Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	high_a	lord_n	steward_n	3,887	5	11.1026	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67903	The five years of King Iames, or, The condition of the state of England, and the relation it had to other provinces. Written by Sr Foulk Grevill, late Lord Brook.; Five years of King James.	Greville, Fulke, Baron Brooke, 1554-1628.; Wilson, Arthur, 1595-1652, attributed name.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2887; ESTC R12332	56,301	91

intent to incense the people the more against them and to make the matter the more hainous and grievous to the world At this time the Lady Arbella died a matter more remarkable then was observed and gave some occasion of speech to many but yet neverthelesse past over in silence These Hurly-burlies being growne somewhat calme and the minds of men a little setled the Countesse and others authorised for that purpose to be examined and my Lord Coke was the man that prest the Evidence against them which as it was thought procured some great enemies two and twenty Articles were objected against them Somerset pleaded Ignorance and that these Objections were meere tricks to intrap him and set the King against him The same answer was in the Countesse and that it might rather seeme to proceed out of envie then for any just cause They cause it to be given out that their accusations were wrong●ull and none were accused but such as were the greatest Favourites to the King so that there was much ado to little purpose At last when they heard that Weston Turner Francklin and Yeluis were all hanged and that they had confest the matter the Countesse being brought before the Councell confest the whole truth but Somerset stood to it still that he was not agent in it and that these accusations did nothing touch him and therefore ought to be excused Neverthelesse his lands and goods were committed to custodie part to my Lord Treasurer and part to others to the Kings use The Money Plate and Jewels which he had heaped up together amounted by report unto 200000. pounds his lands 19000. pounds per annum and the King bestowed many of them upon the Prince There was little speech of this in respect that both person and matter wherein hee was agent were both envied and facinerous nei●her was there any that pitied him but most said that hoe had but his just deserts for the injuries and wrongs that he offered unto Essex The Arraignment was put off and in the meane time Sir Walter Rawleigh was set at liberty This man had continued in the Tower now almost ten yeares a condemned person for a plot intended against his Majesty at his first comming in he bore a great envie against Somerset because he had begged his lands of the King and got it into possession giving him many quips and taunts during the time that he was in the Tower These two accidents happening beyond expectation that the one being the speciall favourite of the King the other a condemned man the one imprisoned the other set at liberty gave great occasion of speech and rumour and so much the more wonder and admiration because of Rawleighes wit and policie And this yeare also the Countesse of Shrewsbury who was committed for being privie to the escape of the Lady Arbella was set at liberty and the Earle her husband dyed leaving the greatest part of his land unto his daughters during all this time that is from Michaelmas Terme unto the short vacation betweene Easter and Trinity Terme the Arraignment was put off some attributed the cause to be for because the Countesse was with child and in the meane time was delivered of a daughter some that further proofes of incertainties might be brought in others to give them longer time to consider on the matter and that it was a great favour I say these rumours being published amongst the people at length the King authorised my Lord Chancellor to be High Steward of England for the time being and joyned eight of his Judges with him for his assistance viz. The foure Judges of the Kings Bench my Lord Chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas Justice Niccols my Lord Chiefe Barron and others of the Barrons with power to call Somerset and the Countesse before them to shew cause why they should not have sentence of death passed upon them for this offence committed both against the Laws of the Land and against the King his Crowne and Dignity So upon the foure and twentieth of May in this yeare 1616. There being a Seat Royall placed at the upper end of Westminster-hall a little short of the Kings Bench and seats made round about it for the rest of the Justices and Peeres to sit on and a little cabbin built close by the Common Pleas for the Prisoners when they came from the Tower to be put to rest them in They proceed to the triall after this manner As soone as my Lord High Steward with great State came into Westminster-hall with his assistants the Judges divers Lords and Gentlemen attending and foure Serjants at Armes before him ascending a little gallery made of purpose to keep off the croud he takes his seat and the rest of the Assistants and Peeres according to their places This being done after silence proclaimed one of the Harrolds at Armes reaches the High Steward his Patent and delivers it to the Clerke of the Crown to reade it After Sir Ralph Conis●y reaches him his staffe and i● there present according to his place to give attendance After the Patent read and proclamation for silence and that the accusers should come in the Prisoners were sent for by the Clerke of the Checker whose office it was to attend the Prisoners This being done and the Prisoners placed at the Barre Sir Henry Fanshaw reades the Indictment to which the Countesse pleaded guilty and confessed the fact But Somerset pleaded not guilty and had time from ten of the clock at night to cleare himselfe much was said but to little purpose At last the Peeres having conferred of the matter returne their verdict laying their hands upon their brests and swearing by their Honours for they doe not m●ke an Oath as ordinary Jurors do that he was guilty of the murther and poysoning of Sir Thomas Overbury whereupon my Lord High Steward pronounced sentence of death ag●inst him and so he was had back to the Tower where hee remaineth at the mercy of the King This man may justly say as Pope Barbaressa said when hee was put from the Popedome Qui modo summus eram laetatus nomine praecel Tristis abjectus nunc mea fata gemo Excelsus solio nuper versa●ar in alto Cunctaque gens pedibus oscula prona dabant Nunc ego poenarum sundo devulvor in imo Vultum deformem pallidaque ore gero Omnibus e terris aurum mihi sponte ferebant Sed nec gaesa juvet nec quis amicus adest Sic varians fortuna vices adversa secundis Su●dit ambiguis nomine ludit atr● Cedit in exemplum cunctis quos gloria tollit Vertice de summo mox ego Papa cado Loe here I am that sometime tooke delight in name of Pope Now being sad and abject doe bewaile my fate and hope Of late preferr'd I did converse with stately pompe and grace And every Nation to my feet their ready kisses place But now in dungeon deepe am throwne of paines

in mortall feare A countenance pale a body leane deform'd with griefe I beare From all parts of the earth they brought me gold without constraint But now no gold nor precious stones nor friends can ease my plaint So variable Fortune is so nice to great attempts So subject and so doubtfull too so adverse in events That Atis with our name doth play as with a tennis ball For being lifted up with fame the greater is our fall Let this example be to such whom Fortune doth advan●e That they as I by Popedome fell may fall by like mischance For we cannot reade of any that ever was so great a Favourite as Somerset neither the Spencers with Edward the second nor the Earle of Warwick with Henry the sixth nor the Duke of Suffolke with Henry the eighth as this man was with the King neither was there any that ever came to so sodaine and unexpected a fall They therefore that do but rightly consider this Discourse shall find in it three things worthy observation First that neither honour nor wealth are any certaine inheritance but occasions unlesse God be mercifull unto us for the devill to pick a quarrell against us to bring us to infamie Secondly that God neuer leaves murther though never so closely carried unpunished Lastly that there was never knowne in so short a time so many great men dye with suspition of poyson and witchcraft viz. First my Lord Treasurer the Prince my Lord Harrington his sonne Overbury Northampton besides these which are no lesse then six other within three yeares and an halfe and the two Monsons which yet remaine untryed Sir Francis Bacon his Speech at the Arraignment of the Earle of Somerset IT may please your Grace my Lord High Steward of England and you my Lords the Peeres you have here before you Robert Earle to be tryed for his life concerning the procuring and consenting to the impoysonment of Sir Thomas Overbury then the Kings Prisoner in the Tower of London as an Accessary before the Fact I know your hopes connot behold this Noble man but you must remember the great favours which the King hath conferred on him and must be sensible that he is yet a member of your body and a Peere as you are so that you cannot cut him off from your body but with griefe and therefore you will expect from us that give in the Kings Evidence sound and sufficient matter of proofe to satisfie your Honours and consciences As for the manner o● the Evidence the King our Master who amongst other his vertues excelleth in that vertue of the Imperial Throne which is Justice hath given us command that wee should not expatiate nor make invectives but materially pursue the Evidence as it conduceth to the point in question A matter that though we are glad of so good a warrant yet we should have done of our selves for far be it from us by any strains or wit of Arts to seeke to play prizes or to bl●son our names in bloud or to carry the day otherwise then upon sure grounds wee shall carry the Lanthorne of Justice which is the Evidence before your eyes upright and to be able to salve it from being put out with any grounds of evasion or vaine defences that is our parts and within that we shall containe our selves not doubting at all but that the Evidence it selfe will carry that force as it shall need no advantage or aggravation First my Lords the course that I will hold in delivering of that which I shall say for I love order is this First I will speak somewhat of the nature and greatnesse of the offence which is now to be tryed not to weigh downe my Lord with the greatnesse of i● but rather contrariwise to shew that a great offence needs a good proofe And that the King howsoever he might esteeme this Gentleman heretofore as the Signet upon his finger to use the Scripture phrase yet in s●ch a case as this he was to put him off Secondly I will use some few words touching the nature of the proofes which in such a case are competent Thirdly I will state the proofes And lastly I will produce the proofes either out of examination and matters of writing or witnesses viva voce For the offence it selfe it is of crimes next unto high Treason the greatest it is the foulest of Felonies It hath three degrees of stages First it is murther by impoysonment Secondly it is murther committed upon the Kings prisoner in the Tower Thirdly I might say that it is murther under the colour of Friendship but that it is a circumstance morall and therefore I leave that to the Evidence it selfe For murther my Lords the first record of Justice which was in the world was judgement upon a murtherer in the person of Adams first borne Ca●●e and though it was not punished by death but with banishment and marke of ignominy in respect of the primogenitors or the population of the world yet there was a severe charge given that it should not go unpunished So it appeareth likewise in Scripture that the murther or Abner by Ioah though it were by David respited in respect of great services past or reason of State yet it was not forgotten But of this I will say no more because I will not discourse it was ever admitted and rancked in Gods owne Tables that murther is of offences betweene man and man next unto high Treason and disobedience to Authority which sometimes have been referred to the first Table because of the Lieutenancie of God in Princes the greatest For impoysonment I am sorry it should be heard of in our Kingdome It is not nostri generis nec sanguinis peccatum It is an Italian com●it for the Court of Rome where that person that intoxicateth the Kings of the earth is many times really and materially intoxicated and impoysoned himselfe But it hath three circumstances which makes it grievous beyond other matters The first is that it takes a man away in full peace in Gods and the Kings peace that thinks no harme but is comforting of nature with resection and food so that as the Scripture saith His table is made a snare The second is that it is easily committed and easily concealed and on the other side ha●dly prevented and hardly discovered for murther by violence Princes have Guards and private men have houses attendants and armes neither can such murther be committed but cum sonitu with some overt and apparant acts that may discover and trace the offenders but for poyson the cup it selfe of Princes wil scarse serve in regard of many poisons that neither discolour nor distaste It comes upon a man when he is carelesse and without respect and every day a man is within the gates of death And the last is because it concerneth not onely the destruction of the maliced man but of every man quis modo tutu● erit for many times the poyson is prepared for one and is