquire covertly whether the Match were feasible before he would enter into a Publick Treaty The Lord Kensington returned this Accompt of his Negotiation That there appeared in the face of that Court an extraordinary sweetness smoothness and clearness towards an Alliance with England The Princess herself was observed seldom to have put on a more cheerful countenance then she had done the first night of his appearance in that Court The Queen though a Daughter of Spain wished this Match more then that intended with her own Sister And the Queen-mother who will have the chief stroke in the business expressed her good will and favor as much as might stand with her Daughters honor For the French observe the aspiring of the King of Spain to the Monarchy of Christendom and his approaches to the Kingdom of France and his encompassing it on all sides And they discern that an Alliance with England is the surest way to oppose the mightiness of that King And upon the same accompt they promised brave assistance to the United Provinces gave great encouragement to Count Mansfield and Duke Christian of Brunswick A Gentleman of the Religion was sent to Liege to offer them the Kings protection if that Town will seek it Nevertheless they have not directly embraced this Overture of Marriage because we have not as yet wholly abandoned the Treaty with Spain lest they should lose the Friendship of a Brother-in-law to gain another which may possibly fail them But they say that their hearts are not capable of more content then to see this Motion upon a Publick Commission and all that may touch upon the way of Spain dissolved Neither are they like to strain us to unreasonable Conditions in favor of the Roman Catholicks in his Majesties Dominions For in that matter their Pulse beats so temperately as to promise a good Crisis therein And in case his Majesty be drawn to banish the Priests and Jesuites and to quicken the Laws against other Catholicks to keep a good Intelligence with his Parliament yet they say they hope he will not tie his hands from some moderate favor to flow hereafter from the mediation of that State which is all they pretend unto for the saving of their honor who otherwise would hardly be reputed Catholicks Thus the Lord Kensington having rendred an accompt of his diligence advised to go on roundly with the Match lest otherwise though never so well affected they be altered with the Arts of Spain For saith he undoubtedly the King of Spain will resolve if possible to oblige one side And as the French do think he may please England with the restitution of the Palatinate so we may think he will please the French with rendring of the Valtoline But without the assistance of Parliament and compliance with the people the King could not go through with those weighty works which he was now to take in hand Now the things which troubled the People were set forth to the King in three particulars As That for the Subsidies granted in the two last Parliaments they received no retributions by Bils of Grace That some of their Burgesses were proceeded against after the Parliament was dissolved And that when they have satisfied the Kings demands he will nevertheless proceed to the conclusion of the Spanish Match Hereupon some of his nearest Council perswaded him to begin the work by removing the peoples Jealousies and to cast away some crums of his Crown amongst them and those crums would work miracles and satisfie many thousands And whereas the aim of the former Treaties was the setling of an universal peace in Christendom
testimonia invictissimi unà cum Joanne fratre suo juniore in obsidione Francovalenti hic factâ eruptione arreptus ille ictu bombardae percussus occubuere Anno M.DC.XXI This Monument was erected by the Town of Frankendal in memory of those two Brothers who were Uncles to that Valiant Victorious and Self-denying General THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX late Commander in Chief of the Parliaments Armies in England In France the Marriage-Treaty was not so fair smooth and plausible in the progress as in the entrance King Iames admiring the Alliance of mighty Kings though of a Contrary Religion as also fearing the disgrace of another Breach desired the Match unmeasurably which the French well perceived and abated of their forwardness and enlarged their Demands in favor of Papists as the Spaniards had done before them and strained the King to the Concession of such Immunities as he had promised to his Parliament that he would never grant upon the mediation of Forein Princes The Cardinal Richlieu being in the infancie of his favor and appointed to the managing of the Treaty assured the Catholicks of Great Britain that the most Christian King remembring that he was born and raised up no less for the propagation of the Catholick Cause then for the enlarging of his own Dominions was resolved to obtain honorable Terms for Religion or never to conclude the Match And for his own part such was his compassion towards them that if he might work their deliverance or better their condition not only with Counsel interest and authority but with his life and blood he would gladly do it However this Treaty held fewer moneths then the years that were spent in that of Spain Indeed the Motion from England had a braver expression seeing a Wife was here considered as the only object of the Treaty whereas that of Spain was accompanied with a further expectation to wit the rendring of the Palatinate to King Iames his children In August the Match was concluded and in November the Articles were sworne unto by King Iames Prince Charls and the French King The Articles concerning Religion were not much short of those for the Spanish Match The Conclusion of the Treaty was seconded in France with many outward expressions of Joy as Bonfires and the like Whereupon the Privy-Council sent to the Lord Mayor of London requiring the like to be done here This year Count Mansfield arrived in England whose reception was splendid and honorable He was entertained in the Prince his House in S. Iames's and served in great state by some of the Kings Officers A Press went through the Kingdom for the raising of Twelve thousand Foot with two Troops of Horse to go under his Command for the Recovery of the Palatinate These Forces were intended to pass through France into Germany the French having promised as well an Addition of Strength as a free passage In the mean while there were those that secretly sollicited the King to return into the way of Spain and raised suspitions of Mansfields Enterprise saying he was the Palsgraves Scout and Spy And if the Puritans desired a Kingdom they did not wish it to the most illustrious Prince Charls his Majesties best and true Heir but to the Palatine That it was the Dukes Plot and the Parliaments Fury to begin a War with Spain but it will be the glory of his Majesties blessed Reign that after many most happy years that Motto of his Blessed be the Peace-makers might even â—o the last be verified of him in the letter and be propounded for imitation to the most illustrious Prince and that the experience of his happy Government should carry the Prince in a connatural motion to the same Counsels of Peace And at the same time the more circumspect party in the Spanish Court held it fit to continue the state of things in a possibility of an Accommodation with the King of Great Britain and Gondomar was coming again for England to procure a Peace notwithstanding the Duke of Bavaria used all diligence to combine himself with that Crown offering to depend wholly thereon so that he may be thereby protected in his new acquired Dignity But in these Motions the Elector of Saxony with many Reasons advised the Emperor to apply himself to the setling of a Peace in Germany and with much instance besought him not to destroy that antient House of the Palatinate Count Mansfield was at this time in England and the Forces raised in the several parts of the Kingdom for the recovery of the Palatinate were put under his Command and Marching to their Rendezvous at Dover committed great Spoils and Rapines in their passage through the Counties At that Rendezvous the Colonels and Captains were assigned to receive their several Regiments and Companies from the Conductors employed by those several Counties where the Men were raised A List of some of the Regiments of Foot designed for that Expedition I. EArl of Lincoln Colonel Lieut. Col. Allen. Serjeant Major Bonithon Sir Edward Fleetwood Captain Wirley Capt. Reynolds Capt. Babbington Sir Matthew Carey Capt. Barlee Capt. Cromwel II. Viscount Doncaster Colonel Sir Iames Ramsey Lieut. Colonel Alexander Hamilton Serjeant Major Capt. Archibald Duglas Capt. Zouch Capt. Iohn Duglas Capt. Pell Capt. William Duglas Capt. George Kellwood Capt. Andrew Heatly III. Lord Cromwel Colonel Lieut. Col. Dutton Serjeant Major Gibson Capt. Basset Capt. Lane Capt. Vincent Wright Capt. Ienner Capt. Vaughan Capt. Owseley Capt. Crane IV. Sir Charles Rich Colonel Lieut. Col. Hopton Serjeant Major Killegrew Sir Warham St. Leiger Sir W. Waller Capt. Burton Capt. Francis Hammond Capt. Winter Capt. Goring Capt. Fowler V. Sir Andrew Grey Colonel Lieut. Col. Boswel Serjeant Major Coburne Capt. David Murray Capt. Murray Capt. Forbois Capt. Carew Capt. Ramsey Capt. Williams Capt. Beaton VI. Sir Iohn Borrough Colonel Lieut. Col. Bret. Serjeant Major Willoughby Capt. William Lake Capt. Roberts Capt. Webb Capt. Skipwith Capt. Thomas Woodhouse Capt. George Capt. Mostian The Duke of Buckingham Lord Admiral was required to employ those Ships that were now in the Narrow Seas or in the Havens ready bound for any Voyage for the Transporting this Army from Dover Count Mansfield received his Commission from King Iames bore date the Seventh of November One thousand six hundred twenty and four and was to this effect That his Majesty at the Request of the Prince Elector Palatine and the Kings Sister his Wife doth impower Count Mansfield to raise an Army for the recovering of the Estate and Dignity of the Prince Elector and appoints that the Forces so raised should be under the Government of the said Count Mansfield for the end aforesaid And his Majesty further declares by way of Negative That he doth not intend that the said Count shall commit any spoil upon the Countreys or Dominions of any of his Majesties Friends and Allies and more particularly He doth require the said Count not to make any invasion or do any act of War
State when they were none Recovered Henry the Fourth of France his Kingdom when he had nothing left but the Town of Diep Conquered the Invincible Navy of Spain in Anno 1588. Took Towns in Portugal the Year following and marched One hundred miles upon the Firm ground Fired or brought away the Spanish Navy before Cadiz and sack'd the Town took the Spanish ships daily and spoiled the Port-Towns of the West-Indies never losing but one ship during the Spanish War reducing the Condition of that King from a Fifth Monarchy to so low an Ebb that in one Year he paid Two thousand five hundred Millions of Duckets for Interest so as after he was enforced to beg Treaties of Peace and low Terms at the last Queen-Regents hands III. The Cause of the good Success then A Carriage and readiness to assist their Soveraign in purse and person A Wisdom and Gravity of Council who ordered nothing but by publick Debate and then assisted with the Military Professors either by Land or Sea of the best repute and such only imployed IV. In what Condition we now stand By the loss of Reputation by the ill success in the Voyage for Algier in the Palatinate in the Expedition with Mansfield in the last to Cadiz The Reasons are The uncheerfulness we have either to adventure our purses or persons occasioned by a distrust we have of the success the want of the like Courses and Councils that were formerly used It was wished that for every of the Four Heads there were a particular Committee to examine and prepare a Report for the Houses and the House upon every Report to put it self into a Committee of the whole Assembly and after a full and deliberate Debate to order a Model or Form for a Conference with the Lords and so together humbly to present to his Majesty a Remonstrance of their Labor offering withall a second Consultation and Debate amongst themselves for finding out the fittest means both for the defence of the State and our Allies Reformation of the Errors and a constant way to raise such Supplies as may enable his Majesty to proceed cheerfully and as they hoped assuredly in this his glorious Action not only for himself and State but all that profess the same Religion and are like to be overwhelmed in the Ambition of the Spanish Monarchy Also a Committee was named concerning Religion and the Growth oâ— Popery and Montague's Appeal to Caesar was again brought in question This Book the Commons referred to the Committee for Religion from whom Mr. Pym Reported to the House the several Erroneous Opâ—nions therein contained and the House passed their Votes thereupon That Mr. Montague endeavored to reconcile England to Rome and to alienate the Kings affections from his well-affected Subjects The Articles exhibited against him were these Articles exhibited by the Commons against Richard Montague Clerk THat he the said Richard Montague in or about the 21. year of the Reign of our late Soveraign Lord King Iames of famous memory hath caused to be Printed and in his name to be Published one Book called An Answer to the late Gagg of Protestants and in or about Anno 22. of the same King he caused to be Printed and Published one other Book Entituled A Treatise of the Invocations of Saints and likewise in the First year of his Majesties Reign that now is he procured to be Printed and in his name to be Published another Book Entituled An Appeal to Caesar In every of which Books he hath maintained and confirmed some Doctrine contrary or repugnant to the Articles agreed by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy holden in the Convocation at London Anno Domini 1562. according to the computation of the Church of England for avoiding Diversity of Opinions and for establishing Consent touching true Religion All which appears in the places hereafter mentioned and in divers other places and passages of the same Books And by his so doing hath broken the Laws and Statutes of this Realm in that Case provided and very much disturbed both the Peace of Church and Commonwealth I. Whereas in the Five and thirtieth Article of the Articles aforementioned it is declared That the Second Book of Homilies doth contain a Godly and wholesom Doctrine in the sixteenth Homily of which Book it is determined That the Church of Rome as it is at present and hath been for the space of Nine hundred years and odd is so far wide from the nature of a True Church that nothing can be more He the said Richard Montague in several places of his said Book called The Answer to the Gagg and in his other Book called The Appeal doth advisedly maintain and affirm That the Church of Rome is and ever was a True Church since it was a Church II. Whereas in the same Homily it is likewise declared That the Church of Rome is not built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and in the Eight and twentieth Article of the said Articles That Transubstantiation overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and in the Five and twentieth of the same Article That five other reputed Sacraments of the Church of Rome are not to be accounted Sacraments yet contrary and repugnant hereunto he the said Richard Montague doth maintain and affirm in his Book aforesaid called The Answer to the Gagg That the Church of Rome hath ever remained firm upon the same Foundation of Sacraments and Doctrine instituted by God III. In the nineteenth of the same Article it is further determined That the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and matters of Ceremony but also in matters of Faith He the said Richard Montague speaking of those Points which belong to Faith and good manners Hope and Charity doth in the said Book called The Gagg affirm and maintain That none of these are controverted in their Points meaning the Protestants and Papists and notwithstanding that in the One and thirtieth Article it is resolved That the Sacrifice of Masses in which as it is commonly said the Priest did offer Christ for the Quick and the Dead to have remission of Pain and Guilt too is a Blasphemous Fable and dangerous Deceit this being one of the Points controverted between the Church of England and the Church of Rome The said Richard Montague in his Book called The Gagg doth affirm and maintain That the controverted Points are of a lesser and inferior nature of which a man may be ignorant without any danger of his Soul at all a man may resolve to oppose this or that without peril of perishing for ever IV. Whereas in the second Homily Entituled Against Peril of Idolatry contained in the aforesaid Book of Homilies approved by the Seven and thirtieth mrticle aforementioned It is declared That Images teach no good Lesson neither of God nor Godliness but all Error and Wickedness He the said Richard Montague in the Book of Gagg aforesaid doth affirm and maintain
That Images may be used for the instruction of the Ignorant and excitation of Devotion V. That in the same Homily it is plainly expressed That the attributing the defence of certain Countries to Saints is a spoiling God of his honor and that such Saints are but Dii tutelares of the Gentiles Idolators The said Richard Montague hath notwithstanding in his said Book Entituled A Treatise concerning the Invocation of Saints affirmed and maintained That Saints have not onely a Memory but a more peculiar Charge of their Friends and that it may be admitted That some Saints have a peculiar Patronage Custody Protection and Power as Angels also have over certain Persons and Countries by special deputation and that it is no impiety so to believe Whereas in the seventeenth of the said Articles it is resolved That God hath certianly Decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankinde and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to Gods purpose working in due season they through Grace obey the Calling they be justified freely walk Religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy attain to everlasting felicity He the said Richard Montague in the said Book called The Appeal doth maintain and affirm That men justified may fall away and depart from the state which once they had they may arise Again and become new men possibly but not certainly nor necessarily and the better to countenance this his opinion he hath in the same Book wilfully added falsified and charged divers words of the sixteenth of the Articles before mentioned and divers other words both in the Book of Homilies and in the Book of Common-Prayer and so misrecited and changed the said places he doth alleadge in the said Book called The Appeal endeavouring thereby to lay a most wicked and malicious scandal upon the Church of England as if he did herein differ from the Reformed Churches of England and from the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas and did consent to those pernitious Errors which are commonly called Arminianism and which the late famous Queen Elizabeth and King Iames of happy memory did so piously and diligently labour to suppress That the said Richard Montague contrary to his Duty and Allegiance hath endeavored to raise great Factions and Divisions in this Common-wealth by casting the odious and scandalous name of Puritans upon such his Majesties loving Subjects as conform themselves to the Doctrine and Ceremony of the Church of England under that name laying upon them divers false and malicious Imputations so to bring them into jealousie and displeasure with his most Excellent Majesty and into reproach and ignominy with the rest of the people to the great danger of Sedition and Disturbance in the State if it be not timely prevented That the Scope and end of the said Richard Montague in the Books before mentioned is to give encouragement to Popery and to withdraw his Majesties Subjects from the true Religion established to the Roman Superstition and consequently to be reconciled to the Sea of Rome All which he laboreth by subtile and cunning ways whereby Gods True Religion hath been much scandalized those Mischiefs introduced which the wisdom of many Laws hath endeavored to prevent the Devices and Practices of his Majesties Enemies have been furthered and advanced to the great peril and hazard of our Soveraign Lord the King and of all his Dominions and loving Subjects That the said Richard Montague hath inserted into the said Book called The Appeal divers passages dishonorable to the late King his Majesties Father of famous memory full of bitterness railing and injurious Speeches to other persons disgracefull and contemptible to many worthy Divines both of this Kingdom and of other Reformed Churches beyond the Seas impious and profane in scoffing at preaching meditating and conferring Pulpits Lectures Bible and all shew of Religion all which do aggravate his former Offences having proceeded from malicious and envenomed heat against the Peace of the Church and the sincerity of the Reformed Religion publickly professed and by Law established in this Kingdom All which Offences being to the dishonor of God and of most mischievous effect and consequence against the good of this Church and Commonwealth of England and of other his Majesties Realms and Dominions The Commons assembled in Parliament do hereby pray That the said Richard Montague may be punished according to his Demerits in such exemplary manner as may deter others from attempting so presumptuously to disturb the Peace of Church and State and that the Book aforesaid may be suppressed and Burnt Whether an Answer was made to these Articles by Mr Montague we cannot tell for upon search we can finde none About the same time his Majesty being informed that there was great liberty taken by divers of his Subjects to resort to the hearing of Masse at Durham-house in the Lodgings of a Foraign Ambassodor the Privy Council taking notice thereof and accounting it scandalous to this Church and of ill example to be suffered at any time but much more in this time of Parliament required the Bishop of Durham to apprehend such of his Majesties Subjects as should be present at the Masse and to commit them to Prison There was also a Letter sent from the Attorney-General to the Judges of the Circuits to direct their Proceedings against Recusants to this effect THat their Lordships will not omit to publish the Kings Gracious and Religious Determination to go on really and constantly in this way and that out of his bounty and goodness he hath published his Resolution under the Great Seal of England That whatsoever Revenue or Benefit shall arise hereby from Purses of Popish Recusants shall be set apart from his own Treasure and be wholly imployed for the Service of the Commonwealth and shall not be dispensed with to any of what degree soever nor diverted by any the Suits of his Servants or Subjects 2. That their Lordships will be pleased at their first coming into every County within their Circuit to command the Clerk of Assise and Clerk of the Peace to be carefull for the Indictment of Popish Recusants without respect of Persons of what Degree of Honor or Office soever and that they neither make nor suffer to be made any omission or mistaking in their Indictment or other proceedings and that the next Term within ten dayes of the beginning of the Term they give or send to him viz. the Attorney a note in writing who stand indicted of new and that they fail not to certifie the Recusants convicted into the Exchequer by that time That at their Lordships first coming into the County they call the Iustices of Peace then present and the Grand-Iury men to give their Lordships true Information of the Recusants of any Note or Name in that Country and that
Peace as they doubted he would not be brought to enter into War But Count Mansfield procured the King of France to Contract to receive our Troops with promise to enter into the War upon condition it might be regulated by the Council of the French King and England This favor to Count Mansfield That France agreed that his Armies should joyn with the Kings Troops wrought the Princes of Germany to believe that the King would enter into a War Thereupon the Imperialists left their Dyet and sent Tilly to Friezland and to take up the River of Embden which if he had obtained they would have trampled the Low-Countreys under foot and would have become Governors of the Sea Upon this the King of Denmark sent to our King and offered to raise an Army of Thirty thousand men if our King would allow Thirty thousand pounds a Moneth and said He would admit no time of respite for if Tilly had not been presently met and headed all had been lost Whereupon our King called a Counsel and appointed Commissioners and from that time all the Warrants for the issuing of the Moneys were all under the Kings own hand to the Council of War and from them to the Treasurers and the Warrants were from the Lords of the Council for the Levying of Men and for Coats and Conduct-Money A List whereof is hereunder specified Thereupon the Duke asked the Question Whether any thing was done by single Council To which the Lord Conway answered No. For the Treaty of Denmark Project of Count Mansfield Treaties with France and the business of the Navy were done all by the King himself and who can say it was done by single Council when King Iames commanded it whose Council every man ought to reverence especially in matters of War whereunto that King was not hasty The Total of Moneys paid by Warrants of the Treasurers of the Subsidy Money IN Toto for the Four Regiments of the Low-Countries from the Thirtieth of Iune 1624. till the One and twentieth of Iuly 1624. 99878 l. 00 s. 06 d. For the Navy from the Thirteenth of Iuly 1624. till the Three and twentieth of December 37530 l. 08 s. 04 d. For the Office of the Ordinance and Forts in England from the Twentieth of Iuly 1624. till the Fifteenth of Iune 1625. 47126 l. 05 s. 05 d. To defray Charges for Forts in Ireland about October 1624. 32295 l. 18 s. 04 d. For the Service under Count Mansfield for Provisions of Arms transporting of Soldiers from the Fourth of October 1624. till the Tenth of December 1624. 61666 l. 13 s. 04 d. Sum Total 278497 l. 04 s. 11 d. MEmorandum That over and above the several Services before specified and the several Sums issued and to be issued by our Warrants for the same We did long since resolve and order accordingly that out of the Moneys of the Second and third Subsidies these further Services should be performed and Moneys issued accordingly viz. In full of the Supply of all the Forts and Castles before-mentioned Surveyed per Sir Richard Morison Sir Iohn Ogle Sir Iohn Kay in September 1613. with all sorts of Munitions according to several Proportions and Warrants for the same 4973 l. In full for the Reparations of all the said Forts and Castles according to the said Survey 10650 l. 06s 08 d. But the said Subsidies being not like to afford means to perform these so necessary Works We humbly commend the supply of what shall be wanting for the same unto your Majesties Princely consideration Whilest the Commons were inquiring into Publick Grievances the Lords represented to the King a Grievance to their own Order in this following Petition To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The Petition of your ever Loyal Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal now in Parliament Assembled In all humility sheweth THat whereas the Péers and Nobility of this Your Kingdom of England have heretofore in Civility yeilded as to strangers Precedency according to their several degrées unto such Nobles of Scotland and Ireland as being in Titles above them have resorted hither Now divers of the natural born Subjects of those Kingdoms resident here with their Families and having their cheif Estates among us do by reason of some late created Dignities in those Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland claim Precedency of the Péers of this Realm which tends both to the disservice of Your Majesty and these Realms and to the great disparagement of the English Nobility as by these Reasons may appear I. It is a novelty without president that men should inherit Honors where they possess nothing else II. It is injurious to those Countreys from whence their Titles are derived that they should have a Uote in Parliament where they have not a foot of Land III. It is a grievance to the Country where they inhabite that men possessing very large Fortunes and Estates should by reason of Foreign Titles be exempted from those Services of Trust and Charge which through their default become greater pressures upon others who bear the burthen IV. It is a shame to Nobility that Persons dignified with the Titles of Barons Viscounts c. should be obnoxious and exposed to arrest they being in the view of the Law no more then méer Plebeians We therefore humbly beséech your Majesty That you will be pleased according to the examples of the best Princes and times upon consideration of these inconveniencis represented to Your Majesty by the nearest Body of Honor to Your Majesty that some course may be taken and an order timely setled therein by Your Princely Wisdom so as the inconvenience to Your Majesty may be prevented and the prejudice and disparagement of the Péers and Nobility of this Kingdom be redressed To this Petition the King gave Answer That he would take order therein The Earl of Bristol who continued under Restraint and was debarred Access to his Majesty ever since his return out of Spain had been examined touching his Negotiation there by a Committee of Lords appointed by the King Certain Propositions were tendred unto him in order to his Release and composing of that Affair concerning which he had written to the Lord Conway and about this time received the ensuing Letter from him The Lord Conway to the Earl of Bristol My Lord I Received a Letter from your Lordship dated the Fourth of this Moneth written in Answer to a former Letter which I directed to your Lordship by his Majesties Commandment This last Letter according to my duty I have shewed unto his Majesty who hath perused it and hath commanded me to write back to you again That he findes himself nothing satisfied therewith The Question propounded to your Lordship from his Majesty was plain and clear Whether you did rather chuse to sit still without being questioned for any Errors past in your Negotiation in Spain and enjoy the benefit of the late gratious Pardon granted in Parliament whereof you may have the benefit Or
and broken the said Trust therewith committed unto him And hath not according to his said Offices during the time aforesaid safely kept the said Seas insomuch that by reason of his neglect and default therein not onely the trade and strength of this Kingdom of England hath been during the said time much decayed but the same Seas also have been during the same time ignominiously infested by Pirates and Enemies to the loss both of very many Ships and Goods and of many of the Subjects of our Soveraign Lord the King and the Dominion of the said Seas being the antient and undoubted Patrimony of the Kings of England is thereby also in most eminent danger to be utterly lost V. Whereas about Michaelmas last past a Ship called the St Peter of Newhaven whereof Iohn Mallerow was Master laden with divers Goods Merchandise Monies Jewels and Commodities to the value of Forty thousand pounds or thereabouts for the proper accompt of Monsieur de Villieurs the then Governor of Newhaven and other Subjects of the French King being in perfect Amity and League with our Soveraign Lord the King was taken at Sea by some of the Ships of his Majesties late Fleet set forth under the command of the said Duke as well by direction from him the said Duke as great Admiral of England as by the Authority of the extraordinary Commission which he then had for the command of the said Fleet and was by them together with her said goods and lading brought into the Port at Plymouth as a prize among many others upon probabilities that the said Ship or Goods belonged to the Subjects of the King of Spain And that divers parcels of the said goods and lading were there taken out of the said Ship of St Peter that is to say Sixteen Barrels of Cocheneal Eight Bags of Gold Twenty three Bags of Silver two Boxes of Pearl and Emeralds a Chain of Gold Jewels Monies and Commodities to the value of Twenty thousand pounds or thereabouts and by the said Duke were delivered into the private custody of one Gabriel Marsh servant to the said Duke and that the said Ship with the residue of her goods and lading was from thence sent up into the River of Thames and there detained whereupon there was an arrest at Newhaven in the Kingdom of France on the seventh day of December last of two English Merchants Ships trading thither as was alleadged in certain Petitions exhibited by some English Merchants trading into France to the Lords and others of his Majesties most honorable Privy-Council after which that is to say on the 28 day of the said moneth his Majesty was pleased to order with the advice of his Privy-Council that the said Ship and Goods belonging to the Sucjects of the French King should be redelivered to such as should re-claim them and accordingly intimation was given unto his Majesties Advocate in the chief Court of Admiralty by the right honorable Sir Io. Cook Knight one of his Majesties principal Secretaries of State for the freeing and discharging of the said Ship and Goods in the said Court of Admiralty And afterwards that is to say on the Six and twentieth of Ianuary last it was decreed in the said Court by the Judge thereof with the consent of the said Advocate That the said Ship with whatsoever Goods so seised or taken in her Except Three hundred Mexico Hides Sixteen Sacks of Ginger one Box of gilded Beads Five Sacks of Ginger more mentioned in the said Decree should be clearly released from further detention and delivered to the Master and thereupon under Seal a Commission was in that behalf duty sent out of the said Court to Sir Allen Appesly Sir Iohn Worstenholme and others for the due execution thereof The said Duke notwithstanding the said Order Commission and Decree detained still to his own use the said Gold Silver Pearls Emeralds Jewels Monies and Commodities so taken out of the said Ship as aforesaid And for his own singular avail and covetousness on the sixth day of February last having no information of any new proof without any legal proceeding by colour of his said Office unjustly caused the said ship and goods to be again arrested and detained in publick violation and contempt of the Laws and Justice of this Land to the great disturbance of Trade and prejudice of the Merchants These were enlarged by Mr Selden who said That by nature of his Office the Duke as Admiral ought to have guarded the Seas By his Patent he is made Magnus Admirallus Angliae Hiberniae Walliae Normaniae Aquitaniae Villae Calesij Marchiarum ejusdem praefectus generalis classium Marium dictorum regnorum The Seas of England and Ireland are committed to the Admiral as a part of the Demesne and Possessions of the Crown of England not as if he should thereby have Jurisdiction onely as in case of the Admirals in France or Spain The State of Genoa Catalonia and other Maritine parts of Spain the Sea-Towns of Almain Zeland Holland Friezland Denmark Norway and divers other parts of the Empire shew That the Kings of England by reason that their said Realm hath used time out of minde to be in peaceable possession are Lords of the Seas of England and of the Islands belonging to them And though Grotius that Hollander wrote of purpose to destroy all Dominion in the East-Ocean yet he speaks nothing against the Dominion of our English Seas howsoever he hath been misapprehended but expressly elsewhere saith Meta Britanicis littora sunt oris the utmost limits of the Demesne of the Crown of England are the Shores of the neighbouring Countries the whole Sea or the Territorium maximum that intervenes being parcel of the possession of the Crown the keeping and safe-guard of these committed to the Lord Admiral by the name of the Praefectus Marium Admirallus being but the same anciently Before the use of the word Admiral came in which was under Edw. 1. the Admirals had the Titles of Custodes Maris And this Praefectura or Custodia or Office of safe-guarding the Seas binds him to all care and perpetual observance of whatsoever conduceth to that safe-guard as in Custos sigilli Custos Marchiarum Custos portium custos comitatuum agreeable to the practice of former times 1. In certifying yearly to the King and his Council the many Forces both of the Kings ships and ships of Merchants the names of the owners the number of Marriners c. That the King and his Council may always know his force by Sea 2. In shewing wants of ships c. for the safe-guarding of the Seas with the Estimates of the Supply that so they might be procured In personal attendance upon the service of guarding the Seas upon all occasions of weight In 7 H. 4. Nich. Blackborn and Rich. Cliderowe one of the Knights of Kent were made Admirals for keeping the Seas upon consideration had of it in Parliament and
they ought not to have righted themselves before Legal Complaint and a denial on our part and then by way of Reprisal and not by Imbargo So that the Duke doth humbly leave it to the consideration of your Lordships whether the harm which hath hapned to our Merchants hath not been more occasioned by the unseasonable justifying of the actions of the French which animated them to increase their injuries then by any act either of the Duke or any other To this Article which consisteth of two main Points the one of the Extorting Ten thousand pounds unjustly and without right from the East-India Company the other admitting the Duke had a right as Lord Admiral the compassing it by undue ways and abusing the Parliament to work his private ends the Duke giveth this Answer wherein a plain Narration of the Fact he hopeth will clear the Matters objected and in this he shall lay down no more then will fully appear upon Proof About the end of Michaelmas Term 1623. the Duke had information given him by a principal Member of their own Company that the Company had made a great advantage to themselves in the Seas of East-India and other parts of Asia and Africa by rich prizes gotten there forcibly from the Portugals and others and a large part thereof was due to his Majesty and to the Duke as Admiral by the Law for which neither of them had any satisfaction Whereupon directions were given for a legal prosecution in the Court of Admiralty and to proceed in such Matter as should be held fittest by the Advice of Council In the Moneths of December and Ianuary in that year divers Witnesses were examined in the Admiralty according to the ordinary course of that Court to instruct and furnish Informative Processes in this behalf After the Tenth of March 1623. an Action was commenced in the Court in the joynt names of his Majesty and the Admiral grounded upon the former proceeding this was prosecuted by the Kings Advocate and the demand at first was Fifteen thousand pounds The Action being thus framed in both their names by Advice of Council because it was doubtful in the judgment of the Council Whether it did more properly belong to the one or to the other or to both and the form of entring that Action being most usual in that Court on the Eight and twentieth of April 1624. the Judicial Agreement and Sentence passed thereupon in the Admiralty Court wherein the Companies consent and their own offer plainly appeareth so that for the second part of the right it were very hard to conclude that the Duke had no right contrary to the Companies own consent and the sentence of the Court grounded on their Agreement unless it shall fully appear That the Company was by strong hand inforced thereto and so the money extorted Therefore to clear that scruple That as the matter of the Suit was just or at least so probable as the Company willingly desired it for their peace so the manner was as just and honorable your Lordships are humbly entreated to observe these few true Circumstances The Suit in the Admiralty begun divers moneths before the first mention of it in Parliament and some moneths before the beginning of it in that Parliament it was prosecuted in a legal course and upon such grounds as will yet be maintained to be just The Composition made by the Company was not moved by the Duke but his late Majesty on the behalf of himself and of the Duke treated with divers Members of the Company about it and the Duke himself treated not at all with them The Company without any compulsion at all agreed to the Composition not that they were willing to give so much if they might have escaped for nothing but that they were willing to give so much rather then to hazard the success of the Suit And upon this Composition concluded by his Majesty the Company desired and obtained a Pardon for all that was objected against them The Motion in Parliament about the stay of the Companies Ships then ready prepared and furnished was not out of any respect to draw them the rather to give the Composition but really out of an apprehension that there might be need of their strength for the defence of the Realm at home and if so then all private respects must give way to the Publick Interest These Ships upon the importunity of the Merchants and Reasons given by them were suffered nevertheless to fall down to Tilbury by his late Majesties direction to speed their Voyage the better whilst they might be accommodated for this Voyage without prejudice to the publick safety they were discharged when there was an Accommodation propounded and allowed which was That they should forthwith prepare other Ships for the home service whilst those went over with their Voyage which they accordingly did That the Motion made in the Commons House was without the Dukes knowledge or privity That when there was a rumor that the Duke had drawn on the Composition by staying of the Ships which were then gone the Duke was so much offended thereat that he would have had the former Communication to have broken off and have proceeded in a legal course and he sent to the Company to that purpose but the Company gave him satisfaction That they had raised no such rumor nor would nor could avow any such thing and entreated him to rest satisfied with their publick acts to the contrary That after this their Ships being gone themselves careful of their future security solicited the dispatch of the Composition consulted with Councel upon the Instruments which passed about it and were at the charge thereof and the money was paid long after the sentence and the sentence given after the Ships were gone and no security given at all for the money but the sentence and when this mony was paid to the Duke the whole sum but Two hundred pounds thereof onely was borrowed by the King and employed by his own Officers for the service of the Navy If these things do upon proof appear to your Lordships as is assured they will he humbly submitteth it to your judgments how far verbal Affirmations or Informations extrajudicial shall move your judgments when Judicial Acts and those things which were acted and executed prove the contrary To this Article which is so mixt with Actions of great Princes as that he dareth not in his duty publish every passage thereof he cannot for the present make so particular an Answer as he may hath and will do to the rest of his Charge But he giveth this general Answer the truth whereof he humbly prayeth may rather appear to your Lordships by the Proofs then by any Discourse of his which in Reason of State will happily be conceived fit to be more privately handled That these Ships were lent to the French King at first without the Dukes Privitie That when he knew it he did that which belonged to an Admiral of England and
first to direct and make Laws There is no Law made till the King assent unto it but if it be put simply to make Laws it will make much startling at it 3. Page 10. If nothing may excuse from active obedience but what is against the Law of God or of Nature or impossible How doth this agree with the first Fundamental Position Page 5. That all Subjects are bound to all their Princes according to the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom wherein they live This is a fourth Case of Exception 4. Page 11. The Poll-Money mentioned by him in St. Matthew was imposed by the Emperor as a Conqueror over the Iews and the execution of it in England although it was by a Law produced a terrible effect in King Richard the Second's time when onely it was used for ought that appeareth 5. Page 12. It is in the bottome view the Reign of Henry the Third and whether it be fit to give such allowance to the Book being surreptitiously put out 6. In the same Page let the largeness of those words be well considered Yea all Antiquity to be absolutely for absolute Obedience to Princes in all Civil and Temporal things For such cases as Naboths Vineyard may fâ—ll within this 7. Page 14. Sixtus Quintus was dead before the year One thousand five hundred and eighty 8. In the same Page weigh it well How this Loan may be called a Tribute and when it s said We are promised it shall not be immoderately imposed How that agreeth with his Majesties Commission and Proclamation which are quoted in the Margent It should seem that this Paper did prick to the quick and no satisfaction being thereby accepted Bishop Laud is called and he must go to answer to it in writing This man is the onely inward Counsellor with Buckingham sitting with him sometimes privately whole hours and feeding his humor with malice and spight His life in Oxford was to pick quarrels in the Lectures of the Publick Readers and to advertise them to the then Bishop of Durham that he might fill the ears of King Iames with discontents against the honest men that took pains in their places and setled the truth which he called Puritanism in their Auditors He made it his work to see what Books were in the Press and to look over Epistles Dedicatory and Prefaces to the Reader to see what faults might be found It was an observation what a sweet man this was like to be that the first observable act that he did was the marrying of the Earl of D. to the Lady R. When it was notorious to the World that she had another Husband and the same a Nobleman who had divers Children then living by her King Iames did for many years take this so ill that he would never hear of any great preferment of him insomuch that the Bishop of Lincoln Doctor Williams who taketh upon him to be the first promoter of him hath many times said That when he made mention of Laud to the King his Majesty was so averse from it that he was constrained oftentimes to say That he would never desire to serve that Master which could not remit one fault unto his Servant Well in the end he did conquer it to get him to the Bishoprick of St. Davids which he had not long enjoyed but he began to undermine his Benefactor as at this day it appeareth The Countess of Buckingham told Lincoln that St. Davids was the Man that undermined him with her Son and verily such is his aspiring nature that he will underwork any man in the World so that he may gain by it This Man who believeth so well of himself framed an Answer to my Exceptions But to give some countenance to it he must call in three other Bishops that is to say Durham Rochester and Oxford tryed men for such a purpose and the whole stile of the Speech runneth We and We. This seemed so strong a confutation that for reward of their service as well as for hope that they would do more Doctor Neal Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Bath were sworn of the Privy Council The very day being Sunday Mr. Murrey was sent unto me with a Writing but finding me all in a sweat by a fit of the Stone which was then upon me he forbore for that time to trouble me and said That on the morrow he would repair unto me again I got me to Bed and lying all that night in pain I held it convenient not to rise the next day And on the Monday Mr. Murrey came unto me which was the Eighth time that he had been with me so uncessantly was I plyed with this noble work I had shewed it before to a friend or two whereof the one was a Learned Doctor of Divinity and the other had served many times in Parliament with great commendation We all agreed That it was an idle work of a Man that understood not Logick that evidently crossed himself that some times spake plausibly and in the end of his Sermon fell so poor and flat that it was not worth the reading Mr. Murrey coming to my Bed-side said That he was sent again by the King and had a Paper to be shewed unto me Archb. You see in what case I am having slept little all this last night but nevertheless since you come from the King I will take my Spectacles and read it Murrey No my Lord you may not read it neither handle it for I have charge not to suffer it to go out of my hands Archb. How then shall I know what it is Murrey Yes I have order to read it unto you but I may not part with it Archb. I must conceive that if I do not assent to it his Majesty will give me leave to reply upon it which I cannot do but in my Study for there are my Books Murrey I must go with you into your Study and sit by you till you have done Archb. It is not so hasty a work it will require time and I have not been used to Study one sitting by me but first read it I pray you The yong Gentleman read it from the one end to the other being two or three sheets of Paper Archb. This Answer is very bitter but giveth me no satisfaction I pray you leave the Writing with me and I shall batter it to peeces Murrey No my Lord I am forbidden to leave it with you or to suffer you to touch it Archb. How cometh this about Are the Authors of it afraid of it or ashamed of it I pray you tell his Majesty that I am dealt with neither Manly nor Schollar-like Not Manly because I must fight with Adversaries that I know not not Shollar-like because I must not see what it is that must confute me It is now Eight and forty years ago that I came to the University and since that time I have ever loved a Learned Man I have disputed
and written divers Books and know very well what appertaineth to the Schools This is a new kinde of Learning unto me I have formerly found fault that the Author of this Sermon quoteth not the places whereupon he grounds his Doctrine and when I have oft called for them it is replied unto me that I must take them upon the credit of the Writer which I dare not do for I have searched but one place which he quoted in general but sets down neither the words nor the Treatise nor the Chapter and I finde nothing to the purpose for which it is quoted and therefore I have reason to suspect all the rest I pray you therefore in the humblest manner to commend my service to the King my Master and let him know that unless I may have all the Quotations set down that I may examine them and may have that writing wherein I am so ill used I cannot allow the Book Before I go further it shall not be amiss to touch some particulars of that which I sent in writing to the King The first was Page 2. Those words deserve to be well weighed And whereas the Prince pleads not the Power of Prerogative To this Mr. Murrey said The King doth not plead it But my Reply was By what then doth he coerce those Refractories for I have not heard of any Law whereby they are imprisoned and therefore I must take it to be by the Kings Prerogative To the second Page 8. The Kings duty is first to direct and make Laws There is no Law made till the King assent unto it but if it be put simply to make Laws it will cause much startling at it To this I remember not any material thing answered neither to the third Page 10. If nothing may excuse from active obedience but what is against the Law of God or of Nature or impossible How doth this agree with the first Fundamental Position Page 5. That all Subjects are bound to all their Princes according to the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom wherein they live This is a fourth Case of Exception And here before I go to the rest the Doctor did truly hit upon a good point in looking to the Laws and Customs if he could have kept him to it for in my memory and in the remembrance of many Lords and others that now live Doctor Haresenet the then Bishop of Chichester and now of Norwich in Parliament time Preached a Sermon at Whitehal which was afterward burned upon the Text Give unto Caesar the things that be Caesars Wherein he insisted That Goods and Money were Caesars and therefore they were not to be denied unto him At this time when the whole Parliament took main offence thereat King Iames was constrained to call the Lords and Commons into the Banqueting-house at Whitehal and there his Majesty calmed all by saying The Bishop onely failed in this when he said the Goods were Caesars he did not adde They were his according to the Laws and Customs of the Countrey wherein they did live So moderate was our Caesar then as I my self saw and heard being then an eye and ear witness for I was then Bishop of London To the fourth The Poll-Money in St. Matthew was imposed by the Emperor as a Conqueror over the Iews and the execution of it in England although it was by a Law produced a terrible effect in King Richard the Second's time when onely it was used for ought that appeareth Here the Bishop in the Paper excepted divers things as That sometimes among us by Act of Parliament strangers are appointed to pay by the Poll which agreeth not with the Case and that it was not well to bring examples out of weak times whereas we live in better but that it was a marvelous fault the blame was not laid upon the Rebels of that Age. Those are such poor things that they are not worth the answering But my Objection in truth prevailed so far that in the Printed Book it was qualified thus Poll-Money other persons and upon some occasions where obiter I may observe That my refusing to sign the Sermon is not to be judged by the Printed Book for many things are altred in one which were in the other To the fifth Page 12. It is in the bottome view the Reign of Henry the Third whether it be fit to give such allowance to the Book being surreptiously put out To this it was said That being a good passage out of a blame-worthy Book there was no harm in it But before the Question of Sibthorps Treatise the Bishop of Bathe himself being with me found much fault with that Treatise as being put out for a scandalous Parallel of those times To the sixth in the same Page Let the largeness of those words be well considered Yea all Antiquity to be absolutely for absolute Obedience to Princes in all Civil or Temporal things For such Cases as Naboths Vineyard may fall within this Here the Bishop was as a man in a rage and said That it was an odious comparison for it must suppose that there must be an Ahab and there must be a Iezabel and I cannot tell what But I am sure my Exception standeth true and reviling and railing doth not satisfie my Argument All Antiquity taketh the Scripture into it and if I had allowed that proportion for good I had been justly beaten with my own Rod. If the King the next day had commanded me to send him all the Money and Goods I had I must by mine own rule have obeyed him and if he had commanded the like to all the Clergy-men in England by Doctor Sibthorps proportion and my Lord of Canterburies allowing of the same they must have sent in all and left their Wives and Children in a miserable case Yea the words extend so far and are so absolutely delivered That by this Divinity if the King should send to the City of London and the Inhabitants thereof commanding them to give unto him all the wealth which they have they were bound to do it I know our King is so gratious that he will attempt no such matter but if he do it not the defect is not in these flattering Divines who if they were called to question for such Doctrine they would scarce be able to abide it There is a Meum and a Tuum in Christian Commonwealths and according to Laws and Customs Princes may dispose of it that saying being true Ad Reges potestas omnium pertinet ad singulos proprietas To the seventh Page 14. Pius Quintus was dead before the year One thousand five hundred and eighty They make no Reply but mend it in the Printed Book changing it into Gregory the Thirteenth To the last in the same Page weigh it well How this Loan may be called a Tribute and when it is said We are promised shall not be immoderately imposed How that agreeth with his Majesties Commission and Proclamation which are quoted in the Margent
was secured but the Party whom Toras sent did his errand and no doubt gave the King of France a perfect account of their condition in the Citadel whilst the English Gentleman was detained that he could not do the like service for the King of England in delivering to him what he had in command from the Duke The French Gentleman returns to the Leagure at S. Martins but by reason the English Gentleman was not permitted to go for England the Frenchman was not permitted to go again into the Citadel Toras again renews the Treaty pretending that if he had not Relief such a day by such an hour he would surrender And spun out the time so long that in good earnest Relief got in both of men victuals and ammunition and the same Vessels which brought the Relief carried away the sick and wounded and unserviceable men in the Citadel So the Treaty proceeded no further and the Enemy holds upon their Pike-heads Mutton Capons Turkies c. to let the English see they had no want Now we go to work with Mine and Battery And presently also comes news that the French had landed more Forces near the Meadow-Castle a place also at the first neglected though then unmanned And orders are given to draw out men leaving the Trenches unguarded to encounter the French that were landed Which was performed with some reasonable success but the Enemy got security under the Castle and thereupon the English retreated and were enforced to fight to recover their Trenches which the Enemy had now possessed and many mens lives were lost in the regaining thereof This last refreshment of the Enemy being about the middle of October caused the Duke to enter into Council and to think of a resolution for a Retreat which he communicated to Sobiez and tells him further That the season is past his Army diminished his Victuals consumed and his Council of War had judged it fitting to retire Sobiez answered the Duke That the Earl of Holland's Fleet was coming with Supplies that the Relief given was not considerable that the Retreat would draw after it the loss of Rochel and thereby make Sobiez guilty of the ruine thereof but above all it would bring an irreparable prejudice and dishonor upon his Master of Great Britain that had made an Enterprise of so little honor and profit Upon this the Duke continues the Siege and shortly after resolves to storm the Citadel and Works to which it was said the English Commanders were much averse but the French Commanders were zealous for it And so for a farewell Novemb. 6. a vain Attempt was made on all sides of the Citadel In short we lost men and honor for the Fort was unaccessible besides well manned with fresh supplies of men newly put in And having left many dead and hurt we were forced to retire This ill success with the advise given that the Troops of the other Forts did increase the French notwithstanding our Shipping pouring their Forces amain into the Island hastened the Duke to raise the Siege and to retreat to ship his men again for England Novemb. 8. early in the morning the Drums beat and the Army prepares for a March but scarce had the Rearguard come out but the Troops of the Enemy appeared equal in number for Foot and far stronger in Horse which the Enemy had during the Siege landed in the Island under the favor of the Little-Fort and the Meadow-Castle the two places so strangely omitted at the first to be possessed by the English Yet notwithstanding their strength and the advantage of falling upon an Army on a retreat which had endured much hardship and received many discouragements would not the Enemy engage in plain field when the Duke several times drew up the Army in their march and made a stand in hopes of a Battel But the wary French Commander shunned the hazard of Fight on equal terms foreseeing a greater advantage with less hazard For no sooner were the English entred into the Narrow Causey and Lane having on each hand deep ditches and Salt-pits but the Enemy observed the advantage and that the English had neglected to raise a Fort at the entry of the Causey to secure their retreat and yet worse that they had not raised a Fort at the further end thereof near the Bridge to secure the passage over it but had only raised a small Work not tenable on the further side of the Bridge whereupon the Enemy advanced with great fury on a weak Rearguard of Horse and quickly put them to a retreat who in that Narrow Causey disordered the Foot and the Enemy thereby took the advantage followed close and did much execution upon the English Those who escaped the sword were drowned in the Salt-pits and Ditches and the Crowd was so great on the Bridge the Enemy pursuing them over that many English were drowned in the River Yet in this discomâ—ited condition the English took courage faced about rallied their Forces made up a smart body that drew up to fight the Enemy but the French not daring to engage but upon great advantage were enforced to retreat over the Bridge The English lost several hundreds of men and many Colors and great was their dishonor The loss of the men was not so great as that they were left upon so unequal terms where the proof and valor of an Englishman could not put forth it self Novemb. 9. the Army was shipped and the Duke promiseth the Rochellers to come again to their relief and presently after set sail for England meeting with the Earl of Holland as he was setting out of Plymouth coming with a Supply And now every man passeth his censure upon this Expedition Some laying the fault upon the Duke 1 For being too slow in his march after the first landing whereby the Enemy got in provision and heartned his men 2 In being too remiss during the Siege in not preventing provisions for going into the Citadel by doubling Guards at Land and Sea when the wind stood fair 3 In omitting to take in the Little Fort from whence as it was said proceeded all the misery that afterwards followed 4 In retreating before all things were certainly prepared in order to a secure march in narrow places and passages The Duke pleaded for himself That he acted for the most part by the advice of a Council of War and if Orders were given and not observed it was not his fault That had the Earl of Holland come with a Supply of shipping men and victuals so soon as he might and ought to have done he had then without doubt so narrowly blocked up the Harbor to the Citadel by Sea that no Provision should have got into it The Earl of Holland answered for himself That when he was ready to have gone aboard the Fleet at Plymouth the Ships with Provision were not come out of Chattam and when the Provisions were shipt time was spent before he could
Protestant League with the Princes on the other part drawing in secret oâ— State the countenance of France to give the more reputation of assistance to them and security to it self Spain seeing his hopes thus fruitless by these Unions and streights began first to break if he might the Amity of France and England But finding the Common danger to be a fast tie he raiseth up a party in that Kingdom of his own by which the French King was so distressed that had not the English Council assisted and relieved him Spain had there removed that next and greatest Obstacle of his Ambition His Council now tells him from these examples That the way to his great work is impossible so long as England lay a let in his way And adviseth him that the remove of that Obstacle be the first of his intents This drew on those often secret practises against the person of the Queen and his open fury in Eighty Eight against the body of the State which she perceiving following the advice of a free Council would never after admit of a Peace winning thereby the hearts of a loving people who ever found hands and money for all occasions at home and keeping sacredly all her Alliances abroad securing to her Confederates all her time freedom from fear of Spanish slavery and so ended her old and happy days in glory Spain then by the wisdom and power of that great Lady despoiled so of his means to hurt though not of his desires makes up with her Peaceful Successor of happy memory that Golden League That disarming us at home by the opinion of Security and giving them a power in our Councils by believing their Friendships and pretended Marriage gave them way to cherish amongst us a Party of their own and benefit of power abroad to lead in Jealousie and some division between us and our Confederates By which we see they have swallowed up the Fortune of your Majesties Brother's Estate with the rest of the Imperial States distressed the King of Denmark by that quarrel diverted Sweden's assistance by the Wars with the Pole and moving them now with offer of the Danish Crown And now whether from the Plot of our Fatality hath cast such a bone between France and us as hath made themselves by our quarrel of Religion a fast Confederate and us a dangerous Enemy So as now we are left no other assurance against their malice and ambition but the Netherlands where the tie of mutual safety is weakned by daily discontents bred and fed between us by some ill-affected to both our securities that from the doubtfulness of friendship as we now stand we may rather suspect from our own domestick Faction if they grow too furious they will rather follow the example of Rome in her growing that held that equal safety honorable and more easie dare regnum then subjugare provinciam considering the power they have in their hands then to give any friendly assistance to save the present condition of a State You may therefore see in what terms we stand abroad and I fear we are at home for resistance in no better state There must be to withstand a Forein Invasion a proportion both of Sea and Land-Forces For to give an Enemy an easie passage and a Port to relieve him in is no less then to hazard all at one stake And it is to be considered That no March by Land can be of that speed to make head against the landing of an Enemy Then that follows That there is no such prevention as to be Master of the Sea To this point of Necessary Defence there can be no less then Two hundred and forty thousand pounds For the Land-Forces if it were for an Offensive War the men of less livelihood were the best spared and we used formerly to make such War Purgamenta reipub if we made no further purchase by it But for the safety of a Commonwealth the wisdom of all times did never intrust the Publick Cause to any other then to such as had a portion in the Publick Adventure And that we saw in Eighty Eight when the care of the Queen and of the Council did make the body of that large Army no other then of the Trained Bands which with the Auxiliaries of the whole Realm amounted to no less then Twenty four thousand men Neither were any of these drawn from forth their Country and proper habitations before the end of May that they might be no long grievance to the Publick such Discontentments being to us a more fatal Enemy then any Forein forces The careful distributing and directing of their Sea and Land-forces being more fitting for a Council of War then a private man to advise of I pass over yet shall ever be willing and ready when I shall be called humbly to offer up such Observations as I have gathered by the former like occasion in this Realm To make up this Preparation there are requisite two things Money and Affections for they cannot be properly severed It was well and wisely said of that great and grave Councellor the Lord Burleigh in the like case to the late Queen Win hearts and you have their hands and purses And I find that of late Diffidence hath been in the one and hath unhappily prevented the other In gathering then of Money for this present need there are three things requisite Speed Assurance and Satisfaction And the way to gather as in other like cases hath been done must be by the path-way formerly called Via regia being more secure and speedy For by unknown and untrodden ways it is both rough and tedious and never succeedeth well This last way although it took place as it were by a Supply at first and received no general denial yet since it hath drawn many to consult with themselves and others in the consequence as it is now conceived a pressure on their Liberties and against Law I much fear if that now again it be offered either in the same face or by Privy-seal it will be refused wholly Neither find I that the restraint of the Recusants hath produced any other effect then a stiff resolution in themselves and others to forbear Besides although it were at the first with some assurance yet when we consider the Commissions and other forms incident to such like services as that how long it hangs in hand and the many delays that are we may easily see that such a Sum granted by the Parliament is far sooner and easier levied If any will make the succession of times to produce an inevitable necessity to enforce it if denied whether in general by Excise or Imposition or in particular on some select persons which is the custom of some Countries and so conclude it as there for the Publick State suprema lege He must look for this to be told him That seeing Necessity must conclude always to gather Money 't is less speedy or assured then that by a Parliament The sucess
your Majesties Service and to the safety of your Majesties sacred Person we most zealously present to your Princely wisedom craving your Majesties chearful and gratious approbation His Majesties Answer to the eighth Article TO the eighth his Majesty doth well approve it as a matter of necessary consideration and the Parliament now sitting he recommendeth to both Houses the preparation of a fitting Law to that effect And his Majesty doth further declare that the mildeness that hath been used towards those of the Popish Religion hath been upon hope that forain Princes thereby might be induced to use moderation towards their Subjects of the Reformed Religion but not finding that good effect which was expected His Majesty resolveth unless he shall very speedily see better fruits to add a further degree of severity to that which in this petition is desired ON Wednesday the second of April the Propositions sent from the King were mentioned and several Gentlemen expressed themselves severally on that subject IT is said that the greatest grievance is want of supply but I hold it a greater grievance that his Majesty is brought into those necessities especially considering the supplies that of late have been given to the King two Subsidies of Parliament besides privy Seals the late Loan whereby five Subsidies were forcibly and unadvisedly taken and we have yet purchased to our selves nothing by all these but our own dishonor we have drawn and provoked two powerful enemies upon us it is not then what the Subjects do give unless his Majesty imploy men of integrity and experience otherwise all that we give will be as cast into a bottomless bag SOme propositions we shall not meddle with as a soveraign Army to be transported we are not fit for that yet but we will not reject it for great Princes who give out Rumors of raising great Armies do put their Enemies to great fears then the defence of our Coasts nothing is more necessary but the bill of Poundage is for that particular supply and how far it may prejudice us for a future Precedent to give other supply let us be advised Mr. Secretary Cook observing a distinction made upon the propositions as if some of them were to be omitted I know said he you will do it upon deliberation some there are not possible to be omitted as the Guarding of the Seas defence of the Elbe Rotchel and those draw on all the rest Ships must have Men and Munition and we cannot divide any of these This House is tender of the Countrey the King will not lay a burthen that cannot be born We may supply his Majesty without this give we now what we please the King may make use of it before the People are able to pay and we shall not onely make his Majesty subsist but advance his reputation in the world by the unity of his People more then by any treasure INdeed there may be some necessity for a war offensive but looking on one late dysaster I tremble to think of sending more abroad Let us consider those two great undertakings at Cales and Ree at Cales that was so gloriously pretended where our men arrived and found a Conquest ready namely the Spanish Ships a satisfaction sufficient and fit for us and this confessed by some then imployed and never but granted by all that it was feasible and easie why came this to nothing After that opportunity lost when the whole Army was landed with destruction of some of our men why was nothing done if nothing was intended why were they landed and why were they shipt again For Rees voyage was not the whole action carried against the judgement of the best Commanders was not the Army landed Not to mention the leaving of the Wines nor touch the wonder that Caesar never knew the enriching of the Enemy by curtesies Consider what a case we now are in if on the like occasion or with the like instruments we shall again adventure another expedition It was ever the wisedom of our Ancestors here to leave Forain Wars wholly to the State and not to meddle with them SIr Edw. Cook When poor England stood alone and had not the access of another Kingdom and yet had more and as potent Enemies as now it hath yet the King of England prevailed In the Parliament Roll in the 42. year of Edw. 3. the King and the Parliament gave God thanks for his victory against the Kings of Scotland and of France he had them both in Windsor Castle as Prisoners What was the reason of that Conquest four reasons were given 1. The King was assisted by good Counsel 2. There were valiant men 3. They were timely supplied 4. Good Imployment 3. R. 2. The King was inviron'd with the Flemins Scots and French and the King of England prevailed 13. R. 2. The King was invironed with Spaniards Scots and French and the King of England prevailed 17 R. 2. Wars were in Ireland and Scotland and yet the King of England prevailed and thanks were given to God here And I hope I shall live to give God thanks for our Kings victories 7 H. 4. One or two great men about the King so mewed him up that he took no other advice but from them whereupon the Chancellor took this Text and Theam in his Speech at the Parliament Multorum consilia requiruntur in magnis in bello qui maxime timent sunt in maximis periculis Let us give and not be afraid of our enemies let us supply bountifully cheerfully and speedily but enter not into particulars Solomons Rule is Qui repetit separat nay separat foederatos We are united in duty c. to the King the King hath fourscore thousand pounds a year for the Navy and to scowre the Narrow-seas it hath been taken and we are now to give it and shall we now give more to guard the Seas besides when that is taken of our gift it may be diverted another way It shall never be said we deny all supply I think my self bound where there is commune periculum there must be commune auxilium I Cannot forget that duty I owe to my Countrey and unless we be secured against our Liberties we cannot give I speak not this to make diversions but to the end that giving I may give cheerfully As for the Propositions to be considered of I incline to decline them and to look upon the State of our Countrey whether it be fit to give or no Are we come to an end for our Countries Liberties have we trenched on the rates of the Deputy Lieutenants are we secured for time future WE all desire remedies for our Grievances and without them we shall neither be willing nor able to give for my part I heartily desire remedy but which is the best and wisest way that is the question As we have made some progress in our Grievances so let us now go on to supply There is a Proverb Non bis
of the Church he would take away occasion by commanding all persons that had any of those Books in their hands to deliver them to the Bishop of the Diocesse or if it be in either Universities to the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor thereof who were commanded to suppresse them And if any by preaching reading or making of Books pro and contra concerning those unnecessary questions shall revive the difference he was resolved to take such order with them and those Books as they shall wish they had never thought upon those needlesse Controversies But ere this Proclamation was published the Books were for the most part vented and out of danger of seasure and the suppressing of all writing and preaching in Answer thereunto was it seems by some the thing mainly intended for the several answers made by Doctor Featly and Doctor Goad in their parallels by Master Burton Master VVard Master Yates Master VVotton as also by Francis Rows Esq in a Book called King Iames his Religion were all suppressed and divers of the Printers questioned in the high Commission Moreover Bishop Montague and Doctor Manwaring procured a Royal pardon of all Errors heretofore committed by them either in speaking writing or printing for which they might be hereafter questioned And Doctor Manwaring censured by the Lords in Parliament and perpetually disabled from future Ecclesiastical preferments in the Church of England was immediately presented to the Rectory of Stamford-Rivers in Essex and had a dispensation to hold it together with the Rectory of St. Giles in the fields The Town of Rochel was at this time straitly beleagured by the French King and the King of England had prepared a Fleet to relieve it under the Command of the Duke of Buckingham who being advanced as farre as Portsmouth on Saturday August 23. being Bartholomew Eve was suddenly slain in his own Lodgings there by one Leivtenant Felton about nine in the morning who with one blow having got a knife for the purpose struck the Duke under the left rib and up into the heart leaving the knife in his body and got away undiscovered In the fall to the ground the Duke was heard to say The villaine hath killed me Company coming presently in found him weltring in his blood and each person looking upon another marvelled who should do so horrid an act a jealousie was presently had of Monsieur Sobeez who was then there labouring for speedy relief to be sent to Rochel but he protesting his innocency Felton immediately stept out and said I am the man that did the deed let no man suffer that is innocent whereupon he was immediately apprehended sent to London and there imprisoned The King was within four miles of Portsmouth when the news was brought him of the death of the Duke he bid secure the murderer and Bishop Laud had advertisement of his death the 24th of August being then at Croiden with Bishop Neal and other Bishops consecrating Bishop Montague for Chichester Notwithstanding the death of the Duke the King pursued the design of relieving Rochel and again set out a Fleet with provision and fire-ships to put relief into the Town the Fleet went from Plymouth the beginning of September did several times attempt the Barricado but in vaine and so was enforced to give over any further attempt which the Rochellers perceiving gave themselves for lost and immediately came to a capitulation upon very mean tearmes as to themselves yet Lowes King of France was careful by Articles had they been performed that those outrages should not be committed upon the entry of the Town which the few remaining inhabitants were much afraid of and afterwards felt and so mixt mercy with his conquest yet presently after high outrages were committed and great was the persecution of the Reformed Churches which constrained them again to send to the King of England to implore aid with these expressions that what they writ was with their teares and their blood but the treaty being shortly after made between the two Crowns all things were setled in peace between the King and those of the reformed Religion Concerning the state of Rochel at the surrender we have seen a Relation to this purpose that the misery of the besieged was almost incredible having lived long upon Horse-flesh Hides and Leather Dogs and Cats hardly leaving a Horse alive still in hopes that the relief promised from England would prove effectual to them they held it so long till they were but about four thousand left alive of fifteen thousand souls most of them died with famine and when they begun to be pinched with the extremity of hunger they died so fast that they usually carried their Coffins into the Church-yard and other places and there laid themselves in and died great numbers of them being unburied when the forces of the King of France entred the Town and many corps eaten with Vermin Ravens and Birds The Fleet which thus put to sea for the Relief of Rochel was defective both in victuals which was tainted and in tackling and other materials insomuch as at the return thereof information being given to the King and Council of divers defaults and defects in the said ships victuals and provision of this and the former expedition to Rochel and in the discipline and performance of Commands and resolutions taken in that action to the great prejudice of the service it was ordered that the Earls of Denbigh Linsey and Morton and the Lord Wilmott and Master Secretary Cook should forthwith meet together and consider of the Relation made by the Earl of Linsey and inform themselves of defaults in the particulars before mentioned and make report thereof to the Board The Scots under the command of the Earl Morton and some Irish also were sent to quarter in the Isle of VVeight which Island was unacquainted with the quartering of Forreigners In Essex many robberies and outrages wâ—re committed by the Souldiers then returned from Sea Whereupon the Privy Councellors required the Justices of Peace in that County to choose a Provost Marshal for the apprehending of all such as wandred up and down the Country or behaved themselves dissorderly that they might be punished according to Law and to cause strong guards and watches to be kept in all passages And upon advertisement of some hostile preparations from forraign enemies the Privy Councel taking care for securing the coasts in Kent Sussex Hampshire Dorcetshire and Devonshire renued their directions to the Lords of those Counties for the careful watching of Beacons c. About the time the Fleet went last to the relief of Rochel the King being solicited by the Ambassadours of the King of Denmark and the united Provinces to send shipping to secure the Elbe and men for the defence of Lackstat resolved upon the sending of five Ships accordingly but first to dispatch the men for the relief of the Town the preservation whereof did mainly impart
called to the Councel-board at Hampton Court about some things which were complained of in reference to the Customs did then and there in an insolent manner in the presence or hearing of the Lords and others of his Majesties Privy Council then sitting in Counsel utter these undutiful seditious and false words That the Merchants are in no part of the World so skrewed and wrung as in England That in Turky they have more incouragement By which words he the said Richard Chambers as the Information setteth forth did endeavor to alienate the good affection of his Majesties Subjects from his Majesty and to bring a slander upon his just Government and therefore the Kings Attorney prayed process against him To this Mr. Chambers made answer That having a Case of silk Grogerams brought from Bristol by a Carrier to London of the value of 400. l. the same were by some inferior Officers attending on the Custome-house seized without this Defendants consent notwithstanding he offered to give security to pay such Customs as should be due by Law and that he hath been otherwise grieved and damnified by the injurious dealing of the under-Officers of the Custome-house and mentioned the particulars wherein and that being called before the Lords of the Council he confesseth that out of the great sence which he had of the injuries done him by the said inferior Officers he did utter these words That the Merchants in England were more wrung and screwed then in forreign Parts Which words were onely spoken in the presence of the Privy-Council and not spoken abroad to stir up any discord among the people and not spoken with any disloyal thought at that time of his Majesties Government but onely intending by these words to introduce his just Complaint against the wrongs and injuries he had sustained by the inferiour Officers and that as soon as he heard a hard construction was given of his words he endeavoured by petition to the Lords of the Council humbly to explain his meaning that he had not the least evil thought as to his Majesties Government yet was not permitted to be heard but presently sent away prisoner to the Marshalsea and when he was there a prisoner he did again endeavour by petition to give satisfaction to the Lords of the Council but they would not be pleased to accept of his faithful explanation which he now makes unto this honourable Court upon his Oath and doth profess from the bottom of his heart That his speeches onely aimed at the abuses of the inferiour Officers who in many things dealt most cruelly with him and other Merchants There were two of the Clerks of the Privy-Council examined as Witnesses to prove the words notwithstanding the Defendant confessed the words in his Answer as aforesaid who proved the words as laid in the Information And on the sixth of May 1629. the Cause came to be heard in the Star-Chamber and the Court were of opinion that the words spoken were a comparing of his Majesties Government with the Government of the Turks intending thereby to make the people believe that his Majesties happy Government may be tearmed Turkish Tyranny and therefore the Court fined the said Mr. Chambers in the sum of 2000 l. to his Majesties use and to stand committed to the prison of the Fleet and to make submission for his great offence both at the Council-board in Court of Star-Chamber and at the Royal Exchange There was a great difference of opinion in the Court about the Fine and because it is a remarkable Case here followeth the names of each several person who gave sentence and the Fine they concluded upon viz. Sir Francis Cottington Chancellour of the Exchequer his opinion was for 500 l. Fine to the King and to acknowledge his offence at the Council-board the Star-Chamber-Bar and Exchange Sir Tho. Richardson Lord chief Justice of the common pleas 500 l. Fine to the King and to desire the Kings favour Sir Nicholas Hide Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench 500 l. and to desire the Kings favour Sir Iohn Cook Secretary of State 1000 l. Sir Humphry May Chancellour 1500 l. Sir Thomas Edmons 2000 l. Sir Edward Barret 2000 l. Doctor Neal Bishop of Winchester 3000 l. Doctor Laud Bishop of London 3000 l. Lord Carlton principal Secretary of State 3000 l. Lord Chancellour of Scotland 2000 l. Earl of Holland 1500 l. Earl of Doncaster 1500 l. Earl of Salisbury 1500 l. Earl of Dorset 3000 l. Earl of Suffolk 3000 l. Earl of Mountgomery Lord Chamberlain 1500 l. Earl of Arundel Lord High Marshal 3000 l. Lord Montague Lord Privy Seal 3000 l. Lord Connoway 2000 l. Lord Weston Lord Treasurer 3000 l. Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 1500 l. So the fine was setled to 2000 l. And all except the two Chief Justices concurred for a submission also to be made And accordingly the copy of the submission was sent to the Warden of the Fleet from Mr. Atturny General to shew the said Richard Chambers to perform and acknowledg it and was as followeth I Richard Chambers of London Merchant do humby acknowledge that whereas upon an Information exhibited against me by the Kings Atturney General I was in Easter Term last sentenced by the Honourable Court of Star-Chamber for that in September last 1628. being convented before the Lords and others of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council Board upon some speeches then used concerning the Merchants of this Kingdom and his Majesties well and gracious usage of them did then and there in insolent contemptuous and seditious manner falsly and maliciously say and affirm That they meaning the Merchants are in no parts of the world so skrewed and wrung as in England and that in Turky they have more incouragement And whereas by the sentence of that Honorable Court I was adjudged among other punishments justly imposed upon me to make my humble acknowledgment and submission of this great offence at this Honorable Board before I should be delivered out of the Prison of the Fleet whereto I was then committed as by the said Decree and Sentence of that Court among other things it doth and may appear Now I the said Richard Chambers in obedience to the Sentence of the said Honorable Court do humbly confess and acknowledg the speaking of these words aforesaid for the which I was so charged and am heartily sorry for the same and do humbly beseech your Lordships all to be Honorable intercessors for me to his Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to pardon that graet error and fault so committed by me When Mr. Chambers read this draught of submission he thus subscribed the same All the abovesaid Contents and Submission I Richard Chambers do utterly abhor and detest as most unjust and false and never to death will acknowledge any part thereof Rich. Chambers Also he under-writ these Texts of Scripture to the said Submission before he returned it That make a man an offender
for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate and turn aside the just for a thing of nought Blame not before thou have examined the truth understand first and then rebuke answer not before thou hast heard the cause neither interrupt men in the midst of their talk Doth our Law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth King Agrippa said unto Paul Thou art permitted to speak for thy self Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor in his cause thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the eyes of the righteous Woe to them that devise iniquity because it is in the power of their hand and they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage Thus saith the Lord God Let it suffice you O Princes of Israel remove violence and spoyl and execute judgment and justice take away your exactions from my people saith the Lord God If thou seest the oppression of the Poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher then they Per me Richard Chambers Afterwards in the Term of Trinity the 5 yeer of King Charls it is found in the great Roll of this year that there is demanded there of Richard Chambers of London Merchant 2000 l. for a certain fine imposed on him hither sent by vertue of a writ of our said Lord the King under the foot of the great Seal of England directed to the Treasurer and Barons of this Exchequer for making execution thereof to the use of the said Lord the King as is there contained and now that is to say in the Utas of the Blessed Trinity this Term comes the said Richard Chambers in his own proper person and demands Oyer of the demand aforesaid and it is read unto him and he demands Oyer also of the Writ aforesaid under the foot of the Great Seal of England hither sent and it is read unto him in these words CHarls by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To his Treasurer and Barons of his Exchequer health The extret of certain fines taxed and adjudged by Us and our said Council in our said Council in Our Court of Star-Chamber in the Term of St Michael the Term of St. Hillary and the Term of Easter last past upon Thomas Barns of the Parish of St. Clements Danes in the County of Middlesex Carpenter and others severally and dividedly as they be there severally assessed We send unto you included in these presents commanding that looking into them you do that which by Law you ought to do against them for the levying of those fines Witness our Self at Westminster the 21 of May in the yeer of Our Reign the 5 Mutas And the tenor of the Schedule to the said Writ annexed as to the said Richard Chambers followeth in these words IN the Term of Easter the fifth year of King Charles of Richard Chambers of London Merchant 2000 l. which being read heard and by him understood he complains that he is grievously vexed and inquieted by colour of the Premises and that not justly for that protesting that the said great Roll and the matter therein contained is not in Law sufficient to which he hath no need nor is bound by Law to answer yet for Plea the said Richard Chambers saith That he of the demand aforesaid in the great Roll aforesaid mentioned and every parcel thereof ought to be discharged against the said Lord the King for that he said That he from the time of the Taxation oâ— the aforesaid Fine and long before was a Freeman and a Merchant of this Kingdom that is to say In the Parish of the blessed Mary of the Arches in the Ward of Cheap London And that by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the Third held in the ninth year of his reign it was provided by Authority of the said Parliament That a Freeman shall not be amerced for a little offence but according to the manner of the said offence and for a great offence according to the greatness of the offence saving to him his Contenement or Freehold and a Merchant in the same manner saving unto him his Merchandize and a Villain of any other then the King after the same manner to be amerced saving his Wainage and none of the said Amercements to be imposed but by the Oaths of good and lawful men of the Neighbourhood And by a certain other Act in the Parliament of the Lord Edward late King of England the first held in the Third year of his reign it was and is provided That no City Burrough or Town nor any man should be amerced without reasonable cause and according to his Trespass that is to say A Freeman saving to him his Contenement A Merchant saving to him his Merchandize and A Villan saving to him his Wainage and this by their Peers And by the same Act in the Parliament of the said Lord Henry late King of England the Third held in the ninth year of his reign aforesaid it was and is provided by Authority of the said Parliament That no Freemen should be taken or imprisoned or disseized of his Freehold or Liberties or free Customs or outlaw'd or banish'd or any way destroyed And that the Lord the King should not go upon him nor deal with him but by a lawful judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Edward late King of England the Third held in the fifth year of his reign it was and is provided by the Authority of the said Parliament That no man henceforward should be attached by reason of any Accusation nor pre-judged of Life or Member nor that his Lands Tenements Goods or Chattels should be seized into the hands of the Lord the King against the form of the great Charter and the Law of the Land And by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the seventh held in the third year of his reign reciting that by unlawful Maintenances given of liveries signes and tokens and retainders by Indentures Promises Oaths Writings and other Imbraceries of the Subjects of the said Lord the King false Demeanors of Sheriffs in making of Pannels and other false returns by taking of money by Jurors by great ryots and unlawful assemblies the policie and good Government of this Kingdom was almost subdued and by not punishing of the said inconveniences and by occasion of the Premises little or nothing was found by Inquisition by reason thereof the Laws of
favor of Roman Catholicks A difficulty concerning the Popes title on the Kings part Another on the Ambassadors part concerning prayers in the Kings Chappel A titular Bishop of Calcedon sent into England Preparations for conducting the Infanta into England No mention made in the Capitulations of restoring the Palatine Mr. Allured his Letter to the Duke The French jealous of this conjunction Pope Vrban to K. Iames. Pope Vrbans Letter to Prince Charls The Treaty begins to tend to a rupture The Prohibition to the Judges and Bishops in behalf of the Catholicks suspended Some of the English in Spain dislike the Match and Religion The Duke disgusted in Spain Buckingham and Bristol run different ways The Palatine by his Secretary labors to engage the Prince against the Marriage The Spaniard continues new delays The English Papists perplexed The Prince ready to depart from the Court of Spain leaves a Proxy with the Earl of Bristâ—l The Duke and Olivares part not Friends The Prince universally â—steemed His departure solemn The Prince feasted the Dons aboard his Ship and bringing them back again to the shore a storm surprises them Expressions of joy for the Princes safe return into England Private Instructions delivered to Bristol contrary to the Proxy Bristol in a Letter gives the Prince a good account of the business King Iames falls off and for a Condition of the Mariage demands the Restitution of the Palatinate Bristol and Asâ—â—n demur upon the new Instructions Sir Walter Aston endeavors to reconcile the Dâ—ke to Spain Advice to the King touching the Duke The Earl of Bristol is commanded by the King to follow the new Instructions King Iames puts the Palatine in hope by Proposal of new terms The Palatines Answer to those Terms proposed by the King The Netherlands appear ready to embrace the antient Union with England The Ratifiâ—â—â—ication come from the new Popâ— and when all is ready for the E 〈◊〉 ls thâ—n is the Maâ—ch dasht by order from England Bristol sends his Apology to K. Iames for having demurred upon the new Instructions Olivares offers Bristol large Preferments in the Kings name when he was to take his leave Bristols Answer to those Profers The Spaniards prepare for a War with England The L. Kensington sent Ambassador into France to feel the pulse of that Court touching a Match renders an account of his acceptance The King advised to call a Parliament The Kings Speech to the Parliament The King approves Sir Tho. Crew for Speaker who made this Speech The Dukes Narrative Both Houses of Parliament justifie the Duke in his Narrative His Majesties Answer to that Justification Both Houses of Parliament concur that the King may not honorably proceed in tâ—e Treaty of the Prince's Marriage and the Palatinate The Kings Speech 〈◊〉 Parliament perswaâ—â—â—â— him to break off the two Treaties of the Match and of the Palatinate Sir Edw. Sackvile's Speech Sir Edw. Sackvile's Speech The Parliaments Answer to the Kings Speech The Parliament offers his Majesty Three Subsidies and Three Fifteens if he break off both Treaties His Majesties Reply The King declares his Resolution to dissolve the Treaties The King accepts the aid proffered him King Iames his Letter to Secretary Conway touching a Petition against the Papists The Petition His Majesties Answer to the Petition The Spanish Ambassadors accuse Buckingham to the King of matters of high concernment The issue of those Accusations The Earl of Bristol protests against the Dukes Narration is imprisoned in the Tower The Speakers and the Kings Speech at the Adjournment of the Parliament Kings Iames demands the Town of Frankendal deposited in the Archducâ—hess hands Spinola marches out of the Town and immediately Re-enters King Iames very desirous of a Match with France The Match with France concluded Count Mansfield arrrives in England 12000 Foot and 200 horse raised to go under his command Scarce the third part of Count Mansfields Army came safe to Land Richard Smith made Bishop of Calcedon and sent into England with Episcopal Jurisdiction * The Duke of Buckingham Instructions to Mr Drummond The Privy-Counsellors present themselves to King Charles King Charles proclaimed at Theobalds At Whitehall In London The old Privy-Council new sworn The Councils advice to the King Proclamation concerning Persons in Office c. Proclamation of Government Resolution taken by the King concerning King Iames Funeral and his own Marriage A Parlamenâ— summoned King Iames Funeral Duke of Buckingham continues Favorite to King Charles Religion considered A general Muster Souldiers levied for the Palatinate Proclamation against disorders committed by Souldiers Articles of the marriage with France signed by the King Private Articles in favor of the Catholicks The Marriage solemnized in France The Duke sent into France for the Queen A Royal Navy sent to Bolâ—ign to transport the Queen The Marriage consummated at Canterbury The Trained Bands of Kent commanded to attend the Queen The King and Queen come to London A Chappel built at Somerset-house for the Queen A great Plague in London The Parliament opened The Kings Speech in Parliament The Lord Keepers Speech in Parliament Sir Tho. Crew Speaker Debates in the House of Commons A Fast. Committees chosen Message to the King touching Religion and his Answer Mr. Montague brought to the Bar. The Arminian party assert his cause The King takes Montagues businâ—â—â— into his own hand Two Subsidies presented to the King The King accepts them and desires more A short Answer to the Petition touching Religion The Parliament adjourned to Oxford The Exchequer removed to Richmond The Vantguard and seven other Ships employed against Rochel The Parliament meets again at Oxford Grievances Mr. Montague Summoned to appear His Cause recommended by the Bishops to the Duke The Appeal to Caesar disputed The Kings Speech in Christ-Church Lord Conway and Secretary Cook by the Kings Command declare the present slate of Affairs Lord Treasurer proceeds in that subject Debates in the House of Commons touching the present state of Affairs Complaints against Papists favored notwithstanding the Kings Answer to the Petition against them The Petition concerning Religion together with his 〈…〉 The Duke renders an account to both Houses of the Fleet. He speaks by way of Objection and Answer * The Earl of Bristol The Dukes Relation accasioned variety of Opinions in Parliament The Kings Message to the Commons Debates upon the Kings Message The Commons Declaration The Parliament dissolved The King follows his Design of War The Kings Proclamation to recal home children of Recusants The Kings Letter to the Lieutenants for the Loan of Money upon Privy-Seals Privy-Seals issued forth to certain Persons Warrants for disarming Recusants Letters directed to Lords Recusants Concourse of Papists prevented Viscount Wimbleton Commander in Chief in the Voyage to Cadez Lord Cromwels Letter to the Duke touching the Fleet. The Earl of Warwick secures Langer-Point in Essex English and Dutch Fleet before Dunkirk dispersed by a storm The General examined before the Council The
a Treaty of a Match since in Eighty Eight even while there was a Treaty of Peace their Armado came upon us Again we shall find it was forbidden in the best people in the world to marry with a differing Religion The injunction the reason and the effect are laid down in Deuteronomy to the Jews And if we descend to our own Books and Chronicles we shall find that God hath crossed if not cursed our alliance and association particularly with the Spanish Nation the position of that Country and the disposition of that People being as it were so malignant and ill-agreeing with us The Prince of the greatest performance that ever this Kingdom or Christendom had was the Black Prince Yet our Chronicle records that going into Spain to settle Don Pedro in that Kingdom besides the monstrous ingratitude and peafidiousness of the Spaniard who failed in the performance of those Conditions he had promised which caused the miserable Revolt in France to the loss of our inheritance the Prince was so poisoned in that Country that he never had his health after Moreover he beseeched his Lordship to observe that all the Marriages which the Heirs and Princes of this Crown have made in England for these last six-score years except the several second Matches of Henry the Eight have been onely and no-where else but with Spain which how little God hath blest the success shews Prince Arthur married the Spanish Kings daughter We know God took him away suddenly within a very small time and without any issue In a Politick respect we would yet make a second Match so Prince Henry afterwards King married the same daughter But doubtless God was less pleased with that Match which was less lawful and therefore God took away all the male-children of it and left only a daughter in whose short Reign was shed more blood for the true Religion in six years then for the false in these succeeding sixty years We made then a third Adventure and Marriage with Spain Queen Mary with King Philip which was so discontenting to the People that it caused Wyats Rebellion so discomfortable to the Queen that it brake her heart being left and neglected of her Husband and so dishonorable and prejudicial to the Kingdom that merely for the Spaniards sake we having no difference at all with France we lost Calis in six days which had been above two hundred years in our possession He added lastly Though I have not so much judgment nor so little wit as to presume to advise where to match yet I assume so much as to think a Match at home cannot be held any ways inconvenient We find the first and the last of our Kings that ever matched with their Subjects were Ed. 4. and Hen. 8. From which two Matches God as it were to shew the less we rely upon others abroad the more he will help us himself at home gave two daughters two Elizabeths two such Queens then which there were never two more blessed Instruments of Gods glory and this Kingdoms good by establishing Peace in the Land and Religion in the Church until his Majesties happy coming who brought both with him The French were very jealous of the Conjunction between Spain and England and thought it the safest way to make peace at home and imploy their strength to bound the Incroachments of Spain and the House of Austria By which means a bitter Persecution ceased in that Kingdom The Protestants of France were permitted to call home their banished Ministers to build their ruined Temples and to enjoy their liberty in Religion This benefit did the Kings closing with Spain procure to a people almost ruined But after all the Kings concessions the Spaniards contrived new delays and proposed harder terms The Pope had obliged the Catholick King to see the Conditions performed and to protract the Marriage till matters in England were in perfect execution Whereupon the Divines advise that King that the Promises of Marriage be made presently but the Consummation thereof and the delivering of the Infanta be deferred till May the year following And the death of Pope Gregory did strengthen this contrivance For the Spanish Ministers pretended that in regard there was no Contract but a Treaty only on foot the Dispensation which lay in the Nuncio's hands was by the Popes death suspended and a Ratification from the new Pope was requisite before any further progress could be made Cardinal Barberine was chosen Successor to Gregory the Fifteenth and took the name of Urban the Eight Soon after his election he wrote these ensuing Letters the one to King Iames the other to Prince Charls Serenissimo IACOBO Magnae Britanniae Regi Illustri URBANUS P. â— VIII SErenissime Rex salutem lumen Divinae gratiae Scotiae regnum quod inclytos terris Reges sanctissimosque coelo cives peperit cum ad Cardinalatus nostri patrocinium pertinuerit laetitiae simul ac moeroris uberem nobis materiam afferebat Exultabamus gaudio cogitantes in ea Regione quam Romanorum arma expugnare omnino non potuerunt Romanae Ecclesiae fidem feliciter triumphasse Scotumque Regem nullum hactenus extitisse qui Pontificiae authoritatis hostis obierit At enim vertebatur in luctum cythara nostra cum ad praesentium temporum miserias oculos lachrymis manantes converteremus Videmini enim laborante discordiarum patre obliti esse eum qui nutrivit vos contristati nutricem vestram Hierusalem Quare Apostolica sedes quae populos istos jampridem Christo genuit moerore conficitur dum tam praeclaâ—am haereditatem verti videt ad extraneos damnique sui magnitudinem Britannorum Regum laudibus istarumque Provinciarum gloria metitur Id vero praeter caetera dolendum orbi Christiano videtur Jacobum regem Catholicorum regum prolem sanctissimae Parentis filium à Pontifice Maximo atque à Majoribus suis in Religionis cultu dissentire Si enim sublime istud ingenium quod literarum studiis prudentiae artibus Rex celeberrimus excoluisti affulgenti Patri luminum assentiretur facilè conjicit Christiana Respublica quanto publicae concordiae bono factum esset ut Nationes istas Insulasque aut montium claustris aut Oceani gurgitibus dissitas Scoticus rex imperio conjungeres Videtur enim Majestas tua ob eam rem facta esse tot Provinciarum domina ut ab eo cui parent facilius celeriusque Regna ista medelam ac salutem acciperent Quare assiduis precibus jam tum eum venerabamur qui dat salutem Regibus ut to Divinae clementiae beneficia quibus in conspectu Potentium admirabilis es ad Britanniae incolumitatem Ecclesiae gaudium conferret Affulsit autem nobis non ita pridem beata spes oriens ex alto cum te Austriacae affinitatis cupidum cognovimus ex Catholica matre progigni exoptantem eos qui tuam haereditatem adire populosque istos ditione tenere debent
against the Countrey or Dominion which of right appertain and are in truth the just and lawful possession of the King of Spain or the Lady Infanta Isabella And in case any such Hostility shall be acted contrary to this his Majesties intention all such Commissions which shall be granted to that purpose by the said Count Mansfield his Majesty doth declare to be void and that all payments shall cease That on the contrary if Obedience be given hereunto the King wisheth the Count all good success for the recovery of the Palatinate and reestablishment of the Peace in Germany against the Duke of Bavaria and those that are the troublers of the Peace And for the performance hereof the King caused Count Mansfield to take an Oath That he would conform according to the Contents of the said Commission and Declaration of his Majesty which Oath was almost in Terminis of what is before expressed This Army consisting of Twelve Regiments was intended to Land in France but being ready for Transport the French notwithstanding their Promise and the Treaty of Marriage demurred yet not plainly denied their passage Nevertheless the whole Army was shipped and put over to Calice and after a tedious stay in hope yet to land and pass through the Countrey they were forced to set sail for Zealand Neither were they suffered to land there coming so unexpectedly upon the States and in a hard Season for Provision of Victuals Thus they were long pent up in the Ships and suffered the want of all Necessaries by which means a Pestilence came among them and raged extreamly so that they were thrown into the Sea by Multitudes insomuch that scarce a Third part of the men were landed the which also afterward mouldred away and the Design came to nothing The Papist formerly danted by the Breach of the Spanish Match was now again revived by the Marriage-Treaty with France And at this time upon the Death of William Titular Bishop of Calcedon most of the English Secular Priests did Petition the Pope that another Bishop might be sent over into England there to Ordain Priests give Confirmation and exercise Episcopal Jurisdiction Among others Matthew Kellison and Richard Smith were presented And though the Regulars were opposite to the Seculars in this matter yet those of the Order of St. Benedict joyned with the Seculars and Rudesin Barlo President of the English Benedictines at Doway wrote a Letter in their behalf to the Congregation at Rome named of the Propagation of the Faith Dated the Twelfth of December One thousand six hundred twenty and four In which Letter was this passage That there were above Sixty Benedictine Monks in England and that it is not to be doubted said he For that it is already seen the good success under the First Bishop That another Bishop being Constituted there would be more joyful fruits within one two years in the English Mission then hitherto hath been for Sixty years now elapsed But not long after the Episcopal party prevailing Pope Urban the Eight created Richard Smith Bishop of Calcedon and sent him into England with Episcopal Authority over the Priests within the English Dominions King Iames after he had been troubled with a Tertian Fevor four Weeks finding himself near the end of his days called unto him Charles Prince of Wales his onely Son to whom he recommended the Protection of the Church of England advised him to love his Wife but not her Religion and exhorted him to take special care of his Grand-Children the Children of the Elector Palatine by his Daughter and to employ the power he left him to reestablish them in the Estate and Dignities of their Father And lastly he recommended to him his Officers who had faithfully served him and on the Seven and twentieth of March gave up the ghost And shortly after Bishop Laud delivered to the hands of the Duke of Buckingham brief Annotations or Memorables of the Life and Death of King Iames viz. I. HE was a King almost from his Birth II. His great Clemency that he should Reign so long and so moderately that knew nothing else but to Reign III. The difficult times in Scotland during his Minority as much perplexed with Church as State Factions IV. His admirable Patience in those yonger times and his Wisdom to go by those many and great difficulties till God opened him the ways to his just Inheritance of this Crown V. His peaceable Entry into this Kingdom contrary to the fears at home and the hopes abroad not without Gods great blessing both on him and us VI. His Ability as strong in Grace as Nature to forgive some Occurrences VII The continuance of full Two and twenty years reign all in Peace without War from Foreign Enemy or Rebellion at home VIII The infinite advantage which people of all sorts might have brought to themselves and the enriching of the State if they would have used such a Government with answerable care and not made the worst use of peace IX Gods great mercy over him in many deliverances from private Conspirators and above the rest that which would have blown up his Posterity and the State by Gun-powder X. That in all this time of his Reign of England he took away the life of no one Nobleman but restored many XI That the sweetness of his nature was scarce to be paralleld by any other XII It is little less then a Miracle that so much sweetness should be found in so great a heart as besides other things sickness and death it self shewed to be in him XIII Clemency Mercy Justice and holding the State in Peace have ever been accounted the great Vertues of Kings and they were all eminent in him XIV He was not onely a preserver of Peace at home but the great Peace-maker abroad to settle Christendom against the common enemy the Turk which might have been a glorious work if others had been as true to him as he was to the common good XV. He was in private to his Servants the best Master that ever was and the most free XVI He was the justest Man that could sit between parties and as patient to hear XVII He was bountiful to the highest pitch of a King XVIII He was the greatest Patron to the Church which hath been in many Ages XIX The most Learned Prince that his Kingdom hath ever known for matters of Religion XX. His integrity and soundness in Religion to write and speak believe and do live and die one and the same and all Orthodox XXI His tender love to the King his Son our most gratious Soveraign that now is and his constant Reverence in performance of all duties to his Father the greatest Blessing and greatest Example of this and many Ages XXII The Education of his Majesty whom we now enjoy and I hope and pray we may long and in happiness enjoy to be an able King as Christendom hath any the very first day of his Reign the benefit whereof is
thereupon their Lordships will be pleased to take care that the Grand-Iury men either by Evidence or their own Knowledge indict them which are not already indicted before the end of the Assises and that their Lordships admit no Traverse unless the Persons convicted have first yeilded their bodies into the custody of the Sheriff as their Lordships know well all the Iudges with one voice resolved the Law to be 3 That there be special care taken of Schoolmasters and Teachers of any kinde who are Popish that they be presented and proceeded against 4. That their Lordships give knowledge to the Counties where they sit that the married Women who are Popish Recusants convicted by the Law ought to be committed to the Common-Goal without Bail unless their husbands redeem their liberty by the constant payment of 10 l. a moneth and that it must be executed Your Lordships ready to be commanded ROB. HEATH Inner-Temple Mar. 7. 1625. The Commons proceeded in the Examination of Grievances and had a Report made unto them That the reason wherefore our Merchants Ships and Goods were seised in France was by reason of Sir Iames Bagg Vice-Admiral for Cornwal and other mens dealings towards the French in seising upon their goods in several Ports in England and particularly the seising of the Ship called the Peter of New-haven and brought into Plymouth by order from the Lord Duke after the King and Council had ordered this Ship to be restored upon a just Claim and that the Court of Admiralty had also released her That till this action the French did not begin to seise any English Goods or Ships That twenty and three bags of silver and eight bags of gold were by Sir Francis Steward delivered to the Lord Duke the Duke having notice hereof said he would justifie the stay of the Ship by order from the King The Council of War appointed to manage the business for the relief of the Palatinate were called into the House of Commons and this Question was propounded unto them Whether their Advice was followed which they gave for the four Ends mentioned in the Act of Parliament 21 Iacobi for which the moneys given by that Act were to issue Lord Carey Earl of Totnes and Lord Brook desired to be excused from answering the Lord Vere said He had been much absent in the Low-Countries and could say little the Lord Grandison said that since Iuly last they had seldom met Sir Robert Mansel and Sir Iohn Oyle desired a Copy of the Question and that they might all confer together before they gave Answer to a Question of this Concernment Afterwards the same persons except the Lord Vere were called in again who gave unsatisfactory answers when they were pressed to deal clearly and fully in the business It was answered by some of them That they conceived by the Act of Parliament they were bound to make no other Answer then what they had done Others desired before they answered that they might have the Kings consent first That obtained and a special Order of the House requiring an Answer Sir Robert Mansel declared his readiness to give a cleer and full Account While matters were thus debated Mr Secretary Cook delivered a Message from the King to the Commons declaring his Majesties occasion for Supply This Message was strengthened by a Conference which the Lords desired with the Commons where William Earl of Pembrook represented the Affairs of Christendom how they stood before the breach of the Treaties with Spain and how at that present shewing That the condition of the Palatinate was nothing bettered That Count Mansfiels Army was raised for the diversion of the League Catholick in Germany That the King of Denmark had thereupon engaged himself to stand or fall in this Quarrel in case of Supplies That the Swedes were forward and lastly That his Majesty had made a strict Alliance with the Hollander upon these terms That they shall bear a fourth part of the expence of our Navy and onely have a fourth part of the spoils the Lands and Cities conquered to be the Kings The fruits of all rich advantages will be lost if a speedy Assistance be not resolved on The Commons not thinking fit to take into consideration the matter of Supply at present call for a Report from the Committee appointed to consider of the Causes and Remedies of Evils which being made by Mr Wandesford it was resolved That the Diminution of the Kingdom in strength and honor is a general Evil which we suffer under a second the increase and countenancing of Papists a third the not guarding of the narrow Seas a fourth Plurality of Offices in one hand a fifth sales of Honors and places of Judicature a sixth delivery up of Ships to the French a Seventh misimployment of three Subsidies and three fifteens c. And they further ordered That the Duke whom these Misdemenors especially reflected on have notice that the Commons House intend suddenly to resume the debate of these things and Mr Clement Cook said openly That it were better to die by an Enemy then to suffer at home The Lords at that time more readily complying with the Kings desires appointed a Committee to consider of the safety and defence of the Kingdom in general and particularly of the safeguard of the Seas the store of Ammunition and Arms and all things incident thereunto and of strengthening the Forts for this the King gave them thanks and desired them to proceed with alacrity The Committee of Lords made haste and reported their advice to the House That one Fleet be presently set to Sea against the King of Spain to annoy him and to prevent the Invasion of this Kingdom That another be set out to defend our own Coasts and the Merchants from Pirats and that consideration be had of maintaining the Armies under the King of Denmark and Count Mansfield but the House would give no opinion thereupon till they had Conference with the House of Commons which was desired upon this occasion To which Message the Commons onely returned this Answer That they desire to have a good correspondency with their Lordships and will be ever carefull of the safety and defence of the Kingdom and maintain their own priviledges as is fitting and immediately proceed with the debate concerning the Duke which was a little interrupted as well by a Letter of the Kings to the Speaker as by a Message delivered by Sir Richard Weston touching Supply King Charles to the Speaker Trusty and Welbeloved c. HAving assembled the Parliament early in the beginning of the year for the more timely help and advice of our People in our great and important Affairs and having of late not onely by Message but also of our self put our House of Commons in minde of our pressing occasions and of the present Estate of Christendom wherein they have equal interest with us as well in respect of their own former engagements
Answer in writing under their hands whether they would conform to the Lord Conways Letter and to the Instrument peraffetted at Rochester for delivery over of the said ships yea or no offering to procure them a sufficient discharge to their contentment for their so doing The same day also Sir Ferdinando Gorge and the rest by writing under their hands subscribed did declare as followeth namely That they were willing to obey our King but held not the security peraffetted at Rochester by the three Ambassadors to be sufficient though honorable and so they absolutely refused to deliver their ships upon that security desiring better caution in that behalf 1. By Merchants of Paris 2. To be transferred to London 3. Irrevocable 4. And such as might not be protected by Prerogative and to have this under the Hands and Seals of both Kings All this while our King or body of the Council knew nothing in certain of any other design of the French then only of their pretence against Genoa and believed that all the Articles and Instruments that had passed between the French and us or the Captains Masters and Owners of the English ships had been penned and contrived with full and good Cautions accordingly for pâ—evention of all dangers that might grow to the contrary Also the same 28 Iuly the Captains and Masters taking notice of Mr. Nicholas pressing them to deliver their ships before security given to their content contrary to former Propositions which they held unreasonable did make answer unto the Marquis in writing That until they should have security to their contentment they would not quit the possession of their ships unto the French which was but reasonable and they sent therewith a valuation of their several ships as they would stand to They likewise demanded a performance of all things formerly sent to his Lordship from them by Mr. Nicholas save only for the security by money deposited saying that for all the rest they durst not proceed otherwise Lastly they prayed for a speedy Answer that the delay in this business may not seem to be in them But D' Effiat being confident of the Duke of Buckingham's Letters promises and proceedings aforesaid would not consent to these reasonable demands of the Captains and Masters of the English ships protracting the time till he might hear further from the said Duke out of England While these things were thus in handling both in France and in England there were written over out of France into England Letters of advertisement how and upon what ground or by what act or means procured or occasioned appeareth not yet from one Mr. Larking a servant to the Earl of Holland and a kind of Agent a person some way imployed by our State or under some of our Ambassadors or Ministers in France That the Peace was concluded with those of our Religion in France and that within fourteen days the War would break forth or begin in Italy with a Design upon Genoa a matter of great importance for annoying the Spaniard This Letter of Larking came to the English Court at Richmond 28 Iuly when the Duchess of Chevereux Child was there Christened and the Contents thereof as hath been alleaged were confirmed by the Ambassadors of Savoy and Venice By the advantage and colour whereof the Duke of Buckingham drew the King who all this while knew nothing of the Design upon Rochel or those of our Religion but thought the â—ormer Articles had been safe and well penned both for him and his Subjects according to the most religious and politick intention and Instructions in that behalf originally given by his late Father to write a Letter dated at Richmond the same 28 Iuly directed to the said Captain Pennington to this effect viz. His Majesty did thereby charge and command the said Captain Pennington without delay to put his Highness former Command in execution for consigning the Vantguard into the hands of the Marguis D'Effiat for the French with all her Furniture assuring her Officers his Majesty would provide for their Indemnity And to require the seven Merchants ships in his Majesties name to put themselves into the service of the French King according to the promise his Majesty had made unto him And in case of backwardness or refusal commanding him to use all forcible means to compel them even to sinking with a Charge not to fail and this Letter to be his Warrant This Letter was sent by Captain Thomas Wilbraham to Captain Pennington who was yet in the Downs In the beginning of August 1625. Captain Pennington went over again to Diep carrying with him the said Letters of his Majesty and certain Instructions in writing from the Duke of Buckingham to Mr. Nicholas agreeable in substance to the former verbal Instructions given by the Duke to him at Rochester as the said Nicholas alleadgeth who also affirmeth that in all things what he did touching that business he did nothing but what was warranted by the Dukes Instructions to him which if it be true then the Duke of Buckingham who commanded and imployed him therein must needs be guilty of the matters so acted by the said Mr. Nicholas If there be any subsequent act or assent of Council or of some Counsellors of State for the going of these ships to the French or for putting them into their power it was obtained only for a colour and was unduly gotten by misinforming the Contents of the sealed Articles and concealing the Truth or by some other undue means Neither can any such latter act of Council in any sort justifie the Dukes proceedings which by the whole current of the matter appears to have been indirect in this business even from the beginning About the time of Captain Pennington's coming over to Diep the second time Mr. Nicholas did in his speeches to the Captains and Masters of the seven Merchants ships threaten and tell them That it was as much as their lives were worth if they delivered not their ships to the French as he required which put them in such fear as they could hardly sleep And thereupon two of them were once resolved to have come again away with the ships and because the former threats had made them afraid to return into England therefore to have brought and left their ships in the Downs and themselves for safety of their lives to have gone into Holland Captain Pennington being the second time come into Diep there forthwith delivered and put the said ship the Vantguard into the absolute power and command of the French King his Subjects and Ministers to the said French Kings use to be imployed in his service at his pleasure and acquainted the rest of the Fleet with the effect of his Majesties Letter and Command and demanded and required them also to deliver and put their ships into the power and command of the French King accordingly The Captains Masters and Owners of the seven Merchants ships refused so to do as conceiving it was not
we took into serious Consideration several Propositions how for the â—afety and happiness of your Majesties Kingdoms and Allies we might enlarge your Supports add to the Military Strength without charge to the poorer sort of your Subjects and give a larger Supply to your Majesty for your instant and pressing occasions then hath ever yet but once been given in Parliament Whereupon for the enabling of our selves and those whom we represent we conceive it first necessary to search into the Causes of those Mischiefs which this your Kingdom suffereth and divers of the Grievances that overburthen your Subjects without doing of which we could neither be faithful to your Majesty nor to the Country that doth trust and imploy us as your Royal Father also of blessed memory admonished the House of Commons in the fourth Session of his first Parliament In this consideration we found that the most pressing and comprehensive Mischief and Grievance that we suffered was fundamentally setled in the vast power and enormous Actions of the said Duke being such that by reason of his plurality of Offices all gotten by ambition and some for money expresly against the Lawes of your Realm His breach of Trust in not guarding the Seas his high injustice in the Admiralty his extortion his delivering over the Ships of this Kingdom into the hands of a Forein Prince his procuring of the compulsory buying of honor for his own gain his unexampled exhausting of the Treasures and Revenues of the Kingdom his transcendent presumption of that unhappy applying of Phisick to your Royal Father of blessed memory few dayes before his death and some other his Offences carefully and maturely examined by us we made a Parliamentary Charge of the same matters and offences against him to the Lords by your Majesty assembled in Parliament there expecting some remedy by a speedy proceeding against him but may it please your most excellent Majesty not onely during the time of our examination of the matters and offences of the same Charge we were diversly interrupted and diverted by Messages procured through misinformation from your Majesty which with most humble duty and reverence we did ever receive whence it first fell out that so not onely much time was spent amongst us before the same Charge was perfected but also within two dayes next after the same Charge was transmitted by us to the Lords Upon untrue and malicious misinformations privately and against the Priviledge of Parliaments given to your Majesty of certain words supposed to have been spoken by Sir Dudley Digs and Sir John Elliot Knights two of the Members of our House in their service of the transmitting of the said Charge both of them having been especially employed in the Chairs of Committees with us about the examination of the said matters and offences they were both by your Majesties command committed to close imprisonment in the Tower of London and their Lodgings presently searched and their papers there found presently taken away by reason whereof not onely our known Priviledges of Parliament were infringed but we our selves that upon full hope of speedy course of Iustice against the said Duke were preparing with all dutifull affection to proceed to the dispatch of the Supply and other Services to your Majesty were wholly as the Course and Priviledge of Parliament bindes us diverted for divers dayes to the taking onely into consideration some Courses for the ratifying and preservation of the Priviledges so infringed and we think it our duties most gracious Soveraign most rightly to inform hereby your most excellent Majesty of the Course held in the Commitment of the two Members For whereas by your Majesties Warrant to your Messengers for the arresting of them you were pleased to command that they should repair to their Lodgings And there take them Your Majesties principal Secretary the Lord Conway gave the said Messengers as they affirmed an express command contrary to the said Warrants that they should not go to their Lodgings but to the House of Commons and there take them and if they found them not there they should stay until they were come into the House and apprehend them wheresoever else they should finde them Which besides that it is contrary to your Majesties command is an apparent Testimony of some mischievous intention there had against the whole House of Commons and against the service intended to your Majesty All which with the several interruptions that preceded it and the misinformation that hath caused all of them we cannot doubt but that they were wrought and procured by the Duke to his own behoof and for his advantage especially because the said Interruptions have through misinformation come amongst us onely at such times wherein we have had the matters and offences charged against him in agitation but your Majesty out of your great goodness and justice being afterwards informed truely of our Priviledge and the demerit of the Cause that concerned our said two Members graciously commanded the delivery of them out of the Tower for which we render unto your Majesty most humble thanks and were then again by reason of our hopes of the dispatch of proceedings with the Lords upon our Charge against him said the Duke in a cheerfull purpose to go on with the matter of Supply and other services to your Majesty when again these hopes failed in us by reason of some new exorbitancies now lately shewed in the exercise of his so great power and ambition for by such his power and ambition notwithstanding our Declaration against him for his so great plurality of Offices he also procured to himself by the sollicitation of his Agents and of such as depended upon him the Office of Chancellor of the University of Cambridge whereas the same University having two Burgesses in Parliament did by the same Burgesses a few weeks before consent with us in the Charge against him for his ambition for procuring such a plurality of Offices such was his ambition to sue for it such was his power to make them give it him contrary to what themselves had agréed in Parliament with all the Commons of England And he procured also the same Office by the special labors and endeavors as we are informed of a Factious party who adhereth to that dangerous Innovation of Religion published in the seditious Writings of one Richard Montague Clerk of whom it is thence also and heretofore upon other reasons it hath béen conceived that the said Duke is and long hath béen an Abettor and Protector These Actions of the said Duke have thus among us hindred the service of your Majesty by reason both of the interruptions that have so necessarily accompanied them and of the prevention of our chéerfulness which otherwise had long since béen most effectually shewed in us that have nothing else in our cares next to our duty to God but the loyal service of your Majesty the safety of your Kingdom and the subsistence of our selves and those whom we represent
Madam Saint George that he was resolved no longer to endure it So the King dismissed and sent back into France the Queens Retinue of French first paying all that was due for Wages or Salaries and gave the King of France an account of the action by the Lord Carlton for the preserving of their mutual Correspondency and Brotherly Affection But this Dismission was ill resented in France and Audience denied to the Lord Carlton and the matter was aggravated high at the French Court as a great violation of the Articles of the Marriage And those persons who returned into France being for the most part yonger-brothers and had parted with their Portions at home in expectation of raising their Fortunes in the service of the Queen of England did heighten the discontent This jarring with France breaks forth to a publick War and King Charles is at once engaged against Two Great and Mighty Princes It is not our purpose to relate the particulars of those private transactions which were here in England concerning the preparing of a Fleet and Army nor how the same was managed at first by an Abbot who had relation to the Duke of Orleance and had been disobliged by Cardinal Richlieu This Man was full of Revenge against the Cardinal and labored much and at last effected the dismissing of the French about the Queen his cheif end therein was to put an affront upon Richlieu and withal to heighten the differences between the Two Crowns of England and France to which purpose he remonstrated to the Duke of Buckingham the Commotions and Discontents that were in France and how hardly the Protestants there were treated notwithstanding the Edict of Peace procured by the Mediation of the King of Great Britain This Abbots Negotiation with the Duke procured the sending of Devic from the King of England to the Duke of Rhoane who was drawn to engage to raise Four thousand Foot and Two hundred Horse upon the landing of the English Army in France but not before This private transaction was also managed by Mr. Walter Montague but in another capacity The Duke of Sobiez and Monsieur St. Blanchard contributed their endeavors also to hasten the Fleet and the raising of the Army in England against the French for the relief of those of the Reformed Religion there The King declared as a ground of his War with France That the House of Austria conspiring the ruine of all those of the Reformed Religion throughout Christendom as he said plainly appeared in the affairs of Germany had such an influence upon the Council of France as to prevail with them to obstruct the landing of Count Mansfields Army contrary to promise with whom the French should have joyned forces for the relief of the Palatinate and the German Princes which failer of performance in them proved the ruine of that Army the greatest part whereof perished and was by consequence the loss of the whole Protestant Party in Germany His Majesty further declared That having by his Mediation prevailed for a Peace between the French King and his Protestant Subjects and engaged his word That the Protestants should observe the Articles of Agreement Nevertheless the King of France contrary to the said Articles blocked up their Towns Garisons and Forts and had committed many spoils upon them when they had done nothing in violation of the Edict of Peace And that the King of France had committed an example of great injustice in full Peace to seise upon One hundred and twenty English Ships with all their Merchandise and Artillery for which Reasons the King was resolved to send a powerful Army and Navy to require satisfaction The Duke of Buckingham was made Admiral of this Fleet and Commander in chief of the Land forces and had a Commission to that purpose wherein it is expressed That his Majesty hath taken into his Princely consideration the distressed estate of his dear Brother-in-law and onely Sister the Prince and Princess Elector Palatine and their Children and finding himself in Nature and Honor nearly bound unto them At their request and for their just Relief in recovering their rightful Patrimony taken from them by the Advice of his Privy Council did the last year prepare and set out to Sea a Royal Fleet for Sea-service for performance of such services as on his Brother-in-laws and Sisters behalf his Majesty had designed And for the doing of those designs and for the honor and safety of his people his Majesty hath now prepared a new Fleet which he intends with all convenient expedition to set out to be employed as well by way of Offence as of Defence as shall be most behoveful for his said Brother-in-Law his service and therefore doth by the said Commission appoint the Duke of Buckingham to be Admiral Captain-General and Governor of his said Royal Fleet with such Soldiers and Land-forces as shall be conveyed therein for the accomplishment of such execution and employment as they shall be designed unto according to such private Instructions as his Majesty shall give unto the said Duke His Majesty by the said Commission giving to the Duke power to lead and conduct the said Navy and Army and with them to fight against his said Brother-in-law and Sisters enemies or the enemies of the Crown of England and to advance to the Order of Knighthood such persons employed in the Fleet Forces and Supplies as by their Valor Desert and good Service in this Expedition shall be thought fit in his the said Dukes discretion to merit the same and as to the Office of Captain-General doth appertain On the Seven and twentieth of Iune the Duke set fail from Portsmouth in order to the Relief of the Palatinate with the Fleet consisting of One hundred fail of Ships whereof Ten were of the Kings Royal Navy having aboard about Six or seven thousand Land-soldiers and towards the latter end of Iuly he appeared with his Fleet before Rochel who once much longed for their coming but now shut their Gates at their appearance Hereupon the Duke of Sobiez went a shore with Sir William Beecher from the Duke of Buckingham Sir William Beecher being also accompanied with a Letter of Credence from his Majesty of Great Britain they were at last admitted into the Town and the Magistrates called an Assembly and there Sir William Beecher declared unto them That the Duke of Buckingham was come with a great Fleet and Army to their assistance which his Master had sent out of a fellow-feeling of their sufferings and to require from the King of France a performance of the Articles of Peace made by the King of Englands Mediation on the behalf of the Protestants in France And further declared unto them That if they do now refuse to give their assistance by joyning forces with the English he said he would and did protest before God and Man in the name of the King his Master That his said Master was
for Posterity to strike at the propriety of their Goods contrary to the piety and intention of your Majesty so graciously exprest And these being the true Grounds and Motives of his forbearance to the said Loan shewing such inconveniences in Reason and representing it an Act contradicting so many of your Laws and most of them by the most prudent and happiest of our Princes granted which could not without presumption beyond pardon in your Suppliant in taking to himself the Dispensation of those Laws so piously Enacted by him be violated or impeached In the fulness of all Submission and Obedience as the Apology of his Loyalty and Duty he lowly offers to your most Sacred Wisdom for the satisfaction of your Majesty most humbly praying your Majesty will be graciously pleased to take them into your Princely consideration where when it shall appear as he doubts not but from hence it will to your déep judgment that no factious humor nor disaffection led on by stubbornness and will hath herein stirred or moved him but the just Obligation of his Conscience which binds him to the service of your Majesty in the observânce of your Laws he is hopeful presuming upon the Piety and Iustice of your Majesty that your Majesty according to your innate Clemency and Goodness will be pleased to bestow him to your Favor and his Liberty and to afford him the benefit of those Laws which in all humility he craves Notwithstanding the said Petition he still continued a prisoner in the Gate-house till the general Order of Discharge came Sir Peter Hayman refusing to part with Loan-money was called before the Lords of the Council who charged him with refractoriness and with an unwillingness to serve the King and told him if he did not pay he should be put upon service Accordingly they commanded him to go upon his Majesties service into the Palatinate and having first setled his estate he undertook and performed the journey and afterwards returned into England Archbishop Abbot having been long slighted at Court now fell under the Kings high displeasure for refusing to Licence Doctor Sibthorps Sermon as he was commanded intituled Apostolical Obedience and not long after he was sequestred from his Office and a Commission was granted to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and Doctor Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells to execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction The Commission as followeth CHARLS by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To the Right Reverend Father in God George Bishop of London and to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Trusty and Welbeloved Counsellor Richard Lord Bishop of Durham and to the Right Reverend Father in God Iohn Lord Bishop of Rochester and Iohn Lord Bishop of Oxford to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Counsellor William Lord Bishop of Bathe and Wells Greeting WHereas George now Archbishop of Canterbury in the right of the Archbishoprick hath several and distinct Archiepiscopal Episcopal and other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Powers and Iurisdictions to be exercised in the Government and Discipline of the Church within the Province of Canterbury and in the Administration of Iustice in Causes Ecclesiastical within that Province which are partly executed by himself in his own person and partly and more generally by several persons nominated and authorised by him being learned in the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm in those several places whereunto they are deputed and appointed by the said Archbishop Which several places as We are informed they severally hold by several Grants for their several lives as namely Sir Henry Martin Knight hath and holdeth by the Grants of the said Archbishop the Offices and places of the Dean of the Arches and Iudge or Master of the Prerogative Court for the Natural life of the said Sir Henry Martin Sir Charls Caesar Knight hath and holdeth by Grants of the said Archbishop the places or Offices of the Iudge of the Audience and Master of the Faculties for the term of the Natural life of the said Sir Charls Caesar. Sir Thomas Ridley Knight hath and holdeth by the Grant of the said Archbishop the place or Office of Uicar-General to the said Archbishop And Nathaniel Brent Doctor of the Laws hath and holdeth by Grant of the said Archbishop the Office or place of Commissary to the said Archbishop as of his proper and peculiar Diocess of Canterbury And likewise the several Registers of the Arches Prerogative Audience Faculties and of the Uicar-General and Commissary of Canterbury hold their places by Grants from the said Archbishop respectively Whereas the said Archbishop in some or all of these several places and Iurisdictions doth or may sometimes assume unto his personal and proper Iudicature Order or Direction some particular Causes Actions or Cases at his pleasure And forasmuch as the said Archbishop cannot at this present in his own person attend these Services which are otherwise proper for his Cognisance and Iurisdiction and which as Archbishop of Canterbury he might and ought in his own person to have performed and executed in Causes and Matters Ecclesiastical in the proper Function of Archbishop of that Province We therefore of Our Regal Power and of Our Princely Care and Providence that nothing shall be defective in the Order Discipline Government or Right of the Church have thought fit by the Service of some other Learned and Reverend Bishops to be named by Us to supply those things which the said Archbishop ought or might in the Cases aforesaid to have done but for this present cannot perform the same Know ye therefore That We reposing special Trust and Confidence in your approved Wisdoms Learning and Integrity have nominated authorised and appointed and do by these presents nominate authorise and appoint you the said George Lord Bishop of London Richard Lord Bishop of Durham John Lord Bishop of Rochester John Lord Bishop of Oxford and William Lord Bishop of Bathe and Wells or any four thrée or two of you to do execute and perform all and every those Acts Matters and things any way touching or concerning the Power Iurisdiction or Authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Causes or Matters Ecclesiastical as amply fully and effectually to all intents and purposes as the said Archbishop himself might have done And We do hereby Command you and every of you to attend perform and execute this Our Royal Pleasure in and touching the premisses until We shall declare Our Will and Pleasure to the contrary And We do further hereby Will and Command the said Archbishop of Canterbury quietly and without interruption to permit and suffer you the said George Bishop of London Richard Bishop of Durham John Bishop of Rochester John Bishop of Oxford and William Bishop of Bathe and Wells any four thrée or two of you to execute and perform this Our Commission according to Our Royal Pleasure thereby signified And We do further Will
the Land had little effect in their execution to the increase of Murders Robberies Perjuries and Insecurities of all men living to the loss of their Lands and Goods to the great displeasure of Almighty GOD It was ordained for Reformation of the Premises by Authority of the said Parliament That the Chancellour and Treasurer of England for the time being and the Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King or two of them calling to them one Bishop one Lord temporal of the most honourable Council of the Lord the King and two chief Justices of the Kings Bench and Common pleas for the time being or two other Justices in their absence by Bill or Information exhibited to the Chancellour for the King or any other against any person for any other ill behaviours aforesaid have Authority of calling before them by Writ or Privie-Seal such Malefactors and of examining them and others by their discretion and of punishing such as they finde defective therein according to their demerits according to the form and effect of the Statutes thereof made in the same manner and form as they might and ought to be punished if they were thereof convinced according to the due course of Law And by a certain other Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the eighth held in the one and twentieth year of his reign reciting the offences in the aforesaid Statute of the said late King Henry the seventh beforementioned by Authority of the said Parliament it was and is ordained and enacted That henceforward the Chancellour Treasurer of England and the President of the most honourable Privy-Council of the King attending his most honourable person for the time being and the Lord Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King or two of them calling to them one Bishop and one temporal Lord of the most honourable Council of the Lord the King and two chief Justices of the Kings Bench and Common Pleas for the time being or two Justices in their absence by any Bill or Information then after to be exhibited to the Chancellour of England the Treasurer the President of the said most honourable Council of the Lord the King or the Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King for the time being for any misdemeanour in the aforesaid Statute of King Henry the seventh aforesaid before recited from henceforth have full power and authority of calling before them by Writ or by Privy-Seal such Malefactors of examining of them and others by their discretion and of punishing those that are found defective according to their demerits According to the form and effect of the said Statute of the aforesaid Lord King Henry the seventh and of all other Statutes thereupon made not revoked and expired in the same manner and form as they might and ought be punished if they were convicted according to the due order of the Laws of the said Lord the king And by the aforesaid Writ under the foot of the great Seal it manifesty appears that the said Fine was imposed by the Lord the king and his Council and not by the Legal Peers of the said Richard Chambers nor by the Law of the Land nor according to the manner of the pretended offence of the said Richard Chambers nor saving unto him his Merchandize nor for any offence mentioned in the said Statutes all and singular the which the said Richard Chambers is ready to verifie to the Court c. and demands judgment and that he be discharge of the said 2000 l. against the said Lord the now King and that as to the premises he may be dismissed from this Court Waterhouse With this Plea he annexed a Petition to the Lord Chief Baron and also to every one of the Barons humbly desiting the filing of the Plea with other Reasons in the manner of a motion at the Bar because he said Counsel would not move plead nor set hand to it as further appeareth The Copy of the Order upon Mr. Atturneys motion in the Exchequer the 17 Iuly 1629. after the Plea put in and order to file it Per the Lord Chief Baron TOuching the Plea put into this Court by Richard Chambers to discharge himself of a â—ine of 2000 l. set on him in the Star-Chamber Forasmuch as Sir Robert Heath Kniâ—â—â— his Majesties Atturney General informed this Court that the said Chambers in his said Plea recites divers Statutes and Magna Charta and what offences are punishable in the Star-Chamber and how the proceedings ought to be and upon the whole matter concludes That the said fine was imposed by the King and his Council and not by a Legal judgment of his Peers nor by the Laws of the Land nor according to the manner of his offence nor saving his Merchandize nor for any offence mentioned in the said Statutes Which Plea Mr. Atturny conceiving to be very frivolous and insufficient and derogatory to the honour and jurisdiction of the Court of Star-Chamber Humbly prayeth might not be allowed of nor filed It is therefore this day ordered That the said Plea shall be read on Saturday next and then upon hearing the Kings Counsel and the Counsel of the said Richard Chambers this Court will-declare their further order therein and in the mean time the said Plea is not to be filed nor delivered out In Michaelmas Term following Mr. Chambers was brought by a Habeas Corpus out of the Fleet and the Warden did return THat he was committed to the Fleet by vertue of a Decree in the Star-Chamber by reason of certain words he used at the Council Table viz. That the Merchants of England were skrewed up here in England more then in Turky And for these and other words of defamation of the Government he was censured to be committed to the Fleet and to be there imprisoned until he made his submission at the Council Table and to pay a fine of 2000. l. And now at the Bar he prayed to be delivered because this Sentence is not warranted by any Law or Statute For the Statute of 3 Henrici 7. which is the foundation of the Court of Star-Chamber doth not give them any authority to punish for words only But all the Court informed him That the Court of Star-Chamber was not erected by the Statute of 3 H. 7. but was a Court many years before and one of the most high and honourable Courts of Justice and to deliver one who was committed by the Decree of one of the Courts of Justice was not the usage of this Court and therefore he was remanded As a concurrant proof of these Proceedings concerning Mr. Chambers we shall insert here a Petition of his though out of time to the Long Parliament and afterwards renewed to the succeeding Parliament viz. To the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland The brief Remonstrance and humble Petition of Richard Chambers Merchant late Alderman and Sheriff of the City of