seeing his Enemies were unprepared of all things necessary for a Siege That his Fleet also which he had prepared to be an help to him at all adventures might be at hand This advice did indeed seem to be sound and real and had been safe enough in all probability in the event had it not been that the Governour of the Castle being corrupted by the opposite Faction excluded him from admittance And now all things conspire to his ruin for the Lords were now at his heels that he could not possibly retire to the Castle of Edenburg again and the Forces raised by the Earls of Huntley Errol Athol and diverse other Noblemen who stuck to him and which they said amounted to the number of Forty Thousand Men being not yet come up he would not stay for them and so with those Forces he had with him hazards a Battle The Battle was at first very fierce and the first Wing of the Nobâ—es Army gave way but the Annandalians and their Neighbours who inhabite the Western parts of Scotland press hard upon the Kings Forces and with their huge Spears much longer than their Adversaries quickly broke the King's main Body who finding now it was in vain to stand it and being injured with the fall of his Horse retires to a Mill that was not far off from the place of Battle with a design as was thought to get aboard his Ships which were not far off where being taken with a few more he was slain It 's not fully agreed who killed him but pursued he was to the foresaid place by Patrick Grey Sterling Keiry and a Priest whose name was Borthick and who it was said being asked by the King for a Confessor roughly replied That though he was no good Priest yet he was a good Leech and with that stab'd him to the Heart And here you see how contemptible the Majesty of a Prince is that is sullied with degenerous actions and there was this further ignominy affixed to his Death That it was enacted in the next Sessions of Parliament that he Justly suffered and strictly forbidden that any who had bore Arms against him or thier descendants should be upbraided therewith Young he was being about 35 years when he died and of them had Reigned near Twenty Eight in the year of our Lord 1488. The Son who had headed this Army is now advanced to the Father's Throne and known by the name of James the IV. being then about Sixteen years of Age. Wood who Commanded the Ships before mentioned was with great difficulty brought to submit and did afterward this King great Service who it seems had some remorse for his contributing so much to his Fathers Death for in token thereof he wore continually an Iron Chain about his middle all the days of his life made frequent visits to Religious places c. all which methinks seems to have been put upon him by some crafty Priest tho Historians are silent in that particular but he had hardly been warm in his Throne when those Nobles that were of his Father's Party sent their Emissaries to all the parts of the Kingdom and exhort one another not to endure the present state of things That so many brave Men should not suffer such publick paricides who had murdred one King and kept the other in servitude so proudly to illude them and to charge them with being guilty of High-Treason who fought for the King's defence and safety but that they should arrogate to themselves who were violators of all Divine and Humane Laws the title of being defenders of the Honour and Dignity of the Commonwealth and preservers of their Country in whose hands the King himself was not free as being enforced first to take up Arms against his Father and King and having wickedly slain him to prosecute his Father's Friends and such ns engaged in his defence by an unjust and Cruel War that was intollerable When many things of this nature had been bandyed about amongst the Common People Alexander Forbes to excite in them a greater hatred towards the present Administration caused the dead King 's bloody Shirt to be hung up on a long Pole and exposed publickly at Aberdeen and other places where there was great concourse of People This being as it were a publick Edict to stir up all Men to revenge so foul a Deed. Nay many of them who had engaged with them actually in the slaughter finding that all things did not go as they would have it now joyned with these Malecontents And as things were transacted in these parts about Aberdeen much to the new King's prejudice Matthew Stewart Earl of Levins a popular and potent Man in his Country summons all such as he had influence over this side the Forth to come to him and having raised a good body of Men finding he could not make his way over Sterling Bridge which was guarded by the Royalists he hastens towards a Ford not far from the River-head at the foot of Mount Grampias with a design to joyn with his Friends in those parts Now when John Drummond had notice hereof by Alexander Mac Alpin his Tenant and who had joyned the Enemy and found plainly that all things were so careless and secure in the Enemies Camp that they dispearsed themselves up and down as every one pleased and had no Centry nor Scouts and destitute of all Military Order and Discipline he immediately with the Courtiers and a few Voluntiers he had with him sets upon them un-a-wares and in a manner all asleep which was in too many of them continued by Death the rest unarm'd run back headlong from whence they came and many were made Prisoners but some known Friends and Acquaintance were let go they were severe only upon such as wrote or spoke very contumeliously of the Government and so this storm blew over and not long after a Parliament was called wherein past a general Act of Indemnity so that now nothing was expected here but Halcyon Days but a Storm quickly arose which terribly shook not only this but the Kingdom of England also by one Perkin Warbeck's pretending himself to be Richard Duke of York and second Son to King Edward IV. and so to have an undoubted Right to the Crown of England He came over from France into Scotland and possest this King so far with a belief of his Right and the Justice of his Cause that he not only gave him the Lady Margaret the Earl of Huntley's Daughter for a Wife but also raised an Army to defend his Cause which took up some Years of his Reign little enough to his or the Kingdoms Commodity and Advantage At last a Truce for some Years was agreed on between him and the King of England and the Consequence of that was first orders for Perkin of whom you may read at large in my Lord Bacon's History of Henry VII to depart the Realm of Scotland then a Marriage between King James and the Lady Margaret
before the Army which so distasted all of them and especially the Lord Maxwell that all things were presently in a Confusion and the Army ready to disband The opportunity of an adjoining Hill gave the English a full prospect into their Army and invited them to make advantage thereof and so they fell upon the Scots with a furious charge quickly routed them slew a great number of them and took abundance of prisoners among whom Sinclair their General made one The News of this defeat was no sooner brought to the King who was not far off but he fell into a great rage and fury which terminated in sadness and heavy grief of heart as Robert II. his great Ancestor did upon the taking of his Son James by the English and this brought him to watch and be abstemious disdaining to eat his Victuals And coming to understand that the Country was full of murmurings that the Kingdom should be thus endangered for the Prelates pleasure and knowing withal that such Complaints were Just and True this made him burst out with some threatning and revengeful language against such as had given him such bad advice and so hastned his untimely Death For those evil Councellors had no sooner understood what he said but they considered the danger they might be in if he should survive and fearing the Effects of his displeasure they poisoned him having learnt the Art in Italy called an Italian Posit in the Three and Thirtieth year of his Age and two and Thirtieth of his Reign See Melvill's Memoirs Cardinal Beaton who t is supposed had a great hand in his Death counterfeited his will wherein himself and three more were appointed Governors of the Kingdom He left one only Daughter Mary that Succeeded him in his Kingdom and Misfortunes and was at her Fathers Death but eight Days old He never saw her and 't was said when he was informed of her Birth it did rather aggravate his sorrow then exhilarate his mind as foreseeing Scotland would one way or other fall under the Government of the English Nation The King cut thus off in the flower of his Age the tumults of the former times were rather hushed up then composed so that Wise men foresaw such a tempest impending over Scotland as they had neither ever heard before in the ancient records of time nor had themselves seen the like For what from private animosities and dissension upon the score of Religion and from a War from aboard with a puissant King now enraged with the Scots prevaricating with him there was reasonably to be hoped for little less then an utter desolation However something must be done and the Cardinal according to his Develish subornation takes the Administration into his hands but James Hamilton Earl of Arran being presumptive Heir to the Crown and his friends as well as many others disdaining to be under the bondage of a Mercenary Priest they encouraged him to assume the Regency which the return of the Prisoners taken in the last Battle by the English who were released by the King of England with the hopes and upon promise of procuring their young Queen to be married to Prince Edward and thereby to have the two Crowns United did not a little promote so that the Cardinals forgery being in a little time detected he was casheered and his Kinsman Arran substituted in his room Not long after came Sir Ralph Sadler Ambassador from King Henry into Scotland to treat about the foresaid Match but the Cardinal and his faction raise forty colourable pretences to affront him and elude his Message and to fortify themselves as much as might be sent for Mathew Stuart Earl of Lennox out of France by whose Interest they thought to ballance that of the Hamiltons But soon after his arrival finding the Regent and Cardinal had joined Interests and that himself was eluded in respect to the promise made him of Marrying the Queen Dowager and having the chief management of affairs and withal mis-representing his proceeding to the French King he has recourse to Arms But not finding himself to have Force sufficient to cope with the Regent with the additional Interest of the Queen and Cardinal he makes some sort of Accommodation with them But at last experimenting there was but little sincerity in all their Actions and that himself was opprest and in danger of his life every moment he made some faint resistance and in the end withdrew into England where he was Honourably received by the King who besides his other respects gave him Margaret Dowglass in Marriage who was Sister by the Mother side to James V. last King of Scotland begot by the Earl of Angus upon Margaret Sister to Henry VIII from which Marriage sprâ—ng Henry Stuart Lord Darnley Husband to Mary Queen of Scots and Father to James VI. of Scotland and I. of England of whom more here after The King of England in the mean time being highly affronted with the Scots violating of their faith with him in respect to the Marriage resolves to call them to a severe account for their perfidity and to that End invades their Country with a puissant Army commits great ravages and even Pillaged and Burnt Edenburg it self and then retreated The Scots with the assistance of the French whose Alliance they had preferred before that of the King of England endeavoured to retrieve the loss by the Invasion of the English Bordirs but made little of the matter So â—hat things for a time seemed to hang in â—uspence between both Nations and the Cardinal with his cut-throat Ecclesiasticks had leasure to prosecute those that espouesd the Reformation and because the Civil power would not meddle with the matter they take the whole into their own hands And among others put to Death one George Wiseheart burning him for an Heretick and who when the Governor who stood by exhorted him to be of good cheer and ask Pardon of God for his offences He replied This flame occasions trouble in deed to my body but it hath in no wise broken my spirit but he who now proudly looks down upon me from yonder lofty place pointing to the Cardinal shall e're long be as ignominiously thrown down as now he proudly â—ies at his ease Which strangely came to pass and which because of the Tragicalness of the Story we think will not be impertinent to insert in this place The Cardinal being on a time at St. Andrew's and having appointed a day for the Nobility and especially those whose Estates lay nearest the Sea to Meet and Consult what was fit to be done for the common safety for their Coasts were severely threatned by the great Naval preparations of the English made against them He determined for the more effectual Execution of his Design to take a strict view of all the Sea-Coasts to Fortify all Convenient Places and to put Garrisons into them Among the rest of the Noble Men Sons who came into the Cardinal Norman Lesley Son to the
every part of it Some time elapsed before this dreadful news of the Prince's death came to the Ears of the King none adventuring to be the sad Messenger unto him of that which almost all knew off but when he was advertised of it and had also some secret intimations given him his Brother had had a deep if not the sole hand in it for none durst accuse so great a Man openly he grew very sad and melancholy thereupon and the rather in that he had not power to take Vengeance upon him for the perpetrating of so barbarous a deed and for doing him so unretrievable an injury However to make some semblance of Kingly Authority he sends for the Duke his Brother to come to him at leastwise to expostulate with him about the fact The Duke who knew the purport of the message as well as himself frames a fair and specious story to excuse himself as tho he were as innocent of the fact as the Child Unborn And for a farther proof of it urges his care to seek out the Perpetrators of that horrid deed and that he had now at length made so far a progress in the matter that he did not doubt but if the King would be pleased to come to Edenburgh he should be able to bring in all the Offenders The King who was then at a place called Bute where for the most part he ever resided tho he was very unfit to travel upon many accounts and especially by reason of a tedious fit of sickness he had laboured under yet so great and eager a desire he had to see his Son's death punished that he made a hard shift to get in a Chariot into Edenburgh When he was come thither the Governour convenes the Council and orders the parties accused to be brought before them the King himself being also present The Accusers as the Duke who was rather the guilty person had before contrived it stoutly charge them with the fact The King after he had imprecated Vengeance from Heaven and the most dreadful Curses upon them and their Posterity who had perpetrated so horrid an act being over-prest with sorrow and infirfirmity of Body returns to Bute from whence he came The Duke that he might colour the matter as much as might be brings the supposed Criminals to their Tryals and by corrupt Judges such as the Duke had provided for that purpose were Condemned as guilty of his Murder whom in all their life time they had never seen Tho this matter waâ— managed on the part of the Governor with all the Fineness and Address imaginable yet the King was not so satisfied in his Mind but that he retain'd still a great suspition of the Duke's having an Hand in his Sonâ—s Death But forasmuch as he well knew that the Duke had all the Kingdom of Scotland under his Obeisance partly by Policy and partly by virtue of his Office of Governour he durst not shew his resentment nor attempt to call him to an account for it but was rather afraid on the other hand lest having ambitious Desires to possess himself of the Crown he would also make it his Business to procure the death of his second Son James and by that means take off the only Rub in his way The King I say being thus sollicitous in Mind about securing that to his Posterity which his unnatural Brother was intent to deprive them of consults with Walter Wardlaw Arch-bishop of St. Andrews about his Son's Security After serious deliberation they at last conclude it was no ways safe for Prince James to remain in Scotland and therefore he resolved to send him over into France to Charles the VI. an old Allie and real Friend to the Scotish Nation knowing he could no where be more safely and liberally educated than there But considering the uncertain vicissitude of Humane things and that no Precautions for his future Security might be wanting the King delivers his Son a Letter written to the King of England in his Behalf if it should be his hard Fortune to fall into the Hands of the English The King in pursuance to the said Resolution orders all things to be got in a readiness for his Passage and appointed Henry Sinclear Earl of Orkney to take care for the safe Conveyance of him They took Shipping at the Bass and so shear'd their Course for the French Shoar but when they were got as far as Flamborough-Head they were as some say taken by the English who had heard of their sailing and laid in wait to intercept them But others write that the Prince finding himself extreamly Sea-sick and not able to endure it desired he might be put on Shoar there and so was taken into Custody and carry'd up to the English Court but however it happened taken he was in the ninth Year of his Age Anno 1406. Henry IV. was then King of England to whose Presence when the Prince was come he deliver'd him his Father's Letter which because of the rarity of it as being written in the Scotish Dialect of those times we have thought fit to insert and is as followeth Robert King of Scots to Henry King of England Greeting THY great Magnificence Humility and Justice are right patent to us by thy Governance of thy last Army in Scotland howbeit sike things had been uncertein to us afore for tho' thou seemed as Enemie with most awful Incursions in our Realme Èœit we found mair Humanities and Plaisures than Damage by thy cumming to our Subdities speciallie to yame that receivit thy noble Fader the Duke of Longcastle the time of his Exile in Scotland we may not câ—is your fare while we are on life but I yl layf and loif thee us maist noble and woarthy Prince to joys thy Realme for yocht Realmes and Nations contend among themself for Conâ—uests of Glory and Launds Èœit na accasioun is amang us to invade other Realmes or Lieges with Injuries but erar to contend amang our self â—uhay shall perseue other with maist humanitee and kindness As to us we will meis all occasion of battell quare any occurres at thy pleasure Farther bycause we have no lesse sollicitude in preserving our Children fra certein deidley Enemies than had some time thy noble Fader we are constreined 〈◊〉 seek Support at uncowth Princes Handâ— Howbeit the invasioun of Enemies is sa great that small defense oâ—urres against yame â—ithaut they be preserved by Amitie of nobill Men. For the World is sa full of perversit malice that na crueltie nor offence may be devisit in erd bot the samme may be wroucht be motion of gold or silver Heirfore because we knaw thy Hyness full of Monie nobill Vertueâ— with sike Puissance and Riches that na Prince in our daies may be compared thairto we desire thy Humanity and Support at this time We traist it is not unknowen to thy Majesty how our eldest Son David is slain miserablie in Prisoun by our Brother the Duke of Albanie quhome we
Henry VIIth's Daughter and lastly a Peace between both Kings during their Lives This Kings Reign is remarkable upon many accounts which being not the scope of this Treatise we designedly omit But one passage I meet with in Lesley's History of this Kingdom which for the rarity of it I cannot omit and hope the Reader will not think it an Impertinent Digression About this time says the aforesaid Author The King to tell you a business that to this day is remembred with great Laughter among the Roman people created a certain Italian with whose Wit and Pleasant Conversation he was much taken Abbot of Tungland This man thinking to magnifie his own parts did on a certain time perswade the King that he was so well skilled in the Secrets of Nature and more especially in the noble Science of Chimistry that he could transmute any other Metal into Gold if the King would please to bear the Charges thereof But after much Time and Treasure spent and long Expectation of this Glorious Effect all proved Abortive and came to nothing so that the vain Braccadocio fell into great contempt both by the King and People which grieved him very sore so that he sets all his Wits on work how he might do somewhat that might regain his fame in the world and at the same recover the King's Favour At last he gave out a Report that he would by flying be in France before the Kings Ambassadors who were sent thither and were then actually under sail to pursue their Voyage and that this might not be all talk without any Performance he boldly appointed a Day and Place which was Sterling from whence to begin his flight the noise whereof brought you may be sure a great concourse of People together among whom was the King himself When the Time was come the man gets up to the Top of Sterling Castle and having fastned the Wings which he had made of the Feathers of several Fowls to his sides he lifts himself into the Air thinking to pursue his course But alas he came quickly down headlong to the ground his Wings availing him nothing whereupon the people who knew not whether they should rather Rebuke his Presumption or Pity his Misfortune flocked about him and asked him how he did he made Answer that he had broken his Thigh-bone and despaired of ever flying any more at which they all laughed their fill But this Icarus to salve the matter laid the fault of his flying wholly upon his Wings because they were not made of Eagles Feathers and the like but only of Poultry which were not fit to cut the Air with flight and which by a certain innate Virtue operating according to the Nature of those Fowl drew the Feathers downwards to the Dunghill where those Birds fed But to re-assume the Thread of our Story things continued in a tollerable state of Tranquillity till the death of Henry VII the King's Father-in-law but Henry VIII a young ambitious and active Prince had not long mounted the English Throne when he makes Preparations to recover his Right in the Kingdom of France The French King to fortifie himself as much as possible against the impending Storm requir'd Aid of the King of Scotland who by his Embassadors would have accommodated Matters and perswaded both Kings to a Peace But King Henry persisting in his Resolution the Scot won by French Promises of Money and Ammunition joyns with them in League against England and because the English Commissioners appointed to accommodate the Differences between both Nations about some Irregularities and Depredations committed upon the Borders would not come up to their Terms James takes this occasion to send Lyon King at Arms to King Henry by this time besieging Terwin with Letters of Complaints commanding him for want of satisfying the Contents of the said Letters to denounce War against England When Henry had read the Letters and advised with his Council thereupon he told the Herauld he would make him answer If he would promise faithfully to declare the same to his Master Lyon replied Whatever his Master commanded him to say to others that he was obliged to do and would but for the Commands of others to his Master therein he desired to be excused but added your Highness Letters that declare your Pleasure I am willing to carry tho' your Answer requires doing and not saying I mean that you should immediately return home The King sharply retorted I 'll return at my own Pleasure to your Damage and not at thy Master's Summons and so delivers him a Letter to carry to his Master importing he had receiv'd his Full of frivolous Complaints which had been sufficiently answer'd before sharply sets forth the baseness of the Scotch Nation but says at the same time it was always their Ancestors custom to invade his Dominions in his absence which they never offered nor durst do while he was within the Land but however that he had taken caution for his security and would not desist from his present enterprize which the Scotch King had nothing to do with as being no Competent Judge for so the words are of so high Authority to require him in that behalf c. But before the Herault arrived and the Letters could be delivered King James had precipitated his own fall at Floddenfield For having dispatched Commissions for the raising of Forces he determines to put himself at the head of them before they were fully Compleated but first goes to a place called Limuch and there heard even Song as they called it where after he had entred the Chappel came an old man to him whose hair was somewhat of a yellow red hanging down over his Shouldiers his Forehead high with Baldness bare Headed clad in a Blewish Garment with a white Girdle and had a very Reverend Countenance and said King I am sent to admonish thee that thou go not forward to the place which thou hast determined which warning if thou dost despise it shall succeed ill with thee and all such as shall attend thee Further I am Commanded to give thee Intelligence before-hand that thou eschew the familiarity and Custom or Counsell of Women if thou do otherwise it shall tend to thy Dishonour and Hurt And when he had so said he mingled himself with other Company and when Prayers were over and that the K. sought for him he could by no means be found for he was never seen after the delivery of this Message which seemed the more strange because that many who stood near him and observing all he said and intent to hear more from him could not perceive his departure of which Number David Linsey a Person of known Virtue and approved Reputation was one who told me the same saith Buchanan of a most certain truth or else I would have past it over for a Fable handed down to us by Common Fame But no premonitions from Heaven nor Advises upon Earth could divert the Career of this willfull Prince
and by But before her arrival in Scotland John Forbes a young Gentleman of a great Family was accused of a Design he had many years before to Assassinate the King It was believed to be a malitious prosecution of the Huntley's but Condemned he was and lost his head and a few Days after came on another Tryal which on the account of the Family of the accused Parties the Novelty of it and the heinousness of the punishment was very Lamentable and Tragical and plainly shews the Kings mind was cruel and implacable Joan Dowglass Sister to the Earl of Angus of whom we have said so much and Wife to John Lyons Lord of Glames also her Son and latter Husband Gilespy Campell John Lyons Kinsman to her former Husband and an old Priest were accused for endeavouring to poyson the King All these tho' they lived continually in the Country far from the Court and their Friends and Servants could not be brought to witness any thing against them yet were put on the rack to extort a Confession from them and so were Condemned and shut up in Edenburg Castle Joan Dowglass was burnt alive with great Commiseration of all the Spectators The Nobleness both of her self and Husband did much affect the beholders Besides she was in the vigour of her youth much celebrated for her rare Beauty and in her very punishment she shewed a manlike Fortitude But that which people were more concerned for was that they thought the enmity against her Brother who was banished did her more prejudice then her own objected Crime Her Husband endeavoured to escape out of the Castle of Edenburg but the Rope being too short to let him down to the foot of the Rock brake almost all the bones of his body with the fall and so ended his Days Their Son a young Man and of greater Innocent simplicity then to have the suspicion of such a wickedness justly charged upon him was for all that shut up a Prisoner in the Castle And the accuser of all these William Lyons by name afterwards perceiving that so eminent a Family was like to be utterly ruined by his false Information Repented when it was too late and confessed his offence to the King Yet so bloody was he an instance I think hardly to be parallelled in all the records of time that it did not prevent the Execution of the Condemned or hinder their Estates from being Confiscate and the aforesaid young Gentleman was not discharged from his Imprisonment and Restored to his Inheritance till after the King's Death which is now upon the Wing But as we have given you the Tragical part of his past life in all the Circumstances of them we shall depeint unto you all the concurrent causes of his Tragical and Untimely Death and to that End we are necessitated to recount some few things to you that in order of time precede and you must note That King Henry VIII having upon the account of his Divorce from Queen Katherine Proclaimed himself head of the Church and utterly disclaimed the Pope's Authority in England he thereby contracted great enmity not only from Rome but also from Spain and the Empire Wherefore to strengthen himself against any Combination that he expected to be made against him he was desirous to entertain a strict amity with his Nephew James V. of Scotland and to that End directs Ambassadors to him inviting him to a Conference at York whither Henry offered to come and meet him Alledging That by such an interview matters might be better concerted for the mutual Interest of both Kingdoms K. James after a serious Deliberation returns Answer he would attend his Unkle at the Time and Place appointed who thereupon made very great preparations to Entertain him with utmost solemnity But the Scotch Clergy apprehensive least their King through his Unkles Perswasions and Example might be wrought upon to shake off the Pope's Authority in Scotland as he had done in his own Dominions Resolve to do the utmost of their endeavours to prevent the intended interview and so mustering up all their Forces by themselves and the Kings minions and flatterers acquaint him with the evil Câ—nseâ—uence of his going to England shew how King James I. had been kept Prisoner in England how ill the French their old Confederates and the Emperor would take it at his hands That King Henry was excommunicate that a dangerous Heresy had overspread not only the greatest part of that Kingdom but had infected even the King himself That many of his own Nobility were favourers of the said Heresy which notwithstanding if he took care timously to suppress it would be of mighty advantage to him and he might very much increase his revenue by their Estates a list of whose names they presented to him which he put in his Pocket thinking it a very profitable proposal and therefore with all expedition to be put in Execution The Lord Grang his Treasurer and who secretly favoured the Reformation was then much in his favour and to him the King shews the foresaid List telling him what great advantage he would make of it whereat the Treasurer smiled and withall desired leave to speak his mind freely upon which the King drew his Sword and merily said to him I le kill thee if thou speak against my profit Then the Treasurer began to set before him at large the various troubles of his Reign while in minority and what an hand the Clergy had in all the disorders that he had not been long a free Prince And that though his Majesty had done very much in thâ— time in setling the Highlands and the Borders yet desired him to consider of what a dangerous consequence it might be if his Nobility should get intelligence that some greedy fetches had been insinuated to him under pretence of Heresie to dispoile them of their Lives and Inheritances And thereby endanger his own Estate at the instance of those whose Estates were in danger and who would hazard him and his to save their own I mean continued the Treasurer the Prelates who are afraid least your Majesty according to the Example of the King 's of England and Denmark and other Princes of the Empire should make the like Reformation among them and therefore they are clearly against your having any familiarity with the King of England or to have your Affairs so settled as to give you leisure to look into and reform the abuses of the Church Then he went on and shewed him how the Revenues of the Crown were wasted and the vast Estates of the Clergy their addictedness to the Pope their sly carriage in insinuating themselves into all secrets of State the wisdom of the Venetians in that particular in excluding the whole Levitical Order from their Senate-house the gross abuses of the Church of Rome the scandalous lives of the Scotch Clergy and last of all urged how dishonourable and dangerous it would be to his Majesty not to keep his word with
to the abrogating of which by the enormous power of the Sword because he could by no means be induced he was brought thither to undergo a Martyrdom for his People Then he prayed and being minded by the Bishop to satisfie the Spectators as to his Religion he said that he had deposited the Testimony of his Faith with that holy Man meaning the Bishop That his Life and Profession had been well known and that now he died in the Christian Faith according to the Profession of the Church of England as the same was left him by his Father of Blessed Memory And then turning about to the Officers and professing the hopes he had of his Salvation he began to prepare for the Circumstances of Death The Bishop put on his Night-cap and uncloathed him to his Sky-coloured Sattin Wastcoat he delivered his George to the Bishop's hands and charged him to remember to give the same to the Prince and having prayed again he stooped down to the Block and had his Head severed from his Body at one Blow about Two of the Clock in the Afternoon the day aforesaid in the year 1648. dying the same death as to kind as his Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots had done sixty two years and eight days before at Fothringham Castle in Northamptonshire and I think was no whit inferior to her in the misfortunes of his Life And to note a few his three Favourites to wit Buckingham Laud and Strafford undergoing a violent death and the two latter falling by the Axe as forerunners of his own destiny And as to his own Personal errors when Bristol was cowardly surrendred by Fines had he then marched to London as he might have done very well all had been his own but loytering to no purpose at Gloucester he was soon after well banged by the Earl of Essex When he had worsted Essex in Cornwall he neglected the like opportunity of getting to London Guilty he was of the same oversight in not commanding the Duke of Newcastle to march Southwards toward the Metropolis of England before the Scots entred the English Borders and in not doing the like himself after he had taken Leicester for there was nothing then that could have hindred him to become Master of the City The same ill success he had as to his Treaties about being restored And in short he was generally unfortunate in the World in the esteem not only of his Enemies but in some sort of his Friends too for as the later were n'er pleased with his breach of Faith so the former would say he could never be fast enough bound and the Blood that some years before dropt upon his Statue at Greenwich and the falling off of the Silver Head of his Cane at his Trial were interpreted as dismal presages of his disastrous fate His Head and Trunk after the Execution were immediately put into a Coffin and conveyed to the Lodgings in Whitehall and there Embowelled and from thence conveyed to St. James House and Coffined in Lead About some fortnight after the Duke of Lennox Marquess of Hartford Earl of Southampton and Bishop of London got leave to bury the Body which they conducted to the Chappel at Windsor and Interred it there in the Vault of Henry the Eight with this Inscription only upon his Coffin Charles King of England And herein he was more unhappy than his Grandmother Mary for whereas her Corpse were some years after her death taken up by her Son King James and Reposited with all the Funeral Pomp that could be in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh her Great Grand Father This King's Remains notwithstanding the Commons had Voted in 1669 the Sum of 50000 l. for the Charge of taking it up a Solemn Funeral had of it and a Monument for it yet lay neglected as if it had been blasted by fate King Charles the Second his Son they said forbidding of it A Physician that made inspection into the dissection of the Body related that nature had designed him above the most of mortal men for a long life but Providence ordered it otherwise for he was cut off in the Forty ninth year of his Age being his Climacterical and twenty fourth of his Reign leaving six Children behind him three Sons Charles Prince of Wales James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester whereof the two Elder were Exiles and three Daughters Mary Princess of Orange Elizabeth a Virgin who not long survived him and Henrietta Maria born at Exeter Charles his Eldest Son who was then at the Hague when he heard of his Father's disastrous fate assumed the Title of King of England c. tho an Exile and without any Kingdom to command He was born at St. James's May 30. 1630. it was said a Star appeared over the place where he had been born in broad day which in those times was interpreted to prognosticate his happiness but the Ecclipse of the Sun which happened presently after was no less a presage of his future Calamities There was little remarkable in him or concerning him till the year 1639 when the unhappy disaster of breaking his Arm befell him and that not long after he was afflicted with a violent Feaver accompanied with a little of the Jaundice but having at length recovered his perfect health and the fatal differences begun long before but now daily increasing between the King his Father and the People he accompanied him into the North of England where he was a Spectator of that dismall Cloud which tho small at its first gathering yet was pregnant with that dreadful storm which in a short time spread it self over him his Father and three Nations For going to take possession of Hull as they thought they were by Sir John Hotham denied Entrance and forced to wait several hours at the Gate all in vain From this time forward the War increasing between the King and Parliament he was first spectator of that successless Battle to his Father's Arms at Edgehill staid some time after at Oxford From thence returning to the Field and the King's forces in the West under the command of the Lord Hopton of which the Prince was nominally General being routed by General Fairfax he was necessitated to retire to the Isle of Scilly and from thence betook himself into France To whom his Father now depriv'd of Command himself sent a Commission of Generalissimo of those few Royalists that survived the late unhappy overthrows and this brought him to the Isle of Guernsey where he possest himself of some Vessels that lay there and having joyned them to those he had brought with him out of France he sailed from thence into the Downs where he seized several rich Merchant-Ships and expected some Land-forces from Holland raised by the Prince of Orange for his Service But alas he was as unfortunate now in his Warlike attempts as his Father had been before and was still in his Treaties of Peace for Poyer and Langhorn who made a