others he himself made the Laws a Measure of his Prerogative It will not be worth Enquiry Whether he first Instituted a Parliament in the Form it now stands He raised Money in a Parliamentary way we find in his First Parliament at Salisbury he obtained Three Shillings upon every Hide of Land towards the Marriage of his Daughter with the Emperor although 't is said there these Aids were due by Common Law from the King's Tenants by Knight's Service viz. Aid to Ransom the King's Person Aid to make the King 's Eldest Son a Knight and Aid to Marry the King 's Eldest Daughter once And although this matter was ascertain'd afterwards by King John's Charter at Running-Mead yet following Kings have not been so tender and reserv'd in this Point If he may be said to be Cruel to his Brother Robert I 'm sure he was very Honourable towards Lewis of France when in England whither he came on his own Head notwithstanding he was Solicited and Tempted to make him away As to his Personal Virtues or Vices they were to himself If he fail'd in the Oeconomicks he had Troubles in his own House and whether his Misfortunes of this kind were occasioned by Judgments or the Follies of himself or Wife it is certain he had his share of them but he took so much care that the Nation knew but very few troubles during his Reign And as he obtained a Kingdom by a sort of Artifice so he used his Prerogative with Discretion STEPHEN THIS King's Reign was almost one entire Scene of Military Actions without any mixture of Civil Policy he did not live a Year to Enjoy or Manage Peace after his Agreement with Henry II. the Son of Maud And there was never any formal Meeting of the Body of the Estates in his time The Expences of his War were occasioned by a troubled Title and he maintained them by Confiscations and although he had continued Charges that way yet he required few or no Tributes from the People 'T is said he had another way of getting Money viz by causing Men to be Impleaded and Fined for Hunting in his Forests after he had given them Liberty to Hunt there For thus far at least the Kings Exercised an Absolute Prerogative only over the Beasts of the Forest Which is a Prerogative I confess they ought to Enjoy Indisputably HENRY II. THOUGH this King came to the Crown by the most Absolute Title and Clearest Right yet in Four and thirty Years time we do not find that he pretended to impose upon his People any Arbitrary Power but by Success and Policy he added to the Crown of England Scotland Ireland the Isles of Orcades Britain Poytiers Guyen and other Provinces of France And for all this he had only one Tax of Escuage towards his War with France His causing the Castles to be Demolished was a justifiable piece of Policy for the reason given as being Nurseries of Rebellion In the beginning of his Reign he refined and reformed the Laws and 't is said made them more Tolerable and Profitable to his People than they were before and what is better Governed himself by them We do not find the Punishments of Capital Offences or others were certain but variable and distinguished in the same Crime according to the degrees of Aggravation The Church-Chroniclers bestow a Judgment upon him for refusing to take the Protection of the Distressed Christians in Jerusalem offered to him by Heraclius the Patriarch and assign his Troubles at Home to that Cause but they might be mistaken and he might as he apprehended have had greater from his own Sons if he had gone Abroad upon that Errand And if the Church will forgive him the Story of Thomas Becket for he was otherwise very Civil to it the State had no reason to complain of him for he suffered neither his Wars nor his Pleasures to be Chargeable to the Nation nor his Concubines to be Spungers on the People RICHARD I. THERE is but little Observable in the Reign of this King with relation to the Subject at Home he being the greater part of it out of the Land If his Artifices of Raising Money were not Justifiable the occasion may at least Excuse him He obtained a Subsidy towards his necessary Charges of War what was properly called Taxation was by Parliament or by the Subjects own Contribution and Method of Charging themselves with as the Money raised for his Ransom If he may be charged with some slips in Justice he made it up in Courtesy which by the by goes a great way with Englishmen for 't is observed they may be Led tho' they will not well Drive And upon his return Home from the Holy Land we find the first thing he did was to give his Lords and People Thanks for their Faithfulness to him in his Absence and for their readiness to Supply him for his Ransom JOHN MOntaigne says in one of his Essays and he speaks it upon Observation of History That Women Children and Mad-men have had the Fortune to govern Great Kingdoms equally well with the Wifest Princes And Thucydides That the Stupid more frequently do it than those of better Understanding Whether this be an Argument of a Providential Disposing and Governing of Kingdoms I leave to those that are conversant that way Some Men perhaps may be apt to think it reflects Disgrace on Dignities if this be true Some Kings are involv'd in such a Cloud of Circumstances of Difficulty and Intrigues that there is no looking into them nor making any Judgment of their Actions Speed guesses of King John That if his Reign had not fallen out in the time of so Turbulent a Pope such Ambitious Neighbour Princes and such Disloyal Subjects nor his Story into the Hands of Exasperated Writers he had appear'd a King of as great Renown as Misfortunes This is civilly and gently said This is certain This King as all others when once they have broke through their Coronation-Oath presently became as it were infatuated and deaf to all good Counsel stoop't to every thing that was mean and base and having once laid aside his Native Honour run into all Dishonourable Sordid Actions The History represents him pursuing his Profit and even his Pleasures by all manner of Injustice He prosecuted his Brother Geoffry Archbishop of York and took from him all he had only for doing the Duty of a Wise and Faithful Councellor Hence his Lords grew Resty and refused to follow him into France unless he would restore to them their Rights and Liberties which he had invaded And when he shuffled with them in the Grant of their Demands What Wars what Miseries did not follow Wars at Home Foreiners call'd in the Nation plunder'd and spoil'd Money procured by Base poor-spirited Tricks He on one Side forc'd to truckle to the Pope and as is said to submit to somebody worse his Subjects on the other hand calling in to their Relief as they thought a Foreiner fetch
't in Lewis the Son of Philip the French King the People in general not living like Men nor dying like Christians nor having Chrstian Burial the whole Nation one dismal Scene of Horrid Misfortunes Behold the Effect of Violated Faith and Arbitrary Oppression But it is no great Credit to Prerogative That this King who had no very good Title unless it were Election was the first Vindicator of it in a violent manner And asserted the Right to Absolute Power with the same Justice as he did That to the Crown in the time of Arthur his Nephew who was the Undoubted Heir By these means he brought himself and People into Troubles which never ended but with his Life HENRY III. HERE we may perceive as also in another Reign or two hereafter how the Irregularities of a Father or Predecessor involve the Son and Successor in a Remainder of Troubles and the Nation also in their intail'd Misfortunes For although those Lords as Sir Richard Baker tells us who had been constant to the Father notwithstanding his Faults were also more tender of the Son who was Innocent and so stuck to him That by the Interest chiefly of William Marshal Earl of Pembroke who married his Aunt they prevail'd so that Young Henry was Crown'd King yet he could not come to the Crown upon the square but was forc'd to do Homage to Pope Innocent for his Kingdom of England and Ireland when he took his Coronation-Oath and to take an Oath to pay the Church of Rome the Thousand Marks which his Father had granted And though after his Coronation most of the Lords maintain'd him in his Throne preferring their Natural Allegiance to Henry before their Artificial Obligations to Lewis and Beat or Compounded the latter out of the Kingdom yet this King Henry so soon as he was got out of Protection and came to Administer the Government himself immediately in gratitude Cancels and Annuls the Charters which he had granted on pretence forsooth of Minority altho' he had taken an Oath as well as the Legate Guallo and the Protector to restore unto the Barons of the Realm and other his Subjects All their Rights and Privileges for which the Discord began between the Late King and his People These Rights and Privileges were several times enquired into and ascertain'd by the Returns of the Knights who were charged to examine them were what were enjoy'd in the time of the Saxon Kings and especially under Edward the Confessor and what the Charters of King John and his own express'd For 't is ridiculous to imagine That William II. Henry I. Stephen and King John should pretend to an Arbitrary Power virtually who all came in by the Consent if not Election of the People We may see how a Favourite can Absolve a King in Law and Conscience too And what a pretty Creature a King is when Prerogative and Humour are Synonimous and he Acts by Advice of a single Person or Party counter to that of his Parliament Hence as the Historians say grew Storms and Tumults no quietness to the Subject or to himself nothing but Grievances all the long time of his Reign He displaceth his English Officers to make room for Foreiners and all the Chief Councellors Bishops Earls and Barons of the Kingdom are removed as distrusted that is for giving him Good Counsel and only Strangers preferred to their Places and Honors and Castles the King's House and Treasury committed to their Care and Government These Indignities put upon the Lords put them also upon Confederating to reduce the King to the sense of his former Obligations but to their Petitions he returns Dilatory and Frivolous Answers and to requite their Favours sends for whole Legions of Poictavins to Enslave the Nation and to crown the matter marries himself without Advice to a Daughter of the Earl of Provence by which he brought nothing but Poverty into this Kingdom Afterwards in the Long Story of this King we hear of nothing but Grievance upon Grievance Confederacy upon Confederacy Parliament upon Parliament and Christmas upon Christmas were kept here now there in as many Places as he call'd his Parliaments and to as much purpose Bickerings upon Bickerings and Battle upon Battle till it grew to that height That the Lords threaten'd to Expel him and his New Councels out of the Land and to create a New King and the Bishops threaten'd him with Excommunication whilst through a various Scene of Confusion and Hurly-Burly sometimes one Party being too peremptory sometimes t'other with an Interchangeable undecent Shuffling on the King's Side and a Rude Jealousy on the Lords and various Turns of Arbitrary Fraud and Obstinate Disputes for above Forty Years wherein Prerogative and Liberty grew Extravagant and Mad by turns till the Nation was brought to the last Gasp at length the King in the Fifty second Year of his Reign in most solemn manner confirms the Charters That Magna Charta which was granted in the Ninth Year and pretended to be avoided by reason of Infancy and the Statute of Marlebridge which he had granted upon his Second Coronation in the Twentieth Year Wherein Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta were confirm'd with this Clause Quod contravenientes graviter puniantur Upon which as is said Peace and Tranquillity ensued And these Charters have never since been Impugn'd or Question'd but Confirm'd Establish'd and commanded to be put in Execution by Thirty two several Acts of Parliament And from the Authority whereof no Man ought to be permitted to recede even in his Writing to flatter any King whatever and Sir Robert Filmer Dr. Brady and Mr. Bohun c. perhaps deserv'd as severe a Correction as Collonel Sidney for writing Books and Papers only for I do not think he deserv'd Hanging if not greater for their's were dispers'd by an ill-tim'd-publication whereas t'others lay still only in his Study We date our Non Obstantes from this King which Matthew Paris calls an Odious and Detestable Clause and Roger de Thursby with a sigh said it was a Stream deriv'd from the Sulphurious Fountain of the Clergy EDWARD I. I Know not whether this King may come up to the Character which some of our Historians give of him in all Respects yet without doubt he stands an Instance and Example of Princely Qualities and Virtues fit to be imitated and at least as he is stiled the Second Ornament of Great Britain And as a Wise Just and Fortunate because Wise and Just Prince who in regard of his Noble Accomplishments and Heroical and Generous Mind deserves to be ranged amongst the Principal and Best Kings that ever were as Walsingham and Cambden Polyd. Virgil and Others relate Baker divides his Acts into five Parts 1. His Acts with his Temporal Lords 2. His Acts with his Clergy 3. With Wales 4. With Scotland And lastly With France And First He gave his Lords good Contentment in the beginning of his Reign by granting them Easier Laws and particularly in the
Rawleigh and others Protestants and Papists amongst whom were two Priests and for which there was no other apparent Occasion only that he provok'd all Parties whilst he sought to win One by Fawning to shew something like good Inclinations to the See of Rome as the Pope expected though they well knew he did not mean that neither whilst he received others coldly for Reasons neither he nor they knew So that they agreed only in this to lay him aside who as they concluded by his Behaviour would answer the Expectations of neither There was no necessity of adding Papists as Spies upon his Councels he might in prudence been contented to have taken it at present as left him with the Addition only of his Scotchmen to the Number And 't is plain it gave no satisfaction to the Papists by the Powder-Plot which followed His Next Step of Unaccountable Wisdom was dissolving the Parliament for Reasons known to no body besides himself 't is said because they did not comply with his Designs but what those Designs were do not appear Above-board The Third Action of Moment out of common Forms was the sacrificing Sir Walter Rawleigh to the Importunities of Gondomar for neither his Justice nor Mercy was to be relied on that is giving up the Interest of England to the Spanish Satisfaction And his Conduct with relation to Spain is admirable throughout Queen Elizabeth had pretty well humbled that Potent Monarch and as Sir Robert Cotton observes forced him in his after-Reign that is after his Unsuccessful Tricks with her to that Extremity that he was driven to break all Faith with those Princes that trusted him and paid for One Year's Interest above Twenty five thousand Millions of Crowns Hear Sir Robert Cotton who speaks to the Person of King James and therefore we may assure our selves modestly and gently So low and desperate in Fortunes your Highness found him when you took this Crown Thus from the abundant Goodness of your Peaceable Nature this is the way of Banter if Kings would see it you were pleas'd to begin your Happy Reign with General Quiet and with Spain first which should have wrought in Noble Natures a more Grateful Recompence than after followed For long it was not before Tyrone was hearten'd to Rebel against your Highness and flying had a Pension at Rome paid him from the Spanish Agent His Son Odonel Tyrconnel and others your Chiefest Rebels retain'd ever since in Grace and Pay with the Arch-Duchess at Spain's Devotion So soon as your Eldest Son of holy Memory now with God was fit for Mariage they began these Old Designs by which before they had thriven so well c. Thus Sir R. C. in that Stile And thus they led him on their Dance whilst he Deserted or what was worse so meanly Vindicated the Interest of his Son-in-Law the Prince Palatine He must take his Measures from Gondomar and instead of assisting him with a Powerful Army he is treating with this Spanish Agent and must take his Advice and Matters are to be made up with him by a Match for his Son the Prince of Wales with the Infanta of Spain and then suffers himself to be imposed upon by Idle Representations which this Ambassador carried on only in Disguise to serve his Master's Ends whilst in the mean time the Poor Palatine is swallowed up by a Confederacy between the Emperor and King of Spain and all this without calling a Parliament that being forsooth an Affront to his Wisdom then sends his Son to Spain when he was told by Sir John Digby c. who advised him not to suffer his Resolutions to be interrupted by that Overture of the False Appearances and Insincerities of the Spaniards which the Letters from the King of Spain to Olivares and his Answer would have convinced any one of besides himself and after that his making so many and ample Concessions in favour of Popery during the Treaty And in truth Treating of any Popish Match are no great Arguments of Wisdom Fatherly Care or indeed of Religion The English Navy must be neglected on pretence intimated by Gondomar that the furnishing of it would breed suspicion in the King his Master and the Cautionary Towns must be rendred up being the Keys of the Low-Countries to oblige his Friend Gondomar too His People of England must be Check'd Disgrac'd and Silenced for opposing this Popish Match with their Speeches Counsels Wishes and even Prayers 't is said Gondomar could Dissolve Parliaments also The Protestant Interest on his Son's Account in Bohemia slighted though Archbishop Abbot represented the Circumstances and Call of Religion to Engage him besides Honour Though his Ambassador Cottington inform'd how Matters went and though every body besides himself saw through the Designs of Spain as well in the Complimenting him in the Match as Mediatorship to keep him Neuter and hold him in Suspence And though he himself saw it turn to a War of Religion and would be the Overthrow of the Protestants or Evangelicks and though the Emperor had proscribed the Prince Palatine yet King James's Eyes would not be open'd nor would be persuaded to take the Alarm These are no great Master-strokes of Policy no more than of Conscience or Honour And to War at last when all was lost against his own avow'd Principles was an Incomprehensible Mystery of Judgment and Wisdom Besides these of which he discharged himself thus learnedly there was no Matter of Moment did or could Occur during his Reign to exercise any Extraordinary Talent As for the Governing his People 't is plain he had King-Craft as his Friend Sir Richard Baker calls it as is pretty Evident by his Parliamentary Speeches and his Ways of getting Money He could also Dissemble and sometimes Huff but 't was only his own Subjects and that with no good Grace neither He had Priest-Craft too as Heylin observes who tells us 'T was his usual Practice in the whole Course of his Government to Balance one extreme by the other Countenancing the Papists against the Puritans and the Puritans sometimes against the Papists Thus he was Devout for the Church of England at Home and for Popery Abroad making Canons for their Conformity here and submitting our Orders to Truckle to the Popish Match against all the Remonstrances of Parliament Church and People What could he expect from this Popish Match from any Popish Match but the Consequences all the World expected That it would let in Popery once more into Hopes of Success at least to gain Breath by a suspension of the Laws against them What could be expected but that this must create Jealousies and Misunderstandings between him and his Subjects And 't was not sending a Synod of Divines to Dort or having a Convocation at Home of which Dr. Overal his Dean of Paul's has given a special Account for the Edification of his Successor the present Dean could likely settle the Affairs of the Church in Europe when he at the same time was
this or nothing This and those which Mezeray reports to have preceded the Death of Henry the IVth of France particularly that Ticket which a Priest found upon an Altar at Montargis giving notice that the King would be Assassinated his Horoscopes which determined the Year of his Life and even the Queen 's own Dream that the King was Stabbing with a Knife to pass by all others relating to this and other Occasions must import this at least to use Mezeray's own Words who I believe was no more Superstitious this way than my self That there is a Sovereign Power which Disposes of Futurity since it so certainly Knows and Foretels it But this Subject is not my Part. Nevertheless in truth there appears to have been some extraordinary Conjunctions of the Planets or something more Extraordinary which gave that extravagant Turn to Powers here below not only in Europe but other remote parts of the World and put sublunary Motions in such a Ferment about these Times as was evident in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland Spain Germany France Portugal and Naples and the Hurly-burlies and Revolutions there and in several other Parts but also between the Tartars and Chineses and in the Empire of the Great Mogul between Cha-gehan and his Four Sons especially Aureng-zeb the Story whereof is Famous and you may Read it at large in Tavernier Which Aureng-zeb Sir William Temple calls a Fanatick and compares to Cromwell as if all such strains of Empire were Enthusiastical like that of the Great Turk But to return to take my leave of King Charles Morally speaking I think the Queen was the Chief Occasion of all those Misfortunes which attended Him and the Nation for there is no reason the Welfare of a Kingdom should hang at a King's Codpiece The King 's Marrying a Papist gave the suspicion of Popery and the suspicion brought in Popery in Earnest CHARLES II. AS to the first Twelve Years of the Nominal Reign of this King 't was such a Farce of Policy and Government that it Libels the Chronicle and I believe he had been sooner in his Throne if he had never made a Step to help himself by the Disturbance of those who usurp'd his Place I wish for his Honour in the beginning he had not intermedled with the Action of Montross during the Treaty with the Scots it reflected some Aspersion upon his Sincerity and he only sacrificed one Friend's Life and the Reputation of others and thereby prejudiced his own Interest for the present But I know that Business hath also another Face and therefore I pass by that and some other Occurrences to proceed to his own Administration after he was Crowned in England Which I shall touch but very slightly neither as slightly as he did the Interests of the Nation the History of these Times being fresh in every one's Memory I am very much at a loss considering the different Opinions of him and his Inconsistency with himself with what Character to introduce this King to his Government If he was a Protestant when he came over to Us as all his fine Declarations c. import surely the Devil ow'd Us a shame pardon the Expression that we should blunder on a Popish Match again at first dash Here was a loose given to the Papist and Fanatick to play their Old Game over again and he put himself under a necessity of Suspition with his People once more For let a Prince make what Gracious Speeches he pleases his Actions will be always more significant and speak plainer than his Declarations Hence this Dilemma became entailed either he doth answer the Expectations of the Papists or not If he doth and gives them any Assurances c. his own People are upon his Skirts If not then he is attack'd by the Indefatigable Plots and Attempts of the Jesuits and that Party In the mean time in what a blessed Condition of Settlement is a Nation It can never be at quiet I shall not pretend to dive into the Mysteries of one Plot or t'other let them stand on their own Bottom in the validity of the Records No doubt there always hath been a Popish Plot of one sort or other more or less as our Kings have given them a helping hand ever since the Reformation and I believe ever will be so long at least as our Kings manage Affairs as they did for the Four last Reigns And for ought I know too there may have been a Fanatick Plot ever since Calvin's time and will continue as long as Kingly Government and Church-Hierarchy are in fashion Neither shall I trouble my self to enquire which Plot was the Agressor which Plaintiff which Defendant which the Original and which the Counter-plot But between them both this King had reduced himself to a pretty Condition of Trouble if any thing could be so to him by his Trimming a Quality which was scouted in the Subject For in the Popish Plot he was to be taken off for not being a Papist or at least for not coming up to their Expectations of him and by the Fanatick Plot he was to be Blunderbuss'd and destroy'd for being a Papist and favouring their Designs too much But to determine the precedence of these Plots I think the Popish Plot first appeared upon the Stage against him and it is thought attended him at his Exit though he died of their own Persuasion I mean the Popish was the first Plot of Quality for I take no notice of such little Things as the Extravagant Matter of Venner or that in the North which was but a Fag-end of that in Ireland and scarce then setled nor of any thing of that nature which happen'd before the Year 1670. I do not find any Plot of Consequence till after the Acts of Parliament against Dissenters not taking notice of the Act of Vniformity or that against Quakers but not till after that against Dissenting Preachers in Corporations that against Conventicles which came after the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and as far as I can see without any great provocation which Acts as they themselves speak were grounded chiefly on Surmise and Suspition Thus was he fain to shuffle on sometimes in the form of Persecution against Dissenters sometimes in that of Toleration and Indulgence to them and their Tender Consciences so that Religion grew a meer State-Weather Cock as Circumstances happen'd and turn'd as Court Cabals mov'd now one way now another Whereas if he had come over a True Church-of-England Man as he pretended to profess himself he might have reduced the Church easily enough to some degree of Uniformity and modell'd the Civil Government and Ecclesiastical State to a good Temper having the Military Power in his own hands by the Militia Acts. But I suppose that was not his Business And he discover'd the same Unsteadiness in Civil Matters shifting Ministers and Officers Proroguing and Dissolving Parliaments without apparent Reasons and 't is said for very bad Ones sometimes and at