to yield and this too was made use of by the Portugalls as a main Reason why they joyned not with us And there is as much to be said on the Portugalls behalf as an Evidence of their good Will and Favor to us that though they shewed themselves forward upon this Occasion to aid us yet they opposed not themselves as Enemies against us Whereas if they had pursued us in our Retreat from Lisbon to Cask Cadiz our Men being weak sickly and wanting Powder and Shot and other Arms they had in all probability put us to a great Loss and Disgrace And if ever England have the like Occasion to aid a Competitor in Portugal we shall questionless find that our fair Demeanor and Carriage in this Expedition towards the People of that Countrey have gained us great Reconciliation among them and would be of singular Advantage to us For the General strictly forbad the Rifling of their Houses in the Country and the Suburbs of Lisbon which he possess'd and commanded just Payment to be made by the Souldiers for every thing they took without Compulsion or rigorous Usage And this hath made those that stood but indifferently affected before now ready upon the like Occasion to assist us A Voyage undertaken by the Earl of Cumberland with one Ship Royal of her Majesties and six of his own and of other Adventures Anno Dom. 1589. Ships Commanders The Victory The Earl of Cumberland The Margaret Capt. Christopher Lister And Five other Capt. Monson now Sir William Monson Vice-Amiral AS the Fleets of Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake returned from the Voyage of Portugal my Lord of Cumberland proceeded upon his towards that Coast and meeting with divers of that Fleet relieved them with Victuals who otherwise had perished This Voyage was undertaken at his and his Friends Charge excepting the Victory a Ship Royal of the Queen's which she adventured The Service performed at Sea was the taking of three French Ships of the League in our Channel and his encountring upon the Coast of Spain with Thirteen Hulks who made some Resistance Out of these he took to the Value of 7000 l. in Spices belonging to Portugal From thence he crossed over to the Island of Terceras and coming to St. Michaels with Boats he fetched out two Spanish Ships from under the Castle which the same Night arrived out of Spain In this Course from thence to Flores he took a Spanish Ship laden with Sugars and Sweet-meats that came from the Maderas Being at Flores he received Intelligencence of divers Spanish Ships which were in the Road of Fayal whereupon he suddainly made from that Island where Captain Lister and Captain Monson gave a desperate Attempt in their Boats upon the said Ships and after along Fight possessed themselves of one of them of 300 Tuns Burden carrying Eighteen Pieces of Ordidinance and Fifty Men. This Ship with one other came from the Indies two of the rest out of Guiney and another was Laden with Woad which that Island affords in great Plenty who putting from thence to Sea and coming to the Island of Graciosa after two days Fight yielded us by Composition some Victuals Off that Island we likewise took a French Ship of the League of 200 Tuns that came from New-found-land Afterwards Sailing to the Eastward of the Road of Terceras in the Even-we beheld 18 Tall Ships of the Indies entring into the said Road one whereof we after took in her Course to the Coast of Spain She was laden with Hides Silver and Cochineal but coming for England she was cast away upon the Mounts Bay in Cornwall being valued at 100000 l. Two other Prizes of Sugar we took in our said Course to the Coast of Spain esteemed each Ship at 7000 l. and one from under the Castle of St. Maries to the same Value There was no Road about those Islands that could defend their Ships from our Attempts yet in the last Assault we gave which was upon a Ship of Sugars we found ill Success being sharply resisted and two parts of our Men slain and hurt Which Loss was occasioned by Captain Lister who would not be persuaded from Landing in the View of their Forts The Service performed by Land was the taking of the Island of Fayall some months after the surprizing of those Ships formerly mentioned The Castle yielded us 45 Pieces of Ordinance great and small We sacked and spoiled the Town and after ransomed it and so departed These Summer Services and Ships of Sugar proved not so sweet and pleasant as the Winter was afterwards sharp and painful For in our Return for England we found the Calamity of Famine the Hazard of Shipwrack and the Death of our Men so great that the like befell not any other Fleet during the time of the War All which Disasters must be imputed to Captain Lister's Rashness upon whom my Lord of Cumberland chiefly relyed wanting Experience himself He was the man that advised the sending the Ships of Wine for England otherwise we had not known the Want of Drink he was as earnest in persuading our Landing in the Face of the Fortifications of St. Maries against all Reason and Sence As he was rash so was he valiant but paid dearly for his unadvised Counsel For he was one of the first hurt and that cruelly in the Attempt of St. Maries and afterward drowned in the Rich Ship cast away at Mounts Bay Sir John Hawkins and Sir Martin Forbisher their Voyage undertaken Anno 1590. Ships Commanders The Revenge Sir Martin Forbisher The Mary-Rose Sir John Hawkins The Lyon Sir Edward Yorke The Bonaventure Capt. Fenner The Rainbow Capt. George Beeston The Hope  The Crane Capt. Bostock The Quittance  The Foresight Capt. Burnell The Swiftseur  FRom the Yeear 1585. untill this present Year 1590. there was the greatest possibility imaginable of enriching our Nation by Actions at Sea had they been well followed the King of Spain was grown so weak in Shipping by the Overthrow he had in 1588 that he could no longer secure the Trade of his Subjects Her Majesty now finding how necessary it was for her to maintain a Fleet upon the Spanish Coast as well to hinder the Preparations he might make against Her to repair the Disgrace he received in 1588. as also to intercept his Fleets from the Indies by which he grew Great and Mighty She sent this Year 1590. Ten Ships of her own in two Squadrons the one to be Commanded by Sir John Hawkins the other by Sir Martin Forbisher two Gentlemen of tried Experience The King of Spain understanding of this Preparation of hers sent forth 20 Sail of Ships under the Command of Don. Alonso de Bassan Brother to the late Famous Marquess of St. Cruz. His Charge was to secure home the Indian Fleet and Carrecks But after Don Alonso had put off to Sea the King of Spain becoming better advised than to adventure 20 of his Ships to 10 of outs sent
for Don Alonso back and so frustrated the Expectation of our Fleet. He likewise made a Dispatch to the Indies commanding the Fleets to Winter there rather than to run the hazard of coming Home that Summer But this proved so great a Hind'rance and Loss to the Merchants of Spain to be so long without Return of their Goods that it caused many to become Bankrupts in Sevil and other places besides which was so great a weakening to their Ships to Winter in the Indies that many years hardly sufficed to repair the Damage they received Our Fleet being thus prevented spent seven months in vain upon the Coasts of Spain and the Islands but in that space could not possess themselves of one Ship of the Spaniards and the Carrecks upon which part of their Hopes depended came Home without Sight of the Islands and arrived safe at Lisbon This Voyage was a bare Action at Sea though they attempted Landing at Fayal which the Earl of Cumberland the year before had taken and quitted but the Castle being re-fortified they prevailed not in thier Enterprize And thence forwards the King of Spain endeavored to strengthen his Coasts and to encrease in Shipping as may appear by the next ensuing Year Two Fleets the one by Vs under the Lord Thomas Howard the other by the Spaniards Commanded by Don Alonso de Bassan Anno 1591. Ships Commanders The Defiance The Lord Thomas Howard The Revenge Sir Richard Greenvile Vice-admiral The Nonperil Sir Edward Denny The Bonaventure Capt. Crosse The Lyon Capt. Fenner The Foresight Capt. Vavasor The Crane Capt. Duffeild HER Majesty understanding of the Indian Fleets Wintering in the Havana and that Necessity would compell them home this Year 1591. she sent a Fleet to the Islands under the Command of the Lord Thomas Howard The King of Spain perceiving her Drift and being sensible how much the safety of that Fleet concerned him caused them to set out thence so late in the Year that it endangered the Shipwrack of them all chosing rather to hazard the perishing of Ships Men and Goods than their falling into our Hands He had two Designs in bringing home this Fleet so late One was he thought the Lord Thomas would have consumed his Victuals and have been forced Home The other that he might in the mean time furnish out the great Fleet he was preparing little inferior to that of 1588. In the first he found himself deceived For my Lord was supplied both with Ships and Victuals out of England and in the second he was as much prevented For my Lord of Cumberland who then lay upon the Coast of Spain had Intelligence of the Spaniards putting out to Sea and advertised the Lord Thomas thereof the very Night before they arrived at Flores where my Lord lay The day after this Intelligence the Spanish Fleet was discovered by my Lord Thomas whom he knew by their Number and Greatness to be the Ships of which he had warning and by that means escaped the Danger that Sir Richard Greenvile his Vice-admiral rashly ran into Upon View of the Spaniards which were 55 Sail the Lord Thomas warily and like a discreet General weighed Anchor and made Signs to the rest of his Fleet to do the like with a purpose to get the Wind of them but Sir Richard Greenvile being a stubborn man and imagining this Fleet to come from the Indies and not to be the Armado of which they were informed would by no means be persuaded by his Master or Company to cut his main Sail to follow his Admiral nay so head-strong and rash he was that he offered violence to those that councelled him thereto But the Old Saying that a wilful man is the Cause of his own Woe could not be more truly verified than in him For when the Armado approached him and he beheld the Greatness of the Ships he began to see and repent of his Folly and when it was too late would have freed himself of them but in vain For he was left a Prey to the Enemy every Ship striving to be the first should board him This wilful Rashness of Sir Richard made the Spaniards triumph as much as if they had obtained a Signal Victory it being the first Ship that ever they took of Her Majesties and commended to them by some English Fugitives to be the very best she had but their Joy continued not long For they enjoyed her but five days before she was cast away with many Spaniards in her upon the Islands of Tercera Commonly one Misfortune is accompanied with another For the Indian Fleet which my Lord had waited for the whole Summer the day after this mishap fell into the Company of this Spanish Armado who if they had staid but one day longer or the Indian Fleet had come home but one day sooner we had possest both them and many millions of Treasure which the Sea afterward devoured For from the time they met with the Armado and before they could recover home nigh an hundred of them suffered Shipwrack besides the Ascention of Sevil and the double Fly-boat that were sunk by the side of the Revenge All which was occasioned by their Wintering in the Indies and the late Disambogueing from thence For the Worm which that Country is subject to weakens and consumes their Ships Notwithstanding this cross and perverse Fortune which happened by means of Sir Richard Greenvile the Lord Thomas would not be dismayed or discouraged but kept the Sea so long as he had Victuals and by such Ships as himself and the rest of the Fleet took defrayed the better part of the Charge of the whole Action The Earl of Cumberland to the Coast of Spain 1591. Ships Commanders The Garland of her Majesties The Earl of Cumberland Capt. under him Seven other Ships of his and his Friends Capt. Monson now Sir William Monson THE Earl of Cumberland keeping the Coast of Spain as you have heard while the Lord Thomas remained at the Islands and both to one end viz. to annoy and damnifie the Spaniards though in two several Fleets the Earl found Fortune in a sort as much to frown upon him as it had done upon the Lord Thomas Howard In his Course from England to the Spanish Coast he encountred with divers Ships of Holland which came from Lisbon wherein he found a great quantity of Spices belonging to the Portugalls So greatly were we abused by that Nation of Holland who though they were the first that engaged us in the War with Spain yet still maintained their own Trade into those parts and supplied the Spaniards with Munition Victuals Shipping and Intelligence against us Upon my Lord's Arrival on the Coast of Spain it was his hap to take three Ships at several times one with Wine which he unladed into his own and two with Sugars which he enjoyed not long no more did he the Spices which he took out of the Hollanders For one of the Ships of Sugar by means of a Leak that
Royal Sir Walter Rawleigh The Triumph Sir Fulke Grivel The Mere-honor Sir Henry Palmer The Repulse Sir Tho. Vavasor The Garland Sir Will. Harvey The Defiance Sir Will. Monson The Nonperil Sir Robert Cross The Lyon Sir Richard Lewson The Rainbow Sir Alexander Clifford The Hope Sir John Gilbert The Foresight Sir Tho. Sherley The Mary Rose Mr. Fortescue The Bonaventure Capt. Troughton The Crane Capt. Jonas The Swiftsuer Capt. Bradgate The Tremontary Capt. Slingsby The Advantage Capt. Hoer The Quittance Capt. Reynolds I Cannot write of any thing done in this Year of 1599. For there was never greater Expectation of War with less Performance Whether it was a Mistrust the one Nation had of the other or a Policy held on both sides to make Peace with Sword in Hand a Treaty being entertained by consent of each Prince I am not to examine but sure I am the Preparation was on both sides very great as if the one expected an Invasion from the other and yet it was generally conceived not to be intended by either but that ours had only relation to my Lord of Essex who was then in Ireland and had a Design to try his Friends in England and to be revenged of his Enemies as he pretended and as it proved afterwards by his Fall Howsoever it was the Charge was not so great as necessary For it was commonly known that the Adalantada had drawn both his Ships and Gallies to the Groyne which was not usually done but for some Action intended upon England or Ireland though he converted them after to another use as you shall hear The Gallies were sent into the Low Countreys and pass'd the Narrow Seas while our Ships lay there and with the Fleet the Atalantada pursued the Hollanders to the Islands whither he suspected they were gone This Fleet of Hollanders which consisted of 73 Sail were the first Ships that ever displayed their Colors in War-like sort against the Spaniards in any Action of their own For how cruel soever the War seemed to be in Holland they maintained a peaceable Trade in Spain and abused us This first Action of the Hollanders at Sea proved not very successful For after the Spoil of a Town in the Canary's and some Hurt done at the Island of St. Ome they kept the Sea for some seven or eight months in which time their General and most of their Men sickned and died and the rest returned with Loss and Shame Another Benefit which we received by this Preparation was that our Men were now taught suddainly to Arme every man knowing his Command and how to be commanded which before they were ignorant of and who knows not that sudden and false Alarms in an Army are sometimes necessary To say truth the Expedition which was then used in drawing together so great an Army by Land and rigging so great and Royal a Navy to Sea in so little a space of Time was so admirable in other Coutreys that they received a Terror by it and many that came from beyond Sea said the Queen was never more dreaded abroad for any thing she ever did French-men that came Aboard our Ships did wonder as at a thing incredible that her Majesty had rigged victualled and furnished her Royal Ships to Sea in 12 days time And Spain as an Enemy had reason to fear and grieve to see this suddain Preparation but more when they understood how the Hearts of Her Majesty's Subjects joyned with their Hands being all ready to spend their dearest Blood for her and her Service Holland might likewise see that if they became insolent we could be assoon provided as they not did they expect to find such celerity in any Nation but themselves It is probable too that the King of Spain and the Arch-Duke were hereby drawn to entertain Thoughts of Peace For as soon as our Fleet was at Sea a Gentleman was sent from Brussells with some Overtures although for that time they succeeded not However whether it was that the intended Invasion from Spain was diverted or that her Majesty was fully satisfied of my Lord of Essex I know not but so it was that she commanded the suddain Return of her Ships from Sea after they had layn three weeks or a month in the Downs Sir Richard Lewson to the Islands Anno Dom. 1600. Ships Commanders The Repulse Sir Richard Lewson The Warspight Capt. Troughton The Vauntguard Capt. Sommers THE last Year as you have heard put all men in expectation of War which yet came to nothing This Summer gave us great hope of Peace but with the like effect For by consent of the Queen the King of Spain and the Arch-Duke their Commissioners met at Bulloign in Piccardie to treat of Peace a place chosen indifferently the French King being in League and Friendship with them all Whether this Treaty were intended but in shew only or that they were out of hopes to come to any conclusion or what else was the true and real cause of its breaking off so suddenly I know not but the pretence was but slender for there grew a difference about Precedency betwixt the two Crowns though it was ever due to England and so the hopes of Peace were frustrated though had it been really intended matters might easily have been accommodated The Queen suspecting the Event hereof before their meeting and the rather because the Spaniards entertained with the like Treaty in 1588 when at the same instant his Navy appeared upon her Coast to Invade her therefore least she should be guilty of too great security in relying upon the success of this doubtful Treaty she furnished the Three Ships before named under pretence to guard the Western Coast which at that time was infested by the Dunkirkers And because there should be the less notice taken part of the Victuals was provided at Plymouth and Sir Richard Lewson who was then Admiral of the Narrow Seas was appointed General for the more secret carriage of the business so as it could not be conjectured either by their Victualling or by their Captain being Admiral of the Narrow Seas that it was a Service from home As they were in a readiness at Plymouth expecting Orders the Queen beingfully satisfied that the Treaty of Bulloign would break off without effect she commanded Sir Richard Lawson to hasten to the Islands there to expect the Carrecks and Mexico Fleet. The Spaniards on the other side being as circumspect to prevent a mischief as we were subtil to contrive it and believing as we did that the Treaty of Peace would prove a vain hopeless shew of what was never meant they furnished Eighteen tall Ships to the Islands as they had usually done since the Year 1591. The General of this Fleet was Don Diego de Borachero Our Ships coming to the Islands they and the Spaniards had intelligence of one another but not the sight for that Sir Richard Lewson hailed Sixty Leagues Westward not only to avoid them but in hopes to meet with
after we had entred into this Conspiracy In which space her Majesty and ten Princes in several Provinces might have been killed God bless her Majesty from him for before Almighty God I joy and am glad in my soul that it was his hap to discover me in time though there were no danger near And now to the manner of our meetings He came to me in the beginning of August and spake to me in this or like sort Cousin let us do somewhat sithens we can have nothing I offered to joyn with him and gladly heard him hoping because I knew him to be a Catholick that he would hit upon that I had in my head but it fell not out so He thought the delivery of the Queen of Scotland easie presuming upon his Credit and Kindred in the North I thought it dangerous to her and impossible to men of our fortunes He fell from that to the taking of Barwick I spake of Quinborough and the Navy rather to entertain him with discourse than that I cared for those motions my head being full of a greater matter 12 I told him that I had another manner of Enterprise more honourable and profitable to us and the Catholicks Common-wealth than all these if he would joyn in it with me as he presently vowed to do He pressed to know it I willed him to sleep upon the motion He did so and belike overtaken came to me the next morning to my Lodging in London offered to joyn with me and took his Oath upon a Bible to conceal and constantly to pursue the enterprise for the advancement of Religion which I also did and meant to perform the killing of the Queen was the matter The manner and place to be on Horsback with eight or ten horses when she should ride abroad about St. James or some other like place It was once thought fit in a Garden and that the escape would be easiest by water into Shepey or some other part but we resolved upon the first This continued as agreed upon many moneths until he heard of the death of Westmoreland whose Land and Dignity whereof he assured himself bred belike this Conscience in him to discover a Treason in February contrived and agreed upon in August If it cost him not an ambitious Head at last let him never trust me He brought a tall Gentleman whom he commended for an excellent Pistolier to me to Chanon-Row to make one in the match but I refused to deal with him being loth to lay my head upon so many hands Master Nevil hath I think forgotten that he did swear to to me at divers times that all the advancement she could give should serve but for her scourge if ever time and occasion should serve and that though he would not lay hand upon her in a corner his heart served him to strike off her Head in the field Now leaving him to himself this much to make an end I must confess of my self I did mean to try what might be done in Parliament to do my best to hinder all hard courses to have prayed hearing of the Queens Majesty to move her if I could to take compassion upon her Catholick Subjects and when all had failed to do as I intended If her Majesty by this course would have eased them though she had never preferred me I had with all comfort and patience born it 13 but if she had preferred me without ease or care of them the Enterprise had held Parry God preserve the Queen and encline her merciful heart to forgive me this desperate purpose and to take my Head with all my heart for her better satisfaction After which for the better manifesting of his Treasons on the 14th of February last there was a Letter written by him to her Majesty very voluntarily all of his own Hand without any motion made to him The tenor whereof for that which concerneth these his Traiterous dealings is as followeth A Letter written by Parry to Her Majesty YOur Majesty may see by my voluntary Confession the dangerous fruits of a discontented minde and how constantly I pursued my first conceived purpose in Venice for the relief of the afflicted Catholicks continued it in Lions and resolved in Paris to put it in adventure for the Restitution of England to the antient Obedience of the See Apostolick You may see withal how it is Commended Allowed and Warranted in Conscience Divinity and Policy by the Pope and some great Divines Though it be true or likely that most of our English Divines less practised in matters of this weight do utterly mislike and condemn it The Enterprise is prevented and Conspiracy discovered by an honourable Gentleman my Kinsman and late familiar Friend Master Edmund Nevil privy and by solemn Oath taken upon the Bible party to the matter whereof I am hardly glad but now sorry in my very Soul that ever I conceived or intended it how commendable or meritoritous soever I thought it God thank him and forgive me who would not now before God attempt it if I had liberty and opportunity to do it to gain your Kingdome I beseech Christ that my Death and Example may as well satisfie you Majesty and the world as it shall glad and content me The Queen of Scotland is your Prisoner let her be honourably entreated but yet surely guarded The French King is French you know it well enough you will finde him occupied when he should do you good he will not loose a Pilgrimage to save you a Crown I have no more to say at this time but that with my Heart and Soul I do now honour and love you am inwardly sorry for mine Offence and ready to make you amends by my Death and Patience Discharge me à culpâ but not à poenâ good Lady And so farewel most gracious and the best-natured and qualified Queen that ever lived in England From the Tower the 14th of February 1584. W. Parry After which to wit the 18th of February last past Parry in further acknowledging his wicked and intended Treasons wrote a Letter all of his own hand in like voluntary manner to the Lord Treasurer of England and the Earl of Leicester Lord Steward of her Majesties house the Tenour whereof is as followeth William Parry's Letter to the Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Leicester MY Lords now that the Conspiracy is discovered the Fault confessed my Conscience cleared and Minde prepared patiently to suffer the Pains due for so heinous a Crime I hope it shall not offend you if crying Miserere with the poor Publican I leave to despair with cursed Cain My Case is rare and strange and for any thing I can remember singular A natural Subject solemnly to vow the Death of his natural Queen so born so known and so taken by all men for the Relief of the afflicted Catholicks and Restitution of Religion The Matter first conceived in Venice the Service in general words presented to the Pope continued and undertaken in
which were then weak and unfortified are since so strengthened as it is bootless to undertake any Action to annoy the King of Spain in his West Indies And though this Voyage proved both fortunate and victorious yet considering it was rather an awakening than a weakning of him it had been far better to have wholly declined it than to have undertaken it upon such slender grounds and with so inconsiderable Forces The second Voyage of Sir Francis Drake to the Road of Cadiz and towards the Islands of Tercera Anno 1587. Ships Commanders The Elizabeth Bonaventure Sir Francis Drake General The Lyon Sir William Borrough Vice Admiral The Rainbow Capt. Bellingam The Dread-nought Capt. Thomas Fenner HER Majesty having received several Advertisements that while the King of Spain was silent not seeking revenge for the injuries the Ships of Reprisal did him daily upon his Coasts he was preparing an invincible Army to invade her at home She thereupon sought to frustrate his designs by intercepting his Provisions before they should come to Lisbon which was their place of Rendezvouz and sent away Sir Francis Drake with a Fleet of 30 Sail great and small 4 whereof were her own Ships The chief Adventure in this Voyage besides those 4 Ships of Her Majesties was made by the Merchants of London who sought their private gain more than the advancement of the Service neither were they deceived of their expectation Sir Francis Drake understanding by two Ships of Middleborough that came from Cadiz of a Fleet with Victuals Munition and other habiliments for War riding there ready to take the first opportunity of a wind to go to Lisbon and joyn with other Forces of the King of Spain he directed his course for Cadiz Road where he found the Advertisement he received from this Ships of Middleborough in every point true and upon his arrival attempted the Ships with great courage and performed the Service he went for by destroying all such Ships as he found in Harbour as well of the Spaniards as other Nations that were hired by them and by these means he utterly defeated their mighty Preparations which were intended against England that year 1587. The second Service performed by him was the assaulting the Castle of Cape Sacre upon the utmost Promontory of Portugal and three other strong Holds all which he took some by force and some by composition From thence he went to the mouth of the River of Lisbon where he anchored near Caske Cadiz which the Marquess of St. Cruze beholding durst not with his Gallies approach so near as once to charge him Sir Francis Drake perceiving that though he had done important Service for the State by this fortunate Attempt of his yet the same was not very acceptable to the Merchants who adventured onely in hope of Profit and preferred their private gain before the security of the Kingdom or any other respect Therefore from Caske Cadiz he stood to the Islands of Tercera to expect the coming home of a Carreck which he had intelligence wintered at Mosambique and consequently she was to be home in that moneth And though his Victuals grew scarce and his Company importuned his return home yet with gentle Speeches he persuaded and so much prevailed with them that they were willing to expect the issue some few days at the Islands and by this time drawing near the Island of S. Michael it was his good fortune to meet and take the Carreck he looked for which added more Honour to his former Service and gave great content to the Merchants to have a profitable Return of their Adventure which was the thing they principally desired This Voyage proceeded prosperously and without exception for there was both Honour and Wealth gained and the Enemy greatly endamaged The first Action undertaken by the Spaniards was in 1588 the Duke of Medina General who were encountered by our Fleet the Lord Admiral being at Sea himself in person Ships Commanders The Ark Royal The Lord Admiral The Revenge Sir Francis Drake Vice Admiral The Lyon The Lord Thomas Howard The Bear The Lord Sheffeild The Elizabeth Jonas Sir Robert Southwell The Triumph Sir Martin Forbisher The Victory Sir John Hawkins The Hope Capt. Crosse The Bonaventure Capt. Reyman The Dread-nought Capt. George Beeston The Nouperil Capt. Thomas Fenner The Rainbow The Lord Henry Seymore The Vanntguard Sir William Winter The Mary Rose Capt. Fenton The Antilope Sir Henry Palmer The Foresight  The Ayde Capt. Barker The Swallow  The Tyger Capt. Fenner The Scout  The Swiftsure Capt. Hawkins The Bull  The Tremontary Capt. Bostock The Acatice  Pinnaces Gallies Hoyes 10 Capt. Ashley NOtwithstanding the great spoil and hurt Sir Francis Drake did the year past in Cadiz Road by intercepting some part of the Provisions intended for this great Navy the King of Spain used his utmost endeavours to revenge himself this year lest in taking longer time his Designs might be prevented as before and arrested all Ships Men and necessaries wanting for his Fleet and compell'd them per force to seave in this Action He appointed for General the Duke of Medina Sidonia a man imployed rather for his Birth than Experience for so many Dukes Marquesses and Earls voluntarily going would have repined to have been commanded by a man of less quality than themselves They departed from Lisbon the 19th day of May 1588 with the greatest pride and glory and least doubt of Victory that ever any Nation did but God being angry with their insolence disposed of them contrary to their expectation The directions from the King of Spain to his General were to repair as wind and weather would give leave to the Road of Callice in Piccardy there to abide the coming of the Prince of Parma and his Army and upon their meeting to have opened a Letter directed to them both with further Instructions He was especially commanded to sail along the Coasts of Brittany and Normandy to avoid being discovered by us here and if he met with the English Fleet not to offer to fight but onely seek to defend themselves But when he came athwart the North Cape he was taken with a contrary wind and foul weather and forced into the Harbour of the Groyne where part of his Fleet lay attending his coming As he was ready to depart from thence they had intelligence by an English Fisherman whom they took Prisoner of our Fleets late being at Sea and putting back again not expecting their coming that year insomuch that most part of the Men belonging to our Ships were discharged This Intelligence made the Duke alter his Resolution and to break the Directions given him by the King yet this was not done without some difficulty for the Council was divided in their Opinions some held it best to observe the Kings Command others not to lose the opportunity offered to surprize our Fleet unawares and burn and destroy them Diego Flores de Valdos who had the command of the
the other the advantage and yet so that he onely ordered the Battel The Action of Portugal 1589. Ships Commanders by Sea Commanders by Land The Revenge Sir Francis Drake Sir John Norris The Dread-nought Capt. Thomas Fenner Sir Edward Norris The Ayde Capt. William Fenner Sir Henry Norris The Nonperil Capt. Sackvile Sir Roger Williams The Foresight Capt. William Winter Serjeant Major The Swiftsure Capt. Goring Earl of Essex Voluntier THE last overthrow of 1588 given to the Invincible Fleet as they termed themselves did so encourage every man to the War as happy was he that could put himself into Action against the Spaniards as it appeared by the Voluntiers that went in this Voyage which the Queen considering the great loss the King of Spain received in the year past whereby it was to be imagined how weakly he was provided at home was willing to countenance though she undertook it not wholly her self which was the main cause of its ill success and overthrow For whosoever he be of a Subject that thinks to undertake so great an Enterprise without a Prince's Purse shall be deceived and therefore these two Generals in my opinion never overshot themselves more than in undertaking so great a charge with so little means for where there are Victuals and Arms wanting what hope is there of prevailing The project of this Voyage was to restore a distressed King to his Kingdom usurped as he pretended and though the means for the setting forth of this Voyage was not so great as was expedient yet in the opinion of all men if they had directed their course whither they intended it without landing at the Groyne they had performed the Service they went for restored Don Antonio to the Crown of Portugal dissevered it from Spain and united it in League with England which would have answered the present charge and have settled a continual Trade for us to the West Indies and the rest of the Portugals Dominions for so we might easily have conditioned But the Landing at the Groyne was an unnecessary lingering and hinderance of the other great and main design a consuming of Victuals a weakning of the Army by the immoderate drinking of the Souldiers which brought a lamentable Sickness amongst them a warning to the Spaniards to strengthen Portugal and as great as all this a discouragement to proceed further being repulsed in the first Attempt But notwithstanding the ill success at the Groyne they departed from thence towards Portugal and arrived at Penech a Maritine Town twelve Leagus from Lisbon where with a small resistance they took the Castle after the Captain understood Don Antonio to be in the Army From thence General Norris marched with his Land Forces to Lisbon and Sir Francis Drake with his Fleet sailed to Caske Cadiz promising from thence to pass with his Ships up the River to Lisbon to meet with Sir John Norris which yet he did not perform and therefore was much blamed by the general consent of all men the overthrow of the Action being imputed to him It will not excuse Sir Francis Drake for making such a Promise to Sir John Norris though on the other hand I would have accused him of great want of Discretion if he had put the Fleet to so great an Adventure to so little purpose For his being in the Harbor of Lisbon signified nothing to the Taking of the Castle which was two Miles from thence and had the Castle been taken the Town would have been taken of course Besides the Ships could not furnish the Army with more Men or Victuals wherefore I understand not in what Respect his going up was necessary and yet the Fleet must have endured many Hazards to this little purpose For betwixt Cask Cadiz and Lisbon there are three Castles St. John St. Francis and Bellin The first of the three I hold one of the most impregnable Forts to Sea-ward in Europe and the Fleet was to pass within Calliver Shot of this Fort though I confess the passing it was not the greatest Dander For with a reasonable Gale of Wind any Fort is to be passed with small Hazard But at this time there was a General Want of Victuals and being once entred the Harbour their coming out again was uncertain the place being subject to contrary Winds In the mean while the better part of the Victuals would have been consumed and they would have remained there in so desperate a Condition as they would have been forced to have fired one half of the Fleet for the bringing home of the rest for being as they were yet after the Army was imbarqued for England many died of Famine Homeward and more would have done if the Wind had took them short or if by the Death of some of them the rest who survived had not been the bettr relieved And besides all these Casualties and Dangers the Adilantado was then in Lisbon with the Gallies of Spain and how easily he might have annoyed our Fleet by towing Fire-ships amongst us We may suppose the Hurt we did the Spaniards the Year before in Cadiz Road and greater we had done them had we had the Help of Gallies It was a wonder to observe every man's Opinion of this Voyage as well those that were Actions in it as others that staid at Home some imputing the Overthrow of it to the Landing at the Groyn others to the Portugalls failing us of those Helps and Assistances which were promised by Don Antonio and others to Sir Francis Drake's not coming up the River with his Fleet. Though any of these three Reasons may seem probable enough and the Landing at the Groyn the chiefest of the three yet if we weigh truly the Defect and where it was it will appear that the Action was overthrown before their setting out from Home they being too weakly provided of all things needful for so great an Expedition For when this Voyage was first treated of the Number of Ships was nothing equal to the Proportion of Men Wherefore they were forced to make Stay of divers Easterlings which they met with in our Channel and compelled to serve in this Action for the Transportation of our Souldiers and though these Ships were an Ease to our Men who would have been otherwise much pestered for want of Room yet their Victuals were nothing augmented but they were put aboard the Ships like banished men to seek their Fortunes at Sea it being confessed that divers of the Ships had not four days Victuals when they departed from Plymouth Another Impediment to the good Success of this Voyage was the want of Field-Pieces and this was the main Cause why we failed of taking Lisbon For the Enemies Strength consisting chiefly in the Castle and we having only an Army to countenance us but no means for Battery we were the Loss of the Victory our selves For it was apparent by Intelligence we received that if we had presented them with Battery they were resolved to parly and by Consequence
Munition which they carried for the King of Spain's Service My Lord of Cumberland having spent some time thereabouts and understanding that Fervanteles de Menega a Portugal and the King's General of a Fleet of 24 Sail was gone to the Islands he pursued them thinking to meet the Carrecks before they should joyn together At his coming to Flores he met and took one of the Fleet with the Death of the Captain who yet lived so long as to inform him both where the Fleet was and of their Strength The day after he met the Fleet it self but being far too weak for them he was forced to leave them and spent his time thereabouts till he understood the Carrecks were passed by without seeing either Fleet or Island Sir Martin Forbisher with a Fleet to Brest in Brittany Anno 1594. Ships Commanders The Vauntguard Sir Martin Forbisher The Rainbow Capt. Fenner The Dreadnought Capt. Clifford The Quittance Capt. Savil ABout three years past Anno 1591. the Queen sent Sir John Norris with 3000 Souldiers to joyn with the French King's Party in those Parts The King of Spain who upheld the Faction of the League sent Don John de Aquila with the like Forces to joyn with the Duke de Merceur who was of the contrary side The Spaniards had fortified themselves very strongly near the Town of Brest expecting new Succors from Spain by Sea which the French King fearing craved Assistance from the Queen which her Majesty was the more willing to grant because the Spaniards had gotten the Haven of Brest to entertain their Shipping in and were like to prove there very dangerous Neighbors Wherefore she sent Sir Martin Forbisher thither in this year 1594 with four of her Ships And upon his Arrival there Sir John Norris with his Forces and Sir Martin with his Seaman assailed the Fort and though it was as bravely defended as men could do yet in the end it was taken with the loss of divers Captains Sir Martin Forbisher being himself sore wounded of which Hurt he died at Plymouth after his return A Fleet to the Indies Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins Generals wherein they adventured deeply and died in the Voyage Anno 1594. Ships Commanders by Sea Commander by Land The Defiance Sir Francis Drake Sir Tho. Baskervile The Garland Sir John Hawkins  The Hope Capt. Gilbert Yorke  The Bonaventure Capt. Troughton  The Foresight Capt. Winter  The Adventure Capt. Tho. Drake  THese two Generals presuming much upon their own Experience and Knowledge used many Persuasions to the Queen to undertake a Voyage to the West Indies giving much assurance to perform great Services and promising to engage themselves very deeply therein with the Adventure of both Substance and Life And as all Actions of this Nature promise fair till they come to be performed so did this the more in the Opinion of all Men in respect of the two Generals Experience There were many Impediments and Let ts to this Voyage before they could clear themselves of the Coast which put them to greater Charge than they expected the chiefest cause of their Lingring was a mistrust our State had of an Invasion and the Danger to spare so many good Ships and men out of England as they carried with them The Spaniards with their usual subtilty let slip no opportunity to put us in amazement thereby to dissolve the Action and sent four Gallies to Bleuret in Brittany from thence to seize some part of our Coast that so we might apprehend a greater Force was to follow These Gallies landed at Pensants in Cornwall where finding the Town abandoned they sack'd and burnt it but this Design of theirs took little effect for the Voyage proceeded notwithstanding The Intent of the Voyage was to land at Nombre de dois and from thence to march to Panuma to possess the Treasure that comes from Peru and if they saw reason for it to inhabite and keep it A few days before their going from Plymouth they received Letters from her Majesty of an Advertisement she had out of Spain that the Indian Fleet was arrived and that one of them with loss of her Mast was put room to the Island of Porto Ricom She commanded them seeing there was so good an opportunity offered as the readiness of this her Fleet and the weakness of Porto Ricom to possess themselves of that Treasure and the rather for that it was not much out of their way to Nombre de dois It is neither Years nor Experience that can foresee and prevent all mishaps which is a manifest Proof that God is the Guider and Disposer of Mens Actions For nothing could seem more probable to be effected than this later Design especially considering the Ability and Wisdom of the two Generals and yet was unhappily prevented and failed in the Execution For there being five Frigats sent out of Spain to fetch this Treasure from Porto Ricom in their way it was their hap to take a Pinnace of the English Fleet by whom they understood the Secrets of the Voyage and to prevent the Attempt of Porto Ricom they hastened thither with all speed whilst our Generals lingred at Quadrupa to set up their Boats and at their Arrival so strengthened the Town with the Souldiers brought in the Prigats that when our Fleet came thither not expecting Resistance they found themselves frustrate of their Hopes which indeed they themselves were the occasion of in managing their Design with no more Secresie This Repulse bred so great a Disconceit in Sir John Hawkins as it is thought to have hastened his days and being great and unexpected did not a little discourage Sir Francis Drake's great Mind who yet proceeded upon his first resolved Design for Nombre de dios though with no better Success For the Enemy having knowledge of their coming fortified the Passage to Panuma and forced them to return with loss Sir Francis Drake who was wont to rule Fortune now finding his Error and the difference between the present strength of the Indies and what it was when he first knew it grew melancholly upon this Disappointment and suddenly and I hope naturally died at Nombre de dios where he got his first Reputation The two Generals dying and all other Hopes being taken away by their Deaths Sir Thomas Baskervile succeeded them in their Command and began now to think upon his return for England but coming near Cuba he met and fought with a Fleet of Spain though not long by reason of the Sickness and Weakness of his Men. This Fleet was sent to take the Advantage of ours in its Return thinking as indeed it happened that they should find them both weak and in want but the swiftness of our Ships in which we had the Advantage of the Spaniards preserved us You may observe that from the year the Revenge was taken untill this present year 1595. there was no Summer but the King of Spain furnished a Fleet for
Squadron two days after us the 10th of August where he found the Army in that perfect Health as the like hath not been seen for so many to go out of England to such great Enterprises and so well to return home again He himself rid up to the Court to advise with her Majesty about the winning of Callis which the Spaniards took the Easter before Here was a good opportunity to have re-gained the Ancient Patrimony of England but the French King thought he might with more ease re-gain it from the Spaniard who was his Enemy than recover it again from us who were his Friends My Lord Admiral with the Fleet went to the Downs where he landed and left the Charge of the Navy to Sir Robert Dudley and Sir William Monson In going from thence to Chatham they endured more foul Weather and contrary Winds than in the whole Voyage besides A Voyage to the Islands the Earl of Essex General Anno 1597. Ships Commanders The Mere-honor The Earl of Essex Capt. under him After in the Repulse Sir Robert Mansell The Lyon The Lord Thomas Howard The Warspite Sir Walter Rawleigh The Garland The Earl of Southampton The Defiance The Lord Mountioy The Mary Rose Sir Francis Vere The Hope Sir Richard Lewson The Matthew Sir George Carew The Rainbow Sir Will. Monson The Bonaventure Sir Will. Harvey The Dreadnought Sir Will. Brooke The Swiftsuer Sir Gilly Merick The Antelope Sir John Gilbert he went not The Nonperil Sir Tho. Vavasor The St. Andrew Capt. Throgmorton HER Majesty having Knowledge of the King of Spain's drawing down his Fleet and Army to the Groyn and Ferrol with an intent to enter into some Action against Her and that notwithstanding the loss of thirty six Sail of his Ships that were cast away upon the North Cape in their coming thither He prepared with all possible means to revenge the Disgraces we did him the year last past at Cadiz Her Majesty likewise prepared to defend her self and fitted out the most part of her Ships for the Sea but at length perceiving his Drift was more to afright than offend her though he gave it it out otherwise because she should provide to resist him at home rather than to annoy him abroad She was unwilling the great Charges she had been at should be bestowed in vain and therefore turned her Preparations another way than that for which she first intended them The Project of this Voyage was to assault the King of Spain's Shipping in the Harbor of Ferrol which the Queen chiefly desired to do for her own Security at home and afterwards to go and take the Islands of Tercera and there to expect the coming home of the Indian Fleet. But neither of these two Designs took that effect which was expected For in our setting forth the same day we put to Sea we were taken with a most violent Storm and contrary Winds and the General was seperated from the Fleet and one Ship from another so that the one half of the Fleet were compelled to return home and the rest that kept the Sea having reached the Coast of Spain were commanded home by order of the Lord General Thus after their return they were to advise upon a new Voyage finding by their Ships and Victuals they were unable to perform the former Whereupon it was thought convenient all the Army should be discharged for the prolonging of the Victuals except a thousand of the prime Souldiers of the Low Countries which were put into her Majesties Ships that they might be the better prepared if they should chance to encounter the Spanish Fleet. Thus the second time they departed England though not without some danger of the Ships by reason of the Winter 's near approach The first Land in Spain we fell withal was the North Cape the place whither our Directions led us if we happened to lose Company being there descried from the Shore and not above 12 Leagues from the Groyn where the Spanish Armado lay We were in good hopes to have enticed them out of the Harbor to fight us but spending some time thereabouts and finding no such Disposition in them it was thought fit no longer to linger about that Coast lest we should lose our opportunity upon the Indian Fleet therefore every Captain received his Directions to stand his Course into 36 Degrees there to spread our selves North and South it being a heighth that commonly the Spaniards sail in from the Indies At this time the Lord General complained of a Leak in his Ship and two days after towards midnight he brought himself upon the Lee to stop it Sir Walter Rawleigh and some other Ships being a head the Fleet and it growing dark they could not discern the Lord General 's Working but stood their Course as before directed and through this unadvised working of my Lord they lost him and his Fleet. The day following Sir Walter Rawleigh was informed by a Pinnace he met that the great Armado which we supposed to be in the Groyn and Ferrol was gone to the Islands for the Guard of the Indian Fleet. This Pinnace with this Intelligence it gave us Sir Walter Rawleigh immediately sent to look out the General My Lord had no sooner received this Advice but at the very instant he directed his Course to the Islands and dispatched some small Vessels to Sir Walter Rawleigh to inform him of the suddain Alteration of his Course upon the News received from him commanding him with all Expedition to repair to Flores where he would not fail to be at our Arrival At the Islands we found this Intelligence utterly false For neither the Spanish Ships were there nor were expected there We met likewise with divers English men that came out of the Indies but they could give us no assurance of the coming home of the Fleet neither could we recive any Advertisement from the Shore which made us half in despair of them By that time we had watered our Ships and refreshed our selves at Flores Sir Walter Rawleigh arrived there who was willed by the Lord General after he was furnished of such Wants as that poor Island afforded to make his repair to the Island of Fayal which my Lord intended to take Here grew great Questions and Heart-burnings against Sir Walter Rawleigh For he coming to Fayal and missing the Lord General and yet knowing my Lord's Resolution to take the Island he held it more advisable to land with those Forces he had than to expect the coming of my Lord For in that space the Island might be better provided whereupon he landed and took it before my Lord's approach This Act was held such an Indignity to my Lord and urged with that Vehemence by those that hated Sir Walter that if my Lord though naturally kind and flexible had not feared how it would have been taken in England I think Sir Walter had smarted for it From this Island we went to Graciosa which did willingly relieve our Wants as
Isle of Wight Sir Richard Lewson and Sir William Monson into the Narrow Seas Anno 1603. Ships Commanders The Repulse Sir Richard Lewson The Mere-honor Sir William Monson The Defiance Capt. Goer The Warspight Capt. Seymers The Rainbow Capt. Trevor The Dreadnought Capt. Reynolds The Quittance Capt. Howard The Lyons Whelp Capt. Polwheele SIR William Monson returning with his Fleet in November there was a Resolution to furnish another against February which should be recruited with fresh Ships Men and Victuals in June Sir Richard Lewson was to command the former Fleet and Sir William Monson the later For the Queen found it a Course both secure and profitable to keep a continual Force upon the Spanish Coast from February to November that being the time of greatest Peril to her Majesty and she was the rather encouraged thereto by the safty she found the last Summer and the Wealth and Riches she had from time to time taken from the Enemy The Complaint of the ill furnishing out of her Ships in other Voyages made it more carefully to be look'd unto now and there was better Choice of Victuals and Men than usually had been but in the mean time it pleased God to visit her Majesty with Sickness which caused a ling'ring though no absolute dissolving of the Fleet but when her Danger was perceived to increase the Ships were hastened out to Sea it being a point of good Policy to keep our Seas guarded from any Forreign Attempt untill his Majesty should be peaceably settled in England This Fleet departed from Quinborough the 22th of March and arrived in the Downs the 25th of the same being the day after her Majesties Death The News whereof and Commandment to proclaim King James the Sixth of Scotland our Lawful King and the rightful Inheritor to the Crown arrived both together which put us into two contrary Passions the one of Grief the other of Joy Grief for the Loss of the Queen Joy for accepting of the King in that peaceable manner which was a Happiness beyond all Expectation either at home or abroad As the Design of this Fleet was to guard and defend our own Coasts from any Incurison that might be made out of France or the Low Countreys so the Commanders were vigilant to appear on those Coasts once in two days to dishearten them in case they had any such Thought but the truth is it was beyond their Abilities whatever was in their Hearts to impugn his Majesty And because the Arch-Duke would make the Candidness of his Intention apparent to the World he called in his Letters of Reprizal against the English and published an Edict for a free and unmolested Traffick into Flanders So that now our Merchants might again trade peaceably into those Parts from which they had been debarred the space of Eighteen Years The King finding that France neither impeached his Right nor gave any Jealousie by the raising of an Army and that the Arch-Duke made a Demonstration of his desire of Peace his Majesty did the like acknowledging the League he had with those Princes with whom the late Queen had Wars For Wars betwixt Countreys are not hereditary but commonly end with the Death of their Kings Wherefore he commanded his Ships to give over their Southern Employment and to repair to Chatham giving manifest Testimonies how desirous he was that his Subjects should recover that Wealth and Freedom by Peace which they had formerly lost by War FINIS A true and plain DECLARATION OF THE Horrible Treasons Practised by WILLIAM PARRY Against the Queens Majesty AND OF His Conviction and Execution for the same The 2d of March 1584. according to the account of England THis William Parry being a man of very mean and base Parentage but of a most proud and insolent Spirit bearing himself always far above the measure of his Fortune after he had long led a wasteful and dissolute life and had committed a great Outrage against one Hugh Hare a Gentleman of the Inner-Temple with an intent to have murthered him in his own Chamber for the which he was most justly convicted seeing himself generally condemned with all good men for the same and other his Misdemeanours he left his natural Country and gave himself to travel into forreign parts beyond the Seas In the course of this his Travel he forsook his Allegiance and dutiful Obedience to her Majesty and was reconciled and subjected himself to the Pope After which upon conference with certain Jesuites and others of like quality he first conceived his most detestable Treason to kill the Queen whose life God long preserve which he bound himself by Promise Letters and Vows to perform and execute and so with this intent he returned into England in January 1583 and since that did practise at sundry times to have executed his most devilish purpose and determination yet covering the same so much as in him lay with a vail and pretence of great Loyalty to her Majesty Immediately upon his return into England he sought to have secret Access to her Majesty pretending to have some matter of great importance to reveal unto her which obtained and the same so privately in her Highness's Palace at Whitehal as her Majesty had but one onely Counsellor with her at the time of his Access in a remote place who was so far distant as he could not hear his Speech And there then he discovered unto her Majesty but shadowed with all crafty and traiterous skill he had some part of the Conference and Proceeding as well with the said Jesuites and other Ministers of the Popes as especially with one Thomas Morgan a Fugitive residing at Paris who above all others did perswade him to proceed in that most devilish Attempt as is set down in his voluntary Confession following bearing her Majesty notwithstanding in hand That his onely intent of proceeding so far with the said Jesuites and the Popes Ministers tended to no other end but to discover the dangerous Practices devised and attempted against her Majesty by her disloyal Subjects and other malicious persons in forraign parts Albeit it hath since appeared most manifestly as well by his said Confession as by his dealing with one Edmond Nevil Esq That his onely intent of discovering the same in sort as he craftily and traiterously did tended to no other end but to make the way the easier to accomplish his most devilish and wicked purpose And although any other Prince but her Majesty who is loath to put on a hard Censure of those that protest to be loyal as Parry did would rather have proceeded to the punishment of a Subject that had waded so far as by Oath and Vow to promise the taking away of her life as he to her Majesties self did confess yet such was her goodness as instead of punishing she did deal so graciously with him as she suffered him not onely to have Access unto her presence but also many times to have private Conference with her and
of the Times Places and Manners of their sundry Conferences and of such other Accidents as had happened between them in the course of that Action Whereupon Parry was then committed to the Tower and Nevil commanded by their Honours to set down in writing under his Hand all that which before he had delivered by words which he did with his own hand as followeth Edmund Nevil his Declaration the 10th of February 1584. subscribed with his own Hand WIlliam Parry the last Summer soon after his repulse in his Suit for the Mastership of St. Katherines repaired to my Lodging in the White Friars where he shewed himself a person greatly discontented and vehemently inveighed against Her Majesty and willed me to assure my self that during this time and state I should never receive Contentment But sith said he I know you to be Honourably descended and a Man of Resolution if you will give me assurance either to joyn with me or not to discover me I will deliver unto you the only means to do your self good Which when I had promised him he appointed me to come the next day to his House in Fetterlane and repairing thither accordingly I found him in his Bed whereupon he commanded his men forth and began with me in this order My Lord said he for so he called me I protest before God that three Reasons principally do induce me to enter into this Action which I intend to discover unto you the replanting of Religion the preferring of the Scotish Title and the advancement of Justice wonderfully corrupted in this Commowealth And thereupon entred into some Discourses what places were fit to be taken to give entrance to such Forreign Forces as should be best liked of for the furtherance of such Enterprizes as were to be undertaken And with these Discourses he passed the time until he went to Dinner after which the Company being retired he entred into his former discourses And if I be not deceived said he by taking of Quinborough Castle we shall hinder the passage of the Queens Ships forth of the River Whereunto when he saw me use no contradiction he shook me by the hand Tush said he this is nothing If men were resolute there is an Enterprize of much more moment and much easier to perform an Act honourable and meritorious to God and the world Which seeing me desirous to know he was not ashamed to utter in plain terms to consist in killing of her Majesty Wherein saith he if you will go with me I will loose my Life or deliver my Countrey from her bad and tyrannous Government At which Speeches finding me discontented he asked me if I had read Doctor Allen's Book out of which he alledged an Authority for it I answered No and that I did not believe that Authority Well said he what will you say if I shew further Authority than this even from Rome itself a plain Dispensation for the killing of her wherein you shall finde it as I said before meritorious Good Cousin said I when you shall shew it me I shall think it very strange when I shall see one to hold that for meritorious which another holdeth for damnable Well said Parry do me but the favour to think upon it till to morrow And if one man be in the Town I will not fail to shew you the thing it self and if he be not he will be within these five or six days at which time if it please you to meet me at Chanon-row we may there receive the Sacrament to be true each to other and then I will discover unto you both the party and the thing itself Whereupon I prayed Parry to think better upon it as a matter of great charge both of Soul and Body I would to God said Parry you were as perfectly perswaded in it as I am for then undoubtedly you should do God great service Not long after eight or ten days as I remember Parry coming to visit me at my lodging in Herns rents in Holborn as he often used we walked forth into the fields where he renewed again his determination to kill her Majesty whom he said he thought most unworthy to live and that he wondred I was so scrupulous therein She hath sought said he your ruine and overthrow why should you not then seek to revenge it I confess quoth I that my case is hard but yet am I not so desperate as to revenge it upon my self which must needs be the event of so unhonest and unpossible an enterprise Unpossible said Parry I wonder at you for in truth there is not any thing more easie you are no Courtier and therefore know not her customs of walking with small train and often in the Garden very privately at which time my self may easily have access unto her and you also when you are known in Court Upon the fact we must have a Barge ready to carry us with speed down the River where we will have a ship ready to transport us if it be needfull but upon my head we shall never be followed so far I asked him How will you escape forth of the Garden for you shall not be permitted to carry any men with you and the Gates will then be locked neither can you carry a Dagge without suspition As for a Dagge said Parry I care not my Dagger is enough And as for my escaping those that shall be with her will be so busie about her as I shall finde opportunity enough to escape if you be there ready with the Barge to receive me But if this seem dangerous in respect of your reason before shewed let it then rest till her coming to St. James and let us furnish our selves in the mean time with men and horse fit for the purpose we may each of us keep eight or ten men without suspition And for my part said he I shall finde good fellows that will follow me without suspecting mine intent It is much said he that so many resolute men may do upon the suddain being well appointed with each his Case of Dagges if they were an hundred waiting upon her they were not able to save her you coming of the one side and I on the other and discharging our Dagges upon her it were unhappy if we should both miss her But if our Dagges fail I shall bestir me well with a sword ere she escape me Whereunto I said Good Doctor give over this odious enterprise and trouble me no more with the hearing of that which in heart I loath so much I would to God the enterprise were honest that I might make known unto thee whether I want solution And not long after her Majesty came to St. James's after which one morning the day certain I remember not Parry revived again his former discourse of killing her Majesty with great earnestness and importunity perswading me to joyn therein saying he thought me the onely man of England like to perform it in respect of my valure as he termed
it Whereupon I made semblance as if I had been more willing to hear him than before hoping by that means to cause him to deliver his minde to some other that might be witness thereof with me wherein nevertheless I failed After all this on Saturday last being the sixth of February between the hours of five and six in the afternoon Parry came to my Chamber and desired to talk with me apart whereupon we drew our selves to a window And where I had told Parry before that a learned man whom I met by chance in the fields unto whom I proponed the question touching her Majesty had answered me that it was an enterprise most villanous and damnable willing me to discharge my self of it Parry then desired to know that learned mans name and what was become of him saying after a scornful manner No doubt he was a very wise man and you wiser in believing him and said further I hope you told him not that I had any thing from Rome Yes in truth said I. Whereunto Parry said I would you had not named me nor spoken of any thing I had from Rome And thereupon he earnestly perswaded me estsoons to depart beyond the Seas promising to procure me safe passage into Wales and from thence into Britain whereat we ended But I then resolved not to do so but to discharge my conscience and lay open this his most traiterous and abominable intention against her Majesty which I revealed in sort as is before set down Edmund Nevil After this confession of Edmund Nevil William Parry the 11th day of February last being examined in the Tower of London by the Lord Hunsdon Lord Governour of Barwick Sir Christopher Hatton knight Vicechamberlain to her Majesty and Sir Francis Walsingham Knight principal Secretary to her Majesty did voluntary and without any constraint by word of mouth make confession of his said Treason and after set it down in writing all with his own hand in his Lodging in the Tower and sent it to the Court the 13th of the same by the Lieutenant of the Tower The parts whereof concerning his manner of doing the same and the Treasons wherewith he was justly charged are here set down word for word as they are written and signed with his own hand and name the 11th of February 1584. The voluntary Confession of William Parry in writing all with his own hand The voluntary Confession of William Parry Doctor of the Laws now Prisoner in the Tower and accused of Treason by Edmund Nevil Esquire promised by him with all faith and humility to the Queens Majesty in discharge of his Conscience and Duty towards God and her Before the Lord Hunsdon Lord Governour of Barwick Sir Christopher Hatton Knight Vicechamberlain Sir Francis Walsingham Knight principal Secretary the 13th of February 1584. Parry IN the year 1570. I was sworn her Majesties servant from which time until the year 1580. I served honoured and loved her with as great readiness devotion and assurance as any poor subject in England In the end of that year and until Midsummer 1582. I had some trouble for the hurting of a Gentleman of the Temple In which action I was so disgraced and oppressed by two great men to whom I have of late been beholden that I never had contented thought since There began my misfortune and here followeth my woful fall In July after I laboured for licence to travail for three years which upon some consideration was easily obtained And so in August I went over with doubtful minde of return for that being suspected in Religion and not having received the Communion in twenty two years I began to mistrust my advancement in England In September I came to Paris where I was reconciled to the Church and advised to live without scandal the rather for that it was mistrusted by the English Catholiques that I had Intelligence with the greatest Councellour of England I staied not long there but removed to Lions a place of great Traffick where because it was the ordinary passage of our Nation to and fro between Paris and Rome I was also suspected To put all men out of doubt of me and for some other cause I went to Millain from whence as a place of some danger though I found favour there after I had cleared my conscience and justified my self in Religion before the Inquisitor I went to Venice There I came acquainted with father Benedicto Palmio a grave and a learned Jesuite By conference with him of the hard state of the Catholicks in England and by reading of the Book De persecutione Anglicana and other discourses of like argument 1 I conceived a possible mean to relieve the afflicted state of our Catholicks if the same might be well warranted in religion and conscience by the Pope or some learned Divines I asked his opinion he made it clear commended my devotion comforted me in it and after a while made me known to the Nuntio Campeggio there resident for his Holiness By his means I wrote to the Pope presented the service and sued for a Pasport to go to Rome and to return safely into France Answer came from Cardinal Como that I might come and should be welcome I misliked the warrant sued for a better which I was promised but it came not before my departure to Lions where I promised to stay some time for it And being indeed desirous to go to Rome and loth to go without countenance I desired Christofero de Salazar Secretary to the Catholick King in Venice who had some understanding by conference of my devotion to the afflicted Catholicks at home and abroad to commend me to the Duke di Nova Terra Governour of Millain and to the County of Olivaris Embi then Resident for the King his Master in Rome which he promised to do effectually for the one and did for the other And so I took my journey towards Lyons whither came for me an ample Passeport but somewhat too late that I might come and go in verbo Pontificis per omnes jurisdictones Ecclesiasticas absque impedimento I acquainted some good Fathers there of my necessity to depart towards Paris by promise and prayed their advises upon divers points wherein I was well satisfied And so assuring them that his Holiness should hear from me shortly it was undertaken that I should be excused for that time In October I came to Paris where upon better opinion conceived of me amongst my Catholick Country-men I found my credit well setled and such as mistrusted me before ready to trust and imbrace me And being one day at the Chamber of Thomas Morgan a Catholick Gentleman greatly beloved and trusted on that side amongst other Gentlemen talking but in very good sort of England I was desired by Morgan to go up with him to another Chamber where he brake with me and told me that it was hoped and looked for that I should do some service for God and his Church I answered him
I would do it if it were to kill the greatest subject in England whom I named and in truth then hated No no said he let him live to his greater fall and ruine of his house 2 It is the Queen I mean I had him as I wished and told him it were soon done if it might be lawfully done and warranted in the opinion of some learned Divines And so the doubt once resolved though as you have heard I was before reasonably well satisfied I vowed to undertake the enterprise for the restitution of England to the ancient obedience of the Sea Apostolick Divers Divines were named Doctor Allein I desired Parsons I refused And by chance came Master Wattes a learned Priest with whom I conferred and was over-ruled 3 For he plainly pronounced the case onely altered in name that it was utterly unlawful with whom many English Priests did agree as I have heard if it be not altered since the book made in answer of The execution of the English Justice was published which I must confess hath taken hard hold in me and I fear me will do in others if it be not prevented by more gracious handling of the quiet and obedient Catholick subjects whereof there is good and greater store in England than this age will extinguish Well notwithstanding all these doubts I was gone so far by letters and conference in Italy that I could not go back but promised faithfully to perform the enterprise if his Holiness upon my offer and letters would allow it and grant me full remission of my sins 4 I wrote my letters the first of January 1584. by their computation took advice upon them in confession of Father Anibal a Codreto a learned Jesuite in Paris was lovingly embraced commended confessed and communicated at the Jesuites at one altar with the Cardinals of Vandosmi and Narbone whereof I prayed certificate and enclosed the same in my Letter to his Holiness to lead him the rather to absolve me which I required by my Letters in consideration of so great an enterprise undertaken without promise or reward 5 I went with Morgan to the Nuntio Ragazzoni to whom I read the Letter and certificate enclosed sealed it and left it with him to send to Rome he promised great care of it and to procure answer And so lovingly imbraced me wished me good speed and promised that I should be remembred at the altar 6 After this I desired Morgan that some special man might be made privy to this matter lest he dying and I miscarrying in the execution and my intent never truly discovered it might stick for an everlasting spot in my Race Divers were named but none agreed upon for fear of beraying 7 This being done Morgan assured me that shortly after my departure the L. Fernehurst then in Paris should go into Scotland and be ready upon the first news of the Queens fall to enter into England with 20 or 30000 Men to defend the Queen of Scotland whom and the King her Son I do in my conscience acquit of any privity liking or consent to this or any other bad action for any thing that ever I did know I shortly departed for England and arrived at Rie in January 1583. from whence I wrote to the Court advertised some that I had a special service to discover to the Queens Majesty 8 which I did more to prepare access and credit than for any care I had of her Person though I were fully resolved never to touch her notwithstanding any Warrant if by any device perswasion or policy she might be wrought to deal more graciously with the Catholicks than she doth or by our manner of proceeding in Parliament meaneth to do or any thing yet seen I came to the Court then at Whitehall prayed audience had it at large and very privately discovered to her Majesty this Conspiracy much to this effect though covered with all the skill I had she took it doubtfully I departed with fear And amongst other things I cannot forget her Majesties gratious speech then uttered touching the Catholicks which of late after a sort I avowed in Parliament she said to me that never a Catholick should be troubled for Religion or Supremacy so long as they lived like good Subjects Whereby I mistrusted that her Majesty is born in hand that none is troubled for the one or the other It may be truly said that it is better than it hath been though it be not yet as it should be In March last while I was at Greenwich as I remember suing for St. Katherines came Letters to me from Cardinal Como dated at Rome the last of January before whereby I found the enterprise commended and allowed and my self absolved in his Holiness name of all my sins and willed to go forward in the name of God That Letter I shewed to some in Court who imparted it to the Queen what it wrought or may work in her Majesty God knoweth onely this I know 9 that it confirmed my resolution to kill her and made it clear in my conscience that it was lawful and meritorious And yet was I determined never to do it if either policy practice perswasion or motion in Parliament could prevail I feared to be tempted and therefore always when I came near her I left my Dagger at home 10 When I looked upon her Majesty and remembred her many excellencies I was greatly troubled And yet I saw no remedy for my Vows were in Heaven my Letters and Promises in Earth and the case of the Catholick Recusants and others little bettered Sometimes I said to my self Why should I care for her what hath she done for me have I not spent 10000 Marks since I knew her service and never had peny by her It may be said she gave me my life But I say as my case stood it had been Tyranny to take it And I fear me it is little less yet If it please her gratiously to look into my discontentments I would to Jesus Christ she had it for I am weary of it And now to come to an end of this tragical discourse In July I left the Court utterly rejected discontented and as her Majesty might perceive by my passionate Letters careless of my self I came to London Doctor Alleins Book was sent me out of France 11 it redoubled my former conceits Every word in it was a warrant to a prepared mind It taught that Kings may be excommunicated deprived and violently handled It proveth that all Wars Civil or Forraign undertaken for Religion is Honorable Her Majesty may do well to read it and to be out of doubt if things be not amended that it is a warning and a Doctrine full dangerous This is the Book I shewed in some places read and lent it to my Cousin Nevil the accuser who came often to mine house put his finger in my Dish his hand in my Purse and the night wherein he accused me was wrapped in my Gown six moneths at least
Paris and lastly commended and warranted by his Holiness degested and resolved in England if it had not been prevented by Accusation or by her Majesties greater Lenity and more gracious Usage of her Catholick Subjects This is my first and last Offence conceived against my Prince or Country and doth I cannot deny contein all other faults whatsoever It is now to be punished by Death or most graciously beyond all common expectation to be pardoned Death I do confess to have deserved Life I do with all Humility crave if it may stand with the Queens Honour and Policy of the Time To leave so great a Treason unpunished were strange To draw it by my Death in example were dangerous A sworn Servant to take upon him such an Enterprize upon such a ground and by such a warrant hath not been seen in England To Indict him Arraign him bring him to the Scaffold and to publish his Offence can do no good To hope that he hath more to discover than is Confessed or that at his Execution he will unsay any thing he hath written is in vain To conclude that it is impossible for him in time to make some part of amends were very hard and against former Experiences The Question then is whether it be better to kill him or lest the matter be mistaken upon hope of his amendment to pardon him For mine own opinion though partial I will deliver you my Conscience The Case is good Queen Elizabeths the Offence is committed against her Sacred Person and she may of her Mercy pardon it without prejudice to any Then this I say in few words as a man more desirous to discharge his troubled Conscience than to live Pardon poor Parry and relieve him for life without living is not fit for him If this may not be or be thought dangerous or dishonourable to the Queens Majesty as by your favours I think it full of Honour and Mercy then I beseech your Lordships and no other once to hear me before I be Indicted and afterwards if I must dye humbly to intreat the Queens Majesty to hasten my Trial and Execution which I pray God with all my heart may prove as honourable to her as I hope it shall be happy to me who will while I live as I have done always pray to Jesus Christ for her Majesties long and prosperous Reign From the Tower the 18th of February 1584. W. Parry And where in this mean time Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary to her Majesty had dealt with one William Creichton a Scot for his Birth and a Jesuit by his Profession now Prisoner also in the Tower for that he was apprehended with divers Plots for Invasions of this Realm to understand of him if the said Parry had ever dealt with him in the parties beyond the Seas touching that Question Whether it were lawful to kill her Majesty or not the which at that time the said Creichton called not to his remembrance yet after upon better calling it to minde upon the 20th day of February last past he wrote to Master Secretary Walsingham thereof voluntary all of his own hand to the effect following William Creichtons Letter February 20. RIght honourable Sir when your Honour demanded me if Mr. Parry did ask me If it was reason to kill the Queen indeed and verity then I had no remembrance at all thereof But since thinking on the matter I have called to mind the whole fashion of his dealing with me and some of his Arguments for he dealt very craftily with me I dare not say maliciously For I did in no ways think of any such design of his or of any other and did answer him simply after my conscience and knowledge to the verity of the question For after that I had answered him twice before Quòd omnino non liceret he returned late at Even by reason I was to depart early in the next Morning toward Chamberie in Savoy where I did remain and being return'd out of the Close within one of the Classes of the Colledge he proponed to me of the new matter with his Reasons and Arguments First he alledged the utility of the deed for delivering of so many Catholicks out of misery and restitution of the Catholick Religion I answered that the Scripture answereth thereto saying Non sunt facienda mala ut veniant bona So that for no good how great that ever it be may be wrought any evil how little that ever it be He replyed that it was not evil to take away so great evil and induce so great good I answered That all good is not to be done but that onely Quod bene legitime fieri potest And therefore Dixi Deum magis amare adverbia quà m nomina Quia in actionibus magis ei placent bene legitime quam bonum Ita ut nullum bonum liceat facere nisi bene legitimè fieri possit Quod in hoc casu fieri non potest Yet said he that several learned men were of the opinion Quod liceret I answered that they men perhaps were of the opinion that for the safety of many in Soul and Body they would permit a particular to his danger and to the occult judgment of God Or perhaps said so moved rather by some compassion and commiseration of the miserable estate of the Catholicks not for any such Doctrine that they did finde in their Books For it is certain that such a thing is not licite to a particular without special revelation Divine which exceedeth our Learning and Doctrine And so he departed from me Out of the Prison in the Tower the 20th of February Your Honours poor servitor in Christ Jesu William Creichton Prisoner And where also the same Parry was on the same 20th day of February examined by Sir Francis Walsingham Knight what was become of the Letter contained in his Confession to be written unto him by the Cardinal de Como he then answered that it was consumed and burnt and yet after the next day following being more vehemently urged upon that point in examination because it was known that it was not burnt he confessed where he had left it in the Town whereupon by Parrys direction it was sent for where it had been lapped up together with other frivolous papers and written upon the one side of it The last Will of William Parry the which Letter was in the Italian Tongue as hereafter followeth with the same in English accordingly Translated A mon Signore mon Signore Guglielmo Parry MOn Signore la Santita di N. S. ha veduto le Lettere di V. S. del primo con la fede inclusa non puo se non laudare la buona disposittione risolutiene che scrive di tenere verso il servitio beneficio publico nel che la Santita sua lessorta di perseverare con farne riuscire li effetti che V. S. promette Et accioche tanto maggiormente V. S. sia
ajutata da quel buon Spirito che l'ha mosso le concede sua Beneditione plenaria Indulgenza remissione di tutti li peccati secondo che V. S. ha chiesto assicurandos si che oltre il merito che n'havera in cielo vuole anco sua Santita constituir si debitore a riconoscere li meriti di V. S. in ogni miglior modo che potra cio tanto piu quanto che V. S. ùsa maggior modestia in non pretender niente Metta dunque ad effetto lìesuoi santi honorati pensieri attenda astar sano Che per fine io me le offero di core le desidero ogni buono felice suceesso Di Roma a 30 di Gennaro MDLXXXIV Al piacer di V. S. N. Cardinale di Como Al Sig. Guglielmo Parri Cardinal de Como's Letter to Will Parry January 30th 1584. by accompt of Rome MOnsignor the Holiness of our Lord hath seen the Letter of your Signory of the first with the assurance included and cannot but commend the good disposition and resolution which you write to hold towards the Service and Benefit publick Wherein his Holiness doth exhort you to persevere with causing to bring forth the effects which your Signorie promiseth And to the end you may be so much the more holpen by that good Spirit which hath moved you thereunto his Blessedness doth grant to you plenary Indulgence and Remission of all your Sins according to your request Assuring you that besides the Merit that you shall receive therefore in Heaven his Holiness will further make himself Debtour to re-acknowledge the deservings of your Signorie in the best manner that he can And that so much the more in that your Signorie useth the greater Modesty in not pretending any thing Put therefore to effect your holy and honourable thoughts and attend your Health And to conclude I offer my self unto you heartily and do desire all good and happy success From Rome the 30th of January 1584. At the pleasure of your Signorie N. Card. of Como UPon all which former Accusation Declaration Confessions and Proofs upon Munday the 22th day of February last past at Westminster-Hall before Sir Christopher Wray Knight Chief Justice of England Sir Gilbert Gerrard Knight Master of the Rolls Sir Edmund Anderson Knight Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Sir Roger Manwood Knight Chief Baron of the Exchequer Sir Thomas Gawdy Knight one of the Justices of the Pleas before her Majesty to be holden and Will. Perriam one of the Justices of the Common Pleas by vertue of her Majesties Commission to them and others in that behalf directed The same Parry was Indicted of High Treason for intending and practising the Death and Destruction of her Majesty whom God long prosper and preserve from all such wicked attempts The tenour of which Indictment appeareth more particularly in the course of his Arraignment following The manner of the Arraignment of Will Parry the 25th of February 1584. at Westminster in the place where the Court commonly called the Kings-Bench is usually kept by vertue of her Majesties Commission of Oyer and Terminer before Henry Lord Hunsdon Governour of Barwick Sir Francis Knolles Knight Treasurer of the Queens Majesties Houshold Sir James Croft Knight Comptroller of the same Houshold Sir Christopher Hatton Knight Vice-Chamberlain to her Majesty Sir Christopher Wray Knight Chief Justice of England Sir Gilbert Gerrard Knight Master of the Rolls Sir Edmund Anderson Knight Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir Roger Manwood Knight Chief-Baron of the Exchequer and Sir Thomas Hennage Knight Treasurer of the Chamber FIrst three Proclamations for silence were made according to the usual course in such cases Then the Lieutenant was commanded to return his Precept which did so and brought the Prisoner to the Bar to whom Miles Sandes Esquire Clerk of the Crown said William Parry hold up thy hand and he did so Then said the Clerk of the Crown Thou art here Indicted by the Oaths of twelve good and lawful men of the County of Middlesex before Sir Christopher Wray Knight and others which took the Indictment by the name of William Parry late of London Gentleman otherwise called William Parry late of London Doctor of the Law for that thou as a false Traitor against the most Noble and Christian Prince Queen Elizabeth thy most gracious Soveraign and Liege-Lady not having the fear of God before thine eyes nor regarding thy due Allegiance but being seduced by the instigation of the Devil and intending to withdraw and extinguish the hearty Love and due Obedience which true and faithful Subjects should bear unto the same our Soveraign Lady didst at Westminster in the County of Middlesex on the first day of February in the 26th year of her Highness Reign and at divers other times and places in the same County maliciously and traiterously conspire and compass not only to deprive and depose the same our Sovereign Lady of her Royal Estate Title and Dignity but also to bring her Highness to Death and final Destruction and Sedition in the Realm to make and the Government thereof to subvert and the sincere Religion of God established in her Highness Dominions to alter and subvert And that whereas thou William Parry by thy Letters sent unto Gregory Bishop of Rome didst signifie unto the same Bishop thy purposes and intentions aforesaid and thereby didst pray and require the same Bishop to give thee Absolution that thou afterwards that is to say the last day of March in the 26th year aforesaid didst traiterously receive Letters from one called Cardinal de Como directed unto thee William Parry whereby the same Cardinal did signifie unto thee that the Bishop of Rome had perused thy Letters and allowed of thine intent and that to that end he had absolved thee of all thy Sins and by the same Letter did animate and stir thee to proceed with thine Enterprize and that thereupon thou the last day of August in the 26th year aforesaid at Saint Giles in the fields in the same County of Middlesex didst traiterously confer with one Edmund Nevil Esquire uttering to him all thy wicked and traiterous devises and then and there didst move him to assist thee therein and to joyn with thee in those wicked Treasons aforesaid against the Peace of our said Soveraign Lady the Queen her Crown and Dignity What sayest thou William Parry Art thou guilty of these Treasons whereof thou standest here Indicted or not guilty Then Parry said Before I plead not guilty or confess my self guilty I pray you give me leave to speak a few words and with humbling himself began in this manner God save Queen Elizabeth and God send me grace to discharge my duty to her and to send you home in charity But touching the matters that I am Indicted of some were in one place and some in another and done so secretly as none can see into them except that they had eyes like
seemed to glory greatly in the Profession of his pretensed Catholick Religion The whole course and action of his Life sheweth plainly how profanely and irreligiously he did always bear himself He vaunted that for these two and twenty years past he had been a Catholick and during all that time never received the Communion Yet before he travelled beyond the Seas at three several times within the compass of those two and twenty years he did voluntarily take the Oath of Obedience to the Queens Majesty set down in the Statute made in the first year of her Highness Reign by which amongst other things he did testifie and declare in his Conscience that no Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm and therefore did utterly renounce and forsake all Forreign Jurisdictions Powers and Authorities and did promise to bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Queens Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors With what Conscience or Religion he took that Oath so often if he were then a Papist indeed as sithence the discovery of his Treasons he pretended let his best friends the Papists themselves judge But perhaps it may be said that he repented those his Offences past that since those three Oaths so taken by him he was twice reconciled to the Pope and so his Conscience cleared and he become a new man and which is more that in the time to his last Travel he cast away all his former lewd manners that he changed his degree and habit and bought or begged the grave Title of a Doctor of Law for which he was well qualified with a little Grammar-School Latine that he had Plenary Indulgence and Remission of all his Sins in consideration of his undertaking of so holy an Enterprise as to kill Queen Elizabeth a sacred anointed Queen his Natural and Soveraign Lady That he promised to the Pope and vowed to God to perform it that he confirmed the same by receiving the Sacrament at the Jesuits at one Altar with his two Beaupeers the Cardinals of Vendosme and Narbonne And that since his last return into England he did take his Oath upon the Bible to execute it These Reasons may seem to bear some weight indeed amongst his Friends the Jesuits and other Papists of State who have special Skill in matters of such importance But now lately in the beginning of this Parliament in November last he did eftsoons solemnly in publick place take the Oath before mentioned of obedience to her Majesty How that may stand with his reconciliations to the Pope and with his Promises Vows and Oath to kill the Queen it is a thing can hardly be warranted unless it be by some special priviledge of the Popes omnipotency But let him have the glory he desired to live and die a Papist He deserved it it is fit for him his death was correspondent to the course of his life which was disloyal perjured and Traiterous towards her Majesty and false and perfidious towards the Pope himself and his Catholicks if they will believe his solemn protestations which he made at his Arraignment and Execution that he never meant nor intended any hurt to her Highness Person For if that be true where are then his Vows which he said were in Heaven his Letter and Promise upon Earth Why hath he stollen out of the Popes shop so large an Indulgence and plenary Remission of all his Sins and meant to perform nothing that he promised Why was his Devotion and Zeal so highly commended Why was he so specially prayed for and remembred at the Altar All these great favours were then bestowed upon him without cause or desert for he deceived the Pope he deceived the Cardinals and Jesuites with a false semblance and pretence to do that thing which he never meant But the matter is clear the Conspiracy and his traiterous intent is too plain and evident it is the Lord that revealed it in time and prevented their malice there lacked no will or readiness in him to execute that horrible fact It is the Lord that hath preserved her Majesty from all the wicked Practices and Conspiracies of that Hellish Rabble it is he that hath most gratiously deliver'd her from the hands of this Traiterous miscreant The Lord is her onely defence in whom she hath always trusted A Prayer for all Kings Princes Countries and People which do profess the Gospel and especially for our Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth used in Her Majesties Chappel and meet to be used of all persons within Her Majesties Dominions O Lord God of hosts most loving and merciful Father whose power no creature is able to resist who of thy great goodness hast promised to grant the petitions of such as ask in thy Sons Name We most humbly beseech thee to save and defend all Princes Magistrates Kingdoms Countries and People which have received and do profess thy holy Word and Gospel and namely this Realm of England and thy servant Elizabeth our Queen whom thou hast hitherto wonderfully preserved from manifold Perils and sundry Dangers and of late revealed and frustrated the Traiterous Practices and Conspiracies of divers against her for the which and all other thy great goodness towards us we give thee most humble and hearty thanks beseeching thee in the Name of thy dear Son Iesus Christ and for his sake still to preserve and continue her unto us and to give her long life and many years to rule over this Land O Heavenly Father the practices of our Enemies and the Enemies of thy word and truth against her and us are manifest and known thee Turn them O Lord if it be thy blessed Will or overthrow and confound them for thy Names sake Suffer them not to prevail Take them O Lord in their crafty Willness that they have invented and let them fall into the Pit which they have digged for others Permit them not ungodly to triumph over us Discomfort them discomfort them O Lord which trust in their own multitude and please themselves in their subtile devices and wicked Conspiracies O loving Father we have not deserved the least of these thy Mercies which we crave For we have sinned and grievously offended thee we are not worthy to be called thy Sons We have not been so thankful unto thee as we should for thy unspeakable benefits powred upon us We have abused this long time of Peace and Prosperity We have not obeyed thy Word We have had it in Mouth but not in heart in outward appearance but not in deed We have lived carelesly We have not known the time of our visitation we have deserved utter destruction But thou O Lord art merciful and ready to forgive therefore we come to thy Throne of Grace confessing and acknowledging thee to be our only refuge in all times of peril and danger And by the means of thy Son we most heartily pray thee to forgive us our