Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	henry_n	king_n	succeed_v	3,874	5	9.6480	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44188	A letter to Monsieur Van. B---- de M---- at Amsterdam, written anno 1676	Holles, Denzil Holles, Baron, 1599-1680.; Beuningen, Koenraad van, 1622-1693.	1676 (1676)	Wing H2462; ESTC R803	7,531	8

overthrow the Common Doctrine in the Politicks that Money is the Sinews of War which he says is not true I think it is true as to England as well as in the Roman Common-wealth but in Holland where you have a small Territory and your Foundation is Trade Money and Industry which produceth no Martial Genius in the Natives nor permits leasure and where your Armies consist of Mercenaries which will ever be found much weaker than the Native Militia there Money may be the Sinews of War The Union of England and Scotland is a mighty Accession of strength to England for besides that Scotland was always a dangerous Back-door to England that mischief is not only removed but such a Member added as by reason of Vicinity naturally compounds one entire Body of a great Kingdom and this strength would better have appeared if it had at any time since the Union fallen under a Prince of a Martial Genius as in time to come it will fall under a Vigorous Administration But to make what I said to you above more clear that the Government of England is weak I will a little discourse of the Nature of it England then is a Government Compounded and mixt of the three Principal kinds of Government A King who is a Sovereign qualified and limited Prince and the three Estates who are the Lords Spiritual and Temporal compounding the Aristocratical part of the Government and the Commons in Parliament with an Absolute delegated power making the Democratical part the Legislative Authority is in the King and the three Estates the power of leavying Money in the Commons and the Executive power in the King but to be administred by Ministers sworn and qualified which is the Reason of those two grand Maximes in the Law of England first that the King of England is always a Minor and secondly that he can do no wrong Now the Foundation this Government was first built and stood upon was the Ballance of Lands and England being a Kingdome of Territory not of Trade it always was and ever will be true that the Ballance of Lands is the Ballance of Government and this Maxim of the Ballance is to the Politicks what the Compass is to Navigators the Circulation of Blood to Physitians Guns to an Army and Printing to Learning The Proportion this Ballance held in the Government was formerly in the King Church and Nobility above two Thirds and in the whole People not one Third So that if we divide the times of this Government into two General parts as it naturally divides it self from the Norman Conquest to the time of Henry the 7 th and from Henry the 7 th to the present time then I say in the first part of it the Strength of the Government lay in the middle or Aristocratical part as it ought to do for a King must be supported either by a Nobility or an Army and by this means the two extreams which are the King and People of which extreams a Government can never be compounded to live long were secured by the middle for the Nobility not only supported the Throne but shadowed the People from the Tyranny of the Princes And to give you a clear evidence of the truth of this both that the strength of the Government was in the Aristocratical part and that they kept the Ballance between the King and the People I need only observe that all the Civil Wars that we ever had in England in those times were ever made against the Princes by the Nobility for their encroachments upon the People and they always prevailed against them But Henry the 7 th who was a dark and suspicious Prince and an entertainer of fortune by the day rather than of any great fore-sight as my Lord Bacon observes of him observing upon his coming to the Crown how great an over-Ballance the Nobility had been to the Prince made way by Laws and other means for the Nobility to make alienations of their Lands and so in seeking to cure one mischief he procured a far greater which though it did not shew it self presently yet in short time after it began to shake the Foundations of the Throne And from this time the Lands began to come into the hands of the People and the times that followed served well to increase this beginning for Henry the 8 th dissolving Abbies and Monasteries all those Lands which were very great came by degrees into the hands of the People so that the greatest part of the Lands of the Antient Nobility and great part of the Lands of the Church were in the hands of the People who now held above two thirds of the whole Lands of England And rherefore this consequence will be clear that the strength of the Government is now in the Democratical part and to confirm this to you by example There hath been one Civil War in England since Henry the Seventh who made that War the Barons No the People made it then it is clear not anly that the People are the strongest part but that they are able to make War with the King Nobility and Church also if there should be another Civil War in England it would not only be by the People but whosoever be the beginners of it the People will prevail as far as human Reason can foresee But now least you should think the compliance of this Parliament with the King a contradiction to what hath been said I will discourse it to you before we go farther touching them This Parliament was chosen in the year 1661 and came in with a change of Government now in all changes of Government there is a violent concussion of the whole Body and the People always pass from one extream to another without being able to stay in the middle England therefore was then in a sick distempered condition now it hath recovered its just Temper and is restored to Health as strong Bodies will work out the Poyson they take by degrees Now this Parliament represented the humors and distempers of the times wherein they were chosen and consequently their Actions were violent and they did many things afterward to be repented of and no doubt had they done what they have done to a designing and Parsimonious Prince he might have taken the advantage of their Hearts to have undone England for what with that great Revenue and all those most mighty Aids they have given him he might have made so great a Bank and annexed so great a Revenue of Lands to the Crown that he might have maintained an Army over-ballanced the Nobility and have Reigned without Parliaments and so have brought England into the same condition with France but these times are over and not like to return I am without all doubt therefore that the profuseness and inadvertency of the King hath saved England from falling into destruction under this Parliament And as this Parliament represented the sickly times in which they were chosen when the Pople of England were

in a kind of Delirium or Dotage so a New Parliament would represent a People restored to their Wits cured of the Evil and steadily pursuing the great Interest of the Common-wealth Wherefore our Court has got a new Maxime never heard of in the World before and which is their Grand Arcanum of State and that is that the King and this Parliament must never part for if they do the Government is dissolved A Maxim they will keep to and was first beaten into their Heads by Clarendon and Monk but the true reason of that Maxime is because they never dare call a Parliament to represent the present state of England having enough to do with the present who were it not for the daily fomentations of Court E●●edients would even themselves revert back to the English Interest In former times we had two grand Maxims in our Government one was that we should always keep the Ballance of Christendom equal and steddy England only having the natural advantage to do that and this grew up with us from the Norman Conquest for above Six hundred years since the other was that we should always make our selves the Head and Protection of the Protestant Interest a Maxim that we took from the Reformation and which we shew'd the World in Queen Elizabeths time how we have kept to these two Maxims of entring into a League to subvert and destroy the Protestant Religion and to break the Bonds and remove the Land-marks of States and Kingdoms will sufficiently declare to you And now we have a Maxime which I am sure cannot last longer than the King lives for the death of the King is the death of the Parliament one thing you may observe by the way that vigorous times bring forth strong Maxims but the principal use we are to make is this if according to our Maxim That the King and this Parliament must never part and they must dye together then this Government seems to be calculated only for the Kings life as the Government of the Protector Cromwel was for his and must a little time after suffer a Dissolution And indeed in such a mixt Government as ours is where one of the extreams comes so far to over-ballance the other I cannot see but the Government must dye as it is in natural Bodies when one humour is over all the rest in to great disproportion In every sound and healthful Government there is a steadiness of proceeding by good means to good ends which is called Conduct but in a sickly state as many Emergencies arise so new Medicines and Expedients must be applyed and such a Government may be called a Government of Expedients and such a one is ours and the great Art and Cunning in this Session of Parliament to bring it to such an Issue as is expected is but an Expedient and Expedients never hold they only serve a turne Cunning and Tricks in States-men argue them to be Mountebanks in the Politicks and weak Governments must always have a care of evil Accidents and Occasions when there are Causes of their dissolution The Ravishment of Lucretia was not the cause of the Introducing a Common-wealth in Rome it was only the occasion if any notable occasion fall out in England as the Death of the King Insurrection or Arming of Papists Invasion by the French or such like that shall give the People opportunity to Arme the Government is gone Now if you should ask what are the causes of this weakness of the Government of England I answer principally two 1. The change of the ballance as I have shewed you before 2. A Succession of Three weak Princes together where Two sufficient Princes succeed together they do great things but where Two or Three weak Princes succeed one another the Government can hardly stand and indeed if a weak Prince immediately succeed a wise he may do well enough for the Virtue of the wise Princes Government runs through the Veins of that of the Foolish and so it comes to pass that it is a great while before the defects of his Government come to discover themselves and I say that we never before for above Six hundred years had a succession of Three either sufficient or weak Princes together and therefore I make no doubt to affirm that if the Government of the Parliament had not been interposed in the middle as I said before the Government must have sunk ere now for save what they did we have not taken one true stop nor struck one true stroke since Queen Elizabeth It is a great truth no doubt that foolish Princes ever had and ever will have foolish Councellors for Matchiavil concluded well when he said That the Wisdom of the Prince never takes beginning from the Wisdom of his Council but the Wisdom of the Council always from the Wisdom of the Prince But if you should ask me now whether the K. of England will effectually assist you since the Parliament hath not only addressed him so to do but has promised him sufficient supplys for the doing thereof I answer no the reasons whereof are not to be rendered by way of Ratiocination there being little of reason in any thing we either do or say 1. The K. will not the Will is the Mistriss of the Love and a man is either good or bad as his Will is there is an antipathy between the Genius of our Court and the Genius of Holland 2. We are wholly addicted to the French humour and interest we cannot forbear expressing our joys upon any Victory of theirs 3. The D. of York who does and every day will weigh more and more and is in the way of all those good intentions the K. might otherwise have is a Papist and so far from affecting you that he hath little esteem for his own Countrymen in his nature affecting none but French and Irish with whom he seems to have a Sympathy of Genius and how strangely strong Wills and misplaced Affections may transporr Men of weak judgments is easie for you to apprehend 4. Our Ministers of State are against you Now to end this long Letter what conclusion shall we draw from all these Premises I doubt not but your prudence will instruct you to make a far better than any I can offer however I will say something if it be but to occasion you to think the Parliament and People of England have a mighty Affection to your state these are the shapes of our Court and our People in the best manner I can present them to you and if I mistake not your State can never in time to come be better secured against shaking than by the friendship of England The Parliament would send over an Army sufficient to engage the French and pay them to as I have ground to think Wherefore in my poor opinion the natural result might be that the States should by an effectual Declaration Remonstrate to the World the growing greatness of France and all the mischievous consequences it draws after it and to call upon England as the Head of all Protestant States for their assistance to which the late address and the measures the Court shall take thereupon will naturally tend only the time of such Declaration cannot well be determined and for this the States have a President yet fresh in Memory when they publickly offered to the State their differences with the Court of England which gave the Parliament occasion to Recognize the matter and what an admirable and speedy effect that produced cannot yet be forgotten FINIS